Chương 109: Do censored things around

It seemed that a fight was inevitable. Everyone stood stiffly in their places, ready for the outburst of violence that could happen at any moment. Dennis' body was relaxed, but he positioned himself specifically so he could instantly move in any direction at a moment's notice. Mark stood half-crouched, ready to quickly draw his daggers like some kind of samurai wannabe. Even Sydney, while desperately trying to look cool and unbothered, was clearly tense. Mary seemed to be reevaluating her life choices.

Only Lily looked like she actually wasn't bothered by any of it. Again, he wondered if it was just her emotionlessness thing or if she actually reached the limit of the fucks she could give a while ago. Wind blew gently through the street, the only sound in the otherwise silent confrontation. Everyone was waiting for the first move. This was kinda awkward. Dennis' skill was reactive in nature. To activate it, he needed someone to save. Without it…

well, he wasn't helpless, but his options would be much more limited.

"So, are you holding her in some kind of evil government cell?" he fished for information.

"Threatening to not give her any leaves to eat unless she cooperates?" Elves had to be vegetarian, right? Probably. That sounded like it made sense in his head. He just needed a valid enough reason to save her. Heroic Senses didn't trigger, but sometimes finding out more information or reframing the situation could help. Probably. Mary sighed, dejected.

"Of course not," she muttered.

"She's completely–""That's for me to know, and for you to wonder," Sydney interjected. She smirked at him.

"Why aren't you attacking, hm?" She knew. Or figured it out close enough that there was no difference.

"You can't," Sydney said smugly.

"The only known instances of you using your skill were when you were using it to help people in some way. It lets you 'save' people. There is no one to save here, Dennis. I, specifically, am trying to keep everyone safe. Just drop it." Dennis cursed under his breath. He was used to his enemies being aggressive. Actively threatening people around him. He had Lily with him to use as bait, but there was no way in hell anyone here would be dumb enough to try and attack the girl.

Lily hummed, watching the woman thoughtfully. Sydney sighed.

"You're wasting my time," she said quietly.

"Enough of this." If he stood still, his left leg would be broken. Fucking again?! He jumped to the left, frantically looking around, trying to figure out where the danger was coming from. No one else moved. It was like there was no attack in the first place, and he just jumped like an idiot. Sydney looked slightly surprised.

"Like I suspected, your second skill is danger-sense," she said in the bored tone of a researcher doing a dissection.

"Nice synergy."

"What is it with you and breaking legs?!" he shouted, pointing a finger at her.

"How else would you disable someone with superspeed?" she asked rhetorically.

"Don't worry, we have healers. I'll fix you up eventually." If he stood still, his right leg– He dashed to the right. Nothing happened. Did she fucking try to break the other leg?!

"Bitch!"

"Don't you see that you've already lost?" she asked tiredly.

"Just give up, and I won't even break anything. We'll save your hobo later." While the situation seemed somewhat precarious, Dennis didn't really feel cornered. Really, it was the opposite – with only what was on the board right now, he would win. Sydney had a dodgeable leg-breaking skill, and Mark could cut things at a distance. Dennis had enough raw fighting talent, and enough mana for Kriya to carry him.

Unless the goons attacked to exhaust his mana, he had more than enough to close the distance while dodging the attacks from the elites, and at that point it would be him breaking people's legs, not the other way around. The goons wouldn't attack – while Lily did nothing right now, she would run into the line of fire if bullets and arrows started flying, thus giving him the buff. They were cancelling each other out that way. The problem was Sydney's second skill.

It was something that gave her a fighting talent comparable to his own, if a bit worse. If that was all that it did – he would win. If her leg-breaking skill or talent-giving skill could do more – well, unknowns could be deadly. Stolen story; please report. It was a game of chicken. If he kept just dodging, fearing Sydney's unknown capabilities, she would exhaust his mana and win. If he attacked, and she didn't have an answer to that – the win would be his.

If she had more bullshit up her sleeve – well, it would depend on bullshit. More than that – it was also a game of chicken for her. She didn't know if his skill used mana or not, and if her skill used a resource, it was possible that she could exhaust her skill first. Of course, she had more mana than he did, but breaking legs had to cost more than a little warning, and he had the magical soul-squeeze up his sleeve, even if he was wary of using it. He had a feeling she understood the layout as well.

If he stood still–"I'm pretty sure I'm winning," he said calmly, doing another hop to the side and simultaneously unsheathing Muramasa.

"Good thing you have healers. Hope they know how to attach limbs." He glanced at the blade.

"And probably heal tetanus." He really should take care of his sword more. He dashed towards the woman. A flick of the Mark's wrist forced Dennis to jump back. A clean line of cut asphalt stretched in front of him, almost as if marking the territory Dennis couldn't cross. He's also aiming for my legs. He'd have to buy leg protectors or something. In the speedster business, they were essential, it seemed.

The only reliable way to dodge a long-distance low slashing attack like that would be to jump over it, Kriya or not. By the look on Sydney's face, she very much wanted him to jump. Yeah, if he jumped it would be straight into her bullshit with no way to change course. Dennis clicked his tongue in frustration. He had a few ideas on how to brute force the issue, but it would require feats of acrobatics risky enough that even he was hesitant to try them unless no other options remained.

Couldn't they try to kill a defenceless little girl like normal villains?

"Lily, I know I'm asking for a lot here–""No," her reply was quiet, but instant. She wanted to help, but pretending to be something she wasn't was almost equal to suicide in her mind. She was terrified of the possibility, and this wasn't a life or death battle. She certainly wasn't ready to do something so drastic for Gareth's sake. How the hell she had managed to hold a grudge against Gareth while literally pretending to be dead the entire time she interacted with the hobo, he had no idea.

"Give up," Sydney said again, sending another invisible attack at him.

"I'm still pretty sure I can win this," he replied, thinking, while he dodged again.

"Doesn't look like winning from what I'm seeing," she sighed.

"You think you can pull off some insane move to get close and hope I'm bluffing about having a trump card in case that happens." Okay, he had to admit that she was pretty good at reading the flow of the battle. Another invisible attack. He was down to two-thirds of his mana. He really hoped he wouldn't have to squeeze too much. That could turn out nasty.

"You really can't win this," she continued.

"Please. I don't really want to hurt you. Just change your mind, and we can go drink tea or something. You're making Mary worried." Mary, indeed, seemed to be an anxious wreck. Her eyes were darting back and forth between them as she bit her nails. She probably hoped that they would talk it out or something, and now had no idea what to do when it turned out that when two people refused to change their minds it led to conflict. If he stood still, both his legs would be broken. He dashed to the side.

"Really sending some mixed messages here!" he shouted back.

"Look, bud, no offense, but you really should just stand down," Mark said, still ready to flick the moment Dennis came too close.

"You can't win this. Not against her. She–""Let me explain," Sydney drawled out.

"My skills are called Preparation is Key and Control is a Virtue. Preparation makes it so I am prepared for any battle, without the need to actually prepare. It gives me the necessary knowledge, skills, and even redistributes my stats and gives me weak Skills to defeat my enemy. Against dungeons, I know where to go, where the traps are and how to disable them. Against the monsters, I know their weak spots and have everything I need to beat them as if I prepared for the fight my whole life."

She looked at him sternly.

"My first Skill makes me the perfect counter to any one opponent I'm facing, like I was preparing to face them my whole life." What kind of bullshit was–" Control allows me to define rules within certain areas," she continued.

"The current rule is 'whoever stands in the area gets their legs broken'. Even if you're managing to evade it, even if you'll manage to get through, Preparation would give me the tools necessary to respond appropriately." Okay, what the fuck? Why the hell was she revealing her cards like that? Ah, right. She hoped he would see himself checkmated and give up. Trying to win the fight without fighting it.

"That's just broken," he muttered.

"It is," she nodded. He kind of forgot that Elites weren't Elites because they had a high level. They had a high level because they were Elites. Those skills were busted. Sydney wasn't just some random goon. She was the best out of hundreds of thousands, literally one of the strongest people on Earth. But she wasn't telling him everything. His mind filled the gaps, figuring out her limits. Essentially, by picking an opponent, she would get the tools needed to defeat them.

It had to be limited by how much actual power she had, in the same way Lily could technically do anything but was limited by mana. Her skill could give her the fighting talent comparable to his, but he doubted that any amount of mana could make someone actually as good at sheer fighting as he was. Also, any one opponent. She was screwed against crowds. What was worrying was that it could redistribute her stats and give her actual Skills that countered the opponent.

It was possible that she could get her hands on intangibility, for example, even if the ability would probably be weak as fuck. What else? She was supposed to get knowledge about her opponent – but he saw her confirming her theories about him. Kriya blocked that part, in other words. She was getting the tools to answer the things she knew about, but nothing more than that.

Control is a Virtue similarly sounded busted on paper, but he wasn't seeing her defining the whole city as her zone and making a 'Dennis loses' rule. Shit, her zones were small enough to be jumped away from before they were formed. Small, and probably unmovable, she was remaking them with every attack. What was the most worrying was the sheer utility of her kit. Both of the skills seemed to be relatively weak in pure power, but the range of options she had was outright ridiculous.

Was it possible for her to make a bigger zone by weakening the rule? Instead of breaking his legs, could she make his muscles cramp but with a blast zone five times bigger? Make the ground frictionless? Disable his Skills? That would probably be the contest of power between the Skills. Shit, Kriya had only three levels on it. He'd need to watch out for that.

"Still winnable," he muttered quietly under his breath. He just had to figure out how.

"Ah, fuck it," he heard Lily mutter. Glancing at the girl, he saw her pull out a gun. What– She aimed it at Sydney, somewhat awkwardly. Did she steal a fucking gun from the wannabe-policemen?! The crack of gunfire echoed through the street. The world slowed down, freezing Sydney's expression of befuddlement. She became a savable target.