Master Eoarn whispered as he bowed his head The hoarseness of his voice surprised him What is your will
Oh donÆt mind me there is just a new recruit that I wish you to welcome with some of the hospitality of the inner areas Obviously this is no ordinary new recruit perhaps youÆve heard of the Head Drill Sergeant Very well connected very talented Surely an excellent addition should he stay here for an extended amount of time So we wish to keep his stay here as pleasant as possible I trust you will handle the situation
Eoarn bowed his head forward until his forehead touched the cool ground Of course master
He stayed there until his master thumped away the noise of his cane vanishing from the winding interior tunnels of this cursed mountain Then Eoarn considered his masterÆs words He couldnÆt help but shiver Hospitality of the inner areas a fight to the death As for a pleasant stay the only pleasant stay on this mountain is a short one So he wants me to either drive him away or kill him
I have no choice A swift death is better than the eternity that stretches before me
Eoarn felt no qualms about killing to survive as long as he had within this mountain he had to kill some of his closest early companions His hands were well and truly stained with blood And the process would be simple No matter how powerful an individual was outside of the mountain their images would be restricted by this place
Unless this Head Drill Sergeant was as powerful as the creator of the Grand Pattern his images would be perfectly useless here For the first time in a long time Eoarn felt some anticipation before a clash None of his usual fears manifested themselves This was a foe that he would be able to handle
Still Eoarn took his sweet time as he stood The task was easy but the arrangements were harder Groaning and rubbing his stiff neck he walked away from the passage that led into the depths of the mountain and approached the cave mouth His left arm continued to twitch As he walked toward the surface the song of the wind rose to a deafening howl
There were two ways of traveling through the Mountain of the Grand Pattern The first was through the interior passages the second was trooping up and down the outside However many of the interior junctions required you to pass a test in order to be allowed access You only needed to take the test once but the difficulties were not linear Some of the lower hubs were insanely difficult
I was invited to a training camp here Although I understood that the camp would be dangerous I assumed I was already accepted The Ghosthound finally said
Eoarn hopped up onto one of the stone ledges around the ravine and gestured for the Ghosthound to follow He felt pity for this talented young man Eoarn almost wished someone would have fought against him in his early days to warn him away You can consider this to be part of the training camp If you lose in this duel against me you may die Come I at least owe you an explanation before we begin
To his surprise the Ghosthound followed him without comment
They exited the ravine and stood on the bone dry surface ground Immediately the wind was amongst them forcing itself between their bodies and ruffling their clothes Eoarn turned to look at Randidly and raised his voice so it would carry about the wind Here the wind is god And the wind moves along to the mysteries of the Grand Pattern YouÆll note that your images are suppressed here it is only the power of the wind and your understanding of the pattern that is important You can only fight by borrowing that natural perfection of this place Please familiarize yourself with the surroundings I am in no rush
And when IÆm familiar The Ghosthound tilted his head to the side
Then we fight to death or surrender Eoarn said solemnly His heart was pounding The old adrenaline was rising through him It is the way of the mountain
I hope you donÆt surrender The twitching in his left hand finally began to stop as bloodlust filled him Killing you is my chance to regain my past self Before this mountain began to devour me
Most individuals had one of two reactions to the suppression of the mountain panic or fury The Ghosthound just nodded then raised his eyes to study the wind currents that moved above their heads In this place the winds were almost gentle They would buffet and shove but never cut or kill like the winds around the mountain would so gleefully do
Alright IÆm ready The Ghosthound said after a few minutes
Eoarn gestured You should have taken longer to familiarize yourself My condolences Feel free to take the first attack
The Ghosthound shrugged and began to levitate off the ground Eoarn opened his mouth to recommend that he stay nearer to the ground where the outcroppings would protect him but those words died in his mouth as the Ghosthound boldly floated upward several meters
and was immediately smashed with the wind Yet the Ghosthound barely even seemed to feel the cutting stroke of the wind even when thick image reinforced blasted moved together and began to grind at him from every direction Somehow he simply endured through it Eoarn couldnÆt believe his eyes
Then the Ghosthound raised his right hand and began to spin a finger Eoarn could almost see strands of the violent wind peeling off from the horrifying storm that raged above their heads and surrounding his digit After only five seconds his entire arm was sleeved in a whirlwind And once it had reached that size the speed at which it gathered power moved sharply upward
After only five minutes of study this talented young man rode and channeled the natural energies that drove Eoarn mad Being so casually outclassed
Howling of the force this new arrival gathered seemed to speak to him You were never meant to be anything but fertilizer
The Ghosthound flicked his finger and all that force was unleashed Eoarn simply watched it come He didnÆt bother to defend himself at all His twitch had returned Why should he struggle when he was so so exhausted
Chapter 1801
Veritable rivers of natural energy flowed back and forth smashing into each other and redirecting their flows in complex patterns that even Randidly struggled to keep straight The problem was that the energy was not Aether or Nether one thing that these two important energies had in common was that they were sticky and this energy was not sticky
That is they clung to each other ThatÆs why they could be used to form structures images for Aether and connections for Nether Once they were set their stickiness would hold them together
But the natural energy that churned above the solemn grey mountain behaved like fluttery light snow You could apply pressure and attempt to pack it together into a snowball but as soon as you released the projectile it would disintegrate into a miniature flurry With such chaotic behavior it was almost impossible to keep track of all the force
Which allowed Randidly to gather together an obscene amount of force very quickly but it left him lurching when he unleashed it and his opponent just watched
Congratulations Your Skill Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko has grown to Level 493
You Shit Randidly swore He possessed the reaction time to intervene but he was so caught off guard by this pale individualÆs lack of concern that he didnÆt take advantage of the small window he had to lessen the force of that avalanche of natural energy he unleashed All the force that he had gathered with Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko smashed into the figure and left a mangled spray of gore on the ground
Remnant limbs tumbled mid air almost in slow motion leaking blood Then everything hit the ground pulped flesh and mangled joints seemingly all at once
For several seconds Randidly just floated there letting the wind smash against his body Then he floated back down to the ground until he stood over the corpseÆ of the tester He frowned down at the bright crimson blood the hunks of flesh the pale bones You were definitely strong enough to block an attack like that So why
There was no answer Because no one remained to even understand RandidlyÆs strange sense of loss Death had arrived so suddenly The tester had heavily implied it would be a fight to the death but the anticlimactic conclusion left him disturbed