Chapter 87: Twenty Against One

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Twenty Against One

The swordsman moved first.

Jason barely saw the beginning of the attack. A line of steel flashed across the chamber, aimed at his throat, and he leaned back on instinct. The blade passed close enough to cut a strand of his hair.

He answered with a thrust at the man’s chest.

The swordsman turned his wrist and deflected the spearhead with a small, neat motion, and the weapons collided.

Jason felt the gap through the impact.

The man’s essence was denser and steadier than that of the Intermediate Fifth Level guards. His movements were economical. He did not overcommit. Every strike was exactly as large as it needed to be, and no larger.

’I cannot force an opening with strength.’

The swordsman attacked again.

Jason blocked high, shifted his stance, and tried to turn the blade. Halfway through the motion, the man changed the angle of the cut. Jason’s defense swept through empty air, and the sword raked across his side.

He retreated before the follow-up could reach him.

The swordsman did not chase.

He studied Jason with calm, flat eyes.

"You have a good foundation," he said.

Jason said nothing.

"But your cultivation is newly advanced. Your body has not caught up with your Core."

Jason’s grip tightened.

The pill had pushed his cultivation forward too quickly, but the energy he had redirected into tempering his body had not been wasted. His muscles, bones, and organs were stronger than before, and the evolution of his dragon bloodline had reinforced that advantage.

Yet the swordsman was right about one thing. Jason’s new power still demanded careful control.

He would have to fight accordingly.

---

The second Peak cultivator joined the fight.

He carried no weapon. His gauntlets were reinforced with dense channels of essence, thick plates that ran from knuckle to elbow, and he fought the way a hammer falls.

He came from Jason’s left, aiming to knock the spear out of line with one heavy strike.

Jason pivoted away.

The gauntlet clipped the shaft of the Stoneborn Spear instead and drove it sideways. At the same instant, the swordsman attacked from the other direction.

Jason had to block.

The impact sent pain screaming through both arms.

The two Peak guards had begun to work as a pair. One bound his weapon and limited his movement. The other punished every opening. Their coordination was more dangerous than their individual strength.

Jason retreated toward the center of the chamber, trying to keep either man from forcing him against a wall.

The gauntlet fighter followed.

Jason planted the butt of the spear against the floor, swung around it, and kicked the man’s knee. The blow did little damage, but it jarred his balance. In the half second it bought, Jason thrust toward the swordsman.

The man parried.

Jason slipped back before the gauntlet fighter could recover.

He had gained a few seconds.

Nothing more.

---

The Fourth Level guards began to close the circle again.

They had recovered from the earlier disruption, and their leader had seen that the two Peak cultivators were occupying Jason. Several of them moved to block the exits. Others gathered essence in their palms, preparing ranged attacks.

Jason saw the formation tightening around him.

If he focused only on the Peak Fifth Level cultivators, the Fourth Level guards would strike him from behind. If he turned to clear the weaker men, the two strongest would punish him at once.

He was being forced to divide his attention.

It was an effective arrangement.

It also showed him the shape of their confidence. They were not relying on a single unbeatable opponent. They were using numbers and coordination and superior cultivation to make sure he never had room to recover.

Jason took one slow breath.

’Then I will have to make the room.’

---

He shifted his grip.

The Stoneborn Spear was heavier than an ordinary weapon, and that density gave it a use he had barely considered. It could stop things.

He stopped trying to evade every attack.

Instead, he used the shaft to catch incoming weapons and let the weight of the spear carry them away from his body. When the swordsman struck, Jason caught the blade near the lower third of the shaft and twisted. The sword was forced off line.

He stepped inside and drove the butt of the spear into the man’s ribs.

For the first time, the swordsman retreated.

Jason followed with a thrust, Battle Spirit gathering at the head. The swordsman raised his weapon to block, and the collision sent him back several paces.

Jason did not pursue.

He turned toward the gauntlet fighter, who was already preparing his next blow.

The exchange had bought him something valuable.

A moment of space.

---

He tried to hold Battle Spirit at the spearhead while reinforcing his body with ordinary essence.

The two demands strained him.

His concentration split, and the manifestation began to flicker.

The gauntlet fighter saw it.

He lunged. Jason twisted aside, but the man’s fist crashed into the spear shaft with enough force to send a tremor through both of Jason’s arms. Battle Spirit nearly collapsed. Jason caught it just before it dispersed and dragged it back together.

He saw the limits of the skill clearly now.

It was not a permanent enhancement that he could maintain without thought. It needed intent. It needed control. If his attention spread too thin, the projected will would unravel.

So he had to decide what deserved his focus.

He could not reinforce every movement. He could not make every defense perfect.

He chose the moments that mattered.

When the swordsman attacked, Jason defended with ordinary essence. When the gauntlet fighter committed to a strike, Jason gathered Battle Spirit and countered. When a Fourth Level guard tried to flank him, he moved instead of attacking.

He began to treat the skill as a decisive tool, not a constant state.

The difference was immediate.

His movements grew more economical. His essence use dropped. And his attacks became much harder to read.

---

The swordsman launched a three-part combination.

The first cut aimed for Jason’s shoulder. The second changed direction toward his waist. The third was meant to catch him as he retreated.

Jason blocked the first with the shaft.

He shifted his stance to avoid the second.

But instead of retreating from the third, he stepped forward.

The blade passed behind him, cutting the air where his back had been.

Jason thrust.

Battle Spirit gathered at the head, and the point slipped past the man’s defensive guard and struck the armor over his shoulder. The outer layer cracked, and the swordsman stumbled backward.

Jason followed with a short sweep that forced the man to abandon his stance.

The gauntlet fighter rushed in to protect his companion.

Jason turned. The two collided. He redirected the man’s arm, and the butt of the spear drove into his chest.

The gauntlet fighter staggered.

For the first time, both Peak guards had to reconsider how they were fighting.

Jason could not match their cultivation head-on. But his tempered body let him withstand impacts that should have overwhelmed him, while the strength of his evolved dragon bloodline gave his counterattacks a dangerous weight.

Combined with his timing, that was enough to make every opening count.

---

The respite lasted only a few seconds.

A Fourth Level guard loosed a condensed blast of essence from behind him.

Jason sensed it too late.

He turned, but the blast caught his shoulder and hurled him into a broken section of the platform. Pain exploded down his arm. The Stoneborn Spear slipped from his grip and skidded across the floor.

He rolled before the next attack could reach him.

He snatched the spear back and rose into a crouch, breathing hard.

The swordsman approached, unhurried.

"Your attention is divided," he said.

Jason said nothing.

"You have to watch all of us. We only have to watch you."

It was true.

He could not ignore the weaker guards. He could not afford to fix his eyes on the Peak cultivators and let the others strike at will.

He looked around the chamber.

The damaged formation. The broken platform. The scattered sheets of metal. The uneven floor, buckled and torn, strewn with debris.

It was a room full of obstacles.

He could use them.

---

Jason ran toward a collapsed support beam.

The gauntlet fighter pursued, expecting him to retreat.

Jason changed direction without warning. He planted the spear against the beam, used it as a pivot, and vaulted over a broken stretch of platform. The gauntlet fighter overshot. Jason landed behind him, and the man lunged at empty air.

The swordsman turned to cut him off, but a toppled metal panel lay across his path.

Jason thrust through the gap.

The spearhead struck the swordsman’s blade and knocked it aside, and the man retreated a pace.

Jason used the moment to slide toward the edge of the chamber, where the Fourth Level guards had arranged their ring.

He did not attack the strongest men directly. Instead, he made them move around the debris, around the fallen and the broken, and each time he did it, their coordination slipped.

A Fourth Level guard stepped into his path.

Jason struck the man’s knee.

Another tried to intercept him. Jason turned the spear and knocked the man’s weapon from his hand.

Their formation began to lose its shape.

Jason was still surrounded, but the pressure was no longer organized. It had become a mess of individuals getting in one another’s way.

That was enough.

---

The swordsman finally stopped holding back.

His essence spread across the blade and compressed into a narrow, glittering edge. The pressure in the chamber shifted. Jason felt the difference at once.

It was a technique built for penetration. It did not simply make the sword stronger. It focused the strength into a thin, concentrated line.

The next strike tore through a broken metal support as if it were paper and kept coming.

Jason blocked.

The impact nearly ripped the Stoneborn Spear out of his hands. Battle Spirit flickered, threatening to fade. Jason retreated and barely avoided the follow-up.

The swordsman advanced.

His attacks became faster and more direct, hammering Jason into constant defense. Jason’s arms began to ache. His breathing grew harsh.

The gap in cultivation was asserting itself.

Battle Spirit let him exploit openings, and his strengthened body helped him endure the pressure, but neither could erase the difference in raw power. If he went on trading direct blows, he would lose.

He had to end this before the swordsman wore him down.

---

Jason watched the man’s stance.

He noticed something.

Before every use of the penetrating technique, the swordsman shifted his weight onto his rear foot. It was a tiny movement, a flicker of balance, so slight that most fighters would have missed it.

Jason had spent years learning to read opponents who were stronger than he was.

He could use this.

The gauntlet fighter moved to Jason’s left, blocking that side of the circle. The Fourth Level guards began to close in again, a ring of armor and steel tightening around him.

Jason lowered the Stoneborn Spear.

Battle Spirit gathered along its point.

He had one chance to open a decisive gap. If he missed, the whole formation would collapse onto him.

He waited for the swordsman to shift his weight.

Then he moved.