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  My daughter Lu Linqi has always been strong, both as a warrior and as a leader of men. There are even those who claim that she was my superior as a general. Obviously, that is not the case. I am literally undefeated as a commander, unless you count the time when my own men betrayed me and surrendered Xiapi around me.

  Anyway, I digress. My daughter Linqi was taught to fight by a combination of me and the best Cultivation teachers money could buy. She was a damn good warrior, and I have a lot of respect for both her mind and her abilities. I was less impressed with her choice of men than I had originally thought, however.

  What I had said earlier about his mastery of the single-bladed axe remains true; it really was almost like that of a sage. The issue was that even utilizing his huge hatchet to the utmost and imbuing it with conceptual power, it just wasn’t actually a weapon. Of course, it could take a life or severely wound a person, but it was in truth a tool for felling trees, not a weapon for the slaughter of men. My spear, on the other hand, is absolutely a weapon, and its significant reach did a lot to make up for the discrepancy in our sizes.

  This is why spears and polearms are the true lords of the battlefield. Even with the size of my opponent and the effective range afforded him by his tall frame and long limbs, I was the one who had the advantage in reach. The giant of a man had a damage reduction ability that seemed to work without any kind of activation from Paul himself, which my HUD identified as [Ironbark Endurance]. It prevented the energy blade on the end of my spear from simply slicing him to ribbons as the huge man tried to close the distance between us.

  It wasn’t that he was immune to my weapon’s blade; it absolutely left scorch and cut marks on him, but striking the man felt like he had armor just beneath his skin. I think he intended to catch me off guard with the effect when he first rushed me with his imbued axe. I, however, am not an idiot; in fact, I found Paul’s movements appallingly easy to predict. I will give him his due; the big man wasn’t lumbering like you sometimes see in bigger warriors, but explosive speed is something I expect from a physically powerful foe.

  Slipping out of the way of his initial rush, I unleashed a trio of thrusts that caught him on the chest, the stomach, and the bicep. Paul wasn’t wearing any sort of armor, and his plaid shirt with rolled-up sleeves didn’t offer much in the way of protection, but as I've already explained, he didn’t really need it.

  The huge man came to a skidding stop and tried to catch me by swapping his axe from his right to his left hand and committing to a blind backswing as he turned to face me again. Naturally, even as I slipped past him, I had been able to tell that was what he was going to do by the way his muscles contracted.

  “Pitiful.” I said to him matter-of-factly and swayed out of the way of the attack. Before he could recover his guard or attempt to launch another attack at me, I whipped my spear up to slice across his face as he finished his turn. The huge man’s beard sizzled, and the air filled with the unpleasant scent of burning hair, but he managed to whip his head aside before I could carve out his eye.

  Even through the pain and impaired vision that came with me cutting through the skin of his face with a glowing spear blade, Paul unleashed not one but two abilities. The first, my HUD identified as [One-Man Mill], and I didn’t need any kind of special explanation to see what it did. As the enormous man brought his axe down towards me, no less than five ethereal copies of the weapon descended at the same time. The copies, which technically weren’t made of Qi, but may as well have been, were cleverly placed so that they could strike me if I dodged into the most logical places that a person seeking to use a spear’s reach or continue forcing Paul to circle might go.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Against me, they may as well not have existed at all; Rather than leap out of the way, I simply turned sideways and took a single step back. Naturally, I went ahead and activated King of Destroyer as I did so, and slashed the spear across his gut.

  I wasn’t sure if it was due to cybernetics or simply the fact that he was a higher level than me, but even with the increased impact, I still only managed to leave a shallow cut on the man. Still, I had continued to punish him for every attempt to harm me and even easily predicted his little trick with the multiple cloned axes.

  It was a good thing I had avoided the attack, as both the real and energy-based axes that fell around gouged the cement of the ground where they impacted, and struck with enough force that dust and chips of the artificial stone flew in all directions.

  Where it me that had unleashed multiple axes like that they would actually never have been intended to hit, not against a foe of my calibre. The intent would have been to maneuver me into a position where I could take advantage of my opponent’s counterattack. Of course, while I respected the physical power that my daughter’s man possessed, and even his skill with the axe, he hadn’t shown me anything that would lead me to believe he even possessed an ability that would allow him to take advantage of my positioning in such a manner, I don’t even think he was carrying a gun.

  flashed on my HUD as I smirked up at the big man from between his missed attacks. I didn’t know what the name meant, but I knew immediately that I had underestimated Paul and that whatever this ability was, it was his follow-up.

  I didn’t have time to read the description of what was happening on my HUD, but my own predictive mind told me whatever the blow was, it would come from my left. This is only logical as the vast majority of warriors are weaker on their left, so you can generally rely on ambushes or deceptive techniques to come from behind or your left. At least, if your opponent isn’t an idiot, which it seemed Paul Bunyan was not.

  I am actually ambidextrous; this is not a skill I was born with, but rather the result of countless hours of practice with both hands and in multiple stances. For most things, I would consider Ding Yuan the wisest of the men who called themselves my father, but it was actually Dong Zhou who advised me to make sure I was skilled

  In this case, I was actually turned sideways to avoid the five axes, so technically the attack came from where my back was facing, if only for a half a second. Completing the spin, I brought my spear up and across my body in a guarding motion, and I’m glad I did. I only just managed to set my feet and prepare myself for an assault when a see-through oxen made of Qi, excuse me, ‘ soul energy’ slammed its lowered head into me. I managed to get the haft of my guarding weapon between the spirit beast and myself enough that the horns were kept from impaling me, but otherwise the creature was huge, and so was the force of the impact.

  I actually believe that had I pressed the issue, I could have stopped the blue oxen’s charge entirely, but such a decision would have caused Featherfall to heavily warp or even snap from the forces at play between myself and the animal, and that was a far worse outcome than allowing myself to be sent flying. So…I allowed myself to be sent flying.

  I soared through the air for perhaps a second or two before smashing through the one section of El Naturale’s frontage that actually had a glass window.

  From outside, I heard my opponent call out.

  “How's that for pitiful? Ya darn hoser.”

  I think it was supposed to be an insult from the huge man, but honestly I have no idea. Mr Wu who was still behind the counter of his store, was a lot easier to read. He started screeching at me and insisting I pay him back before I got out and went straight to hell.

  Standing up, I dusted myself off, kicked my spear from the ground back into my hand, and offered the old shop owner a deep bow.

  “Forgivness please," I said to him before hurling myself back out the now destroyed window I had just come through. On my face was a wide grin that I simply could not get rid of. Not only had I been right the first time, and the man my daughter chose to be with did actually possess some skills and strategies, but I had found myself in a duel that might actually prove challenging, and it was about fucking time.