puddles4263
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Chapter 918
🕑 Added 2019-04-05 18:02:34 +0000 UTCToC: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23899958
The Ashen Phantom was howling silently as Randidly rushed forward toward the melee fighters in front of them. It’s hunger and glee was clear; there was prey right before it, and the Ashen Phantom was hungry.
Even while sprinting, they stayed in pretty good formation, which was honestly rather impressive. Randidly’s mental respect for the training of Donnyton went up several notches. He had always understood that it was a really grueling process, but he had never seen any tangible results of that. To be here, watching these lowest-ranked Squads working in tandem to fight him, gave Randidly a sense of what Donnyton was capable of.
Not enough, Randidly thought sadly. Although they did their best, Donnyton couldn’t prepare their Classers for what was to come.
But Randidly would readily admit that his idea of ‘normal’ training was a bit skewed.
Again, the Ashen Phantom raised its head and howled, causing more and more anguish and grudge to rise up out of its body and flood the air. The cloud of ash in the surrounding area darkened to a foreboding slate. The vicious regret that plagued the Phantom became condensed ash, filling the air around Randidly’s body.
Randidly’s eyes went to the lead individual, a tall man in plate mail and wielding a mace. All he needed to do was break through the first individual, and this first round would be his.
Not knowing that he was the focal point of this whole fight, the man raised his mace and brought it down with lethal force toward Randidly. The spikes on the mace seemed to glimmer in the dim light that was filtering through the oppressive image of the Ashen Phantom. Image and vicious intent gathered in Randidly’s chest as the blow curved downward toward his shoulder.
Too slow. Spear Advances, Ash Trails; the Inevitable Phantom Arrives.
Although his Skills hadn’t yet merged as cleanly as had his images and moves, Randidly still was able to cobble together both Skills into a powerful single Skill. As his momentum jumped sharply upward, Randidly tore a hole through the side of the man charging at him, lowering his spear at the last second to leave his right arm hanging onto his torso by a small amount of shredded muscle rather than amputating the arm altogether.
Behind the first man were a dozen more, left unable to react due to the speed of Randidly’s acceleration. Their gazes stared blankly forward, intent on their duty. In their eyes, Randidly saw fear and excitement.
This isn’t a game. The System isn’t here to make our lives better. Randidly’s expression twisted. It’s here to work us until we break. If we forget that, the entire Earth… what’s left of the Earth...
Then Randidly activated All is Ash and allowed the swirling ash around him to form into blades that cut left and right, ripping deep holes in the armor of these Squads. Sharpness and the weight of the image created a blade with almost double the power that could be expected from the All is Ash Skill.
When Squad members began to fall down, blood spurting out from their wounds, Randidly’s momentum had already carried him further. His eyes were creased and filled with an old memory.
The bodies stacked in piles... the soft splashing of the river…. The sound of Randidly’s shovel repeatedly digging shallow graves next to the Hallat...
The ash spun after him, dissipating and reforming into a new set of blades that ripped their way through those that stood behind initial wave of felled individuals.
Such was Randidly’s momentum that no sooner had he blinked than the last line of melee fighters were toppling over, bisected by his ash blades. If no one was going to challenge his dominant image of ash, he would simply rip these people apart. His Skills were already superior enough. With an uncontested image, this challenge wasn’t fair at all.
In front of him, the long-range fighters realized something was wrong as Randidly punched through the front lines and appeared before them. There was still about ten meters of distance, but Randidly was eating up that space very quickly. Acri hummed with pleasure.
The two groups on the sides wheeled around, forming up to face Randidly while struggling to decide what to do next. It seemed that whoever was in charge couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They had Randidly surrounding, but with the speed at which he was moving, it was difficult to know how to respond effectively.
Randidly was perfectly happy to take advantage of that opportunity.
Not that he planned on being predictable about it.
Now that Randidly had pushed past the front lines, his trailing ash gathered back to Randidly, covering him in a vague haze. Then he narrowed his eyes. The next part was the most difficult of the tricks he had developed against Helen.
With every bit of strength that Randidly could muster, he planted his right leg and pushed himself to the left. All of the forward momentum Randidly possessed transitioned through the tendons and muscles of his knee, forcing his motion in an abrupt new direction.
Such was the suddenness of the movement that Randidly’s ash cloud continued forward, unable to keep up with his abrupt change of momentum. The roiling smog continued further, rapidly slowing as the connection between them stretched and tightened. Which was the entire point.
All is Ash.
Randidly’s Mana expenditure shot up as his body, and the entire world around him became ash. Yet suddenly, the elastic connection that had been stretched to its limits between Randidly and ash was suddenly pulling on a much lighter version of Randidly. A Randidly that was just a few motes of ash in the endless sea.
A Randidly that was much lighter than the thick cloud he had built up.
With a soft sound, Randidly disappeared. The extremely tense Squads of Donnyton blankly looked at the swirl of ash he had left in his position.
“Careful!” A voice from the left group shouted out. Although Randidly disappeared, he had been rushing right toward them. Some brave soul who had been able to follow Randidly’s movements warned the rest of them of his impending arrival.
The motes of ash that were the remnants of Randidly smirked.
BOOOM.
Randidly appeared in the right group, blades of ash popping into existence and slicing through all of the mage Classers that were nearby. Randidly took special care to rip through the two healers that he identified after briefly sampling the Aether of the group.
They fell screaming, even as their faces were covered in confusion.
By stretching that connection between himself and his ash to the limit and then transforming himself into motes of ash, Randidly was able to launch himself along the vector between himself and his ash cloud. And even quite a bit past it, if Randidly spent the Mana to remain as ash for that long. He could dissipate the ash that started the tension and untether himself. There was an extremely high burden on his knees to withstand the initial cut, but it made him almost unbelievably mobile.
After all, if Randidly didn’t want to be flung to the side, he could just have continued rushing forward. Once the elasticity reached its apex, the ashen aura would have just been yanked back to his body.
Because this challenge wasn’t just to show off. It was a chance to try out his Skills on real opponents.
Well, barely real opponents. Randidly thought almost sadly. Even as he stayed relatively inactive, the Ashen Phantom above him continued to slash widely with its dagger hands, creating blades of ash that cut down everyone from the right group who was struggling to turn around and put up a guard.
In terms of Stats, Skill Levels, and image, Randidly dominated everyone here. Such was the difference that they couldn’t even defend.
Still, it was a valuable experience, so-
“We concede,” A man said, stepping out of the remnants of the middle group.
Slowly, the Ashen Phantom regretfully lowered his hands. Blood dripped off of its fingers, leaving small drips on the arena ground below it. Although Randidly rationally knew that was impossible, he couldn’t help but blink at the sight. Then he felt a surge of pleasure.
As I thought, it grows fastest like this.
Randidly scanned the surrounding area. Although the sudden concession came as a surprise, he supposed he understood why it had happened. Randidly was playing in a different league then these people. There were one or two who were above Level 50, but no one was above Level 52. They couldn’t cope.
Of the first group that Randidly had broken through, twenty-three of thirty were laying on the ground slowly bleeding out. Of the second group that Randidly had hit, only a single woman was still standing, the ashen blade that was cutting toward her dissipating instantly after the group conceded.
Almost fifty percent of their fighting strength wiped out in an instant. The remaining group might have been able to put up more of a challenge now that they understood Randidly’s moves, but the leader was more concerned with saving those who were seriously injured than achieving any merit in the battle against the Ghosthound.
After he spoke, Randidly watched the man shiver and turn away from Randidly, rapidly moving to help other people toward the healers that were streaming onto the arena.
Randidly felt a flash of bitterness at the devastating familiarity of the awkward air of a battlefield. I… well, it doesn’t matter what they think, does it? This is a lesson they need to remember. They-
“ T-thank-k y-y-you for your g-guidance…”
Randidly looked down. A short woman who had been hit in the thigh sat up with a grimace. Her hands glowed with light green energy, and the wound mostly closed on its own. When she looked up toward Randidly, there was no fear in her eyes, just awe.
Randidly turned away. He felt his face twist, but he couldn’t be sure what his expression was, at that moment. He spoke while looking back toward Helen, who was tapping her foot impatiently. “On the battlefield, you only have one chance. Don’t forget it.”
“I won’t,” the woman whispered. After she finished recovering her ability to walk, she hobbled over to her squadmates to assist them.
Randidly walked slowly back toward Helen, not looking at the bodies laying on the ground along his path toward her.
Helen’s gaze was sympathetic. “The point of having a knight is having someone else’s hands to stain with blood, you know.”
Randidly just waved a hand. “To them, I’m the great benefactor of this town. No matter what they’ve heard… I need to show them what I’ve become in order to achieve that. They need to see the Path the Earth needs to walk.”
Shaking her head, Helen said. “That image. It’s strong as hell. But don’t you think… it resembles the Spearman’s image? His original one?”
“The violence? Yea. The thought occurred to me,” Randidly said quietly. Both looked toward the horizon, pointedly not looking toward the individuals being helped off the arena.
Helen eventually broke the silence. “The rules are a five-minute break between rungs. Will you have enough time to recover?”
“...the next rung is yours,” Randidly said. Blood, dripping from its fingers… that vicious hunger… “I think I’m going to take some time to refine the image.”
Helen smiled like a wolf. “I’ve been waiting to hear that.”
Comments
Connor M.
also @chopper what book? As far as I know puddlez is only posting here and royal road and I haven't heard of any plan of him turning it into a book and publishing. Did that come up before and I just missed it?
Connor M.
While I like being able to support puddlez on patreon, as I think he's a really good writer, another part of the reason, is I'm to much of an impatient person, to wait for the patreon chapters to come out on royalroad.com. Maybe my comments came across as more bitchy then I intended. The goal of my post was not to dog on puddlez or give him shit. My goal was to state that puddlez story is really good and he undeniably releases a lot of chapters, but he sometimes has trouble sticking to his schedule. Not being able to always follow your own schedule sometimes is perfectly understandable, sometimes you have writers block or other life commitments need to take priority. I'm not trying to complain and raise a stink about him not following his schedule, just recommending when he's not going to be able to make his timeline, that he shoots of a quick post about the delay. I don't mind there being a delay, I just don't want to be left hanging. It's like someone schedules an appointment to meet up with them, and you go there at the designated time, and they never show up. It would just more courteous and deeply appreciated if there was some short posting stating there was a delay. That said , if this is to big of an ask, puddlez doesn't have to do this, it's just there would probably be a lot less complaints if he did.
Chopper
This is the nature of web novels, if you cant deal wait for the book. If you are seriously checking every 10 minutes maybe you should find other ways to entertain yourself.
Choboman
Nobody on Earth has a decent concept of images. They don't even realize that they're lacking something. This show isn't to demonstrate that he's more skilled than them - they already know that. It's to show them that they're training the wrong way.
Muntu Omnyama
Puddles is the one of the most prolific high quality authors out there . But to paraphrase , Puddles is not your bitch. He has a life and feelings and as disappointed as I am with not getting a chapter ‘on time’ , ultimately I just love his creation and my donation is to allay my rabid desire to read more about his Worlds . I chose to believe he wouldn’t go silent without good reason. So I will be patient and look forward to more of his work whenever it arrives
Connor M.
She hasn't actually fought yet so they might bring it up in the next chapter
Connor M.
I'm not gonna deny that this is a legitimate complaint, and it really sucks when puddlez makes a schedule and then doesn't follow it. Especially when he doesn't communicate that he's not going to be able to meet his deadlines, and if your like me, your checking patreon every 10 minutes hoping the chapters will be up and they never come. That's a shitty feeling. What helps me put up with it though, is that I know that puddlez release frequency is freaking crazy when compared to most web authors. 12 chapters a week, when he manages that, is really freaking productive. Also there are other web authors who are just as bad if not worse then puddles when it comes to not properly communicating. Take the author of Zombie Knight for example his story is amazing, one of my favorites, been following it for I think 5 years now, and he'll take unannounced breaks from anywhere to a couple weeks to half a year with no notice. So if your reading this puddlez your readers would really appreciate a heads up when your not going to be able to post on time, and some of us are going to be extra frustrated when your late posting chapters at such an intense part of the story. Personally I don't think most of us would mind if you needed to take time to do this part of the story properly, as long as you post something to let us know, that way myself and others aren't impatiently waiting all day and reloading the site every 10 minutes to see if the new chapters are up.
Tycho Green
he is actually right. take savage divinity for example. ruffwriter might have trouble to deliver the chapter on time. he let's us know he takes a few days off and is back when he says he will be back. which means 3 chapters a week, good communication and satisfied readers even if there is only 1 chapter in one particular week. puddles writes more chapters but he doesn't have a schedule, which is fine. he however says he will upload and then uploads two days later. so that is bad communication and betrayed expectations. the problem is really not that he didn't upload earlier, the problem is that he said he would and therefore fails to meet expectation. so patrick, me and others are dissatisfied by that.
Russell Todd
Oof, chill. We are patrons, not customers. We provide support because we like their work and would like to see more. It is not so transactional.
Murigi
I’m sorry Puddles! But I need to say that I appreciate all you're doing, but you need better organisation. This is practically one of the few industries where you can continually disappoint your customers yet clearly prosper. As a business owner myself, we always have to deliver to our clients what we say we shall. You are clearly slacking in this area. Honestly, I don’t mind that you’re going to take such and such a time to produce a chapter. What I do mind, is that you’ll say you’ll upload something when you actually don’t. We are paying clients and I don’t think you fully appreciate what that means. We pay for a consistent service but you keep promising and delivering differently. We enjoy your writing but as a business owner yourself you have to understand what it means to deliver when you say you will deliver. Plan yourself properly and don’t disappoint your clients.
Jazzhands
I am excited to see him bring out a refined version of his tree of ygdrassil image for all of the spectators to see, this is definitely going to start an image war between the zones unless Mrs. hamilton basically captures the other zone scouts that are watching the fight
Chris
Glendel has realized the phantom isn't a skill and by the end of the tournement the rest of Donnytown will as well.
ElectricintheForest
While I /love/ this idea, I think RG played it right (according to his goals.) He couldn't be seen as winning by some sort of trick, which the crown would have appeared to be. It had to look like pure, untouchable dominance. Earth has to be reminded that what they think of as strength is nothing. So RG doesn't just have one super-skill. He's got dozens of skills, each which can cut through swathes of Earth's best.
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter. Different than I expected. I really thought he was just going to summon the crown and have them all collapse under it weight without being able to do anything.
Augustus
I believe it was not complete just like he did not completely cut of that guy's arm.
Augustus
the Donnytown higher ups did mention something about him getting help from his "other sources"
Chopper
This is not how you treat your allies... He bisected some of them? What the hell Randy....
Grayson
Is no one going to comment on Helen? I don't believe anyone expected her to be there
Harb
Can he drink potions to recover between fights?
CentaureHeart
I thought he had one hour between each fight ?
Corwin Amber
thanks for the chapters
BStew
i thought the leaders agreed to a one hour break between rungs?
Beeees!
There’s only one word to describe those chapter: Epic
