"It feels good to be back to full health," Jyorta slammed his fists into each other as he spoke, getting sent outside the green circle. He then placed his hand on the transparent pillar of green, coming into contact with a tough surface that wouldn't budge no matter what. 'It is as they have said. We can enter a green circle only once. Just in case I get injured, I should try to find another green circle.'
"I guess we have to split ways from this point," Dalna Doppler said as she looked around, noticing the narrow paths between the boulders that formed a maze. "A big group would just paint ourselves as a target for all sneak attacks."
"Indeed," Ashten nodded, fist-bumping Jyorta, "Take care, man. We'll look for a yellow circle first, followed by a black circle. Hope you find one soon too."
"No worries," Jyorta smiled, looking at his team of four that readily stood behind him. "Shall we go?"
"Yes," His team members nodded and enacted a formation, taking positions on his four sides. Jyorta unleashed his stronger psychic arm, condensing it into a sphere as he enlarged it, covering all his teammates into it.
Their figures slowly disappeared from the vision as Jyorta looked around, watching the figure of Madam Mary flicker and disappear. In their apprehensiveness, some of the Tier 2 Frenzy Beasts had unleashed their aura. It caused the figure of Madam Mary to flicker, no longer looking as imposing.
They immediately realised that they had been fooled, growling as they gazed at the students. A couple of Spindle Bees shot their spindles at the 10-metre-tall figure, watching the spindles penetrate her without any resistance and fall on the ground after making a long arc.
The roars of the Frenzy Beasts increased by a notch as they sprinted towards the humans before them.
"Scatter!" Dalna Doppler shouted as she led her team through one of the paths passing between a couple of boulders, sending a Spiked Lizard in her way flying with a kick. She was fully healed now and was also brimming with energy, so Dalna Doppler moved with unstoppable might.
She was only using her Tier 1 Skill to keep track of everything, preventing her teammates from falling under harm. The sounds of fluttering wings resounded as tens of Spindle Bees flew over them, aiming the stingers at their faces.
"Crouch!" She shouted and crouched, touching the ground. Her teammates too reacted on reflex, imitating her actions. It seemed she had trained them to behave accordingly, so they didn't drag her down.
The spindles timely flew over them, hitting the ground a couple of metres behind. Dalna Doppler slapped on a protruding piece of rock, breaking it as she threw the piece towards the Spindle Bees, slamming into three of them. The attack damaged them as the rock crashed 30 metres away.
The Spindle Bees winced as they were unable to fly. Part of their wings had been damaged. Dalna Doppler grabbed the head of one of them and slashed around, severing the heads of the other Spindle Bees by using its stinger.
She had made use of the Spindle Bee with a stinger larger than the rest. Once she made her slash, Dalna Doppler grabbed hold of the stinger and pulled it out, noticing some internal organs be attached to it. She slammed them on the nearby rock, thrashing them out as she held the stinger.
She wielded it like it was a knife. Dalna Doppler looked at her teammates that moved without any commands, pulling out the stingers from the slain Spindle bees. They planned to use them as weapons until they came across a yellow circle.
Ten boulders away were Jyorta and his team, hiding underneath a boulder's protrusion. It was wide enough for them to hide underneath, no longer having to fear attacks from the air. He had fully unleashed his domain, keeping track of the underground too.
Jyorta knocked the forehead of Rishana, "Did you sense the pit from before?"
"I only sensed it when we set foot upon it. I am only able to sense it vertically." Rishana bowed her head, watching Jyorta sigh.
"If we had more time, we could have increased the range of the surroundings you could detect." Jyorta looked around, watching ten One-Horned Rhinos run before them. As they were shielded by his psychic energy barrier, the One-Horned Rhinos hadn't detected their presence.
His barrier blocked out everything except for the passage of air. Even then, he ensured their presence wouldn't be in it, not to mention the vibration of the air molecules thanks to their conversation.
"Consider this as your training too," Jyorta looked at Rishana, "Altitude Perception only functions vertically beneath you, but you must try to increase the area under which you can perceive the altitude. Try to develop in this direction now."
"Yes," Rishana nodded, closing her eyes as she focused on the task, remembering her experience from before. As she had already trained herself in the rock pillar region, she had grasped the functions of her Tier 1 Skill, Altitude Perception. Now, she already understood what she had to do to develop the functions of her Skill.
A minute later, Rishana opened her eyes, "The range is three metres around me now. Everything under the circle formed by this radius, I can sense the altitude of."
"Good, continue on it further by using this experience." Jyorta nodded, "We will be stopping here for the time being."
"Sreshta, scout the farther places. Bilena, keep track of everything in our surroundings." Jyorta relayed his instructions, watching the girls get on to it immediately. "Duvic, be ready to pick up some items now."
"What items?" Duvic questioned back as he looked ready, raring to go, despite the order being something simple.
"They'll be produced now." Jyorta smiled, watching a group of Spindle Bees fly over them. He gazed in their direction, facing his palm towards them as he condensed the range of his effect.
Aura Personification—Hallucination!
There were five Spindle Bees in total. Four of them were at Tier 1, while the last was at Tier 2. The Tier 2 Spindle Bee struggled for a couple of seconds, resisting his aura with its own. Using the insight he had obtained from Aura Induction, Jyorta modified the hallucinations, turning it into something the Spindle Bee desperately wished to see.
It was its home. As the Spindle Bee longed to return to its home, even though it instinctively knew it was something an enemy had concocted, its emotional self wished to immerse itself further into the place and soak in the warmth of its home. This desire of it pulled it further into the hallucination, proceeding beyond the point of no return.
Despite possessing enough aura to resist the effect of his hallucinations, the scene caused it to fall into it willingly. This was how Jyorta maximised the effect of his hallucinations. The Tier 2 Spindle Bee hovered in the air as the remaining four Tier 1 Spindle Bees aimed their stingers towards the ground and shot their spindles one after another.
Even though they were only at Tier 1, their spindles regrew within 10 seconds. So, every 10 seconds, they shot a volley of spindles towards the ground. Once the number of spindles on the ground reached 40, the four Spindle Bees had run out of energy.
Jyorta motioned at Duvic, "They are our items; throwing knives."
"Awesome!" Duvic clapped his hand once and exited the barrier as Jyorta opened some space. He quickly picked up all the spindles and hurried back, dropping them on the ground. "All here."
"Perfect, now all we need are…" Jyorta trailed off, looking at Bilena as he asked, "Where are the Floating Spiders?"
Bilena focused on her ears, using her Tier 1 Skill, Enhanced Hearing as she filtered out the sounds of the Frenzy Beasts one after another, finally latching onto the position of the Floating Spiders. "They are to our 7'o Clock, 30 metres away."
"Nice," Jyorta gave her a thumbs-up as he controlled the Tier 2 Spindle Bee to move, retracting his control over the other four Spindle Bees. They looked around in confusion for a moment, gazing at the ground to notice numerous holes in it, a sign they had attacked there using their spindles.
They were confused for a moment, wondering what happened as they noticed the Tier 2 Spindle Bee fly away, buzzing around as they followed it. The Tier 2 Spindle Bee flew for 10 metres and positioned its stinger, correcting its angle as Jyorta made adjustments according to Bilena's inputs.
After some time passed, the Tier 2 Spindle Bee shot forth its spindle, injuring a Floating Spider. The Floating Spiders were taunted by this action, screeching as they flew over immediately. As they usually clashed, even the smallest of instigations were enough to spark a fight between them.
The Floating Spiders screeched in anger as the spindle had impaled the head of one of them, putting it in a critical state. In the current state of chaos, it was bound to die sooner or later. So, it implied the Spindle Bee became the cause for the death of one of their brethren.
Intending to reap the life of the attacker, the Floating Spiders flew towards the Spindle Bee, coming to a stop when they neared it. After that, the entire group slowly stopped above the path, next to the boulder under which Jyorta and his group were hiding.
The four Spindle Bees looked at their leader, confused as to why it grouped up with the Floating Spiders. Unable to understand the situation, and as they were out of energy, they made their retreat.
"Thankfully, all of them are Tier 1 Floating Spiders." Jyorta made a mental count of them, laughing as he totalled, "There are 26 of them here. That makes a lot of silk to be obtained."
He looked at his teammates, "Now, shall we prepare our armour? Pick your preference."