Just as Lin and Tian reached the first floor their luck ran out. An alarm sounded out, bringing the guards to high attention. Lines of heavily armed fighters swept through the building, searching for the intruders. From a quick estimate, he saw that the Crimson Lotus still had around 100 guards left in the building. Even with how powerful Lin was, there was no way she would be able to beat 100 people at once.

Furiously typing on the keyboard, he remotely locked every door in the building above the first floor. “That should slow them down a bit,” he muttered to himself. He glanced out the hole in the wall and briefly considered running away. He shook his head, he would leave when Lin left.

He gasped as he glanced down at the computer screen, the car-sized tiger chased Tian and Lin was locked in combat with a man who looked to be made entirely out of metal. Shawn rushed down to the first floor, he had about ten seconds worth of [Qi Enhancement] left, after he ran out of Qi he would no longer be useful. He would have to choose his opportunity to help wisely.

As he ran down the stairs he could hear the tiger roar in pain, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, but he did not run away. He was done running away.

Tian dove across the room to avoid a swipe of the tiger's claws as he rounded the corner. He quickly kicked the tiger's head before being forced to roll away to stop the tiger from biting his head off. Despite how unfair the matchup was, Tian was holding his own. He had the skill and agility to avoid the animal's attacks, but if Tian made a single mistake, the tiger would instantly kill him.

The two traded blows, following a similar pattern to before. Tian would launch a counterattack but be forced to dodge again before he could deal any real damage. The beast's eyes gleamed with intelligence as it attempted to box Tian in. The tiger's plan worked somewhat, but at a cost. The beast had been able to corner Tian, but it took quite a bit of damage in doing so.

The tiger roared and slashed forward with its claws, intent on ending the fight now that Tian had nowhere left to dodge. Tian chuckled as he jumped over the tiger and landed upside down on the ceiling. Using the ceiling as a springboard, he launched himself out of the corner and away from the tiger.

Tian and the tiger stood still on opposite sides of the room, observing each other's movements, searching for the slightest hint of weakness. Shawn smiled as he spotted his opportunity. Interrupting their staring contest, Shawn overloaded his arm with Qi, shoving a full ten points into [Qi Enhancement], before throwing his knife at the tiger.

His arm made a cracking sound as he released the blade. However, he did not care, he was too busy watching, tense with anticipation as the blade tumbled through the air. The knife narrowly missed the tiger's head and impacted the concrete handle first. “Fuck.” As the words left his mouth he felt Tian’s Qi sweep through the room.

In an extraordinary streak of luck, the blade ricocheted off the wall and lodged itself into the tiger’s eye blade first. Taking advantage of the situation, Tian grabbed the knife and delivered a savage flurry of stabs. Hampered by its wounded eye, the tiger was unable to fight back effectively, allowing Tian to quickly end the fight. With a weak roar, the tiger collapsed to the floor dead.

“Nice throw,” Tian said supportively as he handed Shawn his knife back. A blue screen appeared rewarding him for his efforts.

Congratulations! Your skill, Qi Enhancement has grown to level 8.

Shawn quickly dissmised it, he couldn't afford to be distracted right now. “Thanks.” The duo walked jogged to the basement where they saw Lin struggling to overcome her opponent. Her trademark technique coated her hands in blood-red Qi, but it seemed to have no effect on the man’s metallic skin. She danced around the man’s strikes, easily dodging them, and accidentally destroying crates of moon leaf that got too close to her hands.

His assumption about the basement had been true, they had been using it to store moon leaf. Not only was it used to store the finished product, but the basement also stored the component parts to make the finished product. Large plastic bags of Cujo, the dangerous drug the Crimson Lotus Gang added to moon leaf to make the substance more addictive lined the walls.

“Your weak attacks can’t hurt me. I’m Lubo the mighty, the second in command of the Crimson Lotus. My celestial steel bloodline protects me from attacks of this level.” The man said as he spread his arms out to the side. Lin used the opening to punch him in the chest. True to Lubo’s words, he was unaffected by the attack.

“Lin let’s go, our job here is done, we already planted the bombs. Their guys are going to swarm the place any minute now.”

“No, we can’t leave now. This is too good of an opportunity to pass up. If we kill this guy the Crimson Lotus Gang will be crippled.”

Lubo laughed. “You can’t hurt me. Your best attack couldn’t scratch me.”

A large crash occurred behind him as the locked door flew off of its hinges. Armed men dashed down the stairwell, eager to cut them down. “Fuck,” Tian swore. Before they could be surrounded, Tian threw his last explosive device towards the thugs charging them. He tackled Shawn into the basement as he detonated all the explosive devices they had planted.

The building shook and in a rush of rubble, the ceiling caved in, trapping them in the basement. He was sure they would be squashed by a falling piece of stone, but somehow the entirety of the basement was left unaffected.

“What did you do,” Lubo gasped, as he stared at the thousands of pounds of rubble that collapsed on the stairs, trapping them? He cracked his metallic knuckles. “Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re trapped in here with me. I’ll make you regret what you have done.” Lubo rushed forward and attacked Lin.

This time she attempted to meet him head-on, she matched his kick with one of her own. Unsurprisingly, she failed to match his raw physical power, he looked like he was almost 300 pounds heavier than her. She rocketed backward and crashed into a wall, destroying a crate, letting hundreds of moon leaf pills roll onto the ground.

Shrugging off his attack, she climbed out of the indent in the wall her flying body had made. “Your body is strong, I can’t deny it, but I don’t have to hurt your physical body to kill you.” The Qi coating her hands rapidly changed colors, shifting from blood-red to forest-green. Unlike the technique she had been using before, this attack didn’t destroy whatever she touched. However, it seemed just as insidious, whatever she touched lost its luster. He could practically smell the poison in the air.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

This time Lin went on the offensive, her strikes consisting of only light touches. Lubo’s shining metal body lost its luster wherever she touched and cracked slightly. Lin smirked, a light touch was all it took for her poison to spread.

“You're attacking my soul directly,” Lube said in shock. “No matter, I’ve prepared for this situation. You can’t beat me.” The cracked metal fell off his body, revealing his pale white skin for a fraction of a second before a new shiny coat of metal sprung forth, sealing the holes in his defense.

Why was someone as powerful as Lubo in Najian, he thought that all the people who were talented or had unique bloodlines were in the sect.

Lubo backhanded Lin, cracking her mask and sending her flying. Still determined to fight, she quickly got up and charged him once more. They were equally matched at the moment, but in a battle of endurance, he found it hard to bet against a giant man made out of metal.

Tian collapsed to the floor as blood gushed out from under his mask.

Shawn immediately rushed to his side. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I just overextended myself a bit,” Tian said in between coughs. “Help Lin, with that tin can. I’ll find a way out.”

Shawn observed the room, searching for something he could use to help Lin beat Lubo. The fluorescent light bulbs above him flickered occasionally, making it hard to see. Finally, he found what he had been looking for, a large bag of Cujo had been cut open in the explosion, letting some of its white powder drift through the air.

He dashed to where the drug had been stored and started tearing open bags of Cujo. He held his breath as he carefully opened all the packages. Even though he tried his best to be careful, he began to feel a bit light-headed. The drug was that powerful. A single handful of the substance would be enough to make a man lose his mind. The small mountain of it he had gathered, on the other hand, would be able to kill an elephant.

His heart painfully squeezed in his chest reminding him of Lin's warning. Inhaling too much of the white powder caused heart attacks. Thankfully, the mask he wore protected him from the worst of its effects. He hoped the same would go for his teammates, if not they were about to be in a lot of trouble.

“Tian, have you found a way out yet,” Shawn shouted across the room?

“I’m working on it,” Tian smashed through the ground, digging a hole to the surface. At the moment the hole was small, only large enough for a small child to escape through, but the rays of light that streamed into the basement filled his heart with hope.

Shards of glass flew past him as the intensity of Lin’s battle caused the lights to shatter. The room was submerged in total darkness for a moment before an emergency lighting system activated, casting the room in dull red light and limiting visibility. This was the perfect setup for his plan, if everything went well, Lubo wouldn’t see the powder coming before it was too late.

Lin backflipped over one of Lubo’s kicks and landed next to him. Her cloaked shoulders rapidly rose and fell, desperate to bring air into her strained lungs. The fight with Lubo was clearly wearing her down, she was exhausted.

“I have a plan. Get ready to escape when I give you the signal,” Shawn said. She nodded and ran back towards Lubo, moving significantly slower than when she had started the fight.

Lubo stood still and ignored Lin’s approach and locked his metal eyes onto Shawn. “It doesn’t matter what plan you come up with, you can’t hurt me. You have less than a quarter of the amount of Qi that the feisty girl has, what can you do better than her?” Lubo was forced to look away as Lin attempted to stick her Qi-coated fingers into his eyes.

The honest answer was that he wasn't capable of doing anything better than Lin in combat, if the metal man treated him seriously, he doubted there would be any chance of his plan working.

“I’m done, let’s get out of here,“ Tian shouted, the outline of his figure blurring into a kaleidoscope of colors. Even with his mask as a barrier, the Cujo had affected him just by standing near it. He hadn’t even taken a breath since he opened the first package!

Shawn let the outside world fade away as he dug deep within himself and summoned every last drop of Qi in his body. He had only practiced this trick a few times, but he was confident it would work. Locked in a deep recess of his mind, he had first-hand memories of Green doing this thousands of times.

Inside his dantian, he divided his Qi into many thin strands. At first, the process was grueling, requiring his full attention to make a single strand, but his skill in the area rapidly increased and before long he was able to make tens of the Qi strands a second. With a deep exhale, he let the strands of Qi flow out of his mouth.

He lacked the technical terms to explain why what he was doing worked, all he knew was that for some reason, Qi that was released from the mouth had a higher affinity for the air element. Keeping a tight grip of control on the strands, he circled the Qi around himself. They slowly increased in speed as he became more proficient with the process. A weak gust of wind rolled through the room, flapping the sleeves of his cloak slightly.

The Qi continued to rotate faster as he collided the strands together, forming larger Qi constructs that were capable of moving even faster. He almost lost control of his technique as his Qi wildly smashed into itself, but he managed to hold on.

The next part of the process was the one that he least understood. Clearing his head, he attempted to become one with the wind. Various scenes flashed through his mind: a powerful tornado tearing through a village, a fluffy cloud hanging high in the sky, a bird diving through the air at high speeds. All of the visions were potent, encapsulating an aspect of the wind, but none of them resonated with him. His empty lungs burned as he forced himself to focus even harder. There was no room for distraction.

In his mind wind represented freedom. A bridge began to crystallize in his mind, random tidbits of information rapidly forming into a whole that was capable of accessing a higher power. At the very core of his being, he wanted to be free, free of this room he was trapped in, but more importantly free of stress and worry. He wanted to be like the wind, free from all restraints.

Shawn took a deep breath and for a moment he was a dandelion in the wind. This was his truth, this was what the wind was to him. His eyes snapped open, the invisible strands of Qi had been transformed. Through no action of his own, the Qi had transformed into sharp gusts of wind that would follow his every command.

“Run,” Shawn shouted, his vision blurred from the strain of controlling the wind. Lin jumped backward. As soon as she cleared the area, he began his assault. Under his control, the wind picked up every grain of Cujo in the room. He formed a wall of the dangerous substance and launched it at Lubo.

There was nowhere for Lubo to hide as a veritable storm of Cujo engulfed him. There was no way to dodge the attack or destroy it, the air itself had turned toxic. Blood dripped from his nose as he strained to stop the Cujo from spreading to his side of the room. However, his control soon faltered and he collapsed to his knees. The white powder fell from the ceiling like snow and slowly wafted towards him.

Lin grabbed the back of his cloak and pulled him out of the room. They burst out of the hole and collapsed to the ground. Tian pushed some rubble into the hole, blocking it. Shawn laid on the cold concrete of the road as the world spun around him. They had somehow survived. He didn’t think they were going to make it.

Tian collapsed to the ground next to him, completely spent. “Fuck yeah. We took down the whole building in one shot.”

Shawn craned his neck and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The explosives they had planted had completely collapsed the building, all that remained was a pile of rubble.

“Fuck yeah! We’re badass,” Lin said, giggling uncontrollably. Lin’s laugh was infectious and soon Tian and Shawn joined her, cackling madly. They laughed till their ribs hurt. “We should do this again sometime,” Lin said once she regained her composure.

“What the blow up a building part, or the laugh for no reason part,” Shawn asked? Pink elephants danced through the sky before disappearing in a flash of lightning. Shawn flinched, his eyes were unfocused and glassy.

“I’ve had enough of both for the foreseeable future, I just want to sleep.” Tian paused, struggling to his feet. He slapped his face. “We’re not in our right minds right now. The Cujo is affecting us. We should leave before we get caught.”

Shawn groaned as he sat up, a small crowd had gathered outside the building to investigate the damage. Cameras flashed as curious citizens took pictures. Tian was right they needed to leave.

“Fine,” Lin whined. “But, I get to ride shotgun.” The heavily drugged trio stumbled into an alley and escaped the crime scene.