As Hal withdrew his hand from the dead man's chest after having absorbed his blood essence, the leader immediately rallied up the others and they stood together in a tight looking formation to stop Hal from picking them off one by one.

They were not entirely shocked by his display strength.

After all, if they did not expect him to accomplish such a feat shortly after Marla's, then they would be deserving to be called fools.

Hal felt the essence coursing through him and felt the impulse to push for a breakthrough but he quelled it. There was no need to rush.

He turned and saw the formation prepared to attack him. He had to admit that he was flattered they were putting this much effort into putting him down.

If they surrendered, it would have been much too boring and he would have been pissed.

He prepared to dash into their midst, after all, there were only seven late stagers left. However, before he could make a move, the five of them let out a torrent of skills.

All at the Second grade and pressuring down on him.

Looking at the skills rapidly making their wasn't my to where he stood, Hal did not bother attempting to catalog what skills they were exactly.

They were attacking skills and that was all that really mattered.

The men could not help but smile. One skill was enough to hold him down but the pressure of five all at once was bound to not even give him time to think but just to make sure, they sent Cosmic attacks as well.

Hal smiled,

"Third-grade skill: Beetle shell"

A beetle shell-shaped shield materialized in front of him, surrounded by a three-ring circle with one of the rings dimmer than the others.

The shield easily negated the effects of the skills and even reduced the impact of the Cosmic attacks, making it easy for Hal to contend with them with a single Cosmic attack of his.

"What?"

The leader could not help but exclaim but Hal was not done,

"Second-grade skill: Cataclysm"

The skill was not an Area of effect kind of attack, so it merely targeted one of them.

The boulders composed of Cosmic energy rolled out of the two circled ring and went after their target.

It slammed into him and broke several bones in his body...

"Arrrgghh"

...he howled in pain before falling unconscious soon after.

The leader gritted his teeth because somehow he got the message Hal was passing across.

Their formation meant nothing to him.

In that case, they could only return to physical attacks, and while they had tried it already and lost, there was still one card he had to play.

Meanwhile, after Marla had taken care of the three she had targeted with Dark mist, the other four (including the one who had lost the battle of fists against her) took guidance from their elders in the Late stage.

They formed a formation as well and attacked Marla with First-grade skills as well as Cosmic attacks.

They were hopeful they would be more successful than said elders.

Marla had to admire their persistence and would have loved to let things last even just a little longer.

Alas,

She had trouble with conscious limitations of strength and was still not very adept in 'going easy' on others.

With no skills at her disposal and the fact that her Dark mist was not any use in physical defense as they were against mist and auras like itself, Marla was forced to receive the full brunt of the attacks.

Her only form of protection was the illusionary lady around her that had grown even darker since she shrunk to her normal size.

Thereby compressing its energy and giving it more focus.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

The Skills and attacks collided with her and caused an eruption of dust that cloaked her current state.

Her assailants waited with bated breath, hoping that when the dust cleared, her lifeless body would finally be on display.

While they held their breath in anticipation, a dark figure dashed out of the dust cloud at such a speed that could not be tracked by their eyes.

A further testament to the speed of the dark figure was such that, the moment they caught sight of it, the damage was already done.

*Bam!* *Bam!*

Two simultaneously sounding strikes and...

*crack* *crack*

...two simultaneous breaking sounds.

When the others turned to the victims, they found them lying in the ground with their chest caved in and blood trailing from their lips.

They are no longer breathing.

While they observed the lifeless bodies, there was no attack, It was as though the attacker deliberately waited for them to see the death of their comrades.

Marla stood a few distances away and watched the despair in their eyes as they realized how hopeless their situation was and that had been her aim.

What she had not accounted for was their following reaction, for they did not look to be interested in surrendering.

The faces of the surviving two became resolute.

Seeing the resolution, Marla sighed and readied herself to seal the deal but she was shocked to see the two turn around and run away from her.

"Help! Help! Help!!!!"

They yelled as they ran towards their elders for support, unfortunately, the elders were completely occupied and unable to respond to their cries.

Seeing as their last hope was rendered useless, they chanced a glance at the monster that was Marla, who stood in place and tried her best not to burst into laughter.

The two were making it hard for her to control herself with their bug-eyed expression and sweaty faces.

They turned away and ran to pound at the Array in an attempt to escape from within it.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Their action finally caught the attention of the Late stagers whose eyes widened when they saw what the two were up to.

"What are you doing you cowards. Get away from there and kill her!" The leader yelled.

Alas,

Having been ignored in their cry for help, the two had no respect for the leader at that moment.

For now, Survival was more important!

Marla decided to ignore them for now as they continued their futile attempt to break out of the Array.

Instead, she turned her attention to Hal and she could now clearly observe what had kept the leader so occupied that he ignored the two when they called for his help.

He and the others with him were attacking Hal with... Runes.

Numerous binding runes activated one after the other and used to hold him in place.

It was clear that the Leader did not expect the runes to hold him for long and since attacking Hal would reduce the integrity of the Runes, he and the others stayed away from him.

Then the leader withdrew a scroll from his spatial pouch, injected Cosmic energy into it, and activated the Array, trapping Hal within it.

Hal could sense the Array was of Rank 2 quality, obviously the work of one of the other two Runemasters in the city besides Eugene Swanson.

However, there was something about the runes that made up the Array.

Hal recognized them, he had seen them in the Grimoire when purchasing the best set of Runes to use for the Array that now surrounds his newly acquired Estate.

The runes were way too sophisticated to be available to small city Runemasters like the two of them.

He doubted even Swanson, who used to be part of the Astral palace, could make use of it. After all, it was highly unlikely that a Rank 3 Runemaster was allowed access to such powerful Runes.

Also, the way the strokes were made, it was clear that the one who drew it had copied it from somewhere else and did not have adequate knowledge of the Rune.

It was a mere shadow of what it should have been.

Was this related to the Plebeians' mysterious backer?

'I wonder how powerful they are' he mused to Grimoire.

'Most probably, very powerful' Grimoire said.

'Thanks. That was reassuring' Hal said sarcastically.

'I'm just saying, focus on what you're facing right now. You do know what this Array is likely to do to you right?'

Grimoire said and Hal had to admit it was right.

He knew what this Array was for from the Runes that combined to form it and while it was merely a Rank 2 Array that he should have been able to break through easily with his Rank 3 Astral sense, the tunes that formed it were bound to make things troublesome.

"Haha hahaha" The leader laughed loudly as he activated the Array.

"Do you feel it?" He asked Hal proudly.

"I have never used it before but I was told it would sap your Mental health if you are a Rune Master. It would also slowly weaken you physically as well by absorbing the Cosmic energy in your body and dispersing it to the outside. You're screwed!"

The leader laughed some more and Hal could feel the effects of the Array on his mind and body already.

He was finding it difficult to think.

Grimoire did its best to bear some of the effects and give him time to gather his thoughts.

Hal had already decided on a way out before the Array had been activated but he could not think of what it at that moment.

It was quite disconcerting.

Even attacking the Array with Astral energy was proving difficult.

The leader had not known but the Array could negate Astral attacks as well as Cosmic ones, Hal knew thanks to his extensive knowledge of Runes but it only made the situation seem more hopeless.

He could have sworn he knew how to escape, he just could not...

The leader turned to Marla whose fist was clenched as she saw the Late stagers begin to converge around her,

"Haha. How does it feel to see your partner trapped in an array within his Array"

Those words caused Hal's eyes to widen as he grinned widely and stopped attacking the Array.

Instead, he took a deep breath and harnessed Astral energy as best he could, and began to form his own Array.

The sound of its activation made the Leader turn and his eyes widen as he witnessed Hal's work of art.