Chapter 1193 (1/2)
That same shift in Abiodun’s image that Randidly had sensed was put on an even grander display as Lady Iellaya’s image unfurled in the sky. It’s raven wings stretched outward, rapidly drawing the attention of the Nether Gatekeepers that had been eagerly approaching Abiodun. Even without Grim Intuition, anyone watching could tell that the Nether Gatekeepers rapidly realized that they had made a mistake. Their postures oozed fear as the shadow of vast wings spread outward.
The inky-black wings of Lady Iellaya’s image stretched wider and wider until they gradually revealed an undulating, scaly body within the sea of feathers. Rather than being beautiful and glossy like the black wings, the scales were mud brown tinged with rust. It was a slender but eminently ugly body that the raven-winged serpent revealed. Its nose was square and oversized, with a squat snout and beady eyes. Its flicking tongue was tubular, like a fleshy straw.
Yet none could deny its power as the serpent raised its heads and roared.
The whole of the frontlines stirred. Compared to the other forces that had made their presence known thus far, the power of Lady Iellaya’s image stood at the peak. Randidly couldn’t even tell exactly how powerful she truly was. He didn’t have the depth or perspective to conceptualize what he was seeing.
With a beat of her wings, raven feathers were scattered around to drift slowly down over her camp like a queer sort of snow. The image was so poignant and realistic that Randidly sensed Salazar outside gleefully collecting the jet-black feathers that had fallen into their area of the camp.
Although the serpent at the core of those wings might be ugly, it certainly knew its business. As soon as it arrived its jaws chomped down on an unlucky Nether Gatekeeper that didn’t retreat quickly enough. There was a second of stillness as all present heard the distinctive sound of this winged serpent chewing up the body of a Nether Gatekeeper, but then its companions hurriedly began to attack.
Lady Iellaya’s image audibly swallowed, raised its head and screamed, and then threw its wings wide. Most of the surrounding Nether Gatekeepers were thrown backward by the blast of force and emotion, but one was acutely bisected as Lady Iellaya wielded the sharp edge of her raven wings like an enormous blade.
Within five seconds of her arrival, Lady Iellaya’s image began to run rampant, intent on devouring the surrounding Nether Gatekeepers for sport. Her influence on the surrounding battlefield was so immediately felt that two of the Nether Gatekeepers from Terith’s camp hurried over to assist. The four weaker individuals who had been struggling to survive for the past several hours finally had a chance to relax, and it also gave Vualla more room to use her increasingly precise style of fighting to suppress the surrounding Nether Gatekeepers.
Of course, the Aether forces were still teetering on routing across the frontlines on the other flank. The Commanders there couldn’t hold on for much longer against multiple Nether Gatekeepers working together. The common soldiers around said Commanders were trampled and died as their leaders could do nothing but give more ground.
Randidly sighed lightly. As much as he struggled, he couldn’t keep his heartbeat even. We all have our roles to play… Is my role really to just wait here for another two hours…? It was a bitter pill to swallow, to have Randidly’s only touch across the fight to be his aura.
Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 69!
Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 70!
As time marched by determinedly from the two-hour mark toward three hours, the rocky outcropping of the Aether Headquarters became the pivot point between two sides of the frontlines. Like a teeter-totter with a slightly chubbier child on one end, the right flank buckled while Lady Iellaya’s dominance on the left gave Aether forces renewed vigor. At the center, Lord Miln’s touches combined with Nadia and Kailm’s valiance meant that the fights were largely even.
Randidly’s focus slid between Lord Miln, Lady Iellaya, and Vualla. He watched their movements, studied the reverberations of their images. From them, Randidly could slowly feel the dispositions of these three figures that stepped up and became the focal points of the battlefield after Randidly was outmatched.
Although Lady Iellaya was the dominant force that allowed the left flank to thrive, it was actually Vualla that ended up being the one to stabilize it. At this point, she now held the attention of six Nether Gatekeepers herself, calmly throwing incisively sharp punches one after the other. Which meant that none of Nether Gatekeepers attack Commander Terith’s camp could be spared, and reinforcements had to come from deeper along the sea of Nether forces.
This eased up the strain on the camps along the left flank and allowed some second-in-commands there to be dispatched to assist with the right flank’s woes. It wasn’t much, but it was everything that could be spared.
Yet that stuff was ultimately lost in Randidly’s near-trance like state. Like clouds in a blue sky, those impressions passed as the wind of time continued to blow through. Instead, Randidly’s focus followed Vualla’s strikes and Lady Iellaya’s stubby, vicious jaws.
Because there was a thread of similarity that he discovered there; Randidly was absolutely sure that it hadn’t been present before today. His mind ticked forward. Uneasiness gradually bubbled upward. Both Lady Iellaya and Vualla now seemed more powerful than they had been yesterday. And most of that power came from a sudden increase in personal strength.
In Lady Iellaya’s case, it was clearly relating to the change in her Class and Fate that empowered her image. It was that strange darkness that was able to so suddenly blossom in the fertile ground of potential that Randidly had erected for her. Yet that image of the raven winged serpent didn’t have some grand image within it as it moved, although it pulled along behind it some sort of eternal darkness. No, it was simply strong.
Strong in a way that spoke to depth. And for all that Lady Iellaya was Randidly’s superior and possessed the potential of hundreds of subordinates, she had only been on the frontlines for five years. Before that, she was likely at the same tier of power as Randidly. Five years was not enough to create the weight that Randidly sensed.
But what really froze Randidly’s blood was the fact that Vualla was experiencing a similar shift. No longer was she using the image of destruction as a bludgeon to empower her attacks. Instead, all the destruction came from her relatively mundane moves. The fulcrum of transferring power through her limbs became so perfectly arranged that she didn’t need to layer an image on top of what she was doing; she simply created destruction by moving. And she was growing more proficient in it with every strike.
A sliver of uneasiness stirred the juices in Randidly’s stomach. Was the focus on personal power really a coincidence? Or did that shadow of the alternate Vualla that Randidly had passed onto Lady Iellaya have some basis in reality?
And that same shadow was now cast over Vualla. Even if Randidly couldn’t sense that familiar darkness that touched Lady Iellaya and Abiodun’s new images, he wouldn’t let down his guard. So he watched, letting the fights and images blur together in one large swirl.
At about three hours and twenty minutes since his break had started, Randidly blew a powerful breath out through his nose. His trance was broken; the swirl of his thoughts was starting to disturb his actual recovery. Still, even if he wasn’t quite at his peak, most of his capacity had been restored. Remaining within the tent was a waste of time. Especially when the dim lighting would drive his mind right back to dwelling on the shift in Vualla.