Chapter 918 (1/2)

The Ashen Phantom was howling silently as Randidly rushed forward toward the melee fighters in front of them. Its hunger and glee was clear; there was prey right before it, and the Ashen Phantom was hungry.

Even while sprinting, they stayed in pretty good formation, which was honestly rather impressive. Randidly’s mental respect for the training of Donnyton went up several notches. He had always understood that it was a really grueling process, but he had never seen any tangible results of that. To be here, watching these lowest-ranked Squads working in tandem to fight him, gave Randidly a sense of what Donnyton was capable of.

Not enough, Randidly thought sadly. Although they did their best, Donnyton couldn’t prepare their Classers for what was to come.

But Randidly would readily admit that his idea of ‘normal’ training was a bit skewed.

Again, the Ashen Phantom raised its head and howled, causing more and more anguish and grudge to rise up out of its body and flood the air. The cloud of ash in the surrounding area darkened to a foreboding slate. The vicious regret that plagued the Phantom became condensed ash, filling the air around Randidly’s body.

Randidly’s eyes went to the lead individual, a tall man in plate mail and wielding a mace. All he needed to do was break through the first individual, and this first round would be his.

Not knowing that he was the focal point of this whole fight, the man raised his mace and brought it down with lethal force toward Randidly. The spikes on the mace seemed to glimmer in the dim light that was filtering through the oppressive image of the Ashen Phantom. Image and vicious intent gathered in Randidly’s chest as the blow curved downward toward his shoulder.

Too slow. Spear Advances, Ash Trails; the Inevitable Phantom Arrives.

Although his Skills hadn’t yet merged as cleanly as had his images and moves, Randidly still was able to cobble together both Skills into a powerful single Skill. As his momentum jumped sharply upward, Randidly tore a hole through the side of the man charging at him, lowering his spear at the last second to leave his right arm hanging onto his torso by a small amount of shredded muscle rather than amputating the arm altogether.

Behind the first man were a dozen more, left unable to react due to the speed of Randidly’s acceleration. Their gazes stared blankly forward, intent on their duty. In their eyes, Randidly saw fear and excitement.

This isn’t a game. The System isn’t here to make our lives better. Randidly’s expression twisted. It’s here to work us until we break. If we forget that, the entire Earth… what’s left of the Earth...

Then Randidly activated All is Ash and allowed the swirling ash around him to form into blades that cut left and right, ripping deep holes in the armor of these Squads. Sharpness and the weight of the image created a blade with almost double the power that could be expected from the All is Ash Skill.

When Squad members began to fall down, blood spurting out from their wounds, Randidly’s momentum had already carried him further. His eyes were creased and filled with an old memory.

The bodies stacked in piles... the soft splashing of the river…. The sound of Randidly’s shovel repeatedly digging shallow graves next to the Hallat...

The ash spun after him, dissipating and reforming into a new set of blades that ripped their way through those that stood behind initial wave of felled individuals.

Such was Randidly’s momentum that no sooner had he blinked than the last line of melee fighters were toppling over, bisected by his ash blades. If no one was going to challenge his dominant image of ash, he would simply rip these people apart. His Skills were already superior enough. With an uncontested image, this challenge wasn’t fair at all.

In front of him, the long-range fighters realized something was wrong as Randidly punched through the front lines and appeared before them. There was still about ten meters of distance, but Randidly was eating up that space very quickly. Acri hummed with pleasure.

The two groups on the sides wheeled around, forming up to face Randidly while struggling to decide what to do next. It seemed that whoever was in charge couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They had Randidly surrounding, but with the speed at which he was moving, it was difficult to know how to respond effectively.

Randidly was perfectly happy to take advantage of that opportunity.

Not that he planned on being predictable about it.

Now that Randidly had pushed past the front lines, his trailing ash gathered back to Randidly, covering him in a vague haze. Then he narrowed his eyes. The next part was the most difficult of the tricks he had developed against Helen.

With every bit of strength that Randidly could muster, he planted his right leg and pushed himself to the left. All of the forward momentum Randidly possessed transitioned through the tendons and muscles of his knee, forcing his motion in an abrupt new direction.

Such was the suddenness of the movement that Randidly’s ash cloud continued forward, unable to keep up with his abrupt change of momentum. The roiling smog continued further, rapidly slowing as the connection between them stretched and tightened. Which was the entire point.

All is Ash.

Randidly’s Mana expenditure shot up as his body, and the entire world around him became ash. Yet suddenly, the elastic connection that had been stretched to its limits between Randidly and ash was suddenly pulling on a much lighter version of Randidly. A Randidly that was just a few motes of ash in the endless sea.

A Randidly that was much lighter than the thick cloud he had built up.

With a soft sound, Randidly disappeared. The extremely tense Squads of Donnyton blankly looked at the swirl of ash he had left in his position.

“Careful!” A voice from the left group shouted out. Although Randidly disappeared, he had been rushing right toward them. Some brave soul who had been able to follow Randidly’s movements warned the rest of them of his impending arrival.

The motes of ash that were the remnants of Randidly smirked.