The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City-Chapter 156: The Witch’s Cauldron (6)

They say a crisis creates opportunity, and in the extreme situation Violet found herself in, she created a useful technique.

It was none other than Violet’s strategic map.

As long as Violet Ward, which acts as a ward, is alive, we can track the enemies’ positions in real-time. The map is still expanding in real-time, and the shadows of the battlefield are starting to clear.

"Ugh! This is hard!"

It was still impossible to fully replicate the entire complex reality.

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My head was throbbing, so I simplified the map to make it easier to view. A vastly simplified situation of the battlefield appeared before me.

I chose a color for each group to make it easier to recognize.

Violet Team was marked in yellow, friendly forces in blue.

On the other hand, the Magna Nabis unit was in red, the beasts and fanatics in purple, and lastly, the ghouls in green.

"Terrible!"

"Surrounded by enemies in all directions..."

The map, born from the power of the Violets, showed countless moving dots. The level of recognition was still limited.

The size of the dots varied, depending on the subjective danger level and recognition I felt.

At the top of the map was a fallen forward base, and according to reports from the infiltrated Violets, most of the fanatics were gathered near the base.

If we follow the back gate and head down the nearby commercial street, a small fountain square marked with a white circle would greet us.

Currently, red dots were coming down the main street and clashing with the yellow dots. We were barely holding back the massive red dot in the fountain square.

If we moved down the square, we’d reach a narrow alleyway leading to a residential complex.

Passing through the residential alley, we would encounter a disorganized area with a broken elevator, where people were building barricades to hold their ground.

The team members had also retreated to that area.

However, countless beasts were scattered across the region, moving between pathways. Additionally, small ghoul units made up of ghoul-turned federal soldiers were wandering around.

But the biggest problem right now was Magna Nabis’ assault unit.

They were heading down the main road toward us. They kept coming down!

I needed to create more troops quickly. We were outnumbered.

However, there was nothing we could do with just the map.

Think... What should I do?

Even now, the 2nd unit was desperately holding back the enemies.

"Take cover, take cover!"

Violet archers with crossbows dove into buildings or hid behind cover. Immediately after, a massive blue flame heated the air above us.

"Where’s my arm?"

"Look at my hand! It’s turned to ash!"

On-site, we were anxiously waiting, holding our ground and awaiting our next decision.

"Command! We’re holding for now, but we need a strategy. At this rate, we’re going to be overrun!"

I calmly classified what I could and couldn’t do. The Violets’ minds were accelerating rapidly.

"The problem is firepower!"

The forces of the clan were divided into three major groups.

Mercenaries. There were both Awakened and non-Awakened among them, but at least we could kill them if we hit them.

Next were the mages. These guys cast troublesome spells.

And the worst were the ones wearing opaque sealed masks. They were undoubtedly the Vanguard agents.

They had no tanks. No matter how many attacks we landed, their armor wouldn’t break. Every time they shot lightning or swung flames, the Violet squad would vanish, and the platoon would be set on fire.

Even if we surrounded them and tried to beat them down, I didn’t think we’d win for sure.

"Can’t we bring Levi over?"

"She’s healing in the rear. It’ll take a few minutes!"

I thought. With explosives and heavy weapons neutralized, there were only a few weapons we could rely on.

"Aim for the head!"

The bolt fired from the crossbow had a penetrating power that no bullet could compare to. The magic-infused bolt easily pierced through armor.

The problem was the rate of fire. Unlike a gun that fires immediately when you pull the trigger, with a crossbow or bow, you need to imbue the arrow with magic before shooting.

The speed was slow, so it could easily be intercepted. Just like now!

"Ugh! How can this be? What is that woman doing?!"

The bolt that had been flying was intercepted before it could hit the enemy’s body.

At a central point, some distance away from the front, numerous magic circles surrounded the body of a mage, shooting beams that caused arrows to fall.

Because of the perception-disrupting equipment, the faces of the Magna Nabis agents were blurry, like a mosaic, making them hard to identify.

With a slender body, it looked like a woman, but that was all I could tell.

"That one is a problem too!"

If the Vanguard agents were like battleships equipped with punch power and armor, the one standing in the middle was like an anti-missile defense system.

They blocked all of our attacks but sent theirs in with ease, making them extremely troublesome.

I quickly tried to come up with another plan.

"Let’s use the Ether Radiator!"

The Ether Radiator. A close-range energy weapon powered by magic, bought from the weapons merchant Armas. With this, even those guys would feel the heat.

"Let’s use the Blade of Radiance!"

"Chains! Let’s bind them with artifact chains. If we just drag them through the crowd..."

The artifact weapons began to appear one by one, preparing to deal a fatal blow.

In the midst of this, a glider was urgently launched, flying up toward the dark ceiling of the dungeon.

It was the only glider among us powered by an electric battery.

"Damn it! What’s the point of having a flight unit if we can’t even bomb?"

"No! The wingsuit bombs still have value!"

Violet No. 661, watching the flashing magic and bolts fly across the ground, reached out.

The wingsuit Violet began to fall.

"Gerraaaaang!"

With explosives neutralized, we couldn’t show overwhelming firepower. But we could still use our bodies as weapons!

Amidst the crossfire, a wingsuit Violet holding a spear charged into the Vanguard agent’s body. This was a flight cavalry spear charge.

"Ugh!"

"It hit a little!"

The agent quickly got up, but seemed to be greatly shaken. In the darkness, wingsuit Violets continued to charge toward the Magna Nabis troops.

"Charge them!"

"Ugh, Aaaah! They’re coming from the sky!"

After successfully killing two more enemies in quick succession, we turned our attention to the witch.

"Die! You coward!"

Violet No. 127 slammed into the witch, who had been intercepting bolts.

"No! It’s a shield! Kyahhh!"

Lera looked up in surprise. As someone from above the darkness flew toward her, she activated a pre-prepared defensive spell.

With a dull noise, something hit the shield and exploded.

"What... what is this?"

The chunks of flesh that had fallen onto the barrier clearly proved that it was indeed a human.

"Are they really charging at the reverse field with their bare bodies?"

What kind of training and brainwashing would it take for someone to throw themselves into an electromagnetic reverse field with no protection? Whatever those beings were, they were certainly crazier than the fanatics of the Unification Assembly.

Lera shuddered in the face of an unimaginable level of madness that she had encountered for the first time in her life.

"Are there really such insane humans?"

The Vanguard Commander spoke right after incinerating one of the enemies.

"Calm down. This is a clone! Look at the body! Can’t you see it slowly dispersing into particles?"

It was only after confirming the truth that she could begin to calm down.

Yet, there was still something that couldn’t be explained.

"What kind of clone user would do this...?"

Until just now, it had seemed like they were winning overwhelmingly against the enemies, but it felt like the numbers were increasing.

"Could there be more of them?"

The moment that thought crossed her mind, she felt a chill. What kind of human was this?

While the team members were receiving medical treatment, Violet near the elevator declared.

"I’m going to use teleportation magic from now on. Watch closely! And don’t tell anyone! Legion, assemble!"

Instead of smoke bombs, I pulled out a fire extinguisher and sprayed it. From the thickening white powder, countless soldiers poured out.

In exchange for reducing the bodies into magical essence, an army of countless soldiers rushed across the barricade.

"Charge!"

While the troops continued to be produced and prepared for battle, I focused on two key elements to secure victory in this fight.

First, I needed to neutralize the combustion-blocking magic that was wreaking havoc on the battlefield.

Second, I needed to eliminate all the hazardous elements within the dungeon.

To solve the first issue, I had to remove the source that was triggering the combustion-blocking magic.

From what I knew, it could either be a magic spell or a relic. Someone from the Magna Nabis magicians must be pulling this trick.

"One of those is real. But how do we catch it? This is like trying to tie a bell on a cat!"

The problem was, I wasn’t an expert in magic. I didn’t know much about relics either.

The answer was simple. I could just ask an expert. And I knew experts in both magic and relics.

The command center took the liberty of calling the experts.

"Professor Albert! We’re in a hurry, so please answer immediately! What are the characteristics of combustion-blocking magic?"

"What? Why are you asking about something so random all of a sudden?"

"Mr. Webley! It’s me, from the Ariel Group. We’re looking for relics that have combustion-blocking magic! If there’s anything recently released on the market or famous, could you send us pictures?"

"You need relics? It would be better for you to come in person… Alright, understood."

While some personnel at the command center were collecting information from all directions to solve the first problem, discussions between legendary figures, spanning beyond time and space, began on the Violet network.

A Violet, wearing a bamboo hat and an Ao Dai, slammed a table.

"The answer is guerrilla warfare! The terrain here is complicated. We need to engage in guerrilla warfare by moving between buildings! If all the troops assemble, our numbers will be overwhelming. We need to slowly whittle them down! Like Dien Bien Phu, like the Tet Offensive!"

A Violet wearing a hat with a pointy edge threw a musket pistol at the Vietnamese Violet in frustration.

"Ahhh!"

"Fool! Magna Nabis aren’t the only enemies. Look at the map. Don’t you see monsters lurking in every alley? What about the ghouls? And we’re lacking absolute firepower. If we move in small groups, we’ll be the ones getting slaughtered. We need to encircle them while our numbers build up!"

"But this fountain square is too narrow! Even if we bring a regiment-sized force, we won’t be able to use all of them. There are people in the rear!"

Right, the problem was the location.

The fountain square we were in was too small for a regiment-level force to fit in.

Moreover, there were civilians in the rear. Students and non-awakened individuals.

As the tense argument continued, with frustration building on all sides, General Violet, who had remained silent until then, spoke up.

"Then let’s move the battlefield to a place that benefits us. Look here!"

Violet’s finger moved from right to left. The moment I looked at the location on the map where her finger pointed, I felt certain.

At the far right of the map was a large square.

"This square. The entrance is narrow, but inside is wide. If we can lure the enemies here..."

The strategist Violet struck her fan on the table.

This place resembled the terrain where the strategist Zhuge Liang’s plan to defeat the arrogant King Manmanwang had unfolded.

"Yes, this is it! Let’s make this the enemy’s killing ground!"

General Violet shouted.

"If we can lure them here, we can encircle and annihilate them! Like the Battle of Red Cliffs!"

Opposition poured in.

"But the real problem is how to lure them! They won’t follow us willingly."

"The enemies aren’t fools. There needs to be some motivation for them to break through that long passage!"

Violet suddenly had an idea.

"No, there’s an answer!"

The things our enemies feared the most.

In a distant corner away from the battlefield, the Violet from the relic team, who had been waiting, suddenly stood up.

"Hey! Is your name Ennis? You know how to handle this relic, right?"

"Prism? So you guys had it..."

"Just answer the question! You said you manipulated it. Can you handle it or not?"

With a gloomy face, she nodded. I asked again.

"Can you activate this relic?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

I urgently conveyed my request. After a moment of thought, she gave a somewhat satisfactory answer.

"Yes, I can. But it will take time..."

"I’ll buy you some time! Follow me!"

The relic team grabbed the prism and Ennis and hurried toward the square that was a little farther away.

Meanwhile, the command center had managed to gather some information.

"Got it! We’ve obtained the information."

Professor Albert, who had no idea what was going on, explained the characteristics of the magic in annoyance.

According to the information provided by our lifelong professor, the magic’s wavelength was weak, but because it continuously expanded in real-time, it could be pinpointed quickly with enough focus.

"This is too complicated. What’s next?"

Next, the owner of the relic trading company, Mr. Webley, must have thought we were just looking for relics because he sent over several expensive relic catalogs and various auction advertisements.

While the command center was reviewing the materials, we desperately tried to trace the flow of magical energy.

One Violet didn’t feel anything.

Ten Violets felt a faint tingling sensation.

Fifty Violets began to sense a strange flow.

An unusual form of magic was spread across the entire area like a carpet.

At the same time, Ward Violet, who had been observing the Magna Nabis magicians from hiding, noticed something strange.

"Interception Witch! That person has a strange device on their back!"

A relic, similar to one shown in the picture Webley sent, appeared. It had a complicated mechanical device attached, but the strange patterns in the photo matched.

"That’s it!"

It was time to call the team members.