NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1206: Blue demon (2)
Chapter 1206: Blue demon (2)
The Cerulean bird moved, its wings carving through the air with frightening speed. Erik barely had time to reinforce his barriers before the creature's attack hit him-not with its full strength, but with enough force to make him understand the difference in power.
A wall of compressed air slammed into Erik.
The attack was like a freight train made of pure air—a roaring, howling mass of compressed air that created a thunderous sound as it tore through the sky, akin to a bomb exploding.
The noise was so loud that it hurt Erik and shook his whole body, and he could feel it rumbling through his bones despite wearing armor.
Even with the Absolute Castle brain crystal power at full strength, the impact sent him tumbling backward through the sky.
The force was so strong it felt like it was crushing him from all sides. He couldn't even breathe for a moment as the pressure squeezed his chest. He spun wildly through the air like a leaf in a storm, unable to tell which way was up or down.
His armor cracked but held together, drawing heavily on his mana reserves to repair itself. "SHIT!"
Erik's entire body trembled.
"It's even worse than I assumed!"
Erik knew the Cerulean bird was strong, but not THIS strong. Absolute Castle resulted from merging many brain crystal powers, including two powers from barrier masters. In theory, it made little sense that with its mana output so powered up, the armor couldn't resist even this simple attack.
Yet that was exactly what had just happened, and that only had an explanation. The Cerulean Bird had massive amounts of mana.
<This thing is too strong. It might even be stronger than the last time I saw it...>
Fear gripped Erik as this thought hit him. He felt small and helpless, like a child facing a giant. Back then, it had already been terrifying. Now, if the beast was really stronger, Erik realized with dread that it could kill him effortlessly if it wanted to.
Yet Erik felt the mana surrounding the creature and knew the Cerulean Bird was holding back, using a fraction of its strength. His blood ran cold.
Erik had to know how strong the beast really was. One of his parallel brains, the Hydra's heads, willed the system to show him the status. He wouldn't have been able to do that if it hadn't been for them. In fact, all the brains were wired against the creature. Two to defend himself, one to attack and bait, and one to study the beast and the battlefield below.
-[Analysis]—
Race: Caelestis Bellator
Physical Description: A giant blue bird-like thaid, so huge that a human is only as big as one of its claws. Its wings are so powerful as to create winds strong enough to damage buildings simply by using them to stay in the sky. It has so much mana that simply being the creature causes strange effects in the surrounding air. Despite its massive size, the creature moves with incredible precision and control. Its intelligent eyes and behavior suggest it's high compared to other thaids.
Brain Crystal Power:
Wind titan (X-X): The thaid has complete control over wind. (Error. Unable to compute the rank. Too many neural links to be classified.)
{Attributes}
STRENGTH: 1178
INTELLIGENCE: 100
DEXTERITY: 1152
ENERGY: 3789
{Others}
Power Level: 3551
Brain Crystal Rank (Wind Titan): X-X
Estimated experience by killing it: 311,357,898.45
-[End]-
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
Erik shivered. He observed the beast's attributes, then went to the rank. There was nothing there. The only thing the system had been able to understand was that the creature was X- ranked on the Ferebitz and Jorm scale, but as for the Idor scale, the one that told humans how many neural links someone or something had, the system had been unable to classify it. <What the fuck does this mean?>
[Sorry! It has too many neural links! There is no scale that can rank it!]
<How many neural links do this thing have?>
But the attributes it had made it clear they were a lot.
[270!]
<WHAT?!>
Erik finally caught himself in mid-air and regained control. The Cerulean bird's beating wings were creating air currents so strong that he even had trouble staying close to it. Not that it mattered, because the creature followed him whenever he unwillingly went.
<System, I need options. How do I survive against something this powerful?>
[Trying to fight this thing head-on would be super risky! This bird's got way more neural links than anything we've ever seen in our records. Even with all your cool powers, it's like bringing a water gun to a tank battle!]
<I know that! Give me something I can use!>
[Use Phantom Veil with Will of the Hydra to trick and confuse it. One head should be tasked to control the illusions and make them the best you can, while the others help you hide and
maybe do sneak attacks!]
<This thing will see through them!>
[Create plant barriers between you using Verdant Architect. Big as the bird is, it'll have trouble moving through vegetation, and you can use it to hide! Just keep in mind its wind powers could blow the plants away.]
<It won't work! That thing is tracking my mana. The only way for me to hide would be if I stopped using it, but that would mean having to take one of its blows head-on and without protection!>
It wasn't all. The creature's intelligence rating of 100 meant it wouldn't fall for simple tricks. [Your Absolute Castle defense isn't enough on its own. Layer it with Elemental Lord to create stacked elemental barriers behind your armor for better protection.]
<What about offense? Can I do something?>
[No way,] the system said. [This thing has 270 neural links-your attacks won't even scratch it. The mana you are seeing surrounding it is the beast's natural mana barrier. Only massively powered attacks will work, or many smaller ones, but that would need us to ask for the Chimaeric Demons' help since not even you can make so many as to injure it.]
Just by existing, the Cerulean Bird warped the surrounding air, showing how incredibly powerful it was. Erik was completely outmatched.
Below them, the sounds of battle continued as the Chimaeric Demons fought against the blackguards, and Erik kept getting experience points and level-ups.
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
The beast's attack had been casual, almost lazy-like a cat batting at a mouse before deciding
whether to kill it.
Yet, it emptied Erik's mana reserves just to pump Absolute Castle enough to protect his sorry ass. Luckily, he leveled up thrice.His mana got restored, but he knew he would need to use it all again just to resist the following ones.
He knew they were going to come, and based on how fast they were, he didn't think he would
be able to avoid them.
The colossal bird wheeled overhead, its feathers catching the light, moving so much wind they could tear buildings apart.
Erik had to do whatever he could to increase his speed. So, he activated a lot of stuff. His Absolute Castle and Beast shapeshifting were already active, but he also activated his telekinesis brain crystal power to try to stop the wind currents around him, or at least to reduce the effects and decrease the resistance, so that he could move faster. As the system suggested, he also activated the Phantom Veil, brain crystal power.
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
This, which was a power he got by merging Shade's brain crystal power, not only allowed him
to turn invisible but also to create illusions, which was what Erik did.
He hoped the monster would focus on the illusions rather than on him.
So, he tried to counterattack as best as he could. Ice spears materialized around him, each one crackling with lightning as he hurled them toward the beast.
The projectiles cut through the air, but the Cerulean bird didn't even bother to dodge. Instead, it simply flapped its wings once, creating a gust that scattered Erik's attack like leaves in a
storm.
"Shit..."
The bird's next attack came soon after. The creature released wind blades, all aimed at the illusions. The creature didn't deem them a threat and for sure recognized they were just that, fake things, yet it still attacked, as if it was just having fun killing something more.
A single wing sweep sent a crescent of compressed air toward Erik and each of the illusions. The barriers shattered first, then the blade hit the armor.
He tried to dodge the main attack, but the edge caught him, sending him spinning through
the sky. The creature wasn't even using its most powerful attacks, and the blades Erik received weren't even close to those the creature used to bisect the black wyvern back then.
The Absolute castle held, but Erik got still injured. He healed himself, but his mana went to
rock bottom again.
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
[LEVEL UP.]
The illusions got unharmed as the wind blade went through them. In the meantime, Erik tried creating multiple barriers again, layering them in complex patterns like he'd seen the barrier
masters do.