None of the players surrounding Xu Huo were weak. They were equipped with A-class items, too. There was no absolute hierarchy of strength between A-class Attack Artifacts and Defense Artifacts; their effects depended on how they performed in actual combat. Neither side could be certain their items would work as intended, so they often used several items in quick succession or all at once, while coordinating their effects. This was especially important with Defense Artifacts. When a defensive barrier formed, it could protect both outsiders and its user. To use an Attack Artifact, they also had to coordinate carefully when raising and lowering their defenses.
The spatial barrier didn't hold back the three players for long, but the brief opening it bought him gave him time to fight the other two several times. When one of them left himself open, Xu Huo used a Space Ray blade to wound him in the abdomen. Then, as he drove another opponent back, he used a tangent line to temporarily seal off the man's range of movement.
After temporarily holding those two off, he turned to face the three who had joined the fight. As their items took effect, both sides rushed toward each other at high speed. But with shadow cords around their feet, their range of movement was extremely limited. The three players had been forced to land farther from Xu Huo than the other two, and they would have to close in together to get within fifty meters. At that range, they used their more lethal items, aiming to kill with a single strike.
The three East District players weren't clustered together, so when they reached the fifty-meter limit, they instinctively spread out from one another to make sure their items could take effect without interfering with each other. But