Sylas' hair stood on end. He felt a greater threat now than he ever had in his life.
He looked up into the skies, and it seemed as though dozens of portals were opening up one after another. The air rippled and reality bent, lances of silver-blue formed by swirling Aether peeking out from within.
For a moment, Sylas was stunned into a limbo.
He had been in this world of what felt like fantasy for a long while. He had experienced so much, brushed with death tens of times. But right now, he truly felt like he was entirely out of his depth.
There was no movie, no book, no strokes of imagination that could have prepared him for this very moment.
Staring into the jaws of death, he found himself standing at a crossroads once more.
On the left was a path of cowardice.
On the right was a path of bravery. True bravery. Not one built off the back of arrogance or self-overestimation. But one that looked toward the reaper with a cool gaze.
He could feel that his body wanted to move to the left. He was a professor, a scholar. He had spent all his life reading books and standing in a lab. While he did keep himself active, it was entirely for the sake of discipline, and he was the furthest thing from lethal.
However, as those thoughts flashed through his head, he remembered that feeling when he thought he'd die. He remembered the disgust he felt to his deepest depths, and he bit his tongue hard.
At a moment one, what would cowardice give him but a swifter death?
Back when he first entered this world, he stared at his Will stat and scoffed. How could a mere system possibly tell him how great or poor his Will was meant to be?
But soon after, he was humbled, broken down and shattered, only to barely be able to build himself back up afterward.
Staring at the attack in the skies that could probably wipe out a row of homes, Sylas felt a cool sensation rush through the folds of his brain once more, and his trembling pupils solidified.
The portals erupted at once, curving through the air and aiming toward Sylas. It was clear that the snail didn't care about its foot soldiers. It wanted nothing else than to wipe Sylas from the map.
Just one of those lances had broken through two of his shields. Even if he used his telekinesis to tear them apart, Sylas had no way of knowing if it would even work on a lance that hadn't been weakened, and even if it did, he could only split his mind about six ways now. How could he deal with two dozen lances?
However, Sylas' mind was churning with a different sort of thought process.
How had the snail cast so many at once? That was impossible.
Even with its pool of Aether, conjuring up more than two dozen attacks should have taken up more than half.
An attack of this caliber, capable of dealing more than 400 points of damage, would cost at least one unit of Aether, and that was if he was being generous.
357 Intelligence was worth just under 36 units. Between the lances and the sheer number of beasts that the snail was controlling…
How did it still have Aether left?
Was it a Skill like ?
It was possible, but why didn't Sylas sense Aether rushing toward it? In fact, the only time he had sensed Aether moving similar to how it would under such a Skill was when it first activated the lance Skill…
Sylas' mind sharpened, and he suddenly grasped something.
With a surge of his telekinesis, he completely ignored the oncoming lances. Instead, he grasped onto what looked like an intangible and invisible string connecting them and then pressed down hard.
The snail reeled back, and the lances that had just been on a perfect trajectory went haywire.
Sylas moved, leaping out of the way of one lance and conjuring two more shields to deal with another two.
He rushed away, dashing at his fastest possible Speed toward the three government agents.
Sylas had realized during the force field fiasco that his visualization could pick up on more than his eyes could. It could "see" the force field even when his eyes could not.
This time, when the lances had approached a 20-meter radius, Sylas noticed something else.
One of the lances was acting as the main attack, while the others seemed to just be followers, almost like a sieve leading water.
If he was correct, the snail only had to cast the lance Skill just once, and after, every lance formed following needed far less Aether to conjure up.
He didn't know what that Skill was, or how it would end up in the hands of such an overpowered creature, but he was certain that it was the reason it could control so many beasts and cast so many attacks at once.
In which case, he just needed to find the "main" beast here and shatter its connection to the snail as well. As he did so, he continued to rush toward the portal, weaving in and out of a crowd of beasts as the snail slowly regained its bearings.
The lances fell randomly to Sylas' back, unleashing a wave of destruction through the sea of beasts.
Bogdan, Elise, and Petrard were once again taken aback by Sylas' ability to survive. Just how had he done it?
The snail shook itself awake and looked toward Sylas' slowly retreating back. It felt rage.
That was the second time. The second time this human—
Sylas suddenly changed directions, leaping high into the air as he spotted a black-furred bear with claws of flaming crimson.
His kunai flashed as he punched out with an Aetherflow-filled fist.