It only took a moment for the expression on Shal’s face to harden once more. Perhaps due to his own emotional surge, his features became a little more clear on the shade: that open eye in the center of his forehead fixated on Randidly. “You will pay for your flippant attitude, boy.”

Randidly raised Acri and his three images roared to life. For now, he cast the natural energy back down to his tails to manage while he accumulated more. At the moment, increasingly powerful waves of force radiated out from the white dwarf array. Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil. Grit of the Ascendant Bane. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart.

Congratulations! Your Skill Grit of the Ascendant Bane (T) has grown to Level 420!

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 426!

While empowering his body further, Randidly created a wall of gravity to create a firm foundation for a primarily physical attack. But although he didn’t yet unleash it, the natural energy his tails manipulated added mass to each of his movements. At the moment, it was like Randidly carried a portion of the dangerous warzone on his shoulders.

BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!

For the first time in their fight, the shade was stopped dead by Randidly’s attack. Two more bodies drifted out from its edges, which once again seemed to firm Shal’s control over the image; a little more emotional affect leaked outward. True rage could be seen in the tight lines around his closed eyes.

Randidly’s joints ached from the impact, even through the overwhelming combination of his body and physical Stats. At the same time, that perfect emotional frequency was lost; once more he felt the authentic liveliness of his images diminish. The sensation of feeling himself dimming was not pleasant, but he squashed the frustration before it could develop into a distraction.

At the very least, he had definitely earned Shal’s attention with that last strike. His tails took the brief window to spool in more energy ripples to within his person.

“I’m not being flippant; I truly saved Tellus from the Nexus,” Randidly said. Sulfur used the kinetic force from the last impact to help shift into position on his left arm. “Why would I lie about that? If you stop fighting on the side of the Swacc Family, I can prove it to you. Tellus-”

However, something in the shade’s expression made him trail off. Shal seemed so exhausted. Even as its weapons continued to gleam with increasing deadliness, it lowered its daggers and its body sagged.

“Even if what you say is true, it is only delaying the inevitable,” Shal responded. “Can you compare to the overwhelming force of the Speculum? Or even those lessor powers that rule this place? Your foolish optimism… will only lead to you breaking yourself when reality comes knocking.”

Randidly felt his expression tighten and the image of Helen’s corpse appeared in his mind once more. Something dark and hopeless stirred in his chest, immediately destabilizing his emotional output further. But he forced himself to move past it. He focused on the strain of hosting all the energy ripples from the battlefield. The burning sensation grounded him.

I hate seeing you like this Shal. Was your pride really so fragile? Randidly opened his mouth to ask but hesitated.

Sulfur cracked a large portion of his left forearm in order to settle into place. Randidly licked his lips and avoided the deeper questions that plagued him. “And yet here I am, rivaling twenty people with your pointless outlook. I’ll teach you how much we can accomplish, even if I need to carve it into your body.”

Randidly flexed the fingers of his new left hand, adjusting his normal grip on Acri to suit this new limb. He flicked the tip of his weapon to the side, tracing the invisible and amble lines of natural energy. The shade had no response to his promise. Shal’s expression remained strained and lined as the shade charged toward Randidly.

Nether Weight flames surged along his body as he settled himself into a coiled position and created a plate of gravity beneath his feet. His muscles were spasming slightly as the natural energy continue to press against him, but still, he ignored it for now. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart. The Implacable Price of Exodus. The Wrathful Calamity Rends.

Congratulations! Your Skill Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart (T) has grown to Level 348!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Vindictive Chimera Smites (M) has grown to Level 337!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Vindictive Chimera Smites (M) has grown to Level 338!

That time, as Randidly’s legs exploded and his whole person became a spear, he felt the way that his emotional force pushed his Skills to a slightly higher height, carrying up their Skill Level in the process. But then he lost himself in the pure adrenaline of the fight, adjusting the vector of his spear to intercept a dagger.

Clanggggg!

Randidly stopped the first strike and blew the weapon back with the natural energy he carried, but the other cut deeply into his side. He cackled as he released Acri with his right hand and grasped at the shade. Unfortunately, it was truly insubstantial; his fingers passed right through its billowing substance. The daggers flashed around to follow up and Randidly twisted away.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Impunity (M) has grown to Level 407!

I need to be sharper, Randidly thought to himself as he eschewed powerful image combinations and just began sweeping wildly with his weapon. Especially if I want to channel all this force I’ve gathered. I don’t want to hit Shal with a hammer; I want to shred his depression with something truly domineering.

Each time the shade avoided the strike, more natural energy was dragged around from the ambient ripples in the surroundings. Randidly’s mental fatigue quickly grew as he used a fine touch to manipulate the energies, flared his emotions, pulsed thick flows of Nether through his body, and kept his image physicalizations pulsing with power.

He felt strangely bloated, almost as though he was in the process of swallowing another planet. But somehow, the sense of unstoppable force that surged through him while he was in motion was intoxicating.

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His entire being sang with the energy he channeled. And bringing all that intensity to the edge of his spear-

Randidly ignored the beginning of a headache and brought his significant Willpower to bear on the natural energy. He beat the destructive force into a blade, but he felt the strangest resistance as he tried to sharpen the edge. Gritting his teeth, he mobilized his Nether to help squeeze-

Synchronicity detected! Warning-

Recalculating…

Underneath the force of his steely intent, Randidly felt that obstruction snap and disappear. All of the surging energy he had gathered from ripples layered itself together into a destructive edge.

Congratulations! Your Skill Sharpness has been incorporated into Ripple of Amenonuhoko (M)! Recalculating… Please see your nearest Village Spirit-

Congratulations! Your Skills have merged! You have obtained the Skill Cutting Tide of Amenonuhoko (T)! Skill Level of the new Skill has been set at 450!

Simultaneously, handling the energy became easier and more difficult. Easier because the increased Rarity and combined Skill Level gave Randidly extra reach to touch the forceful ripples spreading throughout the battlefield and bring more of them to himself. Only two seconds of effort had him trembling underneath the energy he wielded.

More difficult because when he reached, his grasp stretched wider and wider to encompass all of the clashes. Perhaps it was the shift from Ripples to Tide, but Randidly felt his presence somehow adding a natural order the way the disparate forces behaved.

This… Randidly was stunned. The way it behaves is almost like the flow of Nether-

Force congregated in Acri’s tip at a ludicrous rate. Randidly eased up on the flaring of his images and emotion, and instead focused on his whirling Nether Core. A maelstrom of restrictive Nether ballooned outward, pressing against the shade and slowing its movements. The thick Nether fizzled against the image projection. Randidly squared his shoulders and focused everything on his new Cutting Tide of Amenonuhoko.

Randidly raised his weapon as the shade eyed the energy blade he had created at the end of Acri. With the restriction of Nether, Randidly’s high Dreadful Alacrity gave him a definite edge over the shade. The gleaming liveliness of his image physicalizations began to recede. They continued to empower his body, but they also functioned as containers to fill with increasing amounts of Nether as Randidly’s Nether Core pumped out more energy.

“Your struggle is pointless!” The shade hissed with Shal’s face. It cut sideways with a dagger and Randidly practically teleported under the strike and forced it to retreat with the energy that was roiling off of Acri. Randidly leaned forward and thrust his weapon, and such was the potency of energy he channeled that it felt like he was pushing a wagon through sand with the attack. Thick drops of sweat unrelated to the constant heat of the stairs dripped off his forehead.

The shade relied on its amorphous body to absorb the strike, but this time such a thick river of Nether flowed along with the spear that the image had a large chunk ripped out of it.

Shal’s features flickered for several seconds as the shade fell back and two more bodies drifted out of the edges of the image projection; currently, the Swacc group had been depleted by half. Randidly could feel his muscles and joints disintegrating underneath the punishing force of the ripples he drew into himself, even with the reinforcement of Nether. Yet he continued to advance, sensing that he had almost forged a strike that Shal could not ignore.

I need you to wake up from this Shal, Randidly clenched his jaw. I won’t allow you to wallow in your self-pity forever.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting Tide of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 451!

Randidly thrust and Acri shook the surrounding space with the force of the battlefield, all of the accumulated natural energy gathered into a single point. Finally, he released the tight grip he had kept on the natural energy. The shade whipped its dagger around, but the grey and gold beam that erupted from the tip of Acri punched a hole directly through the image’s side.

VROOOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!

The shade shivered and disintegrated into pieces, revealing three more floating bodies that were clearly unconscious and then seven stunned individuals in silver uniforms, including Shal. However, Randidly was briefly distracted as his eyes followed the beam he unleashed, which shot across the battlefield and smashed into one of the back columns of the Swacc Family that were assaulting the dug in remnants of the Engraving Guild.

The large metal golem had its back caved in from the force, and unlike Randidly’s attack against the shade, perhaps a hundred individuals were it directly by the steadily expanding beam. He watched those people disintegrate within the laser he unleashed.

Well, we are on opposite sides anyway, Randidly felt exhausted after he finally released all that natural force, but kept himself focused. He turned to Shal and gestured sharply with Acri. That was the decisive blow he had been waiting for; now Shal would be swayed.

But Shal’s expression crumpled when their eyes met. Randidly’s master sighed. “Fine. You win, Randidly. I suppose… I suppose we are different sorts of people.”

“You-” Randidly blinked. This was supposed to be the decisive proof that they could fight against the System. Yet looking at Shal’s face, all he felt was disappointment. This was their third confrontation, their fight with everything on the line.

Yet at the end of it, Randidly tightened his grip on his spear and felt empty.

You weren’t supposed to just rollover. This was supposed to wake you up. This fight should have been enough to reach you, right? Isn’t that what you taught me? That between master and student, the differences needed to be resolved with a spear? So why...

Randidly forced himself to speak, unwilling to allow that sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach to grow stronger. “Why won’t you believe me? Isn’t this proof enough that I can-”

Randidly jerked backward to avoid a blast of pure, invisible, silent oblivion that streaked through the position where he had just been floating. It was only due to a sudden tingle along his ethereal upper tail that he even managed it, despite the distance. He watched the space filled by that attack with wide eyes. The Grey Creature and the Stillborn Phoenix warned that getting hit with that would have been extremely dangerous.

A powerful figure rapidly accelerated out of the main base of the Swacc forces. Randidly felt a sinking feeling in his chest as he watched them approach. Looks like I was a bit too eye-catching, especially if they intend to eliminate witnesses. Ah, no wonder Lady Iellaya is glaring at me, even while fighting…

...they probably won’t believe I’m too exhausted to try that again, huh?

And despite that, Shal-

Randidly gathered himself as best he could as the figure neared. And when he saw the six tails, his face twisted into a grimace.

“Mr. Ghosthound, I must say I’m quite surprised,” Techetadore’s eyes glittered as he slowed to a stop next to Shal. “Despite your appearance, you are remarkably capable, aren’t you? Shal, take the rest of your squad back to the base to recuperate. Each force the Swacc Family sends after you seems to mysteriously fail.

“But. That ends today.” Techetadore’s eyes turned white and his six tails spread out around him. Shal nodded woodenly. Randidly twitched, wanting to say something, but he felt the feral killing intent of the Vulpine making his skin tingle. Just as much as he wanted to force this conversation with Shal, he dared not push further.

What if Shal continued to disappoint? Then all the effort he had poured into their relationship-

Techetadore smirked. “I think you’ll find that I’m not such an easy foe to avoid. Succumb.”

Another completely imperceptible blast of destruction erupted from the Foxman’s fingertips.