Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 298!

Randidly pursed his lips and shook his head after scanning through the result. He waved his fingers through the air and the intricate weave of Nether he had been knitting since the first match now came undone. The rotation of his Nether Nebula reversed and suddenly the pulsing Nether threads were wound back around Randidly’s core like a fire hose spun back onto a large spool.

Almost unconsciously, Randidly brought his left hand and pressed it to his chest. He closed his eyes and focused on the sensation as he gathered the materials for the weave back within himself. As he had worked on this with more and more dedication, he couldn’t miss the fact that the Nether he used somehow remembered how it had been used in the past. Gradually, the compatibility between that Nether and Randidly’s intent was rising. Combined with his own improvements in understanding and Skill Level…

Well, for the moment it still isn’t enough. Randidly reflected as all his Nether arrived within him. Then, due to an ‘all okay’ message from Tatiana, Randidly signaled the referee below to begin the match. The two teams were allowed to walk out to the roaring approval of the crowd. In the second match of the day, Donny and Glendel would be taking on the combination of Tykes and Dinesh.

The two duos were familiar with each other; before Tykes and Dinesh left to become Nathan’s guardians, they had been influential members of Donnyton. But in the year and a half since they had left, the Earth had experienced an explosive amount of growth in terms of fighting strength. As Randidly followed the figures with his eyes, even his Grim Intuition could only provide a vague answer on who was more powerful.

The referee below raised his chin, oblivious to Randidly’s scrutiny. “Let the second match… begin!”

Well, the best way to reach an answer is just to watch anyway, Randidly reflected as he made himself comfortable peering over the edge of his island. Both sides exploded into motion.

If the first match was Kayle deliberately applying escalating pressure on Huang Li in order to flush out his full potential, the second match was two old rivals furiously throwing haymakers at each other from the jump. Dinesh clapped his hands together and summoned his Labyrinth of mirrors, hiding his and Tykes' presence in almost a hundred rotating panes of reflective glass. They shifted and cut sideways, soon surrounding the entire arena.

At the same time, Glendel elegantly waved his hand and summoned three ghastly specters that surged out of his shadow: a five-meter tall, four-armed gorilla, a human-sized heron with lines of razor-sharp teeth along its beak, and a high mound of slime that appeared to be crackling with electricity. While the heron beat its wings and then launched itself forward to pierce through the nearest mirrors, the ooze trembled and then began to flow around Glendel for its master’s protection.

Of course, Tykes was already on the move. From one of the tumbling planes of glass the man dashed forward, his huge iron ball raised to smash Glendel to pieces before he could dominate the battle with his ghosts. Donny sidestepped into Tykes’ path and raised his shield. A powerful image of momentum and stalwart purity faced off against each other.

Randidly had to squint as Donny’s image released a brilliant radiance. Really impressive manifestation, but still...

BOOOOOOOOM!

Tykes was stopped dead, but Donny was forced back several steps from the collision. He staggered so far back that Donny’s back foot accidentally stepped on the ooze and lines of electricity raced up his calf. His face twisted into a grimace even as Tykes grabbed a chain from his waist and hooked it onto his absolutely massive iron ball.

Rather than attacking the Donny struggling to recover, Tykes flung his chained ball directly backward. The four-armed ape smashed its knuckles into the ground and bounded forward to bowl Tykes over before he could continue his attacks. Tykes' hand snapped shut on the clinking chain and then he twitched his wrist to haul the ball back toward him.

It blasted apart the spinning panes directly behind him, revealing a Dinesh that was gripping the chain and crouching on top of the heavy ball. Tykes completely disregarded the ball then and lowered his shoulders toward the five-meter tall ape. Although he seemed like a child compared to it, he accelerated forward and speared it in the chest. The momentum that he could instantly generate was honestly intimidating

Donny regained his footing and unleashed a gleaming golden slash at Tykes’ back while the other man was grappling with the ape specter. Then Donny turned to the approaching Dinesh and spun his sword in his hand. “So, can you get past me?”

Dinesh didn’t even answer. His hands flickered and several daggers releasing green smoke fanned outward from between his fingers. Donny’s face turned serious. “Aegis!”

Five shields composed entirely of light spun around him and then slid into place to block the daggers. But Dinesh and the iron ball were moving so quickly that Donny swore and threw himself forward to intercept the heavy projectile once more. When Donny moved into position, Dinesh leapt off the ball and up over him, pulling out another three smoking daggers while he flipped through the air.

Randidly could see the indecision on Donny’s face for a split second. But ultimately, he settled himself to stop the metal ball, which was still heading toward Glendel who wasn’t quite fully covered by the ooze. Between the daggers and the ball, it was rather obvious which was more dangerous to a Glendel who only had up to his legs covered by the ooze.

At the same time, before Dinesh could throw his daggers, the spectral heron screeched and dove toward the man’s exposed back. Its claws raked across his leather armor, but that Dinesh simply shattered like the reflection that he was. Donny sensed what was happening, but had to smash his shield against the iron ball that arrived once more.

BOOOOOOM!

Dinesh reformed on the ground between Donny and Glendel, daggers fanning in every direction. They ripped through the spectral ooze and made the substance sizzle and collapse. Glendel narrowed his eyes as he looked at the rapidly disappearing defensive ghost. With light steps, Dinesh crossed the distance and arrived before the solemn-faced Glendel before he could summon another helper.

“Gallant intervention!” Donny yelled. But as he did so, the visual in front of him shattered. Instead of switching positions with Glendel, he suddenly had his limbs tangled up with the four-armed ape. And Tykes almost effortlessly picked up his heavy iron ball next to where Donny had been standing, tossing it immediately up in the air and smashing the surprised heron to ectoplasm oblivion. He yanked on the chain and caught the ball again almost casually, his arm raised as he scanned for his next target.

Dinesh’s Domain is not one that can be beaten by ignoring it, Randidly shook his head slightly. But it seemed like neither Glendel nor Donny had a Domain powerful enough to shake it in the short term.

As Dinesh pulled out another smoking dagger and pounced forward, Glendel tilted his head to the side. Grey-purple energy was beginning to gather around his arms. “Did you think that I haven’t been working on my own strength, as well? Rampage of the Sovereign-”

The Dinesh in front of his shattered, transforming into Tykes with his raised arm. Tykes’ grin was wide. “Will that be enough against me?”

Randidly held his chin in his hand as he smiled down at the arena; in terms of both teamwork and flair for the dramatic, it was clear which team was superior. He could sense a complaint from Tatiana coming, as a team with direct ties to the Order Ducis had made it so far in the tournament, but Randidly didn’t mind. Their images were very different from his. And he hadn’t particularly trained these two, although they did often spar with Helen and Ajax.

And besides, their matches were exciting to watch.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Glendel did certainly manage an impressive amount of power, considering the focus of his image was summoning servants, but it was nothing compared to the Tykes that dedicated his whole being to his power. Glendel was knocked back and out of the arena, a human arrow heading toward the stands. Luckily, Tatiana had stationed individuals strategically around for just this situation. And Randidly watched with amusement as Commissioner Klein Arrietti moved with impressive speed to catch Glendel before he crashed.

His new Class as The First Responder of Kharon is perhaps a little too on the nose… but its good to see that the transition was a success. Nathan said that the process… was not an easy one… Randidly chewed on his lip for a while, then turned back to the match.

With Glendel effectively out of commission, Tykes and Dinesh ganged up on Donny and began to thoroughly dismantle his defenses. Donny might be very skilled with a shield, but the combination of overwhelming power and Dinesh’s Domain was too much for him to handle. In the end, Donny was on his knees and the duo of Tykes and Dinesh was the second group to make it to the semi-finals of the tournament.

Tatiana sent Randidly a message asking if he would like to join them for lunch, but Randidly immediately declined. As Tatiana’s tricks to lure him into Kharon related meetings were getting more sophisticated, he wouldn’t take any chances, even for quality food. If she truly needed him, she would request him, so he didn’t mind skipping these informational discussions.

Besides, he had his own ideas. He took out his Philosopher’s Key and opened a portal to the space behind Helio’s shop. Most of the people were still within the arena, so it was relatively deserted and Randidly eagerly anticipated eating in peace. So he was in an excellent mood until he walked around the building and saw the sign on the door.

Will be back after the Match

Randidly rubbed the back of his head and then settled down to wait on the stoop outside and play with Nether. Luckily, Helio seemed relatively professional about opening his restaurant for the lunch rush. When the traffic in the area was still only a trickle, he was striding down the path.

He paused slightly when he saw Randidly, then resumed his high-speed walk and raised an eyebrow. “Hungry?”

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 299!

Randidly flicked his hand to disperse the Nether and nodded. “I’m thinking I’ll take twenty servings if you can manage it.”

Helplessly, Helio unlocked the door to his shop and walked into the building with Randidly in tow. “It’s possible, but it will take some time to make that much. My grill is only so wide. Also… usually, the lunch hashes are different than the breakfast offering. Would you like to look at the ingredients, or just have the breakfast option again?”

Randidly looked at the menu along the wall and selected the option that combined beef, onions, carrots, and turnips together and was served over biscuits that were freshly baked this morning. Then he sat and did his best to control his drool as he waited for the meal to be finished.

Helio could only make six servings at a time, so Randidly amused himself by imagining he was being served different courses as he inhaled the delicious food.