Ch 521 - The Bloody Blade

Drew raised the carefully crafted sword above his head. The edge of the blade seemed sharp enough to cut through iron like butter.

Alex wondered how many of his predecessors had been cut down in battle by Ghosts wielding similarly deadly blades over the years. The Ghosts moved about in the darkness as a persistent but elusive threat, and he knew they had taken countless lives while they did their dirty work.

The tension between the Baltimore Martial Arts Association disciples and the Ghosts simmered in the air. Each side wanted the other dead.

Drew's impressively long blade gleamed with a cold metallic light, and both the blade and its hilt showed stains from countless bloody battles.

"None of you are leaving here alive," he said and smirked. "This Bloody Blade will help me make sure of that."

His hands slowly sank as he lowered the blade to chest level.

"Did you really bring the Bloody Blade with you?" Marie cried out. "How did you get your hands on it?"

The Bloody Blade was a sacred weapon to the Ghosts, and they ritualistically dripped a few drops of blood on it every morning and night, as they felt this gave it a mystical power.

Jacob had never let anyone else touch the blade, and he always kept it by his side, but he had decided to let Drew use it to give him a fighting chance against Alex.

"All of you should wipe those smug looks off of your faces," Drew said. "You're all done for."

The Ghosts looked at the blade in awe, realizing that the stakes of the battle were far higher than they had expected. They weren't just fighting to avenge their fallen brother; they were fighting to take the entire Baltimore Martial Arts Association down.

Now that Drew has the Bloody Blade, Alex doesn't stand a chance, Marie thought.

The Ghosts felt excitement bubble up inside them as they imagined Drew slashing Alex to bits with the power of the Bloody Blade and destroying the Baltimore Martial Arts Association in the process.

Clark's expression grew concerned. "Be careful, Alex," he whispered, furrowing his brow. "That blade is pure evil."

Drew chuckled. "It's a bit late for you to notice this blade's power," he said with a haughty look. "As soon as I unsheathed it, you were as good as dead." He saw the martial arts masters standing before him as nothing more than ants.

"I've only used this blade twice before," he roared. "The first time I used it, I killed a hundred people."

He paused and flashed his teeth like a feral animal with a murderous look in his eyes.

"The second time, I killed a thousand people with it."

He scoffed. "Martial artists in this neck of the woods have no respect for proper technique or discipline," he said, his voice dripping with contempt. "I guess I'll have to show you all how it's done. Alex—I'm sorry, President Alex—can be my first pupil."

While Drew stood tall and made himself look menacing, Alex put his hands on his hips and sighed.

"I don't know why you're pretending to be some sort of expert," Alex said. "We have plenty of blades like that, and we've used them regularly in our training for many years. I think the Ghosts must have copied our weapon designs, and you're really cramping our style.

"Seeing you fumble around with that thing is embarrassing. You should put it away before you hurt yourself."

"You have some nerve talking to me like that," Drew hissed, shooting a piercing glare at Alex.

"I'm just being honest," Alex replied. "Your Bloody Blade is just a piece of trash. It's really nothing special at all."

At that moment, Clark stepped forward. "I can handle this," he said. "Please let me at him."

Alex shook his head. "There's no need for you to get involved. I can deal with him on my own."

While Alex was distracted, Drew lunged toward him with his Bloody Blade.

"Go to hell, you insolent little punk," he shouted.

The blade cut through the air with a sharp howl and moved so fast that it left a blinding ghostly gleam behind for a moment. Everyone in the crowd flinched and felt a strange terror well up inside of them.

"Is this the true power of the Bloody Blade?" one of the martial artists whispered to another. "I've never seen it in action before."

Murmurs rippled through the crowd as fear started to overcome the martial artists, and one woman even cried out as she sank into her dread, unable to understand what was going on.

The Bloody Blade seemed to glow red in the light, and it gave everyone the unsettling feeling that it was filled with the souls of the thousands of people it had slain.

Alex stood frozen in place, his face as expressionless as a statue as he watched the Bloody Blade come toward him.

A mysterious shrill call whistled through the crowd, and everyone's faces grew pale. Clark tried to walk, but he felt like his feet were cemented to the floor, and Sarah stood beside him with a strange look on her face. He used his hand to shield her eyes from the blade's gruesome gleam.

Most of the people in the reception hall stood to one side. They wanted to attack Drew with every fiber of their being, but they were paralyzed with fear and couldn't take even a single step.

All of the Baltimore Arts Association members were like animals that had been led to the slaughterhouse, and no one could escape. They all thought that Alex was frozen in fear just like they were.

The Ghosts laughed as they prepared to strike. They planned to attack the martial artists while they were trapped, and they didn't care if they killed anyone in the process. They were even prepared to attack any children who might be drawn into the battle.

Only a brutal and decisive victory would be able to ruin Alex and the Baltimore Martial Arts Association for good.

People in the crowd whimpered and cried as they realized that they were about to die.

"You have a death wish for deciding to take on the Ghosts," Drew said to Alex. "I'll make you suffer so badly that you'll wish you were never born."

He laughed as he inched the Bloody Blade closer and closer to Alex until it was almost resting on his forehead.

He turned to the crowd and gloated. "I'm going to go down in history as the man who killed the President of the Baltimore Martial Arts Association," he said.

"You'll never make history using that broken blade," Alex said, rolling his eyes. "You're just kidding yourself."

He placed his finger on the side of the blade in front of him and gently pushed it away.

Drew felt a strange force radiate through the blade into his arm, making his arm go numb, and he almost dropped the blade in shock.

"I already told you, I know how blades like this work," Alex said. "And I'm not afraid of all your posturing. I know that the Ghosts' so-called master swordsmen aren't any better than our rookies."

Drew felt his stomach sink, and he fell silent. Does the Bloody Blade really have no effect on him? he wondered.