The five beast-tamers from Frozen Sun exchanged quick glances, their expressions a mix of determination and anxiety.
Each wore enchanted equipment designed to counteract the effects of mind-controlling attacks—likely targeted at Kain beforehand. The subtle glow of protective runes shimmered against their icy blue uniforms, a testament to their careful preparation. Therefore, even when real threads did manage to touch their bodies, they were useless.
However, their spiritual creatures had no such equipment to obtain resistance and, like the original spider through which Bea obtained this ability, most defensive measures were also useless against them.
A large blue ice-attribute bird emitted a chilling cry, resonating through the air as it unleashed a swirling blizzard, an somewhat weak countermeasure against the dense net of threads.
Flakes of ice and wind spiraled through the arena, creating a barrier that obscured the vision of Kain’s team and formed a shield of frost. However neither the illusionary threads nor the real ones composed of mental energy were particularly impacted by the storm.
Simultaneously, a pair of aquatic serpents that shimmered like liquid sapphire, coiled around each other and lashed out, sending waves of freezing mist across the battlefield. The mist thickened the air, further distorting visibility.
At most, the enemies’ attempts only served to obstruct the vision of Kain and Ranya as they directed the threads.
Thankfully, potentially due to the fact that as spiritual creatures specializing in illusions they are more resistant to having their 5 senses interfered with and can skillfully detect the surrounding environment, Ranya’s contracts could still sense the enemies in the storm, although Kain and the others had trouble seeing.
Knowing that Kain and Bea were no longer able to navigate their threads, Ranya had already anticipated the need for misdirection, and her illusions shifted in tandem with the incoming storm, creating a dynamic dance of false threads that deceived the eye.
They moved skillfully so that the spiritual creatures would accidentally knock into the real threads, that did not move as flexibly due to the reduced vision of Kain and Bea, when dodging.
Soon enough, they were all successfully infected by Bea’s splits. However, Kain didn’t want to just control them, the most important part of the plan was to actually rifle through all of their memories to obtain any information on the ultimate moves and trump cards of the opponent.
Therefore, Bea focused most of her energy on searching their memories rather than on controlling them. Especially since obtaining full control of so many spiritual creatures equal to her in strength would be a very time consuming and draining process.
As Bea concentrated, her consciousness surged into the minds of the spiritual creatures. She navigated through layers of instinct and loyalty, sifting through fragments of memories and training experiences, seeking the hidden depths of their knowledge.
Visions flickered in her mind—images of past battles, strategies developed in secret, and anything else that may be relevant to their victory.
At the same time, within the field obscured by the elements, 5 more threads from Bea connected to Kain and the others. Enjoy exclusive chapters from freewebnovel
Was this a backstab? Infighting?
Of course not. While resistant initially, this was a strategy developed that they had all consented to in the past.
Since Bea’s splits could obtain information from the minds of the infected host and transmit it to Bea practically instantly, it would allow for their group to more intimately share their thoughts, senses, and plans without the enemies’ detection while essentially using Bea as a relay station for their communication.
Of course, none of Kain’s allies fully trusted him or Bea enough to allow unfettered access to their minds, and all of them had on equipment that resisted her penetrating too deeply and getting access to thoughts and memories that she shouldn’t.
The invisible lines of communication between them buzzed with energy, transmitting real-time tactical updates through Bea’s split consciousness and allowing all members to instantly become aware of the knowledge Bea was obtaining from the infected enemy spiritual creatures.
As Bea pressed on, suddenly a cascade of information flooded her consciousness—images of a catastrophic blizzard summoned in the heat of battle, painful practice sessions in which they had to continuously restart the training due to errors made by their contractors and not themselves, and whispers of a powerful group spiritual skill known only to the top beast-tamers of Frozen Sun.
Kain’s heart raced. This was it—this was the insight they needed. As Bea sifted through the memories, illuminating the depths of Frozen Sun’s strategies, all of this information was simultaneously shared with Kain and the others.
Suddenly, a cute furry white creature that looked like a ball with limps and a single eye, emitted a piercing ray of light from its singular eye that struck the minds of every single one of its allies—Brain Freeze!
This was a last ditch protective measure made against Bea that was cruel to its allies and itself. The skill of this spiritual creature greatly lowered the temperature and thought speed of the contracts in the event that they were about to be controlled. This skill’s goal is to prevent further thoughts that could be manipulated by the enemy.
However, since Bea’s splits were actually living creatures within the minds of the enemy, the skill was even more effective than they probably even realized, as many of the splits were directly frozen and/or killed.
Thankfully, by this point much of the information needed had already been obtained from the minds of the enemy. Now, with their minds linked, it was up to Kain and the others to think of defensive measures against the trump card seen in the information sent over by Bea.
From the information obtained, the skill was able to combine the power of all water and ice-attribute spiritual creatures on the side of the enemy—the more creatures of these attributes, the more powerful the effect.
Considering that the ice and water attributes were the most common ones amongst the enemy, from the information they’d obtained the combination of the 8 ice-attribute spiritual creatures and 2 water-attribute spiritual creatures in the enemies’ ranks could result in a skill with strength close to a skill from a blue grade spiritual creature.
The skill, Frozen Cascade, was a devastating group attack that combined the powers of all the ice and water attribute creatures in a concerted effort. This technique created a massive wave of frigid energy that could sweep across the battlefield, targeting every enemy creature simultaneously.
When unleashed, it was capable of freezing opponents in place, immobilizing them with the sheer force of an avalanche, while simultaneously dealing crippling damage due to the extreme cold.
And, considering the force of the combination skill…none of them had a defensive skill strong enough to resist.