[MA] 279. Fancy Tricks (Patreon)

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[A/N: This is Tuesday's chapter.

Heads up: there will be no chapter this Saturday because I must go on a trip.

Chapters this week: 1/2

Next release: Thursday]

Shen moved at peak speed. Conductivity made him and his weapon avoid a lot of air and water resistance, Stream made his moves much better than Liya's while underwater, and Extremity made his spear sharper than ever. His movements were as flawless as he could make them. Although his stats were inferior to hers, his spear was a C+ weapon, like his opponent's armor and resistance stat.

He swung his spear at Uya as soon as she was within reach.

The Staff Lieutenant had been forbidden from using weapons and externalizing her Laws in the fight, but her qi was still fair game. She surrounded her fists with it, producing a thin but highly condensed spiked glove-like layer on top of the gauntlets.

She punched his spearhead with no apparent concern.

Her lack of worry turned into surprise as the spearhead cut through qi, gauntlet, skin, and flesh. Sadly, her defenses cushioned the attack enough that the spear only broke her fingers' bones before stopping midway through to amputating them.

Uya didn't hide her shock from her face. Shen, in turn, was surprised by her shock.

Did she really think such a pathetic defense would be enough to completely nullify his strike?

Shen's Path had seven Laws. He was Attuning his qi only to Condudivity, but everything he did was still backed by True Boundlessness, Extremity, Shaft, Killing Weapon, Gentle Breeze, and Stream. Everything his Path touched was pushed in those directions according to his will—unlike external Law interaction that could be a bit wilder.

Having more or fewer Laws didn't make a Path stronger, only more versatile—or so Liya had taught him. But that wasn't entirely true in some cases. An Path's Laws naturally interacted with and spontaneously strengthened each other.

If someone's Laws were Killing Weapon and Extremity, another person only had Killing Weapon, and both shared similar comprehension of their Laws, a direct clash would benefit the one with two Laws.  That said, someone who used fewer Laws would likely progress faster, giving them the potential for having better comprehension as a foe in the same rank, and would know creative ways of applying their Laws. Someone with more Laws would master them more slowly and be a bit ganglier than them in direct comparison to someone whose Path only had one of those Laws.

It was a matter of absolute specialization versus generalization. Or, to put it in a better light, placing all your eggs in a single basket versus diversifying.

Still, Uya had believed her mastered Law made her impervious to Shen's attacks. Her qi was more potent than his, true, but his seven Laws gave his attack a nasty punch.

She had meant to keep advancing, but her failed defense made her indecisive on whether to continue or change her approach. Meanwhile, Shen was already moving to her side.

He attempted sawing her fingers off. He made his spear and its qi vibrate at an anti-carbon frequency and created an electricity-producing magnetic field to give Conductivity a field advantage. Electrical arcs appeared all around his spear. Laws became stronger when their physical manifestation was around. It didn't matter inside Shen because he was his Laws but made a small difference out of his body.

Sadly, Uya was just much faster than him. His spearhead had barely gone a millimeter deeper into her fingers when she quickly moved out of his spear reach, then tried to sidestep Shen.

Shen smiled. He had been hoping for that. If his next move worked, he would have a shot in this battle.

Said move was doing the same she was attempting against him, but he was better at it: he Backstepped.

Uya wasn't using any qi technique, merely circumventing Shen with her speed advantage. Shen, however, moved his qi inside his body in a specific pattern. It made the qi resonate with truths of Reality, which reacted to it by producing a particular effect—what commoners might call magic. He became faster for a short period as long as he moved to get behind a nearby foe.

The lieutenant was still faster, and Shen failed to get behind her, but Uya also failed to get behind him.

Backstep lost the race, but it didn't make only his legs faster. It also improved his body speed just enough to keep facing the Staff Lieutenant. Of course, it wouldn't have worked without the external Law attacks constantly slowing her down.

That was Shen's way of saying Uya had to work to crush him, as she had said she would. There was no convenient shortcut that would also humiliate him for letting someone straight up get behind his back in a duel.

Uya's face twisted in anger, marking the success of Shen's opening gambit.

"Emotional control has drawbacks," Liya had taught, "but the drow do it for a reason. Whoever lets their emotions control them and openly displays it is asking to be taken advantage of. Except for orcs. Don't provoke orcs unless you have no alternative. Their Berserker Unity racial ability shouldn't be taken lightly."

Things had gone just as Liya had said they would against a foe with poor emotional control who cared about their pride. If Uya had continued coming straight at Shen and punched him down, he would've lost. Instead, she attempted to make her victory look more skillful than sheer stat advantage after she was hurt in a direct collision. That gave Shen the opportunity he was looking for.

Now, it was time to see precisely how good a student he had been when it came to identifying and exploiting his enemies' mistakes—or how good Uya was at not making mistakes.

It was Shen's turn to move away from her. He had to gain time in this phase so she could mess up. He had an "ultimate plan," but it would work better if it looked desperate.

This time, the lieutenant chose to pursue Shen because she had a lower reach. His answer was to use one of the qi structures he had learned in the antidron. The Severing Matrix let Shen assemble qi attacks and disconnect them from his willpower. They didn't cause a willpower battle if they met enemy energy and would continue existing for as long as they had qi to sustain them.

Its most obvious usage was long-range attacks, and that's how Shen used it now. He willed a barrage of spear-shaped qi projectiles into existence and threw them at Uya.

Uya frowned but wasn't fooled by it as he had expected. She covered her body with a layer of qi and kept coming, knowing there would be no willpower engagement. So, the Cultivator Association had similar skills.

His long-range attacks were barely strong enough to damage someone with C armor and resistance stat. Uya's qi and armor effortlessly protected her. She defended her head with her vambraces.

Since that didn't work, Shen reverted to the basics. He started trying to stab her with the pointy end of his stick to keep her away.

She was forced to dodge or deflect his thrusts. Uya was stronger than him and could just push his spear aside, even if he repeatedly injured her hands and arms. He could at least guarantee she touched the sharp end of his spearhead.

The thrusts slowed her down but not enough; she slowly narrowed the gap between them.

Shen went for the Severing Matrix again but with a twist. He sacrificed some focus to create thousands of homing projectiles. The lower focus made his attacks slower for a moment, and Uya got one step closer to him, but then the spear-shaped qi projectiles were out. They went around her at different speeds, aiming at her head, while he kept trying to stab her.

Uya was forced to protect her unprotected head with her armored arms. A single projectile could do little more than pierce her C+ skin after going through her defensive qi barrier, but it would be an issue if two attacked the same spot or went through her eyes or apertures.

Uya couldn't simultaneously defend against the projectiles and physical spear and stopped approaching. Shen got ten yards away from her and kept shooting homing projectiles.

She didn't waste much time like that. She gave him her most resentful look yet as she took her helmet off her ring and put it on.

Then, she used a qi technique for the first time. His Law-vision let him see the qi moving inside her body in a pattern he didn't know. Her speed increased almost thirty percent, and she came for him with a vengeance.

Shen realized he had messed up. He had provoked her too much, too quickly. She had taken him somewhat seriously, and this was the most he could prolong their fight.

Therefore, he had to funnel Uya's emotions into making a mistake before she put him down, which was bound to happen very soon.

His original plan for his last resort required a two-step setup, but the first step had already failed: Uya hadn't gotten surprised by his Severing Matrix. He would have to set it up in a riskier way.

Shen had to lose a willpower battle and not die while he suffered from the mental rebound.

That meant being as far as possible for her so she wouldn't approach, and these ten feet were the furthest he would get. He had been much further away at the start of combat, but it would've been suspicious to go for a willpower battle then, nowhere as effective a misdirection as now that he could pretend to be desperate—which he kind of was.

Shen pulled his spear back, built a qi spearhead on top of the weapon's physical blade, and randomly rotated his qi to make it look like a technique's pattern. He made the qi spearhead pointier than he ever had and added Extremity Attumenent to his qi. He had to look like he was using everything he had.

Uya harumphed and stopped moving right beyond even the extended spear's range. She shook her head and gently pushed her qi-covered hand to stay right inside Shen's range. She was challenging him to get into a willpower battle and showing she wasn't stupid; she was suspicious of any hidden power his ultimate-looking move could have.

In any other situation, that might have been the right call. Here, it was the fruit of the hesitation he had forced into her with his tricks. It first made her put her helmet on, then not dare to face his attack with her entire body.

Here and now, however, it was the mistake he had been waiting for. It would give Shen more time to recompose after losing the willpower battle.

Seeing as his target was stationary, he also used the last bit of his focus and willpower to add Killing Weapon Attunement to his qi. That alone stretched his limits, and with everything else he had going, it made him barely capable of thinking.

It took everything he had to simply stab Uya's hand.

The ensuing willpower battle was short and brutal. Shen was using so much of his willpower elsewhere that little remained to fight Uya. His mind defenses' crumbled like dried grass on a beast stampede.

Shen went back to himself, feeling dizzy and lost but still conscious. He could barely recognize Uya was coming at him.

He needed no more than that.

His Law attacks, qi pattern, and Qi Attunements stopped due to the mental confusion caused by his loss in the willpower battle. He immediately remade the external Laws pushing pressure and Reattuned his qi to Conductivity.

Uya was already only three yards from Shen.

She had slapped his spear sideways as she approached, and he let go of it—slightly nudging it so it would fall in a specific position—while pretending to reach for one of his floating spears. He also tried to move back but would obviously be too slow for it. So, he pretended to attack out of desperation. He created new Severing Matrixes.

Uya ignored the projectiles and got two yards away.

Shen made it look like he was hesitating for a third of a yard before giving up on his spear. Then, he pulled his right arm. He let go of his external Laws and even his Qi Attunement. He didn't create a false qi pattern in his body this time because he had to make it look like this was his actual ultimate attack.

The only thing he did differently and couldn't hide from her was using a new qi structure on the qi spearhead he created on top of his closed fist. His plan would fail if she also knew this one like she had known the Severing Matrix. Otherwise, he might yet have a chance.

He punched while screaming out of "desperation," giving his all in this attack.

Uya had already won a willpower battle against him and didn't fear anything this time. Maybe the lack of True Boundless on her back helped with that, too. She punched his fist, her way of telling him she accepted his challenge. She would match fists or willpower against him any day.

Qi met qi, but no willpower battle happened.

Shen was using the Soulless Matrix. It let qi not engage in a willpower battle if it met an enemy's energy, but it caused no damage if it touched a soul.

So, his unprotected hand's bones broke, his flesh was torn apart, and his arm would soon follow.

Uya was wearing a helmet, but Shen could still barely see her facial expression with his Law-vision as her first hit his. When she showed her confusion and surprise, he made the qi inside his arm take the shape of the Willpower Matrix.

Her qi met his, and they entered a new willpower battle.

The Willpower Matrix used a willpower-saving trick to make his willpower effectively 5% strong in a clash of wills. Shen had purposefully made his will weaker in the prior engagement, and now he was using everything he had, plus the matrix's boost.

Although he had hoped for an exclusively physical victory against Uya, he had always known it was unlikely. She was too superior to him in almost everything: stats, qi, Law mastery, and combat experience. His only clear edge over her had been his aura, but even then, he could only use it as a foothold for his Laws to slow her down.

Mastering Laws required some willpower, and fighting to the death against the Void Spawn should also hone it, but Shen wondered how hers compared to his. He had undergone Liya's training, a Realization Impartation, and a Baptism of Self. That was his only shot at winning this.

Even then, he had tricked her to increase his chances. Willpower could be affected by emotions and one's state of mind. He made her expect to meet a weaker will in the second battle and only engaged while using the Willpower Matrix, after putting her in a state of slight confusion and great surprise.

It worked better than he had expected.

Shen's willpower didn't absolutely crush hers like hers had in their first engagement, but it was still akin to an iron foot stomping a twig box.

It also didn't make her as out of sorts as he had been when he lost, but he was close enough and perfectly timed his spear's fall, which reached his extended left hand as soon as the will-battle was over.

Uya already had a slow reaction time and was even more sluggish as she came back to herself. Shen Attuned his qi to Conductivity and added it to his spear for a speed boost and to find the best place to pierce her helmet.

The tip of his diagonally positioned spearhead went through her armor and cheek, shattered two teeth, and touched her mouth's ceiling.

But then Uya's body flared with qi in a new pattern, and her arm soared faster and stronger than ever. She punched his head in return for his strike. She was still matching his attacks.

Shen's spearhead was a hair's breadth away from her brain when his helmet and skull exploded in messy gore.

He had lost.

In fact, he had lost while acting according to this Will. However, he still felt himself growing more resolute. The remaining lower part of his face smiled widely underneath the shattered helmet.

This wasn't just a victory of Uya over Shen; it was a victory of overwhelming power over fancy tricks.

He loved it. That was what he was pursuing. He only had to grow strong enough, and then no schemes would be able to stop him.

Shen's loss paradoxically proved the superiority of the Path of Omnipotence he walked.

[A/N: I'll reply to a comment on chapter 278 here instead of in the comments because I find it important:

I know the previous chapter wasn't thrilling, but it was necessary. I explained how fights will work from now on in a very concise manner (trust me on that) during the setups (and actual use of those concepts) and put it in a single chapter. Together with the very little extra explanation in this chapter, we've covered how everything except Realization and Voice combat works: commoners, F-ranks, E-ranks, D-ranks, C-ranks, and even B-ranks (who fight as Liya and Uk'Gaar did).

Except for some brief additions and minute reminders here and there (like Shen's reminder of how qi techniques work in this chapter), we're done with technical combat infodumps.

As for not doing it at all, I like showing that things obey rules instead of being just shiny powers getting thrown around.

I also prefer to explain things in a potentially skippable block so that combat can flow better without midway explanations. Such an explanation still happened in the first third of this chapter when Shen talks about Paths with more or less Laws. Compare that to the remainder of the chapter, when everyone knew the how and the why of things being the way they are, except for a few reminders here and there.

I, at least, like it more. To me, it's like watching a game match with or without understanding the rules. It makes things easier to enjoy.

I might be wrong, though, and I'm open to discussing it and being convinced otherwise. Preferably on Discord, but it might be on PMs or Patreon comments, too.

I really hope this didn't come as resentful or salty because I'm very chill here. No one likes reading negative feedback, but it's much better than not knowing why people aren't enjoying your work. In the past, even constructive criticism put me in a dark place, but I learned it's okay if not every chapter or decision I make is perfect. Internalizing such a truth (instead of just intellectually knowing it) gave me a kind of peace I can't describe.

I can improve in some ways, and I appreciate the feedback. Already, it gave me an excellent opportunity to explain why I do some things. I could talk more about it if anyone's interested, but this note is already long enough.

Anyway, thank you for your patience with my writing skills and style. Learning how to write better is a journey, and I appreciate the company and support ^^]

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