253 Chapter 252: Ambush (2/2)
Honestly, they were stronger than us. If they landed a direct hit on us, we wouldn't get away with merely superficial injuries. Fortunately, it seemed that we were superior in terms of speed and agility. As long as we could use that to our advantage…
”I'll take the sneaky brat with the dagger. You take the nerdy brat with glasses.”
”Fine.” the middle guy agreed with his surviving comrade's suggestion. Cracking his knuckles, he drew a sword and came after me.
I glanced at Tong Xue, who shrugged.
”You confident of taking the guy on by yourself?” he asked. I nodded.
”Yeah. What about you?”
Tong Xue grinned. ”Let's do that then. We'll meet back here after we're done.”
He then streaked through the forest, weaving between the trees like a ghost while his opponent pursued him relentlessly.
Skidding to a stop, I turned to confront the guy in the middle. As I suspected, he was the strongest of the trio, but also the slowest. That was why his partner decided to chase down the faster Tong Xue while leaving me to this guy. I was visibly weighed down by two huge swords while Tong Xue only wielded a dagger and therefore wouldn't be affected by the weight of his weapons by much.
”You're pretty unlucky, kid.” My opponent licked his blade, which was clearly coated with a layer of poison. The bastard was showing off how he was immune to his own poisons, and proud of the toxins he had concocted. ”I'll try to make your death not so painful.”
I didn't respond. It wasn't worth wasting my breath on such people.
”You shouldn't have returned. You might have thought that the Black Venom Cult is nearly on the brink of death, with less than ten of us surviving. But it's useless. Unless you send out Song Si Yuan or the current Four Saints themselves, none of you will be able to defeat the Great Leader.”
”I assume your Great Leader is the Dark Sage, Sha Chen?” I asked dryly. The guy grinned.
”So you know of him. Surprising…considering the name came from someone of your age. He probably disappeared years before you were born.”
Yeah, well…to be honest, I had never heard of him (or I did, but I completely forgot about him because I didn't have the memory capacity to memorize so many names) until Song Ting Yu and Tong Xue brought him up.
”Doesn't matter. You'll never get a chance to meet him, for you'll die here today! Brat, you should feel honored to die under my hands – the great Darkon!”
”…Darkon? That's your name?”
Nope, I had never heard of him before. Darkon glowered at me and threw several of his poison darts at me. I swatted them away with my Azure Lotus Sword, only for my opponent to descend upon me with a vicious swing of his sword.
Parrying it with Shadow Fox, I met his blow evenly…only for his qi to explode out violently and hurl me backward.
”Kuh!”
I was sent hurtling back several meters, and despite doing my best to flip myself up and slam my feet down, I skidded quite some distance back. Huffing, I tried to regain my balance, but Darkon was already upon me.
”Weak!”
”!!”
Crossing both my swords, I parried his strike again, but this time his attack was several magnitudes stronger than the last one. I was literally blown back, helplessly hurtling across the swamp several dozens meters away. Trees broke apart as I slammed into them, splinters raining down on me. I eventually crashed onto the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
”Gah…kuh…”
Coughing and wheezing, I desperately tried to get to my feet. This guy was strong! So incredibly strong! He was much more powerful than Da Du, who I had faced earlier. Even though I had successfully parried his strike, my arms still felt completely numb from blocking the blow.
It wasn't that I didn't want to dodge. It was that Darkon literally moved faster than I could react. Even though I was confident that I was faster, he had caught me by surprise with his speed, and sent me flying before I could activate my footwork.
”Damn it!”
I couldn't allow him to force me onto the defensive. I needed to start evading right away.
”Ha ha ha ha ha!”
Darkon descended upon my position. Fortunately, I was able to avoid him, and quickly used Duo to disappear before launching a counterattack from behind. Darkon lazily swung his sword back and blocked my attack, then swung around to hit me with a swing of his arm.
Fortunately, I was already blurring into nothingness, his arm smashing violently into a tree after sailing through thin air.
”Oho…your speed is impressive, if nothing else.”
I merely wiped the blood from my mouth, and used Jin to close the gap between us. Darkon swung his sword down to cleave me in half, but he only cut apart my afterimage. He frowned, and whirled around to catch my sword with his hand.
Shadow Dragon Meteor Strike!
Unleashing a powerful attack at pointblank range, this time I was the one who sent Darkon staggering back. He shook his bleeding hand, black fumes rising from it, and then retaliated with his sword.
I swiftly ducked under it and nicked his leg with Shadow Fox. As Darkon kicked at me in irritation, I twisted away from it and then unleashed a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike with Azure Lotus Sword, blasting his face.
”Gah!”
Darkon staggered back. Blood continued to stream down his face, but he seemed more enraged than injured.
”Fucking brat! Venom Dragon Wave!”
Swinging his sword, he blasted me with a venomous wave of qi that corrode the surroundings. The moment the qi from his blast came into contact with the grass or trees, they immediately withered, turning dessicated as the toxins killed them outright.
Bloody fucker had no care for the environment. Then again, this was a demonic sect that conducted human experiments just to test out the potency of their venom. Why would they care about anything other than their own interests?
Even though I was immune to his poisons, I knew I couldn't withstand a powerful attack like that. It was also barreling toward me faster than I could evade – such was the immense size of his Venom Dragon Wave that there was nowhere to run.
Fortunately, I didn't have to.
Snow Aegis materialized in front of me and absorbed most of the blast, the venomous qi dissipating harmlessly against it.
”That's…!”
Darkon gaped at me in disbelief, not able to comprehend what had just happened. While he was still trying to digest the current situation, I wasn't merciful enough to wait for him. Behind him, six mobile turrets unleashed their qi beams, puncturing him in several locations.
”Gah!”
Darkon dropped to his knee, clutching at a couple of his cauterized wounds. He lifted his head and glared at the hovering mobile turrrets, still not comprehending.
”What the fuck are those!?”
I had no obligation to tell him. Rather, I might as well seize the opportunity to finish him off. Darkon was a formidable opponent, and I couldn't afford to show him mercy or give him the chance to recover.
So I quickly slashed at him with both swords, but his quick reflexes allowed him to parry my strike. While he stopped my blades cold, my mobile turrets fired another volley of qi beams with unrivaled precision, missing me entirely while lashing out at Darkon's vulnerable areas from near perfect angles.
However, the same trick wasn't going to work twice. Instinctively, Darkon forced me away before jumping back to avoid the powerful qi beams.
”Fucking brat!”
With a roar, he unleashed another Venom Dragon Wave at pointblank range. I quickly blocked it with Snow Aegis, but as my Spirit Shield endured against the immense attack, Darkon showed up behind my shield and slashed at me.
”!”
I managed to just barely parry his sword, caught completely by surprise. With a roar, Darkon smacked me away from my Snow Aegis and sent me crashing through the forest. This time, I was more prepared and I managed to dig my feet in, skidding across the soft soil and leaving two deep trails of ruined dirt.
”Huff…”
Pausing to catch my breath, I tried to reorganize my defenses, but just as I refused to give Darkon any chance to recover, he was similarly showing me no mercy. Before I could finish correcting my stance, he was already right in front of me.
”!!”
”Die.”
He slashed at me, and I stumbled back after poorly parrying his blade. While I was staggering, Darkon swept in with his hand and slammed his palm against my chest.
”Venom Dragon Palm!”
”Gaaaah!”
Blood spurted from my mouth as I was sent cartwheeling away, smashing through trees and uprooting shrubs and bushes. Crashing heavily onto a ground with an impact tremendous enough to leave a crater, I lay still, stunned.
Strong. This Darkon was so strong.
He had completely overwhelmed me. And this was just one of the elite Black Venom Cultists. I hadn't even gotten to the Heavenly Venom King, Sha Chen, yet.
”Ha ha ha ha! You're a fool if you ever thought you could beat me, Darkon, the Venom Dragon!”
Laughing triumphantly, my enemy closed in to finish me off.