While I used Air Burst to quickly clear the swamp North of Heaven, the Divine Empress had a similar skill, probably a barrier skill that she used to kick off of, to keep up with me. So I didn’t gain any time and she was still closing in.

I had been hopeful, but she was clearly matching my energy use, since she was most likely evaluating our last fight and would bombard me with skills to wear me out. At least she wouldn’t be able to rush up easily and just blow me away anymore.

That deterrence was incredibly useful. She had to take me seriously now after I had blown away one of her arms. The fact she was all healed up with no curse damage, was bull shit in my mind. Whatever meta-points she had, they were probably related to healing or curse damage.

I was kicking myself mentally for forgetting what ones she had picked and the Avatar telling me about them. Why not help me out right now Avatar? Distract her for a bit, for me, why don’t you? I didn’t waste my breath.

I was mentally exhausted and physical exhaustion was beginning to creep in after all this running. My feet ached, from timing the ground kick offs as quickly and efficiently as possible. I had to keep my movement rapid, which meant kicking off the ground much more rapidly than I normally would.

Entering the city, I raced for the plaza. I had already planned out the order I would purchase everything in. It needed to be done instantly. Purchase everything right into a pack. Hopefully the Almighty System would let me get away with something like this.

I reached the plaza and slammed my hands down on a pillar, purchasing a restoration. Then a pack with food and flasks filled with water. I then purchased a second pack with flasks filled with a lantern, lantern oil in flasks, and a lighter. I quickly put on the first back on my back and the second pack I put on the front of my chest.

It took about thirty seconds from start to finish and I immediately set off again for the Southeast wall of the city. I wasn’t going to be leaving through a gate. The Divine Empress was right behind me, closing in. I did note that she skipped getting a restoration to close in on me more quickly.

I had been hoping she would do that inside the city. She would catch up to me around the wall. That was exactly what I wanted. My feet also felt a lot better after that restoration, which was a huge plus. Mentally I was still drained, but I was not going to stop running until I was in that tower safely.

The wall was just in front of me. I used Air Burst three times to get to the top. The Divine Empress leapt after me into the air. I tossed off my packs on the top of the wall and went right for her in mid-air. There was a momentary look of confusion as I spammed Air Burst to close the distance.

That hesitation cost her dearly. She should have reversed course instantly, but her single minded focus was something I could exploit. Air Burst. “Aqua Sphere”. Force Wave. Two barriers formed in front of me, but she was too late.

Fighting monsters and people were different. She might be a genius at hand to hand, but I was a genius in using skills. She was hit with another frontal blast of annihilation energy and went tumbling towards the ground.

I didn’t let up for a second and pursued her. She slammed into the roof of a building, it cratered slightly, but the roof didn’t break. Air Burst. “Aqua Sphere.” Force Wave. She dodged backwards but was she was still hit slightly.

Her clothing was blown away and her body was melted slightly and burnt all over the front. Still, she landed on her feet. “I can do this all day.” I was nearly out of energy, and I could only do this since the wall forced a mid-air collision.

Another trump card used up she would be ready for in the future. If I had 10,000 more energy, then I might have been able to kill her. As it was she leapt away to race back to the plaza for a restoration and probably a new set of clothing since her last set was falling off.

I let out a sigh. A high Body stat just made it too easy to escape unless a person was crippled. I had been hoping to get a foot in the last attack, but she was too clever, in how she moved out of the way to let her feet or legs be taken out.

If I had managed that, I could have worn her down through attrition. It would have taken a long time, but I could have done it. I didn’t waste time and used Air Burst to get back on top of the wall, pick up the backs, and leap over the other side and keep running.

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The Body stat was officially overpowered. Well, not really, but it was annoying and aggravating that she could retreat and get a restoration each time. Unfortunately, a city was the only location that offered such advantages. Maybe a dungeon, but that wasn’t simple. I needed her to go into the air, and a large tree type dungeon, wasn’t a wall.

Well, she might have chased me up. But it was a lot more risky and the timing just didn’t work out. It was frustrating. So incredibly frustrating that I just couldn’t kill her. Her resistance to annihilation type attacks was also incredibly frustrating.

Anyone else, would have been dead in seconds if not instantly. She was the only person who could survive something like that and escape. Well hopefully she wouldn’t be so keen to close the distance with me anymore, and I had bought myself another half an hour of time.

That would give me about 10 minutes the tower to clear an entrance and enter. Once the doors shut, they wouldn’t be reopening. Thinking about it I should trigger all the doors to open, then rush into one. Hopefully that would keep the golems outside for the Divine Empress to vent her rage on.

Not that it would do much good or slow her down for more than a second. If she could take out ten level 5 golems, and a horde of level 4 monsters or at least escape, then anything less than that would do absolutely nothing.

I had managed to disable her the first time by using her ignorance about energy types. The second time had taken advantage of her confusion on what to do while in mid-air. Retreat or attack. Her nature was to attack and keep attacking.

While she was clever, it was a mistake. If she had been smart, she would have instantly altered trajectories the moment she saw me move towards her. But all her instincts and training she had done were probably screaming at her to just go right and blow me away.

She wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. If she caught up with me, she would be much more careful about any tricks I might pull in the future. The big problem was, was that I was out of tricks and combat maneuvers to gain the advantage over her.

It just wasn’t possible for me to defeat her in a straight up fight. If she was careful and wore me down, forcing me to use my energy to defend myself, then she would eventually win. It would be brutal, drawn out, and she might get injured a bit, but she could win if she was cautious enough.

She just had to engage in feints, to force me to attack and waste energy to keep her away. That was proven in the initial chase. While her combat IQ was probably in the three hundreds, her strategic IQ was below one hundred.

That was the problem when you weren’t fighting peer level human opponents. The monsters only had so many tricks. While the higher level ones might be stronger, they might not be smarter until another threshold like the level 3 level 4 one was crossed.

Those golems were definitely level 5 based on their energy and they didn’t seem that much smarter than the previous golems. They couldn’t track me in the air. I hadn’t stuck around, and I had juked the one attack, but they didn’t seem smarter.

At least that was my impression, but I could be wrong. Still, I felt I was on the right track with how the Divine Empress fought. She probably just trained with monsters. So, while she had a good understanding of skills, she probably never fought an aerial battle or really considered it.

Changing directions was not simple and she kicked off her barriers. By not giving her time to think, she defended herself. While that might work almost all the time, it would not work against an annihilation attack. Dodging instead of defending was always the superior choice. But she wasn’t a dodger.

That wasn’t a real flaw, but more of a subtle flaw a melee fighter would have. They had to train to get close and deliver their attack. They couldn’t hesitate, since hesitation was death. Fighting monsters would only reinforce this.

It had taken me a long time, but I had finally gotten an understanding of the Divine Empress’s personality and it had allowed me to repel her twice. But that was the limit of my success. Now she would be careful and realize I had exploited a flaw in her combat style.

If she was anyone else, I wouldn’t even give them credit for realizing so quickly in a chase like this. But she was the Divine Empress and like I had already realized her combat IQ was monstrous. She would adjust to deal with me at a range. Possibly throwing things and feints to exhaust me now. Thinking she would do anything else, wasn’t giving her credit for how vicious and unrelenting a fighter she was.

Even with an arm blown off and the front of her body wrecked, she had still wanted to fight me in melee combat. That kind of tenacity was frightening. She was unrelenting in every sense of the word. Which is what made her so effective as a Body stat focused fighter, but also left flaws.

I doubted she was thanking me, but I am sure she appreciated the harsh lessons I had imparted upon her. It was just incredibly annoying, how she just wouldn’t give up on chasing me. I understood why, but lady, Divine Empress, take a nap or something. Old people need naps, right?

If I was in her shoes, I probably wouldn’t give up either once I had a target I hated in my sights. That was the mistake I had made with the Ritualist. I had learned that lesson and it was clear that the Divine Empress had learned that lesson as well. Or I just had pissed her off so much, that she couldn’t think about anything else but getting her hands on me.

I used Air Burst to help cross over the stretch of swamp and then turned East. The Divine Empress was still on me, about twelve minutes behind. Her energy was a beacon to let me know she was there. This is the kind of situation where some stealth skills would have been nice.

Just disappear and juke her to throw her off my trail. Too bad it wouldn’t work. Not with how many stats I had and her Sense stat. If I had no stats, it would have been much easier to hide in the city from her and would have been a real possibility. Well now there was only one hope left to lose her.

I looked at the tower in the distance. It was time to climb.