Chapter 179 (2/2)

Grimacing, Randidly leapt to the side. He definitely would have preferred to have a lighter spear at times like this, when he was completely eclipsed in terms of power. Someday, Randidly vowed to himself, someday he would bully others with the power of his strikes. But for now…

His control that approached 200 was making itself very known in the way Randidly was able to easily maneuver his body to where he wanted, keeping Jacktat from being able to find his footing in his attacks. Randidly knew he could probably get an advantage and pressed forward with it with spells, but he was hesitant to use any of them while everyone was fighting so chaotically on top of the boat. His fire spells could burn the thing to a shell of itself, and Randidly didn’t want to create a root that would eventually trip up one of his spear attendants.

After leaping to the side and rushing under Jacktat’s guard, slashing his spear and ripping a pretty sizable gash in the man’s side, Randidly glanced around, looking for the status of his spear attendants.

Helen seemed to have already beaten one of her enemies, and the second one was retreating away, in a very sorry state. With a pleased smile, Randidly looked at Teliph who had also defeated one of his opponents, the man with 6 spears, and was now clashing in a flurry of blows against the wispy man, who had a strange, unpredictable style of fighting. Although it seemed that this battle was less settled than Helen’s, it was still even, and Randidly wouldn’t have to worry about them gaining victory anytime soon and harassing him.

But the male spear attendant…. Randidly sighed. He really should just learn the man’s name, because he was no longer the only male spear attendant he had, but Randidly just had this weird suspicion that asking the man his name would end up encouraging him to go on a long monologue about himself, when Randidly simply wanted something else to call him.

The risk was too great; the benefit was not worth the cost of failure.

A smashing overhand blow from Jacktat caught Randidly by surprise, due to his meandering thoughts, and Randidly was forced to block it directly. His arms trembled, and the planks of the boat underneath him groaned from the force.

Following up quickly, Jacktat twisted and brought the spear around in a horizontal sweep. Randidly made to dodge but just staggered, barely managing to get his cramping legs to obey him. It wasn’t just strength, it was also a mild paralysis effect to Jacktat’s attacks that made it very dangerous to continue to fight directly against him. Randidly was forced to use Phantom Half Step and blow quite a bit of stamina to fuly dodge the attack.

Randidly instantly sucked all the stamina he had stored in the rings on his hands, replenishing his stores very quickly. But his chest was still heaving, and only now was feeling slowly working its way back into his legs.

Jacktat sneered. “All you can do is run. This is a disgrace. You still dare claim you have the strength to resist me?!?”

“All you can do is swing wildly at the air. Don’t act like your successes are anything but the result of blockheaded repetition.” Randidly snapped. He immediately regretted engaging Jacktat, mostly because of the interaction with such a detestable stranger, but the words did seem to fit another purpose.

Jacktat’s face because twisted, his eyes somehow narrowed and overly opened at once, so his eyes looked wide, like a goats. “Good! Good, good, good!”

Then Jacktat rushed forward, a strange, new energy crackling around his body. So far, Randidly had simply dealt with the man’s superior skill levels, and likely stats. But now…

Randidly had a feeling that he would find out what the man had used to earn himself the title of Artisan.

****

In the darkness of his cabin, Shal breathed slowly. So slowly that there were several minutes between breathes. He did not do this because he needed to breath; his Vitality and Endurance were far above the levels where it was necessary to engage in such things. Shal continued to breath in order to keep time.

He had sensed the clashes beginning above, and he had sealed away his senses, so nothing would distract him. Even that much was a small burden on his pitiable amount of Aether, which he couldn’t afford. It was a frustrating situation.

So Shal continued to breath, counting the minutes passed. He had to have patience. Necessarily, Shal couldn’t accomplish this himself. That was why he had even allowed this to happen. Randidly would be carrying most of the weight in the next portion; he would need to make it to the top 4 of the Regional Tournament. After that…

Then, then was when Shal needed his strength. For now….

He simply breathed, waiting for the Regional Tournament.