Psychic Parasite

"Screee!" The Tier 3 Steel Porcupine screamed and hissed in pain, thrashing about as the corrosive property imbued in the aura and psychic energy seeped into its body, damaging it both externally and internally.

The lightning bolts numbed it, preventing it from reacting instantly. The moment the first bolt of lightning landed on it, numerous others were soon attracted towards it. After all, the entire ground was covered by the forest of blades, metallic in nature.

They became conductors of electricity. And, the body of the Steel Porcupine became the perfect sink for them, so all the electricity flowed towards it, both as the lightning bolts, and arcs of voltage passing through the metallic surface.

This amplified the damage dealt by the attack to a tremendous extent. The Steel Porcupine bore all the electrical discharge, including the corrosion that attacked it from time to time. Ten seconds later, the air returned to its base state as the lightning bolts disappeared.

The sounds of thunder too numbed down before vanishing, making the place echo with the sounds of the wind that had been generated thanks to the attacks. The body of the Steel Porcupine lay on the ground, buried under a couple of blades that had melted.

The molten blades had melted through its body and had solidified, causing it to become stuck to the floor. Its own attack had caused its doom. The Steel Porcupine weakly lifted its head, looking up to only spot the two white structures.

Even until the end, its attacker hadn't come out. Its eyes closed as it plopped on the ground with a mild thud.

Hovering behind the Web World, an Amplifier's eyes shone green as he gazed at the Steel Porcupine, remaining in a frown for a good minute before smiling, "It's dead now."

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered as Ashten patted Jyorta's shoulder, "That was impressive."

"Thanks," Jyorta panted as Laekha Walta continued to heal him, alleviating his exhaustion.

"I only have enough psychic energy to heal you once more." Laekha Walta retracted her psychic arms as conversed about something with George.

"Let's hurry," Dalna Doppler said, causing everyone to pause and look at her. She then gazed at the Tier 3 Spindle Bee beside Jyorta, "How many more minutes do you have?"

"Hm," Jyorta closed his eyes and sensed the tattoo using his aura, commenting at the end, "Only about 45 minutes."

"We still have four more Frenzy Beasts to deal with," Dalna Doppler then gazed towards the other domes, saying her piece, "We'll face the Rigordile next, followed by the Lava Turtle, Floating Spider, and finally, the River Whale."

Upon noticing the gazes of confusion from others, she said, "This Graduation Ceremony's endpoint is the River Whale. It does not seem like it, but it is the strongest of all the Developers here. Moreover, we are outmatched in a fight with it."

"What you said makes sense," Jyorta nodded, recalling the thickness of the film of water a River Whale could make at Tier 3. Moreover, at this stage, its Trait would have developed further, allowing it to subtly modify the shape of its film of water. This way, just its passive ability would be tremendously powerful. It was not to mention its Tier 3 Skill.

Moreover, it was a tank. And, as the students were only Tier 2, they didn't have any ranged or energy-based attacks. Therefore, they would have to expend everything they had to fight it. So, fighting it the last would be the best bet they could make.

Everyone picked up sturdy blades the Steel Porcupine had unleashed, also ensuring to rip out the body length spikes it had saved up. Then, they swiftly flew towards the dome with the Rigordile.

The dome had a layer of water spanning a depth of three metres. It wasn't much, but it gave the Rigordile enough water to move around.

The moment they entered the dome, the Tier 3 Spindle Bee directly activated its Tier 3 Skill and slammed a barrage of spindles through the entire area, immediately causing the Rigordile to go on the defensive.

The layer of water wasn't enough to absorb the momentum behind the spindles. After all, even when it lay flat, the body of the Rigordile was barely underwater. Its Tier 3 version was a massive Frenzy Beast.

The Rigordiles didn't grow as big as the Lava Turtles, but they were still considerably huge. Moreover, the Lava Turtles only blew up in size from Tier 4 onwards. Until then, the River Whales were the biggest of the Tier 3 Frenzy Beasts, followed by the Rigordiles.

But, what they wished to achieve with their attacks didn't occur. For, with a flap of its tail, the water started to form currents, causing it to move at tremendous speeds within it. Moreover, the layer of water slowly began to change shape, rising up as pillars as the Rigordile made arching pathways through it.

Tier 3 Skill—Forged Water!

It was a Skill the Rigordiles typically used to fight against their foe, the River Whales. This was the most common Skill among the Rigordiles but was also the one that allowed them to resist the effects of the River Whales' Trait.

The water would be shaped according to the user's will and would stay in such a state for a considerable duration. And, depending on the energy expended, it varied from a couple of seconds to a minute or two.

The Rigordile was using this to swerve through the water and build branches as it raised the volume of water as a whole, bringing it closer and closer to the students who were high up in the air. The radius of the dome was 30 metres.

As the students directly flew to the top, they were beyond the Rigordile's range. So, to counter it, the Rigordile continued to raise the entire layer of water and close in on them, intending to slam into them.

Most of the attacks of the Spindle Bee were dodged by it. And the rest directly penetrated the layer of water and fell on the floor. Because of their penetration, they were unable to float within the layer of water and use the water currents to deal the Rigordile damage. 

As for the spindles that did land on it, they only managed to create surface-level injuries. It wasn't easy to kill it directly, after all, its defences were inferior only to the Lava Turtle's shell.

Suddenly, Dalna Doppler and George shot forth, speeding towards it, simultaneously unleashing the brunt of their aura. Their auras spiked as they activated their Tier 2 Skills. Dalna Doppler's body was covered by a faint layer of energy that turned sublime.

She then flashed forth with her spear, accompanying George as the two of them clashed head-on with the Rigordile, startling everyone for a moment. But, what happened next startled everyone even further.

The Rigordile's eyes burst as its brain fluids leaked out. Having lost control of its Tier 3 Skill, the Rigordile fell to the ground, accompanying the column of water it had lifted. Thanks to the impact unleashed by the two students, it was the first to hit the ground.

Then, all the volume of water it had risen up fell on it, the resulting weight pressing down on its body, furthering its injuries as even more brain matter flowed out. Twenty seconds later, its Frenzy Parasite drilled out through its eye socket, slithering through the water as it seemed to be struggling.

Hovering in the air was Dalna Doppler and George, beginning to laugh as they complimented each other.

"Your mastery has improved as compared to before."

"Nah, I still have a long way to go to catch up to you."

The two of them returned to the Web World, watching Jyorta shoot them a surprised glance.

"You're not the only one to garner the attention of a staff. We too obtained the guidance of…some." Dalna Doppler smirked. Clearly, her competitive spirit was triggered upon seeing Jyorta take down the Steel Porcupine. So, she used the trump card that she had been saving up all along.

"Some…" Jyorta's eyes widened for an instant upon noticing the choice of words. He then didn't seem to mind but was internally shaken. He did see what had transpired before but wasn't able to grasp the concept that had been applied.

The blue soul immediately extracted the related memory fragments and sent them to his brain, playing them in a loop. Upon seeing them again and again, a thought popped up in Jyorta's mind.

Tier 3 Skill—Energy Force!

It was a rare Tier 3 Skill among humanity. But, what was shocking here was the fact Dalna Doppler and George were clearly at Tier 2. But despite that, they had been able to use it. Or rather, it seemed they had trained to manipulate their energy to replicate the feat.

It wasn't as strong as the actual Tier 3 Skill, but it was still impressive.

'Value-wise, it doesn't compare to my Aura Induction. But, the fact that they could imitate a Tier 3 Skill's working without possessing the actual Skill, the amount of training one would need is unimaginable. And, the fact that something like this is possible is astounding.' Jyorta thought. Just the significance of what they had shown was tremendous.

It meant humanity wasn't restricted by Skills anymore. And, as long as they comprehended a particular Skill to the limit, they would be able to understand its essence in full. From that, they would be able to devise the way the energy needed to flow, be moulded, the cause that unleashes the attack in a particular fashion, and the muscular—nerves, muscle fibres, modifications in the Wisdom Parasite's third ring, etc—faculties required to pull that off.

If all of them were trained, then a person would be able to pull it off. As the Tier 3 Skill, Energy Force didn't change the attribute of the energy, it was possible to be replicated, as long as one understood the Skill.

But, this also meant something important: There was a staff in their military academy that had mastered the Tier 3 Skill, Energy Force.