The moment Lan Xiao Su pressed the trigger, I chanted a spell, taking advantage of my ability to instacast.

Level One Time Magic - Tempus Decel.

Slowing down the time around her bullet, I was able to dodge it with ease, even with just my human reflexes. Had it been anyone else, this wouldn't have worked, since Tempus Decel is but a Level One spell - the effects aren't too significant. However, with my Chaos power and boosted magic, my spells were now 8 times as powerful as the norm, since I broke through to the third stage of the Chaos energy within my body a while back, after the fight with Plague. Therefore, the bullet was massively slowed down, allowing me to avoid it easily.

The bullet hit the garbage trolleys behind me with a loud click sound, and I didn't even bother looking behind me to see where it landed. It seemed that these bullets were so weak that they couldn't even penetrate a plastic object, such as the garbage trolleys.

Lan Xiao Su continued firing rounds at me, which I all dodged using the same strategy, until at last, she ran out of bullets after exactly nine shots. Made sense too, considering she named her gun 'Nine'. Realizing this, she turned around, and ran down the alleyway. Done playing games, I shot a bullet in her direction, but unfortunately, she got behind the wall just in time. I twirled Ace around my index finger once, and followed.

Well, maybe it's actually fortunate she got behind the wall. Otherwise, it would've been so anticlimatic to just be eliminated so quickly, after the whole motivational speech I gave. I want this battle to be exciting...no matter who wins.

I stopped momentarily, leaning against the wall where she had disappeared behind, since there was a good chance she was just camping there in the alleyway, waiting for me to peek my head out. After confirming she wasn't there with my Third Eye, I rounded the corner and continued tracking her presence. She appeared to still be fairly close to me, and I deduced that I could reach her in no time, since my speed was faster than hers.

But as I got closer to her presence, I noticed something. She had stopped. Stopped running away from me.

Did she...get sniped by Obsidia or something? Why is she standing still? Does she not understand that facing me in a head on confrontation is suicidal, with all the techniques I can use?

Chaos Mirror, Tempus Decel, Space - Eliminate; these are all spells that I could cast to put myself in an advantageous position in an outright gunfight. I could also summon walls made of nature using either Ice Magic or Earth Magic, not to mention barriers such as Wind Barrier. All of these were extremely useful in fights like this one, and I was certain Lan Xiao Su knew that. Otherwise, why did she run from me earlier? And more importantly...why did she stop running now?

I slowed down my pace as I approached her presence, closer and closer.

And soon enough, I found myself in an open space - there were still buildings on all 4 sides of us, but the arena was fairly large compared to the rest of the slums, which mainly comprised of long and narrow alleyways. It was an approximately 28 by 15 meters rectangular area, so around the size of an average basketball court.

Lan Xiao Su stood on the other end of it, and had surrounded herself with water barriers of some kind.

"Hm...you lead me here on purpose, didn't you?" I asked, looking around. "I don't see any traps or anything of the sort, though."

"Um...I just came here because it was a nice and open place, that's all," she responded, but that obviously wasn't the truth. Anyone with half a brain could tell that much.

I scoffed. "Say what you want, but...I wonder how long you can keep those barriers up."

Saying this, I pulled out Ace, and pointed it at Lan Xiao Su. "The moment they fall, you will too."

But faced with my threat, she merely smiled, which made me narrow my gaze in suspicion.

Calmly, she raised her gun, and pointed it at my head.

I tilted my head, slightly confused. She was behind a barrier; she couldn't shoot me through tha-

Wha-!

The moment I realized her bullet passed through the water barrier she had conjured, it was already too late to cast any spells, even with my ability to instacast. Dodging was obviously out of the question too, since without the help of Tempus Decel, there was no way I was dodging a full on bullet.

So, I did the only thing I could - shoot my own gun.

My bullet collided with hers mid-air, and both projectiles exploded into a colorful burst of gas. Now that I knew she could shoot through her barrier somehow, I needed to remain vigilant. I had no time to run back into the alleyways I had came here from and use them as cover, but if I stayed perfectly aware, paired with my ability to instacast...I could defend against her bullets.

Amidst the colorful mixture of gas, mine red and Lan Xiao Su's light blue, seven more bullets came flying towards me.

Chaos Mirror!

Summoning a curtain of black and red Chaos energy, I absorbed the bullets into the mirror, and sent them soaring straight back to her.

Then, as the gas from earlier dispersed, I saw another bullet fly towards me. My eyes widened, both because I was met with this attack, but also because the seven bullets I had shot back had all been deflected by her water barrier, but I remained calm. I had time.

Level One Time Magic - Tempus Decel.

I slowed down the bullet successfully, just for a brief moment - but it was enough. I swiftly moved my body out of the way, and let the bullet fly past. I went back into my original position after, and smirked in triumph.

"Kuku...close, but you missed," I said, having barely survived that ordeal. After the first bullet, then the seven more she shot when the gas was still here, and now this final bullet, she was out of rounds, and had to reload.

...Or at least, that's what I thought.

"But...did I now?" Lan Xiao Su smiled gently, a mischievous grin on her face.

My eyes widened, as I felt something strike my back.

W-Wha....

I turned my head around slightly, and saw a light blue gas emitting from my back, where a bullet - her final bullet, had struck me.

"H-How...?" I stuttered in utter shock. "I...I clearly dodged that...?"

Lan Xiao Su deactivated her barrier, and walked closer to me. "It's precisely because you dodged that bullet, that my plan was able to succeed."

I narrowed my gaze. "What do you mean...?"

"Earlier, when we were still by the garbage trolleys...I shot a few bullets to test a theory of mine," she explained. "These special bullets Old Man Leng gave us really do bounce."

I clenched my fists as I realized what happened. "...You ricocheted your shot off the back wall."

She beamed happily. "Yep! And it worked!"

I let out a sigh of resignation, and unclenched my fists. "Ah...you got me good. Good fight."

"Hehe, thanks!" she yelped, content with my compliment.

"By the way, what is that barrier you used? How come you could shoot through it but I couldn't?" I asked. "I've never seen such a spell before."

She giggled. "Of course you haven't. This spell is a secret family treasure of the Lan family, passed down from generation to generation. No outsiders could possibly know about it."

A secret treasure of the Lan family...does that mean Lan Gui Ying has it too? Well, even if she did, there would be no way to confirm, since she's already dead now, but...

"Huh...what's it's name?" I continued. "And if it isn't too much to ask...can you teach me the spell after this battle is over? It sounds really useful."

"Gladly! I'm no longer tied to the Lan family, so...also, the spell's name is Illusionary Ripple."

Illusionary Ripple...what a nice name. The barrier does look like a water ripple levitating in the air, and it is indeed illusionary, since the caster can shoot through it.

"I see...thanks," I replied, before sitting down on the ground, and leaning against the wall. "Man...to think I really lost like that. Xiao Su, you've got a knack for fighting. You've just never embraced it until now."

"E-Eh? A-Ah, thank you..." she murmured quietly, blushing at me calling her Xiao Su without the 'Lan' part.

"What, for the compliment? C'mon, you don't gotta show gratitude at every tiny thing," I chuckled.

"N-No, not just that...I mean, for helping me realize. In a sense, you're my savior," she said, staring at me straight in the eyes, irises full of determination. "Before, I was only accompanying you all because we had a deal to save my mother, but now... even after my mother is cured of her curse...i-is it alright if I still stay with you?"

She became extremely flustered at the end there, and I found it kind of cute.

I smiled. "Of course. Besides...you know too much about my powers anyway. I was never planning on letting you go in the first place."

She blushed, and spun around. "W-W-W-What are you saying?! T-This is too fast!"

Oh man...I think she took what I said in a...different sense than I intended. Ah, whatever.

Still...I really lost to her, huh? I underestimated Lan Xiao Su. By a whole lot. And that, was my downfall. Man...if I can't even handle a girl my own age, then eradicating the Midnight Syndicate, my parents' true killers, will be nothing but a distant dream.

I still have to work harder - get even stronger. I originally fought this battle with Lan Xiao Su with the intention of teaching her an important life lesson, but...it seems I was the one who got taught one instead.