Mu Ba tumbled down, down, down into a cavern, where two transmigrators stood facing him. One, a portly woman surrounded by a multicoloured haze; the other, the long-limbed nightmare described by Xian earlier, who licked her lips with a long, forked tongue as she eyed Mu.

The portly woman slicked back her puff of brown hair and grinned nastily at the Young Master. “Best to surrender now, boy. You can’t win against us - she is a master of spatial magic, and I have proficiency in all five elements.”

Mu spit and brandished his broadsword, then leapt backwards as a portal opened under his feet. Three more followed in quick succession, two opening to either side and one behind him. Mu contorted himself in midair as all three exploded.

As he landed he started to shimmer, his body fading into the gloaming. Only his outline was visible as he sprinted towards the creeping monster with the hooked arms - and even that only barely, for neither transmigrator carried a torch, and none under the Third Circuit would have seen him in the pitch. The long-limbed creature gave a short, barking laugh, voice like a hyena.

“You really think we can’t see you, boy? Better not to bother with such childish tricks,” her hands shined once with an ethereal purple light as the space where Mu had been standing was obliterated outright. Shards of stone flew through the air, the ground disapparating with a tortuous scream.

She froze in terror as the form of Mu continued to run, entirely unimpeded. Her mouth of sharpened teeth twisted in fear and fury, and both hands came together.

This time the series of explosions far exceeded anything she had done thus far, portals appearing and disappearing; some under Mu, some over, and some trying to drag him into other worlds. They crossed into one another, rocks being pulverised in five different locations simultaneously as portal upon portal spun through them.

In spite of himself, Mu was impressed. She was a seriously good spatial magic user - the gods had outdone themselves with her Cheat Skill.

A fact which stayed his hand not the slightest as his blade sprang forward, removing her head from her neck.

It hit the ground with a thud, rolling several feet away as her body followed her to the floor. The other transmigrator stared at Mu agog, stunned that a mere mortal could so easily dispose of her colleague. “You… how? How could you defeat her spatial magic?”

Mu pirouetted on one foot, pointing the sword at her throat. “Half-Step into Heaven. That’s the name of the technique. ‘I am; I am not; I am and am not; I am not, and I am not not.’ How could spatial magic affect what is neither in space or time, but has instead transcended to a Form beyond forms?”

(Remember, kids: nobody can defeat you if you temporarily cease to exist.)

The remaining transmigrator began to back up, panic writ clear on her features, hurling everything she possessed at Mu. Walls of rock sped toward him, rumbling out of the earth with a chthonian growl; metal sought to skewer him, lances of steel shooting forth from the darkness; wood to bludgeon him to death, falling in reams from the distant roof atop him; fire to burn him, seeking to make steaks and lamb chops of Mu Ba; and water to drown him, and draw him back into the primordial chaos.

Mu avoided it all, elegantly dancing across the cavern and towards his next victim. None of her attacks had the slightest impact on him, although once or twice they threatened to block off his point of view - a problem easily surmounted by performing an échappé.

With a final leap he sprang through a wall of water, piercing the second transmigrator through the heart. She wore an expression of complete stupefaction as she fell down, dead.

Mu made a gesture of respect over her corpse, both hands on the pommel of his sword. “May you be sped on your way to the Final Fields.”

His job was not yet done, however. Hearing clapping behind him, he turned to find two more transmigrators had entered the cave from a tunnel to the left. There was a nervous looking boy all in brown, who was hanging back in the cave entrance, and a goth girl with a mohawk, clapping as she walked confidently into the middle of the hall.

A shortsword appeared in her hand, and she ran it across her pierced tongue as she eyed Mu hungrily. Mu considered her in return. She was thin and scrawny, with none of the discernible signs of physical labour or cultivation. Her lanky frame was covered only by a tank top and torn trousers, which Mu considered terribly immodest. She had no obvious offensive abilities, so her Cheat Skill was probably something that worked best as a surprise.

With a whoomph he stopped using his Half-Step into Heaven Technique - it used too much qi, and anyways would be useless if she had a technique based around sight, smell, or sound - and activated his finest defence technique.

A layer of shining ice-blue armour ensconced him, his eyes gazing out at the transmigrator from behind his bascinet. In the pitch black night of the cavern the effect was ghoulish, a ghostly knight facing off against indistinct shapes in the dark.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The transmigrator smirked.

“Looks like you’re about as much a problem as we thought you would be, dolly. But you know why we’re here? It’s not to win - it’s just to keep you distracted while we finish off your weak little buddies.”

Mu had no idea who she was referring to by ‘weak little buddies,’ and cared even less. Combat was not the time to worry about others.

He still didn’t know what her Cheat Skill was, or that of her nervous-looking partner. He could, however, check. His blade burst with qi, and he charged.

His sword met hers with a clang, her grin growing wider and wider as he felt the shock reverberate up his arm. The shock… and his own technique.

“How do you like that, huh? I have-”

“An Overpowered Skill Counter Cheat Skill, yes?” Mu asked, as the transmigrator’s jaw dropped. “No need to look so surprised. I figured it would be something of that ilk - it’s why I used the Testing Testing Secret Technique.”

And he motioned to his completely unharmed body, as she continued to gape. “Now that I’ve confirmed it, I will adjust accordingly.”

He went to attack, then switched his blade into a defensive position, slicing a refrigerator out of the air. Two dishwashers and a side table followed.

“Focus, Silk,” the nervous young man commanded, as a grand piano materialised in thin air, throwing itself at Mu’s head. The youth’s face was firm, if not slightly angry, as he continued to rebuke his colleague. “Don’t let him distract you.”

Silk shook her head, clearing it of confusion, and charged. Her blade flashed once, twice, thrice, a series of thrusts whacking against Mu’s blade as he deflected, backing up slowly as he looked for an opening.

Silk’s swings started to get wider and wider as she tried to force Mu to use a skill, but his self-control was absolute and he did no more than defend, watching her all the while. Silk felt her soul shiver as his eyes burned into her.

The pair of transmigrators were skilled. They kept Mu squeezed into a triangular formation, with them in two of the corners and the wall behind him, hammering away from both directions. If they'd had a third member, Mu knew, he'd likely be dead by now.

The transmigrator with the Item Creation Cheat Skill - for that was what it had to be - pulled out an entire rack of polearms, launching them at Mu.

Mu howled a qi-infused roar, launching the polearms back at the transmigrator. The latter slammed his fists onto the ground, and the broad side of a barn burst into the air. The polearms slammed into the new wall, quivering.

Mu himself went flying into the cavern wall, as the reverberations of his technique were countered by Silk. Not one to be discouraged by a sudden spill, Mu used the momentum of his own hurtling body to bounce off the wall and donkey roll around the barn. He brought his sword up in an overhead thrust as he came around the other side.

The terrified transmigrator created a shield, only barely blocking Mu’s blow at the last moment. Undaunted, Mu sprang to the side - such that his body was in between the transmigrator and the barn - and went to take another swing at the man.

The transmigrator created a battering ram, hurling it at Mu’s head. Mu slid out of the way, as the ram smashed through the broad side of the barn… and went straight towards Silk.

The transmigrator didn't even have time to scream before he was smashed into the tunnel wall with all the force of a hurtling battering ram. He slid to the ground, blood dripping from his mouth and the shattered remnants of his chest.

The remaining transmigrator glared at Mu, angrily screaming at him. He didn't hear her - his eyes had started to glaze over with battle lust, his hairy heart to lose itself to the berserker rage.

With another howl - this one made only for the thrill of the hunt, without any qi - he threw himself at her. Their blades whirled in the darkness, their sparks and those of his armour the only light.

Each tussle, each exchange of thrusts, Mu looked ever more excited. His teeth barred themselves in a hideous grin under his ethereal helmet, his bloodshot eyes grew larger, and his breath came in great gulps.

At last he seemed to lose himself to his own enthusiasm, his blade glowing a brilliant ice blue as he began to unleash his ultimate attack.

Silk smiled grimly. It was almost over - he would succumb to the lure of his own power and, exposed to her Overpowered Skill Counter, die to his own attack.

Mu’s blade came down. Silk's blade came up.

She flew twenty feet across the cavern, slamming into the floor with a thud. There was a bloody gash carved into the middle of her chest, and her sword lay shattered into a thousand pieces beside her.

Her breathing began to grow more shallow as Mu - now looking quite calm and composed - walked over to her, gazing coldly at his dying foe.

“How?” Silk asked simply, as she felt her lifeblood drain from her body. Mu’s voice was impassive as he responded.

“The Retorsive Blade Technique. It's an old, secret, and largely undocumented sword art of Jarnvidr which causes your blade, when you thrust at another, to metaphysically impale yourself. I attempted to run you through with an art that would have killed me; but you countered it, skewering yourself.”

Silk's eyes wandered as she worked through this. Idly, she noticed for the first time how fanciful the cracks on the ceiling were. “But… I don't understand… in order to learn such an art, you would have had to stab yourself thousands of times. Just in case you met someone like me.”

Mu’s eyes glowed. “And it was worth every minute of suffering. To defend the innocent and the upright from the perils of wicked transmigrators has ever been the core duty of Jarnvidr, and it is one I uphold with the greatest of honour and pride. You people make me sick - God gave you mighty powers when you fell from Heaven, to make the world a better place, and what do you do? Use them for your own private ends, for slaughter and power. It's disgusting. Faced with such false gods, who wouldn't do what was right? Who would not struggle, with all their heart and soul, to bring you to heel for the sake of those whom you would hurt?”

At last, Mu finished his rant. Silk said nothing in reply… for she would never speak again.

Mu looked at her steaming corpse and sighed. “Well, I suppose I better find Hong, and see how he's doing.”