Natasha the Halve

I stared at the tank for a second, then slowly nodded. “Alright,” I accepted my fate, then added, “But if I do some dumb shit don't blame me.”

Yolin smiled and chuckled, “Don't worry. I'll be with you.”

I sighed and shrugged.

The group was walking to the second gate. The two of us caught up and moved to the front, where Yolin gave Pokora a look.

“Go ahead,” the Elmari Elf instructed.

The Oni nodded, placed both hands on the door, and pushed forward while injecting E'er. Her back muscles flexed with the effort, hitting me in the face point-blank with such heavenly sight.

“Sheesh!” I uttered in a quiet voice.

Slowly and loudly, the double door opened enough for a person to go through.

Yolin peeked into the dungeon, leaning forward and looking around. She sucked air through her teeth and pulled quickly pulled back, then turned to us with a concerned expression. “Mind Flayers,” she informed us in a whisper.

“Shit,” Bonte cursed in a quiet voice.

Bormisnar groaned in displeasure.

Alyssa clicked her tongue.

“That's not fun,” Thelea complained.

I raised my eyebrows. “FlayerS? Plural?”

Yolin slowly nodded.

“What level?” Lapia inquired.

The Oni shook her head. “Can't see,” she replied.

A collective groan left the party.

A smile formed on my face, however. If the tank, whose level was very close to nine hundred, couldn't see the level of the monsters, then fun was aplenty for me.

A hand rested on my shoulder.

I turned to the source, meeting Alyssa's red eyes.

“Could you check?” the Luzo requested in a calm voice. “But just check. Don't rush in.”

“Sure,” I agreed and took Yolin's place, then stuck my head in the opening.

A good distance from the gate, a cluster of creatures were floating above the ground. The things looked like jellyfish, but instead of a smooth head they had an exposed brain. Their bodies were slightly transparent and emitted a reddish glow that illuminated their surroundings. Tentacles around five meters long emerged from the head, hanging freely. The appendages moved a little like an octopus', curling, swinging, and stretching.

[Mind Flayer, Lvl 1186]

A mocking snort escaped me at the sight of them.

Their glow was pitiful compared to mine, illuminating barely two to three meters around them in a dim light. It was a stretch to call it a glow, really.

I turned to the party and used my superpower of conveying my thoughts via making the air exiting my lungs vibrate using an organ in my throat, “1186.”

Their superpower of transforming mechanical sound waves into nervous electromagnetic signals thanks to sensitive yet resilient membranes at the sides of their heads sending said sound waves through a set of fragile bones and into a more complex organ received my message.

My words were met by faces of uncertainty and slight fear.

Pokora spoke first. “I don't know how to deal with them,” she admitted with knitted brows, crossing her arms and looking at the ceiling. “Give me a minute to think.”

I leaned into Yolin. “Is it that bad?”

The Oni nodded. “They invade the mind of whatever they touch, triggering everything you have in there.”

I squinted my eyes, recalling something. “Alyssa said they erase Classes. Is that how they do it?”

“Yep,” Yolin confirmed with a nod. “It happens after an hour or two of constant touching. They're slippery and almost incorporeal so getting close is a big no-no.”

I hummed while nodding. “What if we hide inside Alyssa's barrier while Lapia burns them down?” I offered.

She bit her lower lip for a moment, then replied. “That barrier is connected to her mind. If a Mind Flayer touches it, it'd be no different than touching her directly.”

My eyebrows climbed my forehead in surprise. “Nasty little shits,” I uttered. “But what if she protects her mind?”

“Sure, that'd remove the consequence, but she'll still feel like something's licking her brain,” the Oni countered. “That alone can break someone's focus and start a chain of events that lead to tragedy.”

Remembering the beings of the Abyss, I gave her a doubtful look. “Can't be that bad,” I challenged.

“I've heard it is,” Yolin insisted with confidence.

“They are,” Alyssa joined the conversation, having been listening so far.

Me and Yolin turned to her.

“Mind Flayers can touch you through your clothes, armor, and even protective spells,” the Luzo informed us. “I could make it work with a barrier, but there will be too many of them and I don't want anything playing with my mind, so I won't.”

“Thermagnetic vacuum,” Lapia suddenly said, breaking the deep concentration she was in. “That's the solution.”

Pokora looked at her fellow Elf, considering the words. “What does that mean, though?” She asked after a second.

“It could work,” Elena agreed with a smile.

“It could work,” I mockingly imitated the unpleasant bitch. “Cunt. Leave the thinking to smart people.”

A moment of silence followed, interrupted by Pokora laughing.

Bonte turned to Bromisnar. “What's going on?” he asked his best friend.

“No idea,” the Satyr replied with curious eyes. “Seems serious, though.”

Elena gave me the stink eye.

I showed her my two middle fingers.

Pokora shook her head while sighing, then turned to Lapia. “Can you elaborate on that?”

The Domi Elf nodded, then explained the plan to the party.

---

I walked into the dungeon, looking around the first floor.

It was a plain and simple stone chamber. The opposite wall stood beyond the reach of my glow, obscuring the real size of the space. Tiny dots of light could be seen in the far distance, probably more Mind Flayers.

The closest cluster of creatures did not respond to my intrusion in their home, continuing to lazily float like the organisms they resembled.

I retreived a pebble from my storage and threw it to the closest one.

The object sunk into the Mind Flayer as if it was made of gelatine.

“That's absolutely insane,” I commented, seeing E'er flash where the monster was hit.

A second later, the monster started floating in my direction, almost as if the wind was carrying it.

“It really looks like a jellyfish,” I muttered to myself, remembering the nasty sting I got when I visited the Mediterranean sea.

“Natasha!” someone hissed from behind me. “Do it!”

I turned to find Lapia pointing her staff at me.

Alyssa was standing behind her, and Yolin in front of her.

I gave them a thumbs up, then turned to the weird creatures. “COME~!” I screamed at them the most boring warcry of my life.

Every single Mind Flayer in sight changed colors from red to bright, almost neon, orange.

I watched with wide eyes as they flowed through the air as if they were sperms, spinning while approaching me at a ridiculous speed.

Right before the first could reach me it got pulled into the ceiling, where a tight ball of E'er spun in place.

One by one, the approaching beings were sucked into Lapia's vortex of bent space.

I looked directly at it, fascinated by my girlfriend's skills as a Wizard.

Then, when five or so Mind Flayers had been sucked, lightning made of fire cracked the air as if threatening to tear open the skies with disrespectfully high temperature and ridiculous amounts of raw electrical energy.

Threads of white-hot lightning connected the beings, jumping between them with thunderous roars that made my hair whip around.

A miniature sun of electricity manifested at the center of the vortex, sending out strands of cracking lightning that licked at the beings like a Tesla coil.

Ignited by fire, struck by lightning, and sucked by the vortex, the Mind Flayers could do nothing to reach us.

The miniature sun protected the vortex which Lapia was connected to, preventing the creatures from harming her. The sun itself was protected by hyper-charging the Mind Flayers' bodies with the fire-red lightning, ensuring they wouldn't approach it by magnetizing the sun with the opposite charge... or so I understood it.

I asked, though. It was too convoluted for my high brain to understand at the moment.

A smile formed on my face as the creatures started to burn, turning shades darker thanks to the violent combustion.

Suddenly, one exploded in a exceedingly violent burst of fire and electricity, sending a wave that made me fall to my ass when hit.

The crashing sounds of highly condensed energy and explosions made sure I could hear nothing for as long as the thing was kept functioning, so I turned to look at the group in case they wanted to tell me something.

Alyssa had a big smile on her face.

Yolin looked impressed.

Pokora was a little stupefied.

Elena looked proud for some reason.

Hanna was watching with wide eyes and slack jaw.

Bromisnar was playing his lute with his eyes closed.

Bonte was covering the Satyr's ears while laughing.

Thelea was covering Bonte's feline ears while looking at me with envious eyes.

Lapia was focused on the even happening above me, squinting her eyes and holding the Mythic staff with both hands.

I looked back to the vortex of fire and electricity merely ten meters away from me. Magic is fucking amazing! I thought and another Mind Flayer exploded.