FORTY-FIVE

As I watched the hiding spot crumble and turn into something else the creature appeared from the ceiling and glared at my face once more.

"You're not escaping now" It opened its mouth and wasn't moving it, but words came out of it.

I started to feel the ground below me shake, but before it caved in the creature held my neck so I couldn't get sucked into the hole.

It snickered when that didn't happen.

I could then get a better look at the creature, given that I was staring at it longer than I had before.

It wasn't just a creature. It had the facial features of a human... But was it a man or a woman? It didn't look like any of them ... It looked like what a fossilized human would look like if you patched a long piece of dead skin on it.

The thing's skull had a few strands of hair on it clustered at the apex of the skull and its hand on my neck felt cold and bony. Apart from its hand the rest of its body was covered with a light blue cloak that was anything but clean.

"Time to disappear" Its mouth was opened revealing a decaying pointy set of teeth but it didn't need to move it to talk. It had no tongue and maybe that was why it couldn't talk with the proper use of its mouth.

Pain radiated from my leg to the rest of my body and I started to lose feeling on the lower extremes of my body. I couldn't look down because of the nasty and horrifying being inches away from me, but I could guess what was happening.

I had caught on to where it was that we were; I was a projection of my mind but this time I wasn't only floating eyes. The thing had found some way to enter my mind and wanted me to disappear from it.

The thought of my last mind battle had long gone since this one was more terrifying. Unlike the last one, I was haunted this time.

And it wasn't going to keep me trapped in one corner of my mind like I did to the creatures of the Blizzardkin... It was going to destroy my mind completely and then what?

I didn't have the time or means to know the answer to that because my mouth was shut and I could no longer feel my entire lower limbs.

Deep beneath the recesses of my consciousness that was about to be wiped away by the human-like monster, I felt an anger surge. Anger fuelled by an innate desire to survive and not give up when being faced with a dire situation burned up all the fear that I had then and after the battle with the king of the Blizzardkin creatures.

'I would survive!' resounded deep in my mind and it grew louder with every passing moment.

Soon I was filled with robust energy, enough to pry my shut lips apart.

"Arrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!" I screamed.

I had been wanting to do that ever since the creature appeared in my face but the difference was that unlike the scream of terror that was held in earlier, I let out a scream of anger.

Even with the gust of wind blowing in its face, the creature remained unfazed, wearing a sinister smile.

I couldn't understand why it was smiling even though it was about to face the consequences of trying to erase my mind.

Suddenly, the creature froze in a menacing pose. It quickly moved away from me, to the edge between the snowy landscape and the remainder of my hiding spot. Its hand was still outstretched.

A notification popped in front of me and it was ;

Upgrade :

Previous Attribute class; PSYCHIC (ordinary)

New attribute class: PSYCHIC (communicator)

Exclusive skills;

Mind transfer (Level 3)

[New]Telepathic warrior (level 1)

Just as the notification appeared, it vanished, and the creature rushed back toward me with the same speed it had moved away earlier.

The creature didn't look like it noticed what just happened to it. It just continued making me disappear. My pelvis was then starting to disappear.

I lifted my arms, which had been hanging limply, and struck the bony forearm and hand that held my throat.