31. A Bitter Fight, Part I

A Bitter Fight, Part I

After dropping Cheng Rui outside the shopping mall, I flew back as fast as I could to the place where we had previously turned the park into a disaster zone.

Normally, twenty seconds might not mean much.

In a fierce battle, however, one second was more than enough time to be stabbed or shot several times.

And we had left Chi Li alone in the middle of hundreds of enemies.

Fortunately, the enemy ground forces had not yet recovered from the combination of Cheng Rui’s laser attack, my violent charge, and their own magical artillery exploding directly in front of them.

Even better, enough time had passed for Super Suit to work its little miracle and restore my outfit to pristine condition.

That pristine state would not last long, especially not in the kind of brutal fight ahead.

But the pleasant scent of new leather, the simple comfort of wearing it, and the reassurance that my suit was not about to fail without warning helped take some edge off the enormous pressure of battle.

In a situation like this, every tiny bit helped.

I found Chi Li still holding the two fireballs steady in midair with magic. At the same time, she was wielding a wand and attacking a small group of enemies.

Five other wands lay at her feet, blackened and smoking, their magic clearly spent.

Another six were strapped to her belt, ready to be used at any moment.

“How’s it going?” I asked softly, hovering above her shoulder as she used a searing line of flame to slice the knees out from under another dozen executioners.

“Slow,” she snorted, curt and blunt. Then she tossed away the wand in her hand and drew a fresh one.

“More infantry keeps getting diverted to our position, and we still haven’t seen any sign of the enemy’s main force. Also, those two big demons on top of the towers require my full attention.”

“I didn’t see any main force on the way back.”

Even now, with my enhanced senses, I still could not detect any sign of the enemy’s primary troops.

“Maybe they were sent to deal with another survivor team?” Chi Li huffed.

Yeah.

Even I did not find that very convincing.

Our group had caused the enemy far too much trouble. There was no way they would simply leave us alone.

So what exactly were they planning to use to kill us?

Neither of us knew, though Chi Li did not seem overly worried about it just then. She was busy shooting more enemies with her new wand. This one did not spray continuous flame; instead, it fired an exploding fireball every few seconds.

While she attacked, I focused on defense.

The area was covered with scorch marks and slowly cooling droplets of molten metal. The fact that some attacks had missed their targets at all felt like a miracle.

To keep that miracle from failing us, I raised a domed forcefield around Chi Li.

Any hostile object that tried to cross the field would be struck by several tons of Proximal Manipulation, with the field attempting to stop or deflect it.

So long as too many objects did not cross at the same time, it could block bullets and arrows, or stop stray enemies who tried to rush her. Against artillery shells, or more than a few melee enemies, it would struggle.

The executioners—the enemy’s heavily armored ghosts—had almost reformed their ranks after their futile pursuit of Cheng Rui and me a few minutes earlier.

A formation of black-and-red armored enemies, wielding sinister and probably magical swords and halberds, was crossing the park. They had already formed three ranks, and their numbers were still growing.

For the moment, they did not attack.

They—or at least the one controlling them—understood that with their present strength, they could not overwhelm us.

And if they seemed likely to succeed, we would simply fly away. Still, the enemy’s lack of flying units would not last forever.

We had to reduce their numbers as much as possible before reinforcements arrived.

But if I was maintaining the defensive field, I could not do that myself.

I drew deeply on the inhuman stamina and vitality my powers gave me, then activated Persistent Force on the field I was maintaining.

My newest and least-used ability devoured my stamina the way a furnace devours coal, consuming the kind of energy I would normally spend over hours of hard exercise or fierce combat.

This was not simply enhancing a sword to cut slightly better, or strengthening a table to make it tougher.

This meant maintaining several cubic meters of independent, active ability.

It required tremendous support.

My limbs began to tremble. My breathing grew faster and faster. My heart hammered like it was trying to break through my ribs, beating at a ridiculous pace.

Finally, the effect stabilized around Chi Li.

Unless I actively dismissed it, or unless some stronger power destroyed it, the field would continue to function.

At that moment, several metal birds and dozens of imps were approaching us.

I ignored the smaller nuisances completely and grabbed the neck of the nearest twenty-ton magical bomber—otherwise known as a metal bird. My arms could barely wrap around its flexible yet razor-edged metal body.

Then I flew backward, shoving it along as it screamed in loud protest, almost as if I were piloting it.

A few days earlier, I would not have had the strength to subdue it so easily.

Now?

The moment it lost power and stalled, I spun it around and around until it had accelerated again, then hurled it toward the infantry gathering below.

Unfortunately, it did not hit exactly where I wanted. Its struggling threw it several yards off course.

Still, the impact was enough to kill it, and its self-destruction blasted several large holes through nearby executioners.

Two more of the larger airborne threats circled around me and flew straight toward Chi Li.

But just as I had grown stronger, I had also grown faster.

Before the first bird had covered a quarter of the distance to its target, I caught up and kicked it hard in the tail.

The blow sent it tumbling wildly through the air like a gigantic, fire-breathing metal shuttlecock.

The other bird reacted by immediately slowing until it was hovering in place, wings beating. Then it began flying backward.

All because of an invisible cone-shaped field of Proximal Manipulation, which dragged it back like a tractor beam.

By the time it reached me, it was moving at twice normal speed and tumbling helplessly, just like the first one. I dodged aside, slipped behind it, drew a deep breath, and exhaled hard.

A cone of wind far stronger than a hurricane blasted from my mouth.

Without my needing to get close, it drove the enormous metal bird forward and guided its trajectory until it slammed into the nearest tower and shattered.

The impact was unbelievably loud. The air visibly shook, enemy infantry on the ground were knocked off their feet by the shockwave, and pain stabbed through my eyes and ears.

Unfortunately, despite the violence of the impact and the explosion that followed, the tower itself still stood.