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  [Over-Surge Green: Scavenger Drone]

  [Level 3]

  That was what my HUD marked the five man-sized scrap creatures that rose out of the piled garbage. Other information about them scrolled before my eyes as well, but I ignored it.

  The drones themselves were exceptionally well camouflaged amongst the scrap, yet now that I knew what to look for, I could easily see not just the active drones, but the corpses of numerous others scattered around the courtyard.

  A vaguely human shape, four arms, two of which ended in a sort of crab claw with a small cutting flame in the center, one was a strange spinning blade, and finally an arm with a human-style hand at the end.

  Their legs were reminiscent of a human skeleton’s, but like the rest of them, they were scrap metal rather than anything organic. The heads atop these horrors of garbage were missing both mouths and noses, but they had eyes aplenty. At least I took the clustered green glowing orbs that had an insectoid look to them to be eyes.

  The ‘green’ drones were a lot faster than they had any right to be on those spindly legs. I, of course, was faster still. Leaping forward to put myself between Ha-Rin and the surging drones. Not directly, mind you, I left him a clear line with which to fire his fancy handbow thing. With a thought, I selected an ability off my HUD to activate, just as I had been walked through by Diaochan earlier.

  [Man Within Ogre]

  [Standard Cool Down: One Hour]

  [Duration: 25 Minutes]

  [Requires a melee weapon with 45% or higher Synchronicity]

  [Adds a new ability option to your HUD. When triggered, this ability will recall the selected weapon to the hand of the wielder. Lift strength and movement speed of returning weapon is one half of the user’s strength, rounded down.]

  The ability was activated, and I felt a brief buzzing surge through my arms into my spear and a minuscule drop in my own energy levels. I didn’t consider this an especially powerful ability, but I understood my growth in the cultivation of this world was still negligible. Also, I had seen men use weapons with that sort of returning effect built into them before, and had always thought it would be fun to play with something like that. Today I intended to find out exactly how much fun.

  Behind me, both Ji-Ho and Ha-Rin on her little perch had begun unleashing the full might of their gun-weapons upon the charging pack. Well, it would have been their full might, but the pair of siblings just weren’t very good shots. The weapons fired quickly, the projectiles sent from within them flew fast and straight, and they even made tiny explosions that blew chunks from the ground or drones when they impacted. I was extremely impressed by the weapons themselves, but the way the siblings missed nearly half their shots at such a close range was almost pathetic.

  I watched as the drones closed in on me in what would have been eerie silence were it not for the shots fired by the siblings. I paid close attention to the way the drones placed their feet, the way their multiple arms swayed, the movement of their joints, even the swivel of their buglike eyes.

  I was about to explode into a series of motions that would leave all five drones vivisected on the ground, when Diachan ruined it for me.

  [Combat Module Engaged]

  A moment after the words flashed in my vision, something else joined it. Strange ghostly replicas of the scavenger drones appeared a few steps ahead of each of them. The shock of the sudden doubling of my enemies caused my planned rush to stumble as I watched in surprise.

  The ethereal figures began to prepare their clawed arms for attack a few heartbeats before I knew the real ones would do the same. I wasn’t sure if this was some illusion the drones were creating, or if they somehow had the power of self-replication.

  ‘No…That’s not right.’ I thought to myself. I could hear the siblings talking and breathing through the ‘call’ that connected us, and neither of them had reacted to the sudden appearance of the ghosts. Almost as if I was the only one who could see them. Also, each limb of the ghostly figures had a line of light blue pointing in the direction they would soon take. Almost as if it was telling me what the ghost, and therefore the drone, was going to do.

  “Cut that out right fucking now,” I demanded of Diaochan, as I casually stepped aside from the flailing claws of the closest drone.

  “I know it is distracting at first, but if you watch, I can use my predictive skills to show you the perfect moment, angle, and way to strike at each enemy, and once you have gotten used to-”

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  “They are too far behind, get rid of it.”

  The ghosts vanished, and I could finally get to work. I understood the idea of technique-enhanced foresight. Many Cultivators, be they traditional, demonic, or even physical, had methods beyond simple instinct and thought to predict their enemies. I had even heard tell of a man with an enslaved spirit of intellect that performed such feats for him whilst slowing his own perception of time to a crawl.

  I wasn't against the concept of such an ability, but I also had not lied to Diaochan. The ghostly apparitions, which were in fact the A.I's predictive abilities, figuring out the drones were simply too far behind the simple foresight of my own mind.

  “Too far behind? That can't be right.” Came the unsure voice of Diaochan that only I could hear.

  “It is,” I replied as I danced among the scrap metal monsters. Taking their limbs was easy enough, and I sheared them off as I whirled the spear around me. The heads and torsos were more durable and were able to endure glancing blows from my weapon's energy blade without too much damage.

  No matter, I was called The Flying General long before I could ever truly fly, and I was about to reveal why that was.

  Leaping back to avoid a clumsy strike from one of the spinning circular blades, I threw my spear past the attacking drone while mid-air.

  The red-bladed weapon slammed into what would have been the stomach of a person, impaling the drone but not slowing its movement in the least, just as I had expected. Landing from my leap, I bent my knees and dug my heels in to stop the trash or metal vines I came down atop from ruining my balance. Next, I took two running steps forward and jumped, I could have easily leaped over to the drone that had tried to attack me just now, but I had a better use for the creature.

  My short leap carried me onto the scavenger drone. First, I used the stump left behind after I had cut its crab claw off earlier as a step to climb up the drone. I did the same again with its head and kicked off to send myself high into the air.

  I had watched the little boxes Diaochan could summon closely when they showed how my abilities worked, and practiced with them enough to gain what I felt like was a solid understanding.

  The point on the spear that the ability I had named [Man Within Ogre] would be a little below the head of the weapon. As my jump reached its zenith, I raised my right hand above my head and activated the new ability that had appeared on my HUD when I'd first enhanced my spear.

  The spear tried to fly upward at an angle towards me, but was blocked by the obstacle known as the drone’s torso. A small smile flickered briefly across my face, and the energy-bladed weapon began to carve its way up through the monster.

  The lift force might only be half as strong as I was, but once it combined with the cutting power of the energy blade, it was more than up to the task of cutting through the drone.

  Splitting the drone up the center before bursting from the metal creature’s ‘neck’, the spear, which I was definitely going to have to name, flew up to meet my hand.

  [Soul Expansion Gauge: 61/500]

  The gauge on my HUD changed, confirming that I had slain the drone, just as the haft of the spear slammed into my waiting palm.

  The timing couldn't have been more perfect, as my fall had already begun and I had aimed myself to land atop another scavenger drone.

  I span the spear as I fell, bringing the blade of the weapon down between my feet just as I landed atop the drone’s guarding arms.

  The energy blade that I had stolen from the combat drone I had slain days ago drove through a gap in the guarding arms and right into the crown of the bug-eyed drone’s head.

  [Soul Expansion Gauge: 71/500]

  Beneath me, the drone spasmed for a moment and then collapsed to the garbage-strewn floor. As my feet touched solid ground again, I ripped the spear from the dead drone and spun on the spot. The red of the energy blade left a ribbon of light in the air behind it as I cut the legs from one drone and then the head from another.

  [Soul Expansion Gauge: 81/500]

  Completing the spin, I rammed the spear into the chest of the Drone I had sliced in half, before it had even begun to fall.

  With a heave, I lifted the spear and impaled half drone over my head to bring it down upon the head of the final drone, which was mid tackle attempt on my flank. The drone was slammed flat upon the ground.

  [Soul Expansion Gauge: 91/500]

  Before it could rise, I lifted the spear and slammed the drone corpse down into its companion with savage blow after savage blow.

  [Soul Expansion Gauge: 101/500]

  I smashed the body down upon the crushed remains of the drone twice more just for the thrill of it before turning to face my own companions, who had thankfully stopped firing their weapons as soon as I had engaged the group of drones.

  Over the call, I could hear the pair of siblings laughing and chattering about how they would be able to recover far more scrap and more ‘surge-made’ items than usual with my assistance.

  “I…don’t understand it.” Said Diaochan quietly.

  “Hmm?”

  “I thought you were just being arrogant when you told me my predictions were too slow, but based on analyzing your movements, your own were almost two full seconds past the combat module's calculation range…how?”

  I snorted as I strode back over to Ji-Ho.

  “I am Lu Bu,” I told the false Diaochan in a tone that suggested that explained everything, which of course, it did.

  I was about to make a little flourish before my pair of hosts when a flash of movement at the top of my vision caught my attention. A dark shape with multiple sets of glowing green eyes burst through the glass of a large window on the balcony behind Ha-Rin.

  Without a word, I spun my spear up to eye level, took aim, and launched the red-bladed weapon at the drone, which was leaping towards the girl. My spear would hit it before the drone hit Ha-Rin, but at this distance and angle, I knew it wouldn’t be enough to stop the creature from reaching her.

  BONUS CHAPTER LETS GO!!!!