Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 229: Thralls

“Vaelira is one nasty woman…” Nyx murmured with a great deal of dissatisfaction as the group walked toward the exit of the safe room.

“What’s truly shocking to me isn’t even that she has a terrible personality… There are many such cases,” Aria said. “But she’s a woman who can’t see the forest for the trees.”

Luna nodded in strong agreement. “Bitch’s an A-tier awakened yet here she is stirring drama for her stream because that’s what gets her going, I’m guessing. She could secure herself a giant contract with a wealthy guild and make more money just by existing than she most likely ever will with her stream… But here she is, signing with Nova Circuit to play Queen Bee and stream for self-satisfaction.”

“Let’s drop the topic. We’ve wasted enough of our energies on that woman for a lifetime, let alone for the next few hours,” Kaiden spoke up, doing his best to get his girls to forget Vaelira and the bad aftertaste interacting with her left in everyone’s mouths.

…

The team advanced deeper into the crypt, the only sounds being the loud creak of old bones beneath their boots. Their footsteps stirred dust that hadn’t moved in centuries.

Then they stopped.

From a passage to the left, guttural gurgles rolled out.

[Starved Thrall – Level 21]

[Starved Thrall – Level 23]

[Starved Thrall – Level 20]

[Starved Thrall – Level 18]

One by one, malformed figures lurched into view. Skeletal, gray-skinned monsters with long fingernails and flesh stretched thin over bony frames. Their eyes glowed dim red, not out of intellect, but hunger.

Some of them crawled. Others stumbled.

But once they laid their sunken eyes on Kaiden’s party… their postures underwent a dramatic shift. Snarling, they rushed at them with limbs flailing, and teeth gnashing.

It was clear that some switch had flipped in them upon sensing the living. They went from shambling corpses to frenzied predators.

“When I was told we’d be entering a vampire crypt, I imagined handsome noble vampire lords and gorgeous gothic vampire ladies… Not this. But hey, I’m not complaining,” Nyx muttered.

Kaiden, at the front of the line, made a single motion with his mind. His stream was paused.

Recording only. No public broadcast.

Exactly what he wanted.

He exchanged a look with each of his girls, their expressions lit with anticipation.

This is why they told Vaelira and Diaz to go their own way. Kaiden lifted his greatsword from his back. “Let’s test our upgrades.”

Nyx stepped forward.

As her spatial powers began getting activated, the air around her showed the change by catching her long pink hair and making it flutter as if she were standing in the wind. Her eyes lit up with a bright pink light.

The starved thralls screamed. Dozens of them.

But she didn’t move back.

Instead, she whispered, “Let’s dance.”

She slammed her foot forward.

“[Phantom Grasp]!”

Dozens of translucent telekinetic hands exploded outward from her, gripping the closest thralls by their limbs, necks, and torsos. Some were lifted off the ground, flailing wildly, mouths snapping in vain.

Then:

“[Cosmic Wave]!”

She swept her hand horizontally. A shockwave of kinetic force blasted outward in a cone, crushing several stunned thralls and hurling others into walls.

With an extremely satisfied grin settling on her face, Nyx pointed upward.

“[Astral Spear Volley].”

Above the pinned enemies, five glowing spears of violet energy appeared. With a command, they rained down, piercing multiple enemies at once in quick succession.

The room lit up in pink light. Blood sprayed.

Kaiden watched, stunned for a heartbeat at just how awesome his beloved Space Valkyrie had gotten.

Then she dashed into the remainder of the horde.

Straight into melee range.

His protective instincts kicked in immediately, rushing after the woman.

But Nyx wasn’t suicidal; she was in control.

A dagger-wielding thrall came for her from the side, but…

[Spatial Awareness] (Passive)

Without even looking, Nyx’s body twisted perfectly and with a push of [Telekinesis] from behind, she made the monster who was currently mid-lunge fall to the ground.

Her eyes glinted as she turned and cut the thrall’s head off with her dagger, which she controlled with [Telekinesis].

“I’m fine, Kai,” she called out sweetly, sending a glance back at her overprotective lover. Though Nyx would be lying very strongly if she said she didn’t appreciate the gesture.

“[Kinetic Barrier].”

Just when she was being converged on by the rest of the horde, she summoned her shield ability, protecting herself from their attacks for as long as her shield held, which wouldn’t be long with so many high-level monsters doing their best to break it down.

“Yandere bestie, would you mind…?” Nyx grunted from exertion as maintaining the barrier required a lot of mental concentration from her.

Aria didn’t mind the moniker one bit and knew exactly who Nyx was addressing with it, so she didn’t hesitate to help her friend out.

The moment Nyx called out, Aria’s eyes sharpened, and she raised her staff without missing a beat.

“[Stellar Barrage].”

Light burst at the tip of her weapon.

A flurry of [Lunar Arcs] fired out, each a crescent-shaped projectile of glowing silver energy that spun in perfect formation. The arcs sliced through the air, illuminating the decrepit crypt in pulses of moonlight.

What made them lethal wasn’t just their power, but their shape.

Because of the curved trajectory of each arc, Aria angled her projectiles just perfectly, sending the barrage to bend around Nyx, never once grazing her pink-haired friend. If the Space Valkyrie’s shield faced a serious new offense from behind, it might break. Thus, delicacy was needed.

The first arc slammed into the face of a thrall.

The second took out one crawling along the wall.

The rest followed as five, six, seven shimmering blades danced in sequence, shredding through the starved monsters.

Nyx lowered her shield just in time to watch the final thrall dissolve into ash in front of her.

“I knew I could count on you!” Nyx whistled, glancing at the wreckage. “That was some badass show.”

Aria didn’t answer right away. In fact, she didn’t address Nyx’s words one bit.

She slowly lowered her staff while her eyes sparkled with deep satisfaction. A proud little smirk tugged at the corner of her lips as she turned her head toward Kaiden like a cat proudly dropping a trophy kill at its owner’s feet.

“Did you see?” she asked demandingly, already tugging off her helmet with one hand as she approached.