Chapter 106: Taste of Victory

“Mule, Catch them!” Quasi yells, releasing his aura like a nova.

Mule, having heard the cry, reacts quickly. He stops his discs spinning and makes them fly towards the falling Gejan. Within a moment, a gravitational pull comes from within the discs, slowing and suspending the fall of the Gejan.

With an effort of will, Quasi slows the flight of the Dragon, allowing Mule to bring the confused Gejan onto the mount.

“What's… ughhhh, happening.” Jessica says. She squints as the headache slowly subsides.

Quasi frowns as he stares at the Aboleth miles away from them.

“It's a psionic monster.” He says without emotion.

The foe in front of him, the awakened Aboleth, is an enemy that he is sorely unprepared to fight. Psionic skills are rare and very difficult to defend against as they target the mind.

The Gejan begin groaning as they slowly regain their mental faculties. The pulse of Aura had instantly destroyed the Aboleth’s connection to their minds.

Jessica sighs, “How do you defend against that?”

“It’s difficult. You either have skills that strengthen your mind like Alba or you have an Aura that can weaken mental attacks like you.”

Jessica takes a moment to digest his words. She trained using aura, but only to better control her summons.

“Did it finally stop?” Jessica asks, turning towards the Gejan holding their heads. She also notices Peter is fully awake and seems to glare at the Aboleth in the distance.

“No,” Alba quickly says, “it is still attacking… but it is very weak now.” she frowns and turns curiously towards Quasi.

“I have a powerful soul and an overwhelming amount of willpower. My aura is protecting us for now, but it won't last forever. That monster is persistent,” the [Hero] states without a hint of his usual relaxed and jolly self.

Quasi gazes at the screen at the side of his vision and the constant pings it keeps sending him.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

[Dominate Mind] Resisted.

It is continually trying but failing. However, Quasi can feel his aura slowly being chipped away after each cast. He cannot defend indefinitely.

“What do we do?” Jessica asks. Her own eyes harden as she notices the seriousness of Quasi’s expression. A far cry from the normally overly confident [Hero].

Quasi looks at her and then checks around himself. He stops on Peter.

“Peter, can you protect yourself from its mental attacks?” he asks.

Peter turns towards Quasi and slowly nods. Weavers are naturally Psionic, and thus, very good at defending from such attacks. Regardless, he also has limits. Eventually his mind would break under a prolonged attack. After all, he isn't a weaver that specializes in mental warfare like his Queen.

“Good. I’m going to accelerate and try to get to the island. In the meantime,” Quasi turns to Jessica, “Summon as many [Minor Angels] as possible and send them towards the Aboleth. Keep them spread out. Peter, get on Mule and follow the [Minor Angels].

The spider quickly reacts, jumping towards Mule and landing on its side. Jessica nods and calls up her mana.

“[Summon Minor Angel], [Summon Minor Angel], [Summon Minor Angel].”

She casts her spell three times, each time creating four winged angels. Twelve in total. She then points towards the Aboleth.

“Spread out and attack.”

The [Minor Angels] immediately obey. They accelerate towards the Aboleth. Mule, with his dozens of discs, begins to charge as well, matching speed with the dozen angels.

Quasi leans down and focuses his mana. The undead dragon glows as Quasi’s mana circulates through its bones. The undead begins to fly faster, its wings beginning to creak from the stress.

____________________________

The Aboleth looks on at the approaching swarm. He attempts to dominate their minds, but finds them lacking. The winged gold things have no mind for him to take. The other two are a different story.

One of them is withstanding his skill very well. Its mind is powerful, and similar to the Aboleth’s own.

As for the last one, the one that the Aboleth is most confused about…

Cannot follow order: Order interferes with Priority Directive.

Cannot follow order: Order interferes with Priority Directive.

Cannot follow order: Order interferes with Priority Directive.

Cannot follow order: Order interferes with Priority Directive.

The Aboleth had created the connection, but that is all. None of its mental commands are being followed.

Thus, it must change its plan. With a mental nudge, its servant, Khalaenas, begins to act. The crystal fins on its body begin to glow. The monster's mouth opens as its head rises even higher out of the water. The water around it begins to churn and twist, spinning around the serpent and rising into the air.

The winds begin to pick up, violently whirling, being pulled along with the spinning water as mana saturates the sea. Then, as the enemy swarm comes near enough, the water reacts, blasting into the air as a typhoon with the monster at the center. The wind buffets the incoming swarm, making flight for the angels very difficult, but Mule persists as his own flight is barely affected.

Gravitational based flight is much less affected by external changes than aerodynamic based flight. The only thing that changes is the quantity of mana used to prevent interruption. It’s a paltry cost considering the excessive mana the undead absorbs through his crystalline body.

Regardless, even Mule has his limits.He redirects gravity, shoving himself away from a stream of highly pressurized water the serpent now shoots from its mouth. The jet of water strikes a [Minor Angel], slices the construct in half and sends it back to from where it had come.

As Mule comes closer and closer, the attacks increase in number, enough that his discs start getting blasted by the high pressure blasts of water as his focus transitions to keeping the main body from getting hit.

Regardless, Mule’s main body easily avoids the damage as he constantly shifts Gravity to keep himself out of the way. Eventually, with three remaining angels and only thirty two discs, he reaches the enemy at the eye of the storm. Mule feeds a wave of energy to the discs which begin to vibrate and spin faster. Then, he accelerates them towards the Aboleth.

The Aboleth sees the attack and opens its mouth. The crystals embedded in its mouth begin to glow.

The dangerous discs slam into a psionic barrier and are deflected. Regardless of the failed attack, Mule does not relent, allowing the discs to spin around the battlefield, constantly striking the Aboleth while attempting to dodge pressured water now spouting out of the ocean due to the boss.

It is at this time that Peter jumps from Mule’s back. His small figure falls down, directly towards the Aboleth. A moment after jumping, Peter's body begins to smoke before an explosion of steam is released. Ten tons of Peter land atop the boss, forcing it back downwards towards the water from the heavy impact.

Peter takes the opportunity and begins webbing the serpent's head while simultaneously biting through its defensive skin and injecting a huge amount of potent neurotoxic venom.

The poison works quickly and the liquid attacks from the boss become less focussed and more erratic. Regardless, Khalaenas is exceptionally massive and Peter is small compared to it. The poison is not nearly enough to take it down on its own.

_________________________________________

Quasi lands the dragon in what can be considered quite an impressive crash landing. Wings twist and break, legs rip, and the tail is severed sometime in the process of landing. Thankfully, the [Hero] had made sure to have Joker protect Jessica and Alba during the crash. The Gejan and Quasi unfortunately slam hard onto the stone ground. Only Darrow and Orlan are left unscathed. The others, including Quasi, are injured.

“Fuck me. The wings didn't hold,” he groans as he stands up. His body has what some might consider the worst case of road rash ever seen, with patches of skin completely removed and his perfectly smooth and undamaged bone clearly visible to the naked eye.

With a bit of will, he ignores the pain and checks that everyone has survived.

“Quasi!” Jessica yells. She jumps out of Joker's limbs and runs towards him.

She looks over Quasi, then Aldonis and Thorous, both of whom seem to be in worse shape as their bones are clearly broken and cracked.

“I’ll be fine. [Heal] them first.”

Jessica immediately nods, rushes towards the two injured Gejan.

Quasi watches her begin healing while he moves his limbs back into position. With everything relocated, he turns towards the battle currently ongoing. Mule is attempting to break through the Aboleths psionic barrier while Peter is doing all he can to restrict the serpent's movements with his web. The weaver is finding the process difficult due to the water constantly messing with his web weaving

Quasi looks around, trying to understand why the Aboleth has yet to dive underwater from whence it could attack unimpeded with its slave. But he found nothing obvious except for the possibility that it does not yet realise that fighting underwater would be advantageous.

After a minute, he feels soft hands touch his injured flesh. The flesh bubbles momentarily before healing at an impressive rate.

“Thank you,” he says to Jessica, impressed at how well the flesh knits together. Only when the flesh looks to be practically healed does she fix the destroyed nerves. A strike of pain hits him then disappears in an instant.

He nods as she steps back. His gaze turns towards ongoing battle. He begins doing calculations, going through his skills, creating combos, appraising abilities. Eventually, he realises that he is attempting to solve a simple problem with a complicated plan.

“You're smiling. I’m guessing you have a good plan.” Jessica says with much less fear and stress in her voice.

Quasi chuckles and gazes behind him. The Gejan are still unconscious but Alba has mostly recovered mentally. Then, he turns towards wrecked remains of the dragon. Its skull still glows strongly, but its body is in shambles.

“Foolproof, though I think a fool could still mess it up,” he raises his hand into the air and releases his mana.

“Though, we wouldn’t have gotten this far if I was a fool.”

[Enchanted Bone Javelin: Corrosive Annihilation]

The spell activates as the [Soaring Bone Dragon] begins to turn into dust to fuel the spell.

“Not yet.”

He forces more mana into the spell, increasing the size and density of the Javelin. More and more bone dust sublimes and condenses until a car sized spear of bone is created.

“Now,” the next part of the spell activates. Enchantments begin flowing across the Javelin, covering the entirety of the spear and draining nearly all of the Necromancers mana. Barely any was used to create the spear, but almost all of it was used for the enchanting.

“That's…” Jessica stares at the pulsing purple floating monstrosity of a spear.

Quasi licks his lips, “Complicated plans are fun and all. But, sometimes, simple is far better.”

The spear begins to spin quickly. The air begins to twist and churn, causing even Jessica to step back as the [Necromancer] has his arm raised with his robe swaying violently from the wind.

Quasi waits, counting the seconds, then releases a pulse of Aura directly towards Peter. Peter’s eyes meet Quasi’s. Understanding dawns on the spider and it begins to spill out pounds and pounds of web in all directions.

Quasi nods, moves his hand back as though he is going to throw something.

Then, he shoves it forward, a sonic boom explodes around him as the speed of sound is broken.

Seeing the projectile loosened, Peter creates and throws a literal wall of web that covers the psionic barrier and restricts the Aboleths sight.

Peter bends his legs and then jumps as hard as he can into the air while quickly reducing his size as small as possible. His body rockets away from the monster.

“Checkmate. [Call of the Undead Guardian]”

A bit of mana burns from him as Mule’s body disappears and reappears next to Quasi mere moments from the impact.

The spear strikes, ramming into the head of Khalaenas. Then the enchantment activates.

Quasi spreads his arms and laughs maniacally.

The spear disintegrates and releases its payload of concentrated dark mana. The mana corrodes the flesh, bones, and sinew before going a step further. Atoms are ripped apart and nuclear energy is unleashed. Heat exceeding six thousand celsius is discharged in a massive explosion, obliterating everything in its immediate vicinity.

“THIS, JESSICA, IS TRUE POWER!” He yells while continuing his manic laughter, a laughter cut short as a piece of burning liver slaps him in the face, followed by a shower of blood and flesh.

The great and powerful [Hero] coughs.

“Fuck, I think some of it entered my mouth. Gawww, it's so nasty, and haaawwwwwttt!” he says while it showers them with the boss's flaming innards.