Randidly felt a flash of worry for a few scattered seconds after he had almost completely blasted away Aegiant’s image with his concentrated Nether. The ease at which he had displaced the other’s strength made him wonder whether the subsequent confrontation would leave him disappointed.

Seeing Aegiant’s being rather quickly overwhelmed, Randidly made a few rules for this fight: he would only rely on periodic bursts of Nether, Ignition Essence, and physical Skills.

In the original confrontation, Randidly had to rely on bringing out a powerful image from within his newly created Alpha Cosmos to even the playing field. Due to the surprise of the attack, Aegiant had been severely wounded by Rejt and Randidly was able to hastily finish him off, earning several deep wounds on his body in the process.

Because of the time it had taken for his body to recover, Randidly had only barely arrived in time to the confrontation between Shal and the Spearman, slipping past them both to save Azriel, who had been used as a surrogate for the Spearman’s images. After that, he had basically collapsed and watched the final fight.

So Randidly was honestly a little unsure of how powerful Aegiant was compared to his current self. However, as soon as Aegiant was given a few seconds to gather himself, the blazing heat of the sun once again radiated off of his body and pushed back against the spread of Nether’s Influence.

The corner of Randidly’s mouth turned upward. Good.

Aegiant’s eyes were bright as he looked toward Randidly. “You… you had a card like this hidden? It matters not. I have lived far too long to fall to something like this. I’ll have my vengeance for what you did to my grandson.”

Unfortunately, you have already died… A strange sense of pity ran through Randidly, but he rapidly repressed it and prepared another burst of Nether.

And true to his word, Aegiant’s image immediately came surging back to his body. Once more he was wreathed in a golden glow that hidden the details of his figure. The cooling ground beneath him began to crack and shudder as the trace elements within the stone once more began to melt.

But Randidly just grinned. Good. It will be more fun this way.

With a burst of Nether Brawn, Randidly exploded toward Aegiant before his opponent could gather his image any more completely. Aegiant might be able to throw off Randidly’s Nether suppression from afar, but as Randidly closed the distance, it became obvious that the effect was greater the closer the two were to each other.

Meanwhile, Randidly also wreathed himself in emerald and orange flames and raised his hand to unleash five Phoenix Slaying Bolts at Aegiant, barely any space between them.

Aegiant flicked his hand, conjuring a roaring wall of flame that largely dispersed the power of the projectiles. Then he leapt backward was conjuring three floating orbs of condensed sunlight above his head. They began rotating quickly around him, seeming to churn golden flames off of their surfaces that moved to engulf Aegiant’s hands.

Of course, the ground that he had leapt backward to land on promptly erupted with flaming emerald talons, largely destroying the brief reprieve that he had.

Congratulations! Your Skill Talon of the Restless Immortal (L) has grown to Level 202!

Randidly directly blasted through the lingering wall of flame and gave chase.

Most of the flames that had gone to surround Aegiant’s hands he used to smash away the emerald flames coming up from below. In addition, Aegiant hastily sent one of the glowing golden orbs shooting forward directly toward Randidly’s chest. As it flew forward, Randidly saw its color deepen as more and more of Aegiant’s focus went toward fueling it. The golden color was rich and warm, as though it truly was a miniature sun.

Still, Randidly just barred his teeth and channeled as much of Ignition Essence’s image as he could. Fire and inspiration coiled around his arms, bearing the with them the heavy weight of regret that Illym had injected into the image. The two flames clashed in an explosion of heat and sparks that shook the surrounding ground. The ground that wasn’t already partially molten was charred and smoking in the aftermath.

Due to his momentum, Randidly continued forward with a slightly disgruntled expression. Annoying that Aegiant back then is even stronger than Ignition Essence is now… but I’m starting to sense that it is partially because there is such a large portion of the image missing…

Still, even if Aegiant’s image had a sense of weight and purity that let it overwhelm Ignition Essence, Randidly’s physical body was nowhere near as weak as it had been originally in this fight. Therefore, even coming out the loser in the clash between the flames around his body and Aegiant’s orb, he could practically shrug off any damage inflicted.

Randidly’s monstrous Health Regeneration rapidly healed the small damage that he had sustained. Aegiant’s eyes widened as he noticed Randidly’s blithe absorption of his flames. “You-”

But Randidly didn’t give him any more chances to talk. His body once more exploded into motion as he forcefully activated Innate Violence, launching several Talon Strikes and Roundhouse Kicks at Aegiant in the process. With a snort, Aegiant raised his hand and one of the two remaining orbs condensed into a flaming spear.

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Bringing the spear around, Aegiant released a completely perfect thrust that seemed to set the surrounding air on fire with the friction of its passage. Even though the distance between them was very short and Randidly’s Nether continued to effectively blunt Aegiant’s image, Randidly could tell that this man had used this basic thrust thousands of times in the past. It bore the weight of repetition as a mark of pride and power.

But Randidly just laughed and twisted to avoid the blow, relying on his Nether Brawn and Agility that were both over 1000 to forcefully break through the limits of what was physically possible. For a moment, his body seemed to actually skip across space like a smooth stone over the surface of a pond. Small sonic booms echoed outward like the ripples from the moment the stone skimmed the water.

As Helen had pointed out the prior night, Randidly’s physical gifts were nearing the point that it was hard to judge them by normal means.

Congratulations! Your Skill Innate Violence (Ru) has grown to Level 188!

Randidly planned on embracing that fact.

Aegiant immediately went pale as Randidly seemed to slip around the strike and threw out a Talon Strike that ripped toward Aegiant’s chest. Even if the Skill Level was low, his Nether Brawn still gave it a horrifying amount of power. Aegiant responded by immediately twisting his flaming spear to destroy his thrust’s momentum and whipped the weapon around to sweep Randidly to the side. Randidly, for his part, simply empowered his Ignition Essence Image and allowed the collision to happen.

Congratulations! Your Skill Talon Strike has grown to Level 101!

Congratulations! Your Skill Innate Violence (Ru) has grown to Level 189!

Congratulations! Your Skill Ignition of the Emerald Essence (L) has grown to Level 252!

As soon as the two blows landed, Randidly could feel Aegiant throwing himself backward with the force of the Talon Strike. Ignoring Aegiant’s rather pitiful sweep attack that whacked ineffectually against his side, Randidly stamped his foot and rushed forward to follow. With a roar, Aegiant unleashed a blast of terrible heat that erupted in a wave. Lightning quick, he crossed his hands and an enormous spear descended from the sky to pierce through Randidly’s torso.

A hint of a headache began to form, but Randidly ignored it for now. His Nether pulsed and seethed as he whipped it into a frenzy, spreading to fill the surrounding space and largely blunting the effects of Aegiant’s image. What was left was a relatively weak image and a powerful Skill, which Randidly weakened further with the image of Ignition Essence and then endured the damage with his body.

The huge molten sky-spear smashed into Randidly’s chest. It forced Randidly to release a grunt and pause for a half-second, but just as quickly Randidly was rushing forward again and throwing out Talon Strikes.

Their battle so far seemed to have caused Aegiant to rapidly update his assessment of Randidly in an unpredictable way, so Randidly was quite surprised for a brief moment when the arrogant man simply turned and fled across the slowly solidifying field of stone around him. But honestly, it was probably the worst move that Aegiant could have made.

First, Randidly unleashed a barrage of Phoenix Slaying Bolts that slammed into Aegiant’s back. They weren’t quite powerful enough to wound him seriously, but they did delay the spear-user for a short amount of time. Which was enough time for Randidly to do two things. First, he created a literal wall of Talons of the Restless Immortal that erupted from the ground in a spray of emerald and orange fire.

In addition, Randidly brought more of his Nether to bear on the surrounding area. The thin crack in which Nether was usually suppressed under the System was forced to open wider. The Nether Nebula in his chest shivered in anticipation. Some visual variations began to appear around Randidly, including four thin black cracks extending outward from his back.

Aegiant smashed into the sharp talons that were the gates to his freedom and exploded through to the other side by dint of the potency of his image. Watching, even Randidly couldn’t help but be impressed by the overwhelming power of that image. The heat released almost invalidated anything that stood in its way.

It was a quite effective imitation of the way Nether literally invalidated all the images around it.

Aegiant was barely slowed at all, but he was slowed enough. The Nether Randidly released burrowed quickly through the world and caught up with him. The cracks in the world spreading from his back grew larger and split into various branches.

Already, Randidly’s headache had grown as he attempted to utilize Nether in this manner. But he pushed forward, determined to see the effect he could wield. And the moment of connection between the two of them was jarring in that a strange amount of thoughts and sensations flowed through the sudden connection between them.

Even as Aegiant’s speed slowed down to stillness, Randidly’s headache spiked upward. Gritting his teeth, he mobilized his body and rushed over to stand at Aegiant’s side. Because as he forcefully accessed information through Aegiant, Randidly came to the realization that what he was accessing was… much different than what he had felt with Alta.

It’s because this is ultimately just an imitation, Randidly realized around his throbbing headache. I can apply similar pressure to the physical world here, but I can’t really use stuff inside of the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night to understand fully how to use Nether. It is based on Nether principles, but it’s not designed to train my Nether…

Randidly pulled back his Nether and raised both his hands above his head. Aegiant’s clarity rapidly returned to his eyes, but Randidly gave him no chance to dodge; he brought his hands down and crushed him into the still partially molten ground beneath them.

With the assistance of Nether Brawn, Randidly felt Aegiant’s shoulder shatter from the impact.

The only problem was Randidly’s headache continued to get worse. Agonizingly worse in a way that told Randidly that he had missed something. For a split second he panicked as he frantically checked his Nether and in that moment Aegiant vanished from his perception. But that also reminded Randidly of something he had forgotten.

Swearing softly to himself, Randidly left the memory world and returned to his real body. The headache went with him. “It’s the fucking mental cost from using the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night… I got so used to those short attempts with Illym. And from how exhausted I feel… it might be that the cost increases the more it deviates from the original memory…”

Making an oath to himself that he would return and make the attempt again in a more efficient manner, Randidly returned to his hut and collapsed on his bed.