As William stood tall in front of the four pursuers, he would analyze the current situation using Insight. Logging the surrounding area into his brain. Then, he would use the Author's Note to see what kind of abilities they possessed. Since he was rather short on time, he would only scan for their titles to get a gist of their powers.
[Reader of Medicine]
[Reader of Strategies]
[Reader of War]
[Reader of Artillery]
And the one who impaled the young man.
[Reader of Experience]
It seems they were all combat-focused readers, besides the one who appeared to be a healer but looked nothing like one.
William would quickly activate his Descriptive Writing ability.
[Description / Writing has been activated!]
[The surrounding area will be turned into fog of war, where enemies and allies cannot tell each other apart.]
A sea of fog would instantaneously appear in the nearby area. Enveloping anyone and everyone unlucky enough to be there.
With the setup complete, the battle would resume.
[Insight relays the exact image of the battlefield!]
Except for the fact that with his skill, he had the advantage here.
The four men charging at him were in an upside-down 'Y' formation, with the healer at the back. But since they would likely anticipate him targeting the healer, they would have changed their formation to protect them.
Using the Underworld Bident, he would use his long range to his advantage and stab towards the rough direction of where they were. The feeling of piercing through flesh told him that it had found its mark.
"Aargh!"
He would quickly retract the spear like a porcupine and dash into the fog, keeping track of where the group was using his mind.
He'd then yell out to them and activate Constructive Criticism.
"You're all just a bunch of ignorant, moronic idiots who choose brawn over brain like a bunch of cavemen."
[Criticism Effects: Intelligence of affected targets decreases heavily, while physical ability increases heavily.]
Because of the two-sided effects of Constructive Criticism, it allowed him to avoid using a large amount of Ingenuity, instead only requiring a small bit to activate the ability and affect the men. This was a clever loophole utilizing the natural balance of this world.
'Is that how it works? Huh, I had no idea.'
You stu-
The effects of the Criticism were instant, as the brawny men would quickly dash in the direction of William after hearing his voice, this time at a near-unavoidable speed, slamming his fist into William's face, crushing his nose in the process.
He'd then yell out in pain.
"Ow! That's prime real estate, man! You can't jus-
He didn't get to finish his sentence as a short sword was promptly thrust into his chest cavity, impaling him.
Or, that's what it would look like at least, because as soon as he thrust his sword, a ravenous shadow appeared immediately to devour it, protecting William from a very painful experience. It was the Moonbeast, Xiao Wei!
Xiao Wei would then latch onto the man's body like a parasite and begin absorbing him into the mass of shadow, bit by bit.
The man would struggle and thrash while yelling in pure agony, terror, and fear. Whilst the great mass of shadow seemed to be having a lovely meal today!
Seeing this, William suddenly had an inkling of an idea on how Xiao Wei could transform into constructs much bigger than they seemed to be. Either way, he was proud of the little guy.
William would cough up blood; he still had four more opponents to deal with and was already in rough shape. He needed to stop playing around and use his strongest moves, or he'd likely perish here.
A wisp of Greyish Dark Energy would appear in his left hand, a vortex of destruction.
[Bane of Existence has been activated!]
He'd then channel the Vortex into the Underworld Bident in his other hand and use it cleave a cataclysmic rift in the air in front of him, in the direction of the Brawns.
"Calamity Collapse."
William would utter a fitting name for the move. Though it was rather edgy. Where was I?
Oh, that's right. The wave of pure destruction headed straight for these guys. The energy wave would rip and tear through their bodies and, as a by-product, mutilate them.
([Attribute: Monster maintains it's power discreetly!])
William would have the sudden urge to vomit his stomach's entire contents out, but he'd manage to contain himself.
This left two men, one who was currently serving as Xiao Wei's breakfast, and the other being the one who impaled the poor kiddo from earlier.
Given that the forces on each side of the battlefield were now relatively even, he'd disable Descriptive Writing's illusion of fog of war.
The area suddenly looked a lot different from before, blood splattered everywhere, organs, eyes, severed limbs, and people actively fighting each other.
The man who stabbed the young man, the Reader of Experience, was standing right in front of him, coincidentally. His eyes widened at the sight of his fallen comrades, who were now a pile of flesh and blood on the floor and food for a shadow monster.
'Looks like I got my trope after all.'
"My..comrades..."
"Oh, right, criticism is still active-
The man would start charging at him full speed, a speed to which William could barely react. He'd be pulled to the side at the last minute by one of Xiao Wei's shadow tendrils, and the man would slam into a concrete wall behind William, completely decimating it without even a scratch.
'Holy...'
William would ready a vortex of Bane in his left hand, ready to fire it at the man at a moment's notice.
Surprisingly enough, the man would emerge with his hands up in surrender and rub his temples after a couple minutes, which was strange, especially after he witnessed William massacre his comrades.
He'd speak with a deep, gruffy voice.
"Eugh...my head...Where in the hell am I!"
William would tilt his head in confusion
'Did he inflict amnesia on himself?'
"What?"
"I was....Wait...Oh that's right...I'm sorry for attacking you, sir, and the little guy over there. I'd be willing to explain if you'd let me."
William would look over to the young man; it seemed that the area he was impaled was non-lethal. Though he seemed to be bleeding quite a bit.
"Right...You wouldn't happen to have a healing ability, would you? I assume that one of the members of your cohort had it."
Instead of answering his question, the man would walk over towards the mutilated bodies of his cohort and point towards something.
"There."
Inside the pile of flesh and blood, there were 3 strange-looking objects resembling pages.