Chapter 27: Misdirection

Mole took a deep breath and called out to the knights following him.

"Our target is resting three miles away. Approach as quietly as possible. Remember to conceal your scent and aura."

No matter how strong he was, he was still a human being. He needed to rest and regain his energy. The Drachen Hills, resembling a raised boat, was the perfect place for this. There were plenty of animals on the high plains, and there were several narrow passages that were easily accessible. It was easier to hide here than in other places.

But he couldn't hide from Mole.

His opponent underestimated him!

Mole carefully approached the target, concealing its presence. The target was resting in a complex rock formation in the Drachen Hills. It was not an easy place to attack and the numerical advantage was useless. But just being able to find the target was good enough.

The knights settled on the stones in the crescent formation. Mole took out his daggers and took his position. The distance was only a few tens of meters. The smell was stronger and more seductive than ever.

He couldn't take it anymore.

Mole signaled to the others and then leaped over the stone towards the target. The Qi of a sixth-level warrior shot out of their daggers, creating an 'X' shaped cut.

Boom!

The ground shook as the cuts hit the target.

"Did I get him?"

The other knights carefully descended from the stones and surrounded the target. Even an eighth-rank warrior would have been helpless at this moment. After all, they were human beings and human beings have their limits. Even a sixth-tier warrior could be killed by a fourth-tier when he ran out of Qi.

The dust settled and Mole looked intently at his target. He had not smelled blood, so his opponent must have been at least as strong as he was.

"!!!"

Mole closed and opened its eyes and turned red with rage. There was nothing but a small piece of clothing and a quartered boulder. He was sure that this smell belonged to the target. But there was no target, which could only mean one thing.

"He deceived us."

Arrogant and stubborn, but not stupid. He had enough common sense to realize that this was a misdirection. If the target had been able to make that misdirection, there was no way they could follow him. They could no longer follow it by scent.

"I don't smell anything else. Wait a minute..."

He had just said this when he plugged his nose. The smell of rotting blood and corpses made him dizzy. And not just one. Dozens of different odors were coming to their location at top speed. Given their speed, they would be here in ten seconds.

The smell of rotten blood and corpses.

It is coming towards them at full speed.

And there are dozens of them...

When Mole put the information together, he was stunned for a moment. Then he thought of a terrible possibility and shouted to the knights. "Gnoll Horde! A horde of Gnolls is coming at me!"

The faces of the brave knights quickly paled. Without hesitation, everyone jumped up and ran at full speed. Mole was the fastest. One Gnoll was not difficult to defeat, but many of them were difficult even for a sixth-rank warrior.

'There must be nothing to attract the attention of the gnolls. We used neither blood scent nor detection magic.'

The Gnolls were a mutant race of hyenas and human hybrids. Like humans, they could evolve, create language, and group together. The only thing that distinguished them from humans was that they had the instincts and appearance of a hyena. It would be correct to call them simply humanoid hyenas.

Like humans, they had their own culture and religion.

They were very sensitive to the smell of blood and magic.

Like Mole, they could smell miles away.

When Mole realized that the Gnolls following them were not slowing down at all, he increased his speed. He took the most rugged road to get the knights out of the Drachen Hills, but he could not get rid of the Gnolls. No matter how fast he traveled, no matter how rough the roads were, he could not get rid of them.

Gnolls were approaching them at full speed as if running across a plateau. No matter how strong they were, this should not have been possible. The rough terrain must have reduced their speed.

After five minutes of being chased by Gnolls, fatigue set in. Gnolls were so fast that they would overtake them in a few seconds.

Mole paused and gathered his energy in his daggers. The others had drawn their swords too, escape was no longer possible.

A few seconds later a flock of vultures flew over their heads. They looked so scared that they changed territory without hesitation.

Mole stunned.

The smell of the gnolls had overtaken them.

Gnolls were now in front of them and moving away fast.

What was happening?

He was going crazy.

---

Days later Alexander arrived at Heavenly Mountain, where the cathedral was hidden. He had successfully completed the mission and misled his pursuers into losing track of him. It had not been an easy mission.

He sacrificed the Fergana Horse and ran for days without rest. When Alexander finally reached the cathedral, he wanted to put himself down and never wake up again, but he had to report. So he decided to relax later.

In the Shadow Cathedral, mission reports were handed over to the person who gave them. Alexander handed in a detailed report and retired to his room. First he took a nice bath. Then he took some rest and began to meditate.

After he opened his second acupuncture, his development accelerated even more. However, the rate of accumulation of Qi and Shadow Energy had slowed down a lot. The only thing that accelerated was the speed of accumulating Sah Chakra. Sah Chakra was a strange energy. It was stronger than Qi and Shadow Energy, but it didn't behave like them.

On the contrary, he was constantly disturbing both energies, trying to absorb them. He was no different from an occupying tyrant.

He had never had the chance to use it in a real fight, but he could tell it was powerful. Sah Chakra, Shadow Energy and Qi.

Shadow Priests were assassins who used Qi and Shadow Energy. They hid in the darkness, attacking only when they were sure. They were adept at making the best use of all kinds of weapons and had many specialties.

Nightwalkers were assassins who used Mana and Shadow Energy. They usually undertook large-scale execution missions. Mass destruction and mass control spells were their main specialty. They specialized in Alchemy and Runes.

The Night Rangers were the only ones who used Shadow Energy. Their main task was to execute betraying Night Walkers and Shadow Priests. They were also assigned to guard against assassins. In short, they were assassination machines created to kill assassins. Their specialties were crowd control, confined space combat, scouting and disguise.

But there were no professions that could control three different types of energy. Mages used mana, martial artists used Qi. Chakra was usually used by priests, while Shadow Energy was associated with assassination clans.

"The Sah Chakra remains a mystery. There is a lot of information not provided to us. For example, the superiority of the Sacred Energy used by the Holy Knights over the Shadow Energy. Or the difficulties that can arise from the conflict between energies."

According to the Rise of the Black Dragon, once the fifth acupuncture was opened, the body would have the power of a Shadow Priest. But Alexander had stopped using this technique long ago. He continued to use the strange technique he had found in the Black Dragon's Lair.

The Sah Chakra was produced by this technique.

Moreover, all his knowledge of martial arts came from there. The fact that he had a huge reserve of Qi by creating forty vortices was a testament to the power of this technique.

The Qi was transformed into Shadow Energy following the instructions in Rise of the Black Dragon, but Alexander was able to achieve the same effect using this strange technique. This indicated that the Sah Chakra was a higher level of energy than the other two energies.

When Alexander realized he was lost in thought, he woke up from his meditation and took out his Asura Katana. He was using one sword for now and was almost mastering it. Soon he would be able to use the other katana as his hand was getting faster thanks to the Wind Pulse.

Alexander unsheathed the Asura Katana and placed both hands on the hilt. He thought of the sword philosophy written in The Rise of Asura.

"One person is worth ten thousand..."

"The spirit is stable but calm..."

When he moved his sword, the Sah Chakra hidden in the depths moved with him. Red light of the same shade surrounded the blood-red sword. Although his movements were minimal and slow, all his muscles were being pushed to their limits.

Without moving his left foot, he shifted his right foot and moved his upper body in the same trajectory as the sword. Although the sword moved slowly, its power potential was equal to a tsunami wave. Alexander exhaled deeply and raised the sword above his head.

"Cross worlds in a single step..."

All the muscles in his right foot contracted at the same time and the scene before him changed in an instant. He lowered the sword in his hand as he suddenly appeared in the other corner of the room.

"Silent Offense."

"Sudden Attack."

Woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh!

Bang!

He slashed his sword from top to bottom, then right to left, left to right, left to right and bottom to top... The four different slashes multiplied his overall power by 1200%. The resulting force was so great that the wind split and the attack, which exceeded the speed of sound, caused a sonic boom.

Like a tidal wave, the wind blew everything in the room.

The sonic boom was deafening.

Even though the Sah Chakra in his body was completely depleted, he was able to stand with the support of other energies.

He forgot to breathe as he turned his eyes to the two fist-deep cuts in the wall. The room was in shambles. The gusts of wind had scattered everything and shattered some things.

This...

It was the power of the first two movements of The Rise of Asura.

"Noah's gonna kill me."