The dust cleared and revealed him standing on a platform of densely woven roots amongst the fractured arena Even as the ground continued to shudder and give way Randidly simply looked over at her The monstrous black hole that functioned as his mouth curved into an arc
Weak
His monstrous gaze made his reaction to her clear And it was an accusation that Alana couldnÆt deny after today Now that she had felt the edge of what an image was she could sense the depth of time and emotion that Randidly had put into refining this monster he now displayed How he managed to move through his daily life without breaking under this weight was beyond Alana
In addition Alana admitted that it was also true that the brilliant image she was currently displaying wasnÆt truly hers much of the emotional weight she wielded to craft her shimmering armor and her wings were borrowed from DonnytonÆs sorrow Tens of thousands of individuals had clasped their hands tight and wished for DonnytonÆs victory That was the blade she now wielded
Even as the watchers fled they sent her their hopes and prayers
A Valkyrie was born of that emotion burning with the raw power of their belief She raised her spear considering the twisting and hideous visage in front of her
Perhaps the most shocking part of this all was that even with her Perception Skill Hawkeye Alana was unable to find any flaw with the illusion that Randidly had created His image had become him and it was out for blood
We werenÆt the only ones to learn in this challenge were we Alana thought sadly Sometimes things must be broken for us to grow So letÆs finish this And hope that afterward we can still speak as friends
Above all Alana had learned to rely on the basics while fighting She had spent hours polishing her abilities in Donnyton repeating the same seamless motions Every blister was a hundred thousand thrusts bound together and given a physical presence on her body That was the reason that she had reached the apex of Donnyton Alana Donal would not take shortcuts on the road to power
So as she surged into motion she combined her most reliable three Skills into her bread and butter attack Heavy Blow Herculean Strength and Sun Strike The spear became a flare and exploded into motion
As though he was a terrifying inverted image of her the grey wraith like form of Randidly raised his left arm and met her attack directly on top of the of rubble the arena had left in the wake of its demise At that moment image and reality stopped mattering
The terrible monster hated by nature was real The determined valkyrie was real Then those stopped mattering too as they smashed into each other What was left was only the thin boundary where their two existences encountered each other The Valkyrie roared and the monster howled
Both craved victory But only one seized it
Alana survived the first strike simply because the ground beneath her feet gave out almost immediately as they crossed spears Instead of actually challenging Randidly directly what ended up happy was she had thrown herself toward him like a baseball and he had smashed her backward
As she straightened stone support pillars collapsed around her Even with her wings slowing her speed it hurt to smash into the stands Luckily they were completely abandoned at this point but Alana rapidly realized that the hole she had created in the middle of them destabilized the structure more than she had anticipated
Rather than ceasing after her momentum was dispersed it appeared that the collapsing was accelerating Soon huge chunks of stone fell down toward her position
Worse when she blasted her way out of that death trap by rapidly expanding her wings she found herself faced with a sliding and fractured battlefield The concussive force of their meeting had cleared out a wide space that seemed relatively stable but the rest of the island was suffering for it
Behind her the ground where the stands had pressed against the edge of the pond was already sinking into the water of the quarry Cracks as thick as her fist crisscrossed the area in front of her toward that central area Perhaps even more disturbing the water of the quarry was disappearing The water level was falling at a visible pace
Alana gritted her teeth We arenÆt just sinking this island We opened up a fucking sinkhole below the whole arena
But for now she ignored this impending crisis Instead she lowered her spear and rushed forward Energy began to howl through the connection Randidly had established with her all those years ago As she advanced Alana felt a Skill forming around her coming into being fully formed ValkyrieÆs Charge
Her arms began to glow with bright orange power The layer of wind and dust around her thickened as she strengthened her image bit by bit
WEAK
Their spears clashed again The Valkyrie ran up the hill and cut with the broken wind of a wasteland while the crowned monster coldly regarded her approach The dark hole of its mouth widened and tasted her fear and Stamina Then it struck
Alana survived the second strike because her spear snapped like a twig after only a split second of pressure from the wickedly long claws of RandidlyÆs hand Both were surprised by this and sped past each before they could recover
Or at least Alana had assumed so The speed at which they were operating was far beyond any fight that she had participated in previously
Yet as she straightened her glowing armor flickered and shuddered The thickness of her image dropped to the level that it only maintained its power a small distance away from her skin In horror Alana looked down and realized that her left shoulder had almost been torn off The jagged marks of RandidlyÆs claw made it look like a shark had taken a giant bite out of her
Thin lines of blood wound up the choppy ridges of her flesh and flowed down toward her twitching left hand
AlanaÆs mouth firmed into a line Even as the image she had inherited from the peopleÆs will began to fall to pieces she smashed those remaining prayers with her will and created a gleaming spear Before she could regret it her gaze found RandidlyÆs Tangerine eyes locked onto dark empty sockets
As she pressed further and further the image around Alana recovered A Valkyrie but one questing with a very specific purpose To guide the king who refused to die finally to Valhalla The Skill she had previously used reacted immediately rising to her need After it evolved she used Blitz of the Wayfaring Valkyrie
Their spears met in silence this time
If HelenÆs image was the sea and AlanaÆs image was a suit of armor RandidlyÆs image was a sharp blade bared to the sky He had condensed it into a physical form As they moved again to strike at each other he easily cut through her orange winds and met her spear
The Valkyrie started this journey at the behest of her duty but now she simply sought to give this cursed king peace
The monster was a child crying alone in the dark as the world burned to ash around him The force of the impression hit Alana like a physical weight
RandidlyÆs image was simple and vast The child and the ashes of a collapsing world There were no true answers in the image but there were not questions that needed to be answered so that it could be understood It simply was
In the face of that powerful image Alana couldnÆt help but soften Is bearing this horror the price you had to pay for your power Randidly I I would
That softness was the reasons Alana survived the third strike
The quarry did not soften and therefore did not survive Land and water were split in half and then sucked into the deep darkness of the EarthÆs embrace
Chapter 951
Han Yazhu knew it was petty of him but he secretly wished that the sinkhole that had opened up beneath the quarry would have continued to spread After witnessing the challenge he realized more than ever that Zone Seven needed all the help that they could get
DonnytonÆs Squads those pinnacle experts that fought against Randidly Ghosthound They had left a deep impression on him Until some other group was able to field a comparable team of experts in battle Donnyton would remain an unshakable power on Earth