"This place is basically an iron cage, let's see where he thinks he can hide."
"Still, just to be safe, we should send a few to guard the treasure room entrance. That kid's attack power is crazy strong, if he breaks something by accident, it'll be a real headache."
With that, four of them split off and passed straight through a wall in one direction, while the rest spread out to search elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Alex had been moving quickly along the side, passing through several rooms before finally stopping in a warehouse full of food.
He gently twisted the monocle over his eye, studying something carefully.
At the start of the fight, he hadn't forgotten to gather intel; he'd deployed plenty of surveillance spiders across the battlefield and inside the rooms he'd entered.
Thanks to them, he could clearly see the avatars' movements.
'The avatars on the first floor are scattered defensively.'
'Maybe to stop me from going back upstairs? No, more likely they're ready to jump in if I get trapped down here.'
He noticed four avatars heading straight for a certain spot, probably to guard the entrance to the basement's second level, while the others spread out to surround him.
Watching all this, Alex quickly pieced it together.
Horned Basilisk's mansion was huge, covering more than a football field, but if this kept up, his movement space would just keep shrinking.
It wouldn't be long before they found him, and then a whole crowd would be waiting.
There was no time to waste; he had to act fast.
Alex knew he had to uncover the secrets of these avatars first; without that, winning the battle was impossible.
Pulling a strangely shaped metal dagger from his side, he examined it.
The blade looked like any ordinary dagger, but at the end of the handle was a dial covered in scales.
'The four clones together can't be alerted, so I have to start with the one that's alone.'
'Luckily, horned basilisk didn't set up any weird protections in its own place. Otherwise, just moving around would be a nightmare.'
Focusing on a room he had stayed in earlier, Alex noticed a clone investigating it alone.
Quietly, he activated the Illusion Charm on his tactical vest and switched on the mute function in his 'Phase Shoes.'
Then, blending into the wall, he carefully edged closer to the clone.
Passing through two walls, he entered the same room where the clone was meticulously checking every corner with a wand in hand.
Alex pressed against the wall, moving silently and cautiously behind the clone, unsure if the avatar could see through his illusions.
Thanks to his silent steps, he quickly got behind the clone and plunged the specially designed dagger into its back.
The avatar let out a muffled grunt, struggled briefly, and then dissolved into blue magical catkins that slowly faded into the air.
Without wasting a second, Alex slipped toward a nearby empty room he had scouted before.
No sooner had he disappeared behind the wall than four or five clones appeared from all directions.
"Heh, young and impatient, aren't you? Attacking my clone only helps me lock your position faster. Let's see how long you can hide now," one of the clones sneered coldly.
They all focused on the wall Alex had just passed through and stepped forward, walking right through it.
But Alex was already gone, not sticking around for a moment after his successful strike.
Relying on the convenience of the 'monitoring spider' to detect others, Alex managed to slip away unnoticed and took refuge in a quiet warehouse.
"This is dangerous, the other side reacts incredibly fast," he muttered, letting out a relieved sigh.
His attention then shifted to the dagger in his hand, specifically the dial at its end.
'The magic power is around 100 ticks? That means if each clone has roughly the same strength, and considering horned basilisk releases at least 50 clones, then just creating those clones would consume about 5,000 points of magic power. Is this really human? And does making each avatar come with any other costs?'
After reaching this startling conclusion by observing the dagger's dial, Alex fell into deep thought and quickly analyzed all the information he had gathered so far.
'First of all, judging by how the avatars respond, the opponent must at least have a sense of pain.'
'Also, when one avatar is destroyed, the others react almost instantly with no delay. That suggests these avatars probably share their senses, maybe not just sight and hearing, but possibly other senses too.'
'After the avatar is destroyed, it doesn't leave behind a corpse but instead turns into pure magical energy.'
'From what I observed earlier, this scattered magic seems to move in a single direction.'
'It looks like the leftover magic doesn't just vanish into thin air after the avatar disappears, it actually returns to the original body.'
'With that, our intelligence gathering is done for now. The next step is to launch a counterattack.'
Alex narrowed his eyes, a cold glint flashing through them.
Once he made up his mind, he slowly lowered his right hand.
Instantly, dozens of Spirit Snakes emerged from the space ring on his wrist.
These are alchemy weapons imbued with an incapacitating curse, and after years of upgrades, Alex had greatly improved their efficiency.
If someone gets tangled up by them, it would take less than ten seconds to drain 100 ticks of magic power from the target.
After releasing the snakes, Alex cast an illusion curse on each one.
Then, he sent them scattering quickly toward a group of clones with clear targets.
"I wonder if you'll feel distressed when all the magic power drains from your avatar, Horned Basilisk," Alex sneered.
"Also, we'll take this chance to test how sensory sharing affects them. If you really can share consciousness with the main body 100%, don't blame me if I get a little cruel."
After setting all that in motion, Alex cloaked himself in an illusion spell again.
Besides these little gadgets, he was preparing a bigger surprise for the main body.
Meanwhile, runic snake clones were busy searching the basement floor.
What puzzled him was that, although they had basically locked down Alex's approximate location, every time they searched, they found nothing.
It was as if the other side could track their movements in real time.
Was Alex invisible?
But that didn't make sense, his avatar should be able to see through a regular illusion curse.
Could it be that kid still had the Deathly Hallows invisibility cloak?
Impossible!
Runic Snake shook his head firmly, dismissing the thought.
It seemed likely that Alex had a strong sense of perception or some other way of detecting his clones, which explained why they always missed him during their search.
Realizing this, Horned Basilisk quickly adjusted his strategy.
He sent several clones to sneak into the basement, planning to watch quietly from the sidelines and check every room and corridor carefully.