Chapter 456 Battle of Wits
Alex was up against close to thirty players, so to thin down their number, he didn't hold back on using his skills and began spamming them one after another.
Alex began by using Reaper's Leeches, making small spectral insects appear on the backs of twenty unlucky players in the vicinity, making them lose both health and mana.
The spectral leeches were ticking time bombs that were not physical in nature, so the players could do little to remove them.
Alex followed with the Abyssal Lightning Storm, doing so right among the groups of players affected by the spectral leeches, and then used the Nullfire Meteor Shower to rain down massive spheres of dark indigo flames on another group.
After the chaos of elemental skills subsided, Alex used the hex of corruption of the Malevolent Revitalization skill to mark ten new players not affected by leeches, making them constantly lose their health.
At the same time, he used Abyssal Chimerabell to target the same ten players with two curses, one that weakened their minds and the other that sapped away their strength.
Alex ended with using the Death's Mirage skill to target the twenty players affected by the spectral leeches to weaken them further so he could pick their heads with ease.
Alex didn't use the Shadow Doppelganger skill because even with 20% of stats that came up to over 60k, his clones would get butchered by the gathered players and would only serve the purpose of burning his mana.
"You have a lot of decent skills, but I think it's about time you stop playing games and get serious," Magnus said as he moved in the distance, keeping up with Alex's pace, watching him rain down skills on his accomplices but not making any effort to interrupt.
Alex ignored the taunt and kept moving, his target being to take out at least half of the present players before engaging with Magnus because once he did, it would be hard to break free from the battle without using the Monarch Aura.
Magnus was a monster in human flesh, and the reason he was called the Magician was because of his ability to wield a large number, if not all, of the elements at a level that far surpassed his Rank.
Magnus was suspected of having a scarce ability or elemental manipulation, with the element being either an unheard-of illusion-type element or, very likely, the creation element.
Magnus wielded multiple elements with uncanny freedom that was only possible through elemental manipulation, and as he could possibly have tens of manipulations, it was suspected he had a single manipulation of such an element that could perfectly replicate other elements.
The unknown element was also suspected to be the reason why he couldn't use the base nature of any element and needed to combine elements to use them, just like his signature lightning that he used as the base and added various elemental natures to it.
After the small comment, the crimson lightning around Magnus received a misty white touch, intensifying its glow, showing Alex that he was not holding back.
Magnus's lightning, infused with the searing essence of fire, crackled with an intensified energy, and by melding it with the swift currents of wind, his movements surged with newfound agility, instantly doubling his speed.
Magnus's figure blurred, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared beside Alex, his arcane scepter humming with power, shrouded in a corona of intense lightning that made the air crackle and distort as the electrifying energy surge outward, tearing through the atmosphere with a sizzling fervor.
Alex threw one of the space knives in one direction aimed at a player but didn't teleport to it and used it as just a distraction. Instead, he used phantom walk to appear next to one of the players struggling with the chimera bell curses, decapitating him without resistance.
Magnus stayed hot on his tail and even threw some attacks, while the thirty or so players also didn't just stand there waiting to be killed.
But Alex's speed was already unmatched, and with him being in the darkness enclave that boosted his darkness and weakened other elements, he was pretty much untouchable.
While Magnus's speed was impressive thanks to his elemental symbiosis and his ability to wield it at the highest level, each time he moved, it took a considerable amount of mana to do it, so after failing to catch Alex, he was quick to adapt.
Magnus moved at a quick speed, tapping his arcane scepter in specific places throughout the dome, and mere moments later, tens of magic circles came to life, and from them, chains of lightning that set the air ablaze surged forth in all directions.
In mere moments, the chains of lightning covered the entire area of the dome in a spider web, and right when they fully formed, they released a blazing charge of lightning, forcing everyone to halt and defend.
The attack carried power akin to a fifth-rank skill, but it merely served as a diversion and also to keep Alex in place, buying precious moments.
At the same time, the lightning shackles were manifesting four magic circles hidden among the other tens of circles came to life, each placed on the ground with Alex being suspended above them, and in an instant, they simultaneously expanded in size, all of them overlapping each other to create a massive circle.
'What a damm monster,' Alex thought, seeing the runes overlap and be perfectly in sync in a matter of mere moments, creating a circle for at least a spell with power in the range of high to peak Fifth Rank, a feat that was near impossible for even most veteran Elementalists.
Magnus was a genius at using magic, and so was he at leading battles, and the current situation was good enough to give an idea of his abilities, as he had perfectly set up the trap to make sure Alex didn't have the means to escape.
Magnus skillfully set up two spells and activated them at the precise moment, Alex's teleport skill was on the three-second cooldown, leaving him trapped amidst a labyrinth of scorching lightning, unable to move freely.
Magnus used the first circle to hide the presence of the second circle, and the few seconds Alex spent waiting for an assault were enough for the hidden circle to fully manifest, making it impossible for him to attack and break the magic circle.
Alex knew what Magnus was capable of, but he didn't expect him to be already good enough to almost instant cast a strong fifth Rank spell.
Alex was not given much time before the magic circle below pulsed like a crimson pool in the pitch darkness before releasing a pillar of crimson lightning with a radius of thirty meters.
Alex instant conjure the Eclipse Dome and reinforced it with an unending stream of surrounding darkness, yet it was not strong enough to keep up with the damage dealt by the crimson lightning and fell a few seconds into the clash.
'I need to be more careful with him,' Alex thought as the beam of lightning dispersed into thin air.
"So, are you ready to stop playing games?" Magnus said as his figure got cloaked back into the darkness that rushed forth to complete the dark enclave that had a solid hole tear open in it because of the crimson torrent.
"You will need to be better than that," Alex retorted, unmoved by the attack, having only lost a mere 7% of his health.
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