Chapter 162 A Mental Battle



Both sides were at staredown with neither one moving a muscle as to initiate the fight. On one side were three friends standing close to one another, each taking their own unique fighting stance, and on the other side was 15 foot tall massive circular beast covered in black fuzz and sprouting strong chicken-like legs with extremely sharp claws at the end.

"I know you guys didn't intend this, but I think I am going to have to fight alongside you on this one," Mako said to both Bill and Iris as he refused to leave his friends alone to deal with this massive beast while taking refuge inside the shelter himself.

The thought of Mako leaving didn't even cross Iris' or Bill's minds because as soon as the little Puffclaws came together and merged into such a big and scary beast, they appreciated all the help that they could get.

"Well...? How do you think we should approach this battle?" Bill asked this time as he too wasn't too confident in taking down such a massive beast by himself.

All the pressure was on Mako as he was the only one capable enough to formulate a winning strategy; however, despite his friends' constant asking, Mako remained silent and just continued to look forward as if he was staring right at the beast's wide red eyes.

In actuality, Mako wasn't staring at the beast trying to intimidate it or anything, he was actually rereading the description of the Bulked Up Puffclaw again and again, trying to think of a way through because even he was stuck at the moment.

The trio didn't understand why the giant beast wasn't attacking them as they were completely in the open and defenseless against it, and yet remained in its position, not moving a muscle and returning the stares back at the trio as the only thing that seemed to move was the beautiful baby pink light within the gem in its abdomen that was continuously blinking.

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'Okay... Here's the situation. I have only recovered around half of my total energy and I would have to use it efficiently as my ability would be the key to taking down this beast.' Mako told to himself.

'Unlike other beasts, since it has used an Inherited Skill and transformed both physically and genetically, I don't have reliable data on this beast and it may as well surprise us with something that the system didn't warn me about.' Mako began his thinking process while he maintained the staredown with the Puffclaw.

It was quite fortunate for Mako that the beast wasn't attacking immediately, giving him time to think of the best strategy against it.

"Whatever you do don't move a muscle for as long as you can. I believe it is trying to manipulate you mentally just like it was doing when they were pilling on top of each other. It is testing our mental strength in order to gauge how strong we are so that it could figure out if its strongest ability will work on us or not." Mako instructed both Bill and Mako.

"It probably has some sort of emotional manipulation ability that it is using in order to manipulate you guys. It could be Love, Fear, Determination, Anger, or maybe some other. I need you guys to buy me as much time as possible so if you guys start to feel something you weren't feeling before or hallucinate things that were there before, know that it is the beast's doing waiting for you to give in and make a move, hence initiating the battle." Mako explained.

"Hold out for as long as possible while I think of a way for us to win this," Mako said before shutting again and closing his eyes as he began to think.

Bill and Iris both understood the assignment immediately and were prepared to hold out for as long as possible in order to give Mako the time he needed. Mako was the most capable person out of all five of them and everyone acknowledged this fact and so they were ready to put their trust in him and grant him as much time as they could.

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'With such a big body, Its defenses are sure to be quite strong and my small-scale fire skills would never be able to hurt it enough for us to gain an advantage. The only Fire-related skill that I can control is the scale of his Flame Pillar but that would require me to stay in a single position with no guard for at least a minute in order to charge up and launch the attack.' Mako thought.

'I can't move now and touch the ground as that will most likely start the fight so the Flame pillar is out of the question as a beginning move, but if I wait and use any other move, it will not be affected as much and would realize that I have the fire ability and will make me its prime target, making it impossible to cast the Flame Pillar.' Mako argued with himself.

'What if I paralyze it first? If I am able to stop it from moving, I can cast the Flame Pillar skill which is bound to do a lot of damage; however, considering its size, I don't think it will be paralyzed for long and I can't accurately guess for how long as the system only give me the values for the ideal time and doesn't account for anything that my enemies might have that could counter the paralysis. It will be a serious gamble if I choose this route.' Mako thought as he tried to look at the situation from a different vantage point.

'What if I open the attack with my strongest ability? I can begin charging right now while standing still and once I am charged enough, I can release a massive beam of energy straight at this beast to do great damage. But... What will I do if that thing somehow survives? I am basically exhausted almost my entire reserve of energy on a single move and if doesn't guarantee a kill, all three of us could die.' Mako thought.

He was stuck in his thoughts as nothing sounded concrete enough to act upon and Mako wouldn't move until he was sure he had a decent plan.

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While Mako was busy thinking with his eyes closed, Bill and Iris were trying their best not to fall prey to any kind of trickery that the beast might play in order to make them move.

They were doing fine so far as nothing had appeared in front of them out of nowhere and their emotions were still in check as they didn't feel any new feeling towards anything.

The air around them was getting thicker and thicker and it was becoming harder to breathe for Iris as she was feeling the intimidation that the giant Puffclaw was giving off.

She was starting to sweat a little but that didn't stop her as she kept her cool and continued to stare right into the beast's eyes.

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After around three minutes or so, Mako was still deep in thought and Both Iris and Bill hadn't moved a muscle yet, but they were getting tired as the stance they had taken wasn't in the most comfortable of positions.

Both of them were starting to sweat profusely and seeds of doubt were starting to sow into their heads.

As they continued to stare at the beast, the blinking pink light inside its gem began to blink faster and faster while the color also began to darken from baby pink to a shocking pink.

The beast had been able to sense their emotions from the very beginning and was impressed by the amount of determination that its prey possessed which was able to counter the invisible love strikes that it was bombarding them with and now finally, the strikes were getting through, and slowly starting to affect them.

In a moment of weakness, both Iris and Bill closed their eyes too to gather their thoughts and reenergize their determination to not fall prey to the beast's manipulation, but it turned out to have the opposite effect because as soon as they closed their eyes, the beast widened its smile which was hidden under the vast amount of black fuzz as it could see his manipulation take effect.

Both Iris and Bill opened their eyes again a second later only to see something that they had never expected to see.

"Jackie...?" Iris asked in confusion as a handsome boy was wearing casual clothes standing in front of her now.

"Father...?" Bill said in shock as he witnessed his father appear in front of him in his decked-out military uniform and he had a big smile on his face, something Bill had never seen before.

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Mako continued to think, unaware of what was going on around him. He was scrambling to find a plausible strategy and was on the verge of giving up as the mental manipulation was starting to affect him too.

However, before he could just say, "Screw it!" and fight without a plan, he decided to use his remaining attribute points on the one attribute that he had neglected all this time.

His Intelligence!