Randidly’s powerful regeneration fueled by Yggdrasil kicked into high gear immediately, but he still felt a sweeping wave of dizziness run through him. He had simply lost so much blood in a short amount of time. Another gushing blast squirted out through his fingers. His previously thunderous heartbeat began to falter as his blood pressure dropped.

Releasing a quick breath, Randidly mobilized Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil to buy himself some time. Waves of razor-sharp roots slithered up out of the ground and stabbed at Kaan Swacc. The stone and dirt of the slope was turned into swiss cheese in an instant. But Kaan just rushed forward while one of the two pyramids that he had tuned to himself rose up into the air. With a shimmering wave of light, it released a powerful, and very much borrowed, image of rot and destruction. That image impacted Randidly’s root spears and thoroughly reduced their piercing power.

Randidly grimaced. That was the trouble with extended fights against Kaan Swacc. Eventually, he would tune his pyramids directly to your image and release a counter-image at you. The image he could produce that way was only some fraction as powerful as his usual image; it was not easy to so quickly develop a solid image. But it was an image created by resonating with the weakness of a target image. Even if other images would overpower it easily, against the targeted image, it was an unasked for Achilles heel.

Randidly responded to Kaan’s tuning with a blast of Nether to thoroughly crush this weak image, but by that point, Kaan had already ripped through the slightly withered roots and was racing toward Randidly. Neveah was surging to help, but there was too much distance. Randidly needed to help himself.

The sensation of blood spilling through his hand that kept the pressure on the wound was strangely distant. Rather than any pain, Randidly only felt a strange buzzing. Perhaps because a more reasonable part of Randidly realized that was not a good sign, he shook himself quickly to keep himself focused on the fight at hand.

He raised one of his legs and stomped on the ground at the same moment he unleashed another torrent of root spears. But this time, Randidly’s target was not Kaan Swacc. Instead, he simply destroyed the ground in the surrounding area. For thirty meters in every direction, stone and dirt was blown upward in an explosion of plant matter. Huge chunks of rock cracked and splintered, only to smash into each other in the air and shatter further. A wave of dust and debris filled the chaotic air.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 290!

In that hectic environment, Randidly slipped behind a large rock and rapidly focused on the image of Yggdrasil. A pulse of energy spread out from his chest. His fingers tingled. The aura of life-

Even if he couldn’t find Randidly’s location, Kaan’s pyramid once more released a wave of a suppressing image. This time it was tuned further. The pyramid contained an image of the Implacable Price of Exodus running wild, beginning to devour the World Tree. Because it more easily fit into Randidly’s existing image, the effect was more pronounced; the lifegiving aura of Yggdrasil wavered and began to fade.

Randidly pressed his back to a particularly large stone slab that drifted through the air. As two other large rocks collided, pebbles and small shards of stone peppered Randidly’s skin. Even with his weakened image, as long as he had a few moments to recover-

Snorting, Randidly smashed his elbows against the stone behind him and thew himself forward. Another fistful of emerald bubbled up and dribbled along the ground as his healing wound was ripped open once more by the sudden movement. Randidly spun around and unleashed a Piercing Gaze of the Egg that hit a slightly surprised Kaan Swacc, right as the Xyrt Brigade member had been about to smash through the stone and attack Randidly.

Still, with one pyramid still releasing an image of strength to empower his body, Kaan quickly recovered and launched himself forward. Randidly’s feet hit the ground and he unleashed the Tug of Tragic Silence. The image of the Stillborn Phoenix condensed once more in his left eye, turning it into an orb of darkness. The Skill Tug of Tragic Silence was the disintegrating aura of the event horizon, gradually ripping away space, light, and even time.

Randidly became the black hole, the edge of his Nether bubble became the event horizon.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tug of Tragic Silence (A) has grown to Level 145!

With the additional boost from the Nether Nebula, which was only too happy to join in the feast on the surrounding Aether-bound space, the Skill quickly exploded outward and covered more and more space. As the ground beneath Randidly’s feet was beginning to come to pieces under its influence, Kaan charged forward into the area of the Skill.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tug of Tragic Silence (A) has grown to Level 146!

Congratulations! Your Skill Tug of Tragic Silence (A) has grown to Level 147!

What Randidly didn’t have in Skill Levels, he quickly made up for by completely throwing his Willpower behind the image. The Egg of Depression hated and the physical world slowly came unhinged under that pull. Plus, the Nether he radiated outward quickly took up the cause and added its own caustic effect to the mix.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Visual deviations began to appear in the area around Randidly but Kaan gritted his teeth and continued to approach. Randidly narrowed his eyes, once more with his right hand apply pressure to his neck.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tug of Tragic Silence (A) has grown to Level 148!

As the destruction of the surrounding ground intensified, Kaan frowned and gestured. That same pyramid that had tuned to Randidly’s Yggdrasil image, he could see now it was the copper pyramid, illuminated once again and released a new image. This time… it was an image of peace and fulfillment. It struck at Randidly’s aura of destruction.

Snorting, Randidly watched as the Stillborn Phoenix eradicate this tuned image. In his haste, Kaan had chosen a poor strategy for reducing the Stillborn Phoenix’s power. In that opening, Randidly began to coil dense ropes of Nether in the surrounding area, vastly increasing the aura’s power. Kaan had cut the distance between them to two meters, but by this point, Randidly was positively twitching with visual distortions. The ground and air around him was devoured by his Skill at a visible pace, creating a whirlwind of pressure.

Even Kaan’s near-invulnerable skin hissed and spat. Especially the area around the handprint on Kaan’s chest began to fester and spit.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tug of Tragic Silence (A) has grown to Level 149!

This time Kaan’s copper pyramid released a new image; hopelessness. It contained the thought that the long-held desire in the Stillborn Phoenix’s heart would never come to pass.

Instantly, Randidly’s area of destruction shook and weakened. But he had held out long enough; Neveah had arrived behind Kaan Swacc.

Kaan twisted around sneered at her while she ripped her claws through the air. The strike had enough image power to steady the visual distortions around her, but Kaan once again manipulated two of his pyramids to shoot in front of her attack and smash together. Once more, a discordant note exploded outward, neutralizing Neveah’s momentum. For a split second, she hung frozen.

But right after the note ceased, Neveah’s huge bone wyrm exploded into motion once more and attack with her other claw; it was clear the first was a feint. Kaan frowned and twisted fully around, giving Neveah his entire attention. “Heh, if you truly wish for me to break you…”

Other than the copper pyramid that floated between Kaan and Randidly and the silver pyramid that continued to release a calming light that empowered Kaan’s body, his four remaining pyramids spun together in front of Kaan Swacc. Three formed a floating triangle that shimmered and transformed into a shimmering energy shield. The other pyramid flew upward and began to glow. Kaan narrowed his eyes as he looked at the bone wyrm in front of him. “Hum, let’s see, as a puny Transformational image, how shall I break-”

Neveah’s claw hit the energy shield and sheared halfway through the damn thing before it stopped. Even Randidly was somewhat stunned for a split second. That shield has the power of three pyramids… shouldn’t it be more powerful than that…?

Before Kaan could respond, Neveah twisted her claw and ripped sideways, impacting one of the pyramids in the corner and knocking it to the side. Then her huge body exploded forward, both claws scything downward. After seeing Neveah rip through his shield, Kaan wisely chose to retreat backward.

Randidly released a breath and fully concentrated on healing himself. Likely sensing the rise in his Yggdrasil image, the copper pyramid once more released an image of the Implacable Price of Exodus going wild and devouring the entire tree. Although it slowed down the process of healing, there was little to do besides ignore it. It weakened him somewhat, but percent by percent, Randidly’s Health was coming surging back.

My regeneration isn’t just because of my image, you piece of shit.

While his blood dried on his hands and his wound healed, Randidly watched the confrontation between Neveah and Kaan. To his shock, she was a dominant force. Although her image was less complicated, that simplicity brought with it an immense weight that she demonstrated time and time again. Her claws were virtually unstoppable, leading Kaan to retreat backward as he unleashed image after image toward Neveah to weaken her advance to no avail.

For whatever reason, Kaan couldn’t quite tune to Neveah.

Randidly was basically fully healed when Kaan finally laughed. “Ah, of course. How could I miss that? The sort of image that grows stronger on adversity. Fine then, you are powerful. Monstrously powerful.”

All at once, Neveah’s bone wyrm swelled in size with the assistance of one of Kaan’s pyramids. From as thick as a tree trunk, it grew and grew until it was bloated and as thick as a city bus. The already weakened ground shuddered and cracked beneath its weight. It grew three more long and spindly arms on both sides of its body and those limbs were like windmills of death. But with that increased size, the maneuverability dropped.

The thin arms were no longer strong enough to propel the immense body. While Neveah struggled to close the distance to Kaan, Kaan grinned and clapped his hands together.

DONGGGGGGG.

Randidly winced as the pyramid that had been tuned to him released a terrible wave of pain that set his nerves on fire in a way reminiscent of attaching his new arm. Neveah similarly groaned as her pyramid did the same. Meanwhile, Kaan called the three free-floating pyramids to his side, setting them spinning around him.

Narrowing his eyes through the continued resonance of pain, Randidly looked at Kaan’s back. This is no good. He’s starting to get a read on both of our images. Plus, it’s hard to tell how much more liquid Aether he has… It should be incredibly rare since they need to refine it from System Aether… but still...

Randidly flexed his hands. Time to go all out and force him to reveal any secrets he is still hiding.

Chuckling to himself, Randidly unleashed a wave of dense Nether. The suppression from the pyramid above him wavered and fell. Then, with the image of the Grim Chimera coming upon him, he threw himself at Kaan Swacc’s back.