Within the purified spot, more and more students were looking up at the grin, as if commanded by a higher power.
Once their grins grew to the widest point, they would lose control and fall under the grinning demon's spell.
"We're screwed. The grinning demon's power can penetrate the purified spot. We can't stop it at all," Duze Honglian wailed.
"Shut your yapping mouth." Li Luo scowled, rubbing his chin.
It wasn't as though they hadn't anticipated something like that.
He stepped forward. "All water and light resonance users!" he shouted in a loud voice, "Use your resonant powers to form water and light mirrors!"
He led by example, creating a waterlight mirror a few meters in diameter and aiming its smooth surface upwards.
Jiang Qing'e followed suit, creating a light mirror dozens of times larger than Li Luo's and putting it beside his.
The students who still had their wits about them hurried to do the same. Soon enough, light and water mirrors were floating upwards to the sky, tessellating up with each other to form a flawless screen.
The screen was pointed back at the demon.
When it looked down now, all it saw was its own grinning face smiling back at itself.
It screeched, an inhuman sound that made the black mist churn furiously. The crimson eyes began to leak tears of blood that fell on them in a gory shower.
Hurt, it fled back to the safety of the mist.
With the grin retreating, the influenced students slowly came back to their senses. After a brief moment of uncertainty, their spirits were revived and they let out wild cheers. They had actually managed to repel the grinning demon's attack.
So it could be dealt with this way!
"What?" Duze Honglian exclaimed. "How did you..." Such a powerful demon, driven back? And it seemed like they had managed to hurt it as well?
"Don't just wring your hands. Wring your brain," Li Luo said snootily. "Since everyone who looks at it is affected, it must spread corruption through sight. It makes sense to reflect it back visually."
Duze Honglian flushed with humiliation, doubly so when she knew that it was justified.
Li Luo's counter had been undeniably effective.
"It’s a pity that we couldn't have waited until it had intensified the smile. Perhaps we could have damaged it more then," Jiang Qing'e said wistfully. They had managed to deliver it the equivalent of a sharp sting, but no real lasting damage.
"It couldn't be helped. The price would have been chaos in the purified spot."
If order within their ranks were lost, they might have fallen apart from within even before the barrier fell.
Still, the mirror trick would only work once. The grinning demon would not attack so incautiously again.
Regardless, they had managed to put a stop to one of its stronger moves.
Now they turned their attention to the horde of Others dashing themselves to death against the light barrier outside.
They had won the first round, but the grinning demon held all the advantages. Who knew how much more it had up its sleeve?
Most worrying of all was the fact that its corrupting power could permeate the light barrier to affect those inside.
The purification barrier was their final defense. If the grinning demon's moves could get through it, then they were in much greater danger than before.
Neither Li Luo nor Jiang Qing'e paid attention to the minions charging the barrier. The real threat was the Heavenly Disaster Class Other itself. It was the only one that could ravage their defenses.
Now that they had repelled it once, it was sure to try again.
These few moments of peace were surely the calm before the more deadly and vicious storm that it would bring next.
They watched the black mist intently for signs of movement. Duze Honglian, Qiu Bai, and the other elite Three Star Hall students came to stand with them.
Finally, the mist began to stir again.
From its dark folds, a figure walked out.
He was a few meters tall, a little giant that resembled a human in every other way, with no strange features.
Save one. An evil smile on his face.
His grin stretched from ear to ear, and the gleaming teeth and crimson eyes were first to be seen through the mist.
The crimson eyes were locked dead on Jiang Qing'e, acknowledging her as the only real threat within the base.
But just a small threat, all things considered.
In this area of the Umbra Cave, the Heavenly Disaster Class was the apex predator.
The only thing in its way was the purified spot's defensive barrier, which was charged with powerful purification magic. It was difficult to take down immediately.
Still, it had its methods.
Reaching into its mouth, the grinning demon began to retch.
A dark, sticky sludge was coughed up, and it began to shape the mud.
Soon enough, it made a black mud figurine.
With the excess black mud, it formed a mini mud platform.
The students watched with enthralled horror. They had no idea what was happening, but it couldn't be good.
They couldn't go out and put a stop to it either.
In the end, they could only watch the grinning demon build an entire fleet of mud platforms and mud figurines.
It looked like it was planning a war model or something.
A cunning, dangerous war.
Finally completed, it stood up. And then, with controlled madness, it began to dance.