CHAPTER 637 DARREN WAS ON THE VERGE OF DEATH

"You want to run away? Don't be so naive. There's no escaping me!" The voice that followed Darren

was far too close for comfort. Hideously inhuman though it was, there was an unmistakable playfulness

in its cruel roar.

Knowing that there was indeed little hope in retreating, Darren abruptly stopped and fired his dark gold

internal force.

To his dismay, his elixir field had been pierced, causing an awful pain to tear through his body for as

long as he used his skills. The only thing that could hurt more, in fact, was a direct attack on his soul.

Meanwhile, his dark gold internal force was slow enough that the dark smoke dodged it with ease.

This foe had grasped the Shadow Rule, and was in fact the stronger of the two.

While still injured, it would be almost impossible for Darren to win this fight.

After dodging his attack, the dark smoke condensed into an arrow and shot toward Darren.

It struck home, piercing him through the belly again.

"Ha, you little weakling," the man taunted. "How does it feel with your elixir field broken?"

Darren did not answer at first. He swayed on his feet, blood soaking the lower half of his body even as

he tried to cover his wounds.

"Oh, what are you waiting for?" he gasped. "If you're going to kill me, just get it over with."

These words of Darren's were a gamble on his part. He was hoping that his attacker was angry

enough, or sadistic enough, to be goaded into taking its time. Otherwise, the man would indeed just

finish him off immediately.

"Ah," came the reply. "So it's a quick death you want? I don't think so. Not after the trouble you've

caused me, killing so many of my disciples in the Crimson Sea Sect. No, I promise you anything but a

quick release from the pain."

Hearing this, Darren felt a small measure of hope. It seemed he might actually have a chance of

survival now.

Gritting his teeth, he backed away, heading to the spot where several powerful masters were locked in

fierce combat, oblivious to Darren's existence.

If he could lure his assailant there, he thought an opportunity for escape might present itself.

Meanwhile, the dark smoke wasn't letting up for a second. He followed Darren and repeatedly stabbed

at his elixir field, clearly taking his time with it.

Incredibly, the pain continually grew worse and worse, and Darren was near-constantly hacking up

blood as he endured the torture. If he lost consciousness or finished bleeding out, it would be the end

for him.

Finally he wasn't far off from the fighters. The Holy Will was blasting around them, which made Darren

very uncomfortable.

However, the thought of a slow, gruesome death made him more uncomfortable. He steeled himself

and flew toward the center of the battlefield.

Seeing this, the dark smoke realized what his victim was up to. "Oh, you're clever," he muttered,

incensed. "I think I'm done playing with you, then."

With that, the dark smoke turned into an arrow again. This time, though, he aimed himself straight at

Darren's heart.

Yet at that very moment, Darren was shouting as loud as he could in the midst of the battlefield, "Watch

out! The top master of the Crimson Sea Sect is coming to attack us!"

All of the warriors heard Darren's warning. Though they didn't recognize him, they were smart enough

to stop what they were doing and reach out with their spiritual sense.

Sure enough, they detected the approaching smoke creature, preparing to launch a sneak attack.

The next moment, nine streams of powerful Fringe Holy Will simultaneously shot towards the intruder.

Strong though he was from having comprehended the Shadow Rule, even he couldn't just ignore

attacks from such warriors as these. This material belongs to .

Had he been able, he would have killed all of them already.

But even as he dodged eight of the attacks, one made a direct hit and blasted him back a great

distance, where he turned back to his human form.

That was the form of a thin young man. Human though he was, the murderous intensity in his eyes was

incredible.

He flew back to the spot he'd been blasted from, cursing and raging at how he had been foiled. By the

time he reached it, though, Darren was nowhere in sight.

"Damn it! Bastard. I will find you and I must kill you today! You won't live to see tomorrow, you bastard! I

will find you, and soon!"

Having declared this, he drifted about the battlefield, exploring it carefully. Anytime he met someone

else or came across an ongoing fight, he made himself scarce. He had no interest in anyone now

except for Darren, who had escaped from his clutches.

Darren, meanwhile, had found an innocuous-looking corner and hidden himself there beneath a pile of

some twenty or more corpses. He held his breath for as long as he could, for fear he might be

discovered while still wounded and weak.

'Just look at me now!' he thought indignantly. 'Weak! Useless!'

After being chased down and nearly killed by someone in the form of smoke, he'd now resorted to

hiding under some dead bodies. He couldn't remember being in such a ridiculous or depressing

predicament, not since first becoming a powerful warrior.

Some minutes passed, and the war there began to subside. Many participants had died, and the rest

were worn down and wanted to conserve their strength.

The nine people whom Darren had tricked into saving him were all badly injured. At that moment,

though, something interesting happened with them.

One of the nine people stepped into a footprint that was on the ground. A moment later, his form began

to fade until he had completely disappeared from the battlefield.

"Damn it!" someone said. "Someone from the Heaven Lake Sect went through there. Once he controls

the passage, none of us will be able to use it anymore!"

With that, the remaining eight masters grew tense, and soon enough they joined in combat again, each

one fighting to get into the array.

In time, three of them made it through.

Meanwhile, the man who had pierced through Darren's elixir field was still looking for him, ignoring

everything else that was going on.

He grew more and more frustrated until he finally realized that Darren must be hiding under the bodies

of the dead, of which there was no small number in that desolate place. Now, wherever he went, he

struck at the corpses, violently scattering or outright dismembering them.

'Oh, hell. Here he comes, ' Darren thought, his face turning ashen as his nemesis drew near. Darren

was in no condition to defend himself. If not for the sheer strength of his will, he would have passed out

a long time ago.

Despite himself, his heart pounded harder and harder.

"You son of a bitch!" the thin man yelled nastily. "You've led me on quite a chase, but now you've got

nowhere else to run and hide."

Grinning wickedly, he stared directly at the remaining pile of cadavers, where Darren was hiding. "You

have until the count of three," he went on. "Come out now if you want me to just get it over with.

Otherwise, I'll take my time killing you.

One... Two... Three!"

There was no answer. The thin man struck the pile with his palm, and limbs and blood exploded in all

directions.

Darren, too, was thrown into the air.

"Hah!" The thin young man watched him, crowing in triumph before leaping to meet him in the air. With

another palm strike, he sent Darren crashing back to the earth.

The villain followed him back to the ground, kicking him in the chest as he landed. "I gave you a

choice!" he said fiercely. "You could have died already, had you come out when I called. Now, though,

I'm going to make it nice and slow."

Saying this, he struck his palm against Darren's elixir field, this time shattering it completely and putting

a nasty hole in his abdomen.

Darren convulsed, unable to help shouting in pain. He felt almost like his soul was being torn apart.

But even then he had some power left in him, in a way. With his elixir field open, his powers activated

entirely of their own accord. There was a burst of blade and sword intents, then a fiercer blast of olive-

black force which went right at his assailant.

The young man was caught off-guard and howled as his shoulder bone was smashed to pieces.

"How dare you!" he said through gritted teeth, even more enraged than he already had been. "After the

beating I've given you already, you still have the gall to try and fight me? You have no idea how cruel I

can be!

I'm surprised, though, to see that you practice both blade and sword at the same time... I've only ever

seen people who cultivate one or the other. I think I'll just take out your blade and sword cores, then,

and see what the difference is."

With a grim expression, he reached his hand out toward Darren's elixir field.

Unable to resist, Darren felt his already-weakened life aura start to rapidly drain away. There were no

more last-ditch gambits for him to try. Even the one attack he had just managed had really been a

reflex, rather than anything he could consciously do.

An overpowering sense of despair enveloped him. By the time his adversary was through, Darren

would almost certainly be dead. But even if he somehow survived this ordeal, he would be a nobody

without his blade and sword cores.

"Huh, what's this?" the thin man asked himself, hesitating at the last second. "This is a weird bastard.

He's got a nebula inside his elixir field."

Overcome by curiosity, the thin man forgot about Darren's blade and sword cores and reached out to

the nebula instead.