Chapter 1932

Chapter 1932

To Randidly’s surprise, the dream-fight after the Path did not go the way their fights had gone while Helen was alive.

Helen’s spear sheered through Randidly’s image physicalizations and slammed against his chest. Scowling and deprived of the benefit of his monstrous Stats by the dream, Randidly staggered backward.

The maroon-colored mists had solidified into armor around her body. Her face and lithe form were completely covered by angular plates and bulwarks. She stood, metal and cool violence, memory and sizzling ash, ready to fight. The Helen projection gave him a moment to recover and then raised her spear to follow up.

Not taking a break, even in death, eh? Randidly rubbed some blood from his lips and took a stance. He didn’t want to admit to himself how floored he was, but he had been caught flat-footed by her force. More than anyone else, he knew Helen’s power and potential. Yet after three minutes, he was being thrashed. True, the dream kept him from manifesting his Stats and relying on any portion of his Nether Core but the flames of Nether Weight.

Yet the difference was-

Emotion. And the way it flows through her Domain. Randidly moved into his own fighting stance. For a second they stood, her spear high and his held low with the tip almost dragging against the ground. Then she accelerated forward, the maroon waves of the Depths of Horror Domain lapping forward against him. Eight long talons ripped out of his left arm and cut a path through the currents, his Resonant Fangs of Extinction moving to counter her. Did she always-?

The two Domain’s pressed close up against each other, embracing after so long apart. Hers attempted to engulf him, tainted with the tang of ash that defined her current existence. His gouged deeper through her Domain, aiming to strike at her directly.

Their bodies moved next, hers borrowing Randidly’s monstrous Stats and his moving to counter some of her force with deft movements. Her spear flicked out, a serpent’s tongue, licking and tasting. He burned with the heat of his newly acquired Wicked Waltz of Tartarus, but he remained distracted by the singing joy and fury riding in her armor.

“Your emotions-” Randidly finally opened his mouth.

Helen’s ashy projection responded with an absolutely scathing thrust toward his open mouth. He jerked his head sideways and her spear wound like a riverbend, its tip cutting a small chunk out of his neck.

The reason that Randidly felt so shocked was how wholly Helen’s emotions merged with her attacks and Domain. Obviously, her Skillset and the image she developed from it had a wide base. But the varied elements that she managed to include in her emotional affect-

His eyes flickered as he gave ground, sweeping Acri at her waist. Helen swayed around the blow and kept coming, unleashing a brutal onslaught of attacks that hammered at his image projections each time. His joints ached and he shuddered to withstand the blows. The unfamiliar pain of being physically overmatched began to take up residence in his shoulders and hips.

He suddenly saw it, the reason her emotions felt so complex and random, not bothering to seek the resonance of emotional affect that he had spent months refining.

Her Domain and individual Skills held different emotions surging through them. They felt fickle and capricious, riding the highs and lows of her small victories and scowling disappointments. She loved fighting but also hated and feared it. And all of those emotions swirled through each strike. But the reason that Helen possessed so much power-

The different emotions communed with each other as a Skill ran its course through the Domain. In a weird way, there was a dialogue between her simultaneous yet conflicting emotional states. And from those meetings, the fractious rubbings, a strange power emerged.

So emotion could be used like this as well, Randidly’s eyes glowed as he avoided a thrust but couldn’t avoid being cracked in the shoulder by the butt of her weapon. When he regained his footing, he began to mimic.

Congratulations! Your Skill Soulful Vigor (L) has grown to Level 240!

Spears danced and blurred, slamming and rebounding into one another without either of the fighters possessing an advantage. Randidly felt his method of fighting shift as he gradually captured his emotional force. Although his three images all manifested in different ways, those emotions wove themselves together into a firm base from which to strike.

Randidly accelerated, learning to fight with this new method. His body was in constant motion; Helen continued to harry him, seeming to predict some of his responses. He wondered whether she was relying on her experience fighting him while alive or whether he was just imagining it.

He felt more and more flashes of joy from Helen as they clashed, but these were tinged with a grey pity.

Ultimately, he had to set those concerns aside as he simply fought. His emotions became a constant heat in his body, empowering each movement.

The emotional notes weren’t perfect, but they were organic and true. And from that, they drew immense power. Randidly’s eyes were brilliant emeralds as he tightened his grip on the dream Acri and started to let loose. He began to feel the wholistic surge of his strikes, relying on the wide foundation of emotion.

Within ten minutes, Helen’s armor had shattered. She sat on the ground, the only remnant of her steely visage was half of her shattered helmet. Randidly’s chest rose and fell, his emotions still sizzling within his body. The dark red mist seemed to settle against the ground, making it seem like she reclined in a throne of bloody mist as she looked up at him.

Her eyes were bright as she looked at him. Her emotions had waned during the end of their fight, until now he couldn’t sense them at all. She just seemed like a puppet, bearing her face and shape. It broke his heart. “Congratulations, challenger. You bested me. Shit, it’s honestly pretty surprising you could... especially considering this version of me possesses a very... generous portrayal of my fighting power.”

“I know of no one else who possesses your single-minded passion,” Randidly said quietly. When he opened his mouth to ask the projection another question, he realized that she was crying. And that she was keeping her emotions from leaking out.

Because although Randidly couldn’t sense them in the air, the ghost of a Nether connection lingering between them resonated with the force of her sorrow and grief.

“This version of myself. The designed one. The body that had the same amount of Stats as Randidly Ghosthound. His Bloody Knight, through and through.” Helen’s projection trembled as tears slid across her cheek. “This was supposed to be the version that could defeat him. I thought... at least this way...”

“Helen-”

The projection shook her head, bringing her hand up to wipe away her tears. But her fingers began to flake away into charcoal. “Do you know why I adored him? Because he would never go easy to spare my feelings. No matter how meaningless or the spar... and do you know why I resented him? Because he would make up all these dumbass rules, restrictions he placed on himself, to make the fight more advantageous to me. And even with all that help, I couldn’t catch up to him. Ever.”

She looked directly at him as she said that last word and Randidly instantly knew that a flicker of her consciousness remained. He spoke rapidly, “Helen, don’t you dare claim that you never defeated me-”

But the image fractured into scattered motes of ash and Randidly was left with a sour taste in his mouth and a notification.

Congratulations! You have earned high honors, facing Helen in single combat and emerging victorious. You walk out of the valley, soaked in her bloody currents, feeling empowered by the vestiges of this proud woman. Dreadful Alacrity +100! The stirrings of Helen’s powerful images are settling within your Soulspace!

A special reward! You feel the powerful currents of the Ghosthound’s Knight taking up residence in your body! You can feel her breath on the back of your neck. Synchronicity detected...

Congratulations! Your Skill (Domain) Resonant Fangs of Extinction (M) has evolved into (Domain) Mournful Sea, Helen’s Pernicious Riptide (T)! Skill Level will be maintained.