Within five minutes, the Collector found itself at the end of the hobgoblin formation. The last of the hobgoblins, all of them of the same aberrant variation as the others, breaking apart in digestion within the Collector.

>>>

*Biomass gained (+21)*

Biomass Level: 37/100

*Spirit roots gained (+35)*

Root Consumption Limit: 95/100

>>>

A whole host of goblins, all of them white or red skinned unlike the aberrant hobgoblins, floated in the air, trapped by the female daemon's sapia.

Her thel hovered in the air beside her as she channeled her magic.

'To use Force Push, you just have to will it. Kind of…kind of like wanting to push something away, but not with your body, with your mind, your will,' said the daemon.

"This much is known to me." The Collector clicked its mandibles in understanding, exercising what the female daemon was telling it.

"I see," said the Collector as it experimented with one of many goblins suspended in mid-air by the female daemon.

With a thought, it activated the Sapia spell known as Force Push.

The small, white-skinned goblin, frozen as it was on every inch of its body, could not even scream as almost the entirety of its body was blown apart as if struck by a battering arm.

The blood and half-destroyed organs visible from its severed body remained beating stuck inside, kept still by the daemon's sapian force.

'Amazing…,' said the daemon as she hovered in the air, blinking and nodding. Both her hands flickered with purple energy as they kept the goblins trapped.

"I must calibrate this ability more," said the Collector. "I intended only to sever an arm. Bring forth the next experimental unit."

The daemon nodded and willed another goblin in front of the Collector.

The Collector this time recalibrated its calculations, and when it generated its Force Push, it was more successful, blowing apart the goblin's arm. Some margin of error. It had also blown apart a some of its shoulder and chest.

'It takes a daemon years to grow to your level. And…and you are getting better by the moment. Days of training, training I had to do for years and years, so much of it done in just seconds…if…if you keep growing like this, then you really will keep your promise, you really will kill them all'

The Collector clicked its mandibles, staring at its right clawed daemon hand. It had noticed a flash of purple emit from it before it cast this Force Push.

The daemon raised a didactic finger up. 'Ah, I remember a warning. When you use Force Push, there is a tell, and it is always from the right hand. Before using it, a tiny bit of light will show up there.

The same goes for Force Pull on your left.'

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it drew out its burly left arm towards the goblin. It willed the goblin towards it. As the daemon warned, the Collector's left arm did flicker in a small second of purple.

The goblin hurtled towards the Collector's palm at such a speed that when it hit the solid surface of carapace, it simply blew apart like roadkill.

"Further calibrations required in utilizing this as well," said the Collector. It took a moment to analyze this power, to feel its flow and how it worked.

Because it was fundamentally tied to its own mind and body, the Collector could grasp the nature of this power, this Sapia, with just the slightest of prompting.

"I see now," the Collector clicked its mandibles. "Push and Pull. These are the foundational bases of this system of mental processing known as Sapia. Utilizing measures of both, one may be capable of affecting variations of both pushing and pulling power.

Such as this-,"

The Collector felt power crackle across both its daemon arms, lighting them in purple as it alternated between pushing and pulling power in smooth, equally yielding and pressuring waves.

The ground split apart as a sphere of dirt, mud, and foliage almost five meters in diameter dug up from the earth, enveloped in a purple aura as the Collector held it in the air with Sapian power.

The sphere was not perfect. It undulated and wobbled. Unstable.

The Collector required more calibrating on this as well. It possessed an exceptional grasp of the flow of mana within and outside its body for it was merely like an extension of a bodily part.

And because mana formed the building block of any type of magic, the Collector also possessed a natural grasp of magic, yet, because it was still an entirely new method of movement, there was unfamiliarity it had to adjust for and smooth out.

"And I see now the mechanisms by which you dispatched of those inferior goblin specimens." The Collector clenched its daemon hands into fists, willing the pushing and pulling power into destructive swirls.

Power permeated into the sphere, and then a second later, burst out from the inside. It was like a miniature grenade had been detonated, blowing apart the sizable clod of dirt into an omni-directional shower of earthen remains.

"And in utilizing expending power externally, there is a tradeoff. Not only is there expenditure of mana, but the psionic shielding grows thinner in proportion to the degree of force exerted outside the body," noted the Collector.

'That…is all right. You…you can use Force Hold and Force Rend already. Five…five years, it takes of focusing of pushing and pulling. To know how to Hold. Then three more years to Rend.

Even for me, it took two years for both, and…and Thorian said I was special,' remarked the daemon. 'All of the Low Forces, you know already. You…you may even be able to learn the High Forces.'

"Your conceptualization of 'special' does not even begin to scratch even the barest of surfaces that comprise the honed evolutionary edge invested within me," said the Collector.

The Collector's sensitive hairs lining the seams in its white carapace stood on end, vibrating as they sensed waves of motion in the air.

Vibrational analysis indicated an object, a projectile, approaching at staggering velocity surpassing the breaking point of sound.

Sensitive hairs picked up on movements within a twenty-meter radius. Lower in cluttered environments such as this. The object moved too quickly, and the Collector sensed it too late for an immediate physical response.

Stone shattered against the side of the Collector's head, and a sonic crack echoed from afar.

The four sets of daemon horns curling around the sides of the Collector's head formed a natural helmed, and the rock broke apart on them with a shattering impact.

The Collector's head jerked to the side from the impact, but the thick ultrafiber musculature surrounding its neck kept it anchored firm, preventing any concussive damage to the brain nor excessive shock to the spine.

It clicked its mandibles as chips of shattered horn fell from its head and landed on the dirt.

The horns were not covered in carapace, durable as they already were, but they were shielded by Sapian power.

This projectile was powerful, and no doubt ejected by a powerful being.

The Collector analyzed the small shards of pulverized rock - remnants of the original projectile - and found that they were simply ordinary clumps of mineral.

Small green flickers of magical energy faded from the chunks of rock.

The power of this projectile came entirely from the specimen that had launched it.

'Are you okay!?' said the daemon as she floated near to the Collector.

'Do not make unnecessary movements lest you become a target,' said the Collector as it projected its thoughts. The daemon stilled as she heard the Collector in her head. 'This one…this one must be strong to unleash a projectile of this caliber.'

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it located an approximation of the projectile's origin from the sonic crack.

Desire pumped throughout its being.

'I alone will devour this one. None will take my prey from me.'