Magical Academy: Rise of the Supreme Magic Craftsman

'Guh... Void Phasing while wearing this Mech Frame consumes a lot more Mana than expected...' 

Wallace thought after he suddenly appeared behind the strongest magician he sensed a few minutes ago. He didn't have time to observe their looks but only see their figures as enemies he had to eliminate. 

Boom!

The five-meter tall Mech Frame slammed its hands to the unprepared Peak Adept Mage. His head including his torso exploded by the sheer force of that mechanical hands. 

"Eh?" 

Even Wallace was surprised by this outcome. He was expecting some resistance from a mana shell or other defensive artifacts. 

"Genooo!!!"

"How dare you?!"

"You monster! Take this!"

The three immediately activated their mana artifacts to fight against the black and silver humanoid machine. Their eyes turned bloodshot especially Trisha who had close relations with Geno. 

"Fire Bull!"

"Judgment Fire!"

"Lava Ground!"

The three have already fought against huge humanoid automatons so they were somewhat prepared on how to deal with this machinery. They have also seen something similar to an Iron Knight before, though they didn't have a chance to fight against it.

Now, although they were aware that this isn't a simple automaton since they could clearly feel a life presence due to unique mana fluctuations within the humanoid machine, it wasn't wrong to treat the machine as a large automaton for now while fighting it. 

Instead of dodging the attacks from the three. Wallace decided to fight head-on!

He didn't use his Mana Shell but instead relied on the power coming from the Mech Frame's energy source. The Mech Frame was suddenly coated by an almost invisible film that deflected all the fire attacks coming from the three.

"Tsk! This guy is tough. Trisha, Greg... Get into formation!"

Arnold instructed as soon as he noticed that their plan won't be effective. At first, they wanted to use a simple trick where they will have to heat up the metallic components of this machine before pouring cold water on it causing a quenching process. This is how they normally deal with extremely hard and metallic automatons. 

They had noticed that the arm that slammed Geno a while ago wasn't covered by any mana enhancement whatsoever. It was a sheer power of its brute force without a doubt. Now that it shows that the machine was also capable of using unique protective magic, they realized that this battle won't be easy. 

Aside from that, they saw how it suddenly appeared without their notice. This one thing was also causing them to have a dreadful feeling about fighting against this enemy. 

"Careful! It shouldn't be capable of using that instantaneous movement repeatedly."

"Mhm... Just watch your back whenever that thing got lost in your sight!"

"Understood." 

Wallace felt confident seeing that the Lotus Mech Frame was capable of fighting against the three Adepts at the same time. This is without using his mana to enhance their power. 

'I can do this... Just like in that dream, Mech Frames were really formidable...' 

Although the virtual world that he and Avalon made simulated the power of a Mech Frame against an Adept Mage, he was still quite happy seeing that their calculations aren't wrong.

There are four miniguns installed in the body and arms of the mech and Wallace decided to try them out.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The bullets weren't capable of penetrating the three's Mana Shell but it obviously gave them a shock as they probably didn't expect the heavy power coming from those bullets.

Even Arnold, the strongest of the three, sweated after deflecting a round of those shots. 

"What do you want?!" 

Someone from the three enemies shouted to Wallace as they quickly scattered in different directions to avoid getting easily targeted. They realized that being together was more dangerous since the enemy could just fire in one direction.

Wallace didn't answer as he merely thought that these people were buying time to turn the tables. He wouldn't be that foolish. He did it before when he was still weak and trying to fight against Chalice. 

Instead of answering, he immediately used his Void Phasing Step to approach the currently strongest magician in their midst. 

He repeated the same tactic as he reappeared behind Arnold and the Mech Frame's hand slammed towards the enemy. 

"Not this time!"

The black and gold robe of the Adept shone for a moment before a powerful defensive barrier appeared. It was able to hold against the powerful slam of the Mech Frame but it still trembled and shown cracks after getting hit. It seems that their robe wasn't just for decoration.

There was no time to be surprised as Trisha and Greg launched their assault.

"Greater Petrification!"

"Earth's Hold!"

Two earth-based magic spells came to the Mech Frame and Wallace had no time to dodge. No, he didn't intend to in the beginning. 

As soon as Arnold was able to stop the arms of the Mech Frame, Wallace already decided to use the machine's other weapons. The large blue crystal at the center chest of the humanoid Mech Frame suddenly lit up as the machine tried to get more power from the reactor. 

As soon as he was hit by the two Grade 3 Magic Spells cast by the two Adept Mages, the crystal completed its Radiant Beam's charge and fired at the pitiful Arnold. It seems that he was too happy after stopping his single attack and forgot to distance himself. Although he might be buying time for the two's spell, he should be knowledgeable enough not to fight the 5 meters tall Mech Frame in this close range.

Boom!

Arnold and his barrier evaporated as the beam continuously hit the ground causing an explosion. This explosion caused a disturbance in the surrounding mana protecting Wallace from getting affected by the two Grade 3 magic spells.

This was within his calculation. 

"Wind Wave!" 

Trisha cast the spell without hesitation after dust and smoke were scattered. It cleared the surroundings and notice a huge crater where Arnold and the Mech Frame were previously standing on. 

"Behind you!"

Greg shouted as Trisha saw a shadow covering her head.

'This..'

Trisha understood now. Wallace was conditioning their mind that they can detect his life force anytime. The first time he appeared and killed Geno, all of them felt his presence. Geno was only caught surprised by the ambush since it was the first time he saw someone capable of such instantaneous movement. 

When Wallace appeared behind Arnold, they also felt the enemy's life presence near their colleague which allowed the man to cast his defensive barrier.

Unfortunately, the enemy's instantaneous movement was no longer traceable. She didn't felt any life presence whatsoever making her slow reaction. She was fully aware that a mere Mana Shell was not capable of blocking this powerful machine. Such a small fraction of second cost her life.

She didn't even have the time to close her eyes as she was crushed or melted by the silver left hand of the Mech Frame. 

'Sigh~ So not even the Mana Shell of someone at the peak of an Adept Mage can defend against the Radiant Hands...' 

The silver left hand of the Mech Frame was a powerful microwave radiation emitter. It was normally used to fight against other Mech Frames since by grabbing onto an enemy Mech Frame and activating the emitter, the left hand of the Lotus Mech Frame can fry the frame's electronics and heavily warp the enemy frame itself, not only rendering the unfortunate machine completely un-salvageable, but also ensuring that the pilot will perish with its Mech Frame.

This type of ability was only for the Lotus models of Mech Frames. Other Mech Frames have their own specialties like shooting guns, sword fighting, flexibilities, adaptabilities, and others. 

Only Greg was remaining in the previous group of four. The man was already scared and ready to flee at any moment. He no longer wanted to know how this large humanoid machine was doing the instantaneous movement and even enter the dome without their notice or how was it capable of fighting without any emission of mana... He now just wanted to give whatever this monster wanted and let him flee. 

'I curse you, Chalice! So this is why you're so adamant about leaving this place and hide in the northern continent! You were aware that a monster would target this place!'

He didn't know how much time was needed before the monster could use that instantaneous movement again. So he decided to gamble and use his full force to find the exit. 

'Great! Stay there!'

He was very happy to see that the humanoid machine wasn't moving to follow him. The machine might be overheated or something but, of course, he didn't dare going back and continued to flee. After all, the enemy might just be interested in the aircraft being kept here and not their lives. 

'I'll definitely get my revenge soon. I will never forgive you for killing Trisha! I will find out your real identity and hunt you when you're out of that machine!'

As soon as he reached the hidden exit within the dome, he was planning to instruct the remaining guards to delay or even fight the humanoid machine inside to buy him some time in his escape. This is his way to ensure that the machine was really not after his life. 

Unfortunately, he saw a shadow of a small bird blocking his vision before losing his life.