Chapter 1185 (2/2)

In addition, Randidly took that opportunity to sweep away some nearby Nether Beasts with Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil. The Aether soldiers saw the chance and began to launch attacks to push the foes back to the edge of the trench and uncomplicate the defensive formation. Meanwhile, Randidly also had the spare attention to commune lightly with Sulfur.

I don’t have much more in me, buddy. I need you to step up.

There was a brief hesitation, but then Sulfur acquiesced; it believed that it had absorbed enough kinetic force from Randidly’s brief stint as a punching bag to turn this whole thing around. On cue, Randidly felt Sulfur’s actual body heat up as it quickly got to work.

To oversimplify Sulfur, Randidly’s pet armor was essentially a weirdly shaped snake made out of minerals and plant cells. Just like a snake, these plant cells periodically shed their ‘skin’ and created the rigid exterior that Randidly used as armor. During their time in the Nether Prince, Sulfur had absorbed something that had given it the inspiration to completely revolutionize its plant cells.

A tireless image of the long path. The epitome of a lifestyle with no other options but enduring.

So Randidly’s past several minutes were him frantically gathering the energy by directly absorbing force to complete those renovations while doing his best not to end up broken in the process. And now Sulfur was pumping out darker, more imposing armor to more effectively absorb the force. But that wasn’t all that this new and improved Sulfur could accomplish.

Sulfur’s body temperature spiked even further upward, making him burn against Randidly’s torso. Randidly leaned his body forward so the thick liquid that Sulfur was creating oozed down to cover his left arm. It forced itself out through the cracks in Sulfur’s almost completely shattered grey exterior and had gotten down to Randidly’s elbow before he had to readjust his position for the arrival of the attack.

With another ground shattering step, the Nether Gatekeeper accelerated forward so quickly that even Randidly’s Grim Intuition struggled to pin him down. This strike Randidly took directly in the chest. Randidly reflexively sucked in a breath and activated Cursed Appetite of a Wraith to give him a slight buffer to handle the attack.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Appetite of a Wraith (L) has grown to Level 265!

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 241!

“God, that hurts,” Randidly hissed through his teeth as the remaining grey portions of Sulfur were blasted away. Randidly endured as much as he could with the elasticity of his muscles and then took a single step backward. His whole torso was now covered in the new gleaming black armor that Sulfur produced. And as the hardening excretion from Sulfur covered Randidly’s left arm, Sulfur itself moved.

It spiraled around up to the left shoulder and then down the interior of the arm. Slowly, the physical body of Sulfur was growing. The burning, productive plant cells at its core were multiplying.

Unfortunately, Randidly still had five more fists to deal with after he physically gritted his teeth through the first punch. And it had seemed that the Nether Gatekeeper had realized that something was up with Randidly’s ability to endure its blows because it no longer wasted any time in trying to overwhelm him.

The first two punches Randidly coped with by relying heavily on Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality and Chimeric Avoidance, but the following two were coming at the same time to hit Randidly’s ribs from both sides at once like Randidly was a nut to be cracked open. Tsking lightly, Randidly activated another one of his three wishes and used the Skill Chimera Weeps, But Man Mourns to unleash a half dozen burning golden thrusts in short succession.

That knocked away two more of the follow-up punches, and for the last one, Randidly stepped sharply forward and unleashed a Molten Fang of the Pariah and skewered the final arm right through the bicep. Barring his teeth, Randidly twisted Acri and absolutely mulched the muscle to nothing.

With a scream, the Nether Gatekeeper swung down with the same fist that had thrown the first punch, this time aiming for Acri. Because the spear still skewered the Nether Gatekeeper’s arm, Randidly had to release the shaft of Acri and allow the weapon to be flung away rather than trying to resist such a powerful strike directly.

Of course, a normal spear would have been rendered useless by such a happening, but not Acri. Even as it tumbled through the air and into the ditch packed with Nether forces, Randidly didn’t worry. After it landed, Acri just began to slither back toward unsuspecting Nether Beast’s back and harvest their experience. But it did mean that Randidly had lost his weapon for the moment.

Sulfur’s presence flared to an almost feverish heat at Randidly’s left shoulder, signaling that it was ready within the metal arm. So when the Nether Gatekeeper threw his next punch, Randidly raised his left arm and met it with a left straight of his own.

Crack.

Randidly staggered backward as the hastily created covering on his metal left arm shattered and revealed the deeply flawed scale mail within. The collision had widened the flaws in the arm once more. But Sulfur was furiously producing more excretions, acting a furnace that smelted an entire limb, fueled by all the energy that it had absorbed by directly meeting the Nether Gatekeeper’s strike. Very quickly, Randidly’s left arm became more of a giant, blob-y cudgel than a real arm as more and more of Sulfur’s cells seeped outward.

Still, the Nether Gatekeeper didn’t slow down. The next punch Randidly could dodge, but the punch after that Randidly had to chop down with his right hand to deflect away from his body. The third punch Randidly begrudgingly endured on his right arm and clenched his teeth until his jaw ached. And finally the fourth was another angle that Randidly could meet, so he raised his hardened arm and smashed it against the punch.

CRACK!

The two strikes met. A shiver ran through both of their bodies, but neither stepped backward. The misshapen exterior of Randidly’s left arm cracked and fell away, revealing a sleek, if oversized fist waiting within. One that was very noticeably reminiscent of Vualla’s heavy gauntlets.

“I’m not as strong as you,” Randidly said lightly to the likely uncaring Nether Gatekeeper. “But I’m not alone. And honestly… I’m your worst fucking nightmare. It must be frustrating, to have us counter you so directly. Your Nether is useless. And I don’t need an image to handle your physical strength.

“And if you want to get into a slugging match… heh, well, be my guest. I’ll bury you within the hour.”