Chapter 710 (2/2)

Helen’s spear ripped toward Randidly, forcing him to spin sideways to avoid. It seemed that her predictive abilities rose once again, because she instantly stepped toward him the middle of her previous attack, cutting off his line of retreat.

Randidly used When a Shadow Departs, Fireflies Dance to move behind Helen, but he released a blast of cold as he did so. The frozen puff of ash was just enough to avoid the thickened currents of energy that flowed around the arena. Grimacing, Randidly landed and lowered his center of gravity. It was annoying how restrictive this Skill was becoming. But this was the sort of pressure he needed to shape this Skill.

“Freeze,” Randidly hissed, spreading his hands toward Helen. She largely ignored the concentrated image of cold heading toward her back and twisted around. Her spear thrust was almost a thing of beauty, with powerful image condensing as it approached Randidly. He could feel it then, more clearly than he had ever before. The spear that Helen thrust toward him was not just a shaft of wood with a metal tip, but it was something more than that.

It was burned and stained with blood, but unbroken. As Randidly watched the spear approach. It shifted right before his eyes until it became a jagged tooth of some deep sea monster with grey skin. The spear, to Helen, was not a tool. It was a way of life. It was a part of her. It was her hope and dreams, experiencing the vicissitudes of life.

That tooth hit Randidly’s wave of desolate cold and ripped right through it. The difference in depth of the images couldn’t be compared. Randidly had done a little to refine the cold into his image of ash, but it was still mostly an imitation. Narrowing his eyes, Randidly met the sea monster tooth with a Talon Strike.

BOOOOOOM.

Crack.

Randidly felt his arm shatter from the collision and was filled with a deep shock. Then he bitterly smiled. Helen’s follow up was lightning fast, and in it, Randidly could sense that her image had shifted somewhat. No longer was she the river, but she was a carnivorous Queen that dwelled at the bottom of the sea of blood, flowing along the bottom of the river to ambush the unwary. The sleek movements of the sea beast made her speed even more impressive.

Randidly allowed his left hand to fall uselessly to his side. It would take a bit to heal through that wound.

Instead, he slowly exhaled. Aether burned icy hot in his chest. So powerful that even the image of chill that had suffused him was forced to give way for the power of Aether.

Ash was a remnant. Much of the Ashen Image Randidly had inherited was the process of creating ash through terrible consumption, but ash was ultimately a remnant. After the heat passed, the ash could remain for an eternity, a tragic sort of memorial for what had been destroyed.

In the face of Helen’s imminent attack, Randidly only grinned. All is Ash.

Randidly still had about half of his Mana pool remaining, so when the blow struck him, his body disintegrated to nothing. This was the first time in a quite a while that he had used the Skill like this, and also the first time he had done so since it had evolved. As such, Randidly felt a profound sense of control over himself, as well as a deep connection to the world. Time seemed to slow as Randidly savored the feeling of the sameness of it all.

The heat and chill of the world faded away, and Randidly could feel the deep sense of loneliness and nostalgia that suffused the air. There was a deep sense in the ash around him that this was so much less than had what been present before, before the great fires of genesis consumed the one true source and left this world. And in those emotions of deep longing, Randidly found the home for the frigid chill he had been seeking.

Still, every second in this form depleted his Mana at a horrendous wait. So as Helen spun around in confusion, searching for Randidly, he condensed out of ash right in front of her.

With great care, Randidly spread his hands. The hot flows of blood in the air smashed down toward him to completely restrain him. Like a carp flicking her tail, Helen shifted instantly into overwhelming motion. She pounced toward him, spear raised.

Randidly’s eyelids slowly lowered. The deep cold that suffused him trembled. The crown above his head burned with a strange heat. All the great things in existence would slowly be consumed. And what was left…

“Frigid Ash, Extinguishing Storm.”

Congratulations! You have developed the 5th Kata of the Ashen Spear, “Frigid Ash, Extinguishing Storm (Ru) Lvl 1”!

Frigid Ash, Extinguishing Storm: Tap into the deep pervasive laws of Entropy that afflict the world and create a storm of frigid ash that radiates out from yourself. These ash particles will devour all forms of energy that they encounter around you. Size of the particles and storm increases with Skill Level. Mana is constantly drained during use. Mana cost decreases with Skill Level.