He was determined not to let this elusive opponent slip away.
Soon, the clones in the basement stopped roaming aimlessly.
Instead, each one stationed itself like a human sentry after inspecting a spot, constantly watching for any movement nearby.
Within just a few minutes, they had covered about 90% of the basement floor, while the remaining clones methodically moved toward the last few rooms.
"Hmph, no matter how far you run, you won't escape my trap. I want you to feel what despair really is!" Horned Basilisk sneered.
He refused to believe that Alex could simply vanish into thin air and get away.
As he quietly monitored the situation, one of his clones suddenly moved, and it looked like it was under attack again.
"Oh, there you are! Let's see where you try to run this time!" Horned Basilisk said, unfazed by his clone being attacked.
He knew his clones weren't strong enough to handle Alex alone, but as soon as the enemy made a move, he could pinpoint their location and send reinforcements immediately.
But just as he was about to respond, he sensed something was wrong.
Why were two clones being attacked at the same time, and why were they so far apart, at least a hundred meters?
Before he could make sense of it, his clones began appearing one after another, like a relay passing the message along.
Yet, no matter how many clones he sent out to search, he still couldn't spot Alex anywhere in sight.
Controlling so many clones at once was exhausting, and this sudden, confusing situation drained him even more.
By the time he hurriedly directed a clone to investigate the source of the disturbance, a metal snake tied to their feet, it was already too late.
The silver snakes wrapped around the clone were doing more than just draining its magic, they suddenly unleashed a fierce electric current.
Interestingly, these electric shocks weren't deadly; they didn't cause any real harm to the clone, but they brought intense bursts of pain.
Down in the basement, there were over twenty clones at once, all linked mentally to horned basilisk.
Because of this strong connection, horned basilisk ended up feeling almost all that pain himself.
The sudden agony forced a scream from him.
It felt like thousands of needles were stabbing through his skin, organs, senses, and even his brain, so overwhelming that he briefly lost consciousness.
Realizing the pain was unbearable, horned basilisk quickly severed the mental link with the clones and tried to dissolve
...them to reclaim his magic.
But then, horror struck, he saw that his clones were being consumed alive by giant whales, and their magic was completely drained.
In an instant, he lost thousands of magic points.
Shocked and afraid, horned basilisk didn't hesitate any longer.
He immediately disbanded every clone, even those guarding the first floor, unsure what strange method Alex was using to absorb his magic.
Just as horned basilisk realized his clones' magic could be nullified and returned to him, a violent tremor shook the ground beneath his feet.
Then, boom! A massive explosion erupted, sweeping away the spot where he stood and blasting a crater more than ten square meters wide.
The blast was so powerful that it ripped through the floors above, smashing holes in the first through fourth levels and the ceiling, like a meteor crashing down.
Hidden in the basement, Alex couldn't help but punch the air with satisfaction at the explosion's impact.
Horned Basilisk, monstrous as he was, wasn't invincible, especially when faced with clever tactics.
Of course, Alex had worked hard to make this moment happen.
Controlling dozens of spirit-bound snakes and hundreds of exploding spiders all at once was no easy feat, and Alex's head was still throbbing from the effort.
Through the thick cloud of gunpowder smoke, he couldn't clearly see horned basilisk's condition from the monitoring spider's vantage point.
It was too risky to get closer for a direct scan, so all he could do was wait quietly.
Ideally, he wished he could just blow the opponent to pieces on the spot.
After all, the number of explosive spiders he'd deployed this time was several times more than what he'd prepared for thunderbird encounter.
Crafting them had cost over ten thousand galleons, so even if he couldn't finish off the enemy outright, leaving them half-disabled like Thunderbird would still be a win.
Alex refused to believe anyone could survive an explosion that powerful.
As the dense smoke began to clear within the monitoring spider's field of vision, Alex finally saw the scene inside clearly, and he was stunned.
Amid the haze and dust, a figure hovered in mid-air: horned basilisk.
But to his surprise, not only was the snake uninjured, it wasn't even covered in dust.
Surrounding it was a pale blue magical shield, glowing softly.
This shield looked somewhat like Thunderbird's insulation magic shield, wrapping around horned basilisk completely with no gaps.
Yet, unlike Thunderbird's, this shield had faint linear ripples flowing gently across its surface, like a slow-moving stream.
"This... this is insane!"
Alex's eyes went wide as he took it all in.
The shield's strength was off the charts, able to withstand such a massive explosion without a scratch.
Even Thunderbird's insulation shield, while tough, still transmitted some shock inside, which left Thunderbird heavily injured despite resisting the blast on the surface.
But this shield? It seemed to shrug off not just the blast, but the lingering aftershock and tremors as well.
Suddenly, horned basilisk, still floating mid-air and feeling a dull sting in its brain, howled in furious rage at Alex's actions.
"Alex!" it bellowed, voice filled with fury.
"No one... no one has ever pushed me this far! Remember this, you forced me!"
Horned Basilisk was no longer calm.
"Next, I'll make you truly feel what real pain is, you filthy rat who only knows how to hide in dark corners!" it snarled fiercely.
Without looking back, horned basilisk soared through the large hole in the ceiling, rising high into the air until it hovered nearly a hundred meters above the manor.
"Rise!" it shouted sharply, aiming its wand down at the mansion below.
Suddenly, Alex, who was still in the basement, felt a terrifying vibration.
His body grew weightless, and all the objects around him defied gravity, floating upwards toward the ceiling as if the entire world had flipped upside down.
It wasn't long before even the massive manor itself began to rise with a deep rumbling sound.
Watching this helplessly, Alex swallowed hard and whispered, "The building is taking off!"
At that moment, the massive Horned Basilisk Manor, sprawling over a vast area, suddenly lifted off the ground.
Alex stood there, dumbfounded, staring up as the ceiling seemed to float higher and higher, like someone had just peeled it away.
It was hard to believe, a whole house being lifted just to find him?