"All five of you, come out to play, there's no use in hiding!" Ken stood straight and called to the newcomers. Their bloodlust disclosed their stages; they ranged from the lower phase of the fifth stage to the higher one.
Four silhouettes appeared, jumping from tree branches nearby to the ground and surrounding him and Maria.
"You changed sides quickly, girl. I can't promise to let you live after we capture him," the leader, Tiffany, looked at Maria's sorry state and frowned. She did not understand how Maria entered such a state of pure fear from a mere fourth-stage cultivator.
"Are you the leader of the group?" Ken asked Tiffany while he eyed the five of them. Three used sabers and one used a spear. Ken assumed the last one didn't show themselves since they used a bow and preferred to remain behind.
"I am, my name is Tiffany. We already know about you, so there's no need for further introduction," The girl squinted her eyes at the masked teen in front of her. She remembered that Maria mentioned he liked to wear menacing masks, but this one seemed elegant with the two red stripes that stretched from the ears to the chin.
With that statement, Ken tilted his head slightly, and an arrow brushed against his hair and lodged itself firmly into the ground. As if it was a sign everyone agreed upon, the five close-range combatants moved.
'Mind-Poisoning Domain - Paralyzing Mode.' Ken didn't consider not going all out against five fifth-stage cultivators.
He was also not afraid; from their previous conversation, he learned they were of the same quality as the inner disciples of Phoenix Feather Sect, which was way weaker than the inner and core disciples of the top five sects he had fought back in the secret realm.
Big Success mastery realm of a top-notch Heaven-grade technique!
The five's techniques failed midway when their executors froze in horror. The five saw illusions of Ken killing them repeatedly in horrifying ways, and the whole way they perceived them changed; now, they saw him as a predator they have inner fear from.
Ken concentrated most of the effect on the spear wielder, aiming to destroy their mid-range offense right off the bat. With a quick dash, he unsheathed his flexible sword.
'Flash Unwind.'
The Mind-Paralyzing Domain was a soul technique just like the Bloodlust Sense, which allowed him to perform a physical technique simultaneously.
The quick unsheathing didn't escape the spear user's eye, but he saw it only when it was too late. Ken's sword cut through the man's arm and onward to his chest, leaving a gaping cut.
Although Ken didn't manage to finish him off, the man was anything but fit for battle. The spear required two arms to handle efficiently, and his wounds were life-threatening. There's no need to mention the Sword Qi going on a rampage in his veins and organs.
"Yuri!" One woman shouted in concern as she bit her lips forcibly to shake off the fear.
"Stay focused and fight, if we beat him fast enough, we can save Yuri's future!" Tiffany showed her qualities as a leader during the crisis and pulled everyone's attention back to the battle.
With Yuri down and unable to share the pressure with them, Ken's technique was only divided between three people, making them take on a third of the pressure. Ken's minimal effect was 30% when he distributed it between enemies, so with one enemy less, the pressure increased from 30% to 33.33%.
A storm of techniques threatened to engulf Ken from the group's retaliation. With Cloud Running he narrowly dodged an arrow that tried to impale him by twisting his hips.
He wanted to cancel his Mind-Poisoning Domain and execute Bloodlust Sense again in order to find the new hiding spot of the archer, but he couldn't afford to lift the pressure from the three enemies nearby.
As they got used to the constant fear that bloomed in their hearts, the group managed to retaliate more fiercely with every passing moment.
'Let's check how traumatized she is,' Ken made a decision to prolong the fight and make it a little bit trickier so he can test Maria's mindset.
His flexible sword blurred as it jumped from saber to saber, deflecting them to the sides as he moved like a feather that could not be hit with swift movements. He twisted, rolled, and jumped away from the incoming slashes and techniques that came at him, and deflected the rest with his sword.
Maria watched it from the side, her teeth were still chattering, and she was unwilling to move from her spot on the ground.
'It's the same as when he fought against my bandit group, it seemed like we had a chance, but he was just toying with us,' her mind interpreted the situation based on her previous experience, but she was quite wrong; Ken was facing difficult opponents, unlike her bandit group. Yuri's demised cost her a lot of psychological resources.
She noticed that the four fighters got closer and closer to where she sat. Ken was always surrounded by the saber users, and somehow always managed to slip out unharmed from their attacks.
'I must prove myself useful and loyal, it's my last chance at being alive!' She thought hysterically as she secretly summoned her spear from her storage ring and tightened her grip on it.
Ken was waiting for the correct moment to fight back. To attack efficiently, he had to cancel his Cloud Running, but it would cost a heavy price if the archer decided to shoot at that moment.
To that end, he slowly calculated their location from their arrows. Eventually, he found a pattern; the archer switched places after every 4 arrows, probably because that was when he stopped having trouble dodging their next attack.
'1…' Ken counted the first arrow in the sequence as he ducked and spun to dodge both the arrow and a huge blade reinforced by Metal Qi.
'2…' He rolled away, and an earth spike that emerged from the ground missed him by a hair-width along with the second arrow.
'3…' He waved his sword and parried the incoming flaming saber of another opponent, letting it clash with the third arrow.
'4…' The young teen tilted his head slightly and was pushed back by a heavy greatsword, again from the Metal Qi user.
'Now.'
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