128 Battle Royale Part 1

"We have seen everyone's design in their automaton. It was even graded by our established engineers for their potential. Now, all that was left was to see their actual combat skills." Nina said as she started to get the attention of all the viewers watching the competition, either through live broadcast or with audience inside the arena.

"Do you have your bet on this match already? Haha! It's not too late to change your mind. Allow us to explain more about this upcoming event." Schneizel joined in as both of the announcers were seen. They have change their clothes to a more casual one in this events.

"That's right. I know a lot of you were waiting for this exciting match but let us introduce the rules of the battlefield first so everyone can watch the fight with a much broader view."

"Keep in mind that even us, had learned the rules just 30 minutes ago and the actual participants had learned this just now. Isn't that exciting?" As expected, they wanted to emphasize how the rules were kept in secrecy to tell everyone watching that this event will be fair to all the participants.

"The Battle Royale Event will commence in any moments by now and will last for full 30 minutes in consideration for the automaton's operation time."

"Now, how will the winner be determined? Well, there will only be three winners in this event and since this is Battle Royale, even participants in the same country could fight each other or could help each other. Having an alliance with other countries was even possible. Once there were three remaining automatons left, even if the time wasn't up, it would be considered as the end. If many automaton's remains even after 30 mins, it will be calculated through a point system."

"That sounds mess up. I mean, the part where other country could actually combine their forces." Schneizel couldnt help but say his opinion.

"Haha! Of course, that's only possible in theory. Keep in mind that the program for the automaton has been completed more than an hour ago. So whether the participants made instructions for their automaton to cooperate with their fellow teammates or even to other countries, it was still a question."

"That makes sense. In any case, I believe that everyone at least made arrangements for the part where they have to cooperate with their teammates."

"True. But just in case, I'm wondering whether teaming up with other country would benefit them as only three winners can be rewarded."

"Well, they could cooperate and eliminate the other automatons then once they succeeded, they could then fight each other for the position. That's one of possible scenario I could think right now. But as you said, the automaton's magic structure was already made an hour ago, and rules was only given now. So it's impossible to happen."

After a bit of the discussion about the rules and regulations, the two announcers then turned at the battlefield where this Battle Royale will commence.

"The event will happen here in the arena. Don't worry, the arena is full of defensive magic making sure about the safety of our dear viewers. After all, these are uncontrolled automatons. They will be fighting to it's maximum ability."

"Once they were activated, they can only be deactivated by the creators. So the participants were also on standby near the arena. You can see them at the platform on the left side of the battlefield."

"Now look at the terrain or this battlefield. These changes were made by our magicians just within 20 minutes. They surely did a great job."

"A swamp at the center, an artificial lake on the north, grassland, mini forest, a ravine and a good amount of boulders." Schneizel said as he admired the beautiful arrangement of the field. Depending on the magic spells that the automaton can use, they can utilize their terrain advantage if they are capable of doing so.

"Indeed.. This is an impressive work from our Terrain Magicians, partnered of course with our technical team who transported these natural resources."

***

After a few minutes more of Nina and Schneizel's banter, the signal to start the Battle Royale was heard.

"At last!"

"This had taken so long! Come on!"

"Go Maja! We win as one!"

"Don't lose M-o-n-tego!

The audience cheered as the surroundings turned dark and only a few mystical orb of lights can be seen in the battlefield. With the loud cheer from the audience, it can be deduced that a lot of people returned to watch this battle event. This was common to see as not many people would be interested watching the technician's create those automatons.

The dim light only lasted for about 10 seconds before the lights returned. This time, the 12 automatons had appeared in the field.

None of the same team's automaton was close to each other.

These 12 were scattered throughout the whole battlefield. After a couple of seconds, all automatons lit up as their core activation was triggered. Finally, the battle was about to begin.

***

On the platform at the left side of the arena,  the participants were huddled together as they observed the whole battlefield. Aside from these, about 40 meters above the arena, several large screens can be seen that was installed and being used to monitor the whole battleground.

Surveillance cameras for better view was installed in many parts of the field. This way, the editors would be able to create a better content or highlight of the event once they made a video for it.

Wallace cast his gaze to his automaton. The centaur-like automaton was unfortunately near the swamp area. This would affect his movements. In the first place, it's mobility was only average.

Suddenly, he heard the announcer focusing on his automaton.

"Oh no! The Red-Eyed War Beast was caught in the explanding swamp. How unlucky, this automation might be the first one to get defeated."

"Isn't that too early to say? It may be faking it's struggles right now."

"How can that be elaborate? Could Wallace possibly program his automaton like this? To fake and catch his opponents off guard?"

"Haha! I'm not really sure myself."

Wallace listened as he grinned after seeing his automaton's struggle to leave the swap area and go to the nearest grassland.

He checked in a bit wider range and  noticed that for some reason, the three automatons of Montego's Mana Technicians were gathering in the boulder area at the West side of the battle field.

Wallace tried observing the others before turning back his gaze to the nearest enemy that his automaton could possibly fight..

He checked the opponent's evaluations given by the certified Magic Engineers a while ago.

[ Virgan ]

[ Turtleback Wolf: Designed by Zhilina Lesya. A wolf with controllable turtle shell. Possessed top grade defensive skills.

Grade 7/10 ]

Wallace continued watching, the slow and careful wolf trying to get near to it's prey, which is his Red-Eyed War Beast. On the other hand, his automaton was out in the field and making a lot of noises just to get out of the swamp.

As the wolf was about to pounce on Wallace's automaton, it activated multiple fast paced spells as cover. The wolf then moved quickly as it went to the centaur's blind spot.

The wolf sent several wind blades and some was even targeted on the swap to explode and block the automaton's vision.

The wind blades did nothing as the War Beast's eyes glow red as it activated a powerful defense and detector.

The senses of all the automaton can easily be made through the use of a standard magic structure. The magic formula was so easy that every third year students that were under the Magic Engineer's course would be taught about it.

With the three magic structure's vessel that Wallace has placed in his automaton, each of them has its own limit or function.

The standard Magic Crystal that Wallace had picked up a while ago contains magic formula for the automaton's senses. Aside from that, inside it was the instructions about it's goal, and it's combat sense was in that standard crystal. About it's combat capability or battle mode, all of those will be seen any moment by now.

The wolf pounced towards the centaur after failing to damage it using thrown magic spells. It might have also noticed it's opponent's sturdy magic defense so it tried to probably deal physical damage.

Unfortunately, although it pounced behind the War Beast that has difficulty turning due to the swamp, the long barrel that was previously pointing to it's front was suddenly in the face of the wolf.

MMMMM!!

A spell that was cast so quick were seen by almost everyone and because this is the first contact made with other participant's automaton, this first encounter was seen by many audience from the very the beginning .

A light was then seen devouring half of the Turtleback Wolf. The automaton wasn't thrown far away as for some reason, there's no impact force contained in that spell and just pure penetrative force.

Everyone was stunned seeing this. They took another glance at the source of this phenomena and saw a dimmed centaur-like automaton. It was still struggling to get out of the swamp though.