Chapter 162: The Fight Continues
Chapter 162: The Fight Continues
Chapter 162: The Fight Continues
Astrid should have fallen into a panic, but that didn’t happen. The corner of her lips turned up as she controlled the mana within her eye.
Thankfully she didn’t truly think that even if Avemoth was impaled that it would die. No. She was ready for it.
Placing her hand to the ground, she activated the technique she had learned from Zephyrion’s Inheritance trials. Hidden Matter. She connected to the matter behind the primal beast and [Crashed] it. It sent the rock and dirt of the cave splattering all around, and within the cloud of dust was a familiar eyeball.
Astrid blinked–faster than Avemoth could react–and appeared above the monster. She snapped her weight down with Psychokinesis, directly stomping on Avemoths face. As her foot made contact, a blast of psychic mana shot out the sole of her foot in a direct explosion.
Avemoth, even while undergoing an assault, surged its mana, and readied its Skill. But Astrid smirked. She connected to the soul of the monster then [Crashed]. It wasn’t enough to deal any damage, but the effectiveness was obvious–especially with being so close.
Its attack was halted.
Astrid continued down and clenched the beast's small head within her hand, then connected to its eyes. Yanking them, she felt a considerable force resist her.
Avemoth thrashed around, but Astrid made sure to stick to the monster's back like a pervasive glue. Astrid realised that she had found Avemoths weakness. As she was under its wings, it wasn’t able to use them to attack.
That was until she felt a heat surge from behind her. A lava pillar shot out from under the earth, and like a whip, it lashed toward her back.
She ignored it. Rather, a psychokinetic blade formed within her hand. This time it wasn’t made from Voidbent, but from the matter within the world. And alongside it were the stat bonuses from her Intelligence Stat.
Astrid thrust the blade straight into the beast's back. It reappeared on the other side, and at the same time, Astrid pulled on Avemoths eyes with her psychic mana.
She felt the resistance of Avemoth wavering. It was weakening. But it wasn’t enough. Not yet. Astrid wanted to attack again, but the lava whip shot toward her like a phantom image. The speed made her gasp.
Instead of continuing her attack, She dodged to the side, then rotated around Avemoth to its front. She swiped the blade that formed around her hand upward to the beast's wings. An enormous gash sliced into the thin wing, but even though it was as thin as a cicada's wing–it was incredibly durable.
Her blade reached half-way before stopping.
Astrid noticed the danger she was in and [Crashed] the wound she had just created in its wing. The matter attached to the wing, then exploded at her command. In a storm of red and orange, the wing was ripped off the primal beings body.
It let out a wretched scream, but Astrid couldn’t care less. It was her or it. She would beat it once and get all her friends out safely. In one piece at that. Except Brett–he lost an arm.
Astrid continued her frenzy attack. Her eyes would pop out in unpredictable ways unlike before. They would emerge from the floor, the wall, the ceiling; and she would reappear in any direction. Of course her mana consumption was terrifying, but she had a Transcendent Class. It allowed her to be crazy with her mana expenditure.
Reappearing to Avemoths flank once more, she tore its other wing with a slice of her Psychokinetic sword, then blasted it with a [Crash] as she disappeared again.
Tears of lava dropped from the beast's face as it had suffered the pull of its eyes one too many times.
With its wings gone, it only had access to the lava pillars surrounding its body. They formed a wall around Avemoth after the last attack. Astrid could only see little spots of the beast's body through the pillars, but with Psych Domain, the entirety of its body was on display.
She witnessed it falling into a squatting position. As if it was trying to cocoon itself.
Astrid didn’t know what it meant, but she wouldn’t allow it to happen.
With her clone by her side, a purple storm formed within her palm. Her control of matter was much greater than before so instead of a ball, she formed a slender missile that had a scary point at the tip. The air surrounding her screamed in protest at the forming dark matter attack.
The primal mana around Avemoth arose into the air. Beadlets of lava floated above like jewelled marbles. It was a beautiful sight, but Astrid could feel the danger radiating from the beast. It was its last attack and whatever it was, Astrid didn’t want to find out how strong it was.
Astrid could feel the missile in her clone's hand become unstable. It was time. She pushed the missile forward, but it was incredibly heavy. Heavy to the point that every muscle in her body bulged from the power of Omni-Kinesis. As it reached in front of her, it shot forward as if it had a mind of its own.
Air shattering from its chaotic path, the missile screamed toward the beast. It was so fast she could only barely make out a purple trail, and a sprinkling of white behind it.
It tore through the lava pillars like a knife through paper, and smashed against Avemoths chest.
In a cataclysmic explosion, Astrid was blasted off her feet, and slammed into the nearby wall. A hot sensation surged up her throat. Spitting out the mouthful of blood from the impacting shockwaves, she looked in horror at the damage her attack had done–or was still doing.
The missile had exploded on its body, but a never-ending void had taken its place. Like a black hole, it swallowed Avemoth. But it clearly wasn’t strong enough to devour the primal beast. The black hole’s dark matter energy ground up the beast like a butchering machine.
Astrid blasted forward, flying toward Avemoth. She decided to finally put an end to the monster that had previously defeated her.
The previously primal-like mana that flowed through Avemoth like a never ending ocean was now broken. It was like a river that was forcefully blocked. Astrid could feel the monster in front of her try to summon any ounce of its strength, but it was of no use.
You were a great opponent. Astrid’s face was serious. There was no grin or excitement that bubbled up within her. Only a respect that was earned. For the first time, she had felt proper defeat.
It was unlike the time at the auction house, for this battle was almost within her grasp. It was only because she was untrained did she lose the first time.
If it had killed her the first time, it would still be whole, gathering power to finally break free from the volcano and wreak terror on the land. Or maybe it just wanted to live an unfettered life, flying through the endless skies.
Astrid didn’t know.
Avemoth looked at her. There was no emotion within its eyes. It was a monster that had killed before, Astrid could see it. Now it was its own turn. That was how life was here, and back home.
Connecting to Avemoth's eyes, she tugged on them with a mighty pull. Finally, they broke free from their sockets, and disappeared within Astrid’s ‘storage’.
With its eyes removed, the primal monster collapsed to the ground. The pillars of lava acted as if a woodsman had cut them off from the roots. The molten rock turned hard–cold.
Avemoth was dead. Killed. The body, much like the molten-rock around it, transformed into a stone sculpture. The cave turned silent as Astrid took a baited breath.
Holding her sides in pain, she gazed at the System notification messages that popped up within her vision.
You defeated - Avemoth - Level 255!
Extra experience is granted for defeating an enemy many levels above!
The dungeon boss has been defeated. The dungeon gateway has opened.
In front of Astrid, a square rock formation made of black stone emerged from the ground. It grumbled through the earth, as if created by a higher existence. Astrid watched with a grim expression on her mind. How powerful did the System have to be in order to do all of this?
At first she thought the System was only the Classes and Skills they received and earned, but now it was clear it was vastly different to what everyone had once thought.
Within the black square, a blue portal flickered into existence. She attempted to ignore it as the rest of the System messages emerged in front of her mind.
You have Levelled up!
Oculus Witch Level 131 -> Oculus Witch Level 146
Voidmare Level 131 -> Voidmare Level 146
You have gained 150 stat points.
You now have 500 Wisdom.
Astrid held off adding the rest of her points as a new message entered her mind. It was time to upgrade her Wisdom Milestone Skill.
Conditions met for Wisdom [ Stage 3 ]
Astrid looked at the new choices with anticipation.
Spiritual Projection - This skill allows the user to project their consciousness beyond their physical body, allowing them to explore the world in a non-corporeal form. They may be able to scout ahead or gather information from a distance, or even possess the bodies of other creatures for short periods of time.
Pinching her chin, she shook her head as soon as she finished reading it. It was just like Psych Domain and even the scouting part of the Skill was useless to her. Since she had her clones and her Eye of the Void, such scouting abilities were useless to her.
Inner Strength - Draw upon one’s inner reserves of willpower and determination, boosting one’s mental abilities for short periods of time. It also grants them resistance to mind-altering effects such as fear or confusion.
Astrid’s brows perked up at the Skill. Anything to increase her power was a good thing, and it seemed like an excellent choice to grant her some extra passive mental defences at the same time.
Empathic Bond - The user will be able to form deep emotional connections with others, allowing them to share thoughts, feelings, and even memories. They may be able to use this bond to inflict powerful psychic damage on their enemies, or even boost their allies by altering their mind.
Her clone immediately popped up within her thoughts. It was less personal, and it allowed her to help others as well as her clone. Although she was hesitant in choosing it. She had no way of knowing how much damage she could help others with, was it five percent, or fifteen?
Regardless, if it was the former or the latter, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t offer her much. She moved onto the last choice.
Burning Sharpshooter - Allows the user to burn one’s mana in their container per second to increase the range on all their Skills while improving their damage at the same time. Range and damage increase depends on the amount of mana burned per second.
It was incredibly basic. All it did was increase the range and damage of her abilities, but it was perfect for what she needed, and that was range. She couldn’t gain range otherwise unless she added points into Wisdom, but other than that, it was a wasted stat.
The new Skill would allow her to ignore Willpower and add everything into Intelligence–improving her power even further than before. And thanks to her new Transcendent Class, the mana she was allowed to burn was increased by leaps, and bounds.
Enhanced Vision [ Stage 2 ] has evolved to Burning Sharpshooter [ Stage 3 ]
Along with the Enhanced Vision, she now had the benefits of Burning Sharpshooter. With that selected, she moved onto the next. As she saw the message, her palms itched.
You now have 1066 Intelligence.
Conditions met for Milestone Intelligence [ Stage 4 ]
| Defeat a Level 250 with mana.
“Yes!” Astrid clenched her fists in excitement.