Chapter 177: Psychic Counter [@Thomasinho Golden Ticket Bonus - ]

Chapter 177: Chapter 177: Psychic Counter [@Thomasinho Golden Ticket Bonus Chapter]

While Alex flew backward through the canopy, he kept trying to access the Psychic Element with every remaining fragment of concentration.

He finally got a hold of the unfamiliar sensation near the Mana Heart.

The feeling was very different from Shadow, sharper and more invasive.

His instinct told him in which direction it should be moved.

’I feel like toward the mind would be better if I had time, but for now I want to counter that spider’s psychic attack.’

’So toward the eyes for now.’

As soon as he felt the element near his Mana Heart, he began guiding it upward along the pathways Adaptation had already started mapping.

The movement was still raw.

Progress was slow at first, the element resisting the unfamiliar route.

Then the speed began to increase as Adaptation refined each step of the process.

Suddenly another danger signal flared hard.

Adaptation moved his body before the conscious thought finished forming.

BANG!!!!!!!

The spider dropped from somewhere above and nearly crushed him into pulp against the forest floor.

If Adaptation had not acted in time, he would have been eliminated on the spot.

The impact cratered the ground where he had been a heartbeat earlier.

Alex immediately rolled across the forest floor and came up on his feet, facing the spider again.

Dirt and leaves clung to his battle suit fully now.

He could feel the Psychic Element still climbing.

It had reached his neck and continued upward toward the base of his skull.

The speed was increasing.

He forced it higher, pouring focus into the movement, and prepared to meet the next attack with whatever he could muster.

"SCREEECH!"

The spider lunged the moment it saw him staring with those calculating eyes.

Its screeching sound cut through the canopy like a blade.

At the same time its multiple pink eyes glowed brighter than before.

The runes across its back flared with matching intensity.

This time the power behind the technique was far higher.

The creature was pouring almost everything it could muster into the psychic assault, determined not to let the human escape a second time.

The spider burst forward with unnatural agility.

From Alex’s perspective it looked as though the spider had simply vanished, like the visual input cut out and he had no confirmation that the creature was already closing in to impale his heart.

...or at least that was what the spider believed would happen.

But the Psychic Element had finally reached his eyes.

The world shifted in Alex’s eyes.

Alex could suddenly perceive the flow of intent and the thin threads of the illusion trying to settle over his mind.

The technique was no longer invisible.

He was not yet certain of the exact steps required for full control, but he could already feel how the element might be used to affect perception against something weaker than himself.

The foundation was there.

At the same time a heavy weight pressed down on his mind as he continued to channel the new element.

The strain was a lot but he could manage it.

’Let’s see if it works.’

The moment the spider’s psychic technique locked onto him, Alex used his own Psychic Element together with Adaptation to create an opposing effect.

The two forces met in the space behind his eyes and partially cancelled each other.

The illusion frayed instead of taking full hold.

Just as the sharp leg was about to impale his heart, Alex’s body shifted a fraction of a step under Adaptation’s guidance.

The spider’s sharp leg passed him with almost no gap to spare.

It tore a large chunk from the assigned battle suit, the fabric ripping with a sharp and wet sound.

A thin line of blood welled along the shallow cut that remained.

The spider was startled.

Its multiple eyes locked onto the human who should already have been dying.

Before it could make sense of how the human had avoided a strike that should have been unavoidable, Amethyst Paradox flashed in a sharp vertical arc.

The already-cracked section of leg and chitin that had been damaged during the first mid-air clash separated cleanly from the spider’s body.

A spray of dark red blood burst from the severed joint and painted the nearby bark.

SLASH! BURST!

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHH—!!!!"

Alex grinned, his grin was sharp and cold under the canopy.

The sound of the spider’s pain was satisfying in a way that had nothing to do with mercy.

"Oh dear! Did it hurt?" Alex immediately created distance between them.

The spider staggered back, one leg now missing a large portion of its length.

The wound continued to drip steadily.

Its pink eyes focused on him with pure killing intent, but the earlier certainty was gone.

The creature had expected an easy kill.

It had received a serious injury instead.

Alex adjusted his grip on Amethyst Paradox.

The chain shifted with a quiet metallic sound.

Mana continued to circulate through the weapon and through the new pathways leading to his eyes.

The heavy pressure on his mind remained, but Adaptation was already working on it, smoothing the strain with every passing second.

For the first time since the spider had begun its true assault, Alex stood on equal footing.

He could finally fight it on his own terms.

Across the Human Empire the crowd had fallen into a brief, stunned silence when the leg was severed.

Then the noise returned in a rising wave of shouts and cheers from every Winterfang and Abyss supporter who had been watching.

Some people slammed tables.

Others simply stared at the feed with open mouths.

Alex’s attention stayed locked on the wounded predator in front of him.

The spider had lost the advantage of surprise and the certainty of its mental technique.

Now the real exchange could begin.

He rolled his shoulders once, feeling the residual ache from the earlier collisions, and raised Amethyst Paradox into a ready position.

The spider hissed again, lower and more cautious this time.

Alex answered with a quiet breath and the cold focus that had carried him through every fight in his past life, as well as this second one.

These next moves would decide the pace for the rest of the battle!

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End of Chapter 177: Psychic Counter

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