Chapter 92:The Edge

Chapter 92: Chapter 92:The Edge

The swordsman shifted his weight onto his rear foot.

Jason saw it.

The movement was slight, barely more than a change in balance, but he had watched the man long enough to recognize what followed.

The blade would come next.

Jason tightened his grip on the Stoneborn Spear, drawing his essence inward. Battle Spirit gathered around the spearhead, forming a thin, almost invisible layer that sharpened the space around its point.

He waited.

The swordsman moved.

Steel flashed toward Jason’s chest, carrying a concentrated edge of essence capable of cutting through the broken metal supports scattered across the chamber. Jason turned his body at the last instant, allowing the blade to pass along his side.

The attack missed.

His spear moved immediately.

Jason thrust toward the swordsman’s exposed ribs, but the man had already anticipated the counter. He twisted his wrist and brought his sword across the spearhead, diverting it away from his body.

The weapons collided.

A sharp vibration traveled through the Stoneborn Spear and into Jason’s arms.

He felt the difference immediately.

The swordsman’s essence was denser, his control steadier, and his reactions faster than those of the other guards. Even after Jason had identified his attack pattern, forcing an opening remained difficult.

The man was not relying on speed alone. Every movement flowed naturally into the next, leaving Jason with very few opportunities to retaliate.

The swordsman stepped back.

Jason did the same.

Neither spoke.

Around them, the remaining guards continued to reposition themselves. The Fourth Level warriors maintained their perimeter, while the five Intermediate Fifth Level cultivators watched for an opportunity to join the fight.

The second Peak Fifth Level cultivator stood several paces away, his reinforced gauntlets hanging at his sides.

He had not attacked again.

He was waiting for Jason to make a mistake.

Jason could feel the trap closing.

He had already fought through numerous Fourth Level guards and exchanged blows with the five Intermediate Fifth Level cultivators. His body was stronger than it had been before the refinement, and his newly advanced cultivation gave him access to a level of power that would have seemed impossible to him only hours earlier.

But the number of enemies remained a problem.

The two Peak Fifth Level cultivators were strong enough to punish any mistake he made. The others were preventing him from concentrating entirely on either opponent.

He could not afford to fight carelessly.

I need to break their formation before they wear me down.

The swordsman raised his blade.

"You’re thinking too much."

Jason glanced at him.

"Is that what you tell yourself when you’re losing?"

The man’s expression did not change.

"You’re still standing because we haven’t decided to stop you."

"Then you should make up your minds."

The swordsman disappeared from his position.

Jason’s pupils contracted.

He brought the Stoneborn Spear across his body just as the sword reached him.

The impact drove him backward.

His boots scraped across the damaged platform, and the metal beneath them groaned under the force. Before he could recover his balance, the swordsman struck again.

Jason raised the shaft.

Steel slammed against it.

The force traveled through his arms and into his shoulders, but his strengthened muscles held. He twisted his wrists, allowing the blade to slide along the spear, and stepped away before the swordsman could bring his weapon around for another strike.

The swordsman followed.

His next attack came from below, aimed at Jason’s abdomen.

Jason pulled his stomach back and lowered the spearhead.

Battle Spirit flickered around the point.

He drove it toward the man’s shoulder.

The swordsman abandoned his attack and turned his blade to meet the thrust. The weapons collided, and a sharp crack echoed through the chamber.

Jason felt the strain in his arms.

He also felt something else.

For the briefest moment, the swordsman’s defense had yielded.

Not because Jason had overpowered him, but because the concentrated will surrounding the spearhead had forced the man’s essence away from the point of contact.

The opening had been small.

It had been real.

Jason retreated before the swordsman could exploit the exchange.

So that’s how far I can push it.

Battle Spirit was not a substitute for cultivation. It could not erase the difference between their levels, nor could it turn every attack into an unstoppable blow.

But it gave Jason something he had lacked before.

A way to make his attacks count even against someone stronger.

He would have to use it carefully.

The swordsman studied him.

For the first time, the man’s expression suggested genuine interest.

"You’ve learned something new."

Jason lowered the spear slightly.

"Have I?"

"You didn’t fight like this before."

Jason said nothing.

The swordsman took another step forward.

"Whatever you acquired in that chamber, it won’t save you."

Jason’s fingers tightened around the shaft.

He had no intention of explaining what happened in the refinement chamber.

The pill had changed his life. It had also placed him in a position where a single mistake could reveal more than he wanted anyone to know.

He could not afford to let the guards understand the full extent of his new abilities.

Not yet.

The swordsman attacked again.

This time, Jason did not try to meet him head-on.

He shifted to the left, keeping the spear between them. The sword struck the shaft, and Jason used the contact to redirect the blade away from his body.

He stepped inside the swordsman’s reach.

The butt of the Stoneborn Spear struck the man’s ribs.

The swordsman grunted and retreated.

Jason followed with a thrust aimed at his chest.

The man twisted aside, but the spearhead caught the edge of his armor and tore through the outer layer.

A thin line of blood appeared beneath it.

The swordsman’s eyes narrowed.

Jason did not give him time to respond.

He turned toward the gauntlet fighter, who had begun moving in from the opposite side.

The man swung a heavy fist toward Jason’s head.

Jason ducked.

The gauntlet passed over him, carrying enough force to shatter the stone pillar behind his shoulder.

Jason planted his rear foot and drove the spear upward.

The gauntlet fighter caught the shaft with his forearm guard.

The collision shook Jason’s arms.

The man used his superior strength to force the weapon aside and drove his other fist toward Jason’s chest.

Jason twisted away.

The blow grazed his side, but the impact still sent him stumbling several steps.

Pain spread beneath his ribs.

He steadied himself before the gauntlet fighter could follow up.

The man looked down at his forearm guard.

A shallow groove had been carved into the reinforced metal where Battle Spirit had concentrated around the spearhead.

His expression hardened.

Jason noticed.

He had damaged the armor of a Peak Fifth Level cultivator.

It was a small result, but it meant the skill could threaten opponents who possessed significantly stronger defenses than his own.

The gauntlet fighter raised his hands.

"Enough."

Jason almost laughed.

He had heard similar declarations before, usually from people who believed they were about to win.

The man rushed forward.

Jason met him with a short thrust.

The gauntlet fighter turned his body and struck the shaft, attempting to knock the weapon out of Jason’s hands. Jason loosened his grip just enough to let the force carry the spear aside, then caught the weapon again as it passed his shoulder.

He rotated with the movement.

The Stoneborn Spear swept toward the man’s flank.

Battle Spirit gathered at the point.

The gauntlet fighter crossed his arms to block.

The spear struck his guards with a metallic crash.

The force drove him backward, and his boots carved two long lines across the floor.

Jason’s arms trembled.

The attack had consumed more essence than he wanted.

He could not keep exchanging blows at that intensity.

The swordsman was already approaching from behind.

Jason felt the shift in the air and moved before the blade arrived. Steel passed close to his back, cutting through the edge of his clothing.

He turned and brought the spear around.

The swordsman caught it with his blade.

For a moment, they stood locked together.

Their faces were only a short distance apart.

"You are talented," the swordsman said quietly. "But you are fighting too many battles at once."

Jason’s eyes moved past him.

The Fourth Level guards had begun closing the circle again.

The five Intermediate Fifth Level cultivators were spreading out, each choosing a position from which they could attack without interfering with the others.

The gauntlet fighter was recovering.

The swordsman was holding him in place.

The formation was returning to its original shape.

Jason understood the man’s words.

He was being forced to divide his attention between too many threats. Every time he committed to an attack, someone else used the opening to strike. Every time he defended himself against one opponent, another restricted his movement.

His cultivation had changed.

His body had changed.

But the fundamental problem remained.

There were too many of them.

Jason released the pressure against the swordsman’s blade and stepped back.

The swordsman allowed him to retreat.

He knew Jason had nowhere to go.

The guards had spread across the chamber’s exits, and the passages behind them were either blocked or too dangerous to reach under the current pressure.

Jason’s gaze traveled across the room.

Broken supports lay scattered around the ruined refinement platform. Several sections of the floor had collapsed, exposing the conduits beneath them. The walls were cracked, and fragments of the ceiling had already fallen.

The entire chamber was barely holding together.

He remembered the earlier tremors.

He remembered the way the facility had groaned whenever the refinement system released another pulse of energy.

And he remembered how the ceiling had fractured in the passage before he returned to the central chamber.

The structure was failing.

The guards knew it, too.

That was why they had been so reluctant to use their strongest attacks near the refinement platform.

They wanted him alive.

They wanted to capture him.

And they were still trying to preserve whatever remained of the facility.

Jason lowered the Stoneborn Spear.

A thought began taking shape.

It was dangerous.

It would leave him separated from his team, and it might cost him the chance to escape with the evidence Reeve had recovered.

But continuing this fight would not solve anything.

He could potentially defeat the two Peak Fifth Level cultivators if he committed everything to a single exchange. Yet even if he succeeded, the remaining guards would still surround him.

He would have to fight until he ran out of essence.

And if he fell here, the pill’s secret would become another mystery buried beneath the facility.

Jason had not survived the dragon’s will just to die in a room full of guards.

He needed an opening.

Not a victory.

An opening.

The swordsman shifted his stance.

Jason recognized the movement again.

The man was preparing his penetrating technique.

This time, Jason did not wait for the attack.

He moved first.

His foot struck the ground, and he surged forward with the Stoneborn Spear held low. The swordsman reacted immediately, bringing his blade down toward Jason’s shoulder.

Jason twisted.

The sword passed close enough to tear through his sleeve.

He drove the spear upward.

The swordsman caught the thrust, but the concentrated Battle Spirit around the point forced his blade aside. Jason continued forward, using the momentum of his entire body to drive the spear against the man’s guard.

The impact sent the swordsman stumbling backward.

Jason followed with a sharp sweep.

The spear struck the man’s legs, forcing him to jump aside.

For one instant, the center of the formation opened.

Jason used it.

He gathered essence throughout his body and concentrated Battle Spirit around the Stoneborn Spear. The manifestation spread farther along the shaft than before, forming a rough, unstable layer of will.

He could feel the strain immediately.

His concentration threatened to split under the effort.

He ignored it.

The guards recognized the danger.

"Stop him!"

The gauntlet fighter charged.

The five Intermediate Fifth Level cultivators moved at the same time, their attacks converging toward Jason’s position.

The Fourth Level guards released their essence, attempting to restrict his movement.

Jason thrust the Stoneborn Spear into the floor.

The chamber shook.

A wave of force spread outward from the impact, tearing through the already damaged platform. Cracks raced beneath the guards’ feet, and the broken conduits erupted in flashes of unstable light.

The formation collapsed.

Several guards lost their footing. Others were forced to retreat as the floor split beneath them.

The gauntlet fighter stumbled.

The swordsman planted his blade against the ground to steady himself.

Jason did not look at either man.

He turned toward the nearest passage.

Behind him, the ceiling groaned.

A long crack appeared overhead, running from one damaged support to another.

The guards looked up.

For the first time since the battle began, their formation broke completely.

"Get out!" someone shouted.

Jason ran.

The passage ahead was narrow, but it remained open. He could hear stone grinding against stone behind him, followed by the sharp crash of collapsing metal.

He did not stop.

He did not look back.

He had bought himself a few seconds.

He intended to use every one of them.

The first section of the ceiling collapsed behind him.

The shock wave struck his back and sent dust rushing through the passage.

Jason stumbled, caught himself against the wall, and kept moving.

Another impact followed.

The chamber was coming apart.

He could hear the guards shouting, their voices swallowed by the roar of collapsing stone.

Jason reached the junction and turned toward the route where he had last seen his team.

He needed to find them.

He needed to get them out.

And he needed to do it before the facility buried them all.