281: Aether Gardens [3]

Aether Gardens [3]

Aether Garden, Aether Garden Area, Psychedelic Region:

It's usually acknowledged that mind awakeners were some of the worst enemies.

What if you had a whole bunch of them?

Not only a forest of plants, but also a legion of animals?

Xavier team had the answer.

At the moment, they were in Aether Garden, the largest and also the most dangerous gardens of the Aether Garden Area.

Stretching a hundred miles, it was more appropriate to call it a forest, but somehow the term 'garden' stuck.

Similar to the Wrath garden, there were all sorts of predatory plants in this area. Just…they were way more powerful.

Low Level 6s would have a hard time surviving five minutes here.

Mid Level 6s might sustain for half an hour.

High Level 6s could manage to remain safe as long as they don't travel too much.

And only peak level 6s could venture to the center.

And only the best peak level 6 geniuses could actually hope to win the flag.

"…This is harder than I thought." Marcus Caron grumbled as he conjured a fire spear and aimed it at a wiggling creature that seemed to be an enlarged version of bat.

They've already passed the outer layers of the garden and got into the inner layer.

Once they cross this, they need to get to the core layer which held the flag.

Honestly, Marcus thought it was troublesome.

"Kill that fucking bat!" He snarled and shot his fire spear.

The fire spear was extremely fast and left like a streak of red drawn across the wind.

It seared the air upon contact and reached the mega bat in the blink of an eye.

And then…nothing.

The mega bat dissolved as it never existed there in the first place while revealing itself a few meters away.

Slowly, it turned to Marcus.

Despite showing no emotions, he felt like it was mocking him.

"Fucking dammit!" He felt humiliation. Rage followed.

"Die!" With a wave of his hand, he directed three fire spears and shot towards the mega bat.

The mega bat dissolved upon contact with each of the spears, causing Marcus to grind his teeth.

"Anger won't solve anything. Use your brain." Xavier Bell said from behind.

They were surrounded by tall trees, dense flowers of various colors. Trees and flowers that tried to pull everyone into endless loops of illusions.

Xavier Bell held off against the mental attacks of the trees and plants—the immobile targets, while Marcus Caron and Rodey Nial faced off the beasts—the mobile targets.

"Yeah. We aren't telepaths, so we can't easily sense if it's an illusion. But we can use our senses and if it feels off, we can know it's an illusion." Rodey Nial said as he jumped and punched an empty space in the sky.

"What are you—?" Marcus who was about to question Rodey's actions shut his mouth as he saw Rodey's fist connect with a tiny winged humanoid creature that appeared out of nowhere.

No.

It was always present there, but illusioned him to believe it wasn't present.

"Fucking sprite! They're annoying!" Marcus complained and focused his fire sense.

As a fire awakener, fire sense was essential to his every fight.

Other than Body Awakeners and Morphers, other paths didn't offer quick reaction speed or enhanced five senses.

Instead, they were each developed a special sense in accordance with their path.

If Marcus turned off his fire sense, he wouldn't even be able to notice if a level 5 moved around him.

Of course, if he used his fire mana to 'empower' himself—a special move that increased his physical stats temporarily, he could, but that was only temporary.

Thus, like all battles, Marcus kept the fire sense on since entering the Aether garden.

However, just like how the feedback from senes changed with focus, like identifying the different smells in the air or the sensation of touch on every inch of the skin, Fire sense too gave more information when focused.

So, why not do it all the time?

It was exhausting.

But facing the mind path beasts, Marcus had no choice.

He knit his brows and focused his fire sense.

Concentrating was hard, especially since his brain was also bombarded by a dozen odd mental attacks—like his brain was slowly sliced open.

But Marcus did it anyway.

"There!" His eyes snapped open and in an instant, his fire ball shot an empty space, and took down the mega bat hiding in the illusion.

"Did you see that? It's not match for me." Marcus smirked and said to his teammates.

Xavier Bell didn't even bother to answer as he concentrated on killing the aggressive plants one by one.

To the outsiders, it looked like he was just standing in front of plants and admiring them.

But a mental sense check would reveal bright and colorful mental powers clashing all over as they tried to control the other party through illusions, mental pain and others.

Under Xavier's offensive, the plants and trees were falling one by one. The trees were still technically alive, but they no longer had that mental instinct. They were similar to brain dead.

But despite his success, Xavier didn't slack off.

As such, he ignored Marcus' comment.

On the other hand, Rodey Nial heard Marcus' brag and his face darkened. Waving to the orange haired young man, he said.

"You killed one. And provoked its family of twenty."

Following his words, twenty mega bats surrounded Marcus and bombarded him with mental attacks and illusions.

Marcus clutched his head and his face paled. He gritted his teeth and asked Xavier. "Can't I just…make a mass attack and destroy everything? The flag is made of tough materials anyway, it won't be damaged."

Xavier passed for a moment and shook his head in disappointment. "You never fought in a place like this, have you?"2

Marcus was taken aback by the question and replied. "No, but why are you stopping me from my full scale attack. I can just burn down everything."

While speaking, his fire balls accurately one-shotted three mega bats…and missed seventeen.

Xavier's eyes narrowed and his voice turned indifferent. "Then try."

*** **** *** 

A/N: Discord link below:

https://discord.gg/kBKaTtsrpb

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