As the attack flashed in from the side, Randidly almost chuckled with the relish taught to him by Shal. Even without the benefit of any of his Yggdrasil images, there was something… so pure about fighting another being. When Randidly had stood before the Aether soldiers and hesitated over what to do, his mind was stuck inside repeating loops of strategy. Responsibility and the understanding that his actions had consequences pressed heavily against his shoulders.

Not that Randidly could ignore those things any longer, but it was certainly a nice change of pace to let it all drop away and simply fight. His body burned with the explosive energy of motion.

As Randidly continued to accelerate forward, Acri was pushed further and further into the shoulder of the Nether Beast in front of him, rapidly widening the wound to the size of a bowling ball. Yet it had all happened so quickly that the Nether Gatekeeper hadn’t been able to do anything but scream. It was a testament to the dog Nether Gatekeeper’s reaction speed that it had so rapidly moved to intercept them.

Snorting, Randidly planted his right foot into the ground with authority. His body tensed again as he foot cracked the ground and drew a trench of cracked stone as he decelerated. The forward momentum of the pierced Nether Gatekeeper continued so that it ungracefully slid off the end of Acri in a deluge of ichor and sizzling grey matter.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 247!

The dog Nether Gatekeeper rapidly realized its mistake, but it was already midair to aim for Randidly’s throat in the spot it would be in another half-second. After rapidly stopping, the Nether Gatekeeper blurred forward to pass right in front of Randidly.

Randidly’s grin was manic as he raised his Sulfur empowered left arm. Do you really think you can compete with me when it comes to chaotic fighting…?

With a crushing overhand blow, Randidly used Sulfur to smash the Nether Gatekeeper down into the ground. But just as he did so, Grim Intuition seized his attention and pulled his gaze upward. While Randidly was focused on the other two, the six-armed Nether Gatekeeper had recovered enough to leap into the air and was descending rapidly toward Randidly from above with its arms cocked back to punch.

Randidly’s eyes tightened. Acri inflicted a serious amount of damage to the bastard that walks on its arms, but a single punch from Sulfur won’t be enough to even keep the other one down. If I don’t have time to inflict another serious wound on at least one of them right now…!

Because the truth was that most of this early success against three opponents was due to the element of surprise. Once they were aware of what he could accomplish, Randidly would be much more limited in what results he could expect. With their superior numbers, they would slowly wear him down. With how much damage he had taken already-

Still, I’ll skewer you right now. Randidly’s eyes burned emerald as he heaved on Acri and brought the tip of the long lance upward to trust toward the six-armed Nether Gatekeeper. Yet as Randidly did so, his right arm strained with the effort but was unable to shift Acri’s tip up to the target. Randidly’s eyes flicked downward.

With a vicious snarl on its face, the Nether Gatekeeper that walked on its arms had used its scrawny legs to reach out and grab Acri’s pyramidal tip. It spat out a fat glob of Nether phlegm that spattered across Acri’s shaft, clearly pleased with its actions. Of course, in the split second that followed Acri unwound itself from a spike and once more became a three-headed spear. Those spear heads bit deeply into the flesh of the Nether Gatekeeper, severing one of its leg hands and cutting into the flesh of its torso.

Yet that second was enough that there were now six punches rushing down toward Randidly from the Nether Gatekeeper above him. Randidly’s eyes flicked upward and scanned this foe. Wounded as it was, it was still a Nether Gatekeeper. Its brute force power was significant.

Necessity tightened around Randidly. His Grim Intuition fed him a clear picture of the state of his body; taking these punches directly was a very bad idea. Too many of the hits he had taken earlier were freshly healed or still recovering. Even with Randidly’s ability to recover, the hits were coming too quickly for him to stabilize.

Randidly released a light breath. For all that this was a difficult spot, it was also a chance. All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth.

Even at the best of times, the ultimate move of the Grim Chimera was a costly choice. Without practicing the specific evolution that Randidly desired, using it could be extremely draining. Yet what Randidly wanted right now was simply a decisive strike that he could use. Three Nether Gatekeepers, even ones who seemed to barely qualify for that moniker, was too much for Randidly to fight to a standstill with.

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But if he could eliminate this wounded one now…

Both arms were out of the picture from the prior two strikes, but the Grim Chimera’s image immediately condensed around Randidly and provided to him two tails. Randidly hadn’t developed any use for the tails, but the obvious advantage to this Skill was that Randidly didn’t have to develop a use; he could simply search for a timeline where he did.

Congratulations! Your Skill All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 153!

The already strained edges of Randidly’s Willpower were tested again as Randidly’s reality spread outward and was split in two. And then into four. And then into eight as a convoluted series of Paths that Randidly might have taken became apparent possibilities.

Yet as Randidly’s existence fractured, his mind couldn’t help taking a step back and examining the Skill. Does it use karma to connect me to these possibilities, or-

A terrible spike of pain ripped through Randidly’s forehead, hastily putting a stop to his meta-examination of the Skill. With the combination of his physical and mental exhaustion and the very particular ask Randidly had in mind, the difficulty had increased geometrically as his mind wandered to the functional components. Which made continuing to keep the Skill active extremely difficult.

Evolution is best viewed with a healthy dose of faith, huh...

Gritting his teeth, Randidly ignored the dull throbs of pain and persevered. He split into thirty-two… and then found it. His lower tail was instantly the tail of this other Randidly, a thing of rapacious hunger and violence. It was a powerful thing of segmented bone that stretched several meters out from his back. With a foe so obviously hanging in the air without any recourse, it gleefully shot rapidly forward and pierced quickly forward like the tail of a scorpion.

Congratulations! Your Skill All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 154!

Congratulations! Your Skill All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 155!

The blow ripped into the heavy muscles of the six armed Nether Gatekeeper and impacted the Nether core within it. Randidly quickly grinned as he felt the core crack, yet his cheer evaporated as the crack did not spread; he had certainly damaged the Nether core, but he wasn’t able to destroy it.

The Skill passed and the deadly tail that Randidly briefly possessed faded away to nothing, leaving the gaping hole in the Nether Gatekeeper’s chest. Luckily the strike had also disturbed the trajectory of its jump, enabling Randidly to quickly sidestep out of the way.

The Nether Gatekeeper crashed to the ground in a mass of flailing limbs, but no matter how much Randidly wanted to, he didn’t dare follow up. Because his own body began to spasm rapidly due to the after-effects of using the Skill. His body trembled as he stood quite still and watched the surrounding Nether Beasts slowly force themselves back up to their feet.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appealing Physicality (A) has grown to Level 248!

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 231!

Of the three Nether Gatekeepers, both the arm-walker and the dog quickly recovered from the strikes they received. Randidly had ripped apart the arm-walker’s body, but without any damage to the core, the bubble would rapidly heal. And although Randidly had punched the dog, it was quickly back and ready to fight once more.

It was the six-armed Nether Gatekeeper that was the most seriously damaged, yet even it could get back up without assistance. Randidly had created a flaw in its core, but that flaw would take a while to transform into something extremely debilitating. Considering the fact that Randidly had to endure painful tremors through his body in order to achieve just this, he felt incredibly frustrated.

Yet Randidly still found himself smiling. Because that was the simplicity of battle. Everything else could be forgotten; there was only the thrill of conflict driving them always further.

Very soon all three Nether Gatekeepers were back on their feet. Yet they didn’t approach, they simply watched Randidly. Rather amused at their hesitation, Randidly raised both of his arms. In his right hand, he held the newly evolved form of Acri, a massive, leafy lance. His left arm was covered in the dark charcoal armor the Sulfur now produced, its size giving the impression of massive power. A similar sleek dark grey armor covered Randidly’s chest.

While Randidly was waiting for the tremors from overexerting himself to subside, the three Nether Gatekeepers simply watched him. The six-armed Nether Gatekeeper’s eyes were tight with anger, but it seemed to be carefully considering what to do.

After a few more seconds passed, the tremors finally seemed to have run their course. Randidly could only chuckle in amusement at his foes hesitation. After all, what could he have done if they rushed toward him in that moment of weakness? “Well? Is that all?”

For a second, there was silence. Then the Great Rift above pulsed with power. Almost two hundred comets fell downward toward the frontlines, all emanating an aura that proved they were superior to the three almost Nether Gatekeepers that Randidly had been playing with. Beyond those comets, nearly one thousand large comets crashed down in their wake, carrying with them the next wave in the Nether assault.

It seemed the Nether King was done playing around.