Randidly’s blood heated as he looked at the shit-eating grin on his own face. Devick-as-Randidly just released that much pressure as she walked forward. The worst part was there wasn’t even the hint of an image around her; as with her earlier clashes with Tyne and Moonlight Blade, she relied just on his body and her fighting-related Skills to suppress her opponents.

That’s where the pressure comes from, Randidly realized. Her monstrously developed Skills. Even without transforming them into an image, I can feel their effect on the way she moves. That’s right; Devick is quite old as well. I wonder how close she is to a Mille…?

Still, Randidly lifted his head without flinching before her. He had a solid foundation for his own confidence, especially when he was in his own body. His Nether Core steadily accelerated. Silky, liquid Nether twisted and twined through his veins, empowering his body. He took a steadying breath and settled into a fighting stance.

Devick chuckled and then affected a look of shock. “Aw, imposter, I wanted to just spend some time chatting. But if you insist on combat-”

She planted her foot and practically vanished; she clearly had no difficulty adjusting to Dreadful Alacrity. His heart pounding, Randidly took an even faster step and moved to meet her. Their blurred forms neared each other and then accelerated further.

She spun sideways, whipping her leg around in a sweeping kick at his waist. Randidly used a single hand to catch the strike and raised his other hand. The impact jarred his bones, but it was manageable. Before he could unleash an attack, Devick twisted and brought her other heel slicing toward his head. This time, Randidly’s tail snaked out and encircled the heel kick. The grip strained, but it slowed the strike down enough for his other hand to clench into a fist.

Both her legs were entangled and Devick lay midair with her back to Randidly. Still, she bridged her body, folding back toward him and bringing both her hands stabbing toward Randidly’s midsection. If nothing else, her decisiveness was impressive.

His emerald eyes flashed to see himself contorting like this. Am I really this flexible? But definitely, her combat Skills are high Level. I can feel the sharpness of everything she does… Huh, I wonder if she can tap into old Skill fragments in my body or if this is just a common enough Skill

Then his expression hardened. But there is one problem: you’ve been enjoying my body so far, but you haven’t spent much fighting against it. Strikes like that-

Randidly ignored the stabbing hands, despite the razor tips at the point of his fingers. They hit his side and drew small blotches of blood, but they only prickled him like stray thorns. Meanwhile, his right hand finally hammered down, striking Devick in the small of her back and smashing her into the ground.

With a grunt, Devick hit the ground and rolled. Randidly bounded after her, Nether and evaporating blood filling his veins. His heart pounded and filled him with strength. Already, the small marks that Devick had inflicted on him were healing. She flipped up to her feet, grinning at him. “Heh, yeah I get it. Soft strikes like that won’t do much, not with this fun bod. But how about this?”

Her left arm exploded forward, morphing into a deadly lance of momentum aimed at his face. But at almost the same moment, Randidly’s left eye flashed with darkness. Revelation energy warned him of the strike and he jerked his head to the side. Before she even struck, he foresaw the dangerous possibility.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 500!

That miss allowed Randidly to close the distance between them and he clenched his left fist and brutally struck at her side with a hook. Devick blocked with almost casual speed. Meanwhile, Randidly’s right hand stabbed forward, aiming for her throat. This Devick also intercepted, but a few inches too late, so that his hand was on her neck and her hand tightened around his wrist.

Still a bit behind when it comes to handling a lot of information with my senses, Randidly’s eyes blazed as he slammed his forehead against his own nose and felt the cartilage shatter.

Rather than being stunned or hurt, Devick snorted in amusement. Blood dribbled down across both of their torsos from the exhale. Then, of all things, she raised her head and attempted to headbutt him right back. Gritting his teeth, Randidly brought his forehead forward in response; the two identical heads slammed into one another.

The combined force would have likely torn the bodies of most of the other participants asunder.

The current impact, with both possessing his evolved body, did very little to help his lingering headache.

However, Devick did flinch and take a step back from the clash; with the boost of his Nether, Randidly’s physical strength was noticeably higher. With the extra space, his left foot flashed out and swept Devick’s legs. Then he spun almost 360 degrees to build up momentum, tugging Devick along by the grip on her neck, and then slammed her headfirst into the ground.

It’s called Primordial Nether Juju. Randidly flexed both of his hands, looking at the crumpled form in the crater. He released a gout of steam from his nose that warmed him pleasantly. Bitch.

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Devick laughed again, hopping back to her feet and brushing the dust and broken stone off of her shoulders. The glow of triumph in Randidly’s chest faded very quickly. “Imposter, you are pretty good at fighting. I haven’t had this much fun in a long, long while. Normally, I would feel fine continuing with such a rowdy fighting style for quite some time- however, I have to consider that my glorious superior, Actus Suprem Devick. What would she think if she saw me like this? If she saw such an embarrassing display?”

The aura around Devick began to warp and curl in on itself, like toenails that grew too long and became yellow. She didn’t manifest a concrete image, at least not so far as Randidly could tell, but she did unleash a tidal wave of emotion with just the intensity of her gaze. The wave of it crashed out and submerged Randidly, briefly causing him to break out in a cold sweat and sway. Then it pulled back, spiraling around Devick’s body. The emerald eyes she borrowed from Randidly were steadily dyed brown, the color of rust and old blood.

“And I have to tell you,” She growled. All of the jovial expressions were gone. “I think she would be fucking pissed. She would demand retribution.”

Devick stepped again without care for the force she drew from his body. The ground erupted, the force of her step enough to rival the violent and pressurized culmination that was a volcano eruption. It was clear that she had basically mastered the use of his special Stats by watching him use them.

Now she came demanding retribution. Secretly, Randidly was quite glad he hadn’t said his Nether Juju comment out loud.

She just threw a fist, but again her limbs were so quick even Grim Intuition had difficulty following them. Randidly wasn’t sure if it was the high-Level of the Skills, or whether Devick possessed some ability similar to Chimeric Avoidance, but she definitely seemed capable of bending the rules of physics.

Combined with Randidly’s body, even he struggled to bring up the dormant Sulfur arm to block the attack-

BOOOOM!

The vibration of the impact popped his ears and he felt warm blood trickling down the side of his head as he was thrown back. The initial blast release a clap of pressure that vaporized the ground in the surrounding few meters, then Randidly had to dig his toes into the ground and plow a huge trough to stabilize himself and regain his footing. With the addition of her emotional force, he was suddenly extremely outclassed in terms of power.

With his mouth, she smirked at him.

Then Devick lowered herself and pounced forward, creating another eruption of sand as Randidly’s powerful thighs obliterated the ground. Stones and debris tumbled in the air, moving just a hair too slowly to land before the speed of her passage buffeted them into tumbling in whole new directions. Her blurred for was violence incarnate, a veritable force of nature. She exploded with every ounce of power he possessed.

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Her excess is a chance I can seize.

Truth be told, Randidly very rarely utilized his full physical capabilities. He simply couldn’t; without a sufficiently strong base to achieve leverage, Randidly’s Primordial Nether Juju would obliterate most physical substances, even if they had passively absorbed Aether to become much stronger than their original forms. It was a hidden restriction of surpassing the System limits.

No platform could allow him to truly go all out. Shifting his weight while throwing a punch with his full power ruptured the ground beneath him before he was even halfway through the motion.

Which was why, while Devick-as-Randidly was a walking Calamity whose steps heralded destruction, all he did was tap a toe and throw himself forward. With none of the bluster, he moved even more quickly than she. He twisted to duck under Devick’s fearsome strike, concentrated both on his Nether and upon his own emotional force, and spear tackled her out of the air.

She gasped in shock, the force of their combined and opposite momentums enough to even jar his powerful body. Randidly twisted to slam her into the ground but felt a tingle on the back of his neck at the last second. He released her and rolled sideways, still receiving an immense force on his shoulder that launched him downward and bounced him off the disintegrating stone ground.

He regained his feet and prepared himself for another attack, but Devick stood still, looking with interest at her own arms and legs.

“Fascinating.” She announced as she looked up and met Randidly’s gaze. “You are well past the System limit, aren’t you?”

Randidly’s lips twitched at how quickly she dropped the charade of being him but didn’t say anything about it. Even from their brief interactions, he knew that being snarky in front of her would just come back to bite him. Better to just go with the flow and accept the attitude change. At the very least, she was no longer growling about retribution.

“However,” She continued. She raised her head and gave Randidly a wide smile. “Didn’t you know that there was an easy fix? With as much power as we have, you simply force your will onto the universe. And then-”

As though in a demonstration, Devick brought that emotional force down to her feet and created a brief but concrete foothold beneath her feet. He could literally see how she did it but using the flexible substance of image to ground herself. Yet to accomplish it so quickly-

Perhaps Randidly would be the only one surprised that in the next instant, Devick’s fist was in his stomach, arriving with the full speed that Randidly’s Stats could allow when the foundation was provided. Then he was tumbling across the ground and then skidding across the sapphire lake, his body aching and his head ringing from the speed and his stomach twisting at the wrongness he sensed in the liquid.

It was almost a relief when he crashed into the stone outcropping on the other side of the lake, causing a small avalanche of orange stone to collapse on top of him. Snorting out through his nose, Randidly shoved away the rock dust and clambered out. His abdomen ached, but the blunt force would heal quickly.

They stood on opposite shores, this time Randidly brushing himself off. Devick stood with her hands on his hips and grinned over at him. “Did you get the trick from my little tutorial? If not, I can demonstrate a few more times for you.”

What she didn’t need to say was that they would be using his body as a prop in these ‘demonstrations’. Randidly rolled his shoulders and stopped limiting the flow of his Nether. It began to spool out in long tendrils that spread across the edges of the lake, avoiding touching the strange water.

Time to test out what Synechdochence can do in an actual battle. Randidly clenched his fist. Damnit, when the hell is someone else going to show up!? Devick is not the one I’m supposed to be wasting time fighting!

But I suppose I won’t reject her teaching. Randidly’s expression turned solemn. Under the influence of Nether, he began to float forward, keeping well away from the surface of the lake. When it comes to growing at ludicrous speeds, I don’t think I know anyone as impressive as Devick.