Chapter 23: Kill

Forest, Jade Empire

Kai immediately flicked his eyes back at the girl. They widened and went out of focus as his mind rumbled, shook, like an earthquake. An image invaded his mind, causing his palms to perspire and his heartbeat to accelerate.

…… “Father!” ……

His master’s daughter hauntingly appeared in his line of vision and hovered over the existing scene like a christmas ghost. Each scene, each girl, were witnessed from different angles but they perfectly eclipsed through his eyes. An unfamiliar feeling emerged and surfaced from the depths of his mind.

Empathy; Compassion.

A pure feeling of compassion flooded his entire being as he unconsciously trembled. The feeling fought, defeated, and replaced his logical reasoning. He hastily lifted his shirt to pull out the knife from his side. Without another word, or thought, he channeled Essence to his feet and leapt down in the blink of an eye. As soon as he silently landed behind the bandits, he regained a small bit of his suppressed reasoning.

Wait, what? Why?...It’s not too late, I can still find cover behind the trees.

The thoughts crossed his mind but his body refused to listen; refused to retreat. As he struggled with his next choice of action, the bandit closest to Kai was no longer able to stomach the sight of the sobbing girl and looked away. He turned his head and was startled as his eyes met with Kai’s.

No turning back now…

“W-”

With a burst of Essence on his feet, Kai erased the distance between them in a second and dashed right past him, swiftly slicing the back of his knee on the way.

“Ah!”

The bandit screamed, immediately catching the attention of everyone besides the young girl who was still grieving for her father. Without giving them any time to adapt to his sudden appearance, Kai continued his onslaught. Each of Kai’s victims buckled to ground and writhed in pain as they grabbed the back of their knee. Their pain was then overwhelmed with shock as they realized they no longer able to apply strength to the lower part of their legs.

“W-what’s going on?”

“Is it a beast?”

“I can’t move my legs!”

“Ah! Save me.”

The bandit cried for help as he collapsed, his legs freshly crippled by Kai. Halting to take a quick breath, the bandits finally comprehended the true figure of their surprise assailant. Fresh blood dripped down from the tip of Kai’s knife, giving him an ominous appearance in contrast to his poor tattered clothes.

“Who are you boy?”, the bandit leader angrily growled.

Ignoring him, Kai immediately lunged at the nearest bandit. The bandit snarled and slashed down with his sword but he easily avoided it and countered by cutting the wrists of the bandit. The sword dropped out of the bandit’s hands as he lost all feeling in his fingers. Completing his treatment, he sliced the back of the bandit’s knees. The bandit buckled and involuntarily fell like the rest of Kai’s victims.

“You dare ignore me!?”

Enraged, the bandit leader cracked the ground below him as he charged at Kai. He furiously swiped his brown lit hands towards Kai as he ran. Rocks and hardened dirt floated from the ground then rapidly flew through the air. Caught in the midst of running, Kai leaned back and dropped as low as he could, sliding across the ground. The rocks and dirt flew above him like a crowd of angry birds as he slid to a stop.

He quickly returned to his feet. The bandit leader closed the remaining distance with a jump and threw a straight punch.

“Hah!”

Shifting some of his Essence to his knife, Kai expertly pivoted to the right and the punch grazed past his cheeks. While in his pivoting motion, he sliced upwards and sharp blade of the knife penetrated the soft skin of the bandit leader’s wrist. Before he could pierce the vital tendon, however, a solid force blocked the knife. Slightly startled from his failure, Kai backed off and created distance between them.

This defense, it’s just like the time I fought Mian. Is it because he’s a Baron or is it because his element is Earth?

With no concrete information to work on, Kai randomly hypothesized the reasons to their abnormal defense. While he was contemplating in his mind, the bandit leader stared at the light wound in his hand. ‘Who the hell is this kid? He is clearly only a Novice but how is he so fast and strong?’, he thought.

“Look, he hurt Omar”, a man gasped.

“Just who is this boy?”

“Is that even a boy?”

Murmurs buzzed around as all of the bandits were astonished. The young girl raised her head, her face still drenched with tears and colored with sorrow but now there was a new hint of confusion.

“I’m going to ask again and this time you better not make me repeat myself. Who the hell are you boy!?”, Omar bellowed with a furious, yet cautious, face.

Kai blankly gazed at him.

Fighting him will be troublesome… I should remove all the stray factors first.

“I am no one.”

Having said all that he wanted to, he dashed at him with the knife in hand. Omar glared at him and scoffed. As he prepared to return the attack, Kai instantly pivoted to the left, gunning straight for another bandit!

The targeted bandit was caught off guard and before he could raise his weapon, Kai swiftly sliced the back of his right knee, then followed with his left. As he involuntarily buckled to the ground, Kai wasted no time and selected his new target.

“STOP RIGHT NOW!”

Omar was extremely livid as Kai ignored him for the second time and assaulted his men once more. Bulging veins appeared on his forehead as the brown light around his body violently fluctuated. He chased after Kai’s figure with wild savageness, cracking the ground with each and every step he took.

Kai, however, continued to ignore him and struck at the rest of the bandits. After the first bandit was caught off guard, they all diligently defended themselves but, unfortunately for them, none of them were Barons. They raised their weapons, jumped to the side, or maneuvered in any way they knew how but were all crippled in an instant.

One by one, each bandit buckled to the ground and stayed there; some less fortunate bandits also lost feeling in their hands. Omar tried his damndest to reach, to assist, any of his men but the rate to which Kai dealt with them was too astonishingly quick. By the time he reached them, they were already groaning and immobile.

Before he knew it, only a single bandit remained. In the smartest attempt yet, the bandit desperately sprinted to Omar’s side but halfway there he buckled and fell to the ground. Kai stood right behind the final bandit, gripping the guilty knife as fresh blood trickled down the tip.

With no one left to rescue, Omar ended his chase. His nostrils flared and his body shook from anger as he viciously glared at Kai. With a vehement shout to expel some of his pent up anger, he pointed his brown lit hands, palms out, at the ground.

“[Art of Earth: Earth Spear]!”

Omar began to sweat profusely as five spears rose from the earth. Immediately lifting the closest one, he leaned back, then aggressively hurled it towards Kai. Having witnessed the previous fight, Kai knew exactly what he had in mind and was prepared.

It’s fast but it’s too big making it painfully easy to dodge

Keeping his feet planted, Kai avoided the spear with a shocking amount of ease.

-Thud-

The spear imbedded itself into a tree behind Kai as Omar’s eyes nearly popped of its socket. He shrugged it off as pure luck and threw three more spears in rapid succession. The spears were spaced in a manner that seemed completely unavoidable to him but Kai casually found the gap and took a step to the right. Narrowing his body, the spears harmlessly flew by him.

-Thud- -Thud- -Thud-

Each spear found the base of a tree which further heightened his anger. With a roar, he furiously threw the remaining spear in blind rage.

He’s become completely addled, that spear is nowhere near where I am.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, however, Kai’s eyes widened in urgency as he stepped into the path of the spear. Gazing intensely at the spear, he perfectly leaned to the side and uppercutted with his knife to deflect the spear from its original path. The knife perfectly struck right below the spearhead but the force knocked him off his feet. Flying backwards, he immediately tilted into a backflip and landed on his feet.

‘Why did he run into the spear?’, Omar thought. Even he understood his mistake the moment the spear left his hands. The mystery quickly unraveled itself as he peered behind Kai and saw the young girl with the corpse of her father. A heinous grin formed on his face and he laughed madly.

“HA! So that’s how it is!”

Ceasing his laughter, he arrogantly met Kai’s gaze and readily extended his brown lit hands. Taking off in a sprint, he charged at Kai, wildly swiping his hands along the way. All around him, rocks and hardened dirt floated off the ground then violently whizzed towards Kai.

Kai sighed and gritted his teeth. Narrowing his eyes, he concentrated on the incoming projectiles as he channeled Essence to his knife and hand.

-Putt- -Putt- -Putt-

Hands moving in a blur, Kai handled each projectile the moment they entered his range. He destroyed them with his knife and, wanting to be as efficient as possible, he deflected them with a flick of a hand. The rocks and dirt, however, were nearly as fast as a bullet so even with the protection of Essence, his hand gradually became bruised.

Suddenly, the projectiles ceased but before he could recover, Omar directly arrived in front of him. Legs slightly numbed from standing his ground, Kai had no choice but to channel Essence to his arms and block the incoming uppercut from Omar.

-Pow-

The uppercut contained a majority of Omar’s anger as the impact bursted with brown light. The resulting force numbed Kai’s arms and launched him into the air. His legs fortunately recovered at that moment. Tilting to the side, his maneuvered his feet to where his back once was and horizontally landed on the side of a tree. Jumping off the tree, he somersaulted in the air before landing on one knee.

I can’t defeat him with my current strength and I can’t avoid his attacks because he will target the girl… should I fight with the intention to kill? No, I can’t!... but do I really have another choice?

“Ha! Finally, that felt amazing. Many thanks little girl”, Omar celebrated as he smirked at the young girl besides him. “Now help me again.”

Grabbing the girl’s hair, he returned to meet Kai’s gaze. The girl’s face scrunched in pain but she silently endured, knowing she was nothing she could do to fend off the brut.

“Come at me.”

Kai’s eyes hardened as he grew solemnly serious. He continued to see his master’s daughter in the girl and watching Omar manhandle her ignited his rage.

I have to protect her! No matter what…

Entirely freeing his restraint over his killing intent, the aura instantly exploded into the atmosphere. A bloodthirsty desire overwhelmed Kai and his thoughts. He expertly trained his killing intent at Omar, carefully preventing any exposure to the girl. Through his eyes, he instantly saw every vital part of his body.

The instant Omar felt the killing intent he stumbled back, releasing his grip on the girl’s hair. The temperature around him rapidly sank and he knew exactly why. With his eyes still glued on Kai, he witnessed the sinister aura radiating from his body. He struggled to maintain his balance as he drew his sword out in an attempt to act threatening.

“What the hell are you?”, he yelled with great difficulty as his throat felt constricted.

The question lingered in the air as Kai dashed towards him without a word. Swerving slightly to the side, he smoothly acquired another knife from a fallen man, who was still writhing in pain, in the midst of his sprint. He alternated his grip on the knives, holding them in a backwards manner, and channeled Essence to their blades.

[Shadow Two Steps]

He instantly disappeared from Omar’s view and stepped behind him. Before Omar could feel startled, he swung his arm around Omar’s waist, stabbing his lower abdomen. The tip of the blade sank through his flesh but similar to his previous attempt, it could not penetrate deeper. Unfazed by the failure, Kai spun around and struck at different vitals on his body like a tornado.

Heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, stomach; Kai was relentless in his aggression and struck in different angles after every failure. Within seconds, Omar’s body was littered with wounds yet he was still unable to capture even the faintest shadow of his figure. The wounds, no matter how non-fatal they were, left a constant throbbing and stinging pain. Driven insane by the pain, Omar screamed in anguish and frustration.

“ARGHH-”

He started to scream but Kai was waiting for him to do so. Pivoting to the side of Omar’s body, he jumped to his eye-level, swung his arm backwards, and forcefully shoved the knife into his vulnerable open mouth. The blade traveled down his throat, pierced straight through his flesh, and emerged out of the back of his neck. Omar’s eyes bulged as his life slowly slipped away.