Chapter 863 (1/2)

The Hound’s Ladder, Helen came to understand, was an exercise based upon something that Randidly had done previously. It was a reduced version, of course, but it was a training exercise designed to show hotheaded recruits that their individual strength mattered very little in the grand scheme of things.

Before a cohesive squad, an individual could only struggle and fail.

It was a series of ten fights, increasing in difficulty until the final fight, where you essentially fought all of the previous nine groups of opponents at the same time. Most people were so unsuccessful in the earlier rungs of the ladder that they gave up before the end.

After the details of the fight were explained to herself, Helen resolved to not give up, no matter what.

She seriously reconsidered that after having her nose broken during the first rung.

The first fight was against three people, all from the Thirty-eighth Squad of Donnyton. Quietly, Helen asked what the numbering meant and was informed that this meant that there were thirty-seven groups of ten people better than this Squad in the town. And that didn’t even include those individuals who were apparently strong enough to have their own Raid Squad.

The whole system seemed a bit confusing to Helen, but she surmised that these were simply run of the mill fighters and not the elite. Therefore, she took them rather lightly.

That was a mistake.

Their formation was simple. They had two warriors with sword and shield and one spellcaster behind them. Although Helen found the range of the sword extremely short, she couldn’t deny the efficacy of their rather large shields. When the fight began, she was immediately wary of the spellcaster. But an entire minute passed with him standing passively at the back, allowing the two sword and shield users to edge out and pressure Helen from an angle.

They were efficient and brutal with their sword strikes, but they had no image behind them. Helen was able to knock them away effortlessly. However, all of her counter attacks were simply endured and deflected by the broad side of the shield. It was infuriatingly easy for the shield to endure her attacks because her Skills were vastly reduced by Randidly’s Domain.

Helen could only rely on her images to strengthen her strikes. She felt some give, but… With the constant threat of the caster looming, Helen was unwilling to risk an all-out attack to try and break through.

Time crept past. Very soon, Helen grew impatient. Time to test their edges. She lashed out powerfully at one of the two melee fighters.

She had enough strength to stumble him with two powerful follow-up attacks, but the other hustled in to slam his shield into her side. Grinning, Helen spun around him and outside of the two’s encirclement, so they were in a line and unable-

“Lightning Bolt!”

As soon as Helen moved apart from the melee fighters, the waiting spell caster shot a bolt of cobalt electricity through the air. Instincts took over and Helen scrambled to the side. The spell cracked past her, leaving the smell of ozone in its wake. As she righted herself, she found the two melee fighters moving closer with a grim purpose.

Helen’s Domain exploded outward and she used pure speed to slip between them. With her spear raised, she rushed intently toward the spell caster. As long as they continued to interfere, this would be almost impossible-

“Flash.”

For almost a second, Helen wasn’t sure what was happening. Her vision was simply white. Blinking, she abruptly realized that she had been briefly blinded. She spun around and leapt to the side to escape any danger, and smashed face first into a shield. As she fell on her ass, a flat piece of metal was pressed briefly against her cheek.

It was so, so cold before it dragged its chill metal across the skin and away.

Slowly, Helen forced her gaze to return to focus.

“That counts as a loss,” Dozer said. “You ready for the next rung?”

Helen reached up and wiped away the blood that was dribbling out of her nose. “Fuck yea.”

*****

If the world that the pattern on the equipment made was the ‘image’ that the Skill should follow, the energy and shape that Randidly injected into it next was the ‘energy’. Without both, the Skill wouldn't exist and therefore couldn’t grow. It was only by combining both that something special would be born.

All things possess duality. The interesting part is in the details.

As Randidly slowly traced the shape he wanted into the pattern, the metal began to hiss and steam. Frowning, Randidly reached out and carefully felt the Mana Engravings that conveyed the energy through the equipment. Immediately, he hissed in annoyance; there was a small flaw that was allowing Mana to escape.