257 The Rainbow Toad's Power 2
Before he could shake his arm, he noticed that what appeared next to him wasn't the Red snake, but his younger sister.
The revelation came as such a huge surprised that he totally forgot that he was mid-air and suffered a pretty rough landing.
I moved fast to gently receive Rose in my arms, so she didn't suffer the same fate.
Now with the main actors free from the toad's influence, it was the moment to counterattack. The three people that received Rose's touch were safe for now, as a string of white aura was mixed with them, but I knew that Mark, Sophie, and shotgun-guy who were cleansed by Lucy might fell under the ability again.
Hayley and Hope managed to leave three of us out of combat during that part of the battle, Giorgio, shotgun guy, and the other goon were unconscious and in need of a medical checkup. Let's just hope that none of the wounds is enough to kill them for now.
Near the rearguard, Alfred was fighting the remaining goon ordered by Emma. It seemed as if she was immune to that ability, so none of them needed to be taken down during the turmoil (to G's relief).
"Rose take care of the right flank, Lucy will stay here in the case that Sophie or the Sniper guy gets affected by the toad's power again, cover fire the place you think needs it the most."
I directed the last part to our long-range attackers.
"G and Hayley get the center, focus the giant alligator, and the fire snake, both of them have a mysterious aura and could be because of the pool so let G get both kills. I'll get the Toad."
I didn't need to tell Hope what to do, she had been handling the left flank since the beginning and without considering the small number of beasts that managed to past her and fell into the traps, she was doing a fantastic job.
G was still trying to figure out what was happening, but after hearing my orders, he put those thoughts on the back of his mind for the moment and charged forward to the incoming beasts.
Sniper guy and Sophie snap out and despite being frightened by the situation managed to cover a wounded Mark on his retreat.
Before jumping into the battle myself, I took a couple of seconds to grasp the overall situation.
I have to say that I was surprised that we only lost five people in this round and that none of them died.
When we started the fight we were spread so there was no chance for them to go and fight each other when it began. The main threat in that situation was Hayley getting out of control as I don't think there is someone that can stop her if that happens.
I noticed that there was a small delay when the toad used his ability. Hayley was father than the rest of us, and it was thanks to this delay that Rose could awaken her before she started to attack us. After that, It was thanks to Rose's and Hayley's fast response that we just lost those three, five if we add Mark and the other goon.
Of course, this wasn't the only factor.
The battle this time wasn't as massive as the times before, the number of beasts was in the dozens instead of hundreds or thousands as in other situations.
With such a small group and such difference in strength, they couldn't deal a significant blow on us.
In this group of beasts, I counted 4 D-Ranks. The first fell under Hope's relentless attacks, and two are now being handled by Hayley and G in the center of the formation.
The last one was fighting Rose's pets. Cai-Cai used her abilities to grow bigger and acted as a tank, while the two cats kept sneak attacking every beast with flawless coordination. Paws kept going in and out of the Astral Realm while Tailless blinked into their blind spots every time he saw a chance to attack.
The last beast that was a threat was the toad, but unlike the others, this wasn't a D-Rank, it was probably higher and strong enough to be the current leader of this beasts.
I took a step forward using my ability to shrink the space to get near the Toad. I had planned to move to the right and blink to the opposite side to attack it.
The reaction that came from the toad was almost instantaneous.
[Cold Mind blocked an attempt of confusing the user's mind]
The notification was accompanied by a little headache, and I understood that the Toad was focusing on me instead of the whole group.
The Toad didn't move from its place, it had a prideful posture, like a lion on the top of a rock, as it focused his left eye on me. I think he knows that his ability doesn't work on me.
[Cold Mind blocked an attempt of confusing the user's mind]
Another headache. Maybe he doesn't know.
I blinked to the opposite side as planned and thrust my spear towards his glittering right eye.
The toad finally moved, and it was way faster than I expected. The huge leap put about 10 meters between us. The tongue left its mouth mid-air and moved straight at me. I was going to make a counter-thrust, but my sixth sense prevented me from doing it.
I jumped to the side, and the tongue moved along following me.
"Crap."
*Crash*
I blinked away in the last second while the tongue pierced through the rock that was behind me a second ago.
[Cold Mind blocked an attempt of confusing the user's mind]
The left eye shined again, and a new headache assaulted me. It was when I understood that he was using his abilities as a mind attack and not really as an attempt to control me.
As soon as I understood what was going on, I knew that I couldn't let it continue. Despite the attack not being a huge deal, they were getting strong enough to make me lose my focus.
'System, buy mental resistance and level it up.'
[Mental resistance (Advance) Lv. 1 Bought, Cost 500 EP, EP Left 3].
[Mental Resistance Lv. 2 Requirements: one Esper power of the Mental category and Intelligence 30 or Intelligence and wisdom over 35.]
[First requirement fulfilled, 4 SP required to upgrade to level 2]
[Mental Resistance Level up Lv. 1 ->Lv. 2]
[Not enough SP for the next upgrade]
Usually, I wouldn't do something like this, but I wasn't going to take my chances against a high-tiered beast of this kind.
Unlike before, I couldn't let my friends come here. Even though my friends were most likely able to resist the control now thanks to Rose, I had no way to know if that was enough for them to resist the full close-range attack.
[Cold Mind blocked an attempt of confusing the user's mind]
The attack wasn't enough to provoke a headache this time, but the fact that the system still needed to act meant that the Toad's power was strong enough to bypass my resistance.
For now, this solved 1 of my problems.
Till now I have been fighting being careful of the toad, I know that the toad isn't going all out the same as me… we were still probing each other to see the extent of each other powers.
At the moment I had found a way to deal with the mental attack, but some things still bothered me.
The tongue attack was stronger than my attacks, the speed of that jump was also too fast to be normal, and finally, I'm pretty sure that the shine of each eye meant that he is unleashing different powers.
As far as I can tell the Toad has four powers.
The tongue is capable of stretching farther, and it's stronger than my spear.
The legs that can make it leap faster and farther than what a beast of its side should, it might be agility enhance or something more limited.
The Mind confusing left eye.
And finally, the right eye. I'm not sure how it works yet, but I think that it helps him to somehow predict my movements, a sixth sense, battle perception or even some level of precognition can be options.
Besides all this, I can't rule out the possibility of other powers yet.
