Instead of becoming a three-person fight like Lucas had expected, the warrior seemed to decide to sit this one out, not taking advantage of Lucas's predicament to try and kill him. Lucas found this unfortunate in hindsight, as he was just waiting for the opportunity to strike back and catch him off guard.

The girl’s pattern of attacks was strange and unpredictable. Every time he thought he had figured them out, she changed her approach, and her ever-twisting body made her strikes come from odd angles.

“You’ll regret sneak attacking me like this. Who do you think you are, offending Leonora like that?”

Lucas had no time to reply to her arrogant remarks, which had been coming since they started fighting, as he once more dodged that deadly scythe. He had tried more than once to reduce the distance between them, thinking this would give him an advantage considering how big her scythe was. However, every time he tried, he was rebuked by her scythe’s gravity ability.

One of those times, when he was nearly at punching distance, her body twisted in a wide backflip, and surprisingly, she still managed to launch her scythe at him. The weapon moved at blinding speed—its weight essentially zero—nearly decapitating him in the process, only stopping thanks to his recently acquired shield.

Since then, Lucas had learned his lesson and decided only to approach her when he was absolutely sure he could hit her. It wasn’t all negative, however, because based on the way she moved and fought, Lucas soon found the perfect way to counter her: long-range attacks.

In hindsight, it seemed kind of obvious, and the only reason he hadn’t thought of it before was due to the warrior, who was now only watching them from the sidelines. When Lucas watched their fight before, he saw a pure melee fight, and that led him to believe that was the way to fight her. The fact that the warrior lacked any long-range options never crossed his mind.

Now, instead of waiting for the right moment, Lucas decided to create the opportunity himself as he launched on the offensive. A similar scene from her previous backflip played out, with the difference that this time, instead of pursuing her and ending up within reach of her scythe, Lucas simply stopped, pointed his finger, and fired twice.

The girl’s body was as flexible as a snake’s, but from that distance, there was no contortionism that could save her. Both shots hit the target, and she fell to the ground with a grunt. Lucas casually looked in the direction of the warrior, and after confirming he wasn’t moving, he walked up towards the girl. Her scythe had escaped from her hand, and she was struggling on the ground, trying to reach it.

The fact that she was still alive was a testament to the quality of her equipment. So this time, standing above her, he pointed his finger and aimed for her head, quickly firing while she lay defenseless. The shot was followed by a notification, confirming her death.

The girl was extremely skilled with her weapon, there was no doubt about that, but it became obvious she wasn’t experienced in real-life fights the moment she left such an opening for him. That was the problem of spending too much time in controlled environments. Lucas himself had made such a mistake and suffered a little when faced with different circumstances back in Sultan’s lair. Fortunately, he made it out alive and was better for it.

Turning back to the warrior, Lucas was surprised that the man hadn’t moved this entire time, not even when he gave his back to him to kill the girl—granted, he was ready to counter-attack if necessary, but he should’ve at least tried, no?

Ignoring that issue for now, he turned back to the girl’s body and took a quick look at her ring after making sure the warrior wasn’t moving. There was nothing there apart from a few potions, which Lucas didn’t pay any mind to. He was already stacked with potions of all sorts from the mind-mage’s ring and the archer, so there was no need to take more.

Her scythe, however, was another matter. Lucas imagined that he could make a fortune if he managed to take the weapon with him after leaving the tower. After all, that gravity technology wasn’t something he had ever seen. The problem was, realistically, how would he go about making a scythe his own?

Lucas had a bunch of ideas, none of which seemed good or practical to do in the short term. Ultimately, he decided to let it be, as he wasn’t willing to start experimenting with it in front of the warrior or take the thing with him. Her clothes were left on her body for a similar reason, but also because he had no intention of doing something as shameless as undressing her corpse.

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It was unfortunate Lucas couldn’t profit from such a hard-fought battle, but the real prize was still right there, looking at him with attentive eyes. Turning back to the warrior, Lucas walked towards him.

“Why didn’t you attack me?”

At this point, he was tired of trying to figure the guy out, and before starting to attack him again, he chose to take a more direct approach. Surprisingly enough, the man answered.

“If I don’t attack, you can’t beat me.” His voice was plain and simple, just like the way he presented himself.

“But if you don’t attack me, you can’t win.”

“If I don’t lose, I win.”

Lucas was left befuddled by that logic and kept staring at the man for a little while longer before saying:

“You know there can only be one left, right? What are you going to do if there’s only you and someone else?”

“To win the Showdown, I just need to kill one, and when the time comes, I’ll be ready.”

Lucas recognized that this was a valid strategy, and if he wasn’t going for the highest score on this floor, he would probably consider taking a similar approach. However, his situation forced him to be on the offensive, and now, looking at the warrior in front of him, he realized he had a problem.

Lucas's fighting style was very reactive; he needed his opponents to take chances in order to find an opening. He probably could find an opening even without the opponent taking the initiative, but that would likely take some time. Time he didn’t have.

If they were in a well-secluded place, maybe he could consider taking his time to round the man up until he managed to kill him and take his equipment. But in a place as open as the one they were currently in, every second he stood there, he was putting his life in danger. An archer would find that the perfect opportunity to kill both of them before they managed to take cover.

Sighing deeply, Lucas looked at the man one last time before leaving.

“If you manage to survive, I’ll be seeing you in the end.”

…

It was a shame to leave such precious equipment behind, especially one that could save his life multiple times, but he needed to know when to back down, or he wouldn’t last long on this floor where everybody was killing everybody.

That woman from before was a prime example of how stubbornness could get you killed in a place like this. She had been fighting that warrior without success for a long time before Lucas arrived. And even then, instead of choosing to back down after being forced to use her potion, she insisted on fighting him and ended up getting killed.

In the end, Lucas wasn’t too dissatisfied with that outcome. At the very least, he managed to get one step closer to his goal with that girl’s death. There was no time for celebrations, however, and he was already moving like a shadow through those empty streets, looking for his next target.

Like before, the sound of a battle reached his ears and made him stop in his tracks. Walking slowly, he finally reached the location from where those sounds were emanating. It seemed to be an old warehouse, which stood apart in that city filled with buildings.

Careful not to raise attention, Lucas peeked through the warehouse windows. Inside, he saw four people. Three of them appeared to be banded together and fighting against one sole archer. Her movements were graceful, and with every arrow, she stood her ground against the three of them. After just a few seconds, it became pretty clear that she was the one winning.

It didn’t take long for Lucas to realize that this was the toughest opponent he had seen on this floor. There was no fancy equipment that he could see or a cheat eye-bloodline to give her the edge over her opponents—it was all pure skill.

In fact, it reminded him a little of the way Aysha used to fight when they first met. That was clearly someone who was very familiar with their weapon of choice. But contrary to Aysha, she seemed way more used to mixing magic in her arrows, and her skills were smoothly used during the fight, managing to keep her opponents always at a distance.

So far, Lucas had only seen her use the basic split arrow and another skill that made her arrow explode, but both were always used at the perfect time. It was only that proficiency that was keeping her on the winning side.

However, after a couple of minutes watching them fight, with the girl throwing arrows at a blinding speed and the three opponents being forced to use magic to counter-attack, Lucas noticed a considerable gash around her abdomen, which made her frown every time she moved.

He didn’t know if that was done during their fight or before, but considering how well she was dealing with them and the fact that they were inside a warehouse, made Lucas think that happened before they met.

A warehouse clearly isn’t the best place for an archer to fight, and Lucas doubted the girl would take the fight there of her own volition or be forced to enter by those three. So Lucas guessed she had been injured during a previous fight and had run to this warehouse to hide while she healed herself, and that’s when they found her.

Why didn’t she use a health potion? Lucas wondered for a moment, but that could easily be explained by her having used one not so long ago and being in the cool-down period. However, that raised another question: Who was powerful enough to force her to use a health potion and still not let her leave unscathed?

Even Lucas had doubts if he could take her out in a one-on-one, which left him concerned in regard to whoever fought her. If it had been more than one, like the fight she was having right now, then he could understand, but if it was a single individual…