Chapter 909 (1/2)

Roy clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in displeasure. Or rather he simulated the sound a tongue clicking would make. It burned through the last dregs of his Mana and ultimately left him quite disappointed.

After wall, tongues were the first thing to go when you became a skeleton. And probably the thing Roy missed the most. The human body, in general, was an extraordinary thing with great capabilities. To be stripped down to just the bone frame was rather difficult. But of all the losses, the tongue was the one that struck Roy the deepest.

But it is appropriate. I have seen truly the darkness of the world… but I have lost the tongue to speak prophecies of the doom that waits for us all.

Roy felt this loss especially keenly now because his Mana had been depleted from the continued attacks from Randidly, forcing Roy to remain as a little spider carrying a skull. He certainly didn’t pull any punches… the determined and aggressive sort of hero, huh. But not much I can say. He’s got the guns to back it up.

Nearby, the rowdy elemental smashed its maroon fist into the ground. Or rather, the Fate that rode the elemental grew restless as its confusion didn’t dissipate over time. There were no foes to fight, and that worried the Fate. It would continue to act out until it found a way to spend the wild energy that was rising up in its chest.

Roy sighed ruefully and bobbed his skull. To think I would become a babysitter… Well, if I have to do it-

Roy paused. Sitting on the hill above him, peering over the lip of a basket was one of the Frogpeople. For whatever reason, Roy hadn’t even noticed the Frogperson until now. Yet now all Roy could look at was the young frogling.

As Roy watched, the basket began to smolder and smoke. Like a frightened bug, the Frogperson scuttled to the side and fled up away from Roy. His speed was fast, for the Frogpeople, so perhaps this one wasn’t as young as he had initially expected. But that didn’t matter. In the end, a child was still a child in every culture. There were certain lines society taught them not to cross.

“Hey, kid.” The Frogperson froze. Roy smiled.

Very slowly, the frog turned around to face Roy, despite his earlier terror. That made Roy chuckle, but he tried his best to keep his skull in an amiable expression. Such a feat would be much easier if he had enough Mana to cast an illusion, but sometimes heroes were forced to reveal their true face. There was value in sincerity, after all.

But let’s hope this child does not have eyes enough to see. For I know better than all others that my gaze only reflects darkness… Roy narrated ominously to himself. He couldn’t help but feel a sliver of excitement forming in his bony skull.

What sort of face would this frog make if he knew what I truly was?

“I have a few questions for you,” Roy said easily. Then Roy was the one that froze as a stifling aura drifted down over him.

A long shadow was cast from the apex of a hill. There, an absurdly fat Toad Lord sat, looking down at them both with eyes that glowed yellow. Again, Roy couldn’t help but wonder how long the Toad Lord had been there. Was his Perception really so restricted by this form?

The Toad Lord was smiling, the rest of its body extremely still. When it spoke, the voice seemed to come from everywhere around them.“Actually… I have questions for both of you.”

A neat trick, speaking like that, Roy admitted. But even though it was just a figment of his imagination, Roy could feel the beat of his heart quicken as he surveyed this obscenely fat TOad Lord.

For the first time since Roy died, he felt a sharp spike of anxiety in his chest. But that was swiftly followed by excitement.

Do you worst, Toad Lord. Because the Heroes’ Toils never cease.

*****

With his Control, Randidly was able to maintain almost a dozen root avatars and move them quickly through the motion of sparring with each other. He wanted to use more, but all attempts to do so quickly petered out. Honestly, Randidly felt that his Intelligence was what was holding him back from making an entire army; he had the tools to control more, but he didn’t have the mental capacity to do it.

But this was already enough. With a large group, Randidly was able to engage in an extremely efficient bout of training to familiarize himself once more with the totality of the power within his two very different Skillsets.

The Spear Phantom was a Style that focused on mobility and counter-attacks. It excelled at using the opponent’s strength against them and striking quickly. Randidly’s individual variation on that prospect involved emphasizing the wild and aggressive tendencies within the Style further, losing some of its elusiveness in exchange for power.

This Style was born of Aemont’s burning desire to overcome an insurmountable gulf in stats. Motivated by a longing for the love of his life, Aemont had willed himself into developing an answer. It culminated in the Skill that would suppress the breath of everything in the surrounding area and bring victory by slowly starving opponents out.

In essence, it was a fighting style that concerned itself with controlling distance and timing.

Which, it could be argued, all fighting methods attempted to do. But the energy the user expended was directed toward controlling rather than attacking. It was a reactionary style that corralled an opponent.

The Ashen Spear was very different. It was totally focused on power. Not Strength, not exactly, but rather the power of the Skills. An overwhelming and vicious strain of power that stemmed from the dominance of ash. It embodied destruction and corrosion, loss and inevitability.