Psychic Parasite

Chapter 398: Probing and the First Exchange
”A Wave Controller,” Jyorta muttered, ”Finally, I’m up against one.”

He was angry at it for disrupting his plans, for he was pressed for time. But, he also wished to know how he would fare against a Tier 3 Esper. After all, within the next two years, he would break through to Tier 3 and become the same as the being before him.

Jyorta wished to know the strength of a Wave Controller; for, from Tier 3 onwards, the strength of Espers would trump Warriors and begin to display their true might. Still, the Lava Turtle before him wouldn’t have been a genuine Tier 3, for that would make the labyrinth incredibly dangerous for the students.

After all, most of the staff monitoring the Labyrinth of Frenzy were Wave Controllers too. They were manned by some Ground Controllers, while everything was under the charge of Madam Mila, a Sky Controller.

If the staff were careless for even a moment, then a student would lose his life from the Wave Controller’s attack. After all, psychic arms could phase through objects as long as they could move past the resistance offered. So, they could move through the floors without trouble.

’This Lava Turtle shouldn’t have been long at the Tier 3 realm, otherwise, the staff would have taken it out already.’ Jyorta thought, standing closer to the unconscious River Whale. He commanded the Bundle Flea to coil around him and defend him against any attacks.

The Bundle Flea jumped over him and coiled around his hip, acting as his belt while spreading its hair, enveloping Jyorta. Soon, it created a hair armour, layering it over Jyorta’s armour, raising his defence to staggering levels.

The Wave Controller Lava Turtle stared in silence as he completed his preparations. It exuded a powerful presence, possessing a lot of weight in the feedback his aura transmitted. The other Lava Turtles moved a bit to the back, occupying all the space in a 60-metre length behind the Wave Controller Lava Turtle.

Jyorta fully healed himself of the internal damage and recovered his presence to its maximum. Protected by the Bundle Flea’s hair, he wasn’t afraid of snapping like a thread under an attack. The Bundle Flea was intelligent enough to cushion the damage before withstanding the rest, keeping the shock he felt to the minimum.

’This is also for the better. The quality of energy in a Wave Controller’s Brain Crystal should give me a greater boost than consuming all the Frenzy Beast carcasses here.’ Jyorta thought. If it was just absorbing the energy in a Heart/Brain Crystal, he wouldn’t be getting enough energy to accumulate an advantage.

After all, the substance that made up the Heart/Brain Crystal couldn’t be digested by the Caterpillar or Centipede and would just accumulate within the body before getting expelled slowly. But for some reason, or thanks to Jyorta’s actions on it, the Essence of Frenzy in the River Whale had evolved to digest it, obtaining twice the energy contained within the substance that made up the Heart/Brain Crystal.

Because of it, Jyorta was reaping thrice the benefit. So, consuming a Wave Controller’s Brain Crystal should produce even greater results. Jyorta took in a deep breath, ”Let’s do this.”

He glared at the Wave Controller Lava Turtle, unleashing an aura beam, compressing until its breath was only as thick as his arm. The aura beam was like a rod that spun before slamming into the Wave Controller Lava Turtle.

The aura beam travelled through the air, shredding the presence in it apart while it passed through, compressing before hitting like a javelin throw. But, at the moment of impact, it dispersed like a wave, the presence within scattering towards the sides before it was consumed by the ambient aura.

Jyorta frowned, sensing a thin plate appear before the Wave Controller Lava Turtle’s face. He noticed three psychic arms emerge from its head before condensing into the plate. The plate was undamaged by the attack, or even if were, it had recovered before Jyorta could sense it.

Moreover, instead of withstanding it head-on, the Lava Turtle dispersed his aura beam, its expenditure being negligible. On the other hand, he had wasted a tenth of his aura in the attack. If not for the River Whale, just the first exchange alone would prove he was in a losing battle.

The Wave Controller Lava Turtle opened its mouth, condensing a ball of flame within. Psychic energy converged into it, adding a spin to it, firming its structure as its Trait increased the intensity of the flame.

It launched the flame bullet towards him that shot forth like a cannot ball, containing tremendous heat. The hair forming his armour elongated, coiling together to form a hammer that lashed out like a whip, swatting the flaming bullet sideways.

The power it could deliver was lacking, only diverting the attack until it barely avoided scraping Jyorta. Moreover, the hair forming the hammer burned, sporting a massive hole in the centre.

It could sense the pressure of the upcoming battle, so the Bundle Flea activated its Tier 2 Skill and started to regrow its hair. Jyorta seeped a Soul Cornea into its soul and poured in some energy, replenishing its reserves. He was depending on it for defence, so he didn’t wish to see it run out of energy during the time of necessity.

Jyorta and the Wave Controller Lava Turtle were separated by a distance of 25 metres. To the back of his right lay the River Whale; its head was positioned near him, with its tail end trailing towards the back before reaching the flight of stairs.

The Wave Controller Lava Turtle hadn’t been long in Tier 3 yet, so its psychic arms hadn’t grown to the extent of reaching up to 25 metres. At most, its range would be 15 metres. Any more and it would become dangerous for the students.

At its current range, it was almost four times Jyorta’s. Moreover, it had three psychic arms and as a Wave Controller, it could actuate its psychic energy in three directions simultaneously. This fact alone gave it a tremendous advantage, a reason Espers became stronger than Warriors from Tier 3 onwards.

Line Controllers could only move their psychic arms in one direction. To change direction, they had to retract their psychic arms into their brain before unleashing it in the direction they needed. Line Controller psychic arms moved in one dimension.

Area Controllers could move their psychic arms in two directions simultaneously. While moving it, they could expand in one direction, or add a spin to the carried object. Area Controller psychic arms moved in two dimensions.

Finally, Wave Controller psychic arms moved in three dimensions. So, they could enact everything that happened in a three-dimensional world. At Tier 3, an Esper unlocked his/her true power.

Seeing that Jyorta stood beyond its range, the Wave Controller Lava Turtle didn’t try to close in but instead chose to infuse its psychic energy in its regular attacks. This way, it could manipulate the attack to greater precision and control.

Though once emitted, it could no longer control the attack, for its connection with the psychic energy in the attack was severed. But, it could design and modify everything until that point. Just this fact alone made a probing attack of it possess tremendous power.

After all, the Wave Controller Lava Turtle looked no bigger than an Amplifier Lava Turtle. Espers possessed smaller bodies than their Warrior counterpart. It had been shielding itself using its psychic arms all along. Only when it revealed itself did Jyorta sense its existence.

The two sides finished round one of their probing. Jyorta was slightly disadvantaged in the exchange. He still had the River Whale’s energy to rely on, but similarly, the Lava Turtle had the territorial advantage to rely on.

The boiling water ensured it didn’t have to consume much energy to heat it to launch the attack. The Lava Turtle opened its mouth to launch a second attack when Jyorta unleashed his aura personification of hallucination upon it.

The hallucination disrupted its concentration for a moment. But, it seemed like the Lava Turtle possessed many brains to function, for the attack generating within its mouth experienced no obstruction, soon launching at Jyorta.

This time, it was concentrated steam, possessing as much momentum as a geyser. The steam slammed into him as the Bundle Flea blocked everything, preventing the steam from seeping inside. But steadily, its hair was heating up. It was only a matter of time before it became hot enough to catch fire.

Jyorta increased the output of the hallucination, the first time making territorial changes since his exploration had begun. Slowly but steadily, the Lava Turtle watched the water level surrounding it decrease before the floor was devoid of moisture.

Soon, the floor started to crack up as patches came off and floated to the air before disintegrating. Slowly, but steadily, the floor started disappearing. Underneath it wasn’t the ground but the blackness of space.

A sense of vertigo enveloped it as the Lava Turtle felt it moving upwards when it fired an attack. The attack acted as a thrust that propelled its body, moving it accordingly while adding a spin to it. It was in the space, lacking air to breathe and a footing to anchor itself.

As it spun in space, it saw a greyish-white celestial body come into view in regular intervals, sporting thousands of craters on its surface. In every mid-point of the intervals, a blue celestial body came into view, giving it a feeling of warmth, peace, and happiness. The celestial body induced a sense of longingness in it.

The Lava Turtle erupted with psychic energy that wafted out of its head like a torrent, noticing patches of the space fall off, replaced with the familiar surroundings. But, it immediately started to heal, the damaged patches reappearing in their original positions.

Just this fact alone alarmed the Lava Turtle, causing it to erupt with greater intensities of psychic energy, watching the space fully collapse as it found itself back within the shallow water.