A hint of something else Of fear
Panting Dian stood her hand held up in front of her Around her hand that strange energy swirled going faster and faster forming a vortex around her hand slowly growing larger soon spreading to envelope all of her
Do you dare disciple of the Phantom Sect She hissed her expression haughty This is the Path of the Devourer The Greedy Hand Before it all attacks are eaten
Tartet hastily backed away clearly recognizing this move But Randidly didn’t know it But again their eyes locked
Flee before me ’ Her proud gaze seemed to say
My spiders are gnawing on your achilles You cannot move ’ He answered
They both stood there while the energy around her hand grew more and more chaotic As he watched her fingers warped then bent and cracked backwards causing her to groan softly So the strange energy would even devour her A foolish move then
But thinking of his own Agony Randidly couldn’t help but smile Perhaps there was some appeal to foolish moves after all
Most of all Randidly realized that he needed to be true to his image of the spear if he wanted to continue to improve And his spear would advance in the face of anything After briefly considering trying to surround his spear with that strange Intent energy again he swiftly discarded it Dian’s previous intent burnt through his rather quickly and this looked even more fearsome That wasn’t the answer
He had to advance
But perhaps the spear wouldn’t always be the weapon that he chose to use to do so
So Randidly raised his hands reaching deep inside himself
Let me see how hungry that hand of yours really is Randidly whispered Inspiration Pestilence descend flood this land
As his disciple raised his hands Shal narrowed his eyes He had learned a lot of things in his travels had seen a lot of different skills and spells But his disciple was strange When he looked at him he only saw a being that was extremely talented at survival but without many other strengths to speak of
But as Shal watched this battle he was forced to admit that when it came down to it everything else was just applied survival just that skill was enough to let his disciple dominate these two talented spear users
He supposed he should feel proud of the performance but
it was all done so sloppily He was definitely going to beat some sense into that disciple after this
The Greedy Hand brought back some memories that Shal preferred not to think about and put him in a morose mood If he hadn’t been so cheered by watching the three spear users dismiss Egger’s disciple so decisively he might have gotten up and left That move would also pose an interesting challenge to Randidly After all even Shal had struggled against the user of that move although the user was on a completely different level of strength
It was almost impossible to directly overwhelm And without the Spear Phantom Skill set to attack the girl directly
Then Shal heard the buzzing and looked up His eyes widened A huge cloud swirled above the arena so large it blotted out the sun It drifted downward and the buzzing swiftly became a droning A deafening chorus of hatred and hunger
Shal almost chuckled as he watched the millions of bugs swirl downwards in a funnel heading towards that hungry vicious energy in the girl’s hands You certainly don’t slouch when you make a decision do you Perhaps it was fate that we met disciple
Chittering their defiance the bugs crashed into the energy
Chapter 136
Randidly could only focus forward If he would allow his mind to waver his focus to slide to his numerous pains concerns about the result of this Tartet’s presence what he would do after this when his mana was lost to him he would lose his edge and the bugs would collapse into a swarm that would devour everything probably even him These bugs seemed to be about double the size of the normal bugs and quite a lot meaner with sharp pincers
So Randidly did not let his focus waver He was the bugs and they were a spear spinning downwards tighter and tighter thrusting forward always advancing Distantly he could see Dian as her eyes widened at the sight of this calamity that descended from the sky but then the spear probably as tall as a building with a small lake of bugs above that continued fueling it crashed down into that energy that Dian held aloft
Immediately before the bugs arrived Randidly did see how the energy flared around her hand and grew wider the rotation speeding up but then there was only the bugs and the humming filled his very bones as Randidly struggled to keep all of the disparate creatures under control
They were violent and hungry and seemingly all with their little spark of intelligence although it didn’t proceed much past it Unfortunately they were much more poorly behaved than his delightful Root Spiders which so easily followed basic commands
Of course Randidly had no doubt that 4 or 5 of these would tear a Root Spider to pieces in less than 10 seconds So there were trade offs but as the pounding in his head grew more sharp he wondered whether it was worth it
But he set that thought aside and pressed with every ounce of focus that he had driving those bugs downward in a tight spiral He had to keep them there or they would spread and he would lose the piercing power of the spear image he forced over their forms From that he could feel that even though Dian was able to devour almost all of the bugs she was slowly getting pushed back as more and more arrived faster than her energy could consume
And Randidly had more
With burning eyes he raised his hand and pulled and several thin tendrils of bugs spiraled downward joining the huge spear that crashed into the area of Dian’s figure now completely obscured by the buzzing and droning of Pestilence They made the spear swell growing larger and more vicious and Randidly started to feel some of his insects pelting the ground beginning to eat the very ground out from under her
Randidly could have controlled them to a more offensive direction but it would have taken focus that he wasn’t sure he could spare So he allowed them to continue their mindless feeding on the stone of the platform
Sweat trickled down his brow and he pushed more and more feeling Dian slowly slip farther and farther back Randidly grinned viciously If he could manage to push her off of the stage although it wouldn’t end her for good it would likely push them apart While Randidly would continue onto the Regional Tournament and training under Shal a spear user of this level would not have the ability to impact Randidly any longer
They would not meet again
To his shock Randidly hesitated if just for a split second Large groups of insects exploded outward smashing into the ground and into the crowd around the stage who now drew their spears and threw panicked attacks up at the cloud of hungry death that had escaped their tightly held reins But what use were spears against insects
Several people were mauled to death as Randidly struggled to regather large groups of those rogue insects while keeping up the constant pressure on Dian Luckily it seemed that some good came of his inattention and some of the insects had spread behind her and began to gnaw on the ground It was hard to see it due to the air being thick with buzzing wings and clicking pincers but Randidly could feel it through them just barely Their hunger combined with his previous actions with Root Spiders
Crash
Randidly smiled darkly Just like he had predicted the stage had been hollowed out too much and part of it collapsed It was several meters behind Dian and to the left but it was a much closer goal
With this observable goal Randidly felt some of his determination return and with a yank gathered all of the insects back up into a group throwing more and more down into the spear that smashed into Dian’s energy He could feel it weakening but it had stabilized during that time Randidly had lost control of the insects
With flashing eyes Randidly set about rectifying that situation