His words landed, and all the great masters around got speechless. They couldn't help but turn their eyes around, looking at all the devastation William caused by his technique, all the dead monsters around, and the wounded masters who didn't know what to say.
They wanted to shout at this youngster: Are you blind? Is all this, not enough? But with a silent gaze from Sloth, they all went into silence, didn't say anything.
Sloth felt the urge William had. He watched this youngster for long enough to know he wasn't delusional or some lunatic who was obsessed with perfection or something.
He knew William was aware of the current might of his technique. And if he said it wasn't enough in an indirect way, then it meant there must be a good reason for him to say so. And they had to endure the upcoming deadly scale of techniques William was going to unleash.
William went and checked on his friends and his two teams, and was relieved that none was killed or suffered heavy wounds. He handed them all potions and elixirs, letting them heal and help their team members to heal as well.
At the same time, the great masters also did the same to the ones they brought with them. When everyone did that, they all noticed something. The batch that William selected, the one team which released their techniques before, didn't suffer a single speck of harm at all!
It felt like they weren't here when the explosion happened. "This is weird…" Many masters were positive that these masters were the closest to the explosion, and they didn't have time to help these weaker masters. So seeing them fine and harmless like this was a real mystery.
But they didn't think too much about it. The entire army of masters marched again towards the area of the explosion, and there they could see for themselves the true might and fear of these techniques.
Saying there was a hole in the ground was an understatement! It felt like a god punched the ground, and pierced through it, creating a very deep hole that extended for hundreds of metres! Seeing this and recalling what William said made the formidable masters turn to William, and glare at him as if they were seeing a monster!
William didn't stand there like everyone, went around that hole and examined everything. He even climbed down, risking his safety, and reached the deep bottom there.
"Amazing! The technique isn't fully synchronising the techniques I used before, and yet it reached such a degree…"
In front of him, the bottom and the close parts of the rocks around were shimmering under a myriad of different lights. It looked the same as the colour of the ball that exploded before. And that meant his attack didn't end by that explosion and was leaving a trace that seemed as if it was alive.
It was a testimony to how high this technique's grade was, reaching the stage of semi-immortal. In this stage, the techniques would leave behind a part that would linger around the target, and keep damaging it for a long time.
If the technique would last until it'd eat the target up and kill it, then it'd reach the eternal stage. And that was a legendary stage, one that William never heard of anyone reaching before. Just one hit and the target would die eventually. And that would make anyone look like a true god!
He examined the rocks at the surface and those forming the walls of this deep hole. It was clear the technique had a corrosive nature, plus a decaying effect.
The rocks didn't just get destroyed, but it felt like it aged by lots of time. There was already a weird layer of dust over these rocks, one that could be blown and turn into dust, eating away great parts of these rocks.
"I now see why all the monsters died… But we didn't suffer from such a unique effect… Why?" he was puzzled, but happy as well. If this effect touched the old masters in the army, then they'd all die in the end!
This didn't happen as the masters who unleashed the techniques in the first place shielded everyone. But William decided to not experiment again until everyone was away and safe. He'd let those who released the techniques hang close and would try to dash a little bit away before releasing the final form of the technique.
"How is it down there?" When he returned to the surface, he was met with many questions from the old masters. They tried to scan this hole, and yet failed. Their spirit senses couldn't even touch the hole, and they had to use their eyes to see. The bottom looked pitch dark, and they couldn't tell what was happening down there.
"It's all good," William paused, looking around before adding, "next time you'll draw back, all of you, including the formidable masters as well."
"Us?!!!" Every one of those old masters looked at each other in doubt and confusion, "why?" Sloth spoke on their behalf, and William didn't intend to explain anything.
"Just trust me on this, if you highly value your lives, don't come closer, ok?"
"This…" The tone and attitude he showed were enough to make everyone know he wasn't lying. But as he never explained anything, and they couldn't guess what was down there to make him say these words, they kept talking about it among themselves for a long time later.
The only good news about this technique was that not a single monster dared to come to them for six hours! They marched in peace, arranged their lines, shared their experience about what happened, and healed themselves.
They used this peace to recuperate, then pick up pace towards their destination. They shared valuable intel about the monsters each faced, and how to better kill them and evade their attacks.
William listened and didn't speak or share in this talk. He was busy thinking about the technique, and how to perfect it.
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