[Psychokinetic] Eyeball Pulling - Chapter 196: City Apocrypha

She would have been excited if not for her fathers next words.

“The vanguard will be setting off ahead of schedule,” Lord Sinwen said while her mother looked on with a smile. “Astrid, you’ll be with the rearguard to reinforce the Apocrypha command. If it falls, we will have no foothold within the city. Your… army, will remain here on Rebirth for defense.”

Astrid understood. She wasn’t yet strong enough to join the grand nobles and her eldest brother. Gritting her teeth, she nodded. She gave the order to Kreka, and the Great No-Eyed One to remain on Rebirth.

Astrid wasn’t disappointed with having to be in the rearguard. Astrid knew how important it was, no, she was annoyed that she still didn’t have the strength to help her mother, or father. Despite her progress being terrifying.

Once Astrid understood, they gave Kaylan a few orders, then they moved. Each of them had unique skills to move. Lord Sinwen stepped in the air, as if he was lord of the skies. Milana stood atop a dark cloud with crows flying all around her, while Tennyson simply stood on water from his mana control.

“My sweet daughter.” Eli grabbed hold of Astrid in a tight hug. “Don’t do anything rash, okay?”

“Mum.” Instead of fighting it, she leaned into the embrace. Accepting it. Astrid took everything in, from the smell of her gentle perfume, to the warmth she provided. “You know me. How can I possibly cause trouble?”

“Oh you always find a way.” Eli smiled in response. “Take care.”

She leapt up, causing the entire battleship to groan in protest. She was about to fall back down, but Lord Sinwen caught her. Her mother didn’t have a movement technique.

They all moved at high speed, tearing through the air. Crashes from the sound barrier rocked her eardrums and in the blink of an eye, they disappeared into the horizon.

From where Rebirth was located, the city wasn’t too far away. It was already fast approaching the end of the year, and the higher ups were already preparing for the city expedition. Close, but it would still take the warship a couple days to reach their destination.

Astrid had already told her father that the awakening of the Leviathan would take three days. Of course, that was just their estimation. If it was sooner, then… Astrid shook her head. She had to remain positive. Positive that they would make it in time to stop them.

The trip to the city was uneventful. A few hundred spawn were slaughtered on the way, but Astrid didn’t even have to lift a finger. Well, not that she usually did anyway as she relied upon her psychic powers, but it was because of the Leviathan’s Fury.

Her cannons obliterated anything that got close. Of course, it wasn’t alone either. They were in a convoy of hundreds of different warships and together, they were the rulers of the seas.

The Leviathan’s Fury and its convoy rested a good distance away from the bubbled city below. One, one couldn’t enter from the top as death would be obvious from the fall, and two, apparently the headquarters lay to the south.

Kaylan turned around from the bow of the ship. “We are the back-up for this mission. We provide provisions and information travel for the vanguard. Some of you will protect the information channels back to Rebirth, others will be on the walls.” His voice was cold, emotionless, but for Astrid, she was already long used to it.

He continued, “Don’t go thinking you’re a hero, because you’re not. Most of you have never entered a city before, so let me tell you this; it’s entirely different down there. Monsters have evolved beyond normal means. They’re bloodthirsty and will stop at nothing to rip you to shreds.”

Brett leaned in closer to Astrid and whispered, “Charming fella, ain’t he?”

Astrid smiled, hidden behind her Avemoth mask. “That’s my brother all right.”

With everything set, they began their dive. As soon as Astrid hit the water, she could feel the difference within. Mana. It practically oozed out of the bubble, and it was what caused thousands of spawn to gather.

Everyone worked as a unit to clear the area. Hundreds of spells of all different elements fired forward along with imbued arrows, and ballistae. Together, they turned the pure blue water into a red mist. Scattered body parts drifted along the current, thudding against Astrid’s Mind Barrier, and the other mages around her.

Astrid’s blood boiled from the sight. It reminded her of battling with the psychos back in the dungeon. The sight of carnage, the aura of death, and the smell of blood. To her, it was more exciting than any prank she could pull.

Was it because of her strange bloodline–Primordial God-Queen. It said she was destined to fight and war courses through her veins. Whatever the reason was, she just enjoyed it. It was that simple.

Astrid herself used [Crash] dozens of times in seconds, splitting the spawn like a tidal wave. Each explosion caused the water to condense, then explode in a brutal detonation. It sent the water tumbling, resisting the natural current of the ocean like it was under her command.

After destroying the attacking spawn, Astrid, and the rearguard travelled downward. It took four hours to reach the bottom, and with a quick glance upward, all she could see was a never ending abyss of black.

It was further than she had ever travelled before, and she could see it take a toll on some of the weaker people within the army. Especially those who weren’t invested in the body, like mages. However, they were all experienced military veterans, and each one of them had skills to combat the pressure, or they relied on various pieces of equipment to reduce it.

Beyond the bubble lay a huge formation of wall. Hundreds of warriors manned it and were fighting against a horde of monsters. Even in the water, she could hear their battle screams, and the clash of metal against flesh, then bone.

Kaylan quickly brought them through with his team at the front. He didn’t need to hear any orders before he charged onto the wall and charged up a huge blade of energy. Letting it fly, it tore into the beasts, splitting the first few into two, but the blade lost its lustre as it hit the seventh monster.

The fact that the blade didn’t continue was a testament to the strength of the beasts.

It wasn’t until Astrid joined Kaylan did she realise what they were facing. Monkeys with one eye and long horns. Thick corded muscle expanded and contracted at every little movement. It wasn’t the visible strength that caused Astrid to raise her brows, but their eyes.

Like little green gems, they glowed with intelligence. No. They pulsed. Slowly, they were getting faster, until the same vivid green emerged from their expanding forearms like a gas.

The ape punched and the air exploded in a green haze. Even those who were built around defence bent at the might of the hit. Two wayfarers were blasted off the wall as others immediately took their place like a revolving door.

No doubt they were strong, but they were able to work around it, as if the hundred strong on the wall were one unit.

The moment an ape’s eyes pulsed too fast, they were focused down by rapidfire attacks. Arrows struck their eyes like a bullseye, or they were pelted by powerful magical attacks.

Astrid and her team focused on the left side of the semi circle wall. She focused on creating lances made of psychokinetic energy. Just from their tough hide and high level, she could tell that she needed something with more penetrative power.

The lance formed in her palm in an instant. Blasting it forward, it screeched through the air, and pierced the apes skull. It continued through and thudded into the beast behind it.

The monster looked down at its wound. Red seeped down, but then its glowing green eyes gazed at Astrid.

Astrid snorted. She grabbed hold of its eyes and pulled them out with a powerful yank. A dual, simultaneous explosion followed, but even it didn’t manage to destroy its skull. The unique effect granted by her Eyeball Pulling ring was no longer enough.

Amongst her team, it was her and Daniel who killed the most. Astrid because of her overwhelming strength, and Daniel since he could bypass whatever natural armour they had thanks to his unique skill.

Like a knife through butter, Daniel’s blade sliced an ape from armpit to shoulder in a blink of an eye.

Astrid noticed that her side was the weakest. Utilising her mana without care, she managed to hold them back. She was entirely caught up in the war, and before she knew it, two whole hours were spent massacring the beasts.

Mana container running on empty, the battle stopped. The retreating screams of apes, and then silence took over as they disappeared into the distance.

Taking a breath, she started regulating her mana, speeding up the regeneration process. But her mind twitched. Something was approaching from a distance, and it was big.

It wasn’t just her that thought so. Since this was a city expedition, there were a lot of people that were stronger than her. She even remembered a lot of their faces from different balls they had attended.

Many of them were nobles, but there were still a lot of commoners amongst them in their team. After all, strength wasn’t discriminated against if they could achieve it.

Hands were readied on their weapons, mana swirled. They were all preparing for whatever was coming.

Stomp after stomp, it approached. A storm of green mana erupted from the distant monster as if it was the centre of a storm.

It didn’t take it long for it to rear its enormous head over the battlefield. The ape was the size of a multistoried building.

Roaring, the air groaned in protest. Astrid hurried to erect a barrier and so did the other mages to protect the ears of everyone behind the wall.

It grabbed hold of a rock, then threw it forward in a haze of green. In an instant, it blasted a hole straight through the solid wall that they had created, sending people flying. The wall broke, sending shrapnel into the surroundings, some embedding into flesh.

The monster approached.