Chapter 164 - Blood concoction(2): Into the swamps arc (19)

He had something to take care of the situation right now.

While he thought about what he was going to do next, Amanda kept blabbering like a mindless robot who only knew one thing... answer her owner.

"I wanted your family to destroy themselves by their own hands. That's why I readily agreed when you said you wanted to go and hunt down the church on your own and it saved me a lot of trouble, else I'd have to bring in the fake priestess by myself. But I couldn't leave everything to chance, so I tried to take over your mind as well but for some reason, it didn't work... that's when I decided I needed to play along with you for a bit more...

Once you captured Alice and the interrogation started, I used my powers once again to take control over one of the guards inside the room and instructed him to shoot Alice in the head, before you used any skill to make her talk. I didn't know whether you have an ability to do that or not, but I didn't want to take any chances."

Amanda stopped for a brief moment, the throat was dried up, she gulped her saliva before starting once again, but Arnold wasn't listening to her, instead, he was grabbing something from his inventory.

"What I didn't know was that you could resurrect someone upon your will and at that moment I panicked, thinking that if you resurrect her, she might regain her memories... and would out my secret. That's when I decided to put everyone present in the room under my control and tried to stop you, but you didn't listen and went ahead with it despite the protest from the others..."

"Five... minutes... more," Natasha mumbled, her expression changed. She was doing the best she could to maintain her control over Amanda, but there was a limit to what one could do and Natasha was already at her limit.

"It's alright." Arnold replied, "Just remind me when you have about a minute left... it'll then let's see what this b*tch has to say for herself..."

"You can imagine how surprised and relieved I was, when she couldn't remember anything about me... maybe that bullet inside her head did something or maybe it was something else. I was safe and it was all that mattered. After that, all I needed to do was to make Allen act like he had been caught red-handed and all you immediately decided he was the real culprit." Amanda chuckled excitedly, "But I can't believe no one ever asked why that man suddenly decided to kill Alice, not even you, Mr self-proclaimed Holmes, and all of you automatically assumed Allen made the man do something like that through blackmailing or something."

Then she stopped again. Her mouth was completely dry, she couldn't even drink her saliva anymore, but Natasha forced her to speak regardless of her dry mouth.

"Everything was going according to plan to now. The next day the delegates arrived to interrogate him. I had already informed Elena about the situation and told her to prepare accordingly. I was sure the Black Family was going to end soon but then everything fell apart..."

Arnold knew exactly why Amanda said that. It was because she hadn't expected Nathan to know about the beast crystals they had been hoarding away to experiment on their 'test subjects'.

"Not only did he knew about the crystals, but he also had his suspicions on what we were doing with it... that damned bitch Elena couldn't even hide a simple thing from him." She wanted to spit her disgust out but she couldn't, "It would've been alright if he only knew that much but he knew more... he knew about our relationship with Devon and how both of us were getting benefited by the monster outbreaks and evolution. As much as I hate to admit it... I underestimated the Black Family. I needed to take control over him too but I had already reached the limit for my mind-controlling ability when I decided to control everyone during Alice's interrogation so I couldn't do it and what was supposed to be an easy victory turned into a gut-wrenching defeat.

Not only Nathan managed to save his family from getting disgraced and being outcasted, but he also managed to turn the tables on us."

"One... minute... left..."

"Keep going," Arnold replied and fetched a flask from his inventory, he knew exactly what he was going to do with Amanda once she was done spewing crap about everything.

"...I ended up destroying my own family..."

Amanda mumbled as the blue glow within her eyes started to fade. The same thing happened with Natasha, but it was much worse for her. She was completely drained of mana, she fell backwards as Amanda slowly regained her consciousness.

She half-heartedly opened her eyes, as if she didn't want that illusion to stop, but once her eyes were open, she saw the smiling face of the man whom she had already killed numerous times and in numerous ways... but there he was... standing tall and proud, not even a single scratch on his body.

She leapt in the air as if a firecracker had gone off, gave out a hideous shriek. Wild-eyed, bewildered, her nostrils were flaring but blood had drained from her face, mouth opening and shutting like a goldfish with no sound coming out because her mouth was too dry to do anything, she stood still as a statue, her face stuck in an incredulous expression, unblinkingly staring at Arnold in disbelief... how was he alive!?

Then she turned around to see the feminine winged creature was lying unconscious on the table. She immediately knew it was a succubus, after that it took her a moment to figure out what had happened... she, the master of mind control, had been tricked by a mere monster. There was no worse way than that to get humiliated by someone... She felt like she was cheated on by her spouse, only it was much worse.

What she was feeling was hate. Due to a lack of better words, hate was often compared to anger and betrayal. 'Hate' is a word that people use lightly. "Oh, I hate it when..." "I hate that..." but hate; hate is truly indescribable. But at that moment hate had been personified in Amanda.

Her eyes started glowing once again, she was going to kill him this time for sure, but even in the face of the danger, Arnold was as calm as a monk, his smile never left his face. For a moment she felt something other than hate and anger within herself... it was fear.

She was afraid because she knew unlike her, he already had a plan in his head, because if he didn't then he would already kill her while she was trapped in the illusion... or maybe this was an illusion as well? Although he had regained her senses, she was still having a hard time comprehending what was real and what was an illusion.

At that moment she recalled something that her brother, the same brother whom she sacrificed for her ambitions, had told her regarding how he felt while confronting the monsters.

"I'm scared, ready to run away at any moment. But I can't show it to everyone else around me, because if their leader was afraid of the monsters, then who would lead them to victory?" He said, "But being afraid or scared has its pros as well, for it is fear that brings rage, that hot burning anger that seeks to harm. Some say it is a biological switch inside the human brain that's better left alone, but I digress. When we see something that frightens us, a primitive part of the brain is activated to produce aggression and it is that aggression which if used can lead you to victory!"

'Even in death, you're just a nuisance.' Amanda thought and got ready to erase Arnold's very existence, but before she could do anything, he disappeared from her sight.

"Am I still trapped in that monster's illusion?" she mumbled while trying to trace Arnold.

"No, you're not," Arnold's voice echoed through the room, "You're just slow."

While Amanda was under Natasha's illusion, Arnold had already asked about her weakness, one of them was agility. She had informed him that, in order to harm or control someone, she had to maintain eye contact with them for about five to ten seconds. And it was enough for Arnold to gain an upper-hand on his opponent.

While Amanda was clueless staring at him, he had already prepared a plan to get rid of which he put into action the moment Amanda's eyes started glowing.

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Title bonus activated : [Crouching Figure]

Please select a summon whose attribute you would like to obtain temporarily :

• [Duke] : Accuracy (ACC) +85

• [Talos] : Intelligence (INT) +80

• [CERBERUS] : Agility (AGI) + 80

• [Bad-Breath] : Stamina (STA) +60

• [Asterios] : Strength (STR) +100

• [Dread] : Strength (STR) +135

• [Natasha] : Mystic (MYS) +20

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Without any hesitation, he quickly selected Cerberus' agility to help him out but due to his low level, he only gained 40 points of agility instead of 80 but that combined with his existing 91 agility, his agility was raised over 130 points!

The moment he gained the boost, he started circling around Amanda. With this much speed, she could barely make out where his body was, let alone focus on his eyes for five seconds.

Before Amanda could plan her next move, Arnold knocked her down and reappeared before her eyes for a brief moment.

"I think you already know what this is?" Arnold showed her the flask containing the blood concoction before covering her eyes, "A little something to quench your thirst."

"No... anything but that... NO!"

She desperately struggled to get free from Arnold's grasp but Natasha helped him to hold her in her place and forced her mouth open while Arnold emptied the flask inside her mouth.

Amanda kicked and wailed, she did everything she could to make herself not drink it, but he thirst overpowered her resolve to not drink the liquid in her mouth, and he ended up drinking the spicy and sticky liquid.

Arnold knew the blood concoction had worked because a notification appeared on his interface the moment Amanda stopped struggling.

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EMERGENCY QUEST : Save yourself

• [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are under attack by Amanda White. She's out for your blood, it's time you return the favour.

[ TASK ] : Kill or subdue your attacker.

[ PROGRESS ] :

Target killed: 0/1 or

Target subdued: 1/1

[ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] :

• 1000 EXP

• Random reward.

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"A fate worse than death..." Arnold mumbled when he saw Amanda's expressionless face.