370 Chapter 370: Battlefield (1/2)

Even though Harrison's team was relatively successful in pinning the enemy and trapping them underground, it wasn't as one-sided as the previous chapter made it out to be. While they indeed drew first blood, Harrison's team still sustained casualties in the furious firefight.

Realizing that they had no choice, the enemy threw themselves upward the stairs in greater numbers. The confined space – while being used to its maximum potential by Harrison and the others to become the ultimate killing zone – also proved to be a double-edged sword. Powerful, area-of-effect spells that the enemy launched upward combusted, engulfing more than a few of Harrison's teammates in arcane flames, iridescent ice, ethereal earth or lustrous leaves. Despite Harrison's best attempts to protect them with his holy barriers, even his formidable defesnes were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of spells spitting upward into their otherwise firmly entrenched position.

Never mind his teammates. Even Harrison succumbed to the overwhelming barrage a couple of times, taken out by a lucky headshot, or also caught in a massive explosion alongside his teammates. Though Harrison's team succeeded in holding the upper floor for now, and limiting the opposing team to the underground subway, they were doing so at great cost. The price for their transitionary victory was being paid for in blood, and they were barely hanging on to their slender lead. I could see the total scores being 353-328 in favor of Harrison's team for now, but occasionally the enemy team's score would spike up and close the gap.

If they ever broke past the killing zone at the stairs and elevator and surge upward, they might rout Harrison's team. Well, it probably wouldn't be that bad, but it would certainly mean defeat if the enemy pushed Harrison's team all the way back to their spawning point at the café. The vast, open space there meant that snipers would have free reign and Harrison's team's current tactics of maximizing the use of explosives and area-of-effect spells would fall apart.

To be sure, area-of-effect spells would remain potent, but they wouldn't be nearly as effective as they were, currently in such tight confines. Furthermore, the opposing team had skilled snipers that Harrison's team lacked, and they were perfectly capable of picking Harrison and his teammates off the exact moment they spawned next to the café. At least here wasn't a place where we could gain a vantage view of the opponents and shoot them when they spawned.

To do that, we had to break past the stairs and elevator and push them all the way back to their spawning point at the end of the tunnels, where the trains were. In fact, that was the reason why our lead was so slender. This position was not overwhelmingly advantageous to us by any means, as the enemy could use the close confines to take out a whole chunk of Harrison's group whenever the opportunity presented itself.

\”Hang in there!\” Harrison shouted, casting another golden barrier to withstand another onslaught of spells that crashed into the shimmering wall. Even though the protective screen didn't collapse, the immense impact sent several shockwaves across the enclosed space, rocking the members of his team who were crouching and firing off their own spells. Gritting his teeth, Harrison obliterated the head of an enemy with a holy blast. \”It's almost thirty minutes!\”

I glanced at the timer. Harrison was right. Holy…had it really been thirty minutes already? The action was so frenetic, the battlefield so intense and gripping that I had totally lost track of time, and it flew by before I realized it. Right now, the total scores of both teams were 402-389, with Harrison's team barely in the lead. It appeared that it was slowly slipping out of their hands…

\”…just a bit more…there!\”

One of Harrison's teammates stepped forward as soon as he finished casting his spell. Suddenly, a singularity vortex opened up at the bottom of the stairs, the tremendous gravitational forces catching the opposing team completely by surprise and sucking them into a black hole, crushing them into unrecognizable messes of blood and flesh. Screams and shrieks filled the air as the others fled, but they were struck in the back by opportunistic mages, looking to pulverize the remnants of the enemy and seize the chance to push forward.

In that single moment, the score jumped to 508-412. Buoyed, the members of Harrison's team surged forward, ready to take the fight to the opposing team's spawning points.

\”Wait!\” Harrison cautioned, realizing something was amiss. \”Don't go too far! They can't possibly have left the subway unguarded…\”

His warning came too late. The moment the first member stepped into the basement level of the subway, he accidentally triggered an enchantment that the opposing team spent a lot of time weaving.

\”!!!\”

A supernova erupted, rippling across the stairs and incinerating swathes of students. Harrison threw up his hands and conjured a holy barrier to defend the dazed survivors from the expanding cloud of plasma, but the spell was so powerful that it shattered his protective screen in an instant. The massive shockwaves, accompanied by tremendous heat, blasted Harrison and the other members of his team back up the stairs and into the wall with such force that their bodies cracked the concrete. Crashing back down on the ground, their bodies smoldering and their skin blistering, Harrison raised his head, completely dazed and nearly blacking out from the excruciating agony.

In that instant, the opposing team had clawed back up to close the gap, with the score now 527-499. Worse, they were in position to capitalize on that turning point, with their members having respawned seconds earlier, and were now rapidly making their way toward the stairs. With so many of Harrison's teammates obliterated by the supernova trap, and the rest momentarily incapacitated, it appeared that they would lose their advantageous high ground and surrender their lead for the first time in the match.

\”Harrison!\” Pearl cried out worriedly, but there was no way our captain could hear here, not when he was still within the simulated battlefield, his position about to be overrun by enemies.

The blond team captain evidently realized the dilemma that his team was in, and he ground his teeth as he forced himself back to his feet, swaying slightly from the damage he had received. In the face of overwhelming numbers and an onslaught of spells, he was the only one left to halt their advance.

Taking a deep breath, he took a step forward while his hands frantically drew intricate arcane symbols in the air.

\”You shall not pass!\” he bellowed, and stomped his foot against the ground. A massive golden holy barrier materialized in front of him, stretching to emcompass the entire set of stairs, barring entry to the onrushing mages.

\”!!!\”

Almost caught by surprise, the various mages attempted to smash their way through Harrison's barrier, but even though he bled from his eyes, nose and mouth, the captain of Jing Tian Academy held on grimly, pouring every ounce of his mana into his barrier.

But inevitably his golden holy barrier cracked and began to shatter, piece by piece, fragment by fragment consumed by the sheer number of arcane spells and ethereal projectiles that hammered his entrenched position.

\”Gah!\”

Clutching his chest, Harrison coughed out a glob of blood. However, he bit his lip and firmly held his ground, refusing to yield. With a roar, he maintained his upraised hand and infused the last of his mana into his crumbling holy barrier.