BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Chapter 1195: A Clash of Titans (2)



The Vindicators pressed their advantage, trying to restrict Erik's movement but failing spectacularly. Yet it didn't mean they stopped trying, especially because, if they did, they would be killed.

Erik already had to constantly move to avoid the invisible hands released by Bill, but at the same time also had to resist the elementalist powers. He was using wind to make it harder for Erik to move.

That meant Erik had to spend significantly more stamina than usual, forcing his wings to beat with greater force and frequency to overcome the opposing wind currents.

Erik had two alternatives here, two that would drain his mana faster. Either he could make flying easier by using telekinesis or create wind of his own to contrast that of the Elementalist.

He chose the second. The higher number of neural links made mana consumption lower, despite not being as effective as the first was.

Besides, Erik had to prevent the flames from spreading toward the plane.

<Maybe I need another Hydra head.>

But Erik was reluctant to make a new one. The power was not a simple one, and having multiple versions of himself inside of his mind was not something without repercussions. The system said that clearly, he could lose himself in all those minds.

<This isn't working,> one of his consciousness said. <We need more power. More heads.>

<Are you insane? We're already having problems in not killing each other. One more split might create even more problems!>

<Better fractured than dead,> the first said. <Look at their coordination. Three Vindicators, and we can barely keep up with all the things we need to do.>

<I might start focusing on the Vindicators instead of the planes. Even if we lose it, it won't be a great loss.>

<It won't be a great loss? We would be forced to bring thousands of Chimaeric Demons with us just to use them as baits! Do you have a vague idea of how many of them we will lose?> <Of course I know!>

<No,> Erik's main consciousness said.

<Then what's your brilliant plan? Because right now, we're losing.>

<I'm going to make a new head,> Erik said.

<This will make things less stable...>

<It doesn't matter. We need that plane, and we are smart enough to avoid tearing at each other and keep the space balanced.>

<If you say so...>

<Yeah.>

<Then let's do this.>

The internal dialogue took only seconds, but in those moments, Erik made a decision. A new Hydra's head was born.

With the new Hydra's head, Erik's defenses solidified. The consciousness devoted itself entirely to protection, making Erik's main consciousness deal with moving and attacking. The other heads were going to take care of other different tasks, as they were already doing.

"Something changed," Bill said, his invisible hands probing Erik's defenses, who looked more solid and reactive.

The elementalist's wind still howled, but Erik's counter-currents neutralized the worst of it. His own gusts created pockets of calm air where he could move easily.

<I think they noticed.>

Erik's plants surged upward. The barrier master's shields held against the assault, but Erik saw her strain increasing. She had to defend many people, making a lot of barriers, since a single large one wasn't currently working to stop Erik's tendrils.

The blackguards, though, kept pressing and attacking the hangar. Erik created physical defenses, but it wasn't easy to keep them standing with so many people attacking.

The barrier master's enhancement made their attacks particularly potent, given how much mana they could now imbue.

Even his defenses were having trouble against that much power unleashed by so many people.

"Your mana will run out eventually," Bill said, launching another wave of invisible hands. "The barrier master's enhancement affects regeneration, too."

Erik already noticed that. Bill was keeping his attacks at a minimum, and his complexion improved. At the same time, the other blackguards increased their attacks, as if mana was of no issue at all.

Bill was clearly pacing himself, using the minimum amount of power needed while letting his mana regenerate.

The elementalist kept attacking Erik to keep Erik under pressure and to give Bill enough time to get his mana back.

"You keep saying that," Erik said, attacking again.

The elementalist combined wind and fire into a spiral of destruction, but Erik's new Hydra's head anticipated the attack. Plants erupted from below to absorb or redirect the assault.

[LEVEL UP]

Fresh mana surged through Erik. The barrier master noticed something was wrong.

"His reserves should be depleted by now!"

Then Bill's attacks went back to their original intensity. He realized some time ago there was something weird about Erik, but he couldn't understand what it was.

Yet the shift in momentum, even if he didn't understand its cause, was visible. Bill's invisible hands tried striking from every angle, trying to overwhelm the younger man.

The fourth consciousness handled the defense, and his attacks always failed.

"You know what amazes me?" Erik asked, his elements combining in increasingly complex combinations and sneakier attacks.

"Even though I can kill you as easily as flies, you still don't stop..."

The elementalist unleashed another firestorm, its power magnified by the barrier master's enhancement.

"Then why don't you try, prick?" Bill was starting to get annoyed now.

Erik's plants caught several soldiers, and more experience rushed to him.

The barrier master's face contorted with effort as she struggled to maintain her protective shields, sweat beading on her forehead as Erik's attacks increased in both frequency and power. Her mana reserves were draining rapidly, and small cracks began appearing in her barriers whenever Erik's strikes landed.

Since she was the only Barrier Master there, even with her vast mana reserves, she struggled against Erik's assault amid battle. Unlike defending the walls-where maintaining a single powerful barrier sufficed here, she had to create multiple smaller ones to protect troops scattered throughout the battlefield.

This meant she had to spend a lot more mana and much more focus if she wanted to succeed, yet Erik wasn't making that easy for her.

No matter how much she tried to protect them, Erik's power seemed to be unstoppable, not because of their might, but because of how insidious they were.

Erik's plants were especially dangerous because they could sprout from any patch of ground, making them nearly impossible to predict. While his tendrils attacked from one direction, roots would suddenly burst through the concrete floor in another spot, catching soldiers off

guard.

The barrier master couldn't see underground, nor could she predict the future; protecting everyone just because of this was getting hard.

Besides, Erik compounded this threat by layering illusions over his actual attacks. The barrier master would see a surge of vegetation coming from the left, reinforcing her shields there, only to have the real assault emerge from below or behind. These deceptions forced her to spread her barriers thin, trying to cover all possible angles of attack, and that made the barriers fragile and weak.

Yet something unexpected and alarming rattled Erik to his core-a sight that made him freeze in place and momentarily lose focus on the surrounding battle.

A massive explosion rocked the hangar, sending shockwaves through the entire structure. Flames erupted simultaneously from multiple points across the building-near support beams, fuel lines, and critical junctions.

The fire moved fast and burned hotter than normal fire, showing that someone had used brain crystal powers to make it worse.

As this was happening, Bill's face changed-he stopped looking frustrated and instead smiled like someone whose plan had worked perfectly.

"SHIT! What did you do?" Erik asked. It was clear the plane had been destroyed; the plants

protecting it had been crushed. That was simply too much weight, and the fact that the blackguards kept destroying them didn't allow Erik to fortify the section well enough.

Bill's grin widened. "You are not the only one good at sneaking his way around!" The hangar's structure groaned as support beams warped under the intense heat. The barrier master's shields protected the remaining soldiers from the worst of it, while the elementalist used his wind to keep the flames at bay, and at the same time making them worse.

The plane was totally destroyed. Its body was broken in half, its wings were completely

ruined, and its engines had melted down. All that was left was a pile of burned, smoking metal pieces spread across the hangar floor, surrounded by metallic plants.

The flames were so hot that they started melting the metal beams holding up the hangar. The steel turned red hot and began to bend and twist.

The extreme heat melted everything in sight-both the metal parts of the destroyed plane and Erik's metal-transformed plants turned into rivers of molten metal flowing on the floor. Bill's grin said everything. Now two things were going to change. The first was that Erik could completely focus on the enemy rather than protecting the plane. The second was that the troops below were going to do the same with him.