the hunter and the hunted (4)

Looks like I have been found out.

I don't try to keep up the ruse and move my gelatinous body to form a hole for the bolt to pass through. Then I jump to the side to align Youm, Petra and agent 21 straight in my line of sight.

It only takes me a split second to fire my soul harvesting beam but Petra immediately takes to the sky with her miniature ship and effortlessly dodges my attack. Youm is still lying on the floor so the beam only grazes him. It's not enough to allow me to consume his soul but after effects from being in range turn his soul into a mess. Combining that with the gravity enchantment I superimposed onto his clothes when I patted his shoulder makes sure he's not rejoining the fight.

Agent 21 meanwhile is the furthest away and therefore has the longest to dodge but he doesn't. It can't be that he didn't notice because anyone will notice my soul harvesting beam when it targets their soul. No, he definitely noticed but he chooses not to dodge.

My soul harvesting beam hits his soul and it gets scrambled and dragged back to me.

However, agent 21's body doesn't collapse immediately. Instead, guided by nothing but deeply ingrained reflexes, it squeezes the trigger right when the ninth miniature star joins the constellation.

The constellation seems to gain a will of its own as it twists like a serpent and shoots off the flat surface it was formed on.

As soon as it leaves the flat surface, the constellation serpent grows and starlight begins to coalesce around it.

The alchemical life form desperately sends out two spatial tears to stop the serpent but the amalgamation of energy passes right through the tears. The only trace the tears leave on it is a momentary dimming of its body that recovers immediately.

Six weapons are drawn from the alchemical life form's back as it clashes with the serpent but is ultimately blown away.

That was to be expected. I heavily geared it towards defense while completely skipping out on giving it any defense. It was only meant as a lure and distraction anyway.

However, there is an unexpected development as the the alchemical life form blows up in a destructive eruption of starlight. As all shadows around are purged, John is forced out from the wall right behind the alchemical life form. He was probably hiding in its shadow, waiting for a chance to attack.

But now he was forced out by the starlight and is right next to the epicenter of the explosion of starlight.

Of course he has some defense unlike my alchemical life form so he isn't killed outright. But any kind of damage he sustained at the hands of his allies is good for me.

I almost forgot to devour agent 21's soul but I quickly remedy the situation. Gobbling down agent 21's soul, I feel my strength grow as my gluttony skill strips the soul of all that can be taken and converts it into my own strength.

The others have clearly realized both the danger of my attack and that hitting agent 21 made me stronger.

I doubt they comprehend that this strengthening was permanent and I know none of them have sufficient levels in a soul related skill to have had any possibility to see what exactly I did.

"Whatever you do, don't get hit by that attack. If this thing keeps getting stronger we're all dead. Ivonne, go treat John. I don't care that you don't specialize in treatment, you're a druid so do druid things! Loman, grab Youm and bring him to Ivonne for treatment. Belladonna, we're taking this thing down!"

Petra looks to be quite thoroughly enraged at my actions so far. While flying around near the ceiling of the hall, she hollers out orders in a tone of voice that allows no objection.

Ivonne responds surprisingly quickly and without protest. She seems to realize that her survival hinges on Petra leading them to victory against me. Heeding the order she received, Ivonne sprints towards John.

Loman is not so compliant. As a guardian his job is usually at the front lines and life preservation is their motto. Most guardians never leave the frontline so running doesn't really present itself as a viable option to them.

For that reason, most frontliners are less trustworthy since they've never had the chance to betray their comrades and have thus never been tested.

Loman perfectly adheres to this principle of untestedness as he is already eyeing the exit on the far end of the hall. He's weighing the chances of his team winning if he runs and his reputation being trashed against the threat of them all dying to me.

Too bad for Petra that she doesn't notice his inner struggle as she instead swoops down to attack me while manifesting thirty energy cutlasses to slash towards me simultaneously. So she's one of those who trained their energy weapon type skill to the max but chose not to evolve it. What a pain.

I fully release my true form as my gelatinous body expands. My dark golden mass spills forth and engulfs the energy cutlasses as I use true gluttony in conjunction with omni dissolving and philosopher's art to quickly take them apart.

At Petra's level, her energy cutlasses aren't nearly as strong as her real attack and the energy I get from digesting the energy cutlasses' remains with true gluttony surpasses the energy needed to restore the damage they do inside me, leaving me with a surplus.

As for Petra's real attack, I use omni magic to conjure a space blade that forces her to dodge. Her dodging gives me enough time to start chucking a dozen more space blades at her and Belladonna.

This buys me enough time to send a glare at Loman with my soul. This application of my soul-piercing gaze is just a stronger form of appraisal and does no damage. However, after consulting copious amounts of data, I discovered that if used with enough intent by a stronger being on a weaker one, the gaze has an additional effect.