Free Web NovelChapter 218: A Massive Fight (1)
Ren fired the gun, letting out a bullet with a loud crash.
The bullet didn’t hit its target. The monster near the window jumped away quickly, climbing the pillar and giving him a sideways glance, its head tilted. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
It was a weird-looking mutant creature, not too big, but had a mix of different biological traits: bright fish scales, long tendrils, bug-like multiple eyes, and lips and a lower jaw that looked human.
It had an odd shape, dressed up in an old-fashioned long dress that you’d usually see women wearing, with a black veil on its head. Under the dress, strange bug legs peeked out, creating a creepy yet oddly captivating mixture of ugliness and beauty. Since it entered the room, it had been standing quietly on the stairs, observing both of them.
A wave of strong psychic energy attacked Ren’s brain, causing severe pain. Making a face of distress, he aimed and shot at the mutant near the window. The bullet didn’t reach the monster, instead breaking the circular rose window on the stairs.
The dreamlike, vibrant light in the room vanished, showing the high sky outside the walls.
"Hmm? You managed to fight off my psychic invasion," the creature floating under the castle ceiling said, its huge multi-faceted eyes staring at Ren briefly.
"I get it. You’ve mated with your beta, and now you’re exclusive to her, automatically blocking any other psychic power from entering your psychic landscape. Fascinating. Humans always have a bunch of weird feelings and beliefs, like what they call love, loyalty, and jealousy. These emotions can sometimes be weak, but strangely powerful at other times. But how long can you keep this up? Look, your beta is down, and all your friends have been beaten."
Ren didn’t need to check; he was aware of what happened behind him.
As soon as they walked in, he and Kestrel must have seen the terrifying illusion - the sight of their dead friends, and then Kestrel cried in his arms.
And then, somehow, they ended up back in the underground hideout, where Kestrel hugged him tightly, starting to kiss him.
At that instant, Ren felt that he didn’t need to do anything else; they could just relax, letting themselves be happy for as long as they wanted.
The strong smell of pheromones, Kestrel’s touch, her skin against his, the feeling of her trying to nibble his ear - it was all exactly the same as before, not a single thing was different.
But he felt something was wrong, and without thinking, he fired the gun - he knew it wasn’t Kestrel, no matter how flawless the mimicry.
He could feel the real Kestrel’s presence deep within his mind, filling every part of his psychic landscape, present in every tiny particle and droplet in his vast psychic landscape. Even though they had experienced this just once, that feeling had settled deep within his psychic sea, permanently imprinted in his brain’s wiring.
No one could copy that feeling, not even the strongest psychic incarnation could achieve that.
Ren snapped back to reality amidst the echoes of gunshots, quickly understanding the real situation in the room.
Around him was a plushly decorated room with comfy couches spread around. Nicole was lying on a lounge chair, her eyes shut tight, it wasn’t clear how she was, but he could still see she was breathing lightly. Olivia was on the floor by her feet, leaning against a pillar. A little further away, Rakan and Raymond were lying on the floor.
As for Kestrel, she was standing nearby, one hand on the armrest of a couch, eyes closed, frozen in place, right next to Ren.
The psychic attack from their foes felt like an unseen wave of sound, something they couldn’t touch but was constantly hitting them. It was an incredibly powerful psychic assault, causing a spinning, agonizing pain.
Ren’s eyes momentarily glanced at Kestrel’s hand on the leather couch. His whole body got ready to fight. But, a small part of his mind couldn’t help but remember the feel of her hand on him, a touch that was both cold and uncaring yet also as hot as a flaming metal.
Despite the immense pain from the alien psychic attack, Ren’s mind instinctively focused on that hand. The hand on the couch was clearly small and elegant, with soft white fingers, but it had once held him down, making every bit of him shake under its grasp.
Those hands had given Ren both pain and deep pleasure, a powerful experience of being touched and controlled that he couldn’t shake off.
It felt a bit embarrassing, but whenever the enemy’s psychic attacks brought agony and chaos, Ren leaned on the vibrant memories created by Kestrel, using the remembrance of that powerful feeling to block the foreign mental attack. It was like a strong anchor in the sea, sinking deep into the seabed, staying firm no matter how wild the storm above, keeping the drifting ship from flipping over.
Even though the adversary was powerful, Ren had already faced a psychic invasion from Kestrel, being extremely close with her, which made him able to fight back with all his might. His psychic landscape didn’t allow forceful invasions from others anymore.
When all the other alphas were knocked down, when Kestrel was stuck in the psychic battle, Ren kept a stern face, protecting Kestrel, his gun steadily pointed at the foe on the ceiling.
An orca appeared from the floor, carrying Rakan in its mouth and Raymond on its back, bringing them close to the couch.
The mutant was hanging onto the top of a pillar, its upper body stretched out horizontally, its long dress dangling down, showing a graceful stance, and it hummed quietly through its nose. Its two multifaceted eyes weren’t on Ren and the orca anymore, but were fixed on the still Kestrel. Like a couple of alphas weren’t even worth her time, she refused to split her focus to initiate another mental assault on Ren.
She was completely focused on Kestrel.
The castle’s floor started to break apart. Something was coming out from underneath it. It was just like what they had faced during the fight under the Ferris wheel — a creature was coming out of the ground, but it didn’t seem to have a heartbeat, breath, feelings, or any signs of life as we know it.
It shook off the big chunks of soil from its skin and began to come out from the dark corners slowly.
Then, another one came too.
