Chapter 460 – Ten?

“Mind affinity, with a magic power of around 6.7 million,” Damion told Mage Harris and Mage Veers while they floated in the air at the maximum distance that True Sight could provide information to him.

The guardian was a feline-looking creature, with white fur with brown stripes running along its flanks. On the back of its neck was a mane of golden fur the was almost jagged and looked like the quills of a hedgehog. The head and rest of the body were atypical of most cat creatures with the exception of its tail, which it had three of, each with a different tip. The middle tail had a barbed spike, almost like a mace on the end, while the left had a scorpion stinger and the right had a tip that looked like a sharp spear.

The three had elected to make use of Damion’s Summon Ice spell to move them over the army of Demonic Beasts gathered by the guardian. The idea was that the magic output from Damion’s A Rank spell would be less conspicuous than either of the stronger mages. Mages Harris and Veers had pulled in their aura as tightly as possible to avoid attracting attention and it seemed to work. Or it failed and the guardian was simply not in the mood to start a fight at the moment. Either way, they had gathered their intelligence, and Damion was now moving his flying ice platform back towards the safe area.

“It really is a Mind affinity. I have not seen one in quite a long while,” Mage Harris said as they flew over the army of Demonic Beasts.

“Will it be possible for the guardian to dominate the minds of our mages?” Mage Veers asked.

“I am uncertain, but most likely, I think not.”

“You think it would have already done so if it could have,” Damion surmised.

“Yes. This Demonic Beast obviously has a long range to its ability, as evidenced by it pulling in other beasts from the far corners of the floor. Yet, it did not take over any of the mages present,” Mage Harris explained.”

“True, but before we were all S Rank or higher,” Mage Veers pointed out. “Now we have many more mages, most of whom are A Rank. It might be that they are more vulnerable to the guardian’s ability.”

“There are two main abilities that make the Mind affinity dangerous. Influence and dominate. The latter is straightforward; the Mind mage would forcibly seize control of another’s mind and essentially enslave them. Because we are human and the guardian is a Demonic Beast, I don’t think we are at risk of this. At the very least, we should be able to defend against it fairly well.”

“Because human minds and beast minds are so different?” Damion asked.

“Precisely. With your bounded familiar, you are probably more aware of this than others.”

“Would we not be equally protected from influence as well?” Mage Veers asked.

“Perhaps, but perhaps not. Much depends on how clever this guardian is. Influence can be subtle, simply reaching out and convincing another beast to come to a certain area, for instance. If the other beast had no reason not to, it would easily be influenced. While I don’t think any mage is going to be influenced to outright fight for Demonic Beasts, it might be possible to cloud their vision, preventing them from realizing an attack would also harm an ally.”

“I see,” Mage Veers said before going quite for a long moment. “Longer ranged fighting would likely be preferable. With our groups specifically luring groups of Demonic Beasts away from the main horde. If we engage on multiple fronts and keep our groups separated from each other, we should be able to minimize the risk of the guardian clouding anyone’s judgement.”

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“Yes, if we are many small groups, engaging at a distance from each other, the risk would be minimized and may also have the effect of being too overwhelming for the guardian to widely use its abilities. While I cannot say for sure, I do think its mind would work similar to ours and the more things there are to keep track of, the harder it becomes to do so. If the guardian can’t easily influence us, it may resort to more rudimentary tactics.”

“You mean biting and clawing us,” Damion clarified, which brought a laugh from the other mages.

“Precisely, and if that happens, The few SS Rank mages will need to respond quickly to its threat. Otherwise, whichever group faces it will be unable to defend for long. If at all.”

“There is one other situation that needs clarifying,” Mage Veers added. “Mage Wells, your bound familiar, will it be affected by the guardian’s abilities?”

Damion went silent for a moment as he thought about it. Phil, he felt was safe inside his Familiar Space, however, Nyx was just hiding in his shadow. So far neither had indicated feeling influenced by the guardian, but it could be that the Demonic Beast just had not tried.

‘Nyx, have you felt any influence from the guardian to do anything?’ Damion mentally asked his Shadow Cat familiar.

‘Pull to join others. But just ignored,’ Nyx replied.

The answer was not what he had been expecting. There was an influence being pushed out from the guardian and it could potentially affect his familiars, it was just that, for now at least, they were able to overcome it.

‘Is it all the time? Or only for a little while?’

The question was important. Demonic Beasts, just like human mages, expended mana to use their abilities. A Demonic Beast could not use an ability forever and while Damion was sure the SS Rank guardian would have the power to use its abilities for a good long while, it would eventually tire, just as any human mage would.

‘Always feel, but weak.’

“My familiar informs me that the guardian is constantly sending out a weak compulsion to join its little army. I think it has to do that to keep all those Demonic Beasts here. My familiar is able to ignore it, but it begs the question of if the guardian boost the compulsion it is sending out and how much control does it truly have over the other Demonic Beasts?”

“Very interesting,” Mage Harris. “With your familiar able to confirm that the guardian has to continuously send out its influence to keep these beasts here, yet your familiar is able to resist the pull, it indicates to me that we might not have as much to fear from this Mind affinity guardian as I thought.”

“Then should we proceed with the plan to split the Demonic Beasts up into groups?” Mage Veers asked.

“Yes. Once we get back, begin dividing everyone up. The SS Rank mages will stay in one group, along with you, Mage Veers and I think Mage Wells here as well.”

“Me?” Damion asked, confused why he would need to stay with the SS Rank group.

“Yes. You will make it easier for Mage Veers to know which groups of Demonic Beasts he can use his spells on to kill off quickly and which he will need to leave to the other groups.”

“What level of magic power are you able to handle?” Damion quickly asked the Void mage.

“Guess,” Mage Veers said with a smile.

Damion looked at the mage and considered if he should seriously guess or not. After making up his mind he kept and straight face to deliver his answer.

“Ten?”

“Ouch,” Mage Veers laughed. “I’m pretty sure you had higher than that the day you were born. As long as I am within double of my magic power, I should be able to kill whatever I face. With a few exceptions of course.”

“Double your magic power,” Damion repeated as he let True Sight show him the Void mage’s magic power. 1,137,498.

Mage Veers had not been an S Rank mage for long, yet he was already shooting up the ranks. Part of the reason for his initial jump was likely because he was held at A Rank for so long. His body and core were ready to go, but without S Rank mana density he could not take that final step. The three A Rank mages that had advanced to S Rank had a similar sudden jump, though not as drastic, but then Damion did not think they were as talented as Mage Veers either.

“I’ll let you know if any of the S Ranks we encounter during the fight have a higher magic power than 2.2 million. That should give you a little cushion, just in case one of those Demonic Beasts has a higher resistance to your power.”