Although Randidly laughed confidently, he inwardly was sweating slightly after enduring Kaan’s repeated attacks. Even though he had survived, he was forced to activate his Yggdrasil image. Now Kaan would have a little bit of tuning to that image, lowering its effectiveness in the future. But escaping that strange place while only revealing a single image could be considered a victory.

For his help in reducing the damage of Kaan’s attack, Randidly patted Sulfur several times. His living armor cooed at him in worry, then rapidly began converting some of the kinetic energy he had gathered back into armor. Within a few seconds, the hole in Sulfur on his side began to ooze outward and heal.

Plus, Randidly’s body was now practically swimming in Nether. The dense energy of connection and memory gave him a little bit of confidence. The clash was meaningful; the moment had weight. So even now, his Nether spread outward in an increasingly powerful aura.

Yet Randidly didn’t fail to notice that only two of Kaan’s pyramids were emitting light. Even after so much, this was only one-third of the tuning that he could manage. What was most aggravating to Randidly was that he had been taken by surprise by the way that Kaan had used the pyramids as a blunt instrument; even an atypical attack had been so brutal.

Ignorant of Randidly’s thoughts, Acri squealed in pleasure at his return and hopped back up into his hand. Truly, hefting the familiar weight did a lot to ease Randidly’s mind. In addition, Neveah slowly walked to stand next to him and glare toward Kaan Swacc.

Despite everything, he had survived the first and most dangerous portion of the battle. Now they just had to finish this Special Investigator off.

“How?” Kaan Swacc asked. But this time, his gaze went from Randidly to Neveah and back again. In all likelihood, he was asking about breaking out of the Nether suppression area. Again, his emotions were resonating off of him in powerful waves. Confusion and annoyance and a deeper, all-consuming fury radiated off of him. Randidly tilted his head to the side. It seemed that the more of his pyramids were active, the more difficult it was for him to control his emotions. Or rather, the more he broadcast his emotions. That might be something to take note of.

Neveah and Randidly shared a glance, then turned to look back at Kaan. Neither spoke. Was there any point in answering?

Of course, they could understand Kaan’s confusion. That weird zone that he could create in response to Nether was extremely difficult to address. It created a physically isolated space and used the principles of Nether to create distance. The created space had been almost mind-boggling distant from their current position. The idea was somewhat brilliant.

But Neveah had enough time studying the Bizarre Spike to harvest some of its strange ability to create a tunnel of meaning for the strange exchange that the item facilitated. By creating a similar tunnel, she had bore a hole directly into the isolation area. Then the weight of Randidly’s Nether trying to push itself back into its proper place collapsed the false space.

Neveah's eyes went to Randidly’s still healing side and thigh while Kaan remained passive. He’s tough?

Worse than I feared… but not more than we can handle, Randidly said with the corner of his mouth turning upward.

“Both of you are idiots,” Kaan declared into the silent air with a sneer. He raised his hand and twisted it abruptly, causing the golden pyramid to float rapidly upward into the sky and unleash a shimmering wave of light. Instantly, Randidly felt the increased pressure on his body as Kaan’s tuning restricted their movements.

At the same moment, Randidly released a nova of Nether. Most of the suppressing effect immediately vanished as Kaan’s image in the surrounding space corroded. But Randidly still felt slightly uncomfortable with extra pressure.

Both sides moved at the same time. Randidly dashed directly forward to meet Kaan, ducking three times in rapid succession to avoid the three remaining pyramids that zipped past. As he moved forward, he kept a small amount of his attention on them, so a repeat of being hit from behind wouldn’t happen again.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 259!

Meanwhile, Neveah spread her arms wide. There was a rumbling noise and a large portion of the surrounding slope was destroyed as a huge monster manifested in the space behind Neveah. It was a serpent of bone, as thick as a tree trunk and twenty meters in length, leading up to a horned head that seemed too large for its body. In addition, two long and spindly arms stretched out of the bone wyrm’s torso, leading to thin hands with long and razor-sharp claws.

Screeching, Neveah’s image dug its claws into the ground and flung itself forward, ripping huge gashes in the ground as it barreled toward Kaan.

Randidly arrived at Kaan first, forcefully breaking through the suppression by relying on the thick Nether that was swirling through his body. Kaan’s golden pyramid surged brighter, but a wave of Nether blasted out from Randidly, again weakening his hold on the space. As soon as he was in front of Kaan, Randidly thrust Acri forward to impale Kaan.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

When the first attack failed, Randidly struck again and then again. Kaan turned all three of the attacks to the side, then blurred into motion. He moved two quick steps forward, using Acri’s immense size against Randidly. In the next moment, Kaan’s shimmering leg whipped up in a high kick, forcing Randidly to twist to the side. Then he pounced forward to pull Randidly into a grappling hold.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

His grin stretching ever wider, Randidly raised his hands to meet Kaan directly.

BADUMPBADUMPBADUMPBADUMPBADUMPBADUMP

Randidly’s heartbeat pounded like the hooves of a horse desperately fleeing a wave of lava. The two’s hands met with a boom as they both mobilize significant force. Yet even with both Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality and Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil, Randidly could only struggle for a few seconds before he began to give ground to Kaan. Randidly heard the flesh of Kaan’s hands sizzling from the waves of Nether he released, but Kaan’s tuning made him physically dominant. He was, after all, relying on both physical power and an image for his force.

Randidly had Nether Brawn, but that was not a direct connection. Thicker Nether couldn’t bridge this gap on his own. At least not with Nether of this density.

Still, Randidly’s emerald eyes were bright with glee; in those few seconds of struggle, Neveah’s bone wyrm arrived, its long claws swinging to reap life.

Snorting, Kaan brought two of his remaining pyramids shooting upward. They impacted each other right in front of Neveah’s claw, releasing a painful clang that somehow completely dispersed the momentum of her image. Neveah’s image was left awkwardly stretched out.

Then Kaan focused on Randidly, using his superior strength to twist Randidly to the side and force him to stumble. Then he quickly released his original grip and made to seize Randidly from behind.

Randidly sent a mental thought to Neveah in that sliver of a moment, releasing Acri so the weapon could strike freely. I’m going to give him some exposure to my images. We need to do some more damage as quickly as possible.

Neveah’s reply came as Randidly utilized Kaan’s shove to pivot on his heel, bringing his shoulder toward Kaan’s reaching hands. Make the hits count.

As Randidly’s wild grin stretched to his limit, his left eye flickered. Kaan arrived next to Randidly, his hands grasping outward. Then Randidly’s left eye was plunged into darkness and light in the surrounding area seemed to melt and swirl down a hole that had been ripped in the world. The Stillborn Phoenix spread its wings. A ravenous desire pulled at the surrounding emotions, intent on devouring them.

Piercing Gaze of the Egg.

Randidly unleashed several bolts of power from his left eye, containing all the concentrated vitriol that the egg of darkness could produce. With the two pyramids above his head releasing light and empowering his body, Kaan only frowned at the impact. But it was enough of a distraction that the attack that came from behind took Kaan by surprise.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tide of the Void (L) has grown to Level 205!

The smoking and ominous claw of the Stillborn Phoenix ripped into Kaan’s back, causing his to adjust his footing. But at that moment, Acri erupted forward and impacted Kaan’s legs, causing him to stumble. Randidly exploded in a wave of purple-black revelation energy, populated with the minuscule and blinking stars of emerald and orange. Lowering his shoulder, Randidly activated two Skills at once.

Cosmic Necessity. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart.

Randidly created three Cosmic orbs and used them to launch him forward, shoulder first, at the same moment that his legs exploded with Nether fueled force. The ground cracked beneath him. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart unleashed a wave of gravity at Kaan, restriction his movement enough that Randidly’s shoulder could directly impact the still smoldering handprint on Kaan’s chest.

DOOOOOONNNNGGG.

Randidly bared his teeth at the failure to strike quickly enough, but he shifted to the next stage of the plan. He released another steamy breath and used Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart to pluck Acri off the ground and lower it at Kaan Swacc, who was staggering backward. Neveah arrived at that moment, claws swiping left and right.

Kaan ducked under her attack and slammed his head against the underside of Neveah’s jaw. She didn’t even flinch. Randidly surged forward at the same moment that Kaan gestured sharply and his three free pyramids shot downward at Neveah. They smashed into her back, cracking her bones. But they couldn’t pierce through her exo-skeleton and do any sort of significant damage. Even Kaan seemed to be taken by surprise.

Jesus, you are strong. Randidly thought solemnly. His body rippled and suddenly there was a monster overlaid with his body. Its ghastly gaze was locked onto Kaan Swacc. Acri vanished, replaced with a right arm that had been stained with the blood of an ancient god. Molten Fang of the Pariah.

Congratulations! Your Skill Molten Fang of the Pariah (L) has grown to Level 211!

Image and reality overlapped. To match Randidly’s overheating body, Acri began to glow a brilliant red as the attack slid forward. Kaan twisted out of the way of another one of Neveah’s vicious swipes, only to put himself directly into Randidly’s path. The attack hit; Acri’s tip pierced into Kaan’s chest and Kaan’s face warped in vicious indignation.

“I’ll crush you…!”

The hair on the back of Randidly’s neck tingled. A wave of power blasted out from Kaan and an enormous pyramid of glass appeared in the air above him. Randidly looked up at it with narrowed eyes. He’s using liquid Aether.

The pyramid began to vibrate and Randidly unhesitatingly activated one of his own drops of liquid Aether. An enormous phantom of Yggdrasil manifested, seeming even more solid than Kaan’s image due to the small amount of Nether flowing through it. Just as the pyramid was beginning to release a wave of resonance, thousands of roots surged out of the ground and bound the pyramid, stifling the noise.

They were a thousand leafy chains and emerald locks, sealing the attack before it could even strike.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 289!

Yet something was wrong-

Randidly twitched to the side on instinct. The golden pyramid, that had previously been suppressing the area, ripped through his esophagus rather than cracking open his skull. Fully sixty percent of his Health was annihilated in that single attack. Randidly dropped Acri and his hand surged up to stem the spurts of blood into the air. The gooey liquid was scalding on his hand.

He used liquid Aether as a distraction…? This piece of shit...

With a toothless glee, Kaan rushed over at the wounded Randidly.