At first, Matt and Arthur had tried to overwhelm Diana by attacking her from multiple angles at the same time. She had avoided their onslaught with concerning ease. Even Matt's surprise attacks were ineffective against her.

She ignored his illusions completely, as if she knew they were fake. Her eyes tracked him as he moved through shadows even when she shouldn't be able to see him. Matt was forced to accept that he wouldn't be able to deceive this opponent. His greatest advantage was nullified.

Strangely, he found that he was still able to keep the current length of his Sable Katana obscured with his shadows. After exchanging blows with her where she used her wooden bow to block and redirect his blade, it became clear that she could not actually see through the shadow covering the katana.

Matt started his attack with the blade extended to just over three feet long. He struck at her repeatedly until she got used to the length, and at just the right moment, he retracted the blade and slipped through her guard.

She recovered from the surprise quickly and spun to avoid the worst of the attack, but Matt managed to slice her right arm open just below the shoulder. Her eyes widened for a moment and she turned her spin into a reverse kick that caught Matt in the stomach.

At the same time, she drew an arrow from her quiver and sent it after him while he was flying back through the air. Having no other way to dodge the deadly projectile, Matt condensed his qi and used it to push off the wall to his left. The slight change of direction was barely enough to allow him to avoid the arrow.

Arthur, who didn't have the benefit of his sword, seemed to be trying to break the record for spin kicks. Using his Void Greaves to jump off the air, he could change directions in many unexpected and hard to predict ways. If he thought she was going to dodge, he would plant his foot anywhere on the ground or air, and come at her from a different angle.

Matt recovered and dove back into the fight with his katana. For the most part, Matt would stay low and attack her legs and torso while Arthur aimed for the head. Matt twisted, spun, and rolled across the ground to find a way past her guard, but she wouldn't have it.

Diana constantly kept her bow in between herself and Matt's blade while she weaved around Arthur's kicks. Whatever type of wood the bow was made of, it was surprisingly strong. Matt couldn't see a single scratch on it from his blade.

Every once in a while, she would pull another arrow out of her quiver and expertly fire while dodging.

They took extra care to avoid those, as everything that they hit was decimated, turning into splinters or shrapnel, and leaving a crater with an deceptively innocuous wooden arrow sticking out of it.

Matt was constantly on the alert for the reinforcements that must surely be on their way to them right now. They were not exactly being covert at the moment. Arthur alone was putting out enough light to blind a bat. She noticed him glancing around and laughed.

"You need not worry about the guards" Diana proclaimed. "We have not had the chance to fight real opponents for eons."

Matt hoped that was an exaggeration. She looked like she was in her late twenties at the most. The only way that Matt could imagine someone living so long, was if they had stepped outside of the Mortal Realm that Zachias was always talking about. Was she toying with them? Were they fighting a hopeless battle?

Arthur seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Matt, because he redoubled his attack. Matt, however, started looking for a means of escape. Their mission here was a wash. Diana's presence changed everything. Apparently, there were already people on Earth who were trained in qi at the very least.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Even under the circumstances, Matt was confident that he could escape from this mansion. However, getting out with Arthur in tow and trying to find Jack along the way? The odds of pulling that off were dismal, especially with an Amazon warrior princess on their heels.

They would have to give something up. But could he do that?

Arthur was a glowing blur of kicks. He was throwing so many attacks at her that it looked like she was fighting four different people.

She dodged every kick while moving as little as possible. It wouldn't be long before Arthur was exhausted, and given that she was barely moving, he would run out of energy before Diana did.

He kicked towards her face and stepped off the air, backflipping to stand just in front of Matt, his face grim.

"Go" he said sounding resigned. Matt looked at him questioningly.

"You want me to leave you here?" he asked with shock. Arthur looked at him without taking his eyes completely off of Diana.

"I want you to live."

Those words resonated with Matt all the way down to his bones. He didn't understand why at first, but then he put it together.

He was a survivor.

That was what Matt was at his core. No matter the circumstances, whatever fate had in store for him, Matt would find a way to make it out alive.

Matt knew that Jack would die before he left Arthur behind, but Jack only loved other people, never himself. Being a survivor wasn't the most flattering revelation in the world, but it didn't have to be.

In that moment, he understood himself like never before.

As Matt sensed his chakra for the first time, his shadows swirled around him and condensed into rising tendrils like black fire. He felt that he could use them to make anything. Since he had first manifested his qi, he had focused mainly on using the shadows for illusions and obscuring. However, he now saw how limiting that was.

There was nothing wrong with sleight of hand, but it didn't have to be his only trick.

Matt used his shadows to form two extra pairs of arms underneath his own like an asura of legend. He used his chakra to manifest more qi and created four short katanas for his shadow arms. They wouldn't hold up to direct contact with Diana's bow, but they could do some damage to her body. After all, what could be sharper than a shadow?

Arthur was keeping her occupied again and Matt allowed them to duel until the moment was right, and he entered the melee. He kept his Sable Katana short so he could make use of the shadow blades.

Diana wasn't expecting him to show up in the fight again at all, let alone with two new sets of arms, so she was taken by surprise. Matt held her bow with his metal katana and stabbed with all four shadow arms.

Her eyes widened when she was pierced in her thighs and either side of her belly. She leapt back and her expression turned to one of rage.

"Now you both die" she declared with no hint of pain or debilitation, only wrath. A transparent haze of energy swirled around her hands and the bow and arrow that she was holding. Clearly, she had been holding back the entire time.

Matt looked to Arthur who nodded. He understood.

"Find Jack" Arthur requested softly and then he looked at the beautiful woman and spoke to her with a smirk.

"I call this one the Solar Flare" he said and put his fingers up next to his temples. Arthur's whole body shone like a small sun. There was so much light that it was uncomfortably hot, not to mention incredibly bright.

Matt covered his eyes in shadows and made a break for it towards the back of the property. He heard multiple bone shaking crashes that he assumed were the supercharged arrows that Diana fired indiscriminately, trying to kill them. Matt blended back into the shadows as he rushed through the white mansion.

He ended up in a massive garage with rows of luxury vehicles. On the back wall, he found the circuit breaker panel for the mansion. After a moment's thought, he used his katana to slice it to pieces. As soon as his blade passed through the middle, the power in the mansion was cut, and every light in the giant house suddenly turned off leaving behind nothing but darkness.

This was his domain now.

With two quick slices, Matt created a triangular hole in the garage door big enough for him to roll through. Once he was outside, he slipped around back, deciding that the front yard was likely covered by the majority of their guards.

As he was making his way across the backyard, there was the loud crash of glass shattering to his right, followed by a thump only a few feet away from him. Matt was about to bolt, but a bright source of light in the house flared, probably Arthur. It illuminated the backyard just enough for Matt to see what had landed next to him.

Laying on the ground motionless, was the barely recognizable body of Jack. He was beaten and bloody from head to toe. There were limbs that were bent out of shape, and he was clearly unconscious, but his chest was still rising and falling.

From the window that Jack had just flown through, appeared the silhouette of a man holding a long thin cane. When the man looked down into the backyard to locate his victim, all he found were shadows.