Chapter 1401 (2/2)

Kaan then turned his attention to his own body. Although my right arm and torso are mostly shattered, my physical prowess is less important than utilizing the harmonies. Besides, this body can easily be repaired with a little bit of energy…

That vulnerability made Kaan uncertain once more. After all, to fight against the Ghosthound, he would need to protect his head. That was the source of the notes that could become powerful due to the harmonies. Without his head, he would truly die. So he could only marshall his Willpower and expend a bit of mental energy to recover his body. The substance of his physique trembled and then began to propagate.

At a speed visible to the naked eye, Kaan’s metallic flesh began to grow back into place. The Ghosthound, standing opposite Kaan on the other mountain, twisted his hands with hatred. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Kaan.

Again, the sight did a lot to amuse Kaan. Can you feel me continually torturing your associate? Heh, good. This suffering is a lesson. Before a member of the Xyrt Brigade, you are helpless… I’ve seen your images… I’ve seen your trump cards… do you think breaking past the physical limit of the System is impressive? Any individual of sufficient caliber can manage it… yet they would generally not, due to the high costs of such an action. Do you truly believe your Nether masters can protect you…?

This time when Kaan mobilized his harmonies, he only kept one tuned to his body. Three others zipped forward, soon settling and circling over the Ghosthound. And once again, one harmony flew to each of his hands. Even with just one harmony strengthening him, he was able to step and leap across the gap between them. His Fate continued to suppress the spy’s companion emotionally, but she was just a distraction. As long as Kaan dealt with this foe in front of him, everything else would fall into line.

After being tossed aside by the Xyrt Brigade, a victory here would completely vindicate him. Due to the obvious strength of the Ghosthound, his rewards would no doubt be incredible. Once they extracted the details of the Nether King behind him…

Heh, I must be getting old. To think this sort of foe was enough to make me feel even the smallest shiver of fear… But no longer. I will defeat you Randidly Ghosthound, on the honor of my name, Kaan Swacc.

Kaan landed on the slope, only ten meters down from the Ghosthound, and his resolve had firmed. And strangely, the Ghosthound showed a sly smile for a sliver of a second.

Fool. Laugh while you can. Kaan exploded into motion. The three pyramids above Randidly Ghosthound began to shine, ready to suppress his image. No matter which image this fool attempted to use, Kaan would crush him.

*****

Waiting was hard.

Behind him, Neveah was in agony. Although Randidly didn’t think the emotional attacks would have permanent damage, some part of him was being twisted by the fact that she was in pain and Randidly was doing nothing to address it. The helplessness he felt was a bitter poison in the pit of his stomach.

Yet Randidly had no choice. After ripping out of the suppression, Randidly had been surprised to find that he had a little bit of his psuedo-Penance remaining. So he had rushed at Kaan and smashed the man as hard as he could. But even Randidly was surprised by how effective the attack was.

Which left Randidly with a metallic arm that he had poured so much time and effort into, and carried with it Neveah’s hopes, that was now on the verge of collapsing. Luckily, it seemed like the self-repair function hadn’t been impacted too badly and the damage was swiftly being erased. At least the surface damage would be smoothed over in a few more minutes. So Randidly also needed the time to restore his full fighting prowess.

In addition, Kaan’s emotions had been abundantly clear in the moment that Randidly had struck him, due to the activation of so many of his pyramids. For the first time in their conflict, Kaan felt fear. And Randidly, even in his peak condition, had no confidence in being able to chase Kaan down if he tried to retreat. So more than his left arm being repaired, Randidly didn’t dare to attack Kaan while he was at his weakest, in case the Xyrt Brigade member chose to flee into the Nexus Ways.

Even as every second required him to contain seething waves of fury, Randidly stood still and gritted his teeth. And it paid off; Kaan came back. More than that, although Kaan healed the damage done to his body, Randidly could tell from the gleam of the healed skin that it was a degraded product. The line of the old and new flesh was stark. His resiliency had in all likelihood taken a huge hit.

But now Kaan seemed prepared to tune himself completely to Randidly. One pyramid, each to counter one of his images. And each time Kaan countered him, Randidly felt that each of the counter-images was being tuned just a little bit more. The countering became a little bit more effective.

With his Nether Nebula still drained and sluggish, Randidly had no choice but to rely on his images. Kaan was vulnerable but with more time, his tuning would become more effective. So Randidly intended to bet it all in the next few exchanges.

Seeing Kaan approach, Randidly couldn’t help but smile. Time to see if these physical manifestations of my images are worth a damn.