Chapter 1630 (1/2)

Randidly adjusted his grip on his spear as he stood before Shal with his master’s blood on his spear. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth. There was so much he wanted to say to Shal. A dozen powerful emotions were bound together in Randidly’s heart, rendering him almost numb from the conflicting desires he held.

He shook slightly from their violence, holding onto his spear for dear life.

In addition, he understood Shal’s intentions in initially stating that the only manner of conversation between them should be their spears. And Randidly’s very specific adherence to that request was one of the reasons that Shal’s face was steadily warping with fury. Because while Shal had naturally elevated his battle power by relying on images and other Skills, Randidly had continued to rival him solely with Ripple of Amenonuhoko.

Part of the reason was that Randidly could grow to this capability was that his understanding of his own spearmanship Skill had been shallow. This battle, as he immersed himself in that Skill and the vibrant natural energy it could wield, quickly allowed Randidly to generate a pseudo-image just from Skill usage and movement. The power generated wouldn’t hold a candle to Yggdrasil, the Grim Chimera, or the Stillborn Phoenix on its own, but it was a tool Randidly could gradually incorporate into his arsenal in the future.

And since his Signs of the Spear Phantom and 7 Kata of the Ashen Spear had been disassembled and incorporated into other Skills, this was was the best tool to force Shal to meet him directly. Five minutes ago, especially after hearing Shal ask him to show him how much he had grown, he would have said that his master would never balk before a challenge.

However… Randidly’s imageless spear remained alone on this battlefield, while Shal was dominated by the slightly fuzzy light of an image. What did Shal see in his first few moves that had shifted his attitude…?

“Let’s see your limits, boy. Because you have not yet seen mine!” Shal hissed. Still wielding his comically long spear, he stepped forward and flicked the weapon in complex arcs. Randidly sighed inwardly while raising Acri in front of him.

Was it… disappointment that Randidly felt now, looking at Shal? His spear was quick and powerful, but there was no soul to it. The blows were hollow. The man whose spear always charged forward seemed completely transfigured.

Yet even if he was confused, Randidly prepared to fight.

His senses hummed. Nether flows and image manifestations moved together within his body, heightening his awareness to the point that the surroundings seemed surreal. After chasing Shal for so long, to find him here and have the meeting riddle with confusing undertones... Randidly wasn’t surprised he now wielded more power than Shal; with his Stats, he would be floored if the other man could stand toe to toe with him.

Yet in terms of spirit...

Randidly blinked slowly as Shal stepped forward and swung his spear. The world he witnessed was raw and painful. And in that strange land of perception and bleeding color, Randidly followed the thin lines of Ripple of Amenonuhoko and cut upward. The ground ruptured at his call, brutally smashing upward to intercept Shal’s spear.

Shal’s eyes flashed and he flicked his spear again. The weapon twisted and constricted around the stone pillar, crushing it to pebbles. In the next instant, Shal stepped forward and swept his spear across the ground at Randidly.

If you think this is enough to face me… Randidly grinned, his mouth curling with rage.

He didn’t retreat before the oncoming strike, simply adjusting his spear and thrusting forward again to deflect the attack. The enormous river of natural energy that was flowing with Randidly’s movements clashed directly with the sweep. Both movements were redirected slightly, allowing Randidly to step forward to within striking distance of Shal. He fluidly raised his spear again.

Shal’s eyes blazed with golden light. His body accelerated forward, bringing the butt of his spear toward the bridge of Randidly’s nose. Randidly sidestepped the strike and spun Acri’s head to once more be trained on Shal’s chest. In terms of grace and fluidity, Ripple of Amenonuhoko was preternaturally gifted; there wasn’t even the slightest hitch in his adjustment.

“You continue to dither?” Shal snorted, twisting his spear and hopping a half-step backward. The intensity of the image he released bloomed into something unruly and vicious. Shal’s enormous weapon curled between them for a split second then exploded directly toward Randidly’s chest. The radiant image of a massive snake with a wide-open mouth zipped toward him.

Randidly adjusted the vector of his strike and met the image directly. His muscles exploded with force and channeled those energies through his joints before surging through his spear.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

This time, Randidly grimaced and was forced to retreat a single step. Sure enough, contesting an image directly is difficult.

But… you can’t keep running, can you Shal?

Even as Shal exploded into motion and whipped that radiant viper’s head toward Randidly’s lower body, Randidly’s resolve remained unshaken. His pupils minutely picked apart the details of the image in front of him. He considered himself relatively adept when it came to image combination, so he could easily see the sledge-hammer-esque touch of the Image Cooperation Path in Shal’s form. If this abomination of an image was the feeble screen that kept them from talking, Randidly would gladly tear it down.

Randidly’s toes pressed against the ground as he leaned forward. He brought his spear horizontally to knock aside Shal’s attack. Rather than waiting for the perfect line from Ripple of Amenonuhoko, Randidly simply struck physically. His knocked Shal’s offensive aside and followed up by stepping forward and attacking Shal directly.

Shal twisted his spear to bring the large weapon under control so fast that even Randidly was impressed. He spread out his hands across the shaft of his spear and then brought his weapon upward to knock Randidly’s thrust off target. But just as soon as the weapons touched, Randidly pivoted and mirrored Shal’s earlier attack, allowing the blade of the spear to be pushed upward and instead bringing the butt of the weapon brutally forward at Shal’s face.

In terms of movements, they would have been mirror images, but the followthrough was starkly different.

Shal couldn’t shift to defend himself in time, but his heroic image flared to life instead. There was a brief second Randidly where stared into the chiseled jaw of a hero of Tellus. Randidly narrowed his eyes. In the next moment, he brutally smashed that image to pieces and sent Shal careening backward.