They weren't dead.
Their opponent must have had a few decent artifacts. As he was teleported into the underground ruins, cavities appeared out of nowhere in front of him, behind him, and to either side. The player took the opportunity to hide in one of them, dodged the cutting lines, then smashed through the building in one go and returned to the surface.
The instant he emerged, he clenched a hand toward the spot where he had just been. An invisible force squeezed the floor together, dragging it down along with the rest of the building.
Amid the dust billowing into the sky, Xu Huo, whose senses had returned, reappeared on the street between two buildings. As he did, two attacks shot up from the ground.
Bang! Bang! The "Inviolable Territory" barrier blocked them. When Xu Huo turned, the player rose from the ground into the air behind him. He swung an artifact strapped to his arm, and two enormous blades of air, like guillotines, appeared out of nowhere, each more than ten meters long.
It wasn't an especially powerful artifact if the player reacted quickly enough. So the opponent had used an artifact and an Ability in advance to restrict Xu Huo's movements.
Ordinary artifacts weren't that difficult to defend against. It was the bizarre and unpredictable Abilities that were harder to guard against. So when the first building was sheared apart, Xu Huo had already activated "Dimension Fog." When used, it surrounded the user with a white, mistlike substance. The mist had no physical defensive or offensive capabilities, but it could block Abilities applied from a distance and the effects of certain artifacts. Even if it didn't work every time, it was good enough.
So when his opponent tried to restrict his movement with an Ability, Xu Huo