Obviously, things like “Threat Level Lethal” and “Proximity Close” were a concern, even for someone like me. It had taken long enough, but Diaochan had eventually come to a solid understanding of what I was capable of, and perhaps more importantly, what kind of power was required to be a threat to me. If she said that [Arm-Ripper Lunge] was a dangerous enough ability that I should consider it lethal, I would do so. I didn’t consider such a claim insulting, though I felt otherwise about a man thinking he could attack me unarmed. Legendary martial artists and cultivators had tried that many times, and all had come to regret the decision. If you are planning on clashing blades with the great Lu Bu, you had best ensure you actually have a blade to clash with.

  The movements of the raindrop in his Evolution suit were actually faster than my own. It just didn’t matter, as any warrior will tell you, superior timing defeats superior speed. I pivoted mid-stride and easily slid around the young man’s lunging attempt to grab me. As I had predicted, he sped up in the last moment so much that I almost couldn’t see his movements anymore. That would be the lunge portion of Arm-Ripper Lunge.

  It was a good thing he did, as I had predicted wrong; I would have looked most foolish indeed when I spun my spear and lashed out with it. As I had in fact predicted his movements and speed correctly.

  I hacked a chunk from his back armor just below his shoulders. The energy blade of my spear didn't dig anywhere near as deep as I would have liked, though that in itself was no surprise. The evolution suits were famously expensive pieces of equipment intended to make the wearer practically invincible, to turn their trips down into the lower sections of the city into a game for them to play.

  That was alright, I would simply cut into him as many times as required until the armor either ceased to function or ceased to protect him.

  There was a minor complication with my plan as it stood, or eight issues, I suppose. The pack of scout drones was still bearing down on me as fast as their clawed feet could carry them.

  Still suspended on his metal spider limbs, the raindrop controlling the drones was already putting distance between us. I could probably run him down with a little effort, but his companion was too fast to simply ignore and bypass.

  I still didn't want to waste the deaths of the drones for an abysmally small portion of XP, especially not with so many already gathered.

  As everyone knows, you can't have fish and bearclaw at the same time, so I was going to have to make a choice about what I did and who I went after.

  As annoying as it was, I chose to deal with the most immediate threat, which happened to be the raindrop in the bulky Beowulf suit.

  He hadn't been exactly pleased by my contemptuous evasion of his lunge attack and proceeded to activate a new ability my HUD identified as.

  [Barrow King's Blade]

  [Target: Self]

  As he spun to face me, a full broadsword made of sickly green energy appeared in his hands. My HUD also mentioned how the weapon’s effectiveness was based on certain stats that the suit had unlocked. I didn’t have time to really pay attention to the full details, but it was clear enough that I didn't want to get hit with the thing.

  He wasn't alone in activating an ability, with a flick of my focus I for the first time in actual fight activated.

  [Do Not Pursue]

  [Level Three]

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  [Source: Class]

  [Generate a barrier that prevents movement into or out of a twenty-foot by twenty-foot square around the user. Barrier can be destroyed by an impact greater than the user’s maximum strength. ]

  [Duration: 2 Minutes]

  [Cooldown: 24 Hours]

  I had spoken to Diaochan about this ability at length and understood that while its durability was based on my physical strength, the use of the ability, which I had named ‘Do Not Pursue,’ was based on my quintessence, which was, of course, my weakest stat by a decent margin. It was no surprise, really. Quintessence was about interacting with the world around you through the medium of your soul. As powerful as mine was, I had little to no practice with that sort of sorcerer nonsense.

  As much as that wasn’t something that I usually worried much about, it did mean that the effort of projecting a wall of energy to lock the raindrop in with me was so inefficient that I actually felt a wave of lethargy wash over me. It honestly felt like I had just run several hundred miles in a single day, and was now expected to fight. Fortunately, unlike wizardly bullshit, that was something I had plenty of experience with.

  “You are one hundred percent fucked, you know?” Said the raindrop as the barriers of…Am I just going to call it Qi, alright? It looked like Qi to me and was an ethereal crimson energy that could interact with the real world. If that wasn’t Qi, then it was close enough. As the barriers of Qi sprang up around us, he set his stance to approach me with more caution and technique than his headlong rush before.

  “If I kill you, no one cares, and it doesn’t even get investigated. Just one of thousands of lower-tier disappearances. If you somehow get lucky enough to even hurt me, a level ten security team gets dispatched to get me to a hospital and fill you with bullets.”

  I didn’t think that was very good posturing, but that was pretty normal for someone whose power came from elsewhere rather than themselves. The wealthy in both this world and my own have always been like that, proud of the people they employ, as if paying someone to do what you can’t is somehow worth bragging about.

  “And if I just murder you?”

  I was kind of taken aback that he didn’t have a response in mind ready to go when I said that, but he didn’t. In fact, my threat seemed to take the paler of the two raindrops by surprise. To my understanding, the clans went out of their way to be accommodating to the rich kids who came down here to slake their own murderlust and desire to gain XP. So maybe he honestly hadn’t expected some back and forth.

  “Well, why don’t we find out?” He eventually replied lamely and moved to attack me. Now armed with a two-handed energy blade of his own, my opponent’s effective range was almost as long as my own. That, combined with his speed and the way I had locked us into a small space together, meant he was even more dangerous than he had been moments ago when our fight started.

  I still needed to keep him focused on me, and not try to hack his way through the barrier my ability was projecting. It seemed to me there was a good chance that if he turned his weapon against the walls of Qi, the ability would be broken, and I would once again have to contend with the swarm of drones bearing down on me.

  Simple enough, I went on the attack. Bracing my spear against my right hip, I launched a series of thrusts at the pale raindrop’s head. It was probably some module built into his HUD or armor doing the fighting for him, but he did a good job keeping his face protected with his energy blade and even managed to slip in a few counterattacks between parries and blocks.

  As fast as he was, the raindrop remained easy to predict. I swayed out of the way of his attempts to counter me and slipped my spear past his defenses more than once in that first flurry. I had been idly wondering to myself why he didn’t wear a helmet, when the answer was revealed to me by my spear surging towards his face.

  A couple of inches before the energy blade of my spear impacted his right eye, there was a bright flash of light and a sudden pulse of force pushing against my weapon. It was similar to the sparks that flew when my spear’s energy blade met his, though far brighter. When it did, my HUD apparently knew exactly what it was dealing with.

  [KaiRoe Bright Halo Head Forcefield]

  There was a longer description of the course, but I didn’t have time to read it. Naturally, Diaochan did what she was supposed to and gave me a summary of the ability. It came from a piece of gear that was inside his armor and turned on when his head was threatened to project a field of…Am I just going with Qi again, okay? It projected a field of Qi that repulsed all but the most powerful attacks.

  It was impressive, I suppose, but I think I would prefer a helmet to something like that, and my opponent was about to learn exactly why.