Chapter 2075

Chapter 2075

Bodies moved, each action connecting to the next.

Low kick to the side of the knee, folding the joint. A sharp step forward, a knee rising and cracking open a skull. A sidestep to avoid a lunge, a backstep to position to seize the nape of another’s neck and wheel their charging form into another. Screen a third, setting both the feet.

A full roundhouse kick, snapping up the neck of a crouching Grey Creature clone and breaking its spine.

Whirling to the side, avoiding being pinned between six of the monsters. Noticing the glitter of light off their nails. A lashing cut with the hand, shattering a forearm. A heel kick to a temple. Dropping to the stomach, allowing to attackers to crash into each other above. Tossing himself back up to his feet, throwing out several sharp jabs to stun the approaching enemies.

He lived and breathed violence. It felt like a homecoming.

Randidly stepped forward and unleashed a palm thrust aiming to destroy the shoulder of a Grey Creature. To his surprise, it managed to bring its hand up to partially block the attack. Randidly’s eyes flashed in annoyance. He seized the offending arm, squeezed until he felt the bones rupturing beneath his fingers, then slammed a haymaker blow into his opponent’s face.

I was on such a roll, too...

The thing howled as it died and became emotional force, the thread being spun up into the Grand Nether Ritual that Randidly had thrown up around himself. The powerful flows were high above, or more accurately below within his physical body, so they could not be used to restrict the opponents. Randidly really just needed to engage in a massive melee of hand-to-hand combat. Harvesting their emotional force for his own benefit.

This sort of fighting was oddly refreshing. Without all the accouterments of Aether and Nether, there was only the body, momentum, and wits. It was, Randidly rediscovered, a sort of engagement at which he was quite proficient.

To survive in the System, he had learned a brutal efficiency he steadily stopped relying upon. Yet now, against the fake Grey Creatures, that part of himself came to the surface and made short work of these foes.

A thought floated to the surface of his mind, even through his focus. This is why the path of image physicalizations always appealed to me. Especially now I utilize Nether as well, it’s all becoming too intellectually intensive. But if my powerful images just became portions of my body-

Well, it would need to wait until the emotional affects have been stabilized, at least.

Randidly grabbed the neck of one, avoided its punch, then wrenched it sideways into the path of another. His eyes scanned the surroundings as he kicked backward, taking another in the chest and opening up some breathing room. Sweat trickled down from his temples. As time passed, these Grey Creatures, condensed from negative emotion, seemed to be growing more used to his body. Their movements became more proficient.

A Grey Creature pounced toward him. Randidly swept a leg sideways and slammed the thing’s ribcage, but it softened the blow by twisting and seized upon his leg. Two more Grey Creatures stepped forward, lashing out at Randidly with their long fingers. He could see the path of their attacks. One blow came marginally faster than the other.

Randidly hopped up and grabbed upon the arm of the first attacker with both hands. His fingers tightened for a good grip and then he pulled, using the arm as a foundation. With the additional force he could generate with his abs, Randidly spun his body; the Grey Creature holding onto his leg gripped tightly enough that he was picked up off the ground and sent spinning through the air. The other attacker missed as Randidly positioned his spinning body, landing behind the arm of the Grey Creature he grabbed.

They kept coming, bloodthirsty and increasingly sure of their movements. Randidly’s focus narrowed. Block, avoid, strike, block, pounce, finish, avoid, repeat. Blood and emotion swirled through his body amongst the storm of wild limbs, engaging in a vicious, tireless melee.

In the end, Randidly tore his way through, the Nether Ritual becoming powerful enough that his speed of ripping these fake Grey Creature’s increased considerably. He could blow them away without worrying about subtlety, prompting the subconscious to release more and more negative emotions. He felt a deep wariness beginning to emerge in his chest, but his body could proceed like this forever, lost in the sensation of violence.

If anything, it was oddly peaceful. Without images or Authorities, Randidly just had to use his body. His mind and heart could turn themselves over fully to trying to heal from the infection under which they now labored.

From the ether, more Grey Creature came, wreathed in grey auras of malevolence and screeching out horrifying oaths to inflict eternal pain upon him. Randidly’s face remained firm as he ripped their heads from their bodies. When too many came, he was forced to tear off the limbs of some of his victims and use them as weapons, until the bones from the broken arms began to dissipate.

However, a small bit of Randidly’s mind observed the surroundings. Even as his Nether Ritual began to gather more momentum for his slaughter, the feeling in the air didn’t change. The current negativity did decrease as he refined the emotion, but...

What the hell is this feeling? His skin tingled as he paused in the middle of the bellowing crowd of Grey Creatures, his eyes scanning around. Why do I-

Randidly froze. There, amongst the crush of bodies, he saw a figure that wasn’t the Grey Creature, just standing there and smiling.

It was him, his own familiar body, a malevolent grin stretching his mouth.

“Ah,” The other Randidly chuckled and offered a theatrical bow. “You’ve found me. Well then, I suppose I’ve got no choice but to fight you.”

The moment was so strange and unexpected that Randidly swayed, unsure of how to respond. That was a mistake.

The other Randidly erupted in a wave of negativity, so corrosive and dangerous that many of the nearest Grey Creatures to him had the flesh melted away from their bodies. They collapsed screaming, even as the dark Randidly strolled forward, dragging along a wave of dark emotion with him.

When the corruption pressed against Randidly, his giant Nether Ritual began to falter and sizzle; the energies of this being attacked it directly. His eyes narrowed as he created counter-measures and then felt his countermeasures get countered.

This being was utilizing Nether patterns against him.

“What the hell are you?” Randidly said.

Dark Randidly grinned. “Literally? Your own self-hatred. But right now, I’m going to be the darkness that consumes you.”