Within the blink of an eye, they had grown so much that their clothes almost ripped apart on the spot. And just when Hao Xuan they were done, a slew of weakening curses attacked his body.
Hao Xuan looked towards the culprit Olav who had his eyes closed while reciting a mantra under his breath. There was a swirling well of indistinct black figures surrounding him. These figures didn't have any distinct features other than a pair of bright red eyes.
Their bodies looked like they were composed of ash and smoke. They flew circles around Olav for a few seconds until he stopped chanting and opened his eyes, staring right into Hao Xuan's.
"Him!" he whispered to them.
All of them stopped in their tracks before shooting towards Hao Xuan who couldn't move right now. One by one over twenty of them came up to him and disappeared inside his body.
Hao Xuan felt a cold chill go down his spine and the color unwittingly drew from his face. He felt so incredibly weak that lifting even an eyebrow felt like an impossible task.
The change in his appearance or more importantly, expression, did not go unnoticed by Leona and the other Orcs.
Leona smiled and commented loud enough that everyone heard her, "3"
The handicap had run out. Without wasting a moment Hao Xuan channeled some of the Chaos Qi through his body and managed to regain a fraction of the power back. He raised his hand and the Glaive appeared within his grasp.
It hummed loudly upon sensing the danger Hao Xuan was in. He raised it above his head readying to bring it down at his feet when Leona waved her hand to give another signal. She was waiting for just this moment.
Gamil who had been a silent observer until now finally made a move. He raised both his hands and thrust forward with a heavy whooshing sound. The glaive that was on the verge of exploding with power froze mid-swing.
Hao Xuan couldn't move it even an inch. His eyes widened from shock, from genuine surprise. The glaive was refusing to obey him, HIM! And then he recalled what Gamil's ability was, to understand weapons and armor from inside out.
If he could understand them, he could control them at least to a degree. But obviously, this kind of power did not come easily.
Gamil's forehead was doused in sweat within the first couple of seconds and he shouted towards Arthur.
"GET READY!"
He then proceeded to make a grasping motion and pulled his hands back. The glaive slipped out of Hao Xuan's grasp like an eel and landed swiftly into Arthur's as if it was his all along.
Arthur twirled the glaive in the air a couple of times before it started humming again.
Hao Xuan felt like laughing. They had taken his own weapon and were intending to use it against him. His lips arched into a smile. The situation was hilarious. Truly hilarious.
'The…GALL!'
But they still weren't done. Leona who was keeping a close eye on Hao Xuan nodded towards Malina.
Malina whirled her wand a couple of times to cast another spell. This time she didn't even have to say anything. A cloud of black smoke appeared out of thin air and surrounded Hao Xuan completely.
Leona leaned towards her and spoke in a low voice, "Are you sure it will work?"
Malina nodded, brimming with confidence.
"All his senses are cut off. He won't be able to see anything within the cloud, neither judge distance nor time. But I can't keep it up for long, you best finish this now."
"…."
Leona looked towards the swirling mass of smoke and dust, thinking of what she had said to her comrades just moments ago in the viewing platform.
**
"I can do it. Let me take the lead, I promise we can beat him. We HAVE to. That is the only way he will take us seriously. He might be our savior but we need to show him that we are not some helpless slaves he can order around whenever he wants. We need to earn his respect!"
"But what if it doesn't work?" one of the many others surrounding her asked.
She looked towards the speaker with an unflinching gaze, "You know my ability. It might not be as strong in direct combat but with this plan, it will work. He won't even know what happened, trust me!"
**
"LEONA!" Malina shouted to wake her from her daze, "Are you ready?"
Leona took a deep breath and nodded.
"As much as I can be. Remember, you can't hesitate okay?" she looked towards Arthur and the others who were waiting for her.
"I can probably only keep him busy for half a minute at most. The moment he realizes what is happening I will be pushed out so you have to make him kneel before then. His body will be the same but his mind will be lost in my illusion. Don't hold back."
Leona's ability was a strange one. She could trap the souls and spirits of other people in an illusion, or rather a lucid dream. Just by meeting her gaze they would be sent into the depths of their subconscious mind where their most primal fears would come true, the ones that even they had forgotten about.
They wouldn't even know what was happening until it was too late.. She used the victim's own mind to play with them.
