Chapter 142: Sudden Attack

"Empire. Mind Flayer. Resurrection Nautilus Ship."

Miss Shaliman frowned; since the day before yesterday, she had been intermittently hearing auditory hallucinations.

It seemed something was shouting right by her ear, but upon searching carefully, she could feel no source.

It seemed to be deeper underground.

"This is the psychic call of the Elder Brain; it is calling the entire race. I fear this voice has already transcended dimensions."

Mind Flayers were a former empire civilization; they once possessed a quite powerful planar-spanning civilization.

Indeed, they had a complete system of supernatural arts and technology based on psychic abilities; the most obvious evidence was the Nautilus Ship capable of interdimensional travel (psychically driven! Manually driven!).

The reason they are not considered an era is that they are too harmful to other intelligent races.

The more prosperous their race became, the fiercer they fought other species, and their parasitic population growth model contained an irreconcilable social contradiction: one Mind Flayer needs to eat one living brain per month; the more of their race there are, the more intense the conflict with other races becomes.

Their empire never stabilized before being overthrown by "slaves" who were going to die anyway.

For this reason, their kind is scattered across every corner of the multiverse, infamous as a "harmful cockroach nest."

Just seeing them makes you feel sick; stepping on one makes you feel even sicker; if you ignore them... heh, it is quite possible they will disgust you and your race to death.

"Will they come?" Li En was somewhat curious; if he really heard a call from another world, without clarifying the treatment and benefits, why would he come?

"They will, they will definitely come." Ku Ku spoke very confidently, yet his face was full of disgust.

"For those Mind Flayers, once a clansman calls out, leaving aside other things, at least it's a big meal; many poor relatives who aren't doing well will come over." Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei was still smiling, but there was a hint of disgust in her smile.

For such unkillable planar garbage like Mind Flayers, most normal intelligent beings are very disgusted.

Their current main business is actually interplanar slave trade, primarily serving lower-plane fiends, demons, and evil gods.

Wherever these things' Nautilus Ships pass, they often bring a large number of missing person cases.

But at this moment, Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei's expression looking at Miss Shaliman became increasingly subtle.

"To actually hear the Mind Flayer Elder Brain's interplanar broadcast, it seems her affinity with Mind Flayers is truly high."

Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei herself possessed psychic abilities, but this was one of the bonus traits of snakes; without psychic abilities, how could one penetrate the human heart? A mature Snake Witch can crush ordinary telepaths.

Yet even she hadn't heard the "Mind Flayer broadcast waves," but Miss Shaliman, who had not fully awakened, actually heard them.

"67123." Miss Shaliman casually recited some numbers, as if she had even clearly heard the coordinates of the opponent's encrypted broadcast.

"Little Miss Shaliman, do you want to become a Magical Girl? You will be stronger than me?" Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei still issued the invitation half-jokingly and half-seriously.

"No." Miss Shaliman's face was full of disgust.

"Hiss hiss hiss (Being this old and still dressing up like a twelve-year-old little girl, constantly floating ribbons, it's too embarrassing.)" Miss Shaliman stated the reason.

The two Miss Shalimans, rarely, reached an agreement.

But judging by Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei's clenched fist, this will not be without cost.

"Smack!" The iron fist of love arrived as scheduled.

"Why did my aunt hit me!" One Miss Shaliman felt she was somewhat wronged.

However, the current temporary squad having Miss Shaliman is indeed a good thing.

Just like having long-range radar for remote air combat; searching for psychic ability users requires using psychic ability users; every psychic ability user is like a mental power radar; as long as you turn it on, you might be detected.

"Over here, one, two... uh, only one, but it seems relatively strong."

And with the Enchanter plus the Telepath, a dual will buff, Miss Shaliman, who has stronger psychic abilities, can even detect Mind Flayers in advance.

This slight advantage in detection range might mean the difference between life and death, a killing blow.

"Mental Shield." Miss Shaliman cast her first psychic ability, adding a shield to Li En that grants damage immunity and reflects psychic abilities.

This low-level psychic ability is actually the first choice in internal conflicts among psychic ability users.

Stacking armor is always a good choice.

"Protection from Evil!" Li En also cast a divine spell on himself.

This divine spell provides a certain degree of protection when combating evil creatures, but more importantly, it makes the Paladin immune to mind-control type abilities for a short time (and also immune to possession by ghost-type and parasitic creatures).

In a sense, there is a reason Paladins are considered natural enemies of evil creatures; their divine spells are basically targeted at specific types of evil.

Protection from Evil is only a first-level divine spell, yet it basically holds a top-three position on the Paladin's spell list; it is useful, practical, and has low consumption.

"Haste."

Finally, after failing N times, Li En completed the spell, but this acceleration spell was ultimately not used; his spell level was too low, and the acceleration duration was too short.

Miss Shaliman used psychic concealment on him, letting him silently lie on the rock wall and wait; she probably truly treated Li En as a Lizardman, and Lizardmen love this kind of ambush terrain the most.

Dragon claws allowed Li En to remain stable, holding his breath and waiting for the target.

Finally, the Mind Flayer squad passed by.

He waited patiently; even though some spell effects had worn off, he did not rush to act.

A squad of fully twenty-plus people, but the true target was only one.

And it was usually at the very end.

Finally, it arrived below Li En.

"Die! Evil!" A Paladin does not fight without declaration, but can use Smite Evil to announce their arrival!

When the Mind Flayer was suddenly stabbed by light, it immediately looked up, only to discover this Paladin who had suddenly "fallen from the sky."

It was stunned.

But its tentacles moved instinctively; this Mind Flayer Monk, whose level was not low, instantly completed an extremely fast spell cast.

"Mind Blast!" A vortex of the mind instantly formed; even several slaves nearby were accidentally hit and spat blood.

The Mind Flayer was confident it could at least stun this low-level knight for a few seconds; then, its slaves could rush up.

"How could..." But that leaping knight did not stop.

The explosion of the mind storm was directly ignored by the knight; the glowing sword edge had already reached the Mind Flayer!

"Damn it!" The Mind Flayer was directly scared into a stupor; its body was covered in a kaleidoscope of colors as all kinds of Magical Items were activated.

It was clear it was very wealthy, forcibly coating itself in a layer of petrified skin plus several kinds of shields, but.

"Break Evil." Where the sword light reached, shield after shield exploded, actually smashed directly.

One slash, then another.

The knight's close-range chain slashes were fast and precise, chopping the mind flayer back repeatedly.

"Save me! Save me!"

The mental cry for help echoed through this area, yet at some unknown moment was neutralized and stalled (Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei: Good job, continue blocking its telepathy.).

The mind flayer habitually fell back in its positioning, resulting in only a few servants foolishly coming to rescue.

The result of slaves being under long-term mental control was that without direct commands from a controller, especially when suffering mental shocks, their actions appeared extremely sluggish.

"Yes, just like that. Whether mind flayers or enchanters, the main responsibility on the battlefield is still just auxiliary positioning; we don't need to take the main attack." Not far away, Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei still had time to teach Miss Shaliman how to control the battlefield.

In actual combat, enchanters basically all fight this way as support.

Seemingly light yet deadly hypnosis, commands, and charms are all high-risk spells that erode an opponent's mind, requiring a confrontation with their will and soul.

Slaying the weak is extremely easy, but fighting the strong additionally requires enduring their multiple resistances.

And those who can become the strong usually possess generally resilient minds; forcing control consumes much and yields poor results.

Crowd controllers, and buffers (buffing allies, debuffing enemies), are the battlefield roles of enchanters (enchanters).

"Look at that mind flayer; it uses this combat mode too. They themselves only use Mind Blast for control, mainly letting their slaves rush into the fray. Miss Shaliman, you also need to raise some meat shields in your daily life." She was also teaching her "little mind flayer" how to improve.

This was indeed the truth; outstanding enchanters all carry a few cannon-fodder slaves with them.

It was just that if Li En, who was currently swinging his sword, had heard this, he would probably have felt it carried a specific implication.

"Die, scum!" But at this moment, Li En simply felt it was particularly satisfying to slash.

Although these shields took effect, Li En had not yet mastered how to break magic.

"Just a matter of a few more slashes."

But this mere "shield-breaking" level of attrition was just a matter of a few more slashes!

"Dirty, disgusting long-haired monster!"

The smooth-skinned "Mr. Octopus" had completely fallen into hysteria; it had already sensed it was trapped in a desperate situation.

Was this wide-area call for help some kind of death trap?!

Its tentacles waved continuously, faintly radiating the light of psychic and conjuration powers; since remote psychic abilities were ineffective, it would cast spells through direct contact!

This mind flayer monk had indeed practiced tentacle techniques; the number of professionals killed by its tentacles was at least double digits. Once it wrapped around an opponent, it could pour psychic energy into their body, then thrust its tentacles into your brain.

Light, however, came straight at it.

"Zzzzt!"

But the next moment, the mental roar had turned into garbled code; the floating octopus head was filled with confusion.

The last scene that came into view was still that young knight swinging the holy sword.

Can chaotic punches kill the master? No such thing; in actual combat there are no miracles, only strength and weakness.

That wildly dancing holy sword, carrying terrible radiant power, directly pierced through the evil defenses.

Those blocking tentacles, and the conjuration and psychic powers within them? Uh, no feeling; perhaps they were absorbed into the holy sword.

"Clang."

Li En's holy sword was already sheathed; the headless corpse gushed forth blood.

He didn't even bother to look; those slave warriors who were already within arm's reach stopped completely the next moment, collapsing directly with blood pouring from their seven orifices.

Cruel mind flayers never give slaves the possibility of freedom or betrayal.

After the master dies, their dying mental fluctuations will take away all surrounding slaves.

As for those further away, as long as they don't come back to whip the corpse, how could they trouble the saviors.

The first battle lasted less than a minute, leaving a ground full of corpses, and Li En revealed a happy smile... then began looting the corpses even more happily.

These magical items were not cheap; normally, even passing by a shop, he wouldn't dare to look at the prices.

Previously, when he dried up that slave market boss, he also looted a batch, but part was broken, and part, due to special circumstances, he dared not take out to use.

Now this was legitimate spoils of war; even if he couldn't use them, selling them for money would still earn a large sum.

Li En was not stingy; although only he fought, the others came together too; it was just that ambushing was most suitable for them.

Immediately, they divided the spoils on the spot; the weapons and equipment used by those slave warriors were not bad, even all enchanted, better than Li En's own spare weapons.

Those who wanted to use them could take them; those who didn't could stuff them into the space bag and wait for the money distribution.

"Let's go, next one." Instantly, the morale of the temporary hunting party was maxed out.

Those mind flayers regarded as super-dangerous species, in the eyes of Li En's current party, had become mobile treasure vaults.

Leaving other things aside, their inter-planar trade made them quite wealthy.

Li En looked at Miss Shaliman and directly tossed over a ring that should have enhanced psychic abilities.

He could see that being able to so smoothly kill this troublesome monster was mainly thanks to Miss Shaliman.

Without subtly overwhelming the opponent's psychic abilities, it would be impossible for Li En to hide in front of them; in many cases, once a spellcaster lets a melee fighter get close, half the battle is already lost.

Without her, it would also have been impossible to help defend against most of the psychic attacks.

"Eh? Where's the ring?" Poor Miss Shaliman, eyes full of confusion; she clearly had caught it.

"Hiss hiss (Does it look good?)." The sight of the snake hair coiling up the ring was somewhat comical.

"Mm, it looks good." Li En spoke the absolute truth, saying it while looking at Miss Shaliman's face.

(End of this chapter)