Several minutes ago, while Su Mian was cautiously heading towards him, William's original goal had already been completed. The purpose of creating so many defenses and attacking with the Starmetal Cannon was entirely to split up the group and reduce the number of enemies he had to fight simultaneously.

Of course, that also includes the team with the Array Masters. No matter how he handled Su Mian's three groups, the fourth would either act as a timely reinforcement or deliver a message to their home base. Either way was a bad result for William.

Worse yet, while he wasn't concerned about the Array Masters reverse engineering his amplifiers, William would rather keep their purpose hidden as long as possible.

So while Su Mian's group thought William was standing by idly, he was actually recovering Mana and using the Sound Element to listen to their conversations. At their distance and considering even kids from the Filem Academy were sometimes able to detect his eavesdropping, William had to be extremely careful.

But to his amazement, since the amplifiers could detect the usage of specific Elements in the area, he discovered there were only two Sound Mages in the assassins' formation, both of which he targeted earlier.

Since the two threats were already eliminated, William was able to carefully listen in to the scattered ambient soundwaves, picking up partial messages that hinted at the assassins' next moves.

And since the Array Masters were in extremely close proximity to an amplifier, William was able to track their movements in real time. When the assassins were attacking themselves through his expertly-placed portals, he had already begun to set up traps for the Array Masters to deal with.

With a mix of Illusion and Curse Magic, plus some Arrays, William used his locator to modify the amplifiers remotely once more. Nested deeply within the Array Formations was now a Tier 6 Array of Mind Curse, which would reduce one's mental strength and decrease their intelligence the longer they spent inside the Array's range.

Of course, it was impossible for the range of this Array to match that of the amplifier's with William's current level of mastery, but a few thousand meters was enough. Even if he could allow the Array of Mind Curse to cover a million kilometers, he wouldn't.

There are still innocent people in the area, not to mention Magical Beasts and other lifeforms aside from the assassins.

The Mind Curse was extremely weak and subtle, but its effects were clear as day when the Array Masters started muttering to themselves in confusion. As the closest ones in proximity to the amplifier, their treatment was the same as if standing directly in front of a satellite dish. More than ninety-five percent of the Mind Curse Array's effects were transferred to them.

They watched as the metal rod in front of them changed on its own, adding and removing Runes in a methodical order until it was even more complex than before. Their intelligence waned, and with that their survival instinct that had been honed since young.

Both Array Masters felt that something was wrong, but their contact with the other groups was minimal enough that they hadn't experienced William's Starmetal Cannon, nor his ingenious use of Space Magic. In their eyes, he was just some above-average Cultivator with unique knowledge of Arrays.

It wasn't the Array Masters who noticed a problem first, rather the team standing guard. They watched as their comrades' eyes became cloudy, while subtle particles of dark Mana leaked from their forehead.

They tried several hand and arm signals to get the Array Masters' attention, but it was as if they had forgotten their training, completely ignoring their actions. It wasn't until someone broke away from their formation that there was a response.

The assassin reached out and shook the Array Master's arm, his pupils constricting when one of the Array Masters looked up in a stupor. Direct eye contact was all it took for the assassin to understand the situation. Pieces clicked in his mind as he yelled to the group.

"They've been Cursed! The kid isn't alone!"

But the only response the assassin received was a series of muffled screams as a streak of purple flashed from one Cultivator to the other, ripping throats and tearing arteries in the blink of an eye.

In the five seconds the assassin spent away from the group, the purple figure took advantage of the gap in their perception to wipe out a third of the team in one go.

The assassin cursed in his mind, feeling he deserved death for making such a beginner mistake. He realized with horror that not only were the Array Masters cursed, but he was as well!

A quick body scan told him that his mental state was roughly eighty-percent efficient, and spending any more time in the area would turn him into an idiot like the Array Masters.

Before he could make a timely decision, a pair of sharp claws glinted in the sunlight, outstretched and aimed directly for his heart. He deflected the strike with his poison-tipped dagger, redirecting the attack to his left shoulder.

Even Cursed, even caught off guard, the assassin was still a professional and very experienced in the ways of the World. The purple cat sliced through his shoulder like paper, but the assassin didn't make a noise before performing a predictive counterattack to his left.

The purple cat— also an expert in assassination techniques— knew better than to engage the assassin head-on. It jumped backwards as soon as its attack failed, disappearing into a fog of Illusion Magic before the others could group up and suppress him.

Atticus' Domain of Illusion unfolded, veiling the area in a thick purple haze. The assassins' sense of direction was obstructed, and their perception of each other fell, making their allies shimmer like a hologram.

Having been affected by the Illusion Magic once before, they grouped together and closed any gaps in their defense. To clear the effects of the Mind Curse Array, one of the assassins channeled a previously hidden Blessing Spell, while another used a mix of Fire and Light Magic to illuminate the area.

The four assassins felt their mental state returning to peak condition while the Blessing Magic resisted the Curse. Behind them, a white glow enveloped the two Array Masters and brought some light to their eyes.

Atticus lunged forward to attack a weak point in their formation, but was quickly countered by two assassins. Poison dripped from the tips of their daggers as they clashed with his claws, wilting grass and flowers wherever it landed.

The Mythical Rat Snake in Cat Form was forced back, attempting to strike several times but to no avail. After losing his element of surprise, Atticus couldn't reach the assassins from left, right, or above. All paths were blocked by the assassins' tightly-knit group, leaving Atticus unsure of his next move.

He dispersed his presence into the Domain of Illusion and made a quick decision.

It'ss time to try that. he thought while his tail and body shortened until he was barely ten centimeters long. His arms and legs became a tenth their length, his claws elongating while his eyesight dropped until he could only detect changes in light.

He burrowed underground at speeds unachievable by an Earth Mage, closing the distance between himself and the assassins in the blink of an eye.

With their experience, the assassins still managed to react in time to dodge, but their expression changed when a purple mole burst out of the ground and pierced through one of the Array Masters' hearts.