At the same moment as I jump out of my cover, the old man takes a step forward, slashing with his katana at me.

Just as my feet touch the ground again, I throw myself to the side, barely avoiding getting cut into two.

I take several more steps back, increasing the distance between me and my opponent, and train my now reloaded weapon on him.

The old samurai takes a stance, one foot before the other, the sword in front of him, ready to strike.

As the old man watches my every move, I leverage my inhuman concentration to calm down my panicked mind and reassess the situation.

In my mind, the fight should have been simple. I sneak up on him and finish the fight with a single bullet. Maybe a few more if he had some kind of defensive ability.

In reality, the old man had always been a step ahead of me, causing me to panic and make mistakes.

First of all, he wasn't moving nearly as slow and relaxed as I first thought. Rather, because my Stats were spread out over body and mind rather equally, my perception had significantly increased, allowing me to see all of his movement relatively clearly, creating that illusion. Just from that, I can tell that the samurai must have a high speed Stat.

Then, there is the fact that I have the advantage in reach. If he had some kind of long-distance attack, he would have used it earlier when I was panicked. The old man definitely seems to have experience in fights, so he shouldn't have overlooked that opening. Well, that doesn't mean I would make carelessly assume all my assumptions are correct only to get surprised later, but I couldn't get too caught up on this one possibility either.

Lastly, I had the absolute advantage in terms of information. I know that I have to be careful of his speed. I also know one of his Skills and his Overskill. His Skill being some kind of perception ability that allowed him to find me and cut my bullets, and his Overskill being the blue aura on his sword.

He, on the other hand, shouldn't know anything about my abilities. I still had two magazines on my belt, and I still hadn't used my pocket dimension in front of my opponent. And with my Stats being more concentrated on my mental ones, he shouldn't be able to figure them out that easily.

All of this together means that I have the absolute advantage. My opponent had to get close to attack me, while I could keep my distance. In addition, my opponent had to constantly keep up two Skills to be able to block my bullets. And while one was his Overskill, and thus free of charge, the other one wasn't and would constantly be draining either his stamina or concentration. If I dragged the fight out, he would run out of energy fast.

At that moment, the old man runs towards me, screaming loudly and with his sword lifted over his head. Before he can even take two steps, I start walking backward while constantly firing at him.

I quickly notice two things. For one, he is faster than me, constantly closing the distance while still blocking my bullets. But on the other hand, the closer he gets to me the more he slows down. If I had to guess, it would be because the time he has to react to my shots is getting shorter.

Then, the moment comes. Without panicking, I was able to properly count my shots, instantly reloading instead of shooting an empty gun. In one practiced movement, I pull out the old mag and throw it at my opponent to distract him while I pull out a new one.

He is only about two and a half meters away from me. Far enough to give me time to reload, but close enough to have a chance to strike me.

But instead of stepping in for the strike as I had expected, the glow on his sword increases.

Not a moment too late, I jump to the side, avoiding the blue blade of light that was coming down where I had stood just a moment earlier, dropping the gun in the process.

With barely any time to react, the now significantly longer sword comes at me again, this time from the side.

I jump back, stumbling as I feel the burning pain in my stomach. I hadn't been chopped in half, but I was too slow to avoid the attack completely.

Once again, my opponent lifts his sword, but instead of finishing me off, he makes a mistake.

Before he can react, I pull out the shotgun, unloading a buckshot at the old man just as his blade chops my AK in half.

He grunts in pain and stumbles back.

Unable to reload the gun quickly in my current position, I simply drop it and pull out the desert eagle, quickly unloading the entire magazine at my opponent.

After firing my last shot, I hear a body hitting the ground.

I drop my gun and touch my stomach with my hand, feeling a wet spot.

Lifting my hand in front of my eyes, I can see that it's completely red. Then I wake up.

REWARD:

Tournament points x 3

Overskill points x 3

RESULT:

16 Tournament points

You have won 1st Place!

1st PLACE REWARD:

Super point(s) x 3

CHOOSE A SKILL:

Aiming

Climbing

Running

Finally, it was over.