Chapter 74: Groups Clashing

Travelling through the dense fog, Tess led the way according to what she had sensed within the Spirit Orchid Field. Apparently there was a hole in the film between realms somewhere within a nearby mountain, and she thought that the Ghostly Pavilion could be found there.

The pavilion was not a real, physical place. It did not exist in the material realm, nor in any of the plains that made up the spirit realm. It was merely how the connection to the plains manifested itself within the material realm, a phenomena that often vanished from sight only to appear elsewhere the next day.

As the two began to make their way up the foot of the mountain they believed it be located within, Lucian's fingers twitched without end in response to the sounds of movement ahead.

They'd heard this sound consistently, but had opted to avoid it as most sounds in the fog were nothing more than bait for deadly traps or apparitions. Nevertheless, to Lucian who had been seated for months on end, the sound of foliage being cut and boots on the ground were like a juicy steak hanging in the air.

'Please be people. Please be people' He chanted almost religiously.

Tess displayed no visual ticks like his twitching fingers, but he knew her far too well to fall for her calm appearances. He was sure that her inner voice must be screaming in anticipation by now, being the adrenaline junkie she was.

"They're still in the way" She whispered. "I think… people or not, whatever's making that sound is also heading for the caves."

That was exactly what he wanted to hear.

"Sigh… nothing to do about it then. Illusion or not, we'll just have to find out."

A knowing grin spread across Tess' pale face, confirming Lucian's suspicions.

"Really, there's no other choice is there?" She said.

With a glance between them, the two began to circulate power within their bodies, like invisible turbines spinning up within them.

"Remove your badges" Lucian said. "If they're not of Demia then it's best not to give anything away."

As he spoke, Lucian followed his own advice, storing the platinum badge of a Fist of the King within the golden Knight's badge, and then storing that in a pouch on his swordbelt.

"I'll approach them directly and fish out whether or not they're allies. Meanwhile, stay a distance away in case the oldest one senses you. If things go bad, just do as you do."

Tess nodded, pulling her black scarf to cover most of her face. "Can you hide your identity? We can't make personal enemies before receiving our assignments."

Lucian thought through what he had in his badge, there were a few hooded cloaks, a facewrap and even a mask, but…

"It's fine. They wont recognize me through my shell. Besides, if things turn to the worst I'd rather leave no witnesses in the first place."

Tess looked at him for a few seconds before shrugging, "Just don't be too complacent. This isn't the estate."

With that, she vanished deep into the fog, leaving Lucian somewhat surprised.

"Complacent?" He mumbled to himself. Perhaps he was prideful, but complacent? Lucian slapped his cheeks with each hand and focused. "Right. Let's play this carefully."

Walking heavily through the fog, Lucian dismissed the lightness technique he maintained at all times, letting his dense and heavy body issue loud thumps as his feet hit hard ground, sinking dirt and cracking fragile stone.

He did not need to hide himself, it was better to make himself known if he wanted to fish for information.

Before what he hoped was another group of people and not just an illusion, had even entered the range of his lifesense, a voice called out to him through the mist.

"Not skulking around this time?"

To Lucian's trained ears, the man held a slight tinge of uncertainty in his voice.

'As I thought, he doesn't know if it was me last time. He probably only knew that 'something' was following him.'

"Sorry about that friend." He called in his now rather deep voice, mimicking a Naldurian accent. "I was trying to discern your allegiance when you spooked me."

Lucian spoke in a friendly tone, as if he had already confirmed the man in the fog was an ally, all the while he never stopped approaching with heavy steps.

"And you have confirmed that now?"

Smiling, he ignored the implied question. Naldurians have traveled far and wide since long before they went by that name. Thus his accent gave away nothing certain. The other man however...

"Indeed I have, though I admit it took a while. You're a careful lot."

Hearing the sounds of swords being drawn, he stifled a chuckle. Things were indeed about to get very interesting.

"You can stop there, 'friend'" The voice commanded. "State your allegiance now or be cut down where you stand."

'He is Toubian.' Lucian determined from the poorly disguised accent.

"I have told you friend, my allegiance has always and forever will be to the Imperial Crown, may the great guardian strike me down if I lie."

There was silence for a moment, disrupted only by Lucian's unfaltering steps. He kept a wry, but friendly smile on his face, allowing the expression to seep into his words. But if the man could truly see him, Lucian's act would be over in an instant. After all, unlike the typically pale skin, black hair, and blue eyes of Demians, the Nalduri people were tanned with brown eyes and often the same in hair, a vast contrast to his own appearance.

He got three more steps before he could make out the shifting of feet ahead of him. They were moving to encircle him in case of the worst.

Silently, Lucian's bloodbond, shaped like a longsword sheathed at his waist, began to change size, the blade becoming thinner and more narrow, such that it could fly out of it's scabbard without the blade scraping against anything, making no noise.

Once it hovered in the air beside him, the blade melted completely to cover Lucian's right hand and forearm as a dark crimson plated gauntlet formed with black veins creeping within.

He took a few more heavy steps towards the group. Blood began to push it's way through his skin before decondsensing and morphing into a a very thin layer across his whole body, like a crimson layer of skin that offered incredible protection.

When the crimson film reached his face, it formed a flat mask that covered all but his blue eyes and black hair, disguising his facial features. This red film and mask was his "shell".

His left hand, the one absent a gauntlet, grew pointed claws of blood at each finger as Lucian unbuckled and discarded his cloak, gathering energy within, ready to strike.

He took four more steps before stopping, silence filling the air.

His lifesense covered ten meters but could feel no one. He could not hear the shuffling of feet anymore, just the anxious breaths of the inexperienced.

The six people remained in a standoff, none of them able to see the other party as everybody waited for someone to make a move, whether towards peace or violence.

Lucian smiled.

His domain of life exploded in a sudden pulse from his body, beating back the fog thirty meters as an incredibly domineering will and power filled the surroundings. Five figures were revealed, two teens, two adults, one middle aged man, the eyes of all but the latter going wide their convealment vanished, and a crimson skinned, clawed humanoid was revealed.

Lucian's cold eyes flicked left, seizing the eyes of the second oldest in their group before the ground beneath him exploded into dust and fragmented ground, the mist rushing back in to fill the thirty meter clearing, obscuring view as Lucian appeared before his first target.

His armored right hand speared at the man who raised a hasty defense with his sword, opting to attack rather than block.

With a twist of his wrist, Lucian ceased his spear hand to grasp the sword that was swung at him, jerking it backwards and pulling the man to interfere with the attack of the elder who appeared at his side without notice.

Lucian crouched to avoid a strange spatial disruption above him, as his left hand struck at the gut of the man who's sword he held. With a loud cracking noise, and the sensation of internals shifting under the force of his fist, the man spat blood and loosened his grip on his own sword.

The man screamed in pain as his whole body was sent flying backwards, the elder stepping away from where he stood to avoid the tumbling man, while moving in to attack Lucian once more.

Space distorted to his right as one of the teenagers, the younger one, appeared from thin air, his sword cutting a graceful arc towards Lucian.

With one look, he knew. 'Meta.'

The elder too seized the chance to swing his sword, carrying with it a strange disruptive energy.

Attacked by the elder from the front, and the youngest from the right, Lucian smiled gratefully at something behind the elder before his crimson gauntlet morphed into a large greatsword. With one wide swing, Lucian's greatsword collided with the elder's blade, the impact so forceful that even his 4th stage qi was rebounded and rendered mute for a moment, as the greatsword moved with grace.

It wrapped around the Elder's thinner blade quickly, using soft forms to hook the longer blade beneath the elder's crossguard and pull him forward, causing a three way clash with the teenagers sword. Lucian rested his weight on the right foot, lifting his left to feint a kick towards the elder who backed off quickly, only to spin left 270 degrees and deliver a back kick to the teenager's chest.

Again, Lucian felt as if his kick was an unstoppable object as things broke and shifted beneath it's assault. But he did not stop there. As he saw Tess appear in his periphery, stabbing at the back of the elder, Lucian performed a high speed morph of his weapon, creating quillons on the far end of the blade to catch onto the teenagers crossguard, pulling him closer as he had done with the elder.

As the youngest teen of the opposing party was pulled towards him, Lucian released his weapon and punched down at the boy's face with his fight fist.

The boy's nose broke, and his skull fractured slightly beneath the heavy impact of his fist, and Lucian immediately ducked, stepping back and turning to avoid the attacks of the final two combatants who, without warning, had appeared behind him.

'They can reposition instantaneously. All of them.' He concluded quickly as his bloodbond covered his right hand as a gauntlet once more.

The elder had spun to defend against the flurry of dagger and palm by Tess as she led him away from the battle happening here. She would deal with the 4th stage if she could, or otherwise delay him while Lucian fought the four 3rd stages.

'She can keep the elder busy, I'll clean up the rest.'

With a distortion of space, the man he had hit first reappeared near Lucian and the others, his face pale and hand clutching his stomach.

None of his four combatants wanted to attack first, Lucian's current visage of a bloody red demon with no face painting a daunting image in their minds, all the more so for the inexperienced youths.

But that did not mean Lucian would give them time to overcome their fears. With a sudden movement, he ran at one of the older men, the one he had struck first, who still clutched his stomach with one hand.

As soon as Lucian closed in on the man, space distorted once more, and in an incredibly swift action, the other three had appeared around him, already mid swing.

But if there was one thing Lucian did not fear, it was multiple attackers. His gauntlet covered right hand drew swift arcs in the air as he redirected and parried blows, forcing his attackers decent teamwork to unravel. Meanwhile his left hand delivered fierce counters and feints, while his feet constantly worked, positioning himself perfectly to always counter the many attackers, occasionally kicking at their legs or stomping the ground with enough force to disrupt their stances.

The footwork of Unhindered Motion emphasized freedom, preparations, and avoiding total encirclement.

The blades of the teens were swift and fierce, if a bit plain and rigid, whereas the adults were the opposite, having experience but lacking the advantage of metahuman attributes. Lucian made use of this fact, using the blades of the inexperienced meta youths to interfere with the less careless men.

Well placed kicks to the shins, redirections, sword grabs, and close quarter strikes disrupted the flow of combat at every round, allowing Lucian perfect control over his foes as he moved constantly, like a dancer performing a highly choreographed dance.

Surprisingly, it was the youngest among them who managed to reach Lucian with his blade. The sword repositioning with a distortion of space as he cut a line down Lucian's chest, splitting the layer of blood that served as armor. Alas the blade could not cut deeply into his dense, steel-like body, leaving no more than a deep scratch that healed immediately.

In return, blood seeped from Lucian's right shoulder and expanded to morph into a large, muscular arm that grasped the youths wrist and pulled him between Lucian and the other attackers while squeezing painfully.

Again, things broke in Lucian's hand and he felt that his body contained unbridled strength.

Lucian shifted to the defensive for just a moment as he repositioned to better face his foes.

With a smile, a the film of blood covered his chest again, and Lucian let his domain of life explode forth. With his will carried throughout the domain, all life within 20 meters began to wither slowly, every one of his enemies staggering for a moment as they focused their cultivation in resistance.

While they were preoccupied resisting his withering aura, Lucian resumed his dance of parries and counters, wielding his impenetrable gauntlet to amazing effect, as every punch, every rake of claws, or stabbing of spear hand brought with it a theft of life and blood many times more efficient and deadly than his domain.

With a left palm to the bottom of the older youth's jaw, he grabbed the boys sword with his gauntlet, and pulled it towards the older of the adult men, while simultaneously kicking the man's left leg, upsetting his defense.

With the teen's sword, still held in its owner's hand, he ran the adult through, before releasing the blade, and crouching while his third arm, forged of blood, turned in ways that a normal arm could not to defend against the strike of the youngest youth behind him.

"Gunther!" The older teen cried, realizing he still held the sword used to stab his own ally.

Lucian exchanged a few blows with the youngest who to Lucian's surprise had adapted to his now unusable dominant hand at incredible speed throughout their battle, before kicking the teen in the leg, forcing him to fall.

As expected, the boy used his warping ability to reposition to safety as he fixed his posture, but that was what Lucian wanted as he turned on the stupefied youth, still holding the treacherous sword impaled in his ally, and stabbed at him with his left hand.

The remaining adult did not let him finish the boy, warping just his sword at Lucian, as it came stabbing through the air without an owner. Forced to abandon his attack, Lucian moved backwards, grabbing the impaled man with his gauntlet hand and rending his throat with the left.

Still in one smooth motion, Lucian kicked off the ground, throwing himself, and the body he held, backwards, removing it from the blade pierced through it, and vanishing into the fog with the body.

Within the fog, Lucian dragged the body of the adult with him, his gauntlet hand stabbed into the corpse with black veins stealing the life and blood of his victim, all the while preparing one final gift for his 'friends'.

Standing back to back, the three remaining combatants watched the fog with fear and concern in their eyes. Only the older youth, Steffen, was absent minded as his bloody hands shook.

Suddenly, the sound of bursting echoed, and a torrent of blood crystals shot out from the fog. Chris, who had teased and berated the youth Steffen all along their journey, warped on instinct, hugging the two youths closely, he used his back to shield the unprepared juniors from the onslaught of crimson projectiles.

A series of thudding rang out as Leo and his senior brother Steffen watched Chris' face become pale and emaciated, the crystals in his back growing like a large, translucent turtle's shell as his blood and life were leeched from his body, leaving only a husk of grays and muted tones.

The red demon did not emerge from the fog to finish them, but Leo could not help but shake. The demons stark blue eyes behind that red slate branded into his mind.

Tess had originally planned to assassinate one of the teens when she first appeared, but as she took in the scene of battle, the elder had warped directly next to Lucian and attacked him along with the rest of their foes.

She knew he could handle the four 3rd stage cultivators, but if a 4th stage was thrown into the mix at the same time it would be troublesome, and so she changed her plans and forced the elder to face her while Lucian cleaned up the weaker ones.

Unfortunately, the elder had proven a more daunting foe than she expected and Tess was forced into constant retreat as she bought time for her partner.

"Let's swap." Lucian's voice echoed from the fog as he appeared, covered in red, dropping a lifeless husk of a man on the ground as he stabbed at the elder with a spear hand.

The corpse's torso had a massive whole in it, as if his chest had exploded.

Tess gave a grateful smile beneath her scarf as she swapped with him, off to finish the weaker foes so they could face the elder together.

Lucian's spear hand was avoided with distorted movements, not quite a warp, but something like a displacement, as the elder appeared just to the side of Lucian's arm, swinging his thin blade downwards at an angle.

Lucian employed the appropriate footwork, as according to the Unhindered Motion technique, and moved around the elder who met his repositioning in turn, the two almost dancing circles around each other as they struck, parried, deflected, and countered.

He could feel his eyes going wide as the elder met every one of his attacks perfectly. The elder had clearly seen a great deal of combat throughout his life, as his swordplay was more refined and versatile than even Lucian's.

His sword also carried a strange disruptive energy that seemed to distort space as he swung, whether to interrupt Lucian's parries, or to displace his own strikes.

Lucian had to admit, his martial skill was not up to par against this man. But nevertheless, Lucian was a cultivator, and had more than just martial skill at his beck and call.

His life domain exploded forth once more, expelling all mist within only 20 meters this time, not enough to reveal the man's juniors fighting with Tess. Within that domain of life, Lucian's withering began to manifest as the grass and ground grew dead and barren, and the elder had to focus a great amount of willpower in combating that draining effect.

The third limb on Lucian's shoulder manifested a shortspear during their battle, but even that, the elder took in stride.

But as things became heated, Lucian made a fatal error. He misjudged a displaced sword strike by the man that stabbed through the incredibly thin 'shell' on his chest, and pierced through even that desne, steel like body of his.

With a gasp, Lucian's body came to a jerky stop, as the elder too paused, his long and thin sword still impaling the chest.

With panted breaths he did not allow Lucian to see earlier, the man spoke. "You're an incredibly talented warrior. It's a shame you had to serve that waste of a king."

With his features now plain to see, Lucian was obviously of Demian descent.

"Thats… it?" Lucian asked noone in particular, his original accent now showing.

The blade had pierced through his heart. Right through, emerging from his back.

With a sharp withdrawal, the man pulled his blade from Lucian's chest, the red blood slighty tinted in gold falling to the ground.

Placing his gauntletted fingers against the wound, Lucian couldn't believe what had happened. After all these years of training, mastering combat and cultivation, it was over? Just like that?

But… he felt no different?

Lucian looked back to the elder who had a sorrowful gaze as if disappointed at the waste of a talent, and his own eyes went wide.

'I feel, no different?'

His senses turned inwards and Lucian found his heart just finishing it's healing, soon followed by the rest of the wound.

An uncontrollable smile bloomed on his face as Lucian chuckled.

'Of course that's not it! I'm a life cultivator! I'm going to die? What a joke! He'd need to try harder than that!'

Shooting his gauntlet hand forward like a spear, without any warning, Lucian managed to pierce into the forearm that held the defending sword. He manipulated his bloodbond to morph shape, stabbing all the way through the mans arm and becoming an anchor shaped implement that could not be removed.

With a rough pull of this new weapon, Lucian threw his opponent off balance as the man yelled something about "how" "impossible!" and the like.

Delivering a left fist to the man's ribs, Lucian heard that now familiar cracking sound, just before the man warped to safety, his arm free of the anchor shaped instrument that had hooked it.

Lucian spread his life domain far and wide, to a total of 40 meters, repelling the fog to look for his opponent who had not reappeared, but the man was nowhere in sight.

'Tess!' He thought with a start as he rushed back to the location of the original battle.

As he thought, when he found Tess, his life domain clearing the fog to see, Lucian found the elder attacking her alongside one of the teens. Another could be found fatally stabbed but still alive nearby.

The youngest of their foes looked exhausted, bloody, and about ready to drop dead, but it was truly shocking that the boy had stayed alive this long. Only he and the elder remained.

Lucian joined the battle, exchanging blows with them together with Tess, as the two Knight's exhibited great teamwork and experience.

Inevitably, the younger foe became a weakness to exploit as the elder tried to protect him. Lucian would wager a bet that the two were of the same sect, and this youth was likely very important to them. After all, Lucian had witnessed the boy's incredible adaptability and talent firsthand.

Lucian managed to pin down the elder for a moment, just as Tess moved to deliver a fatal blow to the neck of the youth.

The boy's eyes went wide, in realisation as he was unable to defend, and his iris' changed, becoming black as flecks of purple swirled fiercely within, as if a tornado blew them.

A mixture of cracking, ripping, and tearing range out as the surroundings became blurred and twisted. For a brief moment, Lucian felt as if his body were being torn apart, before suddenly everything settled and he found himself roughly 40 meters away falling from 5 meters up to hit the ground with a loud thud, his heavy weight breaking some of the ground beneath him.

'What the fuck…?'

He moaned as a fleeting pain ran through him, before standing and looking around. He let his domain of life explode out to repel the fog and found Tess, as well as the elder nearby.

He wanted to capitalize on the elder's seemingly equal bafflement, but the man quickly warped away after seeing him.

Tess rose swiftly enough, though she stretched as if in pain.

Lucian thought to chase the elder and youth to finish their battle, but his thoughts were interrupted by a harsh, hissing shriek that echoed throughout the fog. A deathly chill ran through his body as Lucian realised they had attracted the attention of something. Something… wrong.

'Damn it. That was a precursor just now! Isn't that enough of a surprise? Leave us alone!'

He yelled inwardly to the source of the shriek.