The people who were previously enjoying the arena match were crammed onto one side.
There was no fear or panic on their faces; instead, they stood excitedly to one side and admired the power of the Tier 2 Advanced Spells, as almost none of them had seen an Advanced Spell in their lives. They were mostly just 'paper' Mana Wielders, except for the few mercenaries and adventurers present.
One of them within the crowd mocked with an expression of schadenfreude, "I don't know who that fool was that picked a fight with Devils Spice, but perhaps that person didn't know the true strength of this place. Only the City Lord holds power greater than Devils Spice; otherwise, it's the strongest force within Batley City and its surroundings!"
Though there were Mercenary and Adventurers Guilds, these guilds were not a singular or united organization like Devils Spice.
Hearing this, another man laughed with glee, "That ignorant fool just poked a beehive. He is dead before we can even enjoy a full show; what a pity!"
"Haha, pathetic! I wonder if his face is still intact. I want to see his face and laugh every day!" a young woman ridiculed.
"Today is really fantastic within Devils Spice. The mortals' battle, though, was amusing and interesting; this is what I really want to see in the underground wrestling matches!"
"That's true. These spells and their powers are truly mind-blowing. I only feel endless worship and respect toward these mages and Devils Spice as a whole. They are the true powerhouses!" a young noble said with admiration.
A female Mana Wielder beside the young noble, who was also his lover, giggled, "That's right! This power! Just seeing this is getting me wet. I wonder if those mages are available to purchase for one night."
The young noble stared at his lover speechlessly, thinking, 'At least don't say that in the open; as the man who arrived together with you, where's my self-respect?!'
A young petite girl, who was very pretty but just at Rank 1, said with pity, "I don't know who the person who was entirely covered up was, but he looked tall and had a great physique; I wonder if he can survive?"
All the men and women around the petite girl couldn't help but laugh wildly upon hearing her naive words.
One muscular man not far from the petite girl slapped his thighs, with tears nearly coming out of his eyes. He laughed, "Haha, that's the funniest joke I've heard in years. Each one of those spells is deadly enough to half-kill, if not completely kill, a late-stage Rank 3! Three spells together, and that fool took it all head-on like a brain-dead idiot. I doubt even a tiny piece of his flesh will be left behind!"
The others nodded in agreement.
They looked forward to seeing the devastation that those spells would leave behind. None of them had any expectation of the troublemaker surviving; they just wanted to enjoy the destruction.
As the dust slowly started to settle, all the Rank 3s on the scene flinched, followed by the Rank 2s, and then the Rank 1s. Soon, it was clear for even the mortals to see.
They all went silent, their eyes slowly widening and their faces turning pale.
The cloaked man was completely unharmed; not even his cloak was damaged. The man stood exactly where he was and hadn't even taken a step backward; even his arms looked as if they hadn't moved an inch. However, the area surrounding him was completely devastated, with nothing remaining intact; it was wrecked and ravaged, and even the door and the pathway behind him had collapsed.
And the most inconceivable thing was that the massive ground pillar spell was stuck in midair as if it were afraid to move even a centimetre closer to the cloaked man; it didn't even dare to fall down!
Suddenly, the pillar moved and was hurled right back at the three mages with tremendous speed.
Before the three mages could even recover from their shock, all of them were smacked and flung away, with blood gushing from their mouths.
Seeing this, the eleven warriors didn't have the time to remain dazed and charged using their full strength. They swiftly imbued their weapons with mana for greater offensive power and pounced at Eric, using various skills that they could execute with their weapons.
However, before they could even arrive within five meters of Eric, one by one they started blowing up into blood and flesh, as if there were explosives packed inside each of them.
Before all the Rank 3 warriors could even realize what had struck them, eight of them had died gruesomely; only three remained.
The three halted and felt their skin chill with uncontrollable horror; their faces turned ghastly pale instantly.
They didn't hesitate even for a moment, turned, and bolted toward the stairway at their fastest speed.
'This is definitely a demon!' all three of them screamed inside their minds.
It was not something a human was capable of doing! Even Lord Gideon needed to make some movement to kill so many of them, but the cloaked man didn't even lift a single finger! And all of them exploded as if just a thought from the cloaked man was enough to kill every single one of them. This battle was not something Apprentice Ranks like them could participate in. This man, this power, this battle, was at least of Master Rank! It was not something Devils Spice could handle!
Unfortunately, before the three could take their second step, a huge force suddenly came from both their sides, and all three of them collided together like a pancake and exploded into a blood mist.
The entire time it took to kill all the warriors was less than five seconds; by then, the previous three mages had barely managed to stand up. They, in a flash, realized just what kind of entity they had picked a fight with. This was not a battle that they should participate in or should even be allowed to come close to. But they had already fired three devastating spells at the man. They knew talking was useless, and they wouldn't even realize when they died if they were out in the open. So, pushing their limits, they charged and jumped behind where over a thousand Mana Wielders had massed together.
Eric slowly turned his head toward the crowd, who had already gone completely mute and whose faces were so pale it looked as if their blood had abandoned them out of fear. Almost all of them had pissed their pants without even realizing it. They now fully understood the man's true 'identity' and just whom they had been laughing at a few moments ago.
This was a true demon from hell!
When Eric turned to them, they felt their souls flee, leaving their cold bodies alone to face the demon.
Eric didn't utter a word and slowly but steadily started walking toward the crowd.
The crowd felt their hearts dropping into an endless abyss. All of them, whether they were Mana Wielders or mortals, started quivering as if they were standing naked within a blizzard.
But a few totally drunk and courageous Mana Wielders leaped and bawled, "Fear not, brothers and sisters! There are over a thousand of us, and the demon is all alone. Justice shall prevail!"
"Justice shall prevail!" a lot of them roared to bolster their morale and regain strength in their cold bodies, which simply wouldn't stop shaking.
"Let's attack together!" another man boomed.
The previous drunk and heroic ones hollered one after another and charged toward Eric with the intention of delivering their most powerful strikes with their weapons.
Seeing their courage and valor, many felt their souls returning, and warm blood started coursing through their veins again. A feeling of 'unity is strength' bloomed inside their hearts.
Following them, a few more leaped and charged toward Eric to attack.
Those few people's brains remained frozen and hadn't yet caught up with reality; their minds still hadn't fully digested the previous display of bloody carnage. Even though their bodies understood, their brains refused.
Eric wasn't bothered by the heroes' courageous act and kept striding toward the crowd. His eyes were locked onto the previous three mages, who were trying to calm their breath while mixing into the mass.
The moment those people arrived close to Eric, all of them started popping as if they were mere water balloons exploding; but instead of water, what gushed out was deep red blood and gore.
Those who were motivated by 'unity is strength' and were already charging toward Eric came to a screeching halt. Their previous fiery spirit froze, and their expressions started to change drastically. They suddenly realized that 'unity is strength' definitely felt fantastic, but they who had charged bravely would be the first to pop into a bloody mess.
Before they could finish regretting, all of them met with the same fate—turned to blood, bones, organs, and so on.
None of them present on the scene had ever seen such gruesome deaths or a bloodbath in their lives, even within the arena. When it was on the stage, they enjoyed it, but when it was pointed toward them, all their joy and pleasure in seeing blood and violence evaporated, and only horror and nightmare remained.
It was not that they hadn't seen the three mages jumping behind them, but to them, Devils Spice was justice while the cloaked man was evil, so they believed they weren't wrong in trying to protect the mages. On the other hand, the cloaked man was clearly a psychopath, and the way he killed with just his thoughts clearly demonstrated that this was a man who wouldn't hesitate to mass-slaughter indiscriminately.
Hence, they subconsciously sided with the three mages of Devils Spice and didn't give much thought to the fact that if they just silently gave way, the cloaked man probably wouldn't harm them.
All the Mana Wielders who hadn't had the courage to attack previously felt their consciousness would fly at any moment due to fright. The few mortals present had already lost their senses and had fallen to the ground; whether they had died from scare or had just fallen unconscious, no one knew, but no one had the guts to try their luck by lying flat on the ground to see if they could survive by playing dead.
At this moment, as if they had truly awakened to 'unity is strength', they all turned and madly dashed toward the stairs to escape this hellish underground. They acted with such unison that people would wonder if they were all actually a single shared-brain organism.
The previous three mages knew that the only way to survive was also by escaping. So they smoothly blended into the sprinting crowd and bolted toward the exit.
Eric had long locked onto the three mages' positions, so he blinked beside them, and before they could even register what had happened, all of them blew up one after another, just like every other Mana Wielder who had tragically died that night.
The surrounding crowd squealed like pigs about to be butchered and charged crazily toward the stairs, pushing and shoving others away, trying their best to be faster than their loved ones, friends, or whoever.
Eric paused and looked around for a moment; he found that there were quite a few space pouches lying everywhere. He decided to be generous and gave the pitifully scared souls some time to escape from such a depressing place, and started picking up the free loot.
He took his time, mainly because... of the following that would follow.