As William stood tall in front of the four pursuers, he would analyze the current situation using Insight. Logging the surrounding area into his brain. Then, he would use the Author's Note to see what kind of abilities they possessed. Since he was rather short on time, he would only scan for their titles to get a gist of their powers.
[Reader of Medicine]
[Reader of Strategies]
[Reader of War]
[Reader of Artillery]
And the one who impaled the young man.
[Reader of Experience]
It seems they were all combat-focused readers, besides the one who appeared to be a healer but looked nothing like one.
William would quickly activate his Descriptive Writing ability.
[Description / Writing has been activated!]
[The surrounding area will be turned into fog of war, where enemies and allies cannot tell each other apart.]
A sea of fog would instantaneously appear in the nearby area. Enveloping anyone and everyone unlucky enough to be there.
With the setup complete, the battle would resume.
[Insight relays the exact image of the battlefield!]
Except for the fact that with his skill, he had the advantage here.
The four men charging at him were in an upside-down 'Y' formation, with the healer at the back. But since they would likely anticipate him targeting the healer, they would have changed their formation to protect them.
Using the Underworld Bident, he would use his long range to his advantage and stab towards the rough direction of where they were. The feeling of piercing through flesh told him that it had found its mark.
"Aargh!"
He would quickly retract the spear like a porcupine and dash into the fog, keeping track of where the group was using his mind.
Inside the fog, William was nearly invisible, or at least he should have been.
As the one who represented War, easily traversed their turf to deliver a powerful blow to William's side, piercing into his ribcage with his sword and sending him flying into a nearby wall, destroying it in the process.
William would gasp for air out of pain; it was as if all neural networks in his mind were momentarily shut off and fried at the same time.
So he lay there bleeding and crumpled on the ground in dust and debris. Which was a good environment for some creative writing, or should I say, speaking?
He'd yell out to them and activate Constructive Criticism.
"You're all just a bunch of ignorant, moronic idiots who choose brawn over brain like a bunch of cavemen."
[Criticism Effects: Intelligence of affected targets decreases heavily, while physical ability increases heavily.]
Because of the two-sided effects of Constructive Criticism, it allowed him to avoid using a large amount of Ingenuity, instead only requiring a small bit to activate the ability and affect the men. This was a clever loophole utilizing the natural balance of this world.
'Is that how it works? Huh, I had no idea.'
You stu-
The effects of the Criticism were instant, as the brawny men would quickly dash in the direction of William after hearing his voice, this time at a near-unavoidable speed, slamming his fist into William's face, crushing his nose in the process.
He'd then yell out in pain.
"Ow! That's prime real estate, man! You can't jus-
He didn't get to finish his sentence as another short sword was promptly thrust into his chest cavity, impaling him.
Or, that's what it would look like at least, because as soon as he thrust his sword, a ravenous shadow appeared immediately to devour it, protecting William from another very painful experience. It was the Moonbeast, Xiao Wei!
Xiao Wei would then latch onto the man's body like a parasite and begin absorbing him into the mass of shadow, bit by bit.
The man would struggle and thrash while yelling in pure agony, terror, and fear. Whilst the great mass of shadow seemed to be having a lovely meal today!
Seeing this, William suddenly had an inkling of an idea on how Xiao Wei could transform into constructs much bigger than they seemed to be. Either way, he was proud of the little guy.
William would cough up blood; he still had four more opponents to deal with and was already in rough shape. He needed to stop hoarding his Ingenuity and use his strongest moves, or he'd likely perish here.
A wisp of Greyish Dark Energy would appear in his left hand, a vortex of destruction.
[Bane of Existence has been activated!]
He'd then channel the Vortex into the Underworld Bident in his other hand and use it cleave a cataclysmic rift in the air in front of him, in the direction of the Brawns.
"Calamity Collapse."
William would come up with a fitting name for the move, though it was rather edgy. Where was I?
Oh, that's right. The wave of pure destruction headed straight for these guys. Though it didn't manage to cause any crippling injuries due to the combined efforts of War and Strategy, which devised a plan to counter his attack using intricate applications of their skills. A worrying sight.
Due to possessing potent destructive power, the Descriptive Writing ability was forcefully shattered in the areas where the Bane of Existence existed. Which would create an island of serenity amongst the fog of war where the three men currently resided.
Now wasn't the time for holding back; it was the time for action, overkill or not. But in the most critical moment, William's mind was purely empty, as if frozen by fear. However, that soft patting on the back snapped him out of it as Xiao Wei had stopped devouring the man and had returned to his shoulder. As William stared at the little creature trying to console him with some indifference, an idea popped into his head. An ingenious one.
'This is a Hail Mary, but we'll both die if this goes on, so how about it? Let's gamble.'
From the perspective of the brawny troupe, a human-like figure cloaked in shadow would hide behind the fog, before twisting and changing into something far more demonic, a massive three-headed beast reminiscent of Cerberus from the Greek Mythos, with heads and a body shaped like wolves and black wings and talons resembling an avian creature. On each of its heads, it had four luminous blood-orange colored eyes, with countless more scattered all throughout its gigantic body.
There was one major flaw with the transformation skill; he needed mass to transform as Xiao Wei did, mass that he did not possess due to being a normal human's size, though he did come up with an intermediary measure of sorts, fusion through the Recorder Skill. Temporarily binding their souls together to form a chimera.
Then, a destructive aura would begin to emanate from the creature. Because William and Xiao Wei were able to share skills, it allowed Xiao Wei to also become a vessel for the symbol of destruction. And destruction it brought.
However, this type of transformation had its flaws, in that the William inside of it went half-mad. As it was a fusion of an animal and a man's consciousness, it was a near mindless beast. And that the transformation cost an absurd volume of Ingenuity, so much so that it could only be maintained for a couple of seconds.
To those who could feel and witness Ingenuity, it was as if the surrounding Ingenuity particles were instantly vaporized, as the chimera of a creature exploded towards the three men. Its eyes invoked fear and respect in all those who saw and were seen by it, stunning the three men in front, who were hopelessly massacred by the devilish abomination.
([Attribute: Monster maintains it's power discreetly!])
[You have obtained 7 Victory Points!]
[You have obtained 2 Victory Points!]
[You have obtained 8 Victory Points!]
Seeing the mauled remains of what used to be human beings, William would have the sudden urge to vomit his stomach's entire contents out, but he'd manage to contain himself.
He'd undo the transformation skill and collapse onto the ground in exhaustion.
This left two men, one who was once more serving as Xiao Wei's breakfast, and the other being the one who impaled the poor kiddo from earlier.
Given that the forces on each side of the battlefield were now relatively even, he'd disable Descriptive Writing's illusion of fog of war.
The area suddenly looked a lot different from before, with blood splattered everywhere, organs, eyes, severed limbs, and an aura of dread. It seemed most other people fled after feeling the demonic existence William briefly became.
The man who stabbed the young man, the Reader of Experience, was standing right in front of him, coincidentally. His eyes widened at the sight of his fallen comrades, who were now a pile of flesh and blood on the floor and food for a shadow monster. By this time, Xiao Wei had finished devouring the other man.
[You have obtained 6 Victory Points!]
'Looks like I got my trope after all.'
"My..comrades..."
"Oh, right, criticism is still active-
The final man would start charging at him full speed, a speed to which William could barely react. He'd be pulled to the side at the last minute by one of Xiao Wei's shadow tendrils, and the man would slam into a concrete wall behind William, completely decimating it without even a scratch.
'Holy...'
William would ready a vortex of Bane in his left hand, ready to fire it at the man at a moment's notice.
Surprisingly enough, the man would emerge with his hands up in surrender and rub his temples after a couple of minutes, which was strange, especially after he witnessed William massacre his comrades.
He'd speak with a deep, gruffy voice.
"Eugh...my head...Where in the hell am I!"
William would tilt his head in confusion
'Did he inflict amnesia on himself?'
"What?"
"I was....Wait...Oh, that's right...I'm so sorry for attacking you! And the little guy over there. I'd be willing to explain if you'd let me! I don't know what got into me. Give me a chance, King of Beasts."
William would look over to the young man; it seemed that the area he was impaled was non-lethal. Though he seemed to be bleeding quite a bit. Then he'd glance down to his own very injured body.
"Right...You wouldn't happen to have a healing ability, would you? I assume that one of the members of your cohort had it."
Instead of answering his question, the man would walk over towards the mutilated bodies of his cohort and point towards something.
"There."
Inside the pile of flesh and blood, there were 3 strange-looking objects resembling pages.