Chapter 1642 (2/2)

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

This time, the attack sent Helen skidding backward. Even worse, Shal recovered quickly despite the massive size of the image. The Rotten Beast was apparently quite spry. With another bound, he caught back up to Helen and swiped his hands at her.

The first attack Helen dodged, but the second followed quickly and she couldn’t avoid it. Helen, still without a breath in her body, felt her skin buzzing as she sank more deeply into her own Domain. She pushed herself deeper than she had ever had the chance to go previously. The pressure she endured was suffocating. But although the horror was great, she didn’t hesitate.

She was just learning about her new Domain. Shal’s attacks were the perfect opportunity to test out its limits.

Congratulations! Your Skill (Domain) Depths of Horror (T) has grown to Level 339!

As Helen sunk into the horror, she felt a supernatural chill invade her limbs. At the same time, the number of horror seeds she could control, the flowing arrowheads of her black wicker aura, grew from three to five. So five erratic black lines combined to meet the attack of Shal and his Rotten Beast.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Again, Helen’s feet skidded across the ground as she was forced back. At the same time, Shal was finding his stride. No sooner than had she been knocked back than Shal pounced forward and unleashed a powerful strike to where Helen would regain her balance.

To buy some time, Helen tapped her feet lightly against the ground in a manner that she had frequently seen from Randidly Ghosthound. She floated an extra meter backward, meaning that Shal had to adjust his assault and take another step forward. Helen’s expression was stiff as she watched him charging forward; the horrifying chill she felt continued to numb her. Her thoughts began to dwindle, but one thing was clear: this new Domain was a double-edged blade.

Yet as she sunk deeper, the number of horror seeds rose again to eight. And at the new depth, Helen could feel an intermittent reverberation that originated from the deepest point in the Depths of Horror. She shivered, even as she adjusted her grip on her spear and steadied herself, both physically and within her Domain. Her descent ceased. For now, she didn’t intend to go any deeper.

Or rather, she didn’t dare go any deeper. But also, she knew that this would be enough.

Although Helen’s body was increasingly numb, it was a mental numbness, not a physical one; her limbs continued to respond crisply to her commands. And at her current depth, Helen could barely capture a fraction of the power of that slumbering heartbeat. A grey haze spread to cover her weapon and her body.

Shal swiped again and this time Helen accelerated and ducked under the blow. She thrust her spear forward and again ripped off a chuck of the Rotten Beast.

Of course, the torn flesh just released another wave of that hissing miasma, but the grey haze could rival the noxious fumes in power. Shal didn’t even appear to notice, intent as he was on following up with his attack. He clenched his fist and hammered it down toward Helen. Her horror seeds had learned from their previous experiences and struck a glancing, knocking the attack harmlessly away.

She did not need to overpower Shal in order to win.

Brutally fast, Helen stabbed three more times before Shal got his defense up. His right shoulder, side, and left forearm oozed miasma that was quickly neutralized by the grey haze. However, Helen couldn’t follow up on her offensive and took a step back. Although she would be able to legitimately hold her breath for hours, she currently needed to suck in a desperate breath.

Congratulations! Your Skill (Domain) Depths of Horror (T) has grown to Level 340!

The mental numbness receded and her grey haze faded away. Currently, she couldn’t stay within her Domain for too long. Even with all the physical training that Randidly forced her to do, it wasn’t enough.

But fuck, who would have thought the day would come when I’d be thankful Randidly forced me through such hell. Helen thought bitterly. If I didn’t get fucking stuck in his Alpha Cosmos for five years, training with the recruits and that hellion Vualla, I wouldn’t be able to handle my own Domain right now…

“Fine! You brought this on yourself!” Shal bellowed. His body began to tremble and his wounds oozed blood. The strange gemstone on his chin began to glow with a yellow-green light. The torn body of the Rotten Beast began to reform. “The Sinking Plague! The Weight of Corruption!”

As Shal spoke, the ground around his feet began to sizzle and disintegrate. Giant stretches of ground fell away as they were eaten by his image. In addition, that Rotten Beast grew more monstrous. A tangible aura of corruption wafted off of its body, emanating from a strange symbol that carved itself into its rotten flesh.

Just as Helen was about to hold her breath and sink into her Domain once more, a new voice spoke. “Perhaps before another… but in front of me? No.”

Raymund Ballast grasped lightly with his hand, once, twice, three times. Suddenly, the aura of power that Shal released vanished and now three enormous, spectral tails flicked back and forth behind the Vulpine.

Spearless, Shal just looked at Raymund. His wounds continued to bleed.