Chapter 602 (1/2)

Even now, Helen found herself somewhat stumbling over how deep and green his eyes were. And when he was staring down over the shaft of a spear at you, the beauty of his eyes was insufficient to show through.

This was a man who had grown accustomed to violence. And Helen loved it.

“Ready?” She asked, wondering how much he had improved since they had last fought. Back then, he was miles ahead of her in every category. But during the war with the Wights, Helen had matured to the point that she no longer recognized herself. Even as the energy of the world fled, and her Level stagnated, she continued to improve her Skills at such a pace that she dare not share the limit of her improvements with her allies.

Only those close to her, like Leyalta, had seen her let loose completely. And that was only in the midst of the most pitched battles. She dare not share that her Skill Levels were nearing two hundred, a domain that few made it to without being able to use the abilities of a Master.

But against Randidly Ghosthound…

“Yes,” He said while staring at her. “Whenever you are ready.”

Oh? You believe that you have the advantage? Fine then, it was time that Helen showed Randidly exactly how capable she was. How much fighting prowess she possessed, how firm her resolve. How capable she would be, say, of taking care of the homestead should there be so formidable a warrior that she would acquiesce to them defending her.

“Then fucking go for it,” Helen hissed, as she rushed forward. Although she wouldn’t use the full force of the killing intent she had developed on the front lines against Randidly, she would make use of the many Skill Levels she had earned. Her Raging Torrent of the Yashwei Skill Set started humming at full bore. She approached using the Deceptive First Bend, which made her footwork blur in the eyes of her enemies. It was enough that some Wights hadn’t even had time to look up before she arrived in front of them.

To her surprise, or perhaps not really, Randidly was already there waiting for her. His moves were simple and blunt, but when he thrust his spear her Battle Instincts Skill screamed that it was dangerous. So she shifted fluidly into the Third Bend: Great Falls. So when he thrust at her, Helen spun and ducked under the blow.

The air vibrated with the force of his passage. Helen grimaced. This… wasn’t the Ghosthound that she remembered. If she didn’t know better… Helen would think that she was facing a pure power spear user. Although, not a very fucking good one.

“Roasted balls,” Helen muttered as she thrust upwards with her spear.

Randidly moved his head to the side, those emerald eyes glowing. If his spear use was somewhat lacking, his body control was astounding. Instantly, she activated the Second Bend just as his left leg kicked out towards her. Helen grunted as she was thrown backward by the force of the kick, but looked up expectantly. She immediately frowned.

She had left a deep gash in the strange grey armor that Randidly wore, but that was it. The Second Bend was just a combat cantrip, but it rarely failed to inflict a wound. So that meant…

The Fourth Bend: Drowning Current.

Helen always wondered what this Skill looked like from someone else’s perspective. But in her eyes, the world began to be covered with what she considered “drag lines”. It seemed to be an amalgamation of momentum and weariness on their bodies. With it, a pretty decent passive boost to her Perception and Agility enabled Helen to slowly reduce her opponents to exhausted wrecks. Perhaps it would be smarter to use the obvious difference in Skill Level to dominate him, but she wanted to demonstrate how much finesse she now possessed.

So she amped up the speed, her spear stabbing to and fro to cut small gashes on his hands and forearms, which were revealed by the armor.

In terms of his ability to use the spear… Helen found herself somewhat disappointed. He was… rusty. It looked like he hadn’t had any true fights in a while. And he thought that he would be able to face her in this condition? Well, she would take great pleasure in teaching him this lesson.

She cut at his shoulder and he turned slightly, but then she swept her spear sideways and drew a gash across his armor. He stepped forward but grunted as she spun the butt of her spear and slammed it into his midsection. All the while, draglines gathered around him.

His attacks were more than powerful; they were fast and deceptive. As Helen spun away from her hit to his stomach, she found a leaping thrust waiting for her. She cleanly slid out of the way with a quick use of the First Bend, but he saw through her move and landed a sharp kick on the shaft of her spear that sent her stumbling.

So much so that she had to utilize the First Bend again to close the distance with him and harry him with a series of stabs to keep the drag lines from dispersing. He cleanly knocked these blows away, and Helen’s brow knit together. She was moving through her Stamina pool more quickly than she would like, and…

He was getting faster.

She supposed it made sense, as she had said, he was rusty. But it couldn’t be so simple of catching back up in a single bout, could it? It had been about 20 seconds!

So Helen upped the tempo. Furious Assault increased her Agility even further, and also added a small bit of range to her attacks that added a piercing surprise for her enemies. But as she started attacking in earnest, Randidly began moving more quickly. Somehow, the edges of him seemed to be blurry and grey, making Helen want to swear and throw up her hands.

This entire time, he hadn’t been using his Spear Phantom moves?!

But now, Helen began to make use of her wide range of combat experience to cut corners. He was statistically stronger and faster, but she would NOT fucking roll over and lose to this schmuck who probably had barely trained in the past half year.