Randidly staggered and coughed up a mouthful of blood. But in the next second, his eyes flashed and he shuffled to the side in a sharp movement. The giant wind blade orb ground against the side of the mountain, skimming tiny slivers of stone off and slicing several cuts across Randidly’s cheek as the orb spun toward him.

His natural energy had been spent, handling the triple wind blades that arrived as a prelude. His body was nearing his limits, considering how densely packed his wounds were from the first two wind blade orbs that he had fought against today. However, this time Randidly had an idea.

Maybe it’s just the concussion I’m nursing, but I think I’ve been going about this all wrong.

His emerald eyes flashed as he stepped underneath one of the wind blades that formed a cage on the orb and hopped into the middle of the churning winds. Behind him the orb snapped shut as another wind blade cut savagely across, but he was already inside of it. He took several short steps, following the grinding movement of the wind blade orb as it drifted to the left. He could feel it turning sluggish, as it struggled to understand how to strike at him. The other triple wind blades spiraled around above him, also halted by this movement.

Randidly grinned and grasped with his hands, pulling a few thin tendrils of natural energy out of the surroundings. Then he inserted them into the cage around him that managed the ten wind blades, trying to influence it-

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level

BOOOOOM!

He tumbled forward, propelled by the implosion as the orb tried to contract and crush him at the same moment he tried to infiltrate its natural energy flows. The result was a total collapse. The other blades from the orb dispersed harmlessly, but the waiting triple wind blades instantly cut down toward the off-balance Randidly.

Cursing, he flared as much of his image physicalizations as he could manage and stepped forward to meet the attacks. His feet blurred and he weaved his head in a figure eight. If nothing else, his physical evasiveness that didn’t rely on Chimeric Impunity had been transformed by this experience.

Congratulations! Your Skill Dodge has grown to Level 339!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Dodge has grown to Level 354!

The onslaught of triple wind blades lasted a long time before the storm eased back down to single wind blades. He could almost feel the storm reprimanding him for making such a foolish mistake as trying to step into the orb. Randidly stumbled and shook his head, his body buzzing and muscles numb. Small motes of blue light furiously gathered across his body and remade his image physicalizations in an even more substantive form. However, Randidly’s eyes remained bright as he looked up at the sky. That’s definitely an answer, I just handled it poorly. Next time…

He dodged casually through the single wind blades, studying the storm above. As he expected, the process continued to the next stage, where it began to send triple wind blades down to harass him. Randidly skipped up the stone path, dodging and dismantling them with natural energy with marked cheer. As though tired of his behavior, the storm spat out a wind blade orb.

It rolled through the air, his ‘punishment’ for his developing capability to handle triple wind blades.

Randidly grinned. His steps quickened as he tried to keep himself in the best shape possible for the orb to arrive. Once again, he dodged sideways when it smashed onto his position on the path. Then, just like before, he hopped for the middle.

The cage of wind blades snapped closed more quickly than previously, but Randidly happily used Sulfur to deflect the force closing in around him. He slipped through. The potent natural energy of the Grand Pattern buzzed as it once more sought a method to hurt him. The grey clouds above rumbled.

Remember, I’m not trying to dominate the energy. I can let it do what it does organically. I just need to nudge the flow in the right direction, Randidly told himself as he reached out with his natural energy after he allowed the orb to contract a small amount, failing spectacularly to shrink to a size that could squeeze him in the middle. My whole problem is that my goal has been to triumph over the Grand Pattern. But that’s double the work I actually need to do. As long as I can manipulate the pattern into balance with itself…

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 379!

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 380!

Randidly had to be careful about the position of his feet, but the cage that held the wind blades couldn’t squeeze itself any together; its own internal support structure now protected him. Yet the orb was stubborn, if nothing else. It spun furiously in place, attempting to squeeze itself further and crush him. Randidly could help but laugh aloud. More and more wind blades were building up above him, but they entered a holding pattern, unable to discern how to attack him.

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Narrowing his eyes, Randidly stretched out his fingers and began to lightly tug. Okay, time to take this to the next level.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 504!

With the hissing noise of stone being ripped away from the path, the heavy cage of wind began to creak in a new direction. Randidly gained more confidence and tugged a little harder, keeping his attention on the surroundings. But at his urging, the wind blade orb began to roll uphill.

He increased his walking speed to a trot. Above him, massive reverberations crackled through the storm. The consciousness was struggling to understand what he had done, but it was clear that what it saw made it very upset.

Randidly couldn’t help smirking. That’s what you get for acting so smug for so long. The balance is difficult, but once I have the hang of controlling these, you can’t just bombard me thoughtlessly; I will use your own weapons against you.

Of course, thinking about weapons made Randidly think about the deadly force spikes that the storm had up its sleeve. He shivered but contented himself that those sorts of dangers would only be waiting in the third tier. His current mode of travel meant he was ascending relatively quickly, but he comforted himself with the fact that the second tier was quite large. He was only three-fourths of the way through.

Hopefully, this method would sharpen his ability to handle the Grand Pattern.

He felt like a hamster running in a ball, but this sort of travel was extremely restive after the constant dodging he had done up to this point. And as he got the hang of manipulating the energy without trying to take control of it himself, a notification popped up in front of Randidly.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, various elements have been incorporated into your Skill Grand Perspective (R)! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has evolved into Natural Insight (A)! Skill Levels will be maintained. Your ability to understand and predict natural patterns is greatly increased.

The effect was immediate. The giant wind ball skidded a small amount when it accelerated, as Randidly’s ability to guide it grew more profound. However, this seemed to be the last straw for the waiting storm. While it continued to churn out triple wind blades, it urged all the assembled pieces that had been lingering above him to smash down toward Randidly.

With flashes of near-invisible energy, the wind blades struck.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Compared to the ten-strong wind blade orb, the individual wind blades were relatively meek. They impacted the cage of natural force but didn’t manage to shake it very much. However on the backs of these came the triple wind blades, which swooped and accelerated like fighter jets in formation.

Randidly couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, I finally have your attention? But it’s too late for this to be handled easily; giving me that grace period was a mistake.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 505!

Randidly’s hands and tail flowed through the air, gathering up the dispersing ripples from the wind blade impacts. He carefully wound the natural energy and kept it within the condensed ring that the storm had made for this wind blade orb. It was a profound exercise in restriction, but Randidly could help but chuckle as he felt the increasingly violent pulses from above.

The triple wind blades arrived and howled toward his hamster ball, a dozen at a time. Randidly raised his hands and guided streams of energy to join the cage around him, empowering his own defenses.

BOOOOOM! BOOOOOOOOOM!

Congratulations! Your Skill Natural Insight (A) has grown to Level 381!

The outside of Randidly’s wind blade orb began to slow its roll up the mountain and warp underneath the pressure. Randidly quickly urged more of his gathered natural energy on new, looping patterns through the interior. Just like Nether flowed through his body and empowered him without trying to manipulate his limbs, so too did this natural energy just form a support system beneath the premade cage of force. He insulted the core flows of energy from outside attacks, continuing to stroll forward.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOOM!

A triple wind blade wedged its way into Randidly’s orb, prying open the cage and damaging some of the frame. More surged toward that weakness, but Randidly spun in place and dragged the orb with him, shielding the weakness with natural energy.

BOOOOOM!

I’m getting better at managing the natural energy without it intruding on the Grand Pattern, but I let this wind blade orb take too much damage in those first hits, Despite his confident expression, Randidly was very realistic about his outlook. A few more bombardments and this will collapse on top of me. The downside of using these cages is my mobility is restricted when everything goes to shit. But so long as I keep moving unpredictably-

RUUUMMMMMBBBBBBLLLLLLLEEEEEE!

The sky shuddered under the force of the consciousness’s decision. The grey clouds spat out three more wind blade orbs that rushed down toward Randidly. On their heels, a thousand triple wind blades screamed their support.

His lips twitched, even as he continued to gather and release natural energy against the constant barrage from the triple wind blades. He also began pushing the damaged cage to ascend more quickly. It acquiesced, begrudgingly; at this point, the wind blade orb was like a horse too exhausted to even buck and try and throw him off.

And when the three new wind blade orbs slammed into the ground to his front, back left, and back right-

Randidly twisted his hand and the framework that had supported his little defensive vehicle turned into a weapon to tear it apart. While most of the wind blades and gathered force careened forward to smash the orb blocking his path, Randidly accelerated toward one of the ones behind him.

Why refuse such a generous offer of a new ride?