[Psychokinetic] Eyeball Pulling - Chapter 83 (Patreon)

She didn’t have to wait long before something caused the tiles on the floor to tremble, along with her legs. Astrid formed her defences and illusions. She could already feel the new skill Avatar of Mana taking effect. New strains of mana surged into her container with every breath she took

Thump, thump, thump. It continued until she gazed at the monstrosity through her Psych Domain. It was an enormous humanoid, much like the Golem from before, but this one was smaller.

She formed clusters of matter beyond the doorwary’s and [Crashed] them. Explosions rocked the hallways. A dust cloud swept through the hall, but once it cleared a large hand held onto the hinges of the door.

Level ??? - Layered Demonite Golem: ???

No information. Astrid readied herself.

With a tense of its hand, the hinge warped under the pressure until the heavy door could no longer bear its own weight. The dense wood crashed down, tearing off the lower hinge along with it.

The giant was thicker than it was tall and slow.

With the extra mana regeneration taking effect even when she was using her Skills, Astrid thickened her Mana Barrier. The extra mana usage was alleviated by the regeneration. Allowing her to effectively use Mind Barrier with no mana cost. But if she made it any thicker, then it would begin sapping away at her mana supply.

She could see no weaknesses in the monster. There were no eye sockets to explode and she could only imagine how thick its armour was. Astrid racked her mind on how to deal with it, maybe she could trap it somehow. But based on its high strength, it was impossible. It would simply just tear it to shreds in seconds.

Maybe the weak point is located at its back? Astrid thought and with no other way, she started blasting the monster.

With many [Crashes] the monster stumbled back, she continued until her mana was halved in seconds. The shock waves cleared from the explosions. A dull light shone from underneath the Golem’s feet and the monster finally took a hulking step forward.

As the foot landed, the entire floor trembled and the hardened black tiles cracked under the pressure. The tremble shot up Astrid’s legs and turned them numb, she tried to move them, but they refused to listen to her commands. Another step from the monster and Astrid fell to the floor.

The Golem wasn’t fast, but it moved at a steady pace. Astrid gnawed on her lips and connected to the matter within her body and yanked her up into the air. It just so happened that she had the perfect Skill to counter the numbing steps of the monster.

Judging by the light underneath its feet, it seemed to be a skill. The extra mana from using Levitate began trickling away at her container. However, with the Stage 2 upgrade, Weightless Levitation, she could bear the expenditure.

Astrid began exploding the monster over and over again, she attempted to get behind the monster, but every time it just faced her. It was either hiding its own weakness intentionally, or it was just too focused on her.

Another barrage of explosions rocked the monster as its tenacious body continued towards her unimpeded. She used Psych Domain in hopes to find the weakness at its back, but in doing so, discovered something that her eyes could not.

At the Golem’s chest, where she focused her explosions, the matter was odd. It was incredibly faint, but there was a small difference compared to the matter around it. The specs of the monster’s chest was smooth like a highly polished counter-top. Then, it was as if someone had placed a hair on the surface. Although not immediately noticeable, after straining her mind it became clear.

It was a crack. Astrid grinned and swallowed a mana potion down within her stomach. Her container protested as a sharp pain shot through it, but she was in no position to take heed. If she was correct, then she could afford to have a war of attrition with the monster, but until then she needed to test it.

Astrid repeated her explosions with fervour. She concentrated them all onto the same exact spot. Its heart, or where she hoped it to be, anyway. But it didn’t matter, even if the heart wasn’t in that location, she could just send explosions inside and destroy it that way.

She hoped that the next upgrade with [Crash] would allow her to explode areas without her seeing it directly, or maybe Psychokinesis or Psych Domain would allow that. For now, she had no way of knowing.

If only she had that now. Astrid rid the thought and continued her effort.

***

Astrid glanced at the emptied bottles of mana potion on the floor. It had been around two hours by her accounts but her effort wasn’t in vain.

The once miniscule crack had transformed into a gaping scar. She amassed the matter within the widened crack and then compacted it. Using [Crash] the explosion finally sent the scrap material of whatever the Golem’s armour was made of flying through the air.

Beneath it, lay another set of polished armour. Astrid stomped on the floor in frustration.

It’s not called a bloody Layered Golem for no reason, huh? Astrid bared her fangs.

It was going to be a long, and agonising fight. Is what Astrid thought.

The Golem raised its hand, something that it hadn’t done in the entirety of the fight. Hours had passed, yet this was the first time that it had done something different, other than walking forward menacingly.

The tips of one of its fingers opened up and a light formed within the holes. It changed from a dull light, to a blinding radiance and shot straight for her.

Astrid widened her eyes and sent a [Crash] against her Mind Barrier, sending her hurtling to the side and crashing to the floor.

The Golem lowered one finger, and another took its place as the light formed once more. Just as the light was converging, it raised its foot and stomped down on the ground at the same time as the laser beam aimed to reap her life.

Shit! Astrid sent another [Crash] to her side and she rolled on the floor.

The force from the monster's stomp was like a wave that approached her at high velocity. She slammed her hand on the floor, while controlling the matter within her body to send her shooting up and into the air.

Narrowly avoiding the beam of light, she controlled the matter at the hole of the finger and [Crashed] it. A larger explosion that was mixed with light blew the finger into pieces.

The expressionless Golem didn’t stop however, and simply raised its other finger as light formed once more.

Astrid hovered in the air, not daring to step foot on the floor again and exploded its other finger. She sighed and her heartbeat turned to normal. She repeated the explosions and soon the Golem had no fingers left to use whatever Skill it had to fire the concentrated light beams.

With the threat of its long range attacks gone, Astrid went back to [Crashing] the matter, concentrating it on the hidden layer of armour.

Now that she was aware of her plan, she lowered her Mind Barrier and felt the natural mana seep into her container. It was now a battle of attrition.

Astrid no longer used mana potions to refill her container, instead she used the time to help her container settle and slowly whittle away at the Golem’s layers. Using so many potions had poisoned the walls of her container and she needed time to recover. Thankfully, it seemed like the destruction of the second layer was going to take a while…

***

Astrid’s eyebrows drooped. She had no idea how long it had been since she started fighting the damned expressionless monster. It was just a guess, but she figured at least a day had passed since she started the fight.

Finally, the Golem crashed to the floor. Astrid waltzed forward through the air and stepped on the monster's chest. She looked down the gaping hole that she had blasted open after countless hours.

She wiped the blood from her mouth and spat the rest out. The taste of her own blood only made her angrier.

Each time she tore a layer from the constructed chest, it would start attacking in a different way. After the second layer, it started clapping with its hands, sending a shock-wave through the air. It almost caught her off guard, but she was able to create her Mind Barrier in time.

The third layer caused the Golem to move at an increased speed. Each step it took was like a thunder-clap on the floor. If she didn’t have her levitate skill, she would be dead a hundred times over.

Next was the fourth layer. Its skull opened up, and projected a strange light on the ceiling. After a while specs of purple light appeared and shot at her from the ceiling. As they landed, they resembled miniature rocks. The attack reminded her of debris falling out of the stratosphere that burnt up, or more accurately, a shooting star.

The final layer was the fifth, thankful it was the weakest of all the layers. The mana within the Golem swirled into chaos. It reminded her of back within the void world. The mana that was far in the distance.

However, thanks to the fifth layer being weak she managed to tear right through it before the Golem could attack.

Astrid sunk her mind into the chest cavity of her foe and searched around for anything that was of value. She could make out a rounded object and connect it to it.

Taking it out, it was a black and purple pearl. It glistened and within it looked like a star-field was floating within the polished ball.

Epic Consumable - Level 90 - Dark Matter Pearl: A pearl that grants boosts to the void attribute, and strengthens the magic within one's container.

Void attribute again. Strengthens the magic? Astrid pinched her chin in thought.

It sounded like something a specialised Alchemist made. Different from a potion, it was more like a medicinal pill that could permanently grant boosts to stat points. It was another reason why nobles often held an advantage.

Although Astrid had never consumed one. Stupid Sinwen rules.

From what she knew, the most common way of consuming an enhancing pill was to make sure that one had a full mana container. Or if it was a physical enhancing pill, then one had to be in peak physical form with no injuries.

She waited until her mana was full, then placed the Dark Matter Pearl to her lips. Just as she was about to place the pearl within her mouth, a sharp pain stung her eye.

E̶̛̛͈̼̹̲̅̓͌̚ͅm̷̼̲̪͖̺͂͘ͅp̴̛̝̐̽͗̅̍͝ţ̶̘̞͔͈̟̊͋̂̀͘y̴̜̍ ̸̤̬͋y̶̡̞̗̝͖̥̗̽̌̓̏o̸̯̹͇̺͓͔̿̅u̷̢̮͚͔̇̔̈͊̂͆̊r̵͈̭͍̲̘̟̘͌͋͒͠ ̶͇͊̾͒̅̆c̷̥̹͛o̶̤͊̉̚ņ̸̙͍͐̌͠t̷͍̫̳̜͕̠̀͑̆̋̓̑͘ä̴̫́̊į̵̛̳̞̖̺̝̈́̃ń̸̢͙̹͇͕͓̣é̸̛͓́̿ȓ̴̹͙̺̣̺̝͑̈́̈̈́͆̑,̴̝̻̥̦̙́͑ͅͅ ̵̡̊š̷͚͙͈̹͗̔͑̉̉͝t̷͍̺͖͔̯̱̗͊̑́̓̅̕ú̵̘̖̥̻̠̞̋̌͘p̵̡̳̯̠͚̱̦̂͛̑͒̽͆i̶̢̗̗͍̩̬͂d̵̳̟̱̺͉̄̓̇̃̍͌̚ͅ!̶̧̧̞̥̯͈̼̂͑̌̈̿

The voice entered her head, instead of the usual excited voice she was familiar with, it was forced and strained. It was like the voice wasn’t meant to be talking, or that it was weakened somehow.

But one thing was clear. It held panic, and worry.

Astrid lowered the pill and took a breath. She decided to listen to the Black Blob.