Chapter 72: In An Instant
The Second Elder sensed the light in his eyes gradually fading away. In his despair, his gaze turned towards the ground, where Claude and Wilfred Beldon were sitting. His gaze lingered on the two of them until the light in his eyes completely faded away, and his lifeless corpse fell to the ground.
The fight was finally over, and it was followed by silence.
The Third Elder moved towards Commander Rivaldo Dante, who was gasping for air. He had utilised a lot of spiritual energy to use that sword technique, and it had paid off.
"Finally, it has come to an end!"
Below them, both Claude and Senior Wilfred Beldon looked up at the sky, and saw the body of the Second Elder falling down like a puppet who's string was cut.
"Looks like the battle is over!" Senior Wilfred Beldon whispered softly as he watched the lifeless body of his master fall down to the ground with a loud thud.
"...It sure does look like it," Claude spoke after a brief moment of silence, and Senior Beldon turned his head to gaze at Claude and widened his eyes with surprise.
"Oh? So you can speak now.." Senior Beldon said with a light smile on his face, and Claude replied, "I can only move my mouth and lips, but yes, I can in fact talk now."
"Hmmm… It looks like the drug's effects are wearing off faster than expected," Senior Beldon placed his hand on his chin and spoke.
"It looks like that's the case," Claude replied with the same expression.
He then shifted his gaze towards the Third Elder and Commander Rivaldo Dante, who were talking to each other up in the sky, and continued, "You told me what happened with the other juniors, but what's the situation with the rest of the flying sword faction members? What about the other elders and their disciples who were in support of the Second Elder? What happened to them?"
"The Barugh special unit is taking care of them. The fog separates the faction members into small groups and the unit fights them in small numbers, just like they did with us!" Senior Beldon replied, shrugging his shoulders as he spoke. "The fog isn't created by one specific person. The technique has been taught to almost all of the cultivators in the special unit. So it's almost impossible to get rid of the fog unless you completely defeat the unit!"
"I see," Claude wanted to nod his head, but the drug's effects weren't completely neutralized, and so he could only reply with words. "... Do I really look like your brother?"
Senior Beldon turned and looked at Claude for a second, before replying, "Now that I get a good look at you, not really, no.."
**************
"Senior sister.. help us!!"
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!!"
"Argh!! Help me.."
Countless miserable and dying shrieks were heard from inside the fog, and it wasn't looking like it would stop anytime soon.
More and more disciples were dying with each passing minute and the fight had turned into an extremely cruel massacre.
"Esmond! Cover me!" Senior sister Ashley Winters yelled out as she swung her sword towards her enemies, unleashing a crimson blade light that shot forward and clashed with the cultivators that were moving towards her, slicing them into pieces.
"You know, the more you murder random people without even blinking, the less your words sound convincing!" Esmond jumped up and leapt over Ashley as he spoke, and a long golden spear manifested in his palms.
"My spear! Burst through the enemies for me!" Esmond spoke softly as he held his spear close to his face, and it seemed as if he was whispering to the spear itself.
Swoosh!
As if the spear had heard his words, it started to tremble very violently, rising from his hands and floating in the air before it shot forward, flying in every direction within the fog, slicing down enemies left and right, causing blood and bones to rain down.
"Quit it Esmond!" Ashley yelled out annoyed, as she slashed another enemy cultivator in half. "Now is not the time for this discussion. We'll discuss this issue later!"
Tap! Tap! Tap!
As soon as she finished speaking, she turned around and shot forward like an arrow, instantly moving through multiple enemies, chopping them down as if they were pieces of paper.
"That's what you always say," Esmond laughed out in satisfaction, as he had successfully annoyed Ashley. His golden spear returned to his hand and he swung it around quickly, and the enemies who had surrounded him were instantly knocked away, with their heads leaving their bodies as blood spurted out. "But you never do end up bringing it up! You just avoid it!"
Swoosh…
The golden spear left his hands once again as it passed through the enemy lines slaying a huge amount of enemies left and right.
"What's this? They can't even deal with a bunch of no name cultivators who haven't even fully grown yet? Pathetic!"
All of a sudden, a mysterious voice echoed out from the fog, causing both Esmond and Ashley to become cautious.
Peng!
Out of nowhere, a hand emerged from the fog, stretched forward and grabbed the golden spear!
"My spear!" Esmond yelled out, but before he could summon the spear back, a huge amount of pain hit his head with a tremendous force, and he was instantly knocked away.
'An Alternation Technique?' Esmond looked at the hand that grabbed his spear with shock, as he coughed up blood.
"Esmond! Are you alright?" Ashley, who saw Esmond getting flung back all of a sudden, yelled out with a concerned voice. But suddenly, the mysterious voice resounded throughout the battlefield once again.
"Aw, how sweet! You're concerned for his safety. But sweetheart, I genuinely don't think you have time to be concerned about other people's problems!"
Pah!
A big palm came out of nowhere through the dense fog and grabbed onto Senior Ashley's throat and gripped it tightly before she could do anything.
'How? I couldn't see it!' Ashley couldn't believe what just happened. She, who usually had a good eye for enemy attacks, was caught completely off guard!
"Gah!" Ashley tried to speak, but the hand on her throat tightened his grip, and she choked on her words, only letting out a short whimper in the end.
"You are a feisty one, aren't you?" A young man walked out from the fog, sneering as he increased the grip on Ashley's throat, causing her face to turn pale, and she could only keep struggling.
"You can keep trying, but you won't be able to use any cultivation techniques as long as you're in my hands," The young man said with a sinister smile. He was unleashing an energy from his body that kept Ashley under his tight control and unable to use any cultivation.
"Ashley!" Esmond cried out in shock. He got up on his feet, and with a loud shout, his figure began flickering before disappearing from everyone's view and reappearing right behind the mysterious young man!
"Aaaah!" Esmond yelled loudly as his arm stretched forward and swung his palm, unleashing a deadly palm strike, aiming for the young man's nape!
"Oi, who the hell gave you permission to attack my brother?"
Right at that moment, a bright light flashed before him, revealing another mysterious figure, who unleashed a deadly slap.
BAM!
The two attacks collided, and to Esmond's surprise, the mysterious person's slap completely destroyed his palm strike, as the slap burst through his attack as if it was nothing!
Boom!
The mysterious figure arrived in front of Esmond and simply gave him a slap.
Arghh!!
Esmond let out a miserable shriek as his chest exploded, turning into a blood mist.
'What the hell? How was this possible?'
As he fell backwards, Esmond could only wonder how he lost. Why couldn't he withstand a simple slap from this guy, and was severely injured in a matter of seconds? How powerful was he?
"Now that you two had your fun, leave the kill for me!" Out of nowhere, a figure crept up right behind Esmond before he hit the ground and grabbed his head tightly. He didn't even have the time to respond.
"Goodbye!" A loud explosive sound rang through the air as the third mysterious figure squished Esmond's head, causing it to instantly explode into a clump of blood mist.
Ashely, who saw the entire event happening right in front of her eyes, wanted to let out a scream. But unfortunately, she couldn't even do that!
"Why did you interfere? I could've easily taken him down, Eirik!" The man who was holding Ashley threw his glance over to the person who was responsible for the slap!
"If you could've then you should've, Edvard.. Don't blame me for your inadequacy!" Eirik said with a loud voice.
"What did you say?"
"Alright, enough!" The Third figure, who was obviously Edvin, interrupted the two of them, and pointed at the battlefield. "If you have time to fight with each other, then you have time to clean up. We need to finish this as soon as we can. Got it?"
"Alright, alright, Edvin…" Eirik replied as he rolled his eyes and turned his gaze towards Ashley, who was in the clutches of Edvard, and said, "Kill her quickly.. or else I'll do it myself!"
Edvard had a look of disgust emerge in his eyes as he looked at his brother, and then shifted his gaze towards Ashely, who was looking at him with a pale face.
"You heard him.. it's time for you to die!" Edvard spoke with a smile on his face, and he immediately squeezed her throat as hard as he could, and she instantly turned bright red.
Splat!
Ashley's throat exploded due to the heavy force applied, as blood burst out through her eyes, nose and mouth. She was dead in an instant!