Lin Songmei, with her arm moving in a rhythmic dance, kept herself on the move as she occupied the enemy party alone while Yan Mingqing, Han Youhong, Wang Taigang, and Zhao Liying fought through the horde. Songmei knew, as long as she could just keep the equilibrium, they’d win. After all, she and Mingqing alone could whoop this party’s... backside.

She just had to wait. Patience.

Taigang, being the tank of the party, plowed his way through the hordes of enemies. For once, he could disregard the words of his master, Yuan Muyun. As a needle-user, all she did was yell at Taigang to think as he fought, to use his strength and fists in a delicate, focused manner.

Doesn't matter now! Taigang swung his fists, threw kicks, and launched himself forward as golden arcs of light streamed out from his blows, burning the machines through their circuitry. Keeping his eyes open only to not punch his teammates, Taigang kept himself in the same area as everyone else, throwing himself in the way of ranged blows whenever they came.

The long hours in the gym had paid off! Flexing every muscle in his body as he let out loud yells, Taigang grinned as he felt the adrenaline run through his body. With his Qi sprinting through this body, Taigang’s body shined gold as he reinforced it. With beams of sun-like Qi emanating off his attacks and his body, Taigang stamped his presence onto the battlefield.

Not far from Taigang, though, was Liying, commanding her own section of the battlefield with her trusty spear in hand. Without a visible body-enhancement technique, Liying looked normal, maybe a little sweatier than usual with all the flames, but still... normal.

Liying’s fighting, however, was anything but normal. Perched atop a roof, Songmei glanced at the battle below her between the arrows she fired towards the enemies. Letting loose arrow after arrow, Songmei couldn’t help but see Liying throw her spear forward every few seconds. Her spear, coated in fire, resembled a roaring dragon as it rushed forward, creating a bolt of flame jetting through the enemy lines every few seconds.

The most disgusting thing though, in Songmei’s opinion, was when Liying saw she had no enemies around her, and began directing the spear from a distance. It only took a couple of wrist flicks before Liying’s spear began moving like a taxi driver weaving through traffic. Leaving a trail of fire behind it, Liying’s spear would make its way back to Liying through a different path.

Maximum disgustingness if Songmei had any say.

Liying was also planning on learning an auxiliary set of martial arts to use her ‘I’m going to spear you from across the battlefield’ technique more! Songmei wanted to know who gave her these ideas... and give them a firm and gracious “thank you,” of course. Like how people online would “thank” the opposing party’s family, descendants, and ancestors when feeling the fire of anger burning in their gut.

Letting loose another couple of arrows, Songmei leapt off the roof, slipping between the other dilapidated houses in the area to find a new hiding spot from which she could harass the party they were fighting.

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Watching ranged attacks crash down onto her previous hiding place, Songmei couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and murmur “were their ranged attacks this bad?” The ground wasn’t even cracked! These houses were about as strong as single-ply toilet paper! How could they not even create some dust?

With a couple extra moments of time, Songmei pulled out a water bottle, taking a couple sips before launching herself back into battle.

Now on the other side of the battlefield where Mingqing and Youhong were fighting, Songmei’s eyes swept the area, taking a couple glances at the others before letting out a low whistle. Hiding behind a corner, Songmei took a second to form a handful of arrows out of crystal, putting them in the empty quiver by her waist.

Peeking out, Songmei let off a barrage of arrows before slipping behind the corner once more. With closed eyes, Songmei concentrated on her faint, but constant connection to the arrows as they zipped through the air.

By tapping her finger to keep an estimate of how long the arrows had been flying for, Songmei clenched her fist as she guesstimated the distance. Peeking out, Songmei shrugged as she saw her scattered arrows. A couple of them had detonated quite close to the enemies, but a couple hadn’t been close enough.

Changing her location for the sake of caution, Songmei ran by where Mingqing was fighting, ducking as she didn’t want to distract her girlfriend. Mingqing, on the other hand, did not care, or even know, Songmei had run by.

With her hair tied back, Mingqing breathed out a starry, yet icy mist with every breath as she carved through the pack. Unlike Liying, Mingqing had no issues regarding sweat, in fact the opposite.

Liying and Mingqing had learned how to maximize their fighting styles though: fight as far from each other as possible. It was a little counterintuitive, well... for the temperature of their bodies; however, it was still basic logic.

Mingqing, with her sword in hand, just plowed through the enemies with no regard to their attacks or their defense. With a body strengthening technique straight out of the heavens, Mingqing could shrug off most attacks. The rest? Well, she’d cut down the enemies before they had a chance to even try the rest.

As a side effect of her combat style, clouds of mist obscured the area Mingqing fought in. For someone as... experienced... as Songmei, traversal wasn’t an issue. Slipping through the fog, Songmei recited the classic line everyone in the party abided by: “Avoid the screams, and you won’t be the one screaming.”

For this particular battle, it was metal, so the “screams” part didn’t quite match up, but it worked nonetheless.

Back atop a roof, Songmei let loose some more arrows, lasering them towards the enemy with pinpoint accuracy. Yet, with the army beginning to thin, Songmei could spare a couple more moments to look at Mingqing.

Dang, she was cool. So indescribably cool...

From above, Songmei could see Mingqing’s figure. Though Mingqing’s fighting style sent mist in every direction, her strikes—and accompanying Qi blasts, blades, and waves—cleared out an area of clarity around her.

Reminding herself she had to keep fighting, Songmei created some arrows as she stole some glances at Mingqing. Mingqing’s fighting was graceful. In Songmei’s, definitely very educated, super expert with swords, cultivation teacher extraordinaire’s opinion, it looked to have a blend of everything!

There were maniacal slashes, gruesome cleaves, graceful twirls, rat-like rolls, unexpected jabs, and best of all, powerful movements behind each and every stroke. Mingqing looked like she had been born with a sword—which, from what Songmei had heard, might as well have been true.

Maybe the only thing missing was defense... But did it really matter? When Mingqing was leaving behind a trail of destruction in her wake, dissecting and eviscerating everything in her path?