Psychic Parasite

Chapter 287: Spring Burst!
The moment the Crust-Mantle clamped its claws, trying to get him, Jyorta unleashed his aura, immobilising it. Using the opportunity, the blue soul sent some memory fragments to his brain, using the attached emotional and mental states to forcefully alter his mental state.

Using it, he unleashed the aura personification of hallucination, taking control of the Crust-Mantle once again. The moment his hallucination took effect, the Crust-Mantle clamped its claws in confusion, blinking while turning around in wariness.

For a second, it was unable to gauge the changing situation, its lower intelligence prevented it from doing so. Soon, it turned around and began to run. But, this already took four seconds, negating most of the time he had obtained.

”That damned serpent!” Jyorta gritted his teeth, noticing the Amplifier Steel Porcupine close in, now only separated by 30 metres. Moreover, considering its superior speed, it would catch up within the next three seconds.

Jyorta crouched low, using his left hand to hold the crevice tightly. He faced his right hand towards the approaching Amplifier Steel Porcupine, taking in a deep breath as he riled up all his presence. His heart began to thump in increasing intensities while his body faintly ballooned in size.

”Hah!” Followed by his shout, Jyorta unleashed the entirety of his aura through his palm, causing the dust riled up from the Crust-Mantle’s running to part way as a column of force rammed through. The Amplifier Steel Porcupine’s gaze changed, its body tensing up while its forked tongue trembled.

The Amplifier Steel Porcupine abruptly paused, as if it had slammed into a transparent membrane that prevented it from moving forward. It let out a hiss akin to a human’s scream as blood spurted out through all the wounds it had suffered. Its eyes dimmed in radiance while its presence was now only a tenth of its original, severely wounded.

Blisters started to form on its skin while some sensitive sections began to peel off, showing signs of corrosion. Blood leaked out through its mouth, forming a small pool on the sand. Within an instant, the mighty Amplifier Steel Porcupine had become weak, losing most of its strength.

The moment he had unleashed that aura beam, Jyorta almost lost consciousness. The blue soul in him forcefully maintained his lucidity, allowing him to maintain the aura personification of hallucination.

Dragon Ball, an anime from his previous life that he loved. While going through the related memories, he drew inspiration for this move, which was to condense his aura into his palm and shoot it as a beam.

He had practiced it many times, reserving it as a trump card thanks to its effective range. Even after travelling forty metres, it had only lost some power, being deadly enough to be considered an ace up his sleeve. As he trained it more and was able to condense and concentrate it further, its power would only rise.

It was a technique he had thought up to counter the limited range of his psychic arms. But, using it rendered him in a state of weakness, a reason why he hadn’t used it till now. Only by packing as much aura as he could exert would its power be threatening enough, especially against terrifying opponents like the Amplifier Steel Porcupine.

Seeing their leader suffer a major injury, the Steel Porcupines were startled, experiencing a fright. They converged around their injured leader, planning to shield it until recovery. Lying in a pool of blood, the Amplifier Steel Porcupine lifted its head and noticed the Crust-Mantle running towards the exit.

After fighting against its humanoid foe, its Tier 1 Skill was able to spot its location fairly accurately. Its eyes shone with a vicious sheen, the muscles along its body contracting. The Amplifier Steel Porcupine curled up, releasing cold air from its nostrils.

Seeing its stance, all the Steel Porcupines retreated, directly burrowing into the ground in a frantic escape. The Amplifier Steel Porcupine curled itself into a spiked sphere, with a tiny segment of its tail buried into the sand.

At the next moment, all the sand surrounding it were sent flying like a tidal wave, with it as the epicentre as it unleashed its aura. Its aura spiked to the zenith instantly, having activated its Tier 2 Skill for the first time.

Tier 2 Skill—Spring Burst!

The Amplifier Steel Porcupine shot to the sky instantly, crossing 10 metres. Its body expanded, forming a helix that began to rotate, accelerating to 20 revolutions per second. Its Tier 1 Skill locked onto Jyorta’s position.

After he had used his aura beam, he was fatigued, unable to conceal himself as well as before. This made it easy for the Amplifier Steel Porcupine to lock onto him. Without further ado, its body muscles wriggled, trembling with tremendous frequency, rumbling the very air around it as it shot forth all the spikes on its body.

It only retained a single body-length spike as a cautionary measure, shooting out the rest. The spikes packed enough power in them to speed forth as a straight light, unaffected by gravity. As they interacted with the air, their curvatures produced a certain sound.

It was similar to the sound produced by a flute, a single note, high pitched whose amplitude rose and fell at a rhythmic frequency. The sound pervaded the entire second layer, echoing towards the first and third layer, alarming every Frenzy Beast.

Moreover, it even travelled to the fourth layer, riling up most Frenzy Beasts that had heard it. Growls and roars soon resounded within the entire Labyrinth of Frenzy.

Having placed his attention on it all the time, Jyorta noticed it the moment it curled up into a ball and its brethren retreated into the ground. Even though he was weary, he spiked his hallucination, causing the Crust-Mantle to use its claws and dig up the sand below it.

As the sand was loose, it unearthed a significant volume with a single sweep, forming a large pit. Jyorta jumped into it, watching the Amplifier Steel Porcupine shape itself into a helix and spin. He made note of the angle made by the ground with respect to the line drawn from it to him.

As he landed in the pit, he curled up his body, taking as little space as possible while influencing the Crust-Mantle to act. The Crust-Mantle dug its claws into the sand, covering as wide an area as possible, using it as an anchor to lift its body.

Starting from its tail, it used all its muscular force to lift its body, aligning it with the line from the Amplifier Steel Porcupine and Jyorta, ensuring as much of its body formed the shield between them.

The Amplifier Steel Porcupine shot forth the spikes, watching it impact the target area. They pierced the Crust-Mantle, boring through its tough defences and its massive body, hitting bones, and puncturing through muscles.

Some of the spikes almost pierced through, barely peeking out from the other side with just a fraction of their tips. Some caused tiny bulges to appear on the Crust-Mantle’s head. But, they were only for the regular spikes.

The body-length spikes though, completely pierced through its body, and sped into the sand, all eleven of them without fail. Completely shielded within its claws was Jyorta, grunting in pain as three spikes hit the mark.

Thankfully, due to the toughness of the Crust-Mantle’s claws, its surface curvature, and the power they had lost from all the obstacles, they bent, missing their target barely. One scrapped his leg, the other scrapped his stomach, taking away some flesh with it while the final one pierced his legs.

This one though, hit his leg bone, shattering it—in both legs. Moreover, the mid part of the spike was lodged in them, with its remainder peeking out on both sides.

Pain! Jyorta felt unbearable pain, almost fainting if not for the blue soul forcefully maintaining his consciousness. Blood leaked out from the gaps in the Crust-Mantle’s claws, drowning him. He was unable to move, constricted by the shield he had created and no longer able to exert strength in his legs.

Jyorta pushed at the sides with his hands, getting drowned by blood. He shielded himself with his psychic arm barrier, preventing the blood from rushing into his body through his wounds. He unleashed his two Soul Corneas, corroding the spike before pulling it out.

He noticed faint hair wriggling out from the parts that came into contact with blood, trying to invade his body. He corroded everything, preventing them from jeopardising his safety. He finally pushed out the two claws, coming face to face with a dead Crust-Mantle whose face was covered by spikes.

Just when he was about to climb out of the hole, he watched a serpentine figure wriggle in the blood, weak, on the verge of dying. But, it didn’t wish to die, wishing to take root in him to survive. It was the Crust-Mantle’s Frenzy Parasite.

Before it could latch onto him, Jyorta corroded it with his Soul Cornea, killing it. His hands grabbed at the sand, tugging at them to pull his body up. He made the barrier around him possess as little friction as possible, using the smoothness to pull him out with the least effort required.

The moment he came out, he turned around, gazing at the Amplifier Steel Porcupine. it was sprawled on a sand dune, gasping for breath, deflated like a rubbed tube. Steel Porcupines burrowed out one after another as they guarded it and pulled it underground.

Before it lost consciousness, it hissed once, weakly pointing at his direction with the tip of its tail. Upon its instruction, five Steel Porcupines began to slither their way towards him.

”Dammit!”