The Mage of Primordial Chaos

(Xuan Kai's Perspective)

I sat within Old Man Leng's helicopter along with the other eliminated combatants as we attempted to spectate the remaining battle. We picked up Lan Xiao Su as well - though I must say, I did not expect her to get eliminated right after me. I wonder who defeated her...Mei Gui, perhaps? She's probably the strongest among the remaining combatants. I would have to ask Xiao Su herself later - too bad she's asleep right now...on my shoulder. Can't blame her. It's been a tough fight.

"Hm...wait, what is that?" Yu An Yan asked, pointing in the distance.

There, two long trials of gas could be seen emitting from below - one a bright yellow, and one obsidian black. 

Two more people...eliminated?

Old Man Leng turned the helicopter in that direction, and when we arrived, we saw Feng Mian and Yu An Xue, waiting below.

Upon spotting us, they waved. Old Man Leng tossed down a ladder for them, and they climbed their way up with ease.

I glared at the old guy. "How come I had to climb a damn rope instead of a proper ladder?"

Old Man Leng snorted. "If ya were a girl, I'd give ya a ladder too. Are ya?"

I averted my gaze and scoffed. "Sexist, much?"

He shrugged. "Nope. Just different genders, different expectations."

By this time, Feng Mian and Yu An Xue had finally boarded the helicopter, and they fought to sit in the one vacant spot beside me, since on my other side was Lan Xiao Su, still asleep. In the end, Feng Mian, unsurprisingly, got the spot, saying something like she had beaten Yu An Xue so she deserved this as her reward.

"Wait...if you beat An Xue, who eliminated you?" Yu An Yan asked, frowning in confusion.

"Obsidia. She sniped me from far away," Feng Mian explained, sighing dejectedly. "I let my guard down since I just won a fight...ah."

I scoffed. "For real? You actually let Obsidia snipe you? Oh man...I guess I should've taken her out after all, huh?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Feng Mian asked.

"She was the first person I came across," I explained. "I found her lying defenselessly on the roof of a building. She never even noticed me there...ah, how ignorant. So ignorant, in fact, that I decided to pity her and just leave her be. It wouldn't be any fun if I first blooded that quick, after all."

Feng Mian glared at me with deadpan eyes. "So...in other words, if you didn't decide to pity her, I wouldn't have gotten eliminated."

I nodded. "Sounds about right, yeah. I don't regret my decision though."

"..." she turned away, clearly pissed off. I chuckled.

But upon turning, she noticed something that we all should have noticed a long time ago, but didn't.

"U-Uh, is that...Obsidia and Mei Gui?" she asked, pointing out the helicopter's window.

Directly to the left of us, Mei Gui was chasing Obsidia down in her Apoxyia form, while Obsidia struggled to escape her predicament. Both were flying around in the sky, with Mei Gui keeping her Gatling guns constantly firing. It was like a one-sided dogfight, in a sense.

Except...that soon would change, once Mei Gui's Apoxyia form ran out. But even then, she was still strong - it would be difficult for Obsidia to defeat her, even with a weapon advantage. After all, Mei Gui was not allowed to use the projectile sword Old Man Leng gave her here, since that thing could demolish entire buildings in a single swing, much less Obsidia.

"Holy...that is one intense fight," Yu An Yan mused.

I raised an eyebrow. "Intense? Hardly. It just seems like Obsidia is getting destroyed right now to me."

"Hm...that may be so right now, but what if Obsidia was in her dragon form?" Feng Mian suggested thoughtfully.

I shook my head. "If we're talking strictly Obsidia's dragon form versus Mei Gui's Apoxyia form with no time restrictions, the best outcome Obsidia's going to get is a draw. When Mei Gui is in Apoxyia form, she's practically invincible, except to Chaos energy."

"Meow...furum what I heard, doesyn't Obsidiya have syome traces of Chyaos in her?" Amane asked, tilting her head and wagging her tail cutely.

"Hm...yes, but actually no," I replied cryptically. "Think of it like this. Mei Gui and I have legitimate Chaos power in us. Mei Gui because she's literally the embodiment of it, and me because...well, actually, I don't know why I have it. Mei Gui said something like the Chaos chose me or whatever, but I don't really understand fully. But in any case, Obsidia's is different. It's like she has accidentally had a run-in with a place in which there is rich Chaos energy, and some of it got absorbed into her body. She can still enjoy some of the benefits of this, but her Chaos is not nearly pure enough to combat Mei Gui's."

Amane frowned in confusion. "Nya...I still dyon't weally get it, but sure!"

"Well, either way, my point is, Mei Gui is stronger than Obsidia in her Apoxyia form. Without her Apoxyia form...I'm not sure."

"So....once ten minutes are up, Obsidia will have an advantage, is what you mean to say?" Feng Mian confirmed.

I shrugged. "Not necessarily. But what I can say is that the fight will certainly turn more even, since as you can see right now-"

I looked out the window once more.

"-Obsidia is getting completely pushed back right now with no chance of fighting back. But hey, though I doubt it...Mei Gui may let her guard down for a brief moment. If Obsidia can capitalize on that instant with her sniper, she may just turn the tides of this battle before Mei Gui's Apoxyia form even ends."

Her invincibility doesn't do much in this fight, after all. The only thing it'll do is prevent her from feeling the slight pain these special bullets will cause, but the gas signaling she had been hit would still go off, eliminating her.

As an aside, this whole conversation was happening in the back of the helicopter, which was separate from the cockpit where Old Man Leng was, so he didn't hear any of the stuff about my Chaos power and all that. I then slid open the door that separated the back of the helicopter and the cockpit, and spoke to Old Man Leng.

"Hey. Might wanna move this thing out of the way," I said.

"Huh? Why?" Old Man Leng replied in puzzlement.

"Well, Obsidia and Mei Gui are fighting right now..." I murmured.

"What? What does that have to do with us? We're in the ai-oh."

Following where my finger was pointing with his eyes, he saw what I was talking about, and immediately steered the helicopter away from the dogfight in the sky. Good thing he chose to listen to me. Even if Mei Gui's bullets had already been replaced with the special ones Old Man Leng had, if they were fired off from a Gatling gun, they can still do some serious damage.

We retreated a good distance away, and found a good angle to spectate this fascinating battle. The two of them zoomed around in the air, performing various turns and spins. It was almost like an aerobatic show, except the planes were people instead.

So far, Obsidia seemed to be holding up okay, but who knew how long that could last? From when I first spotted these two, around two minutes have passed. That meant eight more minutes left of this chasing.

Then, Obsidia suddenly went downwards, spinning in a spiral to avoid the stream of bullets coming her way from Mei Gui's two Gatling guns, one on each of her detached wings. Mei Gui followed, and the two of them descended at terrifying speeds.

"Go down, Old Man Leng," I ordered. "C'mon, we can't see like this."

"Agh, fine..." he muttered, before following my directions obediently.

I wonder why he listened to me like so. He certainly didn't have to. We were in his helicopter, where he makes the rules. And yet...but I would ask him about that later. For now, I wanted to focus on the fight.

Right as the two were about to hit the floor, Obsidia suddenly twisted her body 180 degrees so she was facing Mei Gui, and let out a shot from her sniper, Whisper.

But with a single flap of her wings, Mei Gui completely changed the trajectory of the bullet using the powerful winds she generated, and then unleashed her Gatling guns once more.

Obsidia cursed, and swiftly rose up high into the air again, just barely avoiding becoming impaled by several hundred bullets at once. Wouldn't cause permanent damage? Sure, buddy.

Mei Gui, as expected, followed her, and us spectators sitting on the helicopter had to move with them to keep up the pace. Old Man Leng groaned every time I ordered him to do something, but in the end, complied nonetheless.

Obsidia and Mei Gui continued soaring through the skies, occasionally dipping downwards but always coming back up again.

Their battle, had only just begun.