Chapter 833 (1/2)

Immediately after Randidly landed the attack on Aegian’ts face, he spun and pressed his feet against Aegiant’s chest. Although it was not empowered with an image, the unstoppable spear thrust whistled just off of his right shoulder and caused Randidly to experience a tiny thrill of fear.

Spear Advances, Ash Trails.

Randidly exploded directly toward the ground just as the Earthquakes began to rumble with vicious force. The ground cracked and buckled as the stone scaffolding that held this place above the lava disintegrating under so much strain at once.

With a plop, Randidly pierced through the broken ground and into the lava beneath.

Just in time, too, because the area immediately around Aegiant was annihilated as he brought the entire weight and heat of the sun crashing down in an effort to kill Randidly. What areas of the ground in the plaza that weren’t already destroyed were smashed into powder and then melted into paste.

In the aftermath, Aegiant floated slowly down toward the lava with burning eyes, his gaze flicking back and forth as he searched for any sign of Randidly. The dull red and black of the molten metal bubbled noncommittally.

Below, something very strange was happening.

As per Randidly’s earlier predictions, he had ended up finding out what it was like to dive into the lava. Even from here, the blast of force from Aegiant’s attack had hit him like a baseball bat to the chest. And although Aegiant was clearly singed, there was no true damage or any sign that he was slowing down anytime soon.

Randidly’s Health was visibly being burnt away by the lava, even as Chosen of Ash gained several levels to cope with it. For all that this was a possible way to defeat Aegiant, Randidly didn’t have that kind of time.

The river of Aether between him and Azriel had just gone completely dry.

But Randidly didn’t know how to hurry this up.

To make matters worse, the Aether constructs of his arm had been blown away by Aegiant’s strike against the area. True, he could now spare the attention to pull them back toward himself and try and heal the arm, but it wouldn’t matter; he couldn’t heal it while the wound was being roasted by lava.

There was another blow against Randidly’s lungs as Aegiant struggled against Breath of the Spear Phantom. When it failed, Aegiant’s face was contorted by rage. But, with an effort of will, he suppressed that and shrugged. With a gesture of his hand, he conjured an avatar of himself, likely composed of a Skill.

The so-called prowess of a Master.

“So, you hide?” The projection said, folding its arms. It was filmy and weak, likely not a very powerful Skill. But it didn’t actually have lungs and wasn’t bound by Breath of the Spear Phantom.

...this fucker just wants to monologue? Randidly thought with disbelief.

“That’s fine. Truly, you are strong. I have… enjoyed this. Or rather… it has made me anticipate your death so much more than I had expected. It will truly be a treat,” Faux-Aegiant said with bared teeth. Then, the real Aegiant floated downward and stuck his spear into the lava.

“How long will you be able to stay down there, I wonder…?” The projection mused, even as Randidly could immediately feel the jump in heat as Aegiant began to direct his image of the sun to burn.

From his vantage point, Randidly could see that there was a slowly widening space around Aegiant’s spear where the lava evaporated, and then caught fucking fire from the intense heat. Which increased the speed of the expansion, and also meant Randidly’s Health was ticking away at an increasingly fast clip.

Chosen of Ash was doing its best, but…

And now, Randidly didn’t know what to do.

For several long seconds, he stared upward at Aegiant. He could summon more Lava Golems or other minions, but those wouldn’t do much. One of his greatest Skills, Influence of the World Seed, was very Mana inefficient at the moment. Due to the lava and sparse city around him, he would need to bring plants from far away. And even then, he would need a shit ton to pierce through this heat and do any damage.

Breath of the Spear Phantom would sap Aegiant’s Stamina eventually, but he hadn’t Leveled it enough for it to work on a timetable that he needed. And every moment that passed, Randidly was becoming increasingly worried about Azriel.