Kai came back to the real world in a flash, still kneeling over the body of the now Soul-crushed arms master. He smiled darkly, knowing that there was no beyond for the scum that now lay at his feet.
He then heard shouting outside of the tent and realized that a few of the dead bodies had been found, probably by the switching patrols as he’d not cared about hiding any of the ones he’d killed on his way here.
Standing up, he walked over to the rack of weapons, grabbed a random longsword as he was now out of time and walked out of the tent, head held high.
He then opened the lock on the cage that had been holding back his power and let it blast out around him. Bolts of silver lightning blasted out from him in a ten yard radius for a few seconds, his power acting like the water from a now broken dam, pushing itself to a high pressure before coming back down to an easy flow.
“COME AND GET ME, BASTARDS!” Kai yelled, his voice carrying across the now disturbed night, longsword held ready in front of him.
And come to him they did, small pockets of them at first as they realized the very real threat in their midst.
The first three that came, Kai didn’t even use Chi on. A few slashes of his Sword Earth Mastery was enough to send them to their forefathers. For even though they’d taken his Cultivation before, they’d never ever take his mastery over his chosen weapon.
The next five were met with a few slashes of the sword and then a focused blast of pure silver energy that tore small holes through three of them, the other two killed by the subsequent thrust of Kai’s now smoking longsword.
They came to him in waves them as Kai settled into his ever familiar trance, the same one he’d once used to fight through a burning village, the same one he’d been forced to use to escape within himself, back when the tortures had started to become too painful, back before they’d broken his mind.
The next wave of seven tried to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. He ripped his sword through the gut of one, leaving it there, caught the sword of another with a hand coated in silver power, before reaching out and ripping out the throat of one on his right with another hand coated in the same energy, before he came back and forced the blade he was holding, backwards onto its own user.
He felt it then, as his fifth Meridian snapped into place, pumping pure Chi from his Soulscape to his body for his use and then circulating that energy to strengthen him, the edges of a Technique forming, from the very fight that left him wanting for more power.
He slammed his Chi infused leg down in a blast of power, forcing his still Meridians ranked body back before he was surrounded by the other four slavers.
He then quickly checked in his Soulscape to see if the Chi was able to start forming Channels. And with a start, he realized that he already saw the membrane of another cord forming between his first and second Meridian, one that now put him close to Rank 1 of the Channels Stage, further than he’d ever gone before.
Letting the energy work within himself, he brought his consciousness back to the fight. And just in time as the other four, instead of running away like they should’ve, ran right towards him like the idiots they were.
Kai didn’t bother with drawing his katana as he was saving that one for another fight. Instead, he raised his right arm, hand open and let a pillar of silver light blast out, swiping it quickly through the four slavers, bisecting them as they instantly died.
Seeing as he had a small respite as he could see other groups of slavers forming up in the chaos, he quickly formed a small plan as he was now down to 80% of the Chi that he’d had before entering the camp, and knew that he couldn’t kill everyone without creating a battlefield that played to his advantages.
The camp had had approximately 200 slavers before his killing spree. After killing the guards and assassinating some slavers on the way to the arms master and then with the 15 he’d managed to kill now, he’d killed almost 40 of them, barely a fifth.
And using this much power for only 40 meant that he wouldn’t have enough to kill the main man himself.
And so, he moved the fifteen bodies of the slavers he’d just killed to his back, lowering the amount of slavers that could come at him at one time. With the tent already at his back, it would take some time for the slavers to move the bodies and surround him. And of course, killing more would create even more obstacles.
Fortunately, the rest of the slavers, other than Devar, were only Meridians Stage Cultivators, who Kai knew he could take droves of with ease. The arms master had been the only other non Meridians Stage Cultivator in the camp, as Devar disliked keeping even a few people remotely close to his power in fear that they would usurp his position.
And so, Kai wasn’t too worried about killing the rest of the slavers, as even just his Sword Earth Mastery was more than enough of a match for them.
Therefore, he just waited there, reacquired longsword pointed lazily towards the ground as finally, a wave of slavers came towards him.
Kai smiled and beckoned at the confused slavers as they had thought they were facing a mass slave rebellion, not a single man armed with a sword.
The bodies of their brethren decided it for them, as almost 30 of them came at him at once.
Not enough, Kai thought with a grimace.
And yet, he still went to work, baiting them with weak thrusts before settling into the Forms with an ease that showed his many years of practice.
He thrust forward and flicked his wrist sideways, ripping through the stomach of a slaver’s body with the Sword Earth edge of his sword, and slipping the blade sideways through the ribs of another. He then pulled it straight out and flicked sideways again, this time a little higher, decapitating another as he turned sideways and kicked his leg out, catching the one he’d almost half bisected with a Chi empowered leg, blasting the man backwards and slamming him into another group of five.
And this was how the battle went. A small blast of energy here and skillful use of the sword there. A machine of War was at work, showing off his latest masterpiece as these men were all just colors on his canvas.
He finally saw another group of slavers, 80 strong reinforce the back lines, waiting for their own chance to kill the monster that had ripped through their initial forces, hoping to get a lucky kill and reap the rewards that Devar would pour onto them.
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There, that should be enough.
And then, Kai dropped his longsword suddenly, a few swords cutting into his arms as he raised them sideways, palms open upwards. His Chi enhanced skin only let the basic blades make shallow cuts on him as he reached into his body for the power he’d been building up throughout the fight.
Then, closing his eyes, he let it explode forwards, setting it free. The Chi blasted out of him in waves, the first wave incinerating everything, including the strong steel of weapons, within ten feet of Kai.
The second wave covered 20 feet. The third went to 50 and killed every single person that was partaking in the battle against him.
And then Kai had a moment of peace. He opened his eyes to piles of ashes on the scorched earth. Nothing living would grow in this rectangle of 50 feet for a century, at the very least.
And yet, even though he’d sent out 110 slavers to get slaughtered at the hands of his own former slave, Devar, it seemed, hadn’t even shown his own face yet.
Fucking coward.
And so, Kai left his kill box, knowing he’d wiped out almost three quarters of the slavers, yet still holding almost half the power he’d had before he’d snuck into the camp.
He was a god here, and no one could stop his advance. He struck down single slavers that chose to rush him, a man glowing with silver energy. Who the hell sees a godlike man with pure silver eyes who’d just ripped through more than half of the camp of slavers and decides it would be a smart idea to fight him?
However, it seemed that these men had seen enough atrocities that Devar still scared them more than Kai. Either way, they were meeting their forefathers now.
He burned the locks on more than a dozen cages, freeing slaves but still continuing onwards. He would free them but caring for them was not his job. And he still had one important enemy left to kill.
And so, he kept going, killing those slavers that were foolish enough to fight him as he freed more and more slaves, who sprinted away from him as soon as he freed them. Until finally, he made it to the largest tent in the camp, where a man stood right in front of it.
Devar looked out, away from Kai, towards the stars that dotted the night sky, hand resting on an axe, the replacement for the one that Kai had bisected over a year ago.
“There you are, coward,” Kai growled at him.
Devar finally turned his head, slowly, and looked at Kai, curious at the silver energy that exuded from him.
“You know, I’m almost half a century old. I’ve lived through an assassination by my own sister. I’ve ripped and clawed my way up in the hierarchy of that nasty city of Nejena. I’ve had my own fair share of mutinies by my own men because I don’t give two shits about their well-being.”
“And yet, whelp,” he continued after a deep breath. “You’ve done more today to set back my plans than any man or woman has in my 46 years of living. I’ve just about had it…”
“You’ve had it?!” Kai said, matching the statement with an incredulous laugh that permeated the air. “You’ve had it?! You’ve lost everything you ever cared for?!”
Kai gave out another short incredulous laugh at the absurdity. “You fucking idiot. You’re a slave dealer. It is literally your job to destroy the lives of peaceful people. You really thought that one of them wouldn’t escape end your pathetic existence one day? You’re an even bigger fool if you think that I give two shits about how you feel right before I cut your cock off and choke you with it.”
There was no more preamble, no more words exchanged. Kai almost missed it. If he’d still had his old reflexes, he would’ve died right then and there. But seconds earlier, his fourth Channel had snapped into place, putting him only two Ranks from the same Stage as the slave leader in front of him.
Therefore, when Devar used every ounce of his speed to rush Kai, axe raised high, Kai was just ready for it. And this time, when Devar brought his axe down, Kai didn’t even look up. Instead he thrusted forward with the katana he’d unsheathed right before he’d approached Devar.
And so, the axe came down and slammed into his shoulder, digging in only about 3 inches into Kai’s flesh. His Chi infused skin was still much more powerful than Devar had expected.
The silver lightning and other anomalies aside, Devar still only saw him as a Channels Stage Cultivator, not knowing that technically, Kai was still riding the high of a breakthrough, the same as the first time they’d fought.
Kai’s blade, however, stabbed into Devar’s chest running him all the way through. Instead of falling over and dying however, the slave leader instead only growled in agony and punched Kai with all of his strength,
Kai’s body slammed into the ground almost 20 feet from Devar, a broken nose showing the damage the slaver had done. The Chi raging within him needed no prompting, instantly jumping up towards his face to heal his nose.
Devar, meanwhile, pulled the sword out of his chest, roaring in pain as he did so, eyes red with anger.
“THAT’S IT WHELP, YOU’RE DEAD!”
Kai managed to get to his feet, sore muscles and bruises all over starting to make themselves known.
“THE HALF MOON WOLF,” Devar roared and Kai’s eyes widened in alarm.
The silhouette of a blue wolf formed around the slaver’s axe, teeth bared. Kai felt all of Devar’s power consolidating at a point and knew instantly that this was his trump card.
Maybe it had been a reward from the green robed Lord or part of the spoils of the looting he’d done over the last year. It didn’t matter how, just that the slave leader was using a powerful attacking Technique, which made him much more dangerous than he had been the last time Kai had fought him.
Fortunately, so was Kai.
Devar was dead and he knew it. Even if the hole in his chest caused by Kai’s blade somehow didn’t kill him, this Technique would rob him of his strength and so even if he managed to win and kill Kai, the slaver would most likely collapse soon after and become food for the dangerous beasts that lived in this forest.
Devar rushed forward then, with the speed of a wolf, leaving Kai no space to dodge or even block.
Yet, just like Devar, Kai still had one more trump card to play.
He reached inside himself for the one emotion that was always there. He reached into the depths of his soul and pulled out its ever-present rage. Rage at the injustices caused by the green robed noble that had helped destroy his life. Rage at the fact that he’d finally lived a life he loved for fifteen years before it was ripped away from him. He’d been given no choice. And now, the world would find out just why it should fear his wrath.
And as his fifth Channel snapped right into place, easing the circulation of the last of his Chi, as he reached the peak of the Channels Stage, the Aura of a Rank 5 Channels Stage Cultivator, no, the Aura of an Eritos, an Unbowed Warrior blasted out of him just as Devar reached him.
And as the wolf that encased Devar’s axe opened its maws to swallow Kai whole, his Aura slammed into Devar.
The slaver’s eyes widened in surprise and then fear as Kai condensed the entirety of his will through his Aura and out towards the large man. The Technique stalled, breaking Devar’s concentration which was just enough to destroy it.
Techniques required absolute concentration, and if the user’s control over a Technique was broken, not only would it dissipate, but it would also hit the user with a large backlash.
Devar was thrown back, both by the failed Technique and by the overwhelming power of Kai’s Aura, slamming into the ground 30 feet away.
Kai glanced at his reserves of Chi, noting just how low it was and just how much pain and exhaustion would hit him once the overwhelming breakthrough faded away.
And yet, he reveled as he walked to the man that had tormented him for the past year. He reveled in his victory, even with the emptiness that sat right where his heart was.
A few seconds later he stood above the broken and bleeding body of the leader of these slavers.
“How?” Devar managed to croak out.
“You weren’t strong enough,” Kai said with a shrug.
“We crippled you though.”
Kai gave him a dark chuckle, and said, “There are greater things in this world than you, my enemy. Remember that wherever your crushed Soul manages to go.
Kai decapitated the man, ending his tormentor. Yet his rage still wasn’t sated. His Aura called for more blood, demanded it.
Kai then pulled on the ghostly rope in his Soul once again and ripped an opening to the River of Death. He didn’t look around to see if Death was watching. A hand reached down into the River and ripped out the Soul of the man that had destroyed Kai’s life.
He crushed the orb without hesitation, no more words left to say for the slaver who’d hounded him physically and mentally for over a year. He pulled himself back to the physical world before Death could speak about heresy again or stop him for the crimes the deity think Kai had committed.Then, he felt himself come to the last of his power. He didn’t have much time left before he would collapse.
Just a little more time.
And then, he turned around and saw a cage. And inside, he saw her, dead brown eyes looking listlessly out at the carnage he’d caused.