William's eyes were glued to the person who spoke. It'd be extremely difficult to forget someone like her after all, and what she did to him.
That being the Reader of Dreams.
He waved at her with a friendly smile before speaking.
"Hello there, what are you doing here this fine evening?" With a warm smile, he recited his thoughts into the material world.
She simply giggled like a madwoman.
"Just disposing of some adorable little animals~" She said whilst holding her head in her hands and blushing.
'What on earth is wrong with this woman?'
William snapped his fingers, signalling for his cohort to initiate their defenses.
A dark red warzone appeared around them due to Li Jiaojie's Recollection, which strengthened them and weakened their enemies, as well as inciting their bloodlust. It appeared that because he was currently wearing the Vestige made from the Reader of War's remains, he could more easily display its original power, though it was still weakened to an extent.
'Alright, there's the first step completed.'
Behind William, a massive writhing mass of shadows twisted and convulsed, growing into a towering beast-like creature with eyes scattered all throughout it. It was the form that William had first met Xiao Wei in.
Seeing this frightening creature, as well as the fear-inducing effects of the Seek skill amplified through the countless eyes, the legion of shadow soldiers all unconsciously took a step back.
The shadow creature would then dissolve into the darkness, blending in with the soldiers, waiting for the opportune time to strike.
"Alright, your turn now, Feifei." William gestured to Fei Kangzhen, who had been eagerly waiting for his turn.
He began to whisk his hands around as if conducting an orchestra of Fear. Immediately, each person affected by his skill felt the fear in their bodies becoming magnified, not quite to the point of paralysis, but enough to visibly shake them.
William smirked. Putting on his best cocky act. He brought in his trump card immediately.
[Shared Skill: Moonwielder, activated.]
The full moon seemed especially bright today, giving William a clear target to channel. As a silvery full moon appeared in William's left eye, his body began to glow a silvery light.
The main effect of this "Transformation" was to make William look cool and to allow him to utilize the lights more easily. Of course, the attack he had used on those trespassers from before was just an ordinary moonlight blast combined with sunlight and bane, so it was interesting that it did catastrophic damage to them.
'Why are you bringing this up now? Are you trying to justify your bad writing skills?'
No, I'm trying to tell a coherent story here.
Now, the real issue would be to initialize the sun; he could create a small artificial one as he did before, and that would be the trick, or...
He instead used the sunlight and moonlight to create two orbs of their respective element behind him. Illuminating the nearby area like a beacon.
The result was a vortex-like orb of silver, gold, light, and dark, constantly swirling like a painter trying to mix a very specific color.
Then, he pushed the two towards each other, initiating a merging of sorts, into a symbolic eclipse.
[Title: Demon of the Eclipse, displays its effects.]
With his big ball of silvery golden light successfully formed, William felt a soothing power envelop his body.
'Oh right, almost forgot.' He lit a golden sun in his right eye, giving him a picturesque heterochromia. Call it a healthy bit of showmanship.
Though he ought to know that trying to make yourself look cool on purpose instead really diminishes the effect.
He politely bowed, tucking one leg behind the other, before summoning his trusty trident in a flurry of illusory text, and assuming a combat stance.
The emerald-haired woman smiled before twisting her arm in an alluring manner.
All of a sudden, William and co began to feel an intense feeling of drowsiness.
William formed a knife out of Ingenuity and stabbed his forearm deep enough to have the knife embedded inside. The pain successfully jolted him awake.
While this occurred, the many shadow soldiers began to move in on the small group.
'Now here's the thing, when you're outnumbered in a fight, the last thing you should do is engage in a physical brawl! Which is why...'
He made a shape of a fox with his right hand, placing it over his right eye while he closed his left. In the space between his fingers, the green-haired woman stared at him.
"Chomp."
Suddenly, the shadows around her surged, and a gargantuan wolf head emerged to bite into her; the gnarly sounds of flesh tearing, bones being crushed, and a blood-curdling scream erupted from her general direction.
'You should never do for yourself what you can convince others to do better than you ever could.'
"Xiao Wei, rampage all you can muster," William ordered the large head.
The numerous eyes on the solitary head momentarily flickered over to William as a sign of agreement, before the shadows began to surge once more, and the rest of its gargantuan body emerged from them. A shadowy beast the size of a giant emerged with a hungry expression. It had been quite some time since Xiao Wei, or should I say, Da Wei, had a good meal.
The colossal creature began to unleash its fury on the nearby readers; some unlucky ones were killed by a single swipe, but the vast majority of them weren't that easy.
'Although in terms of strength, Xiao Wei vastly outscales the majority of them, with several anomaly factors such as core abilities, she'd lose in the long run. That is, if she was alone.'
As Xiao Wei drew the attention of just about every shadow soldier in the vicinity, William's group could move in to accomplish their real objective, they moved towards the woods with determination. At least, that's what William's subordinates were up to; he had a different goal in mind.
Besides him, both Fei Kangzhen and Li Jiaojie opted to stay behind and support Xiao Wei in defeating the army.
'I've seen this trope one too many times.'
He ran towards the dismembered top-half of the Reader of Dreams, which had been torn apart by Xiao Wei's surprise attack; however, she remained conscious, for now at least. And that was not going to do.
[Attribute: Monster, is smiling.]
Once he was close, he drowned out the sounds of the outside world, merely staring at the blood flowing out of her carcass.
Except...was it really her corpse?
Taking a closer look, it seemed that the bleeding on the ground was a substitute of sorts. Whether by another Reader's Core ability, or some skill, she managed to evade the cold grasp of death this night.
The real question was where she was now. And to that question, William had an answer come to mind immediately.
'The abilities of the Reader of Dreams shouldn't lend themselves to direct combat, so instead of being directly on the battlefield, she would be puppeteering it from afar, and where their abilities would be most of use. And the place that fulfills that requirement is...
His gaze fell onto the place where the rest of his cohort had gone. As a feeling of dread started to take over.
'I got tricked? Ahh...This woman is really something...' William mumbled in anger, before bolting in the direction his people had gone.
Before that, he made sure to give a bit of a present to the readers, trying to fight Xiao Wei, who appeared to be losing and getting restrained by a ton of core abilities. He saw several ethereal-looking chains, some glowing ropes, and a muffle on her.
[Constructive Criticism has been activated.]
"You lot have some real morals ganging up on a poor, singular cat; it is rather shameful to do this, don't you think? Perhaps a better way of honoring this battle would be to fight this cat one at a time, or else you would all be a bunch of curly-haired baboons, isn't that right?"