Battling a group of level 5 (3)

A light arrow landed on Alex's shoulder, but thanks to the increase in his defense stat, the arrow hadn't managed to pierce through his shoulder. It rebounded off of him and changed direction, though not without leaving a nasty bruise and tearing through his skin, sending a stinging pain through Alex's body.

Knowing he could no longer stay in one place, even within his smoke cloud, Alex began to run. He controlled the smoke under his boots, commanding it to take on a cushioning characteristic to muffle the sound of his footsteps.

Meanwhile, arrow after arrow shot into the cloud of smoke as the bowman relentlessly attempted to pinpoint his new location.

'I was careless,' Alex thought, gritting his teeth and directing the purple smoke to take on its healing properties to mend his shoulder, 'No, I was arrogant.'

After defeating the lizardmen dungeon boss, Alex had assumed he had a good grasp of his limits and who he could and couldn't defeat.

However, just now, he had been reminded that just because these opponents were the same level as the dungeon boss didn't mean they were equally easy to overcome.

Unlike the dungeon boss, these high-level 5 individuals had intelligence and likely years of combat experience behind them. They weren't people he could casually take down just because they couldn't sense his presence.

'In that case,' Alex took a deep breath, forcibly calming himself, his expression turning deadly serious.

He had intended to hold back, but now it was clear that if he even wanted a chance at victory, he would need to go all out.

As he considered his next move, Alex glanced to the side to see how his temporary allies were faring. His eyes widened when he noticed the dark-haired man managing to stab his sword into the shoulder of his rapier-wielding opponent.

The man with the rapier grunted in pain and explosively retreated before the wound could worsen.

Before he could retreat too far, however, the dark-haired man swiftly closed the distance, his dagger slashing down toward his opponent with merciless precision.

The rapier wielder coughed up a mouthful of blood, raising his weapon in a desperate attempt to block. But the sheer force of the impact sent him stumbling backward, his defenses faltering.

'Unless something unforeseen happens, the outcome of this fight is already decided,' Alex thought, turning his attention to the other battle between the woman with cyan hair and the man with the mass.

Unlike the previous skirmish, this fight was much more balanced. Both combatants were giving it everything they had, their furious clashes echoing through the battlefield, and the powerful shockwaves from their strikes sent debris flying in all directions.

That was until something unexpected happened.

The cyan-haired woman let out an uproarious laugh, and in an instant, her skin began to change from pale white to a deep, fiery red.

Her hair whipped wildly in the air as intense heat radiated from her body. Steam poured from her pores, and the temperature around her skyrocketed to an unbearable level.

Her greatsword vibrated violently in her hands and began to glow fiercely, seemingly alive and invigorated by the scorching heat emanating from her. The blade's edge shimmered as if it was thrilled, almost as if the heat was fueling its strength and making it sharper with every passing moment.

The change was so abrupt and overwhelming that it caught even her opponent off guard. Before he could react, she appeared before him, her speed seemingly more than doubled, and brought her greatsword down in a devastating arc.

The man attempted to block, but his eyes widened in horror as his opponent's blade sliced through his weapon like a hot knife through butter, and continued its deadly trajectory until it met his body.

"AHHHHH—!"

A scream of agony tore through the air as his severed, blackened hand fell to the ground, still smoking from the intense heat that had scorched through bone and flesh alike.

The scream pierced the chaos of battle, immediately drawing the attention of every fighter, causing them to momentarily freeze in their tracks.

"ERGAS!" the fifth man, who Alex had pegged as the group's healer, shouted in panic. Without hesitation, he bolted towards the muscular man writhing on the ground in pain.

"As if I'd let you!" Ergas's opponent sneered and readied another strike, intending to intercept the healer. But before she could attack, a light arrow whizzed past, forcing her to shift from offense to defense in an instant.

Bang!

The arrow struck the flat of her greatsword, sending her skidding backward several meters, her feet carving deep trenches in the ground as she struggled to maintain her balance.

Before she could make another move, three more arrows flew toward her in rapid succession, forcing her to retreat further, narrowly evading each one.

Seeing his chance, Alex finally took action.

The cloud of smoke that had been hovering around him suddenly began to expand violently, stretching toward the sky. A ripple seemed to run through it as it abruptly stopped growing, and in the next moment, it swiftly condensed.

In the blink of an eye, a massive purple figure, towering dozens of meters high, materialized on the battlefield. The construct took on the shape of a colossal knight, first forming a head, then a broad torso, followed by two muscular arms. The smoke swirled and solidified, taking on a more defined, humanoid form.

As the figure continued to take shape, an intricate armor of dark, swirling smoke wove itself across its body, each piece seeming to latch onto the knight like a second skin. The construct raised one of its massive hands, and a long, sinister double-headed scythe appeared, its twin blades gleaming ominously. At the junction of the blades, a skull grinned wickedly, almost as if it reveled in the carnage to come.

Finally, a helmet materialized over the figure's head, and the only visible feature beneath it was a pair of swirling, glowing purple eyes, glaring down at the battlefield with a malevolent intensity.

'D-Did he turn into that thing?!' Everyone present had the same shocked thought as they gawked at the towering smoke colossus. Even the old man, who had remained composed despite Alex's earlier teleportation, was visibly shaken as he stared up at the monstrous figure.

Since Alex's presence had been untraceable to them from the start, it made sense that they assumed he had become the construct itself. However, if they had been able to sense him, they would have realized that Alex was actually situated inside the right foot of the giant, his hands tightly gripping the double-headed scythe.

Unlike his enemies, Alex knew full well that this smoke knight wouldn't be able to inflict significant damage. Against weaker opponents, it might have been a formidable weapon, but against these high-level fighters, it was little more than a pipe dream, at least in its current state. The giant construct was nothing more than a grand distraction.

The real threat was Alex himself.

The double-headed scythe in his hands began to tremble, as if in excitement, greedily siphoning bucketloads of Alex's mana. As it did so, the dark, ominous aura surrounding the weapon intensified, growing thicker and more menacing with every passing second.

'Damn it, this cursed weapon always drains too much mana,' Alex grumbled, forcibly cutting off the flow of energy to the scythe. Between his earlier teleportation and this, his mana reserves were critically low. He had just enough left to execute his next attack—and to escape, should it fail.

'Even if I can't take them all out, I should at least get rid of that old man,' Alex thought grimly as he readied himself, positioning the scythe for a deadly strike.

But just as he was about to swing, a commanding voice boomed across the battlefield, its presence undeniable and powerful, cutting through the tension like a knife.

"ENOUGH!"

Stopping mid-swing, Alex glanced to his right and saw Freya striding towards them, a group of heavily armored soldiers following closely behind her.

Her face was contorted into a scowl of pure rage, and even Alex, who had faced countless dangers without flinching, had to avert his gaze. At that moment, Freya looked like a ferocious beast, on the verge of exploding.

Walking beside her was a plump man dressed in noble attire, his deep brown hair slicked back, and his expression just as furious as Freya's. His eyes blazed with indignation as they swept across the battlefield.

"What do you all think you are doing in my city?!" Freya's voice rang out, cold and sharp as a blade, the icy chill in her eyes and tone sending shivers down the spines of everyone present.

The old man leading the group, known as Kradwell, took a cautious step forward, his posture humble despite the tension. "We apologize for the disturbance, Lady Freya," he began, bowing deeply in her direction. "But we are under direct orders from Earl Drickon to capture the criminal who threatened his son's life. We hope that the Matriarch of the Drazen family would understand and assist us in carrying out this mission." He straightened and nodded towards the towering smoke colossus that loomed over the battlefield.

Taking that as his signal, Alex dissolved the smoke knight in an instant. The towering figure crumbled, its ethereal form disintegrating into nothingness, leaving Alex standing in its place, his double-headed scythe still firmly in his grip.

As Freya's gaze locked onto him, her expression only darkened further, the fury on her face intensifying with each second.

"So, let me get this straight," Freya said, her voice dropping to a dangerously low register as her eyes bore into the old man. "Earl Drickon sent you to abduct an ally of my Drazen family, right here, in the middle of my city?"