Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling

Chapter 220: Dance of Monsters

Astrid watched in horror as the once cute, fluffy feline transformed into a tentacle ridden floating monstrosity that was the size of a triple storied building.

Its head had ballooned quadruple in size and it now had dozens of eyes mottled back to front, side to side. The tentacles that had grown were lined with rows of blade-like protrusions, and the air swished at every movement. The white fur had turned even thicker than before, but it wasn’t as full as it once was. Now, it only covered the monster's chest and neck.

The cat was no longer in the form of a feline, but now it looked more like a tree than anything beast-like.

Astrid could only imagine how strong it was, and she was thankful that it wasn’t her opponent.

Not only that, but it no longer relied on only the strength of its body. From the tentacles spawned a spore-like protrusion. It grew until the size of a football, and then it fired strange magic projectiles toward Lord Darian.

He was able to slice the incoming attacks, but not without recourse. He had split the attack, but the rest of the magic sliced into his arms. From the wounds, awful blisters appeared, but Darian wasn’t defenceless.

Darian summoned that strange energy, and although it didn’t restore the wounds, it stopped the infection from continuing.

Astrid had never seen anything like it before. Just where did Jabari manage to tame such a monster?! More than that, she was curious where the hell he had come from.

Speaking of Jabari, his tamed monster wasn’t the only thing that had received a boost in power. It seemed that whatever transformation had occurred with the cat, a portion of the power was now given to the master. It was evident that it was some sort of high Rarity Skill. Just like her own: Overload.

For Astrid, it was bad. She couldn’t control her hidden Skill, but it looked like the Sovereign Candidate could use it at Will.

Gritting her teeth, Astrid had to think of something else. Then her eyes turned serious.

She once more attempted to forge a connection for Mind Domain, but as she thought, the swirling phantom monsters directly chomped on the thin line of psychic mana, devouring the mental link.

Through the pain of having it severed, Astrid had formed a plan, and it wasn’t a good one. However, Lord Darian was slowly becoming overwhelmed by the abomination, and the Ixtalian elder wasn’t faring too well either against the ever increasing army of advanced spiders.

She had to end this fast.

This is going to hurt.

Chuckling, Astrid acted on her crazy plan. Full frontal assault.

Astrid flew as fast as she could, straight into Jabari’s monstrous domain. The moment she entered she was instantly beset by the phantom beasts. Purple streaked through their eyes. The emotion was clear within. They wanted to devour her.

Astrid did her best to dodge the majority of the attacks by blinking, but nothing within the young man's domain was safe for intruders. When Astrid ripped out one of her eye and placed it somewhere to blink to, it would be eaten in seconds.

Because of that, Astrid wasn’t able to escape unscathed.

A hound with two heads opened its savage maw wide, clamping down on Astrid’s body. From her back, to her stomach, she was well and truly within the jaws of death.

Before the beast could chomp down, Astrid exploded the matter surrounding her, blowing up the phantom beast until it reverted back into raw mana. Only for it to form again, and attack her once more.

Shit.

Astrid spat. Heightening the speed at which she could travel, she narrowly avoided the monsters, but at this rate, she was only going round in circles. She couldn’t penetrate further within.

She couldn’t even send an eyeball further in as it would just be devoured in an instant from the inner circle of beasts.

To hell with safety.

Astrid formed as much armour around her body as she could. That included the armour from the golden demonic spider, assault arachnid, Steilgam class, and Voidbent metal.

Next up as she narrowly avoided the sting of an oversized wasp's lance-like stinger, Astrid summoned a huge ball of void energy in her palm.

As she was organising the energy, a small beast managed to clasp its claws into her armour, flinging Astrid through the air.

Snarling, Astrid sped up the creation of her attack by flaring her mana, then turned the newly created void drill, and turned it toward the incoming monsters.

In a devastating clash, the beasts were torn into scrap pieces of mana. The remnants of energy billowed around Astrid like smoke in the air. Then, she shot forward, grinding away at any monsters that dared get in her path.

Astrid had another idea. She imbued her attack with the unique aspect of souls. Immediately, she was surprised at the effect it had on the incoming monsters.

It not only weakened their attacks, but their defence as well. But even with that, it wouldn’t be easy.

Taking the brunt force of the ghostly attacks, Astrid’s armour was being torn to shreds by the second. First it was her Mind Barrier, as each layer shattered into translucent shards under the vicious impact of the monsters.

Then it was her dual armour of Steilgam glass, and the carapace of the assault arachnid. It lasted longer than her Mind Barrier, but only momentarily. In a few seconds, it was ripped apart, and raked until the majority of the armour was destroyed.

Finally, the robes of Zephyrion, and the golden armour of the demonic spider underneath it. Despite it being robes, they managed to resist the impact against the teeth, and claws, but the damage still seeped through. Splitting her flesh wherever the thin golden armour was not present.

Despite that, and the blood seeping down her flesh, it provided vital seconds to get closer to her target.

Because of those precious seconds, she blasted through the final layer of monsters, and rammed head onto a draconic beast with four spiralling horns, and thick plated scales..

Screaming, Astrid used as much mana as she could, and drilled through the monster inch by inch. If she wasn’t still weakened by the Overload effect, or if it wasn’t for the magical power increase granted by the eyes of the demonic golden spider, perhaps Astrid would already be dead.

But Astrid ignored that though and persevered.

Her spiralling lance of pure void energy bored a hole straight through the final monster, and Astrid found herself infront of Jabari.

Any ordinary warrior would have pressed their advantage, and attacked with their enemy in front of them. But Astrid didn’t know what other tricks the young Sovereign held up his sleeve.

If she attacked him now, would he pull out another movement skill, or maybe attack with another new technique?

Astrid wouldn’t risk it. Instead, she continued with her plan.

Without the monsters to counter her attack, Astrid created a connection with the young man’s mind, and used Mind Domain. Of course, she was banking on the hope that the ghostly monsters would stop attacking, or disappear completely if she was in his mind.

Here goes nothing.

Astrid activated Mind Domain and entered her own world. From a white, instantly she created the environment of her choosing. A narrow alleyway surrounded on all sides by walls.

She quickly spared some attention as she gazed outside of her domain.

Darian was now overpowering the hideous white monster. It had lost the connection with its master, losing the bonuses it was receiving. It wouldn’t be long before it was split into hundreds of pieces, torn to sunder, and its body parts would fall to the jungle floor for nature to reclaim it.

The Ixtalian elder was also pressing his advantage, tearing into the army of spiders alongside his people.

Returning her focus into her domain, Astrid took a quick breath from the added boosts of power she received.

She glared at Jabari, wondering how he would escape from her Domain.

“I’ve underestimated you,” Jabari said.

His face was serious.

Shoulders tense, fingers twitching, he resembled a desperate beast trapped in a corner. There was no monster by his side, nor did he have any of his beastly features. Of course, he did in reality, but Astrid was within his mind.

She made him feel naked, powerless, with no skill to help him. If he had the Intelligence required, he would be able to tell that it was all just an illusion. With a thought, he could return to his beastly visage, and fight with his powers.

But he didn’t focus on Intelligence like Astrid did.

“Was invading me worth it?” Astrid asked.

The man had entered a portal to another world in an attempt to take her life. He knew of the danger as he had mentally linked soldiers to scout out her abilities and power, so he knew exactly what he was getting himself into.

Yet he had risked his life anyway.

“You don’t understand.” Jabari laughed as he wiped the leaking blood from his eyes. “Only one out of billions is able to become a Candidate. To become a Sovereign is to step above countless others. To reign supreme. Once you become a Sovereign, you can reach a world beyond your understanding.”

His face turned to that of wrath. Astrid swore she was able to see flames flickering within his eyes, but it was just an illusion. He continued, “The fact that a little girl is a Sovereign Candidate is laughable. I’ll take over the Arc. I’ll be the one to transcend. I will become a Monster…”

Jabari’s words became crazed, and then he bolted forward. His shoulders were hunched over, and his knees were bent, as if he was not a human, but a beast.

However, his body halted in midair. His legs and arms thrashed in the air, but he couldn’t move.

“I’m not a little girl,” Astrid spat. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”

Astrid flared her mana, and ripped the young man's eyes from their sockets. Following close by were two simultaneous explosions that blew his skull into bloody fragments.

Astrid ignored the System notifications as she gazed at her new eyes. At a first glance, they were normal. But the closer she peered into their depths, she saw a monstrous figure dance within. One turned to two, then four, until hundreds of monsters all squirmed around.

Then she stored them.

Dominating Sovereigns Eye has extracted the Skill - Dance of Monsters - From the Sovereign Candidate: Jabari Cole.

| Dance of Monsters: Summon a horde of devouring monsters to defend you in a ring. Scales with Wisdom.

| Merging Dance of Monsters into one of your skills…

Huh?

Astrid gazed at the message in confusion. That had never happened before…

Merging Dance of Monsters into Psych Domain…

| Merging complete.

| You have awakened a Legendary Skill.