I took a step forward as the rain drained off my black robes, forgetting for a moment that only an hour or two before my body had been pretty much smashed. The twinge of pain as my friends and I moved out to meet them was a fairly solid reminder though... Trying to keep the grimace under control, I strove to keep my face locked into what I hoped was an intimidating frown. The pain sucked, but I had been through worse, and it did not seem to be inhibiting my movement at all. I could not speak for my friends, but even without my Lesser Regeneration, healing pills plus Darina was still pretty effective. I hoped V’s companions would not be too strong, but I had faith in our group. Apexes did not seem to take chumps as apprentices. Well, I sort of had been when Walker picked me up but I seemed to be the exception.

Our two groups approached each other as Reff caught Toria up on our shared history with V, his voice barely audible over the pounding rain. We each came to a stop when the gap between us was a couple of dozen feet, and V’s head tilted to the side with a wide smile as he looked at us.

“Well! I must say that this is a happy coincidence! When I was instructed to watch this place, I was told that my impolite guest may show up, but I am truly pleased that it was true. With the Apex in the planar space, and my newly acute awareness of the mass the baihu can bring to bear, I dare say this meeting can provide great merriment. To me. Pity there are so few to play with...”

I did not look back at the tent – I did not want any of these people figuring out that Darina was there, or vulnerable and I hoped the others had the presence to do the same. Instead, I asked a question.

“You think this many is enough? We’ve been kicking your sorry cult up and down this world. Have you actually won a fight against us?”

V’s smile flickered for a moment and I saw resentment – a lot of it – in his eyes, but he quickly schooled his expression before replying, his voice oily with fake friendliness.

“Well, you don’t have a convenient peak Foundation stage cultivator, and I won’t allow your friends to sneak up on me again... oh, and I brought my friend Altin, the Diamond Titan. So, there’s that.”

V gestured at a man stood next to him who seemed fairly short to be called a titan at only about five and a half feet; he was not particularly wide or muscular either, so I inferred that he probably grew in some way. The way he said the name also seemed to suggest that this was more than some random mook, and he was at least Path stage, as he had a fancy cultivation name. That did pose something of an issue – while I was very probably faster than V, I could not keep up with two of them, and I had been relying on Reff to give me a hand.

Turning slightly, I spoke at a volume I hoped would be audible to my friends, and not to the enemy.

“I think I can take V, you guys concentrate the diamond guy and the others?”

“With purposeful quiet, I will try to take the others on with my puppets. They are approaching full independence.”

That was good news – Riffa's puppets would help level the playing field, hopefully leaving V and Altin to the rest of us.

“Awesome. Let’s be aware of each other’s situations and not get too separated. Attack when I do?”

There were murmurs of assent from my companions and I turned back, to our opposition, speaking loud enough again for my voice to cut through the rain.

“You obviously don’t know much about Apexes; The Crystal Drake will be back any minute!”

“An unworthy try; my Master has made something of a stu-”

I did not wait for him to finish; it was cheap, but the more socially rigid a society, the less they expected you to attack in the middle of a conversation, specifically while they were answering something you yourself said.

With a flex of my will, I Focused as hard as I could, forcing the lightning to stay within the bounds of my channels; it was my vanilla lightning this time, as I had been practicing switching it over the day before the quest failed. The world slowed around me, but as I was keeping a lid on the showier part of my Focus, there was no external sign. Another flex of my will pushed Praxis through my Exemplar in a surge and as my compression aura sprang into being around me, I dragged it in close to me, and in the moment before I sprang forward, it appeared to me as though the rains about us was stood still, glittering jewels suspended in every direction.

I could see the surprise form on V’s face as I charged, but while I should be faster physically, he was still a Foundation stage cultivator and any speed advantage would probably be slim. The familiar sickly, mould green aura sprang up around him, lifting V off the ground as the humanoid lion took shape a fraction of a second before I reached him and drove my fist into his stomach. I felt the energy field give, but I could tell it had absorbed some of the blow, though I could not tell how much. Not stopping, I pivoted to drive my crystal hand into his face but Instinctive Precognition gave warning as his own claws came at me. Stepping back, I avoided the razor-sharp attack by inches, knowing that if he did manage to injure me, the necrotic nature of his abilities would likely take me out of the fight.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Reff’s now massive Mega-Form smash into the somewhat smaller form of the Diamond Titan, and I wondered if I had misconstrued their abilities slightly.

Forcing my attention back to my own fight, too used to having a solid time advantage with which to become distracted, I dodged another blow from the green-cat, ducking down and driving a punch into the side of his knee, rolling with the momentum to avoid the counter from his descending claw. Spinning back to my feet a quick-step brought me forward as his off-hand was still stretched across his body, allowing me to deliver a quick jab at his face. I could tell he felt it, but while I was faster than him to that point, he still had the toughness and strength of somebody at least a stage above me, and that was not even including the fact that he was using Veritas rather than Praxis, meaning the energy form he was cocooned inside was an order higher than what I could output.

I danced back as V spun out of his counter, his back leg coming around to lash at my face with a foot baring the same deadly claws as his hands. Ducking under the limb, I estimated I was moving about ten-percent faster than he was, which was a solid advantage, which when coupled with my prophetic reflexes would likely keep me safe until my Praxis ran dry. The issue was damage.

Unlike the Fullmetal Asshole – who had technically been a higher stage than me, if in another system – V’s advantage over me was universal, aside from speed. Unlike pretty much all of the other cultivators I had fought, this opponent had a solid layer of energy between me and him, which meant it probably cost him nothing to passively defend against my lightning. Which really only left me with one option.

I heard a crash and felt the ground beneath me shake; risking a glance sideways, I saw Reff’s massive molten form on its back a short distance away, a giant of dirty crystal stood where he had been. Most probably the Diamond Titan. I worried for half a moment, but I saw smoke rising from the huge body and figured that while he had thrown my friend off, just that contact had done damage. I had no idea if his body was really made from diamond, or a diamond-like material, or whether it was just an affectation for having a really hard body, but whatever it was, it seemed it could burn. I also caught sight of the forming bodies of Riffa’s clones, and the strange line-like fire of Toria’s own cultivation beginning to take shape as she moved – still very slowly, to me – around the battle.

Precognitive reflexes kicked in and I sidestepped a claw, backing away in small, measured steps as I tried to avoid even a single potentially deadly cut. Mentally shaking myself, I got my head back in the fight and tried to come up with a way to win; I had become too arrogant it seemed in my fights with similar level people and systems that did not reinforce the body as heavily as cultivation did. My speed had become overwhelming, so here I was fighting on par with a true Foundation level opponent, but I knew that it was an illusion, that while speed was king, in that moment it was king of a fairly small nation.

I took an opportunity to step past V’s outstretched hand as he over-extended slightly, moving behind him and deciding that I was going to have to try my trump card. Flexing my will once more as he began to turn, I concentrated on my left arm, pushing everything I had into it, lightning and all.

I felt the fuzzy feeling that came with the loss of control over my limb and there was a flash of light, arcs of lightning as thick as my waist and almost pure white hanging in the air for a fraction of a second as the world lurched into motion around me and V was sent rocketing away into the trees. I did not know exactly what the time compression on one of my echo punches was, but I knew it allowed for multiple strikes at what was effectively the same time. This meant that not only was I compounding the force of my blows, but also the amount of Praxis my lightning carried, made all the more potent by the efficiency with which my arm used the energy. Normally, a body of my level would not be able to handle the kind of stress generated by such an attack, but since from my perspective it was just... many single attacks rather than one large attack, it was, for all intents and purposes, cheating wildly. Of course, the attack had downsides; I could only use it once before having to wait for the backlash to settle, and while that time had decreased as my integration grew, it was still longer than most fights when fighting at super-speed.

Not wasting anymore time, the world slowed back down as my Praxis returned to its usual patterns and I surveyed the battle. Riffa’s clones were now engaged with the Risen Throne reinforcements, and Reff and Altin were smashing away at each other, seemingly at something of a stalemate. I did not know what I could do about that, as I had used my trump card and I did not think – even at top speed – I would be able to do much to multiple feet of solid diamond without it. Luckily, as I said before it seemed that diamond burned. Not only was Reff causing at least as much damage as he was taking, but the incandescent lines Toria left in place as she was propelled around the fight seemed to both stay in place and burn very hot. I watched as the crystal giant staggered back after one particularly hard kick, one of the traplines into the back of the colossal ankle was burned, causing the man to overbalance and fall.

Blinking, I was very glad I had taken her out as quickly as I had in our bout – that ability would push an opponent further and further into a corner, slowly – or quickly for many – trapping them.

Now assured that my companions had the situation well in hand, I set off in the direction I had sent V, quickly leaving the fight behind. The man had escaped too many times, and though it did mean breaking my own admonition to stay together, I would be damned if I let him escape again when I finally had the advantage. Without knowing the specifics of my trump-card, I did not know exactly how much damage it had done to the higher-order cultivator, but given the fact it had literally exploded people before, I had high hopes of being able to finally put the sick, torturing bastard down.