Chapter 1318 (1/2)

Acri hummed in pleasure as Randidly moved smoothly through the various spear forms. When the party waited for him below, this was how Randidly chose to calm his mind. Like his earlier practice with the spear, he didn’t imbue his image into the motions at all. His movements might try an emulate the spirit of the image, but he simply relied on his physical gifts to practice creating that feeling.

With just the physical movements as the guide, Randidly’s mind wandered to the details of the image. With vicious brutality in every strike, Randidly truly became the Grim Chimera. And while he was there, he could see the way that light reflected off the serrated and sharpened interior of his talons. He felt the coarse and slightly porous texture of the bloodstains on the bone spear.

The skin of his torso was so soft that it seemed to whisper as he moved. And as that skin traveled toward his appendages, that skin became corrupted and toughened to something close to leather. The body of the Grim Chimera was a balancing act of dualities; it was several parts that had been stitched haphazardly together in the name of survival.

As Randidly cut the air with enough violence to create gusts of wind swirling around him, he realized that his earlier attempts to bring the Grim Chimera to some sort of perfect harmony weren’t necessary. Part of the Grim Chimera’s charm was the tenuous lease it possessed on life.

So his movements started to reflect that almost… wildness of the Grim Chimera. The raw way it approached every problem seemed into the powerful blows of Acri.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 260!

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 240!

But of course, Randidly was not alone on the island. This practice was also to test another problem he had discovered recently in his spearmanship.

Still breathing evenly, Randidly slowed in his motions with all the unhurried necessity like a freight train fast approaching a sheet of ice. There was an almost dangerous amount of momentum contained in his body as he gradually ceased his practiced and arrived, steaming, at a stop. The essence of the Grim Chimera began to fade from around him, along with the small whirlwinds that he had produced with his spear strokes. Then Randidly glanced over toward the other figure who joined him on his floating island. “So? What do you think?”

Helen’s scowl was something to behold. It had all of the hard lines and blank certainty of conviction as the worn relief of a primitive god of slaughter carved into a mountain range. “...I honestly don’t know. I don’t think… I can give you advice on improving your spear form any longer. This is… troubling.”

Randidly quirked his eyebrow up. With frustration visibly wafting off of her, Helen shook her head. “Well, I’ll be blunt; your form is actually quite bad. You’ve picked up quite a few brutally simple movements that broadcast your attacks to any foe who is paying attention. In addition, the way you hold your spear and manipulate it has shifted in some very… inefficient ways that I cannot figure out.”

The more Helen spoke, the more Randidly frowned. But then he released a long breath. “If it’s as bad as that, why are you confused?”

“It’s your body; it’s hard for me to gauge how powerful it has become,” Helen admitted. “I say you now move more inefficiently, but, perversely, your speed has definitely gone up by adopting this style. Whereas a ‘perfect’ spear form would utilize the pathways of air resistance to your advantage, you have started to simply… blast through that resistance. Generally, I would say that you are relying on your raw physical gifts to compensate for a lack of control, but… There are benefits to the rough approach. Without relying on my image to compensate for the difference, I can’t keep up with your attacks any longer. Ignoring the air resistance the way you do gives you a lot of… unexpected power and acceleration.”

Setting Acri on the ground gave Randidly time to hear and consider the subtle notes of frustration and disappointment in Helen’s voice. Acri rolled around happily after the brutality of the prior actions, completely oblivious to the hanging tension around the two people.

Helen had come to Earth to be Randidly’s knight, yet what happened was Randidly was had left her further and further behind. In the raw mix of anger, resentment, yearning, and awe in her voice, Randidly could feel the internal struggle that she was going through as she struggled to come to terms with her usefulness to him.

Because now, her superior familiarity with the spear was no longer enough.

Yet Randidly could also sense that this wasn’t a battle that was his to fight with her. He would not slow down his growth for her, and she would not ask him too. She was not someone who would value soft and consoling words that he could give her as encouragement. So it was up to Helen to find the equilibrium between them.

All on her own. Because that is the first step to her finding her resolve to catch up to me in strength.

So Randidly gently set that issue to the side, which seemed to happen altogether too often lately. Instead, he hummed and considered the problem that Helen had outlined after watching his spear movements; his Skills and Stats were approaching the physical limit of the world. No longer was he confined to typical human movements and that had created some unexpected consequences.

Randidly was now at an interesting point where image and ‘realistic’ efficacy started to run counter to each other. Because obviously Randidly could choose to keep refining his spear control to take advantage of the natural forces of the universe rather than simply shattering them in a display of the Grim Chimera’s raw power. He had plenty of Stats in Control to handle that sort of training.

But then he would be losing the brutal, natural power of the Grim Chimera in his movements. The rough and unnatural peculiarity of its existence would start to fade. Because the Grim Chimera struck on instinct. It was purely a creature of necessity that survived by fighting and using stitched together parts.

Previously, the perspectives of the current world and the world of Randidly’s images had existed in a curious balance that he took for granted. But now he had a slight headache as he considered how difficult it would be for his image to continue to improve at such a quick rate. Because his image, as long as he continued to follow this path, would begin to run counter to the natural laws of the world. Another force to struggle against as he refined himself.

Which was perhaps another reason that even on the frontlines, there hadn’t been an excess of extremely powerful images. The only other option was switching the image of the Grim Chimera to be more in tune with the world, but at this point…