Chapter 777 (1/2)

The day went extremely well, as far as Randidly was concerned. With the addition of Darrune as dead weight to protect, Helen was nowhere close to pushing his limits of using four avatars to fight with her. Just managing to keep the oaf safe was more than enough trouble.

However, Randidly also acknowledged that Helen’s improvement wasn’t as stark on the first day. Her rage was sporadic and increasingly tainted by a helpless frustration. Part of it was the clearly unusual request that Randidly had put to her, but it was also that Helen’s rage shifted and grew more quickly than Randidly could have anticipated. There were several times over the course of the day that Helen decided to say screw Darrune and just used the distraction on the avatars to try and kill them.

Of course, Randidly used Influence of the Molten Core to mess with her, but it wasn’t a super high-Level Skill. In some ways, she was able to resist it and just kill an avatar if she put her mind to it.

Which, of course, meant that the first thing that Randidly was planning to do today after practice was improve Influence of the Molten Core. It was something he was always interested in sharpening, but he simply didn’t have the chance until now. Besides, it was associated with only a general image of heat. That was barely enough to catch the Hellfin Reaper’s notice.

But before Randidly could head out for his personal training, Azriel found him on the roof.

“Are you taking the long view of this?” She inquired immediately, without any preamble. “To directly empower Helen’s anger, especially toward yourself… it is something that you will need to deal with for a long time.”

Randidly grimaced. Yes, this was the big flaw in his plan. It was all well and good to put Helen in a mental space where she didn’t care about the consequences and would just fight to her heart’s content. It was another to do so on short notice and make sure that Helen wouldn’t be any the worse for wear.

Considering Helen’s usual broad anger and snappy temper, Randidly had thought focusing on rage would lead to the easiest transition of focus. In addition, there was something about Helen’s shouts and outbursts that he could stand.

However, she had stopped shouting during the second half of the day’s practice. She had been completely silent.

The fuming, glaring Helen was much more chilling than her more vocal incarnation. Randidly had started to wonder if she would ever be able to look at him the same again. So Azriel’s comments struck too close to home for him to ignore.

Releasing a sigh that he had held all day, Randidly could do nothing but shrug. “You are right. It’s… dangerous to indulge further. But I am here to give her a path to victory. The first day went so well. If we can capture that a few more times-”

“You are better at this teaching than I thought,” Azriel admitted. “I would have assumed you to be without hope while instructing. But no matter how simplified and focused you are, you have no experience to rely on. It is difficult to judge these things. People… are complicated.”

The two fell silent and stared out over Hastam. The training sessions had lasted 10 hours and they had started early in the morning, so it was only now transitioning from twilight to deep evening. In the distance, Randidly could feel the faint stirrings of Wights as they gathered to move against the Northern Camps once more. At least they would give him a good opportunity to use Influence of the Molten Core.

“I have a suggestion.” Azriel finally said.

Randidly glanced at her with his eyebrows raised.

With a shrug, Azriel said, “Well, the worry is that her rage will grow so large she will lose sight of the training and just attack you, yes? Then perhaps the answer is to fight her once more directly. Beat her. If you are vastly superior, how could she really hope to triumph over you?”

“Scare her into behaving?” Randidly said lightly. His skepticism was thick in his voice, but of course, Azriel ignored it.

“Exactly. A sufficiently tough lesson will keep her eyes focused on the current threat. It is a good plan,” Azriel said with a nod.

There was no point in vocalizing his worries to Azriel. Not that she couldn’t understand, but there was a particular focus in her that kept such concerns from being something she would think about. Perhaps it was her dogged determination to win glory for herself. She fed everything into it, and that left her a streamlined and sparse perspective.

“So, what about you? Don’t you have a match soon?” Randidly asked.

Azriel gave him an amused look. “I fought earlier today. It was an easy win. You are looking at a semi-finalist, Mr. Ghosthound.”

After blinking, Randidly couldn’t do anything but laugh. “Really? Perhaps we should have taken a break to come watch-”

“No need, it was a weakling,” Azriel said dismissively. “Once more, my path to the finals is extremely clear. It is only a matter of who will rise up out of this bracket to face me…”

Then Azriel’s expression turned brooding. In a way, Randidly could see right through her at that moment. For all that Azriel was rather oblivious to some things, she couldn’t escape the way that this scenario resembled the Regional Tournament. More than that, she also knew that her opponent would either be a friend or companion. The winner of Skarch and Helen would face Silo to choose who would meet her in the final match of the tournament.