System vs Rebirth

"Get back here!" The mysterious guy flew toward the car.

Felicia was driving, so she just formed a spiritual barrier and let the defense system of the car be controlled by Tristan.

"Activate." Tristan placed his hand on the wall.

Another spiritual barrier appeared, lining up with Felicia's barrier.

"Spiritual Torrent!" The mysterious guy became so frustrated that he had no choice but to unleash all his strength to take them down. At the very least, even if he exhausted a lot of his spiritual energy, the mission could be considered completed.

A tornado of energy flew toward the car, gradually expanding in size.

"What is that power…" Felicia could sense the ridiculous amount of power surpassing what a superior demon could do.

When the tornado hit the barriers, it cracked them in an instant. The raging wave started ripping the barriers apart before they were completely gone. Unfortunately, the tornado also exhausted its power.

"One more!" The mysterious guy shot out another tornado.

"This is not good." Felicia gritted her teeth.

"I still need more time to repair the rune." Tristan panicked.

Felicia had been using the spiritual barrier rune on her body. This time, she used the barrier on her clothes.

"Rune card!" Felicia shouted.

Tristan widened his eyes and immediately opened the door before tossing a rune card.

Now, two more barriers appeared next to each other, blocking the tornado.

"What?" The mysterious guy looked shocked. 'What is that annoying item that looks like a card? It can produce a barrier as well? This is not good. This item can become a terrifying weapon in the future. I will have to kill him here and get these items to be researched…'

While the mysterious guy wanted to attack again, he soon noticed that Andreas had gone outside of his detection range.

Andreas' direction remained the same. He was planning to use Felicia and Tristan to buy some time for him.

The guy didn't know whether he could destroy the car quickly or not. After all, it seemed that they still had confidence in taking out more barriers. If he let Andreas increase the gap, he might not be able to find him anymore.

"Kh." The guy ended up leaving the car alone for the time being and increasing his speed to catch up with Andreas.

Tristan couldn't help but smile. "He's gone now. We need to repair the runes before he comes back."

"Yeah. So I have to drive not too far from Andreas?"

"Yes. If we follow the teacher's plan, we need to maintain some distance from him, but still within his range, so that the enemy has no choice but to split his attention between both of us."

Felicia nodded.

Tristan's plan actually worked. When the enemy attacked Andreas, he managed to survive in one way or another. In addition, Andreas even added some counterattacks.

However, before he managed to kill Andreas, the car would drive off, leaving them behind. The enemy had no choice but to abandon his plan to kill Andreas because he had to chase after the car.

When the enemy attacked the car, Tristan and Felicia used all their barriers to block him until Andreas managed to slip past the enemy once again.

This was Tristan's plan to reach a stalemate in this battle. At the same time, they still managed to move toward Duke Lorelei's city.

The closer they were to the city, the more desperate the enemy became.

Due to this tactic, they managed to cover forty percent of the remaining distance. Unfortunately, this plan wouldn't succeed due to the lack of numbers. If they had another group that would divide the enemy's attention, they might be able to reach the city.

After a long two and a half hours, Tristan said, "I'm out of the rune cards."

"…" Felicia gulped down. "Brace for impact."

Tristan nodded with a serious expression.

During the last attack, Felicia used her Spiritual Barrier Runes again, but this time, Tristan couldn't supply another barrier.

"!!!" The enemy noticed it as well, thinking that this annoying chase was finally over.

His tornado ripped apart a single barrier. Even if it managed to withstand a portion of the tornado power, the remaining energy still hit the car and ripped it apart.

Bam!

An explosion occurred once the tornado reached the ground, blasting the car into pieces.

Felicia held Tristan, protecting him with her body.

However, she ended up getting injured from the impact. "Kh."

Tristan was also launched and landed on the ground not far from the broken car with Felicia on top of him.

Tristan let out a small groan while raising his head.

"What?" Andreas panicked as he turned around after noticing that the car was destroyed. He rushed back to help them, but he wasn't fast enough to reach them, especially in this condition. "Have I failed…"

"I'm going to praise you for being able to run away for hours, but this is where it ends. Even if you beg for your own life, I'll kill you because you have annoyed me." The mysterious guy gathered his energy in his palm, ready to shoot it.

Tristan remained calm. "I should have died a year ago. Do you think I'll fear death? Kill me if you can."

"So be it!" When the guy was about to release his power, he noticed something was off. He widened his eyes and looked around before asking inwardly, 'Where is the maid?'

Tristan looked at the mysterious guy in the air. His face was unwilling to accept reality, but it hadn't lost its fire either. It was as if he had another plan in mind.

What Tristan actually had in mind was the memory of his teacher.

At that time, Noel was teaching him about his own tactics.

"Currently, you might think that the fastest way of sending a message is via bird. However, once you reach a certain level, you can actually travel much faster than a bird. What will you do if you encounter an enemy who can travel faster than a bird?" Noel asked.

"Run? Teacher said 'a certain level,' so that person must be powerful. While the rune cards can allow me to fight them, I don't have any method to match their speed. Even if I know which rune card I can use, it won't mean anything if he is fast enough to kill me before activating the runes."

"That's correct. You have to run, but he is faster than a bird. Do you think you can run away from that person?"

"That's…" Tristan looked down for a moment. "I don't."

"What do you think is the most important element in running away?"

"Speed?"

"No. It's quantity as well as deception." Noel raised two fingers. "If a thousand people scatter in all directions, even if the opponent is faster than a bird, some can still get away."

"So we need to sacrifice several people?"

"That's where the deception comes in. You first force your enemy to use a portion of his power by number. This way, you can reduce the strength that will attack you, increasing your chance of dying. If that person needs two attacks to kill a person instead of one, the number of casualties can be reduced by half. That's why deception is the best method."ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Tristan fell into deep thought. "However, in this scenario, some people have to die. What if the first person to die is me? I don't mind sacrificing my life for others, but if I stay alive much longer, doesn't that mean I can prevent others from dying as well? But quantity and deception are still not enough to solve the power difference."

It was a great question, yet Noel actually smiled as though he had expected this question.