The moment she heard the announcement, Li Mei’s expression shifted from adorable to cold, while a massive swarm of bee-like insects started pouring out of her backpack nonstop.
The insects had black-and-gold striped bodies with clear, smoky wings and a needle-like tail. Their compound eyes glowed with a yellowish hue as they showed thousands of the inked warriors.
Yet, they didn’t make their move, focusing on the order at hand... creating a swarm big enough that it completely hid Li Mei’s body.
What remained were thousands of insects so close to each other, they resembled a moving black and gold screen... Yet, this was only the beginning.
Half of the swarm stopped flying and stuck next to the flying ones... then, they opened their second set of wings, which resembled crystallized mirrors.
The moment the formation was complete, the swarm screen started reflecting light in ways that created a hypnotic effect... creating peculiar gold and black pictures on the screen and projecting them in front.
When Jasmine looked at them, she felt a sense of peace wash over her, like all of her pain, troubles, and hardships melted into a hot tub, where she could relax inside of it.
’Feels so nice...’ she murmured inwardly, enjoying the tranquility.
She knew that it was a trap; she understood that if she didn’t make a move soon, she might lose the fight... she knew all of this, and yet... the feeling was so good, it was like shooting a high dose of heroin, leaving her wanting to remain in this bliss for as long as possible.
While she was enjoying the blissful feeling, Li Mei separated from the back of the swarm without the hypnotic effect getting disturbed... then, she ordered the swarm screen to fly closer to Jasmine for a better effect.
Under the stunned eyes of Arthur and the others, the three inked warriors remained unmoving, allowing the swarm to keep getting closer.
’What’s happening?’ He asked.
’She is being hypnotized...’
Levi frowned, his auditory vision showing him the same shapes on the swarm’s screen, but they did nothing to him... that’s when he knew that it was a powerful eye-based hypnotic effect.
As for Arthur and the others? They were so far from the screen, the pictures didn’t show clearly, which killed the hypnosis.
’Should we wake her up?’
’No, don’t interfere... this is a battle, not a life or death situation.’ Levi rejected, ’We should learn from those battles as much as possible, so we can always be ready when a similar situation presents itself.’
Levi understood that if Jasmine was defeated because of this, it was on her to be better... and the only way for her to be better was to fail and learn, or defeat the hypnosis on her own.
Nurah and the girls nodded in approval... as much as they wanted to win, they would never rob someone of the opportunity to learn.
Meanwhile, as the swarm screen kept getting closer, Li Mei was preparing another attack... her body floated in the air, lifted by another emerging swarm.
She pointed her small finger in Jasmine’s direction and activated her most powerful ultimate ability, holding nothing back while Jasmine was still entrapped.
"Hive Queen’s Wrath! Unleash!"
In an instant, the backpack burst open and released a storm of wings and chittering mandibles everywhere, resembling a tornado of rainbows! Tens of insect species, each one more unique than the other, swarmed out like their Queen was being slaughtered and they had to defend her.
Stinger Wasplets darted around the warriors’ faces while the Resin Builders scuttled beneath their feet, spreading golden glue that solidified instantly, locking their ankles to the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
An army of Firefly-like insects exploded around their joints, seemingly desiring to break their limbs off!
Li Mei’s eyes were transformed into compound eyes with thousands of hexagonal squares... each one displaying a single type of insect in her hive, controlling them one by one, akin to the Queen of all Insects.
Stinger Wasplets were the harassers, the fighters; their stings hurt like absolute hell.
Paralyzing Drones were capable of injecting paralyzing venom into joints or muscles, but since the warriors were inked constructs, she used them to cloud their vision.
Resin Builders could spray wax to create sticky barriers, which were used to trap the warriors’ ankles and limbs, making sure their movement remained under her control in case Jasmine woke up from her hypnotic effect.
Then, we have the Bombers... small fireflies, but deadly. Boom! Boom!... their resounding explosions spoke for themselves.
Last but not least, Dazzlebees... the stars of keeping Jasmine’s mind blissfully occupied.
There were a few more of other types under her command, but their powers weren’t great against such constructs.
’As long as I don’t target her and activate her danger instincts, she won’t wake up from the hypnosis and use that peculiar white barrier... The goal is to strip her of her warriors first, then strike her.’
Li Mei thought as she watched the battlefield turn into a breathing hive... only the buzz of her swarms’ wings engulfed everyone’s ears and the slow destruction of Jasmine’s warriors.
"Adorable... but terrifying."
Tyrese whistled with his arms resting behind his back, not wanting to tell anyone that she frightened him more than the other two captains... sometimes, it didn’t matter the level of one’s strength, but how horrifying their powers were.
’Li Mei wields Summoning Aspect and more precisely, Hive Aspect... Her contracted nightcrawler has faint bloodline relations to the ancient Hive Queen... The Queen of all Insects in the universe.’ Yanhuan smirked faintly, ’I have invested heavily in her development, helping her obtain two perfect evolutionary formulas from my family.’
Yanhuan had personally gone out of his way to include her in his team when he was given the order by his father to win the Great Campaign Raid.
Many family members questioned his decision, warning him that the girl had confidence issues and wouldn’t be a fit for his Royal team... When he had met her, she was still a fledgling in his father’s agency; no one paid her any attention due to her weak stomach for battles. Not because she was scared, but her control of her Hive wasn’t great, leaving any enemy she targeted mauled to death by her swarm. This made her fear her powers, which affected her control even worse.
But Yanhuan knew that his family wanted him to add his cousins for the sake of carrying them throughout the tournament... he had no plans to be a one-man show.
He was strong, and he believed himself to be the strongest Daywalker in today’s generation... he wasn’t being cocky, but he had what it took to back such a claim.
However, he still refused to carry deadweight, having higher inspirations than just winning the Great Campaign.
He needed monsters on his side, and Li Mei was the only one who managed to capture his attention... even Guo Shi and the rest of his teammates were just decent in his eyes, and he planned in the future to replace them.
Yanhuan stuck with his decision and supported her to great ends until she became a different persona every time she stepped to the challenge.
At the moment, everyone watched the effort of his labor come to fruition; their stunned eyes were affixed on the colossal inked warriors breaking into pieces and falling to the ground.
Thud! Thud!..
Only the inked warrior with the sword and shield remained standing due to Jasmine being on his shoulder, and Li Mei didn’t want to awaken her.
But still, she took down two warriors that spread terror in the hearts of most Daywalkers behind her.
Only then did Li Mei target her attention to Jasmine, summoning her swarms around her. Now, even if Jasmine were to wake up, she was down two warriors and needed to waste immense energy to restore them.
Then, she made a gun-like gesture with her right hand and pulled the trigger.
Almost immediately, the swarm turned into a gigantic buzzing colorful bullet and rushed toward Jasmine.
"Aren’t you going to make a move?"
Dominic asked his friend, understanding that if the swarm were to touch Jasmine, her corpse might not be found anymore.
"It’s not over yet." Feng Ling replied calmly.
Hearing this, Dominic turned his focus back on Jasmine and saw that she was still smiling blissfully, even when the swarm was about to devour her.
Knowing that her survival instincts couldn’t be that horrible drove him to reach a single conclusion.
’Was she always awake and allowed her warriors to collapse just to enjoy the hypnotic effect?’ He thought speechlessly.
The moment this insane thought took root in his mind, Jasmine snapped her eyes open and signed with her hands in the direction of Li Mei.
Many were left confused... Li Mei among them... as few understood sign language, or even knew she was deaf. But when Levi caught the meaning of her signs, he could only smile wryly. ’Jasmine... you bully.’
-Thanks for the free therapy session...-
As this sentence resounded in his mind with Jasmine’s desolate voice, he watched her break her last warrior into liquid form, so as the rest of the inked rubble on the ground... her body sank inside the tsunami of ink, disappearing from everyone’s eyes.
The giant swarm bullet missed its target completely, half of it getting eaten by the black ink, while the remaining half flew into the air, avoiding the same fate.
Li Mei’s bee-like eyes reflected a new terrifying scene of the arena getting turned into a raging lake of ink while she swiftly took off in the air, keeping her distance.
’There she is...’
Using her spiritual vision, she quickly located Jasmine standing at the bottom of the ink lake; the only thing moving was her arm... Li Mei didn’t know what she was doing, and she had no plans on finding out.
She retracted the rest of her swarm and sent only the Bombers this time... but the moment they were about to pierce the ink and explode near their target, Jasmine lifted her head.
Li Mei’s spiritual vision wasn’t as great as Levi’s to show exact facial details, but it was decent enough to show a sinister-like wavy smile.
Li Mei felt chills course down her spine, but it was already too late... a pitch-black portal manifested above her head, flooding her with pressured ink and her own Bomber insects!
Alas, the order was already given...
Boom! Boom! Boom!...
A series of explosions went off while she was trapped in the ink with her own swarm... This was happening while the pressured ink stream was pushing her downward straight in the direction of Jasmine, who was standing next to another ink portal painted on the ground!
She was holding her brush in the air, awaiting her arrival with the same soft smile that appeared creepy in Li Mei’s spiritual vision.
Szzlzlzlz...
Before Li Mei could cross half the distance, an electrical spark appeared next to her, and Li Mei was gone.
Then, the same spark appeared next to Yanhuan and the others, whose astounded eyes were still affixed on the ink portal’s emergence.
Dominic dropped off Li Mei next to them while his body was crackling with faint electricity... then, he turned to watch Jasmine with them... his body and clothes untainted by the ink somehow.
"She is something else, right?" He commented with his hands in his pockets. Then, he smiled when he looked at their dazed expressions, "So, what’s going on here? Are you purposefully trying to make me look bad before that prick?"