16 - 6 Seconds

While the one-sided massacre was taking place outside the castle, a particular someone was on his toes excitedly watching the events unfold.

"Beautifully executed!!!" Alzeius's eyes were on fire as he was looking at the cards his new general played out. In the beginning, he was just planning to test the "new guy", waiting for him to run back and ask for his help. He never imagined that the situation would turn out like this.

However, he was more interested in what Zex would do next. After all, he sensed that the remaining two heroes were not to be trifled with. Even he would have trouble winning over the two if they worked together.

"I hope you don't die too fast!" Alzeius said while keeping a smile on his face, clearly enjoying what he was seeing.

…

Meanwhile, a significant distance away from Castle Nalva, two men were riding horses at full speed.

"WHAT??? Falna and Brius are dead?" One of the men, Hevan yelled in dire shock after receiving a mental message from the keeper at Grimley Castle. He was wearing a leather tunic and had multiple throwing knives sheathed on his chest and his thighs. On his back was a huge repeating crossbow but didn't have any dart quiver.

The other man whose name was Caylin wore a grave expression as he replied: "We should make haste."

Caylin held two gigantic curved blades on his back and his face was covered by a mask and a hood, only revealing his eyes. He wore black cloth armor with thick rings of thread interlocked all over like chainmail made of hair.

"Can we even make it? Fuck!" Hevan complained in his heart. When news of Edge's death reached them, they were already on their way back from a mission. However, they immediately turned around and have been rushing to where Drago's party was for two days now since the order to reinforce was given.

Caylin judged that it would still take a day before they reached the castle.

He closed his eyes to consider forcing the horses and making their way on foot the rest of the journey. When Hevan saw this, he knew what his partner was thinking right away as he went silent and prayed for Drago and Arissef to survive before they got there.

...

There were still 15,003 people alive on the clearing outside Castle Nalva's gate.

However, the 15,000 soldiers who were just human knew they would only be a burden to the 2 people who were fighting a single opponent. They were clenching their fists as they stood in place outside the danger zone, feeling helpless.

6 seconds.

It took only 6 seconds for a single person to kill 5,000 soldiers who were experts at dealing with demons including 2 heroes who survived countless wars. If the rest of the 15,000 were gathered on the same spot as them, they would most likely have suffered the same fate.

Even Ariseff could not cast a spell that would accomplish the same feat. To put it bluntly, he could kill more than 5,000 normal soldiers with a single spell if they stood still, but having to also kill 2 heroes on the level of Brius and Falna within 6 seconds or even longer was an impossible feat for him. He was a pure human blessed with relatively overflowing mana. He was not blessed by the elements like the Elves, nor was he born with outstanding control of mana like Demons, nor did he have the bloodline of a Dragon to be able to cast pseudo forbidden spells like what the person they were facing did. No matter what level of ability he had in magic, what killed Brius and dealt the most damage to Falna were physical attacks and attacks that were delivered with speeds a normal human could not hope to achieve.

To be fair, if it was the Zex of 2 days ago, Arissef could have killed him with that [Meteor Spell] but that was him at LVL 10, even if he had the high base stats from being of the demon race. Yet now, they were facing a LVL 118 Zex with the broken growth rate and passives from the [Lord of Evil] and [Agent of Death] classes. Even the Tier 4 Combination Spell [Meteor] reinforced with damage-up spells could not take out half of Zex's health if he just stood there. After all, the greater the area of effect, the lower the damage it deals to individual targets, just like how a book falling flat on an ant is not necessarily as effective as its edge falling on it. That is a law in games derived from physics in reality.

To deal proper damage to Zex, Arissef needed more focused spells. However, the more focused they are, the more accurate they need to be, just like how it is easier to hit the bullseye of a dartboard with a huge rock than it is with a dart. That was the reason why in their party, all of them had restriction and zoning abilities while most of the soldiers in the detachment gave different kinds of support in battle. The harder the opponent was, the more restriction and support was needed.

Unfortunately, there were only two of them left. Moreover, aside from restricting the opponent, Drago would need to tank the attacks of their opponent while also dividing his attention into protecting him.

Aside from that, Arissef did not forget about the dense mana emanating from the being deep inside the castle.

The operation was bound to fail!

Escape was already a difficult enough task unless reinforcements came which he was sure was on the way.

'STALL!!!' This was the conclusion Arissef made in his head after thinking about the situation for a second.

Yes. A second. He was not only a very strong mage, he was born with a hyperactive mind. A mind that operates abnormally fast, that in normal situations, he needed to focus on his mana breathing or else the thoughts running rampant in his head would drive him crazy. He had no talent in magic. He pursued the art solely to have the complexity of its operations occupy his mind. This innate ability of his allowed him to cast multiple spells at the same time. Unlike those who trained their minds to split between several operations, he trained himself to do so to keep his mind busy.

Therefore, within the same second, he was able to cast multiple buff spells on himself, and Drago specifically catered to need. This strategic and tactical ability, paired with his large arsenal of spells from various disciplines including those of the light element also known as the holy element, allowed him and his party to successfully hunt and kill Demon Lords time and time again, eventually granting him the title of Demon Slayer.

Drago, on the other hand, had an astute mind but mostly due to combat experience. It was only after he received the specific buffs from Arissef that he understood the course of action the Archmage wanted them to take. With that, he backed off quite a distance from his opponent, making sure that Arissef was in his range of protection.

In contrast to their calculated and cautious movements, Zex stood at the same spot as if waiting for something.

After another second of silence, Zex spoke in a mocking tone: "If you are this afraid, shouldn't you take this more seriously?"

The next moment, he lifted his hand and a dense blade aura manifested on it which then transformed into throwing daggers just as he clenched his fist.

'Edge!' Both Drago and Arissef recognized the technique just as Zex threw the daggers at a certain pile of corpses.

'Boom!'

The daggers exploded the moment they came into contact with the pile of corpses which were thoroughly disintegrated by the blast, revealing 2 large chests.

Drago and Arissef, even in such a situation, never looked away from their opponent. Their combat experience was alerting them to the danger that if they looked away for even a second, their life would have been lost.

Of course, Zex knew he could not do so. Their senses were just telling them that because he had been unleashing his killing intent the moment he killed Falna. This was a technique that he learned from Edge as he was keeping him alive called [Deadly Intimidation]. He was a fan of a certain vigilante who wore a bat costume in his previous life and learning this technique overjoyed him greatly. [1] Now, he could not help but grin as he found out that it worked even against hero levels.

The downside to this technique was that it needed certain conditions to be met before it could take effect.

First, the sudden change of environment. This was accomplished as he triggered the infusions he hid all around the clearing. With his [Mana Control] reaching the Master level, he was able to infuse non-living objects and cast spells from them through the use of magic formations, a higher scale and form of magic circles. He was able to pull these off thanks to his understanding of the cast requirements of the spells and mixing in his knowledge of formations that he learned from Edge and his crew.

Second, bring unease and create tension. The sudden mana fluctuations were meant to be sensed by Arissef as they were simply there to play him like a fiddle. With the Archmage focused on the mana surrounding them, and everybody on guard, the tension would arise if nothing happened for a while.

Third, doubt. When the initial fear subsides, some will then begin to subconsciously relax and doubt that there was any danger at all. In the case of the soldiers, and those who rely on Arissef's senses, they would begin to lose their initial alertness over time. As this happens, those in command will have their minds on the potential enemy and spare a bit of their focus on their men to check if there are any lapses in the formation due to complacency. This was the best time to strike.

Fourth, killing the chicken to warn the monkeys. An example, per se. The more important the figure and the louder the action, the better the effect. Every gamer knew that the best target of assassination is someone who relies on range. Brius, who could not sense his presence, filled that role perfectly.

Zex already infiltrated the troops near Brius a lot earlier than expected with his [Disguise] skill perfected. Using another technique he learned from Edge was the [Art of Misdirection]. When the time was right, Zex activated the magical formation hidden within the surrounding objects which distracted Arissef from noticing him approach Brius silently, allowing him to take the life of the hero by using [Reaping Strike] and all of the assassination enhancing skills he learned from Edge.

Fifth, stand your ground and survive the retaliation. This is the hardest step since not many assassins can hold their own against many people, especially in such a situation where there were 3 heroes close to where he was. However, it was precisely that fact that made him activate his spells in advance.

Killing Falna was a bonus and did enhance the effect of [Deadly Intimidation]. He brought out all of the skills he had in his kit and was ready to fight 1 against 3. It just so happened that Falna's HP was hanging by a thread after his barrage, which attracted the final effect of [Reaper's Descent].

When Arissef and Drago looked at the man in front of them, it was like they were facing Death himself. Who wouldn't feel that way? The [Agent of Death]'s subclass abilities were exactly manifestations of Death's prowess and Zex used them perfectly in just 6 seconds.

[1] Just in case you didn't know: it was Batman.