Mind Magic in combat has been something I’ve been forced to experiment with since I wasn’t able to select Gravity Magic affinity after reaching a sufficient Level in Water Magic. In order to make full use of the Skill, I decided to focus on using it to distract and trick my opponents in battle.
The basic concept is quite simple: use the attributed Mana to construct a bridge between your mind and that of your enemy, then you can craft little ‘packages’ of sensation or understanding, and blast them! Typically by distracting them, causing them to feel pain that isn’t there or hear sounds that aren’t real.
Lightning begins to crackle around Tiny as he starts his charge, electricity writhing over his body in thick ropes, flickering constantly. A contemptuous gleam shines in the croca-commander’s eye. Unhurried, it opens its lower jaw at a relaxed pace, allowing black flames to leak and play across its teeth.
Dammit, dammit, dammit! My emotions roil in the back of my mind, but deep within, I continue to be locked in the calm of the Meditation Skill. My three minds operate in harmony as they weave and fold the construct into place. The very second the final thread of Mana is in place, Mana is drawn out of my core and fed to the construct, emerging out the other end as glimmering Mind Mana.
Now make a dang bridge! My panic and desperation slide along the outside of my awareness as Tiny closes in on his own imminent, crispy doom. It’s happening too fast. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it!
The neck of the croca-commander bulges. It lunges forward and unleashes a torrent of black flame. The heat sears the moisture off my eyeballs from fifty metres away, so intense are those flames. When my vision clears, Tiny is nowhere to be seen. In desperation, I tune every sense to its utmost limits and try to seek him out. In no direction can I see him. My heat detection is completely frizzled due to the residual energy from that flame blast.
I refuse to accept that he’s barbequed!
Even the satisfied look on the croca-commander mocks me. The giant beast readies to deal out more flammable death.
Then my antennae report something strange. Their ability to glimpse into the future is giving me a tickling insight of a future event. An impact of tremendous proportions.
I look up.
And Tiny crashes down.
Holy moly! I knew he had some serious spring in his legs, but I had no idea he could get that high! When the flame had been belched, he must have leaped straight over it, achieving the kind of air time that Jordan could only dream about, before he collapsed down on the croc like a falling mountain.
BOOOOM!
The ground quakes as Tiny strikes home with an overhead smash. Taken by surprise, the croc could only weather the blow by bracing itself, upper body hunched over and legs buckled, struggling to absorb the impact.
Unwilling to let go of the momentum, Tiny unleashes his fists and lightning in their full glory. His body rotates like a pro to transfer his weight into every strike. Each time his fist contacts croc scales, electricity dances along his arms and discharges into the beast, scorching it.
Nice! Time for the bridge!
With a final few, deft weaves, the bridge slams into place and my mind is connected to that of the foe. One mind dedicated itself to holding the bridge and transformation construct in place, whilst the other weaves together our first mental assault.
[Get in there, Crinis! Whilst Tiny has him distracted!]
[Right, Master!]
Out of the long grass, an explosion of tentacles occurs not twenty metres away from the commander. Crinis had done well to sneak as close as possible, keeping a low profile in order to take advantage of this moment.
Weighed down by my Gravitational Magic and distracted by Tiny’s relentless assault, the croc isn’t able to react in time to escape the grasping limbs of Crinis locking on in seconds. Her tentacles latch onto one arm like an iron clamp, and that’s all it takes. In moments, more limbs lash out and use their leverage to pull Crinis’ main body toward her victim, where she will begin her dark work.
Then something rolls down the Mind Bridge and slams into my awareness like a truck.
55. Mind War
Dazed, my minds go blank for a terrifying moment before clarity returns. I focus my awareness on the Mind Bridge that connects the commander to me. What the hell just happened!
Somehow, in the midst of all that it was enduring, the damned croc possessed the presence of mind to detect the mental connection I’d created and used it to strike at me directly.
Really, you stupid croc? With a giant bat-faced gorilla punching your lights out and a writhing mass of tentacle death descending upon you, the little ant who’d created a Mind Bridge threatened you the most? Your priorities are messed up!
Another pulse of Mana floods down the bridge. This time, I’m prepared and focus my will to resist the impact. I may as well have been bracing to be hit by a wrecking ball. The mental strike smashes into my awareness and rattles it like a tin can. I grit my mandibles and focus all of my Will in order to prevent myself from blacking out.
If the stupid croc is so threatened by the Mind Bridge, then I’m sure as hell going to maintain it. Even if it’s going to burn through Mana faster than I want to, especially after coming so close to having exterminated myself through this exact problem.
I don’t want to spend my Mana quite so profligately, but these big monsters aren’t the kind we can take on without going all out. I just hope I don’t end up in empty core territory again. That sensation was… uncomfortable, to put it mildly.
But how can I utilise this bridge to attack the croc? Come to think of it, how on earth is this croc using the bridge to attack me? I doubt very much it’s capable of constructing a Mana Transformation construct. Does it have a Mind Magic gland? Why the heck would an evil, two-mouthed croc have a need for a Mind Magic gland? This horrific-looking monstrosity hasn’t communicated with another organism except through the medium of fire in its entire life!
The beast appears to judge that I’ve been incapacitated by its mental strikes, and turns its attention to fending off the relentless assault from Tiny. Repeatedly rocked by the ape’s tremendous fists, blood drips from a number of open wounds where Tiny managed to crack its scales.
Now the croc has enough room to swing with both arms on its right side. The wide swipe forces Tiny to retreat backward. The croc makes use of the space to open its top jaw and unleash a gout of fire at my ape pet.
What I see then, I shall never forget.
Tiny had been falling backward, off-balance after the savage swing from the croc. The follow up fireball should have turned him into a roasted side of ape, but instead, a miracle occurs. One moment, Tiny is flat footed as he stumbles, the next moment he’s risen onto the balls of his feet, his tense expression fading to be replaced by one of extreme calm. Then he floats to one side, executes a graceful pirouette, and avoids the flame breath of the titan-croc with ease.
What the hell was that! When did you learn how to move with such… such grace and precision? His feet flickered so quick, he—
Wait a sec.
Is that Fancy Feet? That suspicious dance-related Skill? When the heck have you been practising that, you brute?! Have you been dancing when I can’t see you, you cursed ape? If you had a Skill that was so useful, why the heck didn’t you let me know about it? I’ll ignore the fact that I could have checked the details by examining his core. I never bothered because the name of the Skill seemed to be so frivolous, I didn’t think it mattered. Even now, picturing myself dancing and floating around enemy strikes, my six legs flailing in the air, I just don’t feel like the Skill would be for me.