Chapter 1184 (2/2)

… definitely looks like the image is still a bit short from being enough, Vualla shook her head. But damn, how high are Randidly's Stats that he can move like that even while surrounded by Nether...?

Again, Randidly took a deep breath and the surrounding Nether Beasts wavered slightly. Even the Nether Gatekeeper paused for a short amount of time as Randidly’s action somehow pulled at the surrounding space. But then the Nether Gatekeeper’s fury came roaring back with enough violence to blast away any feeble hold Randidly have over it. It exerted a concentrated pressure on the surrounding area shot that caused the visual variations to flicker and dance madly across one another.

Two of its arms shot outward to smash back Randidly, but Randidly simply wove his torso between the thundering blows with a shocking about of grace. Which only served to infuriate the Nether Gatekeeper further. It growled lightly, but once again tried to suppress the surrounding area with the raw density of the Nether at its disposal.

Once more, Randidly took a deep breath. This time, Vualla finally saw how it took the edge off of the surrounding Nether density. In terms of energy manipulation, it was a flawless and almost instinctual sabotage. Randidly then followed up with a vicious series of short stabs with his spear that cut open a few more gashes across the Nether Gatekeeper.

But even if Randidly could handle the Nether, the punches were proving to be the real problem. This time when the Nether Gatekeeper attacked it came with every intention of smashing Randidly into a pulp. All six shoulders rolled and a rain of blows began to fall toward Randidly.

For the first three strikes, Randidly was able to take a step to the side and weave through a slight gap in the attacks. He even swept the spear downward and inflicted a deep wound on the Nether Gatekeeper's thigh. But that gave the Nether Gatekeeper enough time to bring a rumbling hook across horizontally that was right on target. Vualla's heartbeat stopped for a split second as Randidly stepped backward, but not quickly enough to avoid the punch skidding off the front of his armor. The attack was so powerful that flakes of his chest piece were physically sheered off.

Handling the Nether is good, but that's just the beginning. You cannot forget about the raw power that Nether Gatekeepers have. It's that power that makes them so difficult to put down...

Being hit by the punch sent Randidly stumbling and the Nether Gatekeeper surged forward to capitalize. Two more punches shot out. Randidly was able to contort his body to avoid the first strike, but the second one smashed directly into Randidly's side.

He took all the force directly…! Vualla decided that she didn't care very much for what the interim Commander thought and was going to go help Randidly before he was killed in this meaningless waiting game.

But within a second, the worry Vualla felt was sucked away from her. The darkness seemed to tell Vualla to wait and see.

Because Randidly skidded backward and his face twisted into a scowl, but that was all. He seemed none the worse for wear from enduring the direct strike. It looked like there were more cracks that opened up on his strange, ash grey armor, but other than that he was fine.

Although the armor had cracked, the core had held.

“You need to back off,” Vualla whispered. When the interim Commander gave her a strange look, she didn’t continue to speak. But she continued to will her wishes to Randidly through the palpable connection that she felt for him. Use your Skills. Keep your distance. If it’s you, there should be no problem running around it. So why are you…!

The Nether Gatekeeper didn't waste any time being surprised by Randidly’s tenacity. It simply surged forward and continued its flurry of blows with clear intent to put this threat down. Randidly dodged the first one, endured a glancing strike to his shoulder to inflict a deep cut to the Nether Gatekeeper on the second, and then dodged the third blow entirely as he once more surged forward and pierced the Nether Gatekeeper's chest with a thrust too abrupt to follow with the naked eye.

This time, the Nether Gatekeeper stumbled backward before regaining its feet. Both took a few seconds to study each other.

Are Randidly Ghosthound's Stats high enough that he can meet a Nether Gatekeeper head-on...? And I know he has some proficiency with Nether, but really? His image is barely being corroded by the density of the surrounding energy. How...?

The darkness over Vualla sucked those emotions away. Watch him.

Perhaps Vualla really would begrudgingly allow the emptiness she carried with her to devour her worries if she had not noticed that even larger chunks of the armor wrapped around his torso began to crack and flake off after the contact. Partially disintegrating plates couldn't hold on any longer and fell away, revealing a much darker shade of inner armor, something that was closer to black.

Yet it seemed that the Nether Gatekeeper noticed the same thing that Vualla saw because it rushed forward and aimed its blows to exploit the growing cracks in Randidly's armor. Again, most of these were effortlessly dodged by Randidly while exhibiting an impossible level of speed, grace, and flexibility. But sometimes blows was glance off the armor. Sometimes Randidly would choose to endure a strike directly to inflict a wound of his own.

Over and over again, large chunks were broken off of the armor, leaving Randidly-

Vualla frowned.

Why did it seem like... the armor he was wearing was growing as pieces fell away...?