Gaud's plan was only a few levels from being a masterpiece plan.
Apart from planning to weaken his opponents, Gaud's plan encompassed a lot more than this. During the past 2 days, he also traced the spending of the Berserk Gang and noticed it when they spent millions recently.
It did not take a lot of thinking on his part for him to guess that these spending was for countermeasures against his invisibility mystic ability.
He thought of other scenarios, but the main reason was definitely to counter his extremely rare mystic ability.
Literally every enemy that he faced who had time to prepare did this so he was not deterred. In his track record though, no matter how much his enemies prepared, he always came out on top.
In his years as a mystic warrior, he already mastered the art of taking full advantage of his mystic abilities to fight at his peak state always.
Gaud had dozens of spare mystic treasures that he did not use. Most of these mystic treasures were for specific battle scenarios, and one of these mystic treasures, his Autumn Gale Boots were made to fight motion detectors.
With these pair of mystic boots, Gaud's movement speed did not only increase by a lot, but he could also move so stealthily to easily blend with the wind.
Through his meticulous planning, he was able to attract another Advanced mystic warrior other than Beastmare to support his cause.
The Bat Gang was one of the more established gangs in the Gundam Shelter, Beastmare already had some friends during his years here.
When his friend knew that swallowing the Berserk Gang was the price, Thoram, the leader of the Hammerhead gang did not hesitate to join in.
As for the last Advanced mystic warrior who formed the trio, it was just a bluff on Gaud's part. Apart from physical warfare, he also engaged in psychological warfare as a means to weaken his opponents' resolve.
With the knowledge that they were going up against 3 Advanced mystic warriors alone, the morale of the warriors of the Berserk Gang would drop.
What he didn't expect was that Aragorn already broke through to the Advanced level during just 2 days. Gaud was shocked, but it didn't really matter since Beastmare and the others were actually just the distraction.
He never trusted anyone else but himself to be the main figure in any of his plans, he only trusted himself enough to execute the main plan flawlessly.
With his Autumn Gale boots and his invisibility mystic ability, Gaud was able to fool Rex and Aragorn as he bypassed them while they fought against the distraction force that he organized.
He easily blended with the blowing wind which was especially strong that early morning, preventing the motion sensors from detecting his movement.
This way, he easily infiltrated all the way to the central control room which was the most defended location in this mansion and was also where his main targets stayed. From afar, he set his eyes on his price.
If it was Rex or Aragorn who were left to protect the 2 Elden siblings, they would have been helpless up till the point that they were dead since Gaud came completely prepared this time to finish the job.
The only reason why he failed was Princess Elanor. The ability of actively channeling adrenaline did not only extend to the physical, it also extended to the mental aspect as Elanor's mind was now vastly more developed than before.
Once Gaud entered the room, her instincts were triggered despite this professional assassin completely suppressing his killing intent.
All she needed was channeling her adrenaline a bit to know the truth. The first thing Princess Elanor did was to warn her 2 companions before she exploded into action as she released a dozen arrows at the same time.
Whoosh!
Gaud was shocked by his opponent's sharp instinct, but having planned for the worse case scenario already, he was not caught off-guard as he reacted.
Gaud channeled his mystic energy aggressively as he empowered his mystic boots, allowing him to move fast enough to dodge this lethal attack. This aggressive movement disrupted his flow as he finally left his invisibility state.
Without even caring about stabilizing his stance, Gaud shook his sleeves as a massive Goldenhead snake slithered out straight towards the 2 siblings.
Feeling the deadly energy that the Goldenhead snake emitted, Princess Elanor was stunned as she tried to use her golden metal mystic ability to fight this snake but Gaud was a step ahead of her.
"Soul Magician Advanced Skill: Sounds of horror!"
A loud screeching sound reverberated in the room the next moment like those of a dozen witches with horrible voices singing that was solely directed at the Elven Princess as she jerked on being hit.
Princess Elanor was shaken so hard that blood dripped from her nose even as her disguise was wiped off instantly. The heavy attire that she used to cover most of her face fell off, exposing her longer than normal ears.
Gaud was already on the 2 Elden descendants, but on seeing this, he paused, stunned. "An Elf?"
This hesitation was what cost him as an angry Elven Princess made her comeback. "You shall not pass!" Princess Elanor yelled as she raised her hands.
With her hand gestures, the ground all around the central control room seemed to be uprooted as thick tree roots dug out of the ground like angry Titans.
Just like Gaud, Princess Elanor prepared for this moment ahead of time and through the gang's money already bought a rare mystic battle plant. Now, this was her weapon of war that she used to fight Gaud.
Having warned the computer operators in the center control room ahead of time, once the roots jutted out, they all sought cover behind an energy shield.
Max and Stark Elden hid behind their own exclusive energy shield as they stared at the menacing warrior who was once the always happy and caring Gaud, the chief guard that they were previously used to.
Tears rolled down their eyes as they watched this battle.
By now, Princess Elanor was already fully unleashed as she put her incredible archery, and her 2 mystic abilities into use to fight against this powerhouse.
Gaud was powerful, but his mystic abilities made his fighting style stray more towards the assassin style. As for Princess Elanor, this Elven Princess was a pure ranged offensive mystic warrior and it showed now.
Gaud struggled to pass through her defense, and though this lasted only a few dozen seconds, this was enough time for Rex and Aragorn to do something.
For some reason, the battle for victory now seemed to be on a time limit and it depended on who could get the first overwhelming advantage.
...
Instantly after Elanor's message, Rex and Aragorn's intentions changed. Rex turned in the direction of the mansion with a look of alarm on his face. "Max and Stark cannot be allowed to die".
Without any need to exchange words, Rex and Aragorn came to the same consensus as they unhesitatingly abandoned their current battle and started sprinting in the direction of the central control room.
Once Beastmare and the others saw this, they also changed their battle plan as they finally left their defensive bulwark and lashed out like a leash.
Due to the masks that previously covered their faces, Rex and the others could not know the identity of these mystic warriors.
Most Advanced mystic warriors were known for their trademark mystic abilities, but in the previous battle, Beastmare and Thoram did not feel the need for it and was why they did not reveal their main mystic abilities.
Once the battle plan changed though, they also improvised.
As Aragorn and Rex rapidly sprinted away, the sounds of flying bats soon filled the air as a battalion of bats appeared out of the sleeves of one of the masked mystic warriors, completely stunning the others.
Rex's eyes widened. "Beastmare?!"
This mystic warrior did not give a damn as alongside the other Advanced mystic warrior, they used their ranged abilities to attack and try stalling them.
Beastmare's bats were well-known for their poison. They could not only inflict their opponents with poison through biting, but they could also inflict opponents with their poison through poison mists that they occasionally released.
None of the mystic warriors present dared to face these bats directly as they all took measures to protect themselves.
With the bats wreaking such havoc, Thoram the mystic warrior whose combat style was purely Pugilistic soon started his rampage.
The mystic warriors of the Berserk Gang struggled to hold them off.
Rex was angered by this betrayal but not for long. From the onset, he already knew that if better benefits were placed in the table, betrayal was natural.
This was the nature of the Gundam Shelter and having understood it already, Rex knew that in times like this, he needed to remain calm and collected.
Bam! Bam!
They no longer rushed, everything started flowing rhythmically as Aragorn defended against the ranged attacks with his Blood Pistols while Rex with Berserker carved his way forward through all the chaos.
It took them more than a minute, but they succeeded in escaping the harassment of the bats and Thoram with minor injuries.
They finally returned inside the central control room where all the stakes of this battle were, this was the real stage for this showdown.