Chapter 1282 (2/2)

The Red-Scaled Raptors stalked lightly around him as he proceeded deeper into the forest, their formation slowly tightening. Randidly’s smiled idly as he walked calmly forward without even bothering to glance at his surroundings. It seemed that Nether functioned not only as a way to lessen the influence of another’s image on him but also to dampen his own images from leaking out; these ‘predators’ didn’t sense anything amiss at all.

Normally, Randidly would have found it very difficult to completely control his images, especially the Grim Chimera, with his emotions fluctuating so wildly. But with the help of his newfound Nether density, those reverberations were completely masked. The Red-Scaled Raptors could probably see that he was Level 55, but that would give them no reason to fear him.

He was prey. And with his Grim Intuition, Randidly could hear the Raptors’ stomachs rumbling; they were hungry and he was fresh meat.

Randidly walked into the forest the same way he walked into the sea; the only article of clothing on his person was leather pants. The dark grey metal of his left arm gleamed dully as it swung at his side. He left both Sulfur and Acri back on his island. The rest of his equipment was in his interspatial ring. Randidly’s fingers twitched with impatience as the raptors took their time in surrounding him. The howling fury that he felt toward the way the world was needed an outlet.

But he suppressed that impulse to lash out immediately. It will be worth it to go wild when they finally attack.

It took almost ten more minutes of Randidly grinding his teeth and continuing to walk before the Red-Scaled Raptors finally worked up the nerve to ambush him. At the very least, Randidly would admit that they were extremely efficient once they made their move.

Randidly had bent over to pass under a fallen tree that was jammed against the trunk of another tree so as to cross the path about chest height. And when he straightened on the other side of the log, a Red-Scaled Raptor was pouncing at him, long and taloned legs first. Just as quick, a raptor attacked Randidly from each side and another padded quietly down the path behind him to block his escape.

Randidly released a breath. “About damn time.”

The leaping raptor slammed into Randidly’s chest and bounced awkwardly off of him. Its claw attacks managed to irritate Randidly’s skin and leave long red scratches, but otherwise did no damage to his torso. It growled in confusion and forced itself to its feet. With a quick bark, it set the two raptors on either side of Randidly to attack.

Randidly’s metallic left hand knifed upward and ripped through the skin of the raptor’s long throat on his left side. His hand continued cutting up through the flesh of its throat until he could grip the creature’s spine. Then, with a flick of the wrist, Randidly shattered its spine and threw the whole thing contemptuously to the ground. The move was so quick that the blood from the raptor’s throat hit the ground at almost the same time as the body that followed it.

At the same time, Randidly turned and looked at the raptor attacking him from the other side. With a little pressure from his will, the usually passive Lantern of Harsh Truths shone brightly in his emerald eyes. As the raptor froze, Randidly amused himself by imagining that the monster realized what would like to happen to it and its fellow pack of carnivores in the next minute.

Can I really someday become powerful enough that power won’t still be the most important truth about Earth…? That we won’t be a slave to the Nexus?

With a whimper, the unfortunate raptor collapsed to the ground. The Red-Scaled Raptor in front of Randidly seemed to suddenly sense that something was amiss and opened its mouth to release a cry. But Randidly took a step forward and used both of his hands to press the mouth of the raptor shut.

“It’s too late,” Randidly said. In his heart, he understood that the violence didn’t have a point. It wouldn’t help him. It was almost exactly what he had tried to hard to make sure Thorn wouldn’t do. It was exactly the sort of wasteful exuberance that the Nexus worshipped as it pursued the ultimate image.

And yet, at the moment, it was what Randidly wanted. The reflections could wait until later. Perhaps he had spent too much time over the past several weeks being only a leader, because now he wanted to lose himself in the violence of hunting.

Just as the raptor coming from behind stepped beneath the log and recognized the fallen forms of its companions, four more raptors leapt over the surrounding shrubbery and lashed out at the form of Randidly that attacked their leader.

One’s talon’s skittered off Randidly’s left arm, but the others weren’t even able to touch Randidly before their flesh began to hiss and bubble. Randidly’s Nether Wells operated at full capacity and he simply burned away the surrounding substances with a blast of raw Nether that hadn’t been aligned to his Aether.

All four raptors crashed to the ground in ungainly puddles of skin and blood as they shrieked in agony. Although they hadn’t been killed by the direct exposure to Nether, they didn’t possess enough of an image to resist its corruption in the least. Randidly quickly capped the open font of Nether in his chest and turned to greet the last group of raptors that rushed out when they heard their companion’s shrieks.

Using his bare hands, Randidly brutalized and ripped the raptors to shreds. A kick shattered one’s ribcage and he brought his clasped hands down to smash the raptor’s skull on the ground. One tried to run so Randidly seized its tail and yanked, broke its back, and then snapped its neck with a sharp twist.

Once they realized they couldn’t escape, the raptors at least provided some distraction to Randidly’s grief. They immediately threw themselves wildly at him, aiming to wound him even at the cost of their own lives.

It still wasn’t enough to quench the fire that burned in his chest for all the people that had died since the System had changed everything.

Before a minute was up, Randidly stood over the corpses of the Red-Scaled Raptors with their blood dripping down over his knuckles. The surrounding forest had gone completely silent; the only sound was Randidly’s own heavy breathing.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 56! +8 Stats distributed between Vitality, Perception, Resist, Intelligence, and Control, +35 Free Stats! +1 Stat to a Mental Stat. +1 to a Physical Defense Stat. +1 to a Mental Support Stat. +2 Control. +36 Health, +45 Mana, +40 Stamina, +6.5 to all Regenerations! +1 to Health and Stamina Regeneration!

Due to Guidance of the Wraith Adder, +4 Agility and +2 Bonus Stats!

Due to your Fateset, +3 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Focus!