Chapter 1189 (1/2)

As the attack flashed in from the side, Randidly almost chuckled with the relish taught to him by Shal. Even without the benefit of any of his Yggdrasil images, there was something… so pure about fighting another being. When Randidly had stood before the Aether soldiers and hesitated over what to do, his mind was stuck inside repeating loops of strategy. Responsibility and the understanding that his actions had consequences pressed heavily against his shoulders.

Not that Randidly could ignore those things any longer, but it was certainly a nice change of pace to let it all drop away and simply fight. His body burned with the explosive energy of motion.

As Randidly continued to accelerate forward, Acri was pushed further and further into the shoulder of the Nether Beast in front of him, rapidly widening the wound to the size of a bowling ball. Yet it had all happened so quickly that the Nether Gatekeeper hadn’t been able to do anything but scream. It was a testament to the dog Nether Gatekeeper’s reaction speed that it had so rapidly moved to intercept them.

Snorting, Randidly planted his right foot into the ground with authority. His body tensed again as he foot cracked the ground and drew a trench of cracked stone as he decelerated. The forward momentum of the pierced Nether Gatekeeper continued so that it ungracefully slid off the end of Acri in a deluge of ichor and sizzling grey matter.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 247!

The dog Nether Gatekeeper rapidly realized its mistake, but it was already midair to aim for Randidly’s throat in the spot it would be in another half-second. After rapidly stopping, the Nether Gatekeeper blurred forward to pass right in front of Randidly.

Randidly’s grin was manic as he raised his Sulfur empowered left arm. Do you really think you can compete with me when it comes to chaotic fighting…?

With a crushing overhand blow, Randidly used Sulfur to smash the Nether Gatekeeper down into the ground. But just as he did so, Grim Intuition seized his attention and pulled his gaze upward. While Randidly was focused on the other two, the six-armed Nether Gatekeeper had recovered enough to leap into the air and was descending rapidly toward Randidly from above with its arms cocked back to punch.

Randidly’s eyes tightened. Acri inflicted a serious amount of damage to the bastard that walks on its arms, but a single punch from Sulfur won’t be enough to even keep the other one down. If I don’t have time to inflict another serious wound on at least one of them right now…!

Because the truth was that most of this early success against three opponents was due to the element of surprise. Once they were aware of what he could accomplish, Randidly would be much more limited in what results he could expect. With their superior numbers, they would slowly wear him down. With how much damage he had taken already-

Still, I’ll skewer you right now. Randidly’s eyes burned emerald as he heaved on Acri and brought the tip of the long lance upward to trust toward the six-armed Nether Gatekeeper. Yet as Randidly did so, his right arm strained with the effort but was unable to shift Acri’s tip up to the target. Randidly’s eyes flicked downward.

With a vicious snarl on its face, the Nether Gatekeeper that walked on its arms had used its scrawny legs to reach out and grab Acri’s pyramidal tip. It spat out a fat glob of Nether phlegm that spattered across Acri’s shaft, clearly pleased with its actions. Of course, in the split second that followed Acri unwound itself from a spike and once more became a three-headed spear. Those spear heads bit deeply into the flesh of the Nether Gatekeeper, severing one of its leg hands and cutting into the flesh of its torso.

Yet that second was enough that there were now six punches rushing down toward Randidly from the Nether Gatekeeper above him. Randidly’s eyes flicked upward and scanned this foe. Wounded as it was, it was still a Nether Gatekeeper. Its brute force power was significant.

Necessity tightened around Randidly. His Grim Intuition fed him a clear picture of the state of his body; taking these punches directly was a very bad idea. Too many of the hits he had taken earlier were freshly healed or still recovering. Even with Randidly’s ability to recover, the hits were coming too quickly for him to stabilize.

Randidly released a light breath. For all that this was a difficult spot, it was also a chance. All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth.

Even at the best of times, the ultimate move of the Grim Chimera was a costly choice. Without practicing the specific evolution that Randidly desired, using it could be extremely draining. Yet what Randidly wanted right now was simply a decisive strike that he could use. Three Nether Gatekeepers, even ones who seemed to barely qualify for that moniker, was too much for Randidly to fight to a standstill with.

But if he could eliminate this wounded one now…

Both arms were out of the picture from the prior two strikes, but the Grim Chimera’s image immediately condensed around Randidly and provided to him two tails. Randidly hadn’t developed any use for the tails, but the obvious advantage to this Skill was that Randidly didn’t have to develop a use; he could simply search for a timeline where he did.

Congratulations! Your Skill All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 153!

The already strained edges of Randidly’s Willpower were tested again as Randidly’s reality spread outward and was split in two. And then into four. And then into eight as a convoluted series of Paths that Randidly might have taken became apparent possibilities.