Chapter 1397 (1/2)

Although Randidly laughed confidently, he inwardly was sweating slightly after enduring Kaan’s repeated attacks. Even though he had survived, he was forced to activate his Yggdrasil image. Now Kaan would have a little bit of tuning to that image, lowering its effectiveness in the future. But escaping that strange place while only revealing a single image could be considered a victory.

For his help in reducing the damage of Kaan’s attack, Randidly patted Sulfur several times. His living armor cooed at him in worry, then rapidly began converting some of the kinetic energy he had gathered back into armor. Within a few seconds, the hole in Sulfur on his side began to ooze outward and heal.

Plus, Randidly’s body was now practically swimming in Nether. The dense energy of connection and memory gave him a little bit of confidence. The clash was meaningful; the moment had weight. So even now, his Nether spread outward in an increasingly powerful aura.

Yet Randidly didn’t fail to notice that only two of Kaan’s pyramids were emitting light. Even after so much, this was only one-third of the tuning that he could manage. What was most aggravating to Randidly was that he had been taken by surprise by the way that Kaan had used the pyramids as a blunt instrument; even an atypical attack had been so brutal.

Ignorant of Randidly’s thoughts, Acri squealed in pleasure at his return and hopped back up into his hand. Truly, hefting the familiar weight did a lot to ease Randidly’s mind. In addition, Neveah slowly walked to stand next to him and glare toward Kaan Swacc.

Despite everything, he had survived the first and most dangerous portion of the battle. Now they just had to finish this Special Investigator off.

“How?” Kaan Swacc asked. But this time, his gaze went from Randidly to Neveah and back again. In all likelihood, he was asking about breaking out of the Nether suppression area. Again, his emotions were resonating off of him in powerful waves. Confusion and annoyance and a deeper, all-consuming fury radiated off of him. Randidly tilted his head to the side. It seemed that the more of his pyramids were active, the more difficult it was for him to control his emotions. Or rather, the more he broadcast his emotions. That might be something to take note of.

Neveah and Randidly shared a glance, then turned to look back at Kaan. Neither spoke. Was there any point in answering?

Of course, they could understand Kaan’s confusion. That weird zone that he could create in response to Nether was extremely difficult to address. It created a physically isolated space and used the principles of Nether to create distance. The created space had been almost mind-boggling distant from their current position. The idea was somewhat brilliant.

But Neveah had enough time studying the Bizarre Spike to harvest some of its strange ability to create a tunnel of meaning for the strange exchange that the item facilitated. By creating a similar tunnel, she had bore a hole directly into the isolation area. Then the weight of Randidly’s Nether trying to push itself back into its proper place collapsed the false space.

Neveah's eyes went to Randidly’s still healing side and thigh while Kaan remained passive. He’s tough?

Worse than I feared… but not more than we can handle, Randidly said with the corner of his mouth turning upward.

“Both of you are idiots,” Kaan declared into the silent air with a sneer. He raised his hand and twisted it abruptly, causing the golden pyramid to float rapidly upward into the sky and unleash a shimmering wave of light. Instantly, Randidly felt the increased pressure on his body as Kaan’s tuning restricted their movements.

At the same moment, Randidly released a nova of Nether. Most of the suppressing effect immediately vanished as Kaan’s image in the surrounding space corroded. But Randidly still felt slightly uncomfortable with extra pressure.

Both sides moved at the same time. Randidly dashed directly forward to meet Kaan, ducking three times in rapid succession to avoid the three remaining pyramids that zipped past. As he moved forward, he kept a small amount of his attention on them, so a repeat of being hit from behind wouldn’t happen again.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 259!

Meanwhile, Neveah spread her arms wide. There was a rumbling noise and a large portion of the surrounding slope was destroyed as a huge monster manifested in the space behind Neveah. It was a serpent of bone, as thick as a tree trunk and twenty meters in length, leading up to a horned head that seemed too large for its body. In addition, two long and spindly arms stretched out of the bone wyrm’s torso, leading to thin hands with long and razor-sharp claws.

Screeching, Neveah’s image dug its claws into the ground and flung itself forward, ripping huge gashes in the ground as it barreled toward Kaan.

Randidly arrived at Kaan first, forcefully breaking through the suppression by relying on the thick Nether that was swirling through his body. Kaan’s golden pyramid surged brighter, but a wave of Nether blasted out from Randidly, again weakening his hold on the space. As soon as he was in front of Kaan, Randidly thrust Acri forward to impale Kaan.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

When the first attack failed, Randidly struck again and then again. Kaan turned all three of the attacks to the side, then blurred into motion. He moved two quick steps forward, using Acri’s immense size against Randidly. In the next moment, Kaan’s shimmering leg whipped up in a high kick, forcing Randidly to twist to the side. Then he pounced forward to pull Randidly into a grappling hold.

His grin stretching ever wider, Randidly raised his hands to meet Kaan directly.

BADUMPBADUMPBADUMPBADUMPBADUMPBADUMP

Randidly’s heartbeat pounded like the hooves of a horse desperately fleeing a wave of lava. The two’s hands met with a boom as they both mobilize significant force. Yet even with both Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality and Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil, Randidly could only struggle for a few seconds before he began to give ground to Kaan. Randidly heard the flesh of Kaan’s hands sizzling from the waves of Nether he released, but Kaan’s tuning made him physically dominant. He was, after all, relying on both physical power and an image for his force.

Randidly had Nether Brawn, but that was not a direct connection. Thicker Nether couldn’t bridge this gap on his own. At least not with Nether of this density.

Still, Randidly’s emerald eyes were bright with glee; in those few seconds of struggle, Neveah’s bone wyrm arrived, its long claws swinging to reap life.