Chapter 83: Walker Of Narrow Roads, Superhuman Predictions

[Schema: Walker of Narrow Roads]

[Schema Abilities: Narrow Path, Pathfinder]

[Narrow Path (Epic): Create entrances into dimensions and angles unwalked by your people.]

[Pathfinder (Epic): Predict the paths of complex and subatomic bodies. The world is an open book to you. This ability will show you the gap between everything]

Now that Faust had access to it, Negan’s Schema looked more amazing than he expected.

Opening entrances into two or four dimensional spaces and passing through them without running mad was amazing.

But using it felt like shrinking down or flattening his form and walking through a long, dark tunnel. The Pathfinder Ability let him guess which ones ways safe to walk through and how long before he came out the other end. But it was still extremely dangerous.

There were things moving in the darkness. Things that hurt to look at. And their movements were... erratic. They were hard to predict even with Pathfinder, which drew a yellow line through the path he was meant to follow.

If any of those dark bodies hit him, Faust was sure he would die almost instantly.

Negan must be mad to use this ability so frequently.

Faust liked that.

◇◇◇

Annihilation allowed Faust’s axe to slash through the quick transparent, blue shield Negan erected around himself. Then the axe tore into Negan’s prized Musician’s Shroud like it was black cloth and not steel.

Negan wasn’t jerked away by his Elusive Escape skill. It meant Faust had escaped his web. Whatever hyper-prediction Negan was relying on to be pulled away from deadly attacks was broken.

But he was still fast as hell. The Arachne Pathfinder shot back. The stone between his feet shattered from the instant explosion of movement. But the damage was done.

Faust’s axe was slick with Negan’s greenish-black blood.

He swabbed some of it off with his finger and brought it to his nose, savoring the smell of iron.

"Smells a lot like human blood. And like... insulin or some other medicine." Faust grinned. "If I drink the blood of such a Legendary race will I become immortal?"

Negan was still. The black helmet over his face betrayed no emotions. The blue eyes on the helmet didn’t narrow or change—they just studied Faust silently.

"If only my Appraise Skill wasn’t limited to level 3," Negan whispered. "I wouldn’t have selected it if I knew it would be this useless."

Faust walked lackadaisically towards Negan. He left many openings but the Patron didn’t bite. They both knew they could just escape any attack through a higher dimension and counter attack.

But still, Negan has his armor’s predictive ability. He should be better at using Narrow Path than me.

"Hah... pussy," Faust sighed. "I thought you were impressive for using Narrow Path so brazenly. It seems you just rely on and trust your equipment so much that you use your schema like a madman."

Faust shook his head, clicking his tongue. "Now that a puny human has your Schema, the innovations of a legendary race don’t look so reliable, huh?"

"Human insults are meaningless to me," Negan replied coolly. "Your Schema... the ability to mirror the Schema of others. Quite the deadly ability for a human to awaken. You must feel so proud to have such power. But don’t forget what you are. The system will bring down heaven and hell to test you. And you will break."

Faust waved him off and suddenly disappeared. Negan hissed and disappeared too. They reappeared attacking empty air just a few metres apart.

That’s so annoying.

The two of them had just gone through a series of predictions and counter predictions using Pathfinder to guess where the other Party would be in the next second.

Faust forecasted that Negan would know he was going for the spider legs. But then mid-travel through the narrow path, the predictions changed again.

Negan paced away from him, fists tightening into a ball. Fighting a fellow Pathfinder must have been annoying as hell.

Along with the strange rush of heat in his skull, he was increasingly unsure that he could hit Negan.

Negan relaxed a little, probably receiving some information from the Musician’s Shroud. "Your brain isn’t handling the stress of my Schema well. It is a racial Schema after all." There was a grin in his tone.

"Your already abnormal heart rate is increasing. I don’t only rely on my Schema; I can guarantee most of my travels through the Narrow Path, but you can’t. Eventually you’ll be lost by your failing predictions and weak human brain."

Faust had to admit Walker of Narrow Roads was not an easy Schema to use. He didn’t have the adaptations in biology, skill and equipment that Negan had.

But that didn’t mean he was ready to give up.

They both disappeared at the same time.

Space folded and turned a bottomless black as Faust dove into the path. It was like light speed from the movies. Just without the feeling of speed.

This time Faust used Focus on his already throbbing mind. He charted a slow path. Negan reappeared earlier than him, popping onto the empty street with his palm extended in a strike.

A yellow rush of light erupted from his palm, forming a giant spider. The attack decimated three streets in an explosion. Dust washed over the entire block of the Novice village. Heat and force spread out over the city.

It was a terrifying attack.

Too bad that it hit absolutely nothing.

Faust shot out of the dust and slashed across Negan’s back again. The Pathfinder squealed, his cold blood splashed onto Faust.

"You rely too much on that prediction," Faust scoffed.

He had used Mirage after coming out of his Narrow Path and hid within the dust strom caused by Negan’s attack.

Negan spun with fury and struck like a storm. Faust simply retreated and waited. Negan wasn’t extending himself out of fear. His dragon flail cracked and whipped against the ground, missing Faust by inches.

With Pathfinder, Faust could predict the movement of complex bodies through space. Yellow lines were drawn around Negan’s body, showing its expected path.

The prediction wasn’t perfect, and he was weary of pushing the ability too far because of his strained mind.

But it made the fight much clearer.

Negan would try to predict Faust’s position, but it was invalidated.

At this point, they could only rely on their split second decisions and fighting prowess. Negan was a better fighter than Faust. He had better physical advantages too.

But he was less decisive.

And in situations like this, that was an overwhelming advantage.