A pain seared into my chest, and an electrifying sensation shot out to the ends of my limbs. My chi connection to the spell panel on my car was fried in an instant, and my body responded by convulsing for what felt like hours but must have been only seconds.

My vision went from a blinding white to a dull gray before I could finally see again. I tapped into my chi reserves and found that they had been depleted completely.

When the shock of losing my chi connection to the vehicle had hit me, I’d fallen down. Now, I pushed myself up and stared at the barricade.

My car was gone, and the rest of the blockade was a tangled mess of smoldering metal.

Normally, even a highly enchanted vehicle wouldn’t cause that big an explosion, but the runes I’d enchanted my car with weren’t exactly stable. I was still planning on a few more months of tinkering to make them less susceptible to, well, explosions. I figured the boosting of the runes to Level 5 had helped increase the power of the explosion too.

”That looks like six to you, Jeremy,” Astrid said as she helped me to my feet. Behind her, Belinda stood, her tentacles now a shadowy mass that writhed above her head.

“Eight,” I said before I could help myself. Despite my misgivings, I couldn’t help but be proud of how effectively my car had taken out the blockade. “Eight. You forgot to count the two from earlier.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Eight.” She grinned at me.

“And what about the armored vehicle?” I continued, brushing myself off.

Astrid shook her head. “That still only counts as one.”

Despite the violence of the situation, a smile formed on my mouth. Every cultivator in the world had wondered what it would be like to use their magic in battle, and now I was getting a chance to experience it. I probably should have felt a bit traumatized at killing eight men, but they had been doing their best to kill me. Also, I thought, they wanted to take Astrid and use her for who-knew-what nefarious purpose.

Why did I feel such a strong bond to Astrid? And it seemed ever stronger after we’d kissed.

“Look there,” I said, and pointed. “Looks like I didn’t get them all after all.”

The force of the blast had flung three of the PentaTech soldiers away from the carnage. They hadn’t been killed, just knocked over. Now they were getting to their feet and looking groggily around, lifting up their rifles. They scanned the smoke. It seemed like they were looking for us.

”I don’t have any mana left,” I said. “I can’t summon another Force Barrier if they shoot us.”