Chapter 344 (1/2)

Randidly’s eyes were narrowed as he considered the Skeleton Knight, who was rushing towards him. Truly, this bastard was strong. More so than anyone he had fought but Drak. True, Randidly had grown a lot since his fight against Drak, but…

Drak had let him seize the momentum. Something told Randidly that the Skeleton Knight wouldn’t do the same.

That huge sword of his flashed out, traveling faster than a weapon of that size had any right to. Luckily or unluckily, Randidly moved on instinct, raising his spear to block the weapon. But again, the edge of the blade dug deep, sinking into the spear, making the weapon shudder.

This time, however, Randidly was ready for it. He let go of the first spear and grabbed the other already formed to his right, and struck out. The Skeleton Knight’s counter was smooth, and Randidly was forced to sidestep, hissing.

Immediately, Randidly activated Haste, Empower, and Mana Strengthening, moving at his top speed to lash out at the Skeleton Knight’s knees. It remained to be seen whether Randidly could do any actual damage with these spears, considering how powerful the armor appeared to be. As he expected, the tip skittered off of the metal, leaving barely a mark.

Randidly tsk’d, spinning away, avoiding the extremely rapid stab that aimed for Randidly’s follow up strike. Not only was the Skeleton Knight powerful stat-wise, but he also had excellent fundamental skills. An annoying but effective combo.

The huge sword lashed out again, as smooth as a lake on a cold day.

This time, Randidly met the strike, allowing the sword to sink into the wood of the spear. But instead of pulling back, he pushed, activating Stalemate Breaker, grunting and smashing the Skeleton Knight backwards.

This finally seemed to grab the Skeleton Knight’s attention, and he immediately hopped backwards several steps, creating some distance. Although he knew what was waiting for him, Randidly stepped forward to follow. The counter was so sharp that Randidly almost swore aloud, cursing that sword that must weigh as much as toothpick.

But with a double activation of Phantom Half Step, Randidly was within the range of the strike, and smashed it aside with his shoulder. Or tried to. The strike was powerful enough to still push him back a little. Not enough to stop the root spear which Randidly shoved towards the eye of the Skeleton Knight.

Twisting, the Skeleton Knight ducked under the thrust, displaying a surprising amount grace for a skeleton in a giant suit of armor. Randidly grunted as the Skeleton Knight’s elbow hit him in the gut. His temper flared hot in his chest. This fucking…!

Fine, no more feints. Channeling all of his passive skills, Randidly began to summon more and more root spears to smash against the armor of the Skeleton Knight. At first, the Skeleton Knight managed to hold his own against the onslaught, Randidly burning his Stamina for an advantage.

The swordwork of the Skeleton Knight was flawless, or it least it would have been, had Randidly not destroyed the ground underneath him, making him stumble. Then Randidly began to really lay on the pain, Slashing and Sweeping against the armor, slowly leaving increasing amounts of scratches and dents.

Very quickly, the Skeleton Knight righted himself, and adjusted to the tactic, avoiding the unstable ground, or at least trying to. But there was only so much you could do when the attacks came from beneath the earth, destroying your stance underneath you, silent and invisible.

After about 3 minutes of this, Randidly withdrew, his chest heaving, taking the opportunity to catch his breath somewhat. Immediately, Golden Roots of Yggdrasil activated, thick veins of golden energy flowing up through the ground into the bare soles of his feet. At the same time, in his chest, Second Wind kicked up, filling him with warm vigor.

Although the Skeleton Knight’s face was fleshless, his emotions still conveyed rather clearly through the bone medium. “Who….no, what are you? You cannot be this strong, not this quickly.”

Randidly grinned. These were spread out across the armor, but there were now dozens of long gashes in the cast iron armor that covered its body. Its expression was grim as it considered Randidly. Although he had stopped, Randidly would be able to start dissecting the armor further now, now that it was riddled with flaws. Although the quality of the spears wasn’t initially high, Randidly was learning how to focus his Mana, increasing the strength of the root materials to a more damaging level.

With that, combined with his high Strength and repeated strikes to the same spot, he was able to tear the armor to pieces. It was… fun, this sort of fight. Matching wits, pushing the opponent, relying on the unpredictability to push the other back and seize the momentum. But just like Randidly had predicted, the Skeleton Knight was good at quashing it as soon as it arose.

Still, his practice sessions with Azriel weren’t in vein; in terms of learning to vary his tactics, Randidly was probably a genius, if only at applying the same skill, over and over in different ways. Through slight variations in timing and application, Randidly could use the Skeleton Knight’s own responses against him, clouding his reactions and injecting self-doubt.