(38) Sword arts

The frigid cold wind of the night flowed through the two figures, standing warily against each other. Tension and killing intent flowed through the air. 

As if having a presence of its own, the purple stars shone brightly. The darkness in the surrounding was dispersed, glowing dimly in the starlight. 

Positioning the sword forward, the cultivator, Dervhin, felt cold sweat forming on his forehead. 

'What is this feeling...' Dervhin looked forward only to see a pair of cold black eyes staring back at him. 

The presence Dervhin felt from the kid before him was nothing like before, it was like the presence alone could kill him. And worst of all, he actually felt killing intent comparable to a grade 1 beast found in the wild forest. 

It was not something a beginner cultivator should be emitting. 

As the air froze, Dervhin felt his focus break because of a sudden tremor spreading through his body. 

'What...No way, was I poisoned...?' Never did he ever expect the dagger in Mangrel's hand to be lashed with poison. 

The moment his eyes rolled up, to see Mangrel with immeasurable fury, Mangrel was only two steps away from him. 

Rank zero martial arts — Slithering stab!

As if his hand had turned into a snake, Mangrel's hand slithered toward Dervhin's neck. A tint of origin essence covered the dagger, appearing like a snakebite.

This scene made Dervhin's heart jump to his throat, and the sword in his hand turned into a ray of light. 

Sword Path martial art — the arc slash!

The sword immediately appeared before Mangrel's dagger, successfully stopping it. However, in the process, Dervhin felt his origin essence burnt out like crazy. It dropped by ten percent at the least. 

"Kuh!" Dervhin pushed away the menace, Mangrel far from him.

 'Damn it!' Dervhin's eyes shone in indignation.

It was clearer than anything that Mangrel was still in the lower tier of the zero ranks. And yet, Dervhin, who was at the peak of mid ranks was going through a hard time against him.

Humiliation rose within Dervhin, he howled at Mangrel with fierce eyes, while swinging the sword: "You bastard! Can a miscreant like you still call yourself a righteous cultivator?! To use such an underhanded mean..." 

Dervhin grinded his teeth like a madman. 

Clang!!

Mangrel blocked using the dagger, both of their swords were at the same level, not giving them any upper hand. 

Looking at the man not using any other art, it was apparent that the number of martial known to Dervhin was low.

In response to Dervhin's venomous words, Mangrel didn't blink an eye. Seeing such a blank expression, he was further enraged.

Mangrel coldly thought: 'I want to ask the other dagger from Mars, but doing that would make this man shift a little of his attention to him. With his demonic nature, taking hostage would be nothing new.'  

The process of taking the dagger itself might give an opening to the enemy too.

Hence, Mangrel could only fight with a single dagger. 

Whing! 

Mangrel was the first to break the contact between the blades, moving a few steps back. He was weaker by Dervhin by a few levels too, so he couldn't maintain such a deadlock for long either. 

"Stay still, you piece of trash!" With bloodshot eyes, Dervhin followed. 

This time around, Mangrel's dagger started shining in a golden light, just like Dervhin's sword as he performed a low-grade sword path martial art. 

Sword path art — Chain impact!

Using such an art, Mangrel felt a large portion of his origin essence draining from his body. 

Mangrel dashed at Dervhin, who warily swung the sword to guard himself. 

Clang!

"Ah..." 

Another plain clash, however, what happened next made Dervhin's eyes widen in fright. 

Mangrel's wrist and the dagger blurred with a golden light, appearing in the form of three thrusts at the same time. All of them aimed at his vital spots.

Mangrel perfectly used this sword path art, it would have been possible to react to it if he activated its effect while sprinting. Aware of this fact, he only activated it after clashing the dagger with the sword once.

'Impossible! How can there be such martial arts?!' Dervhin had never seen a consecutive attack, with his dulled focus thanks to poison, his judgement grew slower. 

Dervhin bit his lips, with death near, his focus returned to an extent. 

The scurrying physique art — Quick showdown!

"Go to hell!!" Dervhin blocked both the golden slashes aiming for his heart and neck using the sword. He could only leave the last slash, aiming for his waist.

To begin with, all three slashes were already very close to him, blocking even one would have been a miracle. 

Dervhin was a body practitioner too, he had special perks of the scurrying physique, an agility-based body cultivation. 

The quick showdown was a temporary agility boost art of this physique. 

Nonetheless, the opponent facing Dervhin had long foreseen his actions.

'He fell for it!' Mangrel's eyes shone coldly. 

The third dagger slash at that moment changed direction.

This scene made Dervhin's eyes freeze, only one thought flew out of his mouth: "No way..."

Splurt! Thud.

Blood flowed in the air and an arm fell on the ground. 

"Ahhh!" Feeling the pain transmitted through his detached arm, Dervhin crouched down with a pale face. 

The golden glow vanished from the dagger, exposing Mangrel's wrist. A trail of blood could be seen falling from his wrist, his palm skin had cracked from the backlash of using the sword art. 

'My body is not strong enough to use such an art yet, huh?' Mangrel picked up the sword with no hesitation. 

Seeing this scene, Dervhin's expression was aghast, "You...You expected my moves...?" 

Thrust!

"Argh!" Dervhin spewed out blood while feeling a searing pain in his chest.

'Huh? How did he get beside me...?' Dervhin looked at Mangrel who suddenly appeared standing beside him, holding a sword piercing his heart. 

'Not good...My mind is growing duller.' 

Dervhin grimaced when he heard Mangrel speak: "I predicted your next course of action, but I didn't expect you to fight off two of my chain attacks though. Still, I aimed for a not-so-fatal area — hence, you did not deflect the real dagger." 

Mangrel was neither omnipotent in this life nor the past one. Fighting against other cultivators was very complex and full of deceit and schemes. 

One wrong move could mean falling into the trap laid by another cultivator and dying. Hence, Mangrel never let his guard down even against the cultivator he was sure to win.

"I will make good use of this sword." Mangrel took off the sheath of the sword from Dervhin's waist and tied it to his own waist. He moved as quickly as possible because reinforcement might appear at any time. 

Screech~

The bloodied sword entered the sheath. 

'Let's see if this guy has a storage-type incanted item.' Mangrel thought with expectation. 

"Stop your movement!" 

A loud voice entered Mangrel's ears, causing his eyes to shrink a little. 

Turning back, Mangrel saw a robed man holding Mars's neck with his bare hand. He could easily snap a mortal's neck after all. 

'Luck's not on my side, I guess. So this guy did send a message for reinforcement, sensing this place to be strange. Not even a single guard was stationed so it's more than suspicious.' Mangrel had realized this point long ago, but in the end, it was useless.

Dervhin had waited outside Jwarlen's house after sending a message, planning to move forward only after the reinforcement appeared. This became a major loophole in Mangrel's plan.

It was like luck was not on Mangrel's side at all. The only reason he was still alive was all thanks to his cautiousness. 

If Mangrel had not become a cultivator, things might have taken a turn for the worst.