Chapter 233 (1/2)

After the discussion with Aiden Darke, Randidly’s expression was frosty. Darke had insisted on Randidly revealing where he had obtained the Engraved equipment from. Not for a second did Darke seem to have any suspicion that Randidly himself had produced them, but they knew that the equipment flowed through Randidly.

And after the earlier display of strength, Randidly had no qualms with keeping silent about the true culprit at all.

Randidly briefly considered throwing Shal under the bus as the culprit, due to his recent unreliable streak, but decided against it. It was a pointless move, because Shal or Darke, or perhaps both, would swiftly return, angry at being led around pointlessly and bothered.

For now, Darke had departed, unsatisfied, but unwilling to do anything currently.

“As the nice speaker has said, you are the pride of our generation,” Darke said in a soft voice. “Of course, the Engraving Guild will take no action on a brave and bold participant in the Regional Tournament, such as yourself. But some of your associates might be brought in for questioning. Pay it no mind, it is… merely routine.”

The thought of Helen and Teliph within that unassuming man’s grasp… or even the other male spear attendant… dammit, what was his name..?

What was most disturbing about the whole interaction was that even as Randidly watched the man’s departing back, knowing his strength, his senses couldn’t pick up on it at all. If he hadn’t personally experienced his power, Randidly wouldn’t believe that the person was anything other than an average individual.

Truly… Randidly had been taking the world far too lightly.

But the man left, and Randidly turned his attention to the matches, absently cutting into his arm and focusing on his blood, struggling to control it to go back into his body.

The first match was between two seeded individuals, a man and a woman. For the first several minutes, they appeared to be evenly matched, executing flashy moves which clashed brilliantly, dazzling the audience. Randidly narrowed his eyes. This was…. such a farce.

And as Randidly expected, after a few more clashes the man was overpowered and surrendered, to the cheers and boos of the audience. They were captured by the fervor and power of the combat, but Randidly was rather unimpressed. It was clear from the very first move that the female participant was strong, much stronger than the male.

Ciel Tath, huh. Randidly would need to remember that name. She was at an indeterminate level where he was very unsure of his ability to beat her. Below Azriel for sure, but…

The second match was rather boring; again, between two seeded individuals. They were both powerful, but from a glance Randidly knew that this was just arranged to showcase these young talents, but the ones who arranged the bracket knew that they would lose to Ciel in the next round, regardless of who prevailed.

Still, it was more interesting to watch, at least from the perspective that they were at a similar level of strength. There was actual strife and drama in the contest. Randidly watched, memorizing the different moves and images, filing them away for later, when he had to train alone. Truly, they were strong. Perhaps just as strong as him, with their spear.

Which was why to win, Randidly was going to rely on his less traditional strengths.

When the third match was called, Randidly once again focused; one of the participants was Dian. Her red hair stuck out like a brand as she came onto the stage, showered with boos from the audience. Where Randidly had a strangely positive reaction among the populace, led by a strange fan club that had sprung up, Dian had instead been reviled.

Whether it was the colors of her Tassle, her icy demeanor, or the lingering rumors about her Style, as the student of the Devourer, she was public enemy number one in the tournament. People spewed hateful, venomous filled terms about her looks, her spear, her clothes…

But she met it all with a burning gaze, her body filled with energy. When the fight began, Randidly had wondered how she would fare against stronger foes; he needn’t have worried. Her strange energy that devoured images had grown strong, noticeably stronger than when she had fought him in the preliminaries, and she was a half step quicker.

Randidly smiled sardonically. Although it was annoying to admit, her growth was only a hair slower than his own. And perhaps not even that, it might even exceed him.

But again, while she could destroy those who relied on images, she didn’t have the raw stats to compete directly with this level of spear user. Perhaps she had learned that lesson from her fight with Randidly, because in this match, her energy was much more concentrated, doing its best to quickly eat through the other’s Battle Intent and begin to corrode and weaken the opponent’s body directly.

Whether the man was weak or the energy was stronger than Randidly could tell from here, as soon as the energy reached him he began to panic and retreat away from it, trying to open up some space.