CHAPTER 139: Facing the Mind Witch

Adam snarled as he drove towards her. There were two things overlaid on the same body. One was a dream that he wished he would never wake from. A vision of heaven that Adam would dedicate his life to protect, to please, and to love. She was an angel that the entire world would be better for having, if it revolved around her instead of the sun.

The other was a grotesque creature. A thing of nightmares. Even in horror movies Adam had never seen something as horrific as the woman in front of him. She needed to be put down. Stopped. The world needed to be rid of her and her kind as soon as possible.

A growl escaped from Adam and reality shifted. The illusion shattered and Adam could see the Red Clan speaker as she truly looked.

Her skin was pale and slightly translucent. Thick black veins were pumping visibly through the skin. Her eyes were a little too big, slanted upwards near her flat nose, and positioned too high as they approached her forehead.

The wide mouth that was open, smiling at him, had a huge underbite as jagged, shark-like teeth penetrated outward. Adam could make out at least three rows of teeth, but they didn’t overlap like in a typical human. They had gaps between the layers. A bite from that mouth would bleed out a person without ripping off their skin. It would grasp them and not allow them to get away.

The creature’s hair was bright red, billowing down her back, but the strands were flatter and wider than a human’s, more like thin seaweed. The hands had talons on them rather than fingernails, again looking more for bleeding something easily.

Adam pulled to a stop before reaching her. His emotions felt on edge, and he was furious. He looked around, checked his soul map, but didn’t see anyone else in the area. Simply looking at her made him feel like a scared, cornered dog.

Except, this was what Adam wanted. He wanted a chance to get her in front of him, to directly face her and make sure she was removed from his world. Whether she had intel he needed or not, he would kill her here and now.

“Greetings, lover,” said Cruxannith’cz’Jurzax. Her smile was no longer lovely, and he could hear the difficulty she had in making human sounds with her distorted teeth and jaw. “So much patience was required to not just rush off to embrace you.”

Adam glared and growled at her. “I’m glad we could meet too,” he said honestly. “Killing you will make things a lot easier.”

The long triangular sword was pulled from the sheath on his motorcycle. The Red Clan speaker laughed. It sounded like dolphins choking while fingernails scratched a chalkboard. Adam winced at it, but kept his eyes on her, waiting for the signs of a skill being used. She simply stood there smiling.

“My love, there is no reason to kill me. Am I not the woman of your dreams?”

“Dreams?” scoffed Adam. “Maybe the worst dreams a man could have. Ones that he spends his life to avoid.”

Adam got into a stance with the sword, ready to swing it as he moved. Two more strides and he would be close enough to use [Gladiator’s Approach].

Cruxannith frowned at him. Her eyes sharpened, no longer showing joy and mirth.

“The illusion doesn’t work on you?” she asked, more disappointed than confused. “You don’t see me as one of you humans?”

“No,” he answered, creeping forward, wary of her “Soul Charmer [72]” tag. “You’re some gross octopus shark person.”

“Aw, that’s disappointing,” she pouted, then returned to her monstrous smile.

Adam slid forward another step, anxiety starting to grow. She hadn’t moved, hadn’t used any more skills. The Red Clan speaker was acting like her standing there was the most natural thing in the world.

Then Adam got into range. He reached into himself, pulling on the heat to start the river. It didn’t require him to pull on unhappy memories to create the anger. Just looking at the invader in front of him was enough.

CONQUER! His soul screamed.

Adam hefted his sword and used the strength from the river.

No strength came. Adam frowned.

Cruxannith saw his expression and giggled, as if she had just played a prank on him and was waiting for him to notice.

[Soul and Body Shaping] was activated. Adam opened the spigot, trying to draw as much power from it as possible. Nothing came through.

Adam growled. Then, even though he thought it unwise to shift his focus in a fight, he dove into himself. What he found shocked him. There was no river. There were no pulses of heat. His soul space, his essence, was calm. Still. Frozen.

Ice was around his heart, cooling and containing the heat while preventing it from starting the river.

Adam dropped from his soul and focused on the monster in front of him. He roared. [Incapacitating Shout] didn’t activate. He stepped. [Gladiator’s Approach] didn’t work. He tried making the glow on his weapon, yet [Kinetic Impact] was dormant.

None of his berserker abilities would activate. No heat meant no enhanced strength or speed. No regeneration. Adam had been shut down. His anger was there but it was normal anger, not what was created by the [Unquenchable Rage] skill, the basis of the Grand Blood Berserker class.

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CONQUER!

Whatever was freezing him didn’t stop his movement or the yelling from the soul corruption. Anxiety mixed with his anger, but wasn’t enough to overwhelm it as his hate was real and his own. Skills or not, this dog needed to be put down.

A stoic expression hardened his face. Not fear, nor anger, simply determination. He charged. Her smile widened as she watched him.

The sword came up using two hands, since without the strength from the river he wouldn’t be able to swing it as easily.

She giggled.

Adam gambled and used [Soul Bolt]. It activated as the coolness in his mind pulsed, much like the heat usually did. His pseudo-skill from the Soul Forger class was filled with more power than he had ever felt in it before, since the heat wasn’t there to interfere with it.

Cruxannith screamed, “What was that?!”

He smiled and swung the sword at her as she grabbed her head, staggering backwards.

Before the sword could descend, Adam was sent flying. He was knocked into the air from his side. In an instant his ribs cracked, and his shoulder dislocated. The large sword spun in another direction. Clenching his teeth, Adam stifled a cry from the pain as he spun head over feet.

The impact with the ground drove the air out of him and each bounce over the asphalt took off a new layer of skin and muscle, streaking blood over where he skipped down the road. Without his berserker class he had a Vitality of 3. In between bounces and pain, it briefly struck Adam’s mind that he must still be getting stats from future Gregor, or he wouldn’t have survived this hit. He just didn’t have the stat boosts that came from berserker skills.

When Adam finally slid to a halt, groaning as he was no longer able to control his broken jaw, Adam was barely able to turn his neck to see where he had been hit from. He had traveled far.

Standing next to Cruxannith was a large Scyrric. A smiling Scyrric, breath heaving and murder in his eyes. He stomped the distance as Cruxannith walked in what she must have thought was a dainty, swaying manner.

Adam tried to pull on his heat, but it was still frozen. He pushed himself up with his left arm, unable to move the right. There was no strength left. One lung was punctured by his broken ribs as blood gurgled in his throat from attempts to breathe. Adam was completely at their mercy.

The Scyrric, eyes and skin tinted silver, fancy metal armor covering almost every part of him, metal weapons attached all over his armor, had a tag of “Metallic Berserker [74]”. He snarled at Adam like a beast, brandishing a war hammer of his own, while standing over him.

The Red Clan speaker put a gentle hand on the Scyrric. “Calm down, Sgolkr.”

A flash of a skill activating lit her hand and the Scyrric visibly relaxed, the silver tint of his eyes and skin faded. Once he was calmer, he stepped back to allow her to get closer.

“Oh, Adam, my love, I could just eat you up.” She fawned over him while reaching down. Her talon scooped up some of his blood and she sniffed it like it was a scented wine. “But I can’t yet. We’ll be spending a lot of time together soon. You don’t need to worry though, Sgolkr here will take good care of all the pets you’ve gathered in your city.”

“…” Adam whispered, choking on his own blood when he tried to speak. Pain lanced through him, and he fell back onto the ground again. But his eyes stayed fixed to hers.

“What was that, love?” she asked sweetly, getting closer as if he would whisper sweet nothings into her ear.

His eyes glared hate, but his lips managed to smile.

With all the power still in him, while the heat was contained and not interfering with the abilities from the Soul Forger class, Adam dove into himself. A connection was formed to the brightest, most powerful soul near him, unquestionably her. This connection was made bigger than he had ever used and drew on all the power of his own soul as he blasted that power, regardless of its form, into her.

“What’re you…” she started, then her eyed grew large. “No! NOOOOO!”

Something inside of him shifted. Something inside of her shifted. Cruxannith flashed several times with skill use while continuing to scream.

A blade was implanted in Adam’s already broken and bleeding leg by Sgolkr. The lance of pain distracted him and pulled him from his soul.

Cruxannith was gasping for air until that moment. Then with a ragged breath she said, “[Sleep]!” and flashed with the activation of her magic. Adam’s consciousness was reaped as his eyes closed and his body began convulsing as it suffocated on its own blood.

***

Cruxannith’cz’Jurzax tried to steady her breathing as she watched Sgolkr roll Adam over to keep him from dying. Even she was surprised by how weak he was after she had used [Soul Freeze] on his berserker skill. It was like he didn’t have any real stats without it. She felt lucky he hadn’t become paste with how hard Sgolkr had hit him.

What was even more surprising than the low stats was how he had managed to soul attack her. Twice! In different ways. That was impossible! Everything about him seemed impossible.

Weak berserker abilities. Strong soul abilities, though distorted and unfocused. No tag or class displayed. He was quite a mystery. Her patience would be rewarded.

Cruxannith felt the tingle inside. The one from just before you make love. The thrill, excitement, and anticipation about how good it will be.

She couldn’t stop herself. She needed him right now!

Her mouth opened and she bent forward, teeth digging into his scraped-up neck. His blood flowed into her as she pulled in a draught. It was the sweetest she had ever tasted. So much power. More power than she had ever felt in blood before, even when messing around with peers back in the tower. This flavor was from a higher tier, and there was more than one flavor. She tasted three distinct mixes from the one blood, another unknown occurrence, coming from her new lover.

Before she could take another sip though, a taint took over the flavor. It was vile…wrong…the worst thing she had ever ingested. The poison in it felt stronger than even the most repulsive blood they had made her drink for her training.

Her tongue, gums, and lips began to tingle and then burn. She stood up and turned, vomiting out the blood she had drunk, trying to clear it from her mouth and throat. She pulled a potion from her belt and rinsed her mouth with it. Another potion was swallowed to keep the taint from further harming her throat and stomach. She gagged and choked.

A third potion was necessary to halt the damage, not even enough to cause healing. Adam’s blood was the most toxic thing to a Red Clan that she had ever heard of. What a shame considering the power contained within it. But for now, she wouldn’t be able to partake.

Maybe once the elders had him, they could find a way to purify it. At this time, she needed to make sure he lived.

Using her fourth and final potion, she poured it into Adam’s mouth to try and heal him enough to get him back to her Rift. She just needed to make sure the watching vermin didn’t follow, but that was a job for Sgolkr.

***

Lashtam frowned as he looked at the injured Leputi before him. Of the five watchers who had observed his excellency, only two returned. The Scyrric that had come for them had been too fast for them to escape. Three, and almost a fourth, sacrificed themselves to bring back word of what happened to his excellency.

The Leputi chief shook his head in frustration. Their protector had been taken. Maybe killed. Two peak Tier 3s held him and no one here would have the strength to face them. Was it time for him to take the rest of his tribe and run?

A shake of his head reminded Lashtam of the contract. They would need to give their two weeks’ notice before running or would be in violation of it. By then, their enemies will have closed in to prevent escape.

No, he would need to do what he could to help the humans survive. Maybe they could rescue his excellency, if they could find the base he was taken to. For now, he would need to tell the Lords and Ladies of this occurrence. Hopefully his daughter wouldn’t become the target of their anger for his allowing this to happen.