Time was ticking, and what was once one minute was less than ten seconds. Mr. Alfonsi had hoped to deal with all of his enemies in that time frame, but with the inclusion of the three girls, the balance had tipped just enough that his foes were able to survive his ability to bring out the clones.
Most people in his shoes would begin to frown at their inevitable doom, but he laughed.
He found it amusing just how entertaining these people were.
"Entertain me more! Entertain me more! Dance! Dance!" the real Mr. Alfonsi screamed as he began attacking with his swords recklessly, no longer caring about defending his body, focusing entirely on trying to kill the person before him.
His clones also mimicked his actions.
Ten seconds was extremely short, but for someone who no longer cared about their own safety or how much star energy they had left, those ten seconds were the equivalent of a bomb going off.
"Oh crap! He's being really reckless with his attacks now! Everyone, don't die!" Quinn yelled.
'I can't die here! I can't die here! I have to get back to my wife! I have to get back to my child!' Kevin screamed in his mind.
Don't forget, he doesn't even have a kid yet. This kid is completely hypothetical.
Ernit continued to support the poor man as he desperately tried to parry all the attacks.
A variety of star abilities were shooting throughout the room. No one was holding back anything anymore.
"Ahhh! Help!" Peneri screamed. Maya came in just in time to redirect the sword.
"Step back," uttered Maya. She stood no chance against this man this close up, but she had to try. She had Grace by her side, and the two of them needed to protect not only their necks but also the neck of Peneri whose support was keeping the exchanges relatively balanced.
"Hahahaha! You're one strong girl! How is it you're getting sharper with each second?!"
A clone of Mr. Alfonsi was starting to lose its mind from how much fun it was having dancing with Diana.
'Blood. Blood.'
Diana gulped as she formed a thick layer of ice on her right forearm. She pushed against it with her left palm and was able to brace against the attack that sent her sliding a little bit as the ice shattered.
'Blood. I want blood. No. No. No no.'
"NO!" she screamed as she leaped backwards and crystallized ten ice shards in the air and sent them all flying at the clone.
Ten seconds. That's all this was. And yet, it felt like it was lasting at least a minute.
Bell was being pushed to the absolute brink. He was at his limit. His senses could only keep up with the speed so much. There was a delay in the usage of his star ability, and he was running out of energy to activate it.
Did he bite off more than he could chew?
Should he have brought more people along?
Was it arrogant and wrong of him to wish that Mr. Alfonsi had popped up today rather than staying at the academy?
No.
There was zero regret in his eyes. His mind did not falter for one second, even as he stumbled backwards, avoiding the attacks by mere millimeters.
If it were twenty seconds, he could sense that his entire group would be wiped out, but this was ten seconds. Ten measly seconds.
No one is going to die. That is what he thought to himself. No one. Not even him.
His brow glistened with sweat as he was being pushed further back.
Thud.
Unknowingly, he had been pushed all the way to the wall. His back was against it. "It" being the wall, but at the same time — it was also death.
'I got too much to do. Can't afford death today,' he thought as he stomped.
His Archaic Code activated. The code he had acquired a long time ago. The code he had been saving up uses ever since the day it became his, marked by the black space "1" on his left rib section.
Bell didn't think that he would be using it so soon but there was nothing wrong with using what he had at hand, even if it was intended for someplace else. A bad habit many gamers in his old world had was that they would collect all these items and consumables but never use them because they wanted to save them for later.
Yet before that time could come, they end up dying to an inferior enemy because of their inability to adapt and judge whether or not to use the things they were saving up.
Controlling the path and how wide it was, Bell shot out a tsunami-like wave of tree roots that attacked the clone, trapped him under, and tore into his flesh as if they were bloodthirsty hyenas.
'What in the world is that?' Grace wondered.
Did that come from Bell?
How was that even possible?
She was taught when she was little the powers of the Familial Gods that every noble in the city followed. The lesson that lasted the longest was about the Agnus family and Solmire, an Inner God that was ranked at 32.
She had been wondering this entire time why she hadn't seen any signs of Solmire's skill tree from Bell, but eventually chalked it up to being out of energy prior to her arrival in the basement.
But House Agnus wielded the element of fire and the occasional lightning once the follower gets higher up the tree.
This was neither of that. This was wood. An element completely unrelated to their god.
Perhaps she was wrong. Maybe that masked person who just created that wave of tree roots wasn't Bell. Maybe Bell was some other masked person.
But no. That also couldn't be right. She saw him put on the black mask earlier.
Knots were forming inside her brain.
She couldn't think about it for long because she had to return her mind to the enemy in front of her.
Lucky for her, not even two seconds later, the clone disappeared as a portal appeared behind it and a large shadowy hand grabbed the clone, pulling it through before closing up.
The real Mr. Alfonsi, the only one left, his eyes widened.
Even as he was pressuring Quinn with nonstop attacks, a part of his focus had turned to the masked student over there.
"What a powerful attack! Why didn't you use it earlier?!" he asked.
Bell didn't answer.
Everyone in the room pressed their attacks, coming at Mr. Alfonsi from every angle.
He knew that death was coming but he didn't care. He wanted answers. He was curious about the man with a black mask.
"I don't recall any student at the academy capable of such an attack," he pondered as a dagger entered his shoulder blade.
His body suddenly felt heavier and he was unable to block as a sword separated his arm from his torso.
"Answer me! Please! I need an answer," he begged as he collapsed to his knees.
He had no energy left. That last burst from earlier with his clones had consumed what little star energy was left in his body.
He could've put up a bigger fight but he didn't. Instead, he raised his remaining arm in the air, indicating surrender.
Everyone stopped attacking him, but did not let their guard down. They kept their weapons and abilities prepared to kill the man as soon as he showed any sign.
Even though no one said anything, everyone turned their head to the black mask man at the same time, awaiting his decision — even Diana. Her attention was different than the rest though; she was trying to suppress her thirst a lot at the moment, and his neck seemed like the perfect target.
She wanted to drink. Drink enough of his blood until he was dead, dehydrated to the bones.
Just as her foot took a step towards him on its own, her hand was grabbed by Peneri.
"What are you doing?" Peneri whispered.
Pulled back from the trance that she was in, Diana shook it off and turned her attention over to Mr. Alfonsi.
"Answer me. Answer me! I need to know! What's your identity? Who are you? It's not like it'll matter. Who am I going to go and expose it to? I'm about to die. Come on, do this poor teacher a favor and tell me. I'll even deactivate my ability to bring you guys back to the real world. If I die without turning it off, you will all be stuck here."
Bell ignored all of the questions that were being fired his way. Perhaps if he hadn't read the novel, he would've been deceived by the lie at the end there.
Actually, everything coming out of Mr. Alfonsi's mouth was a lie.
Looking at Quinn who was awaiting his command, Bell pointed at his neck with his index finger and slid it across.
"Got it."
Grace panicked and screamed, "Wait don't kill him! We're going to be stuck—"
SLICE!
Thud! Thud. Thud.
"What did you do? What did you just do?! You idiot! How are we going to get…"
Grace had more she wanted to say. She was even close to saying his name out loud which was going to expose the fact that she had followed them but she didn't care. She had to get her grievances out.
But before she could do that, their surroundings began to crack like glass just like before. The cracks grew and when they shattered, they were back in the real world.
"...He was lying?" Grace uttered.
"Of course he was lying," Peneri chuckled, pretending to have known even though she was just as nervous, if not more nervous than Grace was when Bell had ordered Mr. Alfonsi's death.
"How did you know? Did you just guess?" Grace asked.
"Enough with the questions," Quinn said.
Just as he was about to pick up the dead body, evidence that he needed to erase so that his master wouldn't get in trouble, the body began to disappear on its own.
"What the…"
"Where did he go?"
Everyone in the basement was confused. Everyone except for Bell.
Bell knew since the very beginning that Mr. Alfonsi was nothing more than a clone. A clone of the real Mr. Alfonsi. A clone that was vastly weaker than the real body. VASTLY.