- Obsidia's Perspective -

Damn this girl...she sure is persistent, if nothing else.

If my opponent had been anyone else, they surely would have changed to a different target by now after experiencing first-hand just how tough it was to eliminate me. But this girl - Mei Gui - was different. Despite our arduous chase, she still seemed to show no sign of hesitating, much less stopping and moving on to a different target.

I noticed the helicopter the humans were in close by, and so did Mei Gui. Neither of us cared, however. They were just here as spectators - a mere audience for our long and tiring fight.

Well. I say 'long', but in reality, only 4 minutes have passed. I had been counting ever since Mei Gui transformed into her Apoxyia form. She could withhold this state for exactly 600 seconds - or rather, 10 minutes. So far, 240 seconds had passed - 4 minutes. That left 360 seconds of this boring and tedious chase still left.

As much as I wanted to use this time for something more useful, such as perhaps coming up with a plan on how exactly to actually defeat Mei Gui after her Apoxyia form expired, I could not risk thinking about anything else right now. The moment I did and lost focus on what was happening in the real world, I would get defeated at the hands of her two accursed Gatling guns. It took everything I had - physical strength and mental strength - to avoid her constant streamline of bullets.

The only brief 'breaks' I had were when the Gatling guns overheated, a problem with all weapons of this model. But even then, with Mei Gui's enhancing powers derived from the Chaos energy within her, these overheat periods were no more than five seconds. And in these five seconds, I had to try and create as much distance between us as possible, since I did not have to strafe or worry about any bullets coming my way during this time.

And right now, was one of those periods.

I pretended to ascend, and Mei Gui followed me, as expected. But just as I was about to reach the clouds, I suddenly twisted downwards, as sharply and swiftly as possible. This threw Mei Gui off a little, though not by much.

But it was enough.

I zoomed downwards as fast as I could, and only decelerated at the end, right when I was about to hit the ground, to avoid killing myself.

Keep running around in the sky will not work...it's too easy for her to hit me up there. I need to try a new tactic.

With this in mind, instead of taking up high into the air again like I did in the past, I stayed low, and entered an extremely narrow corridor, even by this slums' standards. Cancelling my flight spell, I landed gently on the ground and began sprinting. Mei Gui landed where I had just did the same moments ago, but unfortunately for her (fortunately for me), her wings were too large, and prevented her from entering the same corridor I did.

Snarling in frustration, Mei Gui flew back up, into the sky, and attempted to track me from above. However, luckily for me, it was still dark, and with my black clothes and hair, it was extremely difficult to spot me from above without the use of detection spells. There weren't any lights in the slums either, further contributing to my stealth.

Good...this was good for me.

I had her exactly where I wanted. This way, I could just keep continuing to do this until her time ran out. But my relief was short-lived, as I suddenly heard the now-familiar wind-up sound of Mei Gui's two Gatling guns...directly above me.

What?! How did she know where I wa-

"Damn-! Level Two Sky Magic - Wind Barrier!"

I quickly deployed a wall of wind above me, just barely in time to block the bullets for me. But there was no time to relax, as I immediately dashed around a corner and began sprinting as fast as I could, hoping I could throw Mei Gui off somehow. But she still continued to chase after me, and since she was faster up in the sky, I had to put up Wind Barriers from time to time. My mana was slowly getting depleted.

6 minutes have passed...still 4 minutes left...

And then, I came across a crossroad with two options - left, or right. I decided to take the right path, hoping that Mei Gui would take the left. It was a 50% chance, after all.

But I would soon come to realize that it was not a 50% chance at all. It was an 100% chance she would follow me. Why? Because she had her radar activated, of course.

"Damn...I forgot about the radar that comes with her Apoxyia form...how annoying!" I muttered in anguish as I kept running.

Mei Gui followed from up high in the sky, and continued to rain down hell on me. Seconds turned into minutes, and every moment, I was getting closer to victory. All I had to do was keep avoiding her bullets...though that is far easier said than done.

Mei Gui herself seemed to be getting more anxious by the second as well, since she knew her time was running out. She became more reckless in the use of her Gatling guns, but that only made things easier for me, contrary to what she wanted. Her shooting pattern became more concentrated, making her bullets simple to dodge. She slowly became more and more impatient, which was exactly what I wanted.

Until at last, only one minute of her Apoxyia form time remained. I began the countdown.

60...

I suddenly changed direction to just barely avoid getting flayed by a barrage of Gatling gun bullets, entering a small alleyway that was quite dark, even compared to the rest of these slums. Mei Gui continued to shoot at me from above, but since her radar was just a broad kind of detection and didn't reveal my exact, precise location, her aim was a bit off, allowing me to still remain in the fray.

50...

I normally dislike mazes, but in this case, that worked in my favor.

I made random twists and turns within the slums, not knowing exactly where I am going. But on the other hand, neither did Mei Gui. This strategy seemed to be working...

20 seconds....

...Until I hit a dead end. I stared at the tall grey wall in front of me, and cursed. Behind me, I could hear the bullets getting closer and closer to hitting me from above, and realized that it was too late to cast any spells.

In one last desperate attempt to escape this predicament, I did the first thing my instincts told me - rely on the power of dragons.

A full transformation would take too long, and would destroy everything around me. But a partial transformation...I can manage that.

Draconic Transformation - Arms!

My left hand transformed into that of a dragon's, and my fingernails turned into talons. While the rest of my body remained in my human form, my right hand and arm were now clearly that of a black dragon's - and I had strength to match. I arched my arm back, and threw a punch that tore straight through the solid concrete wall. Undoing my transformation, I leapt through the newly opened way, and once again, managed to escape elimination by the skin of my teeth.

10...

I turned left, nearly tripping but not quite.

8...

Regaining my balance, I began sprinting once more at full speed, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

5...

I prepared for my comeback, as I kept an eye on the sky above me where Mei Gui was still flying.

3...2...

I came across an open area that allowed for Mei Gui to finally get a good shot on me, but the same could be said for myself as well. I had a perfect shot on Mei Gui, and I was going to take it. Sliding and turning around in one swift motion, I unsheathed Whisper off my back and aimed it directly at Mei Gui's head. Her Gatling guns also swivelled to point towards me, and we both narrowed our gazes.

1.

PEW!

I pressed the trigger, and let the bullet fly just as Mei Gui's wings deactivated, signalling that her Apoxyia form had ended. Fortunately for me, she was not able to wind up her Gatling guns in time before her form ended, so she was merely falling defenselessly towards my bullet's calculated trajectory - or so I thought. I loaded another bullet into Whisper, just in case.

Mei Gui, however, seemed to have anticipated my shot, as to my surprise, the bullet appeared to have struck her hand, and yet no gas came out, even when she landed on the ground in front of me.

Just as I was about to shoot another shot to secure the kill, she threw something towards me - the bullet I had just shot.