Jason was having the worst day of his life. Starting on a high and ending low always sucked.

People had been all over him at the start of the night praising him, thanking him for his hard work. The stream had been focused on his insane battle against the Troll Chief after all.

But then Faust came and spoiled everything. Now he was trying to take the spotlight against the Patrons.

Negan fought like every move they could make was displayed to him a few seconds ahead. Even the all mighty Faust wasn’t immune to that.

Faust turned into a shadow to escape the spatial bubbles Negan put around him. But even so, when he reappeared fifty metres away, Negan was already moving towards him, disappearing from reality once again to appear in front of Faust.

What is that ability?!

Spatial Schema had long cooldowns between use. But whatever Negan did when he disappeared could be done repeatedly.

Faust was moving erratically, bounding from place to place, across buildings and streets. But Negan would still appear in front of him and unleashed a barrage of strikes. Agility wasn’t Jason’s forte so he barely saw what happened.

Faust managed to block and deflect two hits, but something slammed into his back. Negan’s dragon tail. It somehow crossed the distance between them faster than the eye could see.

The blow sent Faust crashing through multiple buildings.

Jason smirked. "He can’t take that thing by himself," and moved to step forward.

Nirvana stepped in front of him, her crimson eyes as unnerving as ever. "You’ll only get in his way."

"I’ve marked Negan with my Schema," Jason said coolly, trying to hold his temper. "I can do whatever I want to him."

He dragged his hand back, willing Negan to fly towards him, but nothing happened. Jason turned pale and silent.

His Schema had been removed somehow.

"We don’t know the extent of what Negan can do," Nirvana said, glancing at his hand. "If we focus on him, we’ll lose a significant portion of our strength fighting him. Then the fourth wave will swallow us."

Two, Jason’s lieutenant, whispered beside him. "Let the crazy bastard stall the alien. We can continue once we end the wave and get more rewards."

That’s right. Once I hit level 7, all of Negan’s attacks will be much weaker against me. And my Sponsors will be able to get me new equipment and an Iron-grade All-Attributes potion.

Jason turned and started walking to the Southern gate. His whole crew followed wordlessly. Other players abandoned the ruined town square too. He held back a smile; he still had a lot of influence it seemed.

But there was an anxious feeling in his belly. What if Faust won?

It was quickly silenced. They hadn’t even seen half of Negan’s powers. All the Patrons were sent here to toy with them. That’s why the system gave them second lives, because it knew no one would win.

"A loss would do good for your overinflated ego," Jason muttered to himself.

◇◇◇

Faust had to admit that he was a bit outmatched here.

Negan was almost ten feet tall with his lower spider half. Each of those eight legs were as long as his entire body. And each time a metal plated leg slammed into the shaft of his axe, he was reminded of people dancing with bulls.

His body violently shot back, slamming through another building. So much property damage. He slammed his feet into the ground to stop his momentum. He tore through the bedroom like a cannon, slicing the bedframe in half and destroying the floors.

The cooldowns for Bolster and Focus were about to end. His next hit was his fifth attack too, so he could use Rage Strike with Dark Maw.

This fight could end in the next few seconds.

Faust had used Observe to mark Negan’s position, but every time he did that higher dimension nonsense it turned off.

He jumped out of the building and did some light parkour to fly across the roofs. Negan could always perfectly predict his position, but that gave him a weakness.

All Faust had to do was choose where they clashed.

Negan appeared on the narrow roof in front of Faust, cutting him off. Two spatial bubbles swelled dangerously on either side. Negan was practically baiting him into jumping backwards.

But Faust surprised him by slashing forward uncaringly. He slashed through one of the spatial bubbles casually.

Negan raised a leg to block the axe then stiffened when he saw his spatial bubble deteriorate.

"Annihilation?!"

He was stuck between retreating and defending. But once again, he was pulled from danger by that strange skill, jerking sideways like he was being pulled away.

But now he was unbalanced on the slanting edge of the roof.

Fireball!

The roaring ball of fire hit Negan at close range. Faust used Bolster and Dash to escape the worst effect but was still caught in the explosion.

Thankfully, I didn’t apply Annihilation to that.

Faust soared out of the fire and hit the ground rolling. He had to pat out the fires on his body and his skin stung a little, but he was mostly fine.

"I really need full armor."

Once on his feet he watched Negan fall to the ground too. But he was barely smouldering. His feet had barely touched the ground when he reappeared beside Faust.

"Shit!"

He took the first strike to his shoulder and stars danced in his vision. He dodged the second and blocked the third, before counterattacking.

However, Negan was just so smooth. His blocks seamlessly transferred to strikes. Each step or reposition he did was well measured. And his reach made it feel like Faust was fighting a shadow.

Annihilation was the only thing that could break through that black armor of his anyways.

"How do you have the Annihilation effect?!" Negan roared. "It shouldn’t even be available till your Planetary ascension!"

He performed a tight combo that batted Faust’s axe away and landed a heavy blow against his chest.

His ribs cracked. Faust felt the wind rush from his lungs and blacked out for a second . He skidded back, but managed to remain standing.

"You can’t win!" Negan sneered, his voice discordant and irritating, walking towards him slowly. "As good as your human martial arts are, my Web Strider art is much better. Your speed and mana are impressive, but they aren’t on my level."

"Web Strider?" Faust croaked through his burning lungs. "Is that how you get saved from my sure hits?"

"No. That’s a skill, but it does feed into the art. The Elusive Escape skill, my Musician’s Shroud and my Pathfinder ability all come together with a fighting style that has been honed for generations, allowing me to predict your attacks and movements."

Faust had to admit that sounded so fucking cool. A skill, Schema and armor made to synergise so well is the sign of a civilization that has been with the system for so long.

"If I had my Lapis Lapel it would be more obvious, but alas," Negan sighed. "You’re caught in my web. My armor predicts your attacks and the Elusive Escape skill shows me the best ways to avoid them. You cannot escape."

Faust raised his head, feeling his lungs reinflate as Blood regeneration healed him. He had a wicked smile on his face. "So I have to shake off these markings on me."

Negan chuckled. "You can’t—"

All that talk had to be to give Faust time to read up on his copied Schema. Now that he was ready—

He simply disappeared.

Negan froze. "That’s my Sche—"

Faust’s axe slashed into his side in the next second.