Jyorta felt his sense of time slow down to a crawl. All the pores on his skin opened up, allowing him to perceive everything. The droplet of blood that spurted out his thigh, the sweat that slid past his eye, the manner his heart thumped, and the sound of blood flowing in his ears, Jyorta felt them with resounding clarity.

His eyes focused, the scope widening to draw in all the spikes flying his way, watching them arrive in slow motion. Soon, a shadow loomed over, arriving in the nick of time.

The Crust-Mantle shielded him using its claws, watching the spikes pierce into it, with some of them even piercing until their tips. Jyorta's heart thumped in fear, noticing many spikes implanted into the sand, causing deep holes that were instantaneously filled. They fully surrounded him, with not one injuring him.

Everything that was bound to hit him was shielded by the Crust-Mantle's claws. On seeing that the Steel Porcupines were about to shoot another volley, he unleashed the brunt of his presence. Unlike the aura personification, unleashing his aura only required a thought, irrespective of his mental state.

His aura was like a raging twister, causing the air surrounding him to vividly tremble, forming a vortex for an instant. Sand around 10-centimetre depth spilled out like a wave, with his body as the centre, tiding past the Steel Porcupines, burying them in response.

His aura impacted their bodies, causing their muscles to turn numb, immobilising them. The blue soul overlaid the face mask, the false persona of calm, optimism, and filled with focus, swiftly normalising his mental state.

Without a second's hesitation, he removed the false persona the moment his mental state had recovered. The blue soul sent some memory fragments to his brain, affecting his emotional state and thought process, firming a concept in his mind.

He retracted his aura, rolling out from under the Crust-Mantle's protection. In the process, the blue soul retrieved the Hoberman Sphere from its soul, swiftly healing the damage. Before all the Frenzy Beasts could recover from the effects of his aura, he unleashed his aura personification, easily affecting their thought processes.

Aura Personification—Betrayal!

The Steel Porcupines distanced themselves from each other, hissing repeatedly as they took up protective stances, being wary. They communicated with one another through their language, expressing their anger.

The spikes on their backs bloomed like a peacock's feather, trembling while making clanging sounds, like metal sticks clashing with each other. They curled their serpentine bodies, taking measures to not expose any weakness. But, none of them attacked each other.

As their bodies recovered from the effects of his aura, they began to move relatively far from each other, expressing their wariness but never initiating any threat or attack. It surprised Jyorta, seeing his aura personification fail to create an outcome.

'I guess they didn't possess enough negative impression of each other to warrant an attack.' He then frowned, changing his line of thought, 'No, that's not it. They always move and hunt in groups. The fact that they distanced themselves from each other is itself a sign of betrayal. Right, betrayal is subjective, varying from one race to another. I shouldn't have judged them from a human's perspective.'

He concluded his thoughts, having already vanished from their sights by creating his barriers once again. Since their attention was focused on each other, Jyorta obtained some time to treat himself. He took out gauze and some ointment from his kit, swiftly applying them on the injuries while popping a tablet in his mouth.

Most Frenzy Beasts possessed a certain toxin in their bodies, apart from their Essence of Frenzy. He had already prepared a tablet to neutralise the toxins of each Frenzy Beast. But they were only effective for mild dosage. Any more and they would fail and might even amplify the effect of the toxin.

Jyorta unleashed his domain, solely limiting it to his body, sensing the presence of faint traces of Essence of Frenzy in his body. Using his aura, he directed them through his bloodstream until they spurted out through his wounds.

He unleashed his Soul Cornea, turning it jet black, and passing it through the sand where the Essence of Frenzy had fallen. The sand was the first to corrode while the Essence of Frenzy took time, eventually turning into a crystalline substance similar to water.

'My corrosion can affect the Essence of Frenzy.' Jyorta was happy at the outcome. Through his injuries, he learned significant information. Using a Soul Cornea, he corroded all the minute traces of the Essence of Frenzy still in his body.

The produced crystalline substance mixed with his blood, the traces too little for him to detect anything through his domain. 'If only I can comprehend my psychic arm's feedback like a Wave Controller.'

While treating his injuries, Jyorta watched the Crust-Mantle crawl towards its fallen brethren. Spikes protruded everywhere from its body. Thanks to its humongous body size, it couldn't evade the spikes, resulting in its current condition.

Despite being severely injured, it dragged itself, expressing its immense vigour. It gazed at its brethren, looking at the hole on its head, watching blood spurt out from it in a daze. Its body trembled, causing the spikes lodged into it to sink in deeper one after another.

"Keeescreeee!" It let out a shrill scream similar to a bird, the sound overwhelmingly loud, as if it had used its massive body to amplify it. Jyorta had to abruptly drop everything he was doing to shield his ears, grunting in pain.

A thin stream of blood dripped out from his ear as his aura personification was cut off. Jyorta no longer had the attention span to unleash his aura personification, nor did he see the need to, for the time being, focused on healing himself first.

The Crust-Mantle turned around to look at the figures of the Steel Porcupines that burrowed into the sand, letting out another scream. Tears streamed out its eyes as it kneeled before its fallen brethren.

A couple of minutes later, it began to drag their carcasses into the trap its Tier 2 brethren had set up. There were the carcasses of two Tier 2 Crust-Mantles in the area, it dragged both into the hole, eventually sealing up the entrance with sand.

Unlike before, it layered the sand heavily, ensuring no Frenzy Beast will fall inside even if it were to walk over, unwilling to be disturbed for the time being. It then began to munch on their carcasses, its eyes seething with hatred.

Something seemed to have been born in it thanks to the influence it had been under for this period. Its exoskeleton armour began to crack while its mandibles turned sharper as it cut into the tough bodies of its brethren.

An hour later, the Crust-Mantle managed to swallow up the bodies of both its brethren. While it was swallowing them, two Frenzy Parasites drilled out from their bodies and jumped into its mouth, as if it was a suicide attempt.

The Crust-Mantle too didn't seem willing to kill them, allowing them to jump into its mouth. It swallowed them, beginning to feel some pain in its stomach as a result. Without caring about them, it rested on the sand, noticing its body form a massive depression, with half of it buried under.

Its current form was over-inflated, unable to even move due to the size. Moreover, it seemed like a balloon, capable of bursting with a single prick. Without any delay, the Crust-Mantle closed its eyes, attempting to breakthrough.

There was a small change in its surroundings as a result. It had begun to breakthrough. At the next moment, a small hole appeared in the dome, hurriedly covered by sand in the next second. Even though it was puzzled, it could no longer move, its breakthrough had already begun.

Jyorta slid on the inclined path, eventually arriving at the bottom. He stood just before its face, his expression curious. He had witnessed the scene of it swallowing the two Frenzy Parasites, wondering the reasons.

He made a mental note of his psychic energy reserves, determining that he had enough to see through the breakthrough process and return.

'I guess I won't be proceeding further today. I hope this decision is worth it.' He sighed, only now noticing the Two-Faced Firefly still perched on his shoulder. Its wings trembled like a leaf while the rest were like rocks, immobile.

'The Frenzy Beasts are not that simple, judging by what I witnessed in my two explorations. I am curious as to why it behaved in such a manner.' His curiosity had been triggered. Now, unless he learned it, he would be unable to have mental peace. It was part of his nature, his character.

Jyorta looked at everything that happened before him, activating his soul domain. In fear of his psychic domain disrupting the breakthrough process, he only activated the soul domain. He immediately spotted the soul of the Crust-Mantle and three tiny souls in its back.

A slight murky wave—resembling thin mist—washed over him, trying to seep into his soul. The blue soul didn't even need to mobilise the Soul Corneas, easily able to resist and negate the murky wave. The concentration was too low to warrant the Soul Cornea's interference.

Two souls in its back moved, gently inching forward, taking many curved paths before stopping at a certain spot. Through what he had learned, he determined their position to be around the Crust-Mantle's heart.

'What are they planning?' He wondered, curious at the mystery before him.