Chapter 1682 (2/2)

Randidly moved his hand lightly. His eyes were vague and unfocused. Ripple of Amenonuhoko tapped him into this natural pattern that spiraled endlessly around him. The more his consciousness expanded, the more Randidly could picture him in the middle of the grand design of the whole of Expira, subtly influenced by the flowing natural energy from other sources just as much as he was influenced.

For a brief moment, Randidly felt a flicker of understanding; he could see the seed of the Nether King’s grand pattern. His Nether Core howled into overdrive as he struggled to capture that vague impression.

Standing slightly behind Randidly, Todd raised his head and grinned. He rapped his knuckles seriously against Randidly’s metal left arm. “Wow, where did you get this thing? You completely blocked Eileen’s attack! She’s pretty strong, you know. But man, the expression on her face-”

Todd looked down and paled. “Shit. They are still coming.”

The intoxicating sense of grand understanding faded. Randidly’s Grim Intuition reluctantly pulled itself back to the ambush. Below them, Eileen Krous and her cronies had pulled out their own haphazard vehicles and imbued them with an animating Scrawl. A swarming wave of pursuers launched themselves off the ground and quickly closed the distance, as Randidly had allowed their progress to stall as he embraced the universe of ripples around him.

But two things brought Randidly’s focus fully back to the present. One was his warm feelings toward Todd: he wanted to give the kid a chance to obtain this broken spear, whether it was originally Randidly’s or not. And secondly, Randidly needed a way to check whether he could make use of his new understanding of the natural ripples in the world.

He leaned forward and pressed the tip of S.S. Yggdrasil downward. All of their upward momenta shifted around and brought them hurtling downward, right before the noses of their rising pursuers. The teenagers howled out their climbing sense of aggression and twisted their vehicles in mid-air to follow after them.

The wind was howling past as they accelerated downward and Randidly was blinking rapidly to capture the near-infinite ripples that spread out through the surrounding space. Natural energy quickly accumulated into a veritable slipstream around him, so that his pursuers accelerated along with the S.S. Yggdrasil. They ripped past an agricultural skyisland at such speeds that Randidly could sense some of the farmers pausing in their work to look up at the noise. Then he tilted his foot and skidded them around the edge of a commercial highway of Kharon, where buses and skybikes moved sedately along a path of moss spirits.

The ripples spread out from everything, impacting each other and being impacted, an endless cycle of energy.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ripple of Amenonuhoko (M) has grown to Level 363!

Behind them, one of the whooping pursuers could finally take it no longer. She raised her hand and unleashed a sharp Mana Bolt toward the back of Randidly and Todd’s vehicle. And seeing someone else shoot, soon they were all firing their Skills in a burning, freezing, electrifying rain of attacks.

Randidly’s toes flexed against the wood of the vehicle. He deftly guided their path through the space between ripples, surfing on air currents and sliding sharply sideways to avoid various projectiles. As the slipstream around him gathered more and more natural energy, the reach of the natural phenomenon grew. And as its strength was magnified, the pursuers had an easier time cutting the distance between themselves and Randidly.

Meanwhile, Randidly’s left hand was tracing ripples through the air. When the projectiles missed, he tugged on the ripples around him, setting of complex chain reactions through the wind currents. It depleted his natural energy, but he was accumulating it so quickly that the amount he utilized was negligible.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ripple of Amenonuhoko (M) has grown to Level 364!

With a snap of the fingers, the ripples blasted outward. A Mana Bolt that had missed them was smashed with a highly pressurized blast of way. Both dissipated. Randidly’s Grim Intuition spun outward, cataloging all of the projectiles he so effortlessly dodged and releasing ripples to negate them from afar.

His goal wasn’t to block the attacks, that would show his hand. But he enjoyed secretly wiping away all the collateral damage.

An Arcane Orb was popped. A Shadow Bolt was smothered. A Spark Grenade was shredded.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ripple of Amenonuhoko (M) has grown to Level 365!

Congratulations! Your Skill Ripple of Amenonuhoko (M) has grown to Level 366!

Perhaps strangest of all, Randidly could feel the way his new Control Stat, Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae, was resonating with the challenge. There was something about his covert operations that it inherently supported.

“Uh…” Todd gulped and looked down with wide eyes as they slid out of the way of another few projectiles. “T-t-the g-ground-”

Randidly blinked. Then he grinned; they were only ten meters or so from the ground, and traveling much faster than ten meters per second.

He leaned back and the S.S. Yggdrasil pulled sharply up, practically skipping across the sandstone ridge beneath them and blasting up a cloud of dust. While manipulating Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart to makes sure none of the pursuers pancaked themselves into the ground, Randidly opened up the throttle on their vehicle.

The natural energy that spun after him smashed into the ridge. The pursuers were shouting and firing, their joy rising more quickly than any actual conviction to due them harm, as the energy spun up a growing sandstorm in Randidly’s wake.

By this point, the projectiles had once again entirely ceased. The children rode at the lip of the storm, cheering and steadily turning to head back toward Kharon. Randidly couldn’t help but grin and roll his eyes as he felt their spirits lift with the wild freedom of the moment. You do realize you are supposed to be ambushing us, right? Don’t lose heart on me now! Let’s put on one more big show...