Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling

Chapter 15: Icy Fish Woman?

Chapter 15: Icy Fish Woman?

…

You defeated a - Smiling-Arachnid - level 16!

You defeated a - Smiling-Arachnid - level 18!

Extra experience is awarded for defeating enemies above your level!

Experience is reduced for fighting within a group.

You have levelled up!

You have levelled up!

Psychokinetic level 13 -> Psychokinetic level 14

Illusionist level 8 -> Illusionist level 10

Gained 15 stat points.

Mind Barrier level 4 -> Mind Barrier level 5

Title Gained - All Eyes At Once: Damn, two eyes was an achievement, let alone eight!

| It's now 10% easier to pull out eyes.

| 10 added intelligence.

| 5 added wisdom.

You now have 85 intelligence.

You now have 45 constitution.

Astrid looked around at the corpses of insects with a satisfied smile on her face. She had won again. Her heart pounded. This is fun. Ah, the sweet smell of level ups, and spider guts. Astrid shivered as a spider leg twitched.

Activate the Title. With the thought, she could feel the faint increase in her intelligence. She couldn't wait to try it out.

Astrid turned toward a bubbling noise. Jonathan had his hand grasped around the hand of one of his friends. Blood was being gurgled out of his mouth, seeping down past his cheek and onto the cold floor below.

“W-we sh-shouldn’t have come d-down here.” The young man tried to speak through the blood pooling in his mouth. Jonathan tried to feed him a health potion but it couldn't get past the thick blood.

“Healer!” Jonathan shouted as Rachelle rushed over.

Rachelle rushed over and knelt beside the boy. “This is going to hurt–a lot.”

“J-just do it.” Jonathan said.

Rachelle’s hand pressed up against his abdomen as a bright light flashed within the room. The smell of burning flesh tingled at Astrid’s senses.

A guttural scream left his throat, followed by silence.

Rachelle wiped her blood-soaked hand. “He’s dead.”

“What do you mean, dead?” Jonathan shot up, his hands tightly grasped around Rachelle's collar.

“Unhand me.” Rachelle said. The room’s temperature sharply rose. “The toxins had already seeped far into his internal organs. Not only that, my fire healing can’t reach that deep.

“Shit!” Jonathan knelt by his friend. His other friends surrounded him, taking turns to hold his hand as words of comfort were said.

“I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. We’ll come back for his body.” Daniel turned around. “Let’s go.”

Jonathan gently let go of his hand and grit his teeth. He walked forward, barging past Astrid.

Astrid activated Psych Domain. The matter in Jonathan’s mind was going crazy. It felt different to mana. I wonder if that’s emotion? Sadness, grief, anger? Astrid sighed. His death was a brutal reminder that one careless mistake and it was over. Astrid gazed at the dead body of the Seafarer that was just a little older than she was. She shook her head.

They continued through the gardens. It was more akin to a forest as it spanned for miles. It was hard to tell considering how thick the foliage was. The haze was also getting thicker. Astrid had an idea. Her barrier formed around her. Using her Psychokinesis, she grabbed hold of the toxic matter and pushed them out of the shield. She lowered her mask and took a little breath. Noticing that it was clean, she gulped down the fresh air.

Daniel looked at her and stopped. “Alright, me, Brett and Astrid will go on together. We’ll kill the Belkers and return. Understood?”

The others nodded. They were finding it harder to breathe through their masks.

The trio walked through the thick-haze.

“How big can you make it?” Brett coughed.

Astrid controlled it to cover all three of them. Her brows furrowed.

“I can’t control it like this for very long.” Astrid said.

“We’re approaching them.” Daniel said.

Astrid tried to sense around her, but the strain was too much for her current capabilities. It was the barrier or nothing else.

“Let me know when you’re leaving. You can’t just run through it or it’ll break.” Astrid warned them as they nodded.

The haze was impeding Astrid’s vision. She was forced to just follow Daniel, as he seemed to know where he was going. The fog turned from a gentle green to a deep and thick grey with green streaks running through the cloud.

“Okay, let us out.” Daniel said.

Astrid nodded and held her breath. She released the barrier and replaced it around herself after expelling the toxic fumes. After a few minutes, they appeared in front of her, tapping on the barrier. Dark green spots covered their weapons and boots. The thick cloud of toxins dispersed, the visibility within the room returned to normal. Astrid turned off the barrier.

Astrid looked at a monster laying down in a dark puddle. It was hard to tell it was a monster at first. It was covered in thick, bark-like skin. Mushrooms and flowers grew from the cracks of the bark. On its shoulder lay a large flower on either side, a thick layer of spores clung to the flowers. That must be how it produces its toxic fumes.

With the Belker’s dead, they returned to the group.

As they descended further, the temperature followed. It was plummeting. Astrid exhaled her warm breath as it turned into a fog. The cold nipped at her skin. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if she refused to level up her constitution stat. She looked back at Jonathan. His shoulders were trembling and the tip of his nose had turned a scarlet red.

“We should meet up with the others soon.” Daniel said. “I’ll go scouting ahead with Brett.” The others nodded as they sprinted in the distance.

Astrid kicked a pebble. A pebble, down here? I’m bored. A moist coldness touched her nose. She reached out her hand as a white speck landed in her palm. The moment it brushed up against her warm skin, it melted into a spec of water.

More followed. Astrid looked up at the ceiling as they began fluttering down, seemingly from nowhere. What the hell, snow? How?

“Guard up, everyone.” Losef said. They all quickly got into formation.

Astrid heard a groaning rattle coming from the floor. A bright, dense collection of matter began forming.

“The floor!” Astrid shouted.

A skeleton arm formed, dragging itself up and out of the floor. Its head emerged, a cold-blue flame flickered within its fishy skeleton eye sockets. It was as if it appeared out of thin air. It was in the middle of Astrid and the other ranged users and quickly, other skeletons joined it. Forming down the hallway in an endless tide.

“No you don’t, you piece of shit!” Astrid shouted at the rattling bone cage that was still emerging from the floor. Her mind smashed into the monster as its bones scattered. The blue flame dwindled, as if it had extinguished.

Astrid and the others took one side. While Rob, Jonathan and the seafarers took the other.

Astrid took advantage of their slow assembly time as her mind crashed into them. Dwindling their life before it began. But with four dead, six took its place as they kept on forming. Astrid knew this couldn’t continue. She had no clue what was summoning them, but she had a feeling it had more mana than she did.

They continued smashing the undead Spawn. Astrid watched for a little, trying to conserve her mana. It looked like it was going to be a battle of attrition.

A few more minutes passed and Astrid looked at Losef. It was then that she realised the weakness of the Wayfarer group. With Daniel gone, they looked lost. Standing still, waiting for something. I could be wrong, they may know something I don’t. I’ll conserve mana by using my knives.

She shot out the blades. Once one took a life, she recalled them like a piece of string was attached to each individual knife.

Lisa’s arrows released like a torrent. Her quiver seemed to be infinite as she loosed the arrows from her bow. Astrid watched as they not only penetrated the skeletons, but blasted them off their feet. Sending bone fragments backwards like shrapnel.

She looked back. Jonathan was gritting his teeth, his mind swirling with an intense emotion. His spells were flying out with fervour as they ripped into the undead.

Well, at least he’s finally attacking, poor mana.

"Jonathan, you need to control your mana usage." Astrid shouted.

"Shut it!"

Turning her attention back to her group. Losef moved with the efficiency of a trained killer on the battlefield. His shield was smaller than usual, but his defensive prowess set up his offence perfectly. He used his round shield to effortlessly and safely parry the skeleton’s attacks. Then his spear lunged at their heads. Pierce. The spear tip glided through the hard bone.

“How long can we stay like this?” Astrid looked at Lisa.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Lisa fired another high-powered arrow. “But trust us.”

Astrid bit her lip and nodded. The fight raged on, and despite the high levels of the tanks, they took damage. It had already been an hour. Think of the levels. It was the only thought that kept her spirits high. Every message inside her head was music to her ears.

Astrid’s mind locked onto a downed undead knight, its body was larger than average. She sent the downed knight crashing backwards as it toppled the rest. Stumbling them all to the floor.

Using the fact that their shields were knocked over. Rachelle’s fire magic blazed towards them, engulfing their bones into a fiery storm.

Further into the hallway, movement tugged at Astrid’s mind. It was getting closer, and it was more than just one. A mixed group of Wayfarers, Seafarers, and Humanity Corps all arrived. Astrid was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she suddenly felt a bang in her mind. Then it shot forward, and the newly arrived group splattered into a red mist. It bloomed like a flower as it engulfed the room in a pungent copper-tang.

A slender knight, clad in full plated armour, glared at them. It held an enormous axe that was double the size of its body. It blasted towards them. Astrid struggled to keep her eyes on it. At the last second, it completely disappeared from sight, followed by an ear-shattering smash.

Losef’s body hurtled backwards, colliding against Astrid’s mind barrier. She felt a crack within her mind as mana spilled out of her body like a damn being released. Her barrier shattered. It all happened too fast.

Astrid rolled onto the ground. Losef was quick to recover as blood seeped out of his mouth. He dashed back to his position, his spear snapping forward like a vicious snake.

The heavily armoured knight brought its axe up like a shield. Spear tip met with the heavy axe, causing a metallic clang to ring out. The knight took a step back, then its axe lashed at Losef. A spark of flame singed the cold within the room and blasted the knight. Followed by another, Rachelle didn’t stop firing fire balls from her wand. Her eyebrows were knotted.

Astrid could sense the knight through the dense ocean of orange and red. The specks of matter suddenly condensed into millions–or billions. Her mind sizzled at the concentrated mana that was forming. Her eyes widened at the impending doom.

“Blast a hole in the floor right now!” Astrid screamed.

Rob charged forward, slamming his tower shield onto the ground. Splitting the metal of the ship into jagged scrap metal. Astrid didn’t care about anyone else. She leapt into the abyss-like hole that was formed.

She wasn’t the only one that could sense the incoming attack. Those with quick reactions leapt into the hole, alongside Jonathan who could sense the mana on the other side.

She free fell for a while through the darkness. Quickly, that darkness turned into a dim light that flickered into vision. Her eyes widened as she hurtled towards the floor. Astrid’s mind wracked with an idea.

That's it! Her mind latched onto her breastplate as she pulled it up with Psychokinesis. Astrid's body just stopped in time as she hit the floor. Her mind picked up rapidly approaching objects from above. Using what was left of her mana, she latched onto her falling team. She noticed that connecting to the higher levels was almost impossible. She could only stop Jonathan and the other people in her generation.

The room was filled with ice that was frigid to the touch.

Rachelle used a fire skill to blast the floor. Rob relied on his robust body slamming to the ground, as did Losef. Lisa gracefully fell, reducing the impact with her high agility.

“Hey guys.” Daniel smiled wryly.

Astrid glared up at him. “You son of a bit-” She stopped her words as she looked around her. Kaylan and the other high-ranking people were all standing at attention.

She peered over her shoulder. A woman was shrouded in a long, dark dress that revealed most of her shoulders and chest. She sat with her head resting upon interlocked hands. She was missing a nose, and gills formed on her throat. Halfway down her arms, her pale paper-like skin blended with an icy blue. The ice descended further down to her webbed, clawed hands. Her frigid eyes gazed at the humans in front of her. A faint haze of fog emitted from the tops of her shoulders as an army of skeletons scrambled out from the floor.

“Well, shit.” Astrid’s lip curled. her mind twinged in pain from the lack of mana.