CHAPTER 96: CLASH (2)

"How many of you possess a mental-related element or practice soul cultivation? Step forward," Gracie commanded.

Her rich and dominating tone held the crowd in place, making people realize how aimless they’d been acting without guidance.

Those cultivators who didn’t possess either slowly backed away. Among the over five thousand gathered, around a hundred or so stepped ahead.

Gracie gave a general glance to count.

"130, not bad," she muttered. It didn’t take her more than five seconds to count them all.

Leveling up not only increases one’s power—it also enhances comprehension, thought processing, and learning capabilities.

"People with soul cultivation, move to the right. Those with mental abilities, stand to the left," Gracie ordered.

Thirty-three students moved to the right, and the rest went to the left.

Harry stood far in the distance, watching the scene with interest. He was curious to see Gracie taking the lead.

He hadn’t stepped up yet because he wasn’t in the right condition. If the Dreamthorn realized that the people inside his soul were of no use, it would soon attack him with its mental abilities.

Normally, cultivators of a similar level couldn’t influence another’s mind—but the Dreamthorn was different.

Nature had granted it mental capabilities beyond common sense, at the cost of any means to attack physically. However, it had found a workaround—using its controlled subjects to fight physically.

It reminded Harry of how he had handled his own level up drawbacks, blocking them at every level-up with a space barrier.

Harry slowly approached the area near where Gracie stood. He might not care about others, but he wouldn’t stand by if his friends—Gracie and Tyler—got into trouble.

If things got worse, maybe he’d just play a game of wits and find a way to free them from the tree’s control.

Gracie walked slowly and confidently toward the students who had no emotion in their eyes, stopping just a meter before the tree’s last branch ended.

A hundred students followed closely behind her, their weapons ready—some had swords, others axes, daggers, and a variety of different arms.

The students controlled by the tree didn’t step out of its range; they held their positions.

As Harry watched Gracie approach the enemies, the atmosphere shifted. The faces of the controlled students showed flickers of emotion.

Their lifeless eyes regained a normal glow for a moment—then blanked out again.

Everyone observing the phenomenon was surprised. The students’ expressions shifted—lifeless, then emotional again.

A glow returned to their faces, displaying complicated emotions.

It looked both eerie and absurd—two thousand students laughing, crying, showing boredom, excitement, and every other emotion at the same time.

Then—blank again.

With every step Gracie took, the cycle continued.

She was using her element to stir their emotions. She wasn’t focusing on any particular skill or effect—just letting her element run wild so she could concentrate on her surroundings rather than managing her powers precisely.

The battle between her and the tree continued. The students were caught in a rollercoaster of emotions—feeling either nothing or too much at once.

Finally, the hundred students behind Gracie surged forward, attacking the horde of two thousand defenders.

But the defenders didn’t react. They couldn’t attack or defend—trapped between two opposing forces.

The hundred students with mental resistance pushed past the confused defenders, throwing many to the ground without encountering resistance.

None of them killed or harmed the defenders; they simply moved through them.

Gracie gritted her teeth, pouring more and more essence into her powers as she felt her control slipping.

The tree was fighting back harder, trying to fully reclaim its hold.

Gracie knew her limits. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have been able to influence so many people with such intensity.

But now, she was dealing with people already vulnerable due to the tree’s manipulation—so she wasn’t directly controlling them, just disrupting the tree’s hold by reawakening their emotions.

As she tried to pass through the crowd of confused students, some hands reached for her—some swords swung her way.

Her subordinates were faced similar attacks.

Gracie teleported a short distance away to avoid the strikes, then used her sword to decapitate the students who had tried to harm her.

The real battle was taking place on a different plane—it was a battle of wits more than might.

Gracie and her teammates felt their minds under attack. Some things became ambiguous—distorted. The effects varied: some students were more susceptible, while others resisted almost entirely.

Among the two thousand defenders, most had regained their senses. The tree had already given up trying to control all of them. The few it still held were now completely puppets.

Hundreds of students clashed with nearly five hundred effectively controlled opponents.

Weapons clashed, sparks flying with each blow, lighting up the ground in flashes.

A somber atmosphere spread across the area. Spectators’ hearts raced as the situation grew dire.

At first, it had seemed absurd—one hundred against a thousand.

Harry was stunned to see so many soul cultivators fighting, especially considering there were only two people with soul bodies in his academy.

The only explanation he could think of was an anti-soul-cultivation agenda on Earth. People were hostile to soul cultivators there—but things might be different on other planets.

Harry checked the tree. He knew it was busy fighting Gracie and her subordinates, so he slowly approached its main branch.

A shadow moved toward the tree in utter silence—Harry’s movement signature hidden from all detection.

His mask emitted a faint red aura, indicating an active skill was being used:

Active Skill – Cloak of the Unseen

For a brief period (up to 10 minutes), the mask shrouds the wearer in an elemental void, rendering them completely undetectable by spiritual senses and elemental sight. During this time, their aura is erased, and their movements become whisper-quiet. However, this does not grant true invisibility to the naked eye.

Cooldown: Every minute of use increases cooldown by 1 hour. Max: 10 hours.

Since the whole area functioned as the beast’s domain, there was a chance that every movement could be noticed.

That’s why Harry had taken no chances—using every means at his disposal to prepare for a perfect assassination