Chapter 638 (2/2)
His head jerked back as a hand stabbed past the bridge of his nose. Randidly’s eyes narrowed as he took in the form of the Propagator’s host body that had appeared in front of him. This level of speed… definitely, he needed to fall back.
“Phantom Ha-”
The thing twisted and smashed a heel into Randidly’s back, sending him tumbling forward. The force was overwhelming. Randidly couldn’t control himself as he smashed into the large puppet.
It scrambled around and twisted, surging around Randidly’s body like a python, attempting to get a grip on him.
With air wheezing out of his mouth, Randidly activated When a Shadow Departs, Fireflies Dance. His body rushed forward out of the encircling limbs, but that host puppet was waiting for him outside of the range of the large puppet. Its eyes were glowing mauve now, and visibly its hair was growing out in that shade. It was curly and stopped at the shoulders and as soon as the hair ceased growing, the eyes seemed to refocus.
“Hooooo, that was surprising. What sort of creature are you, boy?”
Something clicked in Randidly, and he blurted out. “You… you’re like Lucretia.”
This gave the Propagator a second of pause. And looking at her healing form, it was easy to see the resemblance to Lucretia. She had the same colored hair and matching eyes, and the same unnaturally pale skin. It seemed that the Propagator in front of him fixated on the name instantly, with her eyes narrowing.
“Worm, how do you know-” It began, but Randidly’s crown released a huge pulse of power that he had built up in the brief interim. The Propagator’s words were cut off and he felt some of the strange vibrations that were pressing up against his skin lessen. That sharpened his perspective.
Was it perhaps possible that the way the Propagator controlled its puppets was through the use of sound waves…? And the puppets themselves acted like amps and therefore targeting them with Breath of the Spear Phantom was a dangerous proposition. The feedback from stifling the larger puppets for just a second was enough to pop a lung, but perhaps the crystalline beetle itself…
Still, when the large puppet slashed outward with is hand Randidly was forced to dodge. But his eyes remained on the host body. It was a good thing too because the body came forward with its hands raised. The fearful part was that there didn’t appear to be any Skills in use from this thing. He tried to dodge, but its speed was beyond belief. It just rawly scratched at Randidly with enough force to rip deep rivets in Sulfur.
Sulfur, for its part, was just as excited as Acri had been, but this was a manic excitement that had Randidly deeply worried. Sulfur grew off of pressure, and this physical presence was undoubtedly a boon for it. However… these strikes were too devastating to just consider training. How many more could land and consider the armor uninjured…?
Randidly was stuck between a rock and a hard place, however. The large puppet had positioned itself behind him, while the host body advanced relentlessly towards Randidly.
“You have my attention,” The body hissed at him. “And I’ll have the answers one way or another.”
Then it moved, and this time Randidly barely got a Phantom Half-Step off in time to pull himself a dozen meters to the side. Instantly, he leaped towards the foot soldier Wight he had targeted with the Skill and stabbed his spear through its chest and twisted. A headache was building behind his eyes as Randidly was forced to up the Perception boost of the Crown in order to compete with the host body.
The Randidly swore because one of the other large puppets turned from its struggle against Azriel and smashed its hand downwards in an overhead blow towards Randidly’s position. When the Shadows Depart, FIreflies Dance carried him out of the physical shockwave, but it gave the other large puppet time to get into position.
RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH.
As Randidly turned, he was hit in the chest with the sonic attack with enough force for Sulfur to groan painfully. Staggering backward, Randidly rapidly attempted to sharpen his Perception. Even with the effect of the SIlence from his crown, it was still this powerful…?
At the last second, he caught the small noise of a step and jerked backward. The host body of the Propagator seemed to materialize in front of him, and the body looked rather puzzled that its attack had missed. Randidly’s Idiosyncratic Cut slashed off several curly mauve hairs, but Acri did little damage against its skin.
Abruptly, Randidly was very conscious of how low his Health was. He was healing rapidly, but this thing could hurt him quickly, from too many directions. And looming above that fear was the realization that the Propagator had some sort of Skills it could use. And with these base stats… now was not the time for a confrontation.
Ready to leave? Randidly asked as he used Wild Phantom’s Embrace to use the momentum from another attack from a large puppet to leap backward. Azriel assented, and appeared next to him in a crimson streak.
“Trying to leave? Childish. Domain… Realm of the Crystal Spires!”