39]Despair

Daren smirked at the man who was aiming for his heart. He moved his hand up and muttered.... "switch"

Daren disappeared from his spot infront of the gaze of so many men. Jaws of everyone present fell to the ground , their eyes popping out of their socket.

The sword of the bodyguard that was aimed at Daren pierced the man that attacked him from behind, taking his life. They were all shocked.

"Aaaaghhh!!"

Only when they a heard a scream coming from the direction where city lord's son 'Ron' was standing, did they stop staring at the spot where Daren was previously standing.

They turned around, only to see the person protecting Ron laying on the ground, dead. And a sword has pierced the heart of the city lords son.

"3rd...pri..." Ron was struggling to say something. But life left his body midway. Even after death, his eyes displayed the shock he felt before death came form him.

Daren then rushed back towards the group of men, who was standing there still in shock.

They saw the man that was standing infront of them moments ago, rushing back towards them after killing the person they were supposed to protect.

They were nervous. They felt fear. They knew if they fight him, they will be dead. But they also knew, if they went back to the City Lord's manor with his son's dead body, they will die too. Their fear and indecisiveness made them sloppy.

Daren didn't let this opportunity slip by. He increased his speed to his maximum capacity and dashed like a arrow towards those men.

"45"

Only after few men died, did they regain their composure and decided to flee. There were 8 men remaining including the bodyguard that attacked him earlier. They each fled in different direction.

Though they fled in different directions, Daren's speed was faster then them. One by one he started reaping life. In no time all were dead, except for one, The bodyguard.

It was not like Daren planned to keep him for last. But as his cultivation was high, he was quite fast. So by the time Daren finished killing everyone else, he has disappeared from his view without leaving any traces behind.

Daren couldn't afford to let anyone survive though. That bastard son leaked a hint about his identity and he couldn't take the risk.

Daren wasn't too concerned about him running away though. He smiled lightly. He then extended his hand outward and lifted his hand at his chest height. His thumb, index finger and middle finger were stretched out and the remaining two were folded in. He flicked his wrist causing the stretched out thumb and the two fingers to rotate. He muttered at the same time, "Switch".

As soon as he killed the City Lord's son 'Ron', he willed his shadow to move through the commotion and attach to the shadow of the weapon of the remaining bodyguard. He then dashed to kill the other slower targets.

.

.

.

The bodyguard was still running fast with all his might. He didn't even stop to catch a breath. He has seen Daren's speed, and wasn't naive to believe that he would let him go.

After few minutes he vaguely sensed the presence of 2 people in front of him. Still he didn't change his direction. He planned to use them as a distraction as he ran further away.

As he got closer to the duo, he recognised them. They were the mother daughter duo they came to catch.

Elli also sensed a presence approaching. She put her mother down and quickly turned around. Seeing that the person rushing towards them was one of the men of the bastard son of city lord, she draw her weapon out.

His first thought after seeing them was to take them hostage to negotiate for his life. But he discarded it the next moment as he remembered how Daren vanished before his eyes and appeared behind City Lord's son.

'It took that monster seconds to kill lord's son and the person protecting him. And he and I were at the same level. I stand no chance against him. I can't even sense his cultivation. All I can do is hope he doesn't find me.'

His heart kept beating heavily. Yet he didn't stop running, his brain kept working hard to find a solution. As Elli readied herself to defend, he ran past her without even glancing at her a second time. Elli and her mother were dumbfound.

He wasn't even a hundred meter away from them when he suddenly bumped into something and fell down, his eyes wide open with horror. Without a sound, the sword in his hand disappeared and a black figure has suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Missed me?" With a smile Daren asked the man.

"Lo-Lord..pl-please spare..." The man tried to beg for forgiveness, but before he could even complete his sentence a sword pierced his heart.

Daren still had a nonchalant smile throughout the process during which the man's face has undergone myriad of expression, from shock to helplessness and from helplessness to despair.

After the man fell to the ground, Daren walked towards the mother-daughter duo and said as if nothing as happened. "Are you ok? It took me longer than expected."

Elli : "..."

Lily : "..."

One has to know , not even 30 minutes has passed. And Daren has spent more than half the time on the people he chased and killed. What shocked the mother and daughter duo speechless was the fact that they have even prepared an obituary speech for him and here he was acting as if he just had finished a walk in a park.

Receiving no response even after waiting for few moments, Daren turned around to walk towards their destination and said decisively "Let's go."

The duo was finally brought out of their reverie after he walked a dozen of meters. They quickly followed behind him.

Elli kept staring at Daren's back with complicated emotions. While Lily has an expression of awe and admiration.

Daren didn't rush too fast considering lily's condition. Also with Arius and Nhi as a backup, he was without worry.

____ ____ ____

Samuel kept blocking and dodging Morgan's attack. But as times passed Samuel was getting slower. The wound he received earlier was small, but still, he was loosing blood continuously.

Kage on the other hand kept dodging each and every attack of all the 9 SS Rank experts still alive. He also had enough time to watch how his 50 little rookies were doing.

Kages 50 men were also doing quite well. They had gained advantage over the men they were fighting and few have even killed their opponents and rushed to help other members of their team.

Slowly, but surely their speed of killing was rising.

Things weren't going so well for the squads thats were maintaining the defensive formation. They were exhausted and have seen few casualties, thus the war was already weighing down on them.

The support squads on hill were providing support continously and trying to elevate the burden from the groups that were struggling.