'Where the f*ck is he?' Wondered En as his eyes darted from right to left, trying to spot Alex; unfortunately, he couldn't see his opponent nor feel his presence using mana, which made him anxious.
So, he did something that, at that moment, he thought was logical and started launching earth projectiles all around himself in the hope of deterring Alex from approaching him.
Unbeknownst to En, he wasn't the only one that couldn't sense Alex; be it Grace, Adrian, Candace, Victoria, or the others, no one among them could sense him, which was shocking.
However, the most shocked among everyone was Alice, since even with her god's eyes, she couldn't spot Alex in the smoke.
Unlike the others that couldn't see through the thick smoke and needed to use their mana to sense what was happening in the cloud of smoke, Alice could easily see through the smoke and witness what was happening in the arena; she could see En frantically look from left to right while attacking in every direction, but that is where the problem lay. She could see the entire arena, but she still couldn't see her father!
It needs to be reminded that Alice God's eyes allowed her to peer into anything as long as she wished; not even Anna's ability could fool her, so why couldn't she spot her father?
'Did I lose my God's eyes?' Wondered Alice, but as quickly as she had this thought, she discarded it. If she didn't still possess God's eyes, then how was she able to peer beyond the smoke?
What Alice didn't know was that while she may have eyes allowing her to peer into anything, it was a matter of potential. There were many things she couldn't penetrate yet, and it was only through rigorous training that she could truly reach a level where nothing could hide from her. Fortunately, she came to this realization after seeing, or rather, not seeing, her father within the smoke.
Meanwhile, Adrian could be seen in a corner of the arena with sweat dripping from his forehead.
'How am I supposed to stop him if he launches an attack powerful enough to mortally wound En if I can't see him act ?'
Now that he couldn't spot one of the fighters, his task of stopping any lethal attack turned out to be more complicated than expected.
'Where are you, brat?'
While everyone was looking out for him, Alex was hundreds of meters from En, far enough that En's earth projectiles couldn't touch him, standing still with his hands stretched.
What he was trying to do right now was enhance the corrosive attribute of the smoke, yes, corrosive attribute.
This white smoke was in fact made by vaporizing a liquid that is made to corrode the earth but does damage the earth.
This substance is generally used by miners when they want to easily extract ores mixed with earth.
However, although it accelerates the process by corroding the earth around minerals, it's a substance that was engineered so that it wouldn't be too corrosive and damage the ores extracted.
What Alex was doing right now was doing the contrary; he was enhancing the corrosive ability of this substance so that he would be able to immediately corrode the earth.
During his training with Lilia, he learned that he could not only increase the thickness or how thin the smoke was, but he could also enhance the potency of the attributes of said smoke!
That was precisely what he was attempting to do at this moment, but he focused solely on the smoke in direct contact with his skin. However, achieving something like that required intense concentration, especially since he had never attempted it during training.
As for En or the others spotting him? He wasn't worried about that even one bit.
When he became a smoke sovereign, he literally linked his soul with the smoke spirit, which is also the smoke element.
From that moment onward, Alex became indistinguishable from smoke when he was surrounded by it, which was why even Alice couldn't see him.
As long as this smoke remains, no technique, special attribute, or device devised to find someone can find him since he is the smoke in itself!
Which was why he allowed himself to close his eyes and concentrate.
One of the advantages of becoming a smoke sovereign was that he could directly understand what attributes a smoke carried as long as he was even in visual contact with that smoke, so understanding what attributes a smoke had was not really complicated, so, in just a bit over five minutes, he managed to find and enhance the corrosive attribute of the smoke.
'It's time to end this,' thought Alex as he opened his eyes and looked in the direction of En with a cold gaze.
Without wasting a second, he walked towards En. With each step, the white smoke around him appeared to grow even whiter, not because he increased its thickness, but because he enhanced its corrosive attribute.
With each step, his foot imprint etched into the ground as the corrosive smoke under his feet ate away at the earth. He had to carefully control the smoke to prevent his feet from sinking further into the ground.
As time passed, the sounds of footsteps intensified within the smoke, prompting En to identify the direction of the approaching threat and direct his earth projectiles towards Alex.
Alex could see the projectiles heading straight for him, aimed at impaling him. Nevertheless, he continued walking, not bothering to slow down his footsteps.
He didn't fear those projectiles; if he wished, he could have moved silently, appearing beside En and striking him before the latter could defend himself. However, he refrained from such a stealthy approach. The reason for all the noise was, in fact, to draw En's attention, prompting him to launch projectiles. Only for En to despair when realizing that these projectiles couldn't even scratch him.
As the projectiles were a mere two meters from him, Alex still continued to walk forward, and the moment the projectiles were one meter from him, they suddenly disappeared—no, dissolved!
The corrosive attribute of the smoke around Alex's body was so potent that it instantly corroded the earth projectiles!
Unaware of this, En still continued to fire the projectiles as the footsteps got closer and closer to him.
After a second or two, he spotted a figure approaching him and was sure that it was Alex, so he launched the projectiles with even more speed and force.
However, it seemed like anything was happening, but she still persevered and launched even more projectiles.
'What is going on? Why does it seem like I'm not touching him? ' Wondered En.
Dread slowly crept into his heart, but he pushed the feeling down and ceased launching projectiles, realizing they were clearly ineffective.
'Hmm, he stopped? Why, I was sure that he would continue to attack with the—oh, it's because of that?' Alex spotted the reason—or rather, the reasons—why En stopped launching the projectiles.
'It seems like his golems are finished'
He glanced at the golems, then at En's face, which was graced by a smile the moment his golems started moving.
'It's cute to see how he thinks those will save him,' thought Alex with a sinister smile.