Chapter 147: There are ways
Chapter 147: There are ways
It was like suffering from a mantichora’s venom again, but this time, instead of making my muscles go lax, the invisible force that was the celestial’s spell made me freeze on the spot, unable to move at all. I couldn’t relax, nor I could tense. It was like my mind became disconnected from my body.
The woman floated towards me with a smile of a victor on her face. “Not so fast now, are you?” She circled around me. Her wings, like mine, appeared to work by pure magic and not by any laws of physics, because she didn’t even beat them.
“Well, well, well, what a specimen. No, I can’t just turn you over now. I must do extensive and thorough research of you first. Only then… Like that, you will me of the most use to me.”
I couldn’t reply if I wanted to, but right now my focus was on other thing. The woman thought that she won, but I was intent on breaking free from her spell, preferably now that she was only a step away and at her most vulnerable.
‘Pest, what can you tell me about that paralysing spell?’
‘It seems to be soul-focused, Master. Your armour doesn’t weaken it, because it affects your soul. Wouldn’t have worked on me, ha!’
‘Really?’ I asked. Something like an idea began to brew in my head.
‘Don’t have a soul, nothing to control. Duh. My host would’ve been affected, but what would’ve it done to me? I’d just control their body, anyway. Wait a second—’
‘Don’t try to control me, Pest.’
‘Oh, come on! Master, Master, don’t you want to win?’ Pest pleaded. ‘It’s your best chance right now. Me! Me, me, me!’
Meanwhile, the woman kept circling around me, inspecting me from head to toe and muttering notes under her breath. She talked about my wings, my claws, my antennas that I got from bugmen, my hair, my carapace, and the cross mark on my chest. I didn’t listen closely to her mutterings—what was important to me at the moment was getting out of my predicament, and that she gave me the time for it.
My soul was burning with determination to break free, because I needed that to win, and it kept trying. When I realised that, I focused on that feeling, and put more effort into it. To be free, to reconnect with my body, to be its owner again, and without Pest’s interference.
Pest’s interference was still an option, though, but for now, I just fought. I rammed my head into the force of the spell until my soul hurt, and kept going, until finally, the spell cracked. The feeling didn’t return to my limbs since I never lost it, but now I had that amazing power of moving my fingers with a force of my mind again.
I didn’t move, though the urge was almost impossible to avoid. I waited for the best moment, doing my best to not even twitch. The celestial was too distracted by her research stuff to notice any changes in me, and she clearly couldn’t just sense magic like curses did.
The opportunity came when the woman stopped in front of me and her hands on her hips in thought. “Where will I keep you, though?.. You will gnaw through bars of any cage. Not that there are any cages left. Well, the barrier I put around this place seems to hold you in, so I guess I will have to make a smaller version just for you. But where will I even put you? You ate everything…”
The woman turned away from me to look at the “everything” that I ate, and this was when I pounced.
I didn’t even need to grow my claws again—they were already out when I was put on “Hold”, and didn’t disappear back then. This time, I elongated my mouth into a long maw and bit into the shield around her first, tearing out a chunk before she could do more than gasp.
The rest of the spell cracked, breaking completely when I smashed with my claws. I charged forward, through the green radiance and oppressive aura. My muzzle now just a breath away from the woman’s white like a sheet face.
But she didn’t stay frozen with fear. Her wings beat the air, sending a gush of wind at me, and pulling her away. My teeth clasped on an empty space, and my claws tore only at air.
“You broke the spell… I thought it was impossible for mortals.” The woman looked at me from a safer distance of a dozen meters with wide eyes. Then they narrowed. “Fine. Then how about this?”
I didn’t let her aim her finger of death and moved towards her in a zig-zag, but there was nothing I could do to avoid being thrown back when she invoked “Thunder Call” again. This spell came in a burst around her that was simply unavoidable by any other way except for getting away.
“Icy Prison!” the celestial exclaimed.
As soon as the last word ended, a mass of ice began to spread across my skin, encasing my entire body in seconds. I couldn’t breathe, and my eyesight grew blurry from the layer of ice between me and the world. I could still move, but only inside of the thick block of ice that surrounded me, which wasn’t much freedom. Though, the cold immediately gave me some energy.
But I could break it. My claws were stronger than stone—what was some ice? Not to mention, my teeth. I didn’t have space for a good swing, but I easily took a good bite of ice.
“Impenetrable Bubble, Small.”
It didn’t take me too long to eat and break my way out of the ice cage, but when I did, I found the celestial looking at me with a smug grin. I understood why as soon as I tried to rush at her and an invisible force pushed me away.