Once more, Randidly felt the Witch King pause as he rushed towards its back. It considered blocking Randidly, but it once again concluded it would be a waste. Its claw continued to rip towards Azriel. For her part, she used the combined time of those two hesitations to reposition her spear and thrust again. The thrust went wide of its body but knocked its far hand backward.

Randidly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at her. But if she lived, he would thank her afterward.

There was now less than a meter between the tip of his spear and the Witch King’s back. Randidly bared his teeth and used As the Sun Stills. In that small fraction of time, he focused on pouring more and more weight into his spear. To the point that Acri began to whine at the pressure, it was under. Randidly comforted it as best he could but continued to focus on the image of that impossible weight.

All at once, something gave, and there was the deadweight of a dying sun inside the tip of that spear. That dreadful weight crept forward.

Due to Azriel’s last attack, the Witch King was no longer the person who would strike first; it had altered his stance enough that Randidly would.

His spear smashed into the Witch King’s spine and it instantly twisted around. The force of the blow knocked it sideways and caused it pain for the first time of this fight, so there was a fire in its eyes as it turned. Then it paused.

It held Randidly’s gaze for several seconds. Its body began to fly backward. There was understanding there. It seemed to consider. Then it nodded slightly. It would be knocked flying and no longer attack Azriel. Because with the force it borrowed from Randidly’s attack, it would be able to dodge the golden hand from above.

It shrilly chimed its appreciation, but Randidly chuckled.

Acri slashed left and inflicted a small blow on the Witch King. But some of the weight from As the Sun Stills remained, and Randidly’s spear was able to cut through the Witch King’s body. Its acceptance turned into indignant disbelief in a second. It howled, but it didn’t fight the momentum.

There were some things more important than the blow that Randidly had struck at the last second, and its own life was one of them.

Abruptly, Randidly felt his Crown shimmer and disappear. The sense of clarity that he was operating under evaporated. He landed with as much grace as he could, his speed carrying him to stand in front of Azriel. Although it hurt to do it, he shoved her backward. Then, without missing a beat, be used Phantom Half-Step twice. Or he meant to. Unfortunately, the strange headache that had built from his use of the Crown had made him miss completely depleting his Stamina. Instead, he used Phantom Half-Step once, and then desperately used Scarlet Burst once.

That Skill moved him another meter backward away from the spot the Witch King was standing, but it wasn’t quite enough.

The Witch King flew out over the wall. The golden hand’s attack hit the battlements in between Azriel and Randidly. Before he could register the sound, the shockwave hit Randidly and for the third and hopefully, final time, threw him backward. Then the entire battlements collapsed from the force of the attack. The few surviving spear-users fell downwards and struggled to right themselves as the wooden framework collapsed.

Luckily, the spear-users were quicker than the Wights; within a few seconds they had found their spears and jumped off of falling wood to slaughter the couple dozen Wights that were caught in the tragedy.

Using Plant Dominance, Randidly moved through the falling wood and reached out. With both goals in hand, he landed with Azriel in his arms and leaped farther away from the collapsing wall. Above, the Wights were buzzing furiously. But a shrill noise that was likely from the Witch King stopped them in their tracks. Slowly, the floating army began to retreat.

Randidly sighed with relief. Then he shook his head, slightly annoyed at himself. Sure, it made sense to be glad that the opponent retreated, but still… Randidly supposed it was a function of how powerful the Witch King was, but he had gained quite a bit in the brief contact.

With a slight pang, Randidly realized it had been a few weeks since he had looked at his Status and extra PP anyway. He was deep in some calculations for improving the copy of the runic language he was leaving for the people at Erickson Steel when Helen had messaged him. Since then, he had basically been jogging.

Jogging would have honestly been a good time to handle his Path nonsense, but he had been too caught up in trying to figure out the vibe that Helen was throwing off to address it. So Randidly first found the medical portion of the defense force and dropped Azriel off there. She was weakly trying to stand when he finally left, shaking his head with exasperation. And they called him stubborn.

The two weeks prior to his departure from Earth hadn’t been accounted for, so Randidly gained a fair amount of Skill Level in Refine, Extract, Mana Engraving, Spriggit’s Tinkering, and Engineering Savvy. In addition to that, he had experienced a few Levels of growth in things like Chosen of Fire, and Gravity Affinity. From all of these combined, he had just about 50 PP.

Aside from those weeks working on Earth, he had also gained a fair amount of PP from the spar with Helen and his fighting today. It was only a scattering of Skill Levels in Incinerating Bolt, Circle of Flame, Spear Mastery, Idiosyncratic Cut, Plant Dominance, and Phantom Half Step, but he had gained 19 Skill Levels in the Crown of Yggdrasil: Silence and Upheaval and another 11 in As the Sun Stills. Likely these were all gained in the 60-second clash with the Witch King

Overall, he had 112 PP to pour into the Growth of Yggdrasil II Path, which scored him 11 free Stats and 11 Vitality. For the free Stats, he put them into Agility. After his run-in with the Witch King, Randidly realized that the amount he was pushing into Agility wasn’t enough to handle the caliber of enemies he now was required to face. He needed to up his game.

Afterward, he considered his Status.

Randidly Ghosthound

Class: Planting of the Forest of Enmity (+x5)

Level: 27 (97%)

Health(/R per hour): 1922/3384 (1651)

Mana(/R per hour): 701/3979 (819)

Stam(/R per min): 1799/3150 (541)

Vit: 355

End: 158

Str: 402

Agi: 455

Perception: 382

Reaction: 365

Resistance: 292

Willpower: 470

Intelligence: 506

Wisdom: 339

Control: 625

Focus: 298

Progenitor’s Influence: 12961

Skills (Soul Skill): Seven Lands of the Spectral Tree Lvl 1890

Combat: Spear Mastery Lvl 183, White Phantom’s Half-Step (Un) Lvl 79, Heavy Blow Lvl 96, Dagger Mastery Lvl 10, Iron Skin Lvl 47, Dodge Lvl 99, Fighting Proficiency Lvl 140, Block Lvl 74, Phantom Onslaught Lvl 42, Sweep Lvl 54, Spear Deflect Lvl 10, Calculated Blow Lvl 93, Roundhouse Kick Lvl 72, Idiosyncratic Cut (Un) Lvl 106, Pierce the Skies, Shatter the Earth Lvl 57, Body Control: Freeze Lvl 37, Stalemate Breaker Lvl 35, Talon Strike Lvl 43, Counter Lvl 59

PoFE Class Skills: Plant Dominance ® Lvl 116, Spray Holy Sap (Un) Lvl 9, Sharpness Lvl 79, Call Grove Defenders ® Lvl 34, Earthquake (Un) Lvl 44, Invigorating Call (Humanity)(Un) Lvl 14, Four-Shaded Domain (A) Lvl 29, Phantom’s Lantern (Un) Lvl 35, Grasp of Lava ® Lvl 80, Erode Image (L) Lvl 7, Vengeful Bloom (Un) Lvl 19, Gallant Intervention (Human) Lvl 4, Spriggit’s Tinkering ® Lvl 75, Aether Understanding (A) Lvl 51, Summon Lava Golem (Un) Lvl 46, Aether Infusion Lvl 45, Scarlet Burst ® Lvl 1, Volatile Ash (A) Lvl 1, Visualization ® Lvl 1

The 7 Kata of the Ashen Spear (Ru): The Spear Advances, Ash Trails Lvl 86, As the Sun Stills (A) Lvl 50

The 6 Signs of the Spear Phantom ®: The First Sign- The Inevitable Phantom Arrives Lvl 101 (Un), The Fifth Sign- The Wild Phantom’s Embrace (A) Lvl 184, The Sixth Sign- The Breath of the Spear Phantom ® Lvl 65

Aether Skills: Aether Detection Lvl 106, Aether Manipulation Lvl 101, Living Aether ® Lvl 106, System Interference Lvl 12

Spells: Spearing Roots Lvl 99, Mana Bolt Lvl 28, Mana Shield Lvl 32, Arcane Orb Lvl 22, Fireball Lvl 30, Magic Missile Lvl 4, Healing Palm Lvl 12, Pollen of the Rafflesia Lvl 20, Summon Pestilence Lvl 55, Wall of Thorns Lvl 29, Yggdrasil Soul Seed ®, Inspiration ®, Incinerating Bolt Lvl 95, Circle of Flame Lvl 76, Plantomancy Lvl 35, Hammer of the Dawn Lvl 37, Burning Footsteps Lvl 23, Ashes to Ashes (A) Lvl 61, Touch from Beyond ® Lvl 24, Gravity Affinity Lvl 70, Incendiary Eruption Lvl 52

Crafting: Potion Making Lvl 73, Farming Lvl 34, Plant Breeding Lvl 19, Mapmaker Lvl 7, Analyze Lvl 29, Refine Lvl 72, Extract Lvl 58, Mana Engraving Lvl 130

Yggdrasil: Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 105, The Golden Roots of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 129, the Emerald Sap of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 130, the Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 131, the Indomitable Spirit of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 127, the Cruel Indignation of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 119, Crown of Yggdrasil: Silence and Upheaval Lvl 30

Auxiliary: Sneak Lvl 46, Acid Resistance Lvl 22, Poison Resistance Lvl 21, Pain Resistance Lvl 63, First Aid Lvl 16, Pathfinding Lvl 18, Fire Resistance Lvl 102, Sewing Lvl 11, Cutting Vegetables Lvl 2, Manual Labor Lvl 6, Digging Lvl 5, Cooking Lvl 73, Clockwork Mastery Lvl 25, Aether Connection (A) Lvl 15, Soul Bond Lvl 105, Chef’s Palette Lvl 30, Nether Resistance Lvl 13, Child of the Rain (Un) Lvl 16, Chosen of Fire ® Lvl 86, Engineering Savvy ® Lvl 78,

In addition to reaching Level 25, he had also gained two more Levels to put him at Level 27. Those free Stats were largely also pushed into Agility. There was a part of Randidly that worried Helen was exaggerating the lack of worries by the individuals running the tournament, but another part of him was furious that he had repressed himself, and was glad to shoot up in Level.

Hell, if the tournament lasts a month or two, there was probably a chance of him rushing straight up towards Level 50.