Chapter 926 (1/2)

Helen rushed forward, activating her Tides of Blood Domain. Even as the energies exploded outward and swirled around the Squad members in front of her, she felt someone in the back of the group unleash blasts of water into her Domain. Very concentrated and accurate blasts of water.

Very quickly, she could feel resistance in the usual rotation of the Domain’s currents; it seemed this individual was pretty familiar with how liquid moved. And also they had paid attention to the way that she constructed her Domain to restrict all her enemies within the area. Not only Randidly, but it seemed that Helen herself was now worthy of plotting against.

For whatever reason, Helen found this fact immensely satisfying. Even as her Domain seemed to stutter and slow to a sluggish trickle, that glow of happiness suffused her chest.

But Helen wasn’t worried. In fact, she felt a surge of excitement in her heart. The man who had foolishly attacked Randidly had shifted the tone of this entire battle. Whereas Randidly was keeping his cool before, now that tightly held control was starting to loosen. His curt gesture to Helen conveyed his thirst for violence.

It’s time to run wild, Helen thought with a grin. Like a puppet master before a show, Helen’s thoughts traced the lines of power that controlled her Domain. The lines of power spun. She felt the resistance from the Classer at the back and could only smile like a shark. Good. Otherwise this wouldn’t be any fun.

After cutting down the man who had attacked him, Randidly had remained still. So Helen unleashed another blast of her Domain, one so full of power that the Tides of Blood covered the entirety of the arena and touched the edge of the audience. Immediately Helen felt resistance exploding outward from the VIP box, but Helen’s grin just widened.

If you dare test us, isn’t it fair that we do the same?

This Domain was animated by different principles than the prior one that Helen had used. One of the earliest tricks that Randidly taught Helen in her training was that a Skill that was predictable, no matter how powerful it was, would eventually be used against you. Truthfully, this was almost universally known. But most people accepted that fact and just prepared for the counter.

Randidly’s style was different.

No, Randidly made his hay on being unpredictable. Because he had been indelibly shaped by Azriel, who would memorize and counter a move after seeing it only a single time. So Randidly had grown to be very aware of the sliders he could adjust in his attacks to keep the enemy guessing. Timing, power, angle, initiating motion… all of them were toyed with. And with Randidly’s ridiculously high Control, he had become almost impossible to predict.

It got to the point that the more Helen tried to understand Randidly’s tells, the more he would be able to trick her by adjusting them. In fact, it was much safer to just rely on instincts in fights against Randidly.

That was the trouble of fighting Randidly Ghosthound. Even while he was clashing against you with power, his mind was memorizing your responses, seeking patterns that he could exploit. With a monstrous amount of Control, the flow of a battle would eventually turn in his direction.

So Helen needed to have her fun before he moved.

Helen released a relieved sigh as she spiraled her currents around in the opposite direction than she had been pushing them previously, but also with an inwardly curving series of streams rather than an outwardly curving series of streams. Energy was now being funneled to a tightly packed ball in the center, whereas it had previously reflected away all attempts to penetrate more deeply.

Randidly would notice the trick in it immediately, but Helen expected these fools were a bit less sensitive than Randidly was.

As she arrived at the group of Classers, they surged into motion. Even with the boost from the Domain, Helen had to be cautious against these foes. Although it hurt her to admit it, they were individually more powerful than she was. She had gained a significant amount of her strength back, but it wasn’t enough to overcome this difference in time spent training.

Even as she condensed her harpoon and scaling knife, Helen settled into a defensive posture. Two swords slashed toward her position as the vanguard moved forward, but she smashed them aside with a wave of force from her Tides of Blood Domain. With a quick step, she managed to slip through their blockade…

...and found herself surrounded. They had been waiting for her to do exactly this. Already the long-range attackers had moved several steps backward. Two archers drew back their bows and loosed arrows at her legs, hoping to strip away her mobility. The Classer who was shooting off blasts of water fired a dozen key blasts at once, correctly hitting the important points to slow Helen’s influence in the surrounding area.

That arrangement would have been perfect to resist her currents, had they been outwardly aiming and pushing away outside forces. But as it was, Helen borrowed the strength of those water blasts and brought them rapidly to the center of her Domain to feed her ball of force.

Still, this level of danger wasn’t enough to corner her. With her knife she cut the arrows out of the air, stepping quickly up toward the archers and thrusting forward with her harpoon.

The swordswoman cut at Helen’s back again, but a flick of her harpoon shaft flung some of her chains up into the path of the blow, dispersing enough of the power that when it struck Helen’s back, it didn’t pierce through her leather armor.

It just hurts like a bitch, Helen thought sourly.

One archer scrambled backward, but the other one dropped his bow and flicked his fingers, sending three needles shooting toward Helen’s wrist.

Clicking her tongue, Helen brought that borrowed energy from her Domain and smashed it directly down on the back of the water mage who seemed to have understood that he had made a mistake. Yelping, he was knocked helplessly forward and crashed into the back of a spearman who was about to strike at Helen.

With a sidestep, Helen avoided the needles and sneered as they stabbed into the hapless spearman. Don’t you dare try and bring such shallow techniques to someone who grew up on Tellus…

But she immediately had to block a slash from the other swordsman with her harpoon. Gritting her teeth, Helen let herself be shoved back into the middle of the circle of Squaders. Even now, she heard another man barking orders, sending groups forward to engage Randidly.

Yet Helen could sense that he still hadn’t moved, so it was time to up her tempo. Maw of the Hellfin.

A huge shadow appeared in her crimson Domain, opening and shutting its wide jaws on the back of the archer who had retreated and been about to fire another arrow. The creature ripped into the man’s right arm, causing him to scream and release the arrow haphazardly. The shaft flashed past, skittering off the ground.

Unfortunately, the Squad around her were too well trained to react to the sound of their ally’s suffering; truly, these were hardened warriors. But they did switch to an aggressive stance, which meant that the swordswoman moved a step too quickly toward Helen.