Psychokinetic Eyeball Pulling

Chapter 111: New Armour and Sparring

Astrid wasn’t a close range attacker, she knew that. Even with being able to alter the stats within her body to an effect, it was still below what she could do with her [Crash]. That one ability was her destructive card that was always going to work.

She could connect to matter behind shields if there was space and [Crash] it. And if anyone didn’t have any detection or sensory abilities, then they simply couldn’t see her attack before it blasted them into pieces. It was her greatest strength.

Unpredictability.

Astrid, instead of rushing forward, created more space, and blasted backwards with her matter strengthened body.

Leena attempted to close in the distance by charging forward. She was faster than Astrid, but it wasn’t an extreme difference.

Astrid [Crashed] her matter and exploded it all around Leena’s body as she struggled to counterattack. It wasn't like fighting a normal mage either. Usually, mages held a certain weakness. It was cast time, and projectiles. The former enabled warriors to catch unaware mage’s by their throat in a burst of speed. The latter always created a chance for them to be dodged, no matter how fast the missile or spell travelled.

However, Astrid’s skills were different.

Leena kept her eyes peeled, they widened as she attempted to spot any sign of the attack happening. But it was futile.

Astrid [Crashed] the matter surrounding her as Leena’s body carried to the side as if an overpowered hammer had slammed into her.

Leena groaned and climbed back onto her feet. Dark red liquid seeped from her nose and dripped down onto the sand below. The blood turned from a deep red, to a brown as it blended with the other spots that had marred the sand underfoot.

“You have grown, Astrid,” Leena said. “It seems I’m no longer your opponent.”

“Giving up?”

“Like hell I am.” Leena chuckled.

She stomped her foot into the ground and surged toward Astrid. Her armour was incredibly heavy as Astrid tried to move her body with Psychokinesis, although she could manage it, it was a struggle.

I should have no problem lifting her body with my current strength, does she have a passive heaviness skill? The thought popped into Astrid’s thoughts. It was the only explanation for the struggle she felt. Either that, or she had figured out how to increase the density of her armour by a few ten folds.

However, Astrid was stubborn. With a strain to her mind, she plucked the charging Leena from the ground and hovered her in the air.

Leena smirked, then without warning, her armour thickened to a visible degree. It doubled in thickness and a sound within her body was grating to the ears. It sounded like metallic plates screeching against each other and compressing. The weight reached a staggering degree, until Astrid could no longer hold the weight.

Astrid watched as Leena’s body crashed to the floor, the hardened sand turned into powder at her increased weight as a cloud of dust sprang up around her body.

“You’re so damned heavy.” Astrid grinned and wiped the blood from her face.

“That’s not a nice thing to say to a lady.” Leena joked.

“It looks like you’ve assimilated well to all the metal I have created?” Astrid asked.

Leena said, “it has indeed come in handy, I give my thanks.”

Astrid caught the sudden thought coming from Leena’s mind. It was indeed a heaviness passive skill, along with her metal control compacting the metal.

That’s what those screeching sounds were, it was the metal protesting against being compressed. Astrid thought.

Adding onto the thoughts, Astrid was happily surprised to find out that Leena held no bad notions about her at all. There wasn’t one negative thought going through her mind. Astrid attempted to stay away from any thoughts that weren’t in the moment, as it was difficult to filter those ones out as they popped up within her mind. No, the only thoughts Leena was thinking of were strategies to beat her into the ground.

Astrid smiled at the vicious thoughts.

“Well let’s stop here for now,” Astrid said. “I want you to try something.”

She created an illusionary cluster of Voidbent metal on the ground surrounding Leena.

Leena crouched down and touched the metal. “Voidbent ore?” She asked in surprise.

“It is,” Astrid said. “I wanted to know if you could practise within my Mind Domain. Can you?”

“I’ll give it a try, but,” Leena said and craned her neck at Astrid. “Does being here not use a lot of mana?”

Astrid nodded. “I can stay in here with you for around twenty minutes without having to consume a mana potion.”

Leena closed her eyes and started to caress the metal. From the top, pointed edge, to where it was broken off and turned smooth. She touched every section of the metal as if the piece of rock was alive. After around six minutes or so, the metal moved. Although it was only a marginal amount, it was still a great feat to Leena.

Astrid was within her battle-maids thoughts and could feel first-hand how difficult it was to assimilate with another metal. It was like forming a connection with a beast through beast-taming. It required constant effort and attention. One moment she was almost forming the connection, then the next it vanished like a drop of water into a pond.

She had to gain an understanding of the metal’s properties, and then had to figure out a way to blend it into her body.

Why is it so difficult? Astrid shook her head at the thought. It has never taken me so long to figure something out before. Is this what it means to be gifted? Astrid’s shoulders trembled as her foot shifted in the sand.

Leena’s assimilation with the metal took a few minutes longer and Astrid was forced to use up a mana potion so that Leena wouldn’t have to start from the beginning. No matter how many potions she had to use, she would expend any amount of money she had in order for her friend to get stronger. Well, not that Astrid held much importance on money in the first place, or understood how much was a lot either.

As Astrid was waiting, a stray thought blossomed into her mind through sheer boredom. If the Mind Domain bent to her will, and everything within was to her creation–then couldn’t she just make herself weaker?

I’m a genius! Astrid trembled in excitement

She thought about making herself weaker and then connected to the surrounding matter and [Crashed] it. It was as she thought, the explosion had weakened considerably.

I should struggle to fight Leena now. Now I can learn something while going all out, retaining the respect of a warrior. Astrid nodded.

Maybe it counted as disrespectful weakening herself this way? But she couldn’t think of any other way other than holding back intentionally which would be far too obvious as her control would suffer.

Finally, a thought appeared within her mind. But it was one filled with pain. Leena snarled as blood seeped out from her mouth. Her entire body trembled as if it was under intense pressure.

Astrid could tell from her thoughts that the pain her friend was currently undergoing was akin to murderous torture.

Leena had to connect the metal into her very body. The result was a bone gnawing pain that made her want to flay her skin off with a sharpened knife, in an attempt to somehow relieve the suffering.

Astrid frowned as she connected to Leena’s mind. This was her domain, after all. She gazed at the section of the brain that was responsible for the pain receptors, but she was hesitant to move any further. Although it was her Mind Domain, the damage they suffered would still remain in their mind. If Astrid accidentally severed her mind, Leena would die, or worse yet–she would lose her mind.

Astrid prodded it for a while, before taking off her strength limiter and carefully delving deeper into the matter of her battle-maids mind. The pain was throbbing, and the matter turned red the more she focused on it.

She connected to the faintly pulsating matter and slowly, as if it was the most precious thing in the world, stroked her psychic mana around it. Like a surgeon sifting through a sand pit.

As her mana made contact, her worries were placated. From Leena’s pained thoughts, they quickly eased. The intense, gnawing pain was lessened. Astrid doubled her efforts and soon the pain dropped considerably. The once excruciating pain was now naught but a droning headache.

Astrid had the thought of erasing it entirely, but she was worried about the last step.

For the last step, I’ll need to try everything out on a fish or something… Although it would help if it was a more intelligent monster to mimic the human brain. Astrid thought.

Leena suddenly opened her eyes as they shone with excitement. She jumped to her feet as a new liquid oozed out of her skin like thickened sweat. It then hardened, until a slender looking navy coloured armour fitted over her skin. Then the familiar screeching was heard as the armour thickened by a couple inches.

She took a step forward and her heavily armoured greaves smashed into the floor.

“Astrid,” Leena said with excitement, “blast me.”

Astrid laughed at the words. She was maybe the only one that would be so happy to receive damage.

Leena’s fists clashed together–then with a surge of mana–a new lance creation formed within her hand. It was clearly heavier than the last as her arms sunk at the weight of it. Yet she still swung it around as if it was comfortable to her.

Astrid [Crashed] the matter in front of her chest at full strength. Instead of the familiar sight of her battle-maid being sent hurtling through the air like a metallic kite, she was able to keep her feet on the ground.

Leena slid all the way back as her feet gouged long marks into the hardened sand. Her body halted to a stop, then she blasted forward with a war-cry.

Astrid giggled as she lowered her strength and raised all of her defences. She sprouted out Illusions all around her, then created miniature metal needles made of hardened wood, and disguised them underneath the sand. Then she moved around with the illusions, making sure that her sparring partner couldn’t detect who the real Astrid was.

She wouldn’t use her creation within Mind Domain, she would strictly keep to her skills that she held when out in the real world.

Leena approached, but instead of dealing with the other illusions, she headed straight for the real Astrid.

Astrid frowned. How does she know exactly which one I am?

It surprised her for only a moment, but she had experienced enough battles now that it was second nature to stay calm within the heat of tense situations.

This is going to be fun. Astrid willed her mana container and funnelled it into her mind.

She felt a buzz within her brain. It was time to fight once more as Leena charged straight for her.