Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling

Chapter 219: Monstrous Mana

Dominating Sovereigns Eye has extracted the Skill - Monstrous Mana - From the Sovereign Candidate: Jabari Cole.

Monstrous Mana: The mana in your container turns chaotic and untamed, like that of a wandering monster. Controlling it is difficult and strenuous, but it is far more effective than regular mana.

Would you like to merge with - Monstrous Mana Y/N?

So that’s why his mana container is so large…

Astrid wondered, but that wasn’t the only curiosity that was quelled. The young man wasn’t a fully fledged Sovereign like she had thought, but he was only a candidate. Like her.

Of course, his monsters were incredibly powerful, but his own body wasn’t on their level. In fact, Astrid had faced many more powerful monsters in the past.

Being able to rip out his eye told her one thing. He didn’t have an overly high intelligence. It was his unique Skill changing his mana that was the culprit of that.

Despite the amazing effect of Monstrous Mana, Astrid decided against absorbing the eye for now. She wasn’t familiar with it, and she couldn’t afford to practise with it at the moment.

Especially since the man named Jabari was busy glaring at her with one eye. However, in the next instant, he was forced to dodge an incoming attack from Lord Darian.

The young Candidate wasn’t in a good situation. But it seemed he had other methods at his disposal. Of course he had. Astrid spat.

His mana swirled as ghostly apparitions of various monsters seeped out of his body like phantom warriors. Some were like the spiders; long legs, hairy, tough chitinous armour. And some had the appearance of beasts such as hounds, huge felines, and draconic lizards.

Because of the strange event, Darian, and the elder, stopped their attacks. Attacking when the situation was unknown was never a good idea.

As experienced men, they understood that better than most. It was how they had lived for so long, after all.

Then Jabari started crying. Or at least that’s what Astrid thought he was doing. Hand cradling his face, the crying sounds transformed into a crazed laughter.

The monsters danced around him with ferocious snarls, as if they were listening to their master's emotions. In the next second, all of them turned towards Astrid, and the others. They were waiting for the command of attack.

And then it arrived.

“Kill them all.”

Finally let loose, the ghostly monsters bounded forward with ferocity. Their howls scattered through the trees, letting the whole world know that they were on the attack.

However, it wasn’t Astrid who made her move, but the elder.

Stomping across the soil floor of the jungle, he roared. The jungle listened. Vines shot up into the air, trees groaned, and the earth trembled.

The elder leaped up into the air and just as he started to fall, the vines, and trees bent to according to his will. An entire platform was created, then another, and another, until it led the ferocious Ixtalian elder straight to the ghostly monsters.

As they made contact, all hell broke loose.

It was a grand display of sheer beastly ferocity. Each roar caused her palms to itch at the primal sight.

Astrid had never seen anything like it. She had witnessed numerous battlefields, ones born of ambushes, and malice, and others a straight up fight to the death against monsters, and humans alike.

But this was different. It was a battle between bloodthirsty monsters and each attack was aimed to maim.

The elders claws ripped into the ghostly bodies, while his jaws tore away chunks of both fur, and flesh. He wasn’t coming out unscathed either. For each beast he tore into, two would ravage his dense fur until bundles of hair scattered down onto the jungle floor.

His plan was obvious. He would take the brunt of the strange new attack, while Darian faced off against the snow-white demon cat.

That left Astrid with her target, and she would waste no time.

Astrid flew forward as fast as her Intelligence would allow her. In a matter of seconds, Astrid was only ten metres away from him.

Firing a void bullet straight for his body, he was about to dodge, but in the blink of an eye, Jabari decided against it.

It was easy to figure out why.

Lord Darian was at the ready. He had already readied his sword for the arrival of the young man. If he transferred positions with the cat right now, he would be split in two. So he decided to face the lesser of two evils.

Astrid.

Jabari gritted his teeth, and with haste, thick golden armour covered almost the entirety of his body. It was the armour of his demon spider, yet unlike Astrid, he had no troubles hefting the heavy armour on his body. In fact, it didn’t seem to weigh him down at all.

Is that the perk of his skills?

Whatever it was, Astrid had to attack hard, and fast. She couldn’t allow him to keep summoning monsters as that would not only put the soldiers in danger, but Lord Darian, and the elder as well.

Astrid fired multiple void projectiles at the young man, but he seemed to know how to deflect them, and already knew what attacks Astrid would do.

He was watching all along.

She realised, but she had an entire arsenal at her disposal that she hadn’t used yet. And there was another thing that she hadn’t shown.

Grinning, and with her blood boiling for combat, Astrid created dozens of clones. And with them, popped her own eyes out, even her own.

“Look, I’m just like you.” Astrid laughed with one eye, and then blinked.

Reappearing by his side in a flash, Astrid materialised a long-sword made of Voidbent metal in an instant. As fast as she arrived, she had already placed most of her points into Strength, and thrust her weapon through the air.

Her blade tasted flesh, slicing through Jabari’s shoulder, but it wasn’t enough.

The situation repeated itself for a few minutes. Astrid would alternate her attacking style, quickly changing from mid-range combat, to close-quarter assaults.

Her style was incredibly unpredictable, and changed at will. She was a nightmare to fight, and Jabari was quickly realising the predicament he was in.

Astrid once more blinked to his side, snapping her blade forward. However, just as the blade was about to reach Jabari, Astrid noticed something appear from his back. It was enough to send a tingle up her spine.

It was a serpent's tail and it snapped forward. Astrid didn't have time to blink, instead, she raised her blade to guard, transferred her stats into Constitution, and took the brunt of the impact with her body.

An ache vibrated through her arms as she was sent hurtling through the air. Transferring her stats once more, she stabilised herself, and glanced back to the Sovereign Candidate.

He no longer only had a tail, but his arms, legs, and even head had undergone a great change.

Jabari now had huge furry forearms that exuded strength, and his hands were now adorned with razor-sharp claws. His legs had taken the form of a large aviation bird. Whatever it was, it had three talons, each with the capabilities of ripping apart even the toughest of armour. And then there was his head. Two demonic horns pierced out from his forehead.

Finally, a pair of wings sprouted out from his back, and flapped in the air.

Jabari grinned, displaying sharpened teeth. The once handsome young man had completely transformed his entire body into a natural weapon.

It seemed Astrid wasn’t the only one that could change her attributes at will. Well at least she didn’t sprout animal parts…

Astrid bounded forward. The plan hadn’t changed. It was kill or be killed.

Reaching Jabari in an instant, she fired multiple void bullets that ricochet against his golden armour, and then she followed it up with a blitzing sword strike to his unarmoured gut.

Of course, the tip of the blade seeped under his fur, only to clang against hidden gold.

Now that Astrid was up close, Jabari raked his claws through Astrid’s body, but in the next second, her frame vanished like a puff of smoke. Her illusion had evaporated.

Astrid grit her teeth, swung her sword in a wide arc, and then Crashed the matter behind her blade. Tearing through the air, it smashed against Jabari’s gilded raised arm.

Sparks flew, and the impact sent a tingling sensation up her harm, but she wasn’t done there.

Astrid’s mask displayed a vicious grin and connected to her traps thrown all around the battlefield down below. With high speed, dozens of voidbent needles flew up toward Jabari with intense force.

Jabari tried to dodge, but he was met by the iron gaze of Lord Darian. The cat and the Lord were caught up in a furious exchange. If he transferred over, his life would be in a lot of danger.

Astrid had banked on that decision, and it seemed to be the right one.

The needles tore into Jabari’s underside, finding small cracks in the monster tamer’s armour. Pained gulps left the young man's throat.

He mustn't be used to pain.

Not only that, when Jabari lost control of his mind for a second, Astrid noticed that the cat also suffered. It looked like they required a constant connection so that Jabari could provide his tamed monsters with his powerful skills.

If that was the case…

Astrid connected to the young man’s mind and activated Mind Domain. However, Jabari also had the same idea. He used a domain. Astrid could feel it.

The energy around his body metamorphosed. The phantom monsters appeared around him once more, swirling around his body as if he was the centre of a typhoon.

Astrid, still in close proximity to Jabari, was beset on all sides by the hungry beasts. One of them in the form of a large cat chomped into her shoulder. Because of her thinly formed golden armour, most of the bite was blocked. But a few teeth managed to taste her flesh, and drink her blood.

Ignoring the hot pain, Astrid empowered her mind. She assimilated a large cluster of matter around its body, then Crashed it. The ghostly form was annihilated, and Astrid blinked away out of the range of his domain.

That wasn’t all. In the next moment, Astrid realised that the true form of the cute cat wasn’t a cat at all, but a horrifying monster…