James backpedaled from his foe, moving slightly to the side to keep Garret out of the way. He wanted Bo to overextend an arm or even a leg for an easy throw but the gang leader had at least some fighting knowledge. The man struck like a snake, his hands darting in and out quickly as he tried to find an opening. Each strike launched a small arc of electricity.

The small arcs shocked James like static electricity and he could only guess the damage it would do if he took a square hit. But he couldn’t backpedal forever. Even now Bo was corralling James to the edge of the roof.

James countered with low kicks, using them to make space more than deal damage. Seeing this, Bo reached for a leg as it came. Cursing, James stopping his kick short, throwing himself slightly off balance.

“Got you!” Bo cheered as he tried to capitalize.

James reacted on instinct, falling into a split with the leg and punching out. The surprising move made contact with Bo’s torso, sending the man stumbling back. A leg sweep from James followed, letting him stand once more.

“Lucky hit!” Bo growled.

“Whatever lets you sleep at night,” James answered.

“You dare mock me?” Bo snarled.

James shrugged. “You do a pretty good job of it yourself. I mean, your behavior alone has to get people laughing.”

Bo charged and James sidestepped. Good, the gang leader was getting angry. James could work with angry. Angry people made mistakes. And mistakes were exactly what his training tried to capitalize on.

“I mean, who calls themselves the wave of destruction without actually having a wave of destruction? All you’ve done so far is try to grab me,” James taunted.

“I am a wave because my actions shall grow and crush the status quo of cultivators!” Bo countered. He again moved to grab James with crackling hands.

James stepped to the side, then backpedaled as Bo followed. “With your skills? Fat chance.”

It seemed Bo finally saw red with those words. He roared, charging with wild abandon, arms wide so James couldn’t sidestep. The edge of the roof was still a few feet away, but if James couldn’t dodge Bo would either get ahold of him or shove him off the roof.

Luckily, the anger blinded Bo, made him reckless. His wide, wild charge exposed his chest and legs, not to mention his head.

When Bo was two arms lengths away, James kicked forward and ducked. He felt pricks of pain along his back as Bo’s electric hands passed over him. The gang leader had thought James aimed for his chest, but in actuality the young cultivator went for the legs.

He wrapped a hand around the closest ankle and pulled while he pushed at Bo with his other hand. The ankle pick brought Bo straight to the ground, his arms splayed wide.

James continued with the momentum, scrambling onto Bo and pinning his arms. He held a punch at the ready.

“Surrender.”

Bo coughed. “Ha! You think you’ve beaten me?” We’re only getting started!”

Bo pulled his feet in and bucked upward, sending James tumbling off the man. James landed on his hands and threw his body up into a handstand. He walked forward a few steps then twisted himself back into a standing position. By that time Bo had recovered as well.

The two stared at each other, daring the other to make a move. James could still see Bo’s anger but it was the controlled kind of anger now. The gang leader wouldn’t throw any more wild punches.

If only James didn’t have to worry about those electric hands. He could have pinned Bo with an arm bar or something similar they were out of the way. Instead he had to try for a risky mount that led to nowhere.

What were his options? A throw was probably the best. If he tossed Bo off the roof he doubted the man would get back up. However, doing that required grabbing by the torso, and James suspected a solid touch from the electric hands would have him convulsing. It was why he went for the ankle pick.

But an ankle pick or other takedowns only put them both on the ground, which again led to James risking a shock from the electric hands. So maybe a takedown wasn’t the answer. Perhaps a solid uppercut knockout could work, or a high kick. It felt riskier than the throw, a block from Bo could lead to a large shock, but it also seemed easier.

The options played out in James’s mind, his brain working overtime to try and combine everything he’d learned. He was sure he could do something. Bo was like every thug in Tower Ten, there was only a rudimentary set of skill. James only had a little more skill from his short time training, but that was enough to keep him from losing.

Every sense in James’s body worked overtime. He could feel his sweat evaporating off his skin, smell the burning ozone from Bo’s hands, and taste bits of salty sweat in his mouth. He could feel the sparks of electricity from Bo, and knew exactly how far away the man stood.

In fact, James realized he knew exactly where everything on the roof was. Garret stood far in a corner, ready to run in case the two came close to him. The metal pole sat on the corner of the roof next to him and a nest of wires and cables sat below it. The workings of some bird, no doubt.

“Enough waiting!” Bo shouted. He moved forward, hands ready to catch low kicks or block any grappling attempts.

James moved around him, circling until the metal pole sat behind him. He was taking a risk, but with how acute his senses were he was sure he would succeed. Bo smirked as the pole sat straight behind James.

“It seems you’ve forgotten my name, the Wave of Destruction!” Bo proclaimed.

The man placed his fists together and punched out at James, an arc of electricity shot out, striking the ground but traveling right at the young cultivator.

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James had already moved, sensing the attack as soon as the electricity gathered. Unlike what Bo suspected, James hadn’t forgotten the blast that started the fight. In fact, it was part of his plan.

After dodging, James bolted for the pole. More specifically, he bolted for the nest of wires. Wires meant insulation, and insulation made this a whole different fight.

He felt another gathering of electricity and dove to the side, barely avoiding another blast. He landed just in front of the wires. James scrambled, grabbing the nest and dashing away from the pole.

“Not so talkative now!” Bo laughed. “Come, face your destruction!”

James wrapped the wires around his left arm and turned to face Bo. With no pole behind James, Bo was again forced to get in close. In his focus, he hadn’t noticed the wrapped wires James had on his arm.

As a hand darted out, James blocked with his left and swung his right fist upward. He felt the insulation around the wires heat up. He winced from the pain but continued with his punch. Bo hadn’t expected James to block and had left himself completely open for the attack.

Fist met chin and Bo collapsed on the ground in a slump, a surprised look on his face.

“And that’s that,” James said. He turned to Garret. “Come on, we gotta get out of here before he gets up.”

“Do not worry, disciple,” Nadia said. “I believe you have had enough excitement for today.”

James breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good, you did follow me.”

“I believe I said as much,” Nadia replied.

“I’m not accusing you, master,” James answered. “Just expressing my relief. Garret, this is Nadia.”

“A pleasure,” Nadia said.

“Yeah,” Garret answered.

Nadia bent down in front of Bo and placed a hand on his next. “He is stable and should be up in a few seconds.”

Bo’s eyes fluttered open as Nadia grabbed his hands, her own covered in a film of water. She directed more water away from her, giving the electricity a path to travel. Bo attempted to pull his hands away, but Nadia was stronger. She held on until every last bit of electricity left the gang leader.

“Hah!” Bo spat. “Honorless indeed. No doubt she interfered in our fight!”

“Okay, why is he talking like that?” James asked. “I have to know.”

“Improper cultivation,” Nadia said. “It is a form of self-hypnosis. He believes that if he acts this way, he can better attain a metastate. In truth, it is a limiter. Eventually he will grow so rigid in his thoughts that he cannot progress.”

“Dang,” James said. “Can we do anything about it?”

Nadia raised an eyebrow. “You wish to help this one? He attempted to kill you.”

“You’re all about helping though, aren’t you?” James asked. “Shouldn’t I follow your example.”

His master smiled. “Admirable, disciple. However, unless he himself wishes to change, it will be hard to alter his path.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, disciple, that I cannot help him until he wants to help himself. I am sure that with his talent he might be able to join a small sect.”

Garret snorted.

“You doubt me?” Nadia asked.

“Sects don’t care about us,” Garret said. “Sure, he has some power but all they care about is lineage. He’d have to be a once in a lifetime prodigy for a sect to waste resources on him.”

“I have no need for limitations like a sect,” Bo argued. “My time is better spent proving my superiority!”

“And that is why he would fail, disciple,” Nadia said. “For even now he cannot see why he has lost.”

“Then what do we do with him?” James asked.

“That is your decision. You defeated him,” Nadia answered.

James looked to Garret. “What do you think?”

“Don’t get me involved in this,” Garret said.

“Too late I think,” James said. He looked to Bo. “If I let you go, will you leave Garret and I alone?”

“Ha! You delude yourself,” Bo said.

James sighed. “Master, what do you suggest?”

“While you were fighting, disciple, I searched for this Bo on the Intranet. He is a wanted man in the megacity. It would be a simple task to place him in the care of the authorities.”

James made a face. The police were practically a gang of their own. Only they were backed by the emperor. But he didn’t see another option at the moment.

“The police it is,” he said.

Nadia nodded. “Wait here. I shall deliver him and then we can discuss your fight.”

“Wow, she certainly has a presence,” Garret said as Nadia leaped from the building.

“She’s nothing like the other cultivators, that’s for sure,” James said.

Garret looked at James. “You say that like you aren’t one.”

James laughed. “Three weeks ago I lived in an agritower making deliveries. By some cursed luck I’m now special. It takes some getting used to.”

“No kidding?” Garret asked.

“No kidding,” James answered.

“Wow. Well, thanks for helping me I guess.”

James shrugged. “They were going to go too far. Though, I doubt you’re innocent in all this. What were you selling to get them so angry?”

“Just some junk,” Garret answered.

James stared. Garret looked away.

“Alright,” the thin man said after a moment. “I was selling XP chips.”

James looked confused. “What chips?”

Garret looked back with the same face before remembering. “Right, you’re from the agritower. XP chips are a certain kind of virtual reality. They’re in first person and people swear that they help you learn tasks. I got my hands on one and broke the encryption to make copies.”

“And this Energy Gang took offense to that,” James finished.

“I don’t know why,” Garret said. “They sell knockoff cultivator aids, not XP chips.”

“Cultivator aids?” James asked.

“Drugs, really,” Garret answered. “Cultivators use highly refined materials to help them train or whatever it is they do. All pluses, no minuses. That means no addictions or bad trips. It takes a lot of work to make it perfect, though. Some cultivators don’t mind a bit of side effects as long as it lets them train better.”

“Well, you probably got on their bad side for selling on their turf without giving them a cut,” James said.

“Oh, that makes sense,” Garret said.

“You didn’t think of that?” James asked.

Garret didn’t say anything. There was a story there, James knew, but it wasn’t something he could ask about. Not yet.

“You’re going to get targeted again, you know that right?” James asked.

Garret nodded. “It’s fine. I’ll just move to a lower floor. Or I’ll just sell everything I have and get a train ticket out of here.”

“There might be a third option,” James said.

Garret stared off into the sky, or the facsimile of it that hung above. “Sure there is.”

“No, you don’t get it,” James said. “There’s an opportunity here. Bo is gone now, meaning the Energy Gang is going to have problems.”

“What do you mean?” Garret asked.

“It’s how gangs work,” James said. “Or at least how they worked in the agritower. Some gangs only have a strong leader. When that leader falls, other gangs swoop in. All you have to do is go to the new gang and make a deal.”

“You mean, I find the next gang and give them a cut of what I make?” Garret asked.

James shook his head. “No, you said you can make these XP chips, right? You offer to sell to the gang directly and they sell for you.”

“They wouldn’t agree to that, would they?” Garret asked.

“Depends,” James said. “Gangs love money. You sell to them at a low enough price, tell them they can sell for three, maybe four times as much? Well, people tend to agree to that. You just have to make sure the gang leader isn’t a psycho.”

“I’ve got no way of knowing that,” Garret said.

“Tell you what,” James said. “I’ll go with you the first time. Just send me a message when you think a new gang has moved in.”

Garret thought about it, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah I can do that. What’s your number so I can message?”

“Number?” James asked. “I thought you’d just send a letter or something.”

Garret laughed. “I keep forgetting you’re from outside. No, your handheld should have a unique number that people can use to message you.”

James pulled the handheld out of his pocket and looked through it. Sure enough, there was a number for messages.

“Well now I have to get Tsukiko one of these,” He said under his breath. He pointed the phone at Garret. “This what you need?”

“Yep,” Garret said. He pulled out his own device. “Sending you a message now.”

The handheld buzzed. James pressed the blinking notification that came with the buzz. Garret’s message appeared on the screen.

“That’s incredible,” James said. “No wonder handhelds are so expensive.”

Garret made a noncommittal grunt. “Okay, I’ll let you know when I want to meet the gang.”

“You’ll be good until then, won’t you?” James asked, just realizing that his new friend might have money issues.

“I’ve got some savings, don’t worry,” Garret said. “Now, do you think you can help me down?”