Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 263: Danger

There was a very dense red dot near Lightning’s heart which could easily be overlooked if one did not make a careful observation. Xiao Lin had been examining carefully for a long time, and that red dot was the only thing that looked suspicious.

“This is a stain left by a blood clot.” Xiao Lin stood up and had a gloomy expression on his face. Everyone else appeared similarly displeased.

“Lightning’s death was a murder, then?”

“Is that argument still valid? At the time, this orc had its hands tied behind its back. How could he possibly be able to pierce such a small hole in his own heart? Now that you mention it, what kind of weapon could even cause such a wound?”

Chen Dao seemed very upset when he sensed other people’s gazes. Just as he was about to explain himself, Xiao Lin spoke ahead of him, “I trust that this has nothing to do with Chen Dao and Gu Xiaoyue.”

“How are you so sure?” Han Manman questioned. Her relationship with Chen Dao has been very rough those days, so she was certainly going to seize such an opportunity.

Xiao Lin glanced at the woman with a gaze that seemed to chastise her for being an idiot. He then said lightly, “It’s simple. Because there’s nothing to be gained out of it! Lightning is our hostage. We could have used a shaman like him to do something, especially in these moments when the orcs are approaching. If worse comes to worse, we can still delay the enemy somehow, but he just had to die at this time. Doesn’t take much thinking to know who’ll benefit from this!”

Cheng Ming’s face changed slightly. “You mean, the elves!”

“I’m afraid so.” Xiao Lin raised his head and looked at the silver fleet in the distance, but he was still a little unsure whether it was those elves that really did so.

Questions still remained. If it was the work of those elves, how did they kill Lightning without the humans knowing it? Why did they have to wait until then? Would it not have been better if they killed Lightning before the confession?

Lightning death was nothing too serious. After all, it was just an orc, and it did not matter if he died. Just as Sheng Guo said, once the orc army made their next approach, there was no need for a dead orc to cause internal disunity.

Although Han Manman accused Gu Xiaoyue and Chen Dao of failing to perform their duties several times, she had all but lost their bargaining chips. However, most of the acting monitors such as Cheng Ming adhered to the principle of downplaying major issues, and everyone soon turned their attention completely to how to defend.

However, the fact that those elves made another move left a lingering shadow over everyone’s hearts. It was more than half a month before the exam was due to end, and that unexpected incident seemed to remind everyone that the exam could not possibly be that simple.

To everyone’s satisfaction however, the defenses on the inner side of the fortress still remained strong. The number of defensive towers during that period has almost doubled to more than 50, of which nearly a quarter were spell towers. Judging from the previous battle situation, even the most pessimistic people felt that they might just be successful as long as they defended with all their hearts.

With that mood in mind, three days passed in a flash. With the help of the vision enhancing scroll, the orcs’ front-line army was finally faintly visible. Some took a deep breath.

There were only a small number of orcs in the army and the total was roughly estimated to be around a few thousand individuals, but the key was composition of that army. On the forefront was a huge four-legged, tank-like, heavily-built monster on the plains. It was crawling slowly, followed by a fully armed orc infantry. The infantry was also completely different from the previous ones, as they were more than just a couple of ranks stronger in terms of equipment and ability.

Xiao Lin and the others knew nothing about orc soldiers like those, but the fortress’ NPCs were slightly familiar with them. After receiving the information, the class monitors their expressions soured even more.

Those were sieging behemoth orcs, the most elite out of all the orcs. They not only possessed extremely high defensive power, but unparalleled collision strength too. Their speed might seem slow as of then, but as long as they surged forth in a burst, their instantaneous explosive power could destroy the sturdiest of walls in an instant.

Of course, this kind of behemoth siege orcs had plenty of weaknesses as well, such as weak stamina, slow movement speed, and various other things. The orcs did not bring along the behemoth when attacking Dawn City so as to prevent themselves from being slowed down. Moreover, few such behemoths existed within the entire orc race, but they were specifically utilized for that.

Captain Yu recognized the totem emblems of that orc infantry. It belonged to the orcs’ most elite troops. Captain Yu did not specifically speak of the troop’s strength, but he sighed continuously, which clearly signified that their combat power had reached a level that the humans could not handle.

According to the original plan, the orc’s elite combat forces were all at the base and it was not possible to send them all there at one time. The students were therefore in a race against time with the orcs. Taking advantage of the orcs’ lack of sufficient troops in the surrounding areas, the students could win as long as they could defend the fortress and forced both the orcs’ front lines and wolf cavalry to retreat.

However, the orcs did not seem unprepared at all. All those dispatches could not have been made after the supply depot was lost, and the landfall operation plan formulated by Dawn Academy had never taken account of the orcs’ elite troops even from the outset.

They had miscalculated.

Should they continue defending?

Could it be better to retreat?

Those ideas had already started surfacing in the hearts of many people. By then, the ever-silent elven fleet’s loathsome plan was finally revealed.

If they retreated, they could only avoid the orc army by walking along the coast. In that case however, they would completely be exposed to the fleet’s attack range.

The monitors in the command room quarreled over it, and the instructors also made an exception to join in the debate. After all, the next choice was likely to be the most critical part of the exam. They might have already had a vague realization that the real difficulty of that exam was during those final moments. Whatever decision they made after that would probably affect the final results, not to mention the year leader’s evaluation too.

More surprisingly, Xiao Lin was the sole notable absentee during those few meetings at the headquarters. Although Cheng Ming called Xiao Lin several times, the latter refused politely and simply asked Qin Chuan to attend on behalf of Class Seven. Xiao Lin would then just glean some information from Qin Chuan later on.

In that regard, Han Manman either dismissed him for being a coward or chastised his irresponsibility for wanting to test their true capabilities during such a crucial moment.

Those who knew Xiao Lin very well, such as Chen Dao and the others, were well aware that Xiao Lin was not that kind of person. In fact, Xiao Lin had been acting very strangely since Lightning’s death. He no longer cared about the orc army outside the fortress, nor did he attend any meeting among the monitors. It was as if he had already resigned himself to everything.