'Now.' Ken thought to himself once he dodged the fourth arrow. He had a window of 2 seconds during which the archer would be repositioning themselves and unable to shoot.
Using this short time window, he executed his strongest attack in the brute force aspect.
'Slash,' he performed 81 in 3, sending out three slashes that each was as strong as 27 swings of sword. His three melee opponents were caught in surprise against such formidable physical strength, but as experienced fighters, they reacted on time and defended.
"Ah," One male saber user groaned as a spear came out of his chest. Looking behind him, he saw the quivering Maria holding out a spear with clenched teeth and determination to survive. She already promised herself to prove to Ken she was loyal and will never betray him again. When he stumbled back from the sheer force behind the attack, she stabbed his back, aiming for his heart.
"Uriah! What have you done? Why did you betray us?!" Another female saber wielder screamed in anger when she saw her friend impaled on their collaborator's spear.
"You trusted someone who already betrayed her previous master, why did you believe she will not switch sides again?" Ken mocked them as he executed Cloud Running again and dodged another arrow.
"Time to go down!" He said and changed the ratio of his Paralyzing domain. Two-thirds of the effect was used to oppress the female that just screamed while one-third was used to hold back their leader.
The woman was at the intermediate phase of the Nascent Soul Stage, but it was not enough to resist Ken's intense bloodlust. Visions of Ken beheading her, amputating her, and slaughtering her in different ways filled her head as she could barely keep her head clear, and a stroke of Ken's sword claimed her right leg in her distraction.
"I will kill you!" Tiffany was losing her temper as she gritted her teeth. No matter how focused she tried to remain, her friends were getting killed and mutilated in front of her very eyes, and she kept being unable to help.
Her large saber struck the ground again, making the earth shake underneath Ken's feet in an attempt to make him lose his balance. She didn't use it yet because it'd affect her allies, but now that she was fighting him alone with the archer who stood far away, she didn't hold back.
Ken tripped and fell on one knee from the sudden earthquake, and the archer tried to take advantage of his misstep.
'One Step.'
Ken used his dashing technique from his kneeling position and vanished from his previous spot. He often used this technique as a trump card in tight fights like this. It was extremely hard to block the first time he uses it.
"Where is he?" Tiffany held her saber in front of her in wary as she looked around her. Ken disappeared from sight, and a few seconds passed without any occurrence.
"Damn, did he run away? I should've taken Maria's advice seriously and treated it as if we ambushed a peak fifth-stage cultivator," she regretted her previous overconfidence as she looked at her injured friends. Uriah, the one impaled by Maria's spear, was already dead due to the direct hit to his heart.
"I will deal with you later, you will regret switching sides again. Odette, come down, we are heading back; the mission has failed," the team leader looked at Maria before taking out a communication device and calling the archer.
Tiffany did not want to chase the kid and leave two comrades heavily injured behind to be eaten by the local beasts, thus, she gave up on capturing Ken altogether.
"Odette?" Tiffany called out in concern, a bad omen creeping into her thoughts.
"She can't answer you, she's a bit busy," a voice she didn't want to hear replied to her, and a loud thud came from behind her as a body of a woman was thrown to the ground.
Tiffany turned around and saw the familiar figure of a child wearing a white masked standing there. His calf was bleeding from a deep cut caused by an arrow, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with.
"I knew it… I knew it… there's no running from the devil…" Tiffany heard the woman on the ground behind her mutter in panic.
'What's going on here? how can he vanish from in front of me, find Odette, and return with her body within 10 seconds?' the team leader thought to herself as fear gripped her heart. She was retreating a step back for every step forward Ken took.
"So, what's your name, Big Sister?" Ken asked the woman as her back hit a tree behind her.
'Paralyzing domain,' this time the whole overwhelming technique was directed at her, and she could not stop her legs from shaking and her saber from being lowered despite her superior stage at the higher phase of the Nascent Soul Stage.
"I'm Tiffany, Young Master. Please spare me," she dropped her saber and barely remained standing.
"Sure, take this pill," Ken threw a green pill at her. It didn't look nor smelled like something she should digest, but she didn't hesitate for a moment before swallowing it.
Her Qi turned still around her, and every technique she was keeping activated was canceled.
'Qi Disturbance Pill, I'm completely at his mercy now,' Tiffany thought in despair when she understood what she had just consumed. The Qi Disturbance Pill made it impossible for the consumer to manipulate Qi effectively, making it impossible to perform even simple techniques.
She didn't know it was also contaminated with truth drugs, making her unable to lie now. Similar pills floated in the air from Ken's storage ring and entered the open mouth of the wounded. He didn't care if they died as a result of their wounds because they were unable to cease the bleeding with Qi.
"Now, you don't look like people from around here. Where are you from?"
"We are from the Qiteria continent, and we came here to learn the arts of the Verdant Qi continent. We originate from Osirisus Empire."
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