Chapter 565 (1/2)

Tatiana stumbled when they finally stopped. Her heart was pounding. How the hell were they moving so fucking fast? At one point, Tatiana had felt the air solidify around them, as though… as though they were about to break the sound barrier. They had slowed immediately afterward, but Tatiana had a strange impression that it wasn’t because Viking couldn’t go that fast, but rather he didn’t think that she could handle it.

After he had leaped up and launched themselves off a skyscraper, Viking had calmly landed and began stepping with such speed that they were quickly whisked off into darkness. Trees blurred as they streaked past. And it didn’t even seem like Viking was breaking a sweat.

The other thing she noticed on their journey was that Viking was avoiding the typical drone patrol routes. Tatiana had investigated them thoroughly, so she could protect the girls at the compound, but it seemed that Viking knew them even more intimately.

When they stopped, Tatiana needed several seconds to recover herself. Then she looked up at Viking. And then blinked.

There was something… different about him. They were standing in the darkness, but she could see him in profile. Or believed it was him. The figure in front of her… seemed distinctly different from the Viking that she remembered. Taller yes, but also sharper somehow, and more dangerous. Inwardly, Tatiana had to remind herself that he was an engineer, more than anything else. He wasn’t…. Wasn’t…

But he was more than that, wasn’t he? He could grab plasma out of the air. He defeated Hollar’s goons in less than ten seconds. He-

The figure stepped forward, and Tatiana stilled. This was not Viking.

“Sorry about that, it was a little rough.” The figure said, scratching his ear. In the darkness, his features were still blurry. Except for his eyes, which burned emerald. “But once it started…”

The figure trailed off. Before Tatiana could understand what was going on, two figures appeared out of the darkness. One of them was Tykes, the other was Bruya. All Tatiana saw was a slight frown on Bruya’s face, and there was a rush of air. The figure took another step, and suddenly it was Viking next to her. He spared her a quick smile, and then he turned to Dinesh.

“Any change?”

“None,” Dinesh replied. Viking nodded.

“Alright. Thank you for the wonderful night, despite the ending, Tatiana. But now I need to go.”

Tatiana smiled in spite of herself. “You were dozing off for half of it, don’t lie.”

Viking winced. The man wearing the mask of Viking winced. Was the entirety of Baloo Erickson a facade? “Yea well… I suppose cocktail parties aren’t my thing.”

Then the man who was a man who she thought she knew was off into the darkness. But he was a fake. Probably? Likely.

Typical.

*****

Before they attacked the base, Randidly paused and focused on his Skills. The Lava Golem Skill was extremely useful as both an attention sink and as a tactical existence. But the problem was that much of the commands it could understand were general. It would fight where he directed, and as he directed. It seemed that it had a template of combat experience that was based on his own.

But the problem with that was that the Lava Golem was not Randidly, in both good and bad ways. It did not have the deft utilization of the spear that he had. Meanwhile, he was essentially indestructible because his body was made of molten metal. Physically, he could rip through the opposition with just his heat and Strength, in a way Randidly would never attempt.

So Randidly focused on his Skills and considered the shape of Lava Golem inside of himself. He felt its energies and vibrations inside of himself. Then, after he used Plant Dominance to clear a small cave to hide the light, he summoned a Lava Golem.

The thing pulled itself up out of the ground, a humanoid composed of pure lava. Very rapidly, the heat in the cave rose. However, to a Randidly who had both Chosen of Fire and Fire Resistance, the heat meant little. He peered at the creation with a powerful intensity. They were bonded by Mana, and Randidly reached out and pressed with his Willpower to seize control of that bond. The binding trembled but did not shift