It just rumbled once, before a suffocating silence prevailed, giving the feeling like the entire world was coming to an end or something.
William turned around and what he saw made him freeze in his place. "Tell me exactly how you made this stuff," William stopped, looking at a growing weird cloud of green dust that rose up from the ground at this moment.
He held Lara's Bullet and asked her in immense disbelief. This wasn't his toxin, at least not just the simple toxin he gave its formula to Lara.
He got the impression that some sort of mistake was done, something that got mixed with his formula at least.
[What? Don't tell me it's not what you gave us!!!]
"It's… It looks the same but… It's also different. What did these alchemists make exactly?!"
William wasn't exaggerating things here. The toxin was indeed present in that weird thick cloud rising up. But it wasn't alone, something else was mixed with it, something that looked quite dangerous and deadly.
William didn't know what happened. [Let me ask my uncle, he was the one responsible for all this] she was puzzled, fearing that something bad happened thanks to traitors or incompetence in the family and other alchemists she used.
As William asked to mass produce this substance, she had to ask all the alchemists present in the city to take part in the entire thing. She was too busy to handle different things to keep check over the performance of these alchemists.
"Bring me the formula they used in making this stuff," William paused, "also fetch someone with a sample of it. I want to check what it is."
[Are we screwed?] This was the most troublesome matter she had to think about right now. She got the impression this mistake was something bad, mistaking what William was thinking about.
"It's great actually," but what William said made her heave a deep sigh of relief, "this new substance… It not only has the same effect of the toxin I gave you, but also has an explosive effect as a bonus."
William wasn't making things up. As the cloud started to appear, he noticed a few unique features there. [What explosions? Nothing exploded out there!] but Lara didn't get what he noticed. And that was expected.
William sniffed something that was related to the outer world. This cloud wasn't simple, and what he meant by being explosive wasn't the same as Lara guessed.
"Just bring me the formula used, and see what exactly happened," William watched the different monsters inhale such substances while a grin appeared on his face, "and make sure our masters will stay on the walls. If they spot any chance, let them use their long-ranged techniques only."
[Long ranged techniques only? We won't send anyone down?]
"No," William firmly responded, "and make sure lots of wind-based masters are on the walls as well. If that cloud gets closer, they'll push it slightly away. Not too much to make it vanish or go away from here, just enough for us to not get in touch with it."
[Ok] she didn't get why he was acting like this. In a moment he was like the end of the world came, and in the other he seemed like a miracle happened and their lives got saved or something.
William wasn't losing it, but he knew much more than she and other masters here did. The explosive thing he spoke about was related to the effect of the substance forming this cloud over anyone inhaling it.
Once getting into anyone's body, this substance would get ignited, exploding internally, releasing tons of damage. William could tell that from the general look of this cloud, and more importantly from the response it caused to the world.
That weird silence wasn't actually normal, it was caused because the area surrounding this cloud got crushed, turned into a piece of vacuum without even air in it. This made a sound not able to move and spread to anyone's ears.
William knew the effects of this substance would take a long time to appear over the monsters. But he was sure if anyone could see through these monsters' bodies, they'd see lots of flaring up points that were leaving traces of damage everywhere inside.
William was surprised by such a substance, especially when such an effect didn't belong to this world. Such surprise just came in time, when he already lost any hope in saving the day.
But now? If this substance acted as he expected, then the worst effect would be for these Hellhounds to suffer heavy wounds, wouldn't be able to move around or fight like normal.
As the toxin formula of his got changed and modified like this, he didn't remove the possibility of this substance to have a new surprise for him.
And so he started to pay more attention towards what was going on out there, stopping his retreat, and even drew closer.
He didn't fear such substances. He got a wind element ready to intervene and protect himself against any danger.
As for the surrounding monsters, the moment this cloud appeared, it felt like they were exposed to a slowing down spell. They started to run slowly, then walk, and finally stopped.
The area around the city was filled with grenades that William laid before. And as he saw the monsters show such lazy actions, he decided to keep laying out his grenades.
He didn't dare to come so close from the frontline of this grand battlefield, not daring to get closer from any Hellhound monster.
And so, he started to relay grenades in circles around the city, leaving only narrow paths that weren't enough for any monster to pass through. Even leopards wouldn't be able to do it.
Just before he'd lay down an entire circle, monsters started to roar. One after another started to fall on the ground motionless, showing weird changes on their faces.
This was limited only to the leopards. But it was a good sign that what William expected before started to show up its value.
