C169: What am I up against?
Roson raised a violet vial into the night air. But unlike her previous gesture, she did not consume its contents. Instead, she crushed the glass in her grip, deliberately shattering the vessel herself.
Instantly, the whole of the nighttime sky filled with dense, swirling violet mist. The vaporous cloud billowed outward in all directions, growing so thick that it even obscured the moonlight, casting the entire clearing into a deeper darkness.
From her chest pocket, Roson withdrew two sheets of yellowish paper. She threw them into the air. The moment they touched the open atmosphere, both papers ignited and burned away to nothing.
[Contract Page: Masking Presence]
[Contract Page: Minute Observation]
Roson felt her presence weakened. At the same time, her concentration sharpened, her thoughts accelerated, and she could suddenly discern countless minute details that she had never registered before. The sound of moving leaves, the breathing beneath her, the subtle shift of weight in each enemy’s stance, even the faint tension in the air became clearer.
Simultaneously, all four people positioned beneath her staggered as one, their bodies suddenly turning sluggish and unresponsive, as though their limbs had been dipped in cold lead.
Inside the crimson theatre of their shared mindscape, Izzy frowned.
"Isa, do you feel that?"
"Yes, Izzy! Something’s strange!"
Their control over the four bodies had grown noticeably weaker, as if some invisible force was actively hindering their connections!
'Not good. Is this the effect of that violet vial?'
Isa had already moved to sit directly beside Izzy the moment the battle had commenced. This positioning ensured they could achieve the maximum advantage in calculation and coordination.
Izzy and Isa both sat upright within the velvet seats of the theatre, holding each other’s hands. Their faces became serious, as they concentrated their shared will to solidify their control over the vessels and marionettes.
Since Isa could learn fast, Izzy did not worry about Isa being unable to keep pace with her own actions and commands.
Whenever the threads connecting them to any body weakened, they would immediately concentrate their focus on that and reinforce it. This arrangement made the constant calculation grow increasingly overwhelming and intense for both minds to endure simultaneously, like trying to hold several ropes while someone kept cutting at them from the other side.
In the outside world, the battle had become intense.
Within the violet mist that obscured the night, Roson had become faster and harder to predict.
Meanwhile, Arnold and his companions found their vision restricted. Worse still, Izzy and Isa were forced to deal with the continuously loosening concentration on their vessels and marionettes, likely because of that violet vial's effect.
At present, Izzy directed one marionette to guard the captured blood-blobs, while the others formed a protective circle around him, maintaining a defensive formation.
They tracked Roson's movements through their Field Vision, piercing through the visual obstruction of the violet mist.
The woman would appear and disappear quickly within this mist. Whenever she found herself in danger, she would explode into a swarm of bats and rematerialize in a different direction. The number of glinting daggers in play multiplied relentlessly, sparks flying as metallic clashes reverberated continuously through the cold night air.
Whenever Arnold's strikes managed to connect, they could only leave the shallowest of wounds, and she would heal these instantly. He could not deal any significant injury to her whatsoever.
On the contrary, Arnold, Jack, and Rudolph accumulated scars and wounds across their bodies, their clothing shredding further with every exchange as they desperately attempted to deflect Roson's relentless attacks.
Yet even with their physical vision so restricted, Izzy did not worry too much, since the vessels and marionettes had their own Field Vision.
The only matter that troubled her was the viscous blob of blood that the assassin Dhampir commanded at will. Besides Rudolph's silver bucket that had successfully trapped it, she did not have the slightest idea of how to counter or neutralize that thing.
They had found the silver bucket at the mansion. It was not really strange; their mansion had many silver things, even including silvery cutlery. It was just that it would be quite troublesome and heavy if they brought all of them here.
Maybe if Davis were present, he would have a better idea of how to trap the blood-blob. But unfortunately, he had a rather important mission right now.
So it relied entirely on Rudolph to trap the blob while it tried to escape.
At the same time, Izzy anticipated that the assassin Dhampir would target Rudolph directly, since he had disarmed her most versatile weapon.
Exactly as predicted, the assassin Dhampir materialized directly behind Rudolph once more, striking toward his neck.
In the same instant, Jack swung his silver eagle-head cane in a sweeping arc, intercepting her ambush strike.
The blow struck only thin air, as Roson's form exploded into a swarm of bats, dissipating into the swirling violet mist once more.
Immediately after, another dagger appeared from the darkness, flying directly toward Jack's throat. Utilizing his Field Vision, Jack dodged by a hair's breadth, yet a small cut still opened along his shoulder, blood beading in its wake.
Without delay, Arnold deployed his psychokinesis, launching two additional daggers streaking toward Roson's position!
Before the blades could reach her, Roson's figure vanished once more into the concealing mist.
“...”
Arnold tracked her form through the limited visibility of the violet fog. He narrowed his eyes behind his bandages, sensing a presence suddenly materializing directly behind him!
Arnold pivoted quickly, raising his dagger to deflect the approaching glint of light.
A sharp metallic clang rang out through the night.
The instant Roson's dagger was turned aside, the Dhampir's eyes flashed brilliant violet.
"[Submit!]"
Arnold's pupils dilated. His movements became sluggish.
An extreme headache shot its way through Arnold's mind, and the pain traveled up the thread to assault Izzy's consciousness directly.
"Ugh!"
Within the crimson theatre of their mindscape, Izzy's head jerked backward for a second.
'?'
She had felt something intrude directly into the sanctity of their shared mindscape.
From somewhere outside the theatre, in the central plaza of the amusement park, something materialized under the colorful, painted sky.
A thin, violet-colored thread appeared first. Then it transformed, coalescing into a writhing blob of violet blood, shaped like a small, segmented worm, manifesting itself from nothingness.
The instant its form solidified, the worm immediately threw itself downward, burrowing toward the white, cloud-like ground beneath.
"Hmm."
Izzy swiftly opened her palm.
The moment her hand extended, the worm's position warped. It shifted from the outside of the theatre directly into her waiting grasp.
In this mindscape, Izzy could control everything. Teleporting a worm to her grasp was just a small problem.
"..."
The worm panicked immediately upon discovering itself captured in Izzy's hand. It swung frantically against her palm, thrashing with desperate violence, trying desperately to escape her grip. But no matter how it contorted or strained, it could not free itself from her hold.
Realizing the futility of its struggles, the worm reversed course, plunging its fanged mouth into her hand and biting down hard.
Izzy narrowed her eyes at the sensation.
She could feel something trickling out from her essence, a slow drain. It was almost imperceptible, but not entirely unnoticeable.
'This creature... is absorbing our energy?'
Her energy reservoir diminished, just a small fraction, but diminished nonetheless.
'Interesting.'
This was the first time that anything had appeared inside their mindscape.
It was even capable of attacking her directly.
Having listened to Davis's explanation earlier, Izzy had long understood what had happened.
'The stimulant.'
Yesterday, Arnold had been force-fed the Lunar Spirit stimulant. Although Arnold had vomited up the majority of the substance, there would still remain a small, residual effect clinging to his vessel.
'This sensation is new. Is this what the substance does to them?'
Before she could study the phenomenon any further, the violet worm's body swelled grotesquely. Then, without warning, it burst open, exploding outward into a dissipating cloud of violet mist!
Izzy frowned at the unexpected development.
"Isa?"
The worm's destruction had not been her doing. She could feel a strange, intense surge of emotion rippling through their shared mind at the moment the worm died.
Izzy turned toward the young mind seated beside her.
The girl's green eyes remained fixed upon the spot where the worm had died. Her face distorted slightly, the corners of her lips trembling. Thin veins popped out along her forehead, pulsing visibly beneath her skin.
But her features immediately returned to their usual innocent, cheerful expression the instant Izzy turned fully toward her. The girl pouted angrily.
"Izzy! Isa is very angry! How dare that thing bite Izzy!"
She pointed a finger at Izzy's hand.
"Ah."
Izzy had allowed the worm to bite her. She had wanted to observe what would happen, to study its capabilities firsthand.
Of course, since her intuition hadn’t said anything, she thought it relatively safe.
But now that she reconsidered the matter, had that not been dangerous? What if the worm had been stronger than her? What if a single bite would have been sufficient to kill her outright?
'I let my guard down.'
Izzy made a wry smile at her own carelessness.
"Right, I’m sor—"
“Even Isa has not done that! How envious!”
“?”
Did she mishear something? Maybe she did. Yea.
“Isa will teach her a lesson!”
“R-right!”
Izzy immediately reconnected her full attention to Arnold's perspective. She had almost forgotten about the battle. Leaving Isa alone would be dangerous.
In the real world, Roson observed the lad grow sluggish for a brief moment. But he immediately straightened himself, his posture recovering with impressive speed.
Witnessing this recovery, her brows knitted together.
'My Submit failed?'
Perhaps the lad's mind was stronger than she had initially expected.
'He consumed the stimulant, but perhaps only a small quantity.'
Judging from the tone Davis employed when speaking with the lad, she concluded that the boy was likely a newcomer to the Tear Drop group.
Therefore, he would not have consumed much of the stimulant.
She did not dwell on it too much. Sometimes, the ability would fail against particular targets.
Besides, the reason she had deployed the ability at this moment was to create an opening for herself in the engagement.
Observing that the lad remained distracted, his gaze absent and drifting toward empty space, Roson immediately thrust her empty hand toward Arnold!
The instant her palm neared his countenance, her nails elongated, their sharpened edges slashing toward his eyes.
"!"
Once again, a silver cane appeared to intercept her attack. This strike was more vicious than before, the eagle-head weapon carving through the air with a heavy whistle.
Roson immediately bent her body, evading the sweeping arc of the cane.
However, in that same moment, she suddenly perceived two additional glinting lights lunging toward her from behind the narrow-eyed man, traveling at high speed!
The lad's eyes had also returned to full focus. He gritted his teeth, raised his dagger, and lunged directly at Roson!
'This...'
Her form exploded into bats again and disappeared into the violet mist.
The lad's hand plunged into his pocket, retrieving a fistful of silver shillings, and immediately hurled them toward the retreating cloud of fleeing bats.
Roson rematerialized several meters away, employing her coat as a shield to block the scattering coins, hovering steadily in the night air.
At this point, even Roson could feel that something was fundamentally wrong with the enemies she was dealing with.
‘They are too coordinated.’
Too coordinated, to the point of abnormality.