The Record of Unusual Creature

Hao Ren had instincively sensed that the brain monster gave him a weird and uncanny feeling, but he wasn’t sure if he was just seeing things. The only thing he could do was to stay on high alert, focus and prepare to face any incoming mental assault.

The brain looked pretty similar to the one he saw back on Dragonspine Ridge, it was a mess of meat and blood in a grosteque shape as it floated with its array of tentacles. Hao Ren could not tell from its appearance if it was the main body or was just another clone. It cautiously eyed the intruders as its tentacles retreated into a defensive posture. A bizzarre numbing aura descended on the party, as if a powerful electromagnetic field was sweeping across the area.

“Charge! Take it alive!” Hao Ren ordered.

If at all possible, Hao Ren wanted to take the monster alive. Even if taking it out would have solved Nasaton’s troubles, having a living sample is even more attractive. He could not lay all his hopes on the Holettean knights capturing one. What if General Ophra’s side fails to capture one?

A white shadow charged forward as Lily, the team’s berserker took the lead. The husky berserker swung her Frostfire Claws towards the monster while the latter raised its tentacles in response. There was a layer of glowing light upon the appendages and they managed to block Lily’s twin claw attack. But Lily still had managed to blast the monster at least ten-meters back, by sheer force.

The monster let out a chilling shriek as it retreated backwards. Vivian had already starting conjuring a powerful storm of ice to attack. The vampire actually would prefer to use lightning bolts to fight but they were under water, and a bolt could easily resulted in a penta team kill.

As Vivian was just about to fling her spell, another shadow darted towards the monster. It was that dumb cat. Roillie had followed Hao Ren and his party fighting their way in and have finally realised what everyone else were doing. This naive cat too decided to partake in the bloodletting, just like how she led her pack of cats against the stray dogs. Letting out a growl as she charged, the cat scratched the brain’s tentacles and outer skin; using her agililty to dodge the incoming attacks. She then turned around to bite the end of one of the tentacles. The cat girl was brave in combat but that scared Hao Ren shitless: This cat could hold her own against the siren guards, but she decided to rush the monster head on now?!

“Dumb cat, get back!” Hao Ren dashed forward with his spear yelling at Rollie. He fought off a few attacking tentacles before Rollie let go of the tentacle and happily ran back to her master. At this chaotic moment, Hao Ren’s fingers and the monster’s tentacles touched.

His expression changed immediately.

Chillwind had gradually spread across the room and Vivian’s spell had reach the apex of its strength. An ice drill made out of bats was swirling in the air as the tip pointed towards the monster. The bats contained condensed magics that were capable of turning steel into powder. Vivian was just waiting for Hao Ren and Rollie to get out of the way before launching her attack. Just as she was about to unleash hell, she heard Hao Ren yelled. “Ceasefire! Ceasefire!”

Lily had already readied herself for a second attack and almost pulled a muscle as she stopped suddenly at Hao Ren’s beckon. Vivian too was frozen by her dissipating magics as her bats fell onto the ground like hail. Shaqira too was shocked as she turned towards Hao Ren. “What’s wrong?”

Hao Ren was about three meters away from the monster as he dragged Rollie away. He quickly motioned to ceasefire before the monster as he yelled into the communicator on the Lifehoop. “Y’zaks! Sanba! Watch out! The monster is over your side!”

A series of chaotic explosion and electricity rang from the communicator before Y’lisabet’s voice was heard. “Nangong Sanba had passed out! Wuyue is wounded too! Papa is fighting that demon hunter called Teuton, and we are….”

Another loud bang later, Y’lisabet’s voice resumed. “We are facing the Queen! We can still hold on!”

“We’ll reinforce you in a bit!” Hao Ren shouted before turning back to the rest. “The monster had swapped bodies with the Queen!”

Shaqira was so shocked that she was as straight as a pole. “WHAT?!”

Hao Ren pointed towards the unusual brain monster in the center of the room. “The monster did not control the Queen. Its psychic abilities is even stronger than anticipated! That bastard had swapped bodies with the Queen and your Queen is now trapped in that body!”

The brain monster took half a step back before relaxing its stance. It could not display much emotions or information but it was undoubtedly a gesture of peace.

Vivian and Lily stood there gawking. They never expected the monster to had such a trump card. Shaqira too was gawking, as she did not believe her Queen was trapped in the monster’s body. Rollie was gawking as well, only because she saw the rest gawking.

“You sure?” It took Vivian a few seconds to recover before she popped the question.

“I managed to connect with the brain again.” Hao Ren nodded. “Someone stay back to look afer the Queen, the rest follow me to back Y’zaks up!”

“I’ll stay!” Shaqira immediately volunteered.

Hao Ren nodded. “See to your Queen. She is extremely weak now, but she is recovering. Take this collar, its shields can protect you somewhat. Don’t change shape at random, it won’t be able to react to it.”

Hao Ren quickly briefed Shaqira on what needed to be done and the Siren nodded even if she did not fully understood it. She then stayed with the monster while the rest quickly ran towards the palace above ground.

Just as they left, Vivian asked. “Wait… If the monster could transfer its conciousness unto another body, how do we even catch it? How do we stop it from taking over someone else… like our own body?”

Hao Ren was slightly horrified by the thought and Vivian had posed a very real and scary question. He never thought the brain monster was such a crafty adversary and it seemed like the one he took out back on Dragonspine Ridge is really just a clone and the real body had abilities that normal humans could not fight against!

He patted his chest pocket. “MDT, what’s the risk of that monster taking over our bodies?”

“Insufficient data, unable to determine.But going through that monster’s biological scans, its mental power cannot take over your bodies instantly. All of you have mental resistance that is beyond normal humans, and any attempt to invade your conciousness will take a very long time to succeed. The weakest is probably Lil Pea annd Rollie, one is still a toddler and another naive.”

“Rollie, take care of Lil Pea, wait at the dungeon until we return.” Hao Ren immediately placed the little mermaid in Rollie’s paws as he got them to return to the dungeon. He then turned around, “So… if the monster’s mental powers have such limitations, how did it came to take over the Queen? Don’t tell me the Siren Queen’s resistance is weaker than us?”

“It probably used a hundred years!” Lily reminded.

Hao Ren only then realised the fact and nodded. He then led Vivian and Lily towards the surface as he rummaged through his Dimensional Pocket. He first threw the two sirens that had been tied into pretzel before looking for something that could defend against mental domination from his array of equipment.

As an Inspector, having a certain robot cat-like pocket is the most basic of skills.

Just before they reached the exit of the tunnel, Hao Ren found the item he needed. It was a colourful prismatic crystal.

“What is that?” Lily looked in amazement of the ‘pretty stone’ in Hao Ren’s hand. “Can I have…”

“No, this is important.” Hao Ren pulled a distance away from Lily. “This is a defensive crystal taken from Crapple. It was originally used to study the First Born, but as I was thinking… As strong as the brain monster is, is it stronger than a First Born?”

The MDT had only one thing to say about that. “Well done~”