Chapter 1595 (2/2)

There was only the faintest hint of it, but even Randidly raised his eyebrows as he felt a massive image moving beneath the surface of Raymund’s skin. Helen told me that he was extremely powerful… but this is even more impressive than I had imagined.

After being ‘stolen’ and ‘released’ by that image, those thousand tentacles struck downward at their original owner without the slightest hesitation. Just before the blows landed, the man seemed to realize what had happened, but by then it was too late. His body was paralyzed, poisoned, and pummelled by the touch of his own insidious image.

Raymund raised his hand as though to strike a blow, but paused as he saw the jellyfish man convulsing and foaming at the mouth in his small crater. So instead Raymund turned away and slashed with his hand, smashing away a dozen of the surrounding foes who had been moving forward under the cover of this assault.

Randidly seized the jellyfish man around the waist with a root and tossed him away as the fight continued. But instead of crashing to the ground, the jellyfish man spun mid-air and landed on his feet in a crouched position, like a ninja. Without hesitating at all, he launched himself back toward the challenge. Randidly’s lips twitched; it seemed like his chance for revenge had come more rapidly than he had expected.

Adding some backbone to the Skill with Yggdrasil, Absolute Grasp reared up out of the ground with thick and thorny vines. The jellyfish man skidded to a stop, but the Skill moved too quickly for him to react. He was smashed into the ground with enough force that his bones cracked and he bounced a meter into the air.

Beside Randidly, Banum frowned. “Mr. Ghosthound, I must object to your behavior. It seems you removed this man before he-”

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 354!

Banum was cut off as he had to scramble to the side; Randidly’s root had tossed the dazed man with a jellyfish image over toward their viewing area, where he crashed precisely into the ground where Banum had been standing. This time, he had been too stunned by Randidly’s attack to make a flashy landing.

“You… you-!” The man with a jellyfish image wasn’t so injured he didn’t quickly recover, so he rounded on Randidly with a furious scowl. However, Randidly allowed the ethereal flames of Weight to seep out of his skin and the words refused to come out of the man’s throat. He exchanged a helpless glance with Banum.

Randidly smirked at that; it was clear they knew each other. Below, the challenge continued unabated. No image as powerful as the fuschia jellyfish came forward, but his elite group was being pressured. He could feel several powerful images from amongst his recruits taking turns flaring to life to push the enemies backward.

“You might have been fooled by his performance into thinking that Di’irt was incapacitated, but that was just a ruse,” Banum finally said, as he mobilized his own image to resist the pressure that radiated outward from Randidly. He spoke condescendingly, as though this were Randidly’s first brush with combat. “Such tactics-”

“Wouldn’t have fooled a Nether Gatekeeper,” Randidly responded with a sharp smile. He was happy to throw this argument iback n this arrogant fool’s face but starting to grow quite tired of this. “Such antics on a real battlefield would have meant that- wait a second, your name is dirt? Ha.”

Di’irt flushed visibly, his fleshy skin moving closer to the fuschia of his jellyfish. Banum scowled but seemed truly flummoxed by Randidly’s response. So Randidly turned back to the Challenge below and placated the flames of rage in his chest. Yet his emotional state had difficulty stabilizing when he had to watch his group struggle. Truly, these most recent assault groups were strong. The elite group was triumphing in the face of superior numbers, but they were taking losses to do it. More and more enemy soldiers surged forward.

Charlotte Wick occasionally released her Primal Force image infused with Yggdrasil. It was a elk-like monster with an absolutely massive pair of pale antlers. It released waves of rejuvenating energy, restoring the flagging Stamina of the elite group.

Jieu Ronault also stepped forward, mobilizing his field of starfire image with the added benefits of the Stillborn Phoenix. Of all three of the images that Randidly had shared, Jieu had acclimated the quickest to the improvements that he brought with him out of the shaft. The new field of azure and black starfire was a roiling avalanche of emotions. Whenever the opponents were gaining too much momentum, he pulsed with power and smashed their emotions into a brief period of stunned submission.

The formation of Randidly’s recruits shifted as Raymund Ballast’s squad fell to the core in order to deal with the most dangerous threats. In the meantime, Vizzeret Clamman moved to the vanguard, where his Obsidian Wolf image endured the frequent battering of the opponents. Still, the blood of the Grim Chimera now flowed in the Obsidian Wolf.

The image possessed a massive body of glossy black stone. Each of its limbs was powerful and bulky, yet for all that power, it moved awkwardly. Which, of course, was part of its transformation. As more and more images smashed against its surface, parts of the stone were cracked and broken, revealing stronger flesh underneath.

Very soon, a streamlined and dominant physique was revealed as the shape grew closer and closer to perfection. The shimmering Obsidian Wolf ran rampant, slaughtering their foes.

Influence +5!

Randidly grinned over at Banum. “There are only five thousand recruits remaining versus about a hundred and twenty of my elites. I must admit, you were right about this Challenge bringing me a surprise; I would have thought my group wouldn’t have lost a single individual.”

Banum’s frown steadily grew. He didn’t bother to respond to Randidly as the final group moved into the canyon.

However, these new arrivals made Randidly’s face fall into a similar expression. This… is going to be rough.