Chapter 1185 (1/2)

Randidly narrowed his eyes and tried to handle the tasks of both distracting the Nether Gatekeeper and assisting against the surrounding Nether Beasts. His attention was stretched to his limit. Chimeric Avoidance.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 230!

The strike from the Nether Gatekeeper’s middle right arm whistled past Randidly’s shoulder as he leaned to the side. Acri twisted its own shaft to urge Randidly to attack, but Randidly held back and retreated another two steps. His ribs groan piteously from an earlier strike they had taken from the Nether Gatekeeper, but at least they weren’t broken. Yet launching an attack with his ribs in this condition was asking for trouble.

So Randidly had to open a little more space. Which in turn allowed the Nether Beasts that were following behind the Nether Gatekeeper to explode outward and launch more attacks on the Aether soldiers that were standing nervously behind Randidly’s back.

But what choice do I have…? Randidly thought grimly. Vines struck like vipers from the ground, limiting the damage that the spreading Nether Beasts could do. Yet very quickly, Randidly’s attention was yanked back to the foe in front of him.

Gathering up its strength, the Nether Gatekeeper raised its head and released another pulse of dense Nether into the surrounding area. Instantly, Randidly activated Cursed Appetite of a Wraith to pull a portion of that dense Nether away. Which eased up the pressure on the normal soldiers, but it reliably brought the Nether Gatekeeper’s ire back right toward Randidly. And at the moment, it was very difficult for Randidly to resist the Nether Gatekeeper directly.

Even if this was a relatively weaker specimen, Nether Beasts that had become Nether Gatekeepers had three main strengths. First, they were incredibly resistant to images. With the images Randidly had, expending his Willpower barely added enough to be worth it against them. Second, they could manipulate large quantities of dense Nether, making them an absolute nightmare for the average Aether individual. And third, they possessed overwhelming physical bodies.

This is what I get for waiting so long to start pouring Stat points into Strength… Randidly thought rather sourly as he eyed up his opponent; an attack was coming soon.

The Nether Gatekeeper charged forward, cracking the ground with the force of his acceleration. Randidly couldn’t afford to give up more ground, so he had no choice but to use the Skill Man is Proud, but the Chimera Takes and catapult himself forward to slow the opponent’s advance.

Congratulations! Your Skill Man is Proud, but the Chimera Takes (L) has grown to Level 189!

The two bodies smashed together and produced a concussive blast that knocked several nearby Nether Beasts off balance. Several more chunks of Sulfur flaked away in the collision. With a wiggle, the living central portion of Sulfur pushed more of is old body away and rapidly began secreting more armor. Armor that was empowered by the memory of endurance Randidly had found in the Nether Prince and was becoming much more capable of defending against strikes like this.

...which was the positive result, but the huge blow that Randidly took to his torso wasn’t without costs. The process of helping Sulfur shed its old skin meant that Randidly had to physically bear the brunt of the powerful Nether Gatekeeper while Sulfur struggled to evolve. There was only so much his Endurance could handle and so much his Vitality could heal on such short notice.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 240!

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 216!

With his Vitality up over one thousand, Randidly had quite a few tools to make the rapid recovery much easier, even while he attempted to continue fighting the Nether Gatekeeper while healing. But the larger problem was a whole slew of minor injuries that were slowly popping up as wave after wave of force spread across his body.

Randidly clenched his fist and the manifestation of the Grim Chimera condensed around him like a dark cloud drifting suddenly across the sun on a summer day. Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality was the more useful of the two passive physical Skills here, as it continued to allow Randidly to move adroitly around the Nether Gatekeeper’s attacks. Because after smashing into each other, the Nether Gatekeeper was only slowed for a split second before its six arms were raised.

The Grim Chimera’s two tails, one on its neck and another growing from the tailbone, flicked side to side. It hissed provocatively. Three fists blurred outward from the Nether Gatekeeper to smash this impudent image. Grim Intuition and Intelligence picked apart the attack patterns he had seen so far and he could only grimace; this was going to hurt.

Randidly ducked under the first punch and allowed the second one to deflect off of his side. The wave of force that was transferred through the fist was enough to cause him to waver and unable to dodge the approaching third punch, even with Chimeric Avoidance roaring to its full potential.

The strike took Randidly in the left shoulder directly. Randidly felt a huge chunk of Sulfur’s armor crack and shatter, and Randidly’s face was sprayed with debris. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the trouble; the strike also directly damaged Randidly’s metallic left arm.

It was quite a weird sensation, to feel a dep crack emerge in the limb, but even worse to feel the short-circuiting of the Aether Engravings that Randidly had used to connect the metal to his body. Aether hissed rather wastefully up into the air, escaping the broken runes and bleeding into the surroundings.

One of the Nether Gatekeeper’s lower two arms, which had been largely kept back in reserve during the fight so far, twisted back and viciously forward for an uppercut. But Randidly raised his two hands and activated one of the Three Wishes in his Sun’s Teardrop Belt and blasted the Nether Gatekeeper directly in its center of mass with an Ignition Bolt. The emerald/gold blast of energy punched against the Nether Gatekeeper’s chest with enough sizzle to burn its resilient physique and force it back almost ten meters.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ignition Bolt ® has grown to Level 135!

Congratulations! Your Skill Ignition Bolt ® has grown to Level 136!

But eventually, even that energy fizzled out, leaving a glaring Nether Gatekeeper looking at Randidly like he was a bug that had crawled across the turkey dinner.

Still, that ten meters of space was exactly what Randidly needed right now. Even as his body continued to throb painfully from the beating that he had endured thus far, Randidly was able to hastily adjust the Aether runes on his shoulder and arm to keep the limb working. However, Randidly couldn’t get around the fact that the fissure in the scale mail of the limb would only grow worse as time dragged on.