Moving with brutal efficiency, Randidly cut left and right with Acri and left a trail of Nether Gatekeepers in his wake. Natural energy surged around him, buoying him forward.

A Nether Herald finally realized that Randidly was a much more potent threat than the Engraving Guild castoffs it had been slaughtering and wheeled around to face him. It bounded forward and splashed to a stop between Randidly and the Nether Gatekeeper had been about to slaughter. This particular specimen looked like a giant fluffy hamster that had gone through several rounds of anabolic steroid treatments; its massive arms pulsed with thick veins that protruded beyond the rest of its flesh. The Nether Herald barred its buck teeth and fixed Randidly with a hateful stare from its beady eyes.

However, Randidly just grinned. Nether whirled through his body, his Weight producing spectral flames across his body. He raised Acri up in the air above him and smashed it downward. His Primordial Nether Juju and Dreadful Alacrity made the attack almost blindingly fast.

No sooner had the hamster splashed in front of him than it had to hastily raise its arm to block Randidly’s attack.

CRACK!

Congratulations! Your Skill Sharpness has grown to Level 280!

The bones of the buff hamster’s forearms splintered immediately. The dense Nether the Herald released parted before Randidly’s Weight. Acri cut deeply into its neck and shoulder muscles, inflicting quite a lot of damage but not even nearing its Nether Core. Other Nether Heralds in the area were starting to follow the hamster’s lead in acknowledging Randidly’s threat and paused in their other battles.

Randidly pursed his lips. If he wanted to keep up his momentum, he couldn’t allow too many Nether Herald’s to surround him. Their dense Nether auras would slowly blunt the edge of his attacks. He planned on fighting against them solely with his physical gifts and Yggdrasil, which meant that burst damage he could inflict was limited.

Randidly pulled Acri back and transitioned smoothly into a straight thrust at the Nether Herald’s core. The beast twisted to the side, allowing Randidly to lance through its ribs but avoiding a fatal blow. With a burning resolution in its beady eyes, the Nether King stepped deeper into the thrust and didn’t even flinch at the squelching noise of Acri sawing through its organs. Then it raised its massive arms.

Randidly could see its muscles quiver each time a wave of blood pumped through those slug-like veins that ran across its arms.

There was a pulse of power from Yggdrasil above and waves of brutally sharp roots exploded out of the surrounding murky water. It wouldn’t take long for the surrounding Nether Heralds to force their way through, but it ensured that this fight would remain a one on one for a bit longer. As the hamster unleashed a half-dozen thunderous haymakers, Randidly didn’t even flinch. With small and deft movements, he avoided the worst of them and endured the rest. The meaty fists hurt and would probably form a nasty looking bruise in a few minutes, but such power wasn’t enough to break Randidly’s bones any longer.

Before Randidly’s Stat overhaul, he had relied on a combination of Skils and his powerful images to kill a Nether Herald. Now, he could stand toe to toe with these powerful guardians of the Nether King. Even the dense wave of Nether that they unleashed was largely mitigated by the Nether Field from Randidly’s Nether Core and his flickering flames of Nether Weight.

If the two of them were truly boxing, Randidly Ghosthound had the Weight advantage.

While the hamster desperately attacked him, Randidly stepped forward so the two’s bodies were only a short distance apart. While Acri’s spearhead split into three scythes that maliciously began to carve at the hamster’s flesh, Randidly’s left hand pierced into the Nether Herald’s side. Blood pumped out, soaking Randidly up to the elbow. The monster screeched in fury and tried to force Randidly away, but it couldn’t overpower him. In contrast to the grotesque veins of the bodybuilding hamster, Randidly’s veins glowed golden as Yggdrasil’s power flowed through him.

After a few seconds of groping, Randidly finally got his hand on the Nether Core within the creature. Releasing a hissing breath from his gritted teeth, Randidly squeezed the Nether Core while activating Golden Veins of Yggdrasil and Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil. The skin of his fingers twisted and warped as the digits became gnarled and unflinching roots. Sensing the change, the Nether Herald grew desperate and increased the frequency of its sledgehammer blows.

But with the boost of his image, Randidly’s grip tightened until the Nether Core popped and collapsed.

Boneless, the Nether Herald fell backward. Randidly withdrew his left arm and Acri from the hamster’s body and turned to face the other Nether Heralds that had forced their way through the thorny wall of roots. Immediately, they slowed in their advance as they realized their compatriot had fallen in the short span of the rootwall interference.

Their rapid response gave Randidly quite the headache; instead of ganging up and attacking him, the four Nether Heralds split up and went after Randidly’s subordinates, who had now begun clashing against the Nether Gatekeepers. Two Nether Heralds rushed toward Helen, as she was the closest, but Randidly figured she could at least survive while he dealt with the others. So he planted his foot and accelerated across the murky water, heading toward the Nether Herald targeting DiOrtho Vant.

With about twenty meters of lead on Randidly, the Nether Herald roared and raised its massive claw to strike at Vant. This Nether Herald was a humanoid komodo dragon, perhaps four meters long and all scales and ill-will. But before that claw a massive, humming, buzzing machine horror shimmered into existence. With an inscrutable series of clicks, DiOrtho’s machine horror unleashed a blood or rust-covered buzz saw that slammed into the Nether Herald’s claw.

The Machine Horror rapidly lost out against the Nether Herald, but it stalled the komodo dragon enough for Randidly to catch up. At their speeds, twenty meters wasn’t much at all. Acri gleefully cut forward and devoured the Nether Herald’s experience.

After dealing with DiOrtho’s Nether Herald, the two of them moved to assist Raymund, who was furiously clashing in melee combat with his attacker. His previously beautiful fur, which had been soaked in dirty marsh water at some point, was now covered in wounds as he was forced to escape from the Nether Herald and endure the harrying attacks of the Nether Gatekeepers. But he had survived long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

In seven attacks, Randidly dismantled the Nether Herald’s resistance and brutally smashed three Nether Gatekeepers. Unfortunately, the Nether Herald leapt backward with only an injured core. As some other Nether Gatekeepers seized upon the injured Nether Herald and began to flee, Randidly sent Raymund and DiOrtho in pursuit and turned to assist Helen.

He had just launched himself forward in a miniature explosion of water when the crimson image that Helen wielded intensified. Her image wavered, then spiked. There was a blast of crimson light and when the phenomenon died, Helen was floating off of the surface of the water surrounding by an almost wicker looking orb. Black energy branches and forked around her, constantly flowing about two meters from her body.

The Nether Heralds smashed at the sphere and forcefully warped the edges, but in the short term, they seemed helpless to strike at her.

As Randidly arrived and began to lash out at the Nether Heralds, he sent Helen a message. You had a breakthrough?

Although her left arm was cradled against her side and clearly broken from the beginning of her desperate struggle against the Nether Heralds, the usual surly and moody Helen was practically beaming. She radiated self-satisfaction like a sun produced light. My Tides of Blood Domain evolved into the Depths of Horror Domain. Heh, the Rarity of this Skill broke past the limit and is actually Transcendent. Kekekeke, I’m going to kill so many dumb fucks with this.

Randidly smiled wryly and didn’t bother to respond, but was inwardly rather surprised that her Domain had become a Transcendent Skill. It seemed that the risk of bringing her to this dangerous place had paid off.

But for now, he let those thoughts go. He raised Acri and waded forward into the melee.

When he fought two Nether Heralds at once, it wasn’t possible for Randidly to engage in such self-sacrificial tactics to inflict a fatal wound; the combined power of two Nether Heralds was enough to make an already sore Randidly wince. In addition, the significance between the two of them could barely restrain his Nether Core, taking away some of his edge.

But when Helen started to mobilize her new Domain and restrict them, both gave up and began to flee. Randidly was surprised to see these Nether forces not willing to fight to the death, but this was a quicker solution anyway. He waved to his subordinates to let them go, watching the Nether forces leave via a different spatial wall.

In all likelihood, the Nether Heralds wouldn’t split up in front of him again. Randidly pressed his lips together and felt a pang of regret.

Helen was busy flaunting her new Domain in front of Vant and Ballast, so Randidly walked toward the five miserable figures that remained of the Engraving Guild contingent. The other Pinnacle Seekers had begun to arrive through the spatial wall and Seeker Thunder Wing came to join Randidly.

The spiky-haired Pinnacle Seeker looked at Randidly with serious eyes. “Want me to take the lead here? They hate my guts already. The weird layers here keep messages from being sent, but if anybody had a way around it, it would be the Engraving Guild.”

Randidly originally intended to agree, but paused when he looked at the five surviving individuals. His eyes flickered in recognition and his Nether Sensation Skill gave him a better understanding of the situation. Seeker Thunder Wing meant well, and for that, Randidly was willing to handle this tricky situation for him. “...thank you for the offer, but I don’t mind.”

The Engraving Guild had chosen its position well. They stood directly on a small outcropping of land that rose above the luke-warm water, giving themselves sold ground on which to make their stand. The central figure was a distinguished-looking humanoid with extremely smooth, pale green skin. Truly, he looked quite like a stereotypical alien from the culture of Expira. On his jacket were various ornaments that appeared to denote status or rank. He regarded the approaching Randidly and Seeker Thunder Wing coolly, as though they were just as much of a threat as the Nether Gatekeepers. It was clear his pride was still intact, no matter his prior situation.

Flanking the alien humanoid were two larger individuals covered in thick plates of armor. It wasn’t possible to see their features but from their scratched and dented weapons, it was clear that these two were capable enough guards. On the far side was a young humanoid with a deep wound across his chest. He looked warily at the new arrivals, struggling to stand up straight. The final figure, opposite the wounded individual, just seemed to be exhausted. The old man was breathing heavily, looking at the ground with a blank expression.

Before Randidly had even addressed them, the central alien spoke in a brusque tone. “Do you expect thanks? You’ve already broken several Nexus ordinances by destroying the defenses we left in our wake. Should the Nether take advantage of that opening- Hey, what the hell do you think you are doing!?!”

Randidly had raised Acri and the weapon sensed his intent, instantly spinning its three heads together to form a gleaming blade. The two guards moved a beat slower than their ‘leader’, clearly also taken by surprise when Randidly moved without bothering to speak. By the time they had raised their weapons, Randidly had already pulled his arm backward and ripped Acri forward. The wind whistled across the blade as it cut through the air.

The exhausted old man’s eyes flickered in recognition, just as he was pierced through the heart. He blanched and raised his gaze, looking incredulously at Randidly. The solid ground around them flickered with intricate and dark lines as a dense aura of Nether emerged from the solid ground, but just as quickly as it arrived the Nether Ritual was forcefully suppressed by Randidly.

Perhaps originally this member of the Nether Lattice could have resisted Randidly’s Weight, but doing so with a spear through his heart was entirely impossible. He looked toward Randidly in surprise, seeming to be completely blindsided by this man’s ability to sense the trap that lurked beneath their feet.

And for good measure, Randidly had flooded Acri with the most destructive and vicious Nether that he could generate. Even as his body was pierced, his Nether infrastructure began to collapse as Randidly’s Nether ate away at his foundations.

Randidly watched the member of the Nether Lattice collapse. Because his Nether ate through the strange connections of his Nether Core, Randidly received a surprisingly in-depth understanding of the Nether constructs that were present in the Nether Lattice. Even if he received nothing else from this trip, this bit of understanding was worth it.

Then he ignored the flabbergasted surviving survivors and studied the Nether pattern beneath their feet critically. Although the exact construction was different, it followed a similar pattern of inverting images within a localized area. Had things turned violent and Seeker Thunder Wing thoughtlessly relied on his images to force these members of the Engraving Guild to capitulate, they would have activated the Nether Ritual immediately.

And based on the complexity of the lines that Randidly saw, even someone of Seeker Thunder Wings caliber would have been mentally wounded if this array was activated in close proximity to his image.

Seeker Thunder Wing looked at the ground and then at Randidly. “You… can sense the petty machinations of the Nether Lattice?”

Randidly nodded, his eyes still on the patterns. Although he had seen a similar construction before, familiarizing himself with this sort of thing was quite valuable. “But now that it’s been neutralized, I’d appreciate it if you could convince these others to share their secrets with us. On a personal note… see if you can discover anything about a team sponsored by the Swacc Family and led by a man named Shal. He should be traveling with the Engraving Guild contingent.”

Seeker Thunder Wing chuckled coldly as he looked at the survivors. “It would be my pleasure.”