Chapter 264 - The Fog of Despair!
Meanwhile, within the fog, Felix and the rest were being led by Johnson while firing off destructive abilities at the trees.
Adam was using his Magma abilities while Noah straightaway raptured trees by single swing with his Ice Mace.
The rest were also doing their part by screaming and shouting provocative sentences.
However, they soon stopped after Johnson informed them that he had felt 90 unique new presence entering the fog.
Without needing Felix's orders, everyone caught each other's hands and started getting led by Johnson into a Fir tree that resembled a Chrismas tree.
They were forced to hold hands since they were barely able to see one meter in front of them. Meanwhile, Johnson's vision wasn't affected in the slightest by his fog.
Thus, he took over the leadership of the team inside the fog.
'We are here.' He said as he knocked on the tree, making everyone notice its position.
He then watched them climb the tree one by one before each branch was holding a member.
'I am going now.' Upon seeing that no one had fallen or something like that, Johnson turned around and sprinted away. He had other tasks to achieve.
'Are you guys ready?' Kenny asked while lying on top of a branch.
'Yes!'..'Yes.'...
The moment he received positive confirmation from everyone, he activated his 2nd active ability *Darkness Shroud*.
Everyone abruptly froze stiffly in their position after getting engulfed in a sphere of darkness. No one dared to move even slightly as they knew that Kenny's ability would be deactivated instantly.
They couldn't afford to be without it as this ability would be their guardian angel against bloodliners with vision abilities.
As long as they remain motionless inside of it, their existence would completely disappear!
However, since it was only a rare tier 1 ability, it had glaring weaknesses.
The first and foremost would be the inability to move or speak. Otherwise, the Shroud would break and reveal those within it.
The 2nd one would be the fact that the darkness shroud was visible!
If this ability were used in daylight, the shroud would appear just like a medium-sized black sphere.
However, inside the fog, where everyone's vision was reduced to the bare minimum, they wouldn't be noticed at all.
The last weakness would be those inside the shroud couldn't see what was going on outside!
They were utterly blinded, just like they were placed in a pitch-black room!
This was the reason why Johnson didn't hide with them. In his fog, he could feel, see, and also avoid any detection ability on him due to his *Fog Camouflage*.
This meant he was almost untouchable inside his fog. It was better to use him as their eyes in the fog instead of keeping him near them.
"He stopped digging the tunnel!"
"Chase him down!"
Two abrupt unique voices resounded loudly in the area and echoed further away. Upon hearing so, Felix informed, 'Walton, that's enough. Most of the teams have been lured inside.'
'Alright, I was getting tired anyway. My throat had gone dry from screaming all by myself.' Walton replied.
'Nicely done.'
'Good work.'
Everyone started praising him for his efforts as they knew that no one would have gotten baited inside the fog without Walton.
All of this due to a combination of his two abilities, *Voice Mimicry* and *Echo Orb*.
*Voice Mimicry* was a passive ability that let him mimic precisely the people's voices that he heard.
Since he knew that he would be fighting against bloodliners, he didn't mind listening carefully to a couple of them and mimic exactly their voices and accents.
Now, he used this library of voices that he learned to lure in those teams! However, since the fog had at least a 200-meter radius, his voice couldn't reach every bloodliner outside the fog.
Thus, he relied on his peak active ability, *Echo Orb*, which creates small orbs of winds that held voices inside and even wind abilities inside!
He created many orbs, which were holding different sentences with different voices.
He then planted them in different places and exploded them periodically, creating flawless chaotic battle scenes that managed to fool everyone.
Well, almost everyone, since William wasn't fooled.
But that was an exception as he was the perfect counter for Walton's abilities.
With that being said, Walton was currently away from the team to take care of those orbs and avoid attracting a group near Felix and the rest.
...
After two minutes or so...
Johnson noticed that the teams were finally getting closer to each other.
Soon...Boom! Boom!...Argh!! Argh!
'That's it, keep fighting.' Johnson grinned at the sight of tens of bloodliners throwing elemental abilities at random.
Some used mini tornados to get rid of the fog, while some tried to evaporate it with fire.
After all, they didn't dare to toggle deep without attempting to clear out their vision. Alas, some of those abilities ended up hitting others who didn't see them coming.
This offset a war inside the fog where every team moved with their backs against each other and hit anyone who wasn't part of them.
In their eyes, it was better to strike first than wait until they get bombarded.
However, the tracker was still their main target, and most of the teams were moving towards the last place where the package was dropped.
Since they couldn't see 'the holder of the tracker' yet, it was much better to secure the package first and start from there.
Otherwise, they would be roaming inside the fog without a purpose, and they couldn't afford to when every second an elemental ability get hurled in their direction.
Thankfully, the trees were taking the brunt of most abilities.
Even if some abilities unluckily landed on a team, there was always a shield placed by the buffer.
If the shield didn't manage to handle the power of abilities, a healer was always placed in the middle of the teams' formation.
This made it somewhat tough to kill each other since the healer was always there to get back in shape.
Johnson, who was looking at all of this happening, didn't seem bothered by it.
He just kept moving inside the fog like he owned the place.
'Johnson update?' Felix asked.
'Three teams are on their way to the package while the others are getting held back by constant fights. So far, I only noticed three corpses.' Johnson sent a message to everyone.
'As expected, everyone is on their tiptoes, making them take a tight defensive stance.' Adam gave out his own input, 'I think we need to be proactive before johnson's energy runs out.',
Everyone agreed with this notion, as their main plan was to wait until the teams killed each other or at least get forced into retreating due to heavy injuries.
But, it was evident that all of the teams took a defensive stance to the next level, retaliating only when provoked instead of entering a free for all battle.
If they kept waiting, the package would be taken from them, which was left untouched due to time constraints.
Even the tracker was still inside!
Worst of all, Johnson's energy was getting drained rapidly by trying his best to sustain this humongous cloud of fog and also keep releasing more from time to time to recover the lost moisture due to the battles.
'Alright, Johnson, please lead us to the biggest cl.u.s.ter of teams.' Felix ordered as he jumped from the tree, revealing himself and the others to the bloodliners with vision abilities. 'Let's try and get rid of them in under two minutes.'
The moment Felix said so, everyone jumped from the tree and entered a tight battle formation. They put the girls in the center while the rest encircled them.
However, they didn't move as they were waiting for Johnson to arrive.
...
'I am here.' The instant Johnson reached the team, he retook the lead, 'Five teams are in my 9 o'clock. The nearest one is only 50 to 60 meters away from us.'
'Move out!'
Felix could clearly see those five teams moving as slow as a snail while throwing abilities once in a while to check around them.
It was clear that those teams didn't have a bloodliner with a good vision ability for this situation.
If they did, they would have been part of those three teams, which were about to reach the package.
This made Felix know that his team was currently invisible in their eyes!
'Activate your abilities.' Felix ordered as he snapped his finger, creating two bloodish red bombs.
He then swiftly made one absorb the other, making it double its size. He wasn't done yet, as he repeated this process trice under one second, creating a three times bigger bomb than his usual one!
However, instead of throwing it out, he waited for Adam to use his *Molten Rocks* on the nearest team.
This was a basic synergy between them, which they trained in the preparation camp.
'Johnson, help me aim.'
Adam requested while standing still with a rain of molten rocks gathered above his head. Since he was blind, He didn't want to throw his ability to hit the trees instead.
'They are currently standing 10 meters in your 11 o'clock. If you threw your ability in that direction 30% or so will probably be blocked by the two trees next to them.' Johnson informed swiftly.
'Thank you.' Polite as always, Adam showed his appreciation by showing full trust in Johnson's aim. He swiftly faced 11 o'clock and hurled those molten rocks with all of his strength!
Whoosh Whoosh!...
The fog was getting evaporated in the air due to the heat emitted by those molten rocks.
However, before the targeted team could comprehend the approaching tens of bright red rocks, they smashed into their glass-like barriers!
Boom! Boom!...
Alas, their tight formation made it easier to get all of them rained upon without exceptions, even though some of the molten rocks had collided with the trees!
Shatter! Shatter!...
The shields weren't strong enough to tank the destructiveness of Adam's ability as they got busted into tiny fragments instantly!
"We are under attack from 5'oclock!"
The captain of the assaulted team was a brown-skinned tall man with bushy eyebrows. Right now, those eyebrows were knitted in nervousness and alarm.
He didn't expect an attack to arrive so fast and hard, leaving them n.a.k.e.d like this without single protection on.
Just as the buffer in their team tried to recreate the shields again, one bloodish red bomb that had a basketball-size came out of nowhere and exploded within their tight formation!
POOOOF!
Immediately after, a cloud of red mist engulfed the entire team, putting them under its effect.
Since no one expected to be hit by poison, they weren't holding their breaths!
Thud! Thud! Thud!...
One by one, they fell to the ground, losing consciousness at once!
Since they would be out for only five seconds, Noah and Nathan stepped in and knocked them clean in the head!
This would leave them unconscious for at least five minutes, making them automatically disqualified by the Queen and marked by her so others wouldn't attack them.
If they did decide to do so, they would be punished by the ESG Organization.
Obviously, the disqualified bloodliners would be punished if they decided to attack someone during their wait for extraction.
Hence, Felix and the rest didn't remain and waste time finishing them off but went for the next team in line, which was the closest to them.
They repeated the same strategy on all of the remaining four teams.
Johnson giving off direction and helping them aim, Adam uses his ability to break off the barriers or shields. Felix followed it with his hypotension bomb, which was enlarged by his *Poison Absorption* Passive to force them unconscious.
Then, Noah, Nathan, and Kenny take it from there.
Team after a team had fallen to this synergy without seeing even the outfits of their assailants!
All of this because they didn't have abilities related to senses, which would have made them notice Felix's team the moment they stepped near them.
This meant, besides having those abilities,?there was absolutely no other counter to The Fog of Despair Synergy!
It was a synergy created in the preparation camp solely to put the team in a favorable environment, where their abilities thrive!