240 Paying the price

A dangerous glare could be seen in Don's eyes while he circulated as much as battle energy he could and this struggle against the dark energy had already damaged his various organs. Using the battle energy, the black Sword instantly became a black strip of light and shot toward the fourth middle one's head with a sonic boom like sound.

It was as if the sword had broken the sound barrier. Flying through the air and leaving behind after images of itself, nearly no one could see it clearly due to its speed and the dark and gloominess of the storm.

Caught off guard, the middle one had his head pierced straight through by the black sword, leaving behind a large hole right between his eyes. Straight after the sword left from its head, it flew straight toward the one standing behind the middle one and severed its head cleanly. The battle energy was superior in terms of combat compared to the life energy they were using and because of that, they had no time forming a shield against the sword.

Looking at two of its companions dies in a flash, the one who had no skin but yellow fat all over its body released a large amount of life energy flooded out from its body, completely protecting it. When the black sword made contact with a large amount of life energy, the sword's momentum began to slow down immediately before stopping completely.

At the same time, a dagger appeared within its hand. With an explosive bang, the air around the dagger began to distort from the energy being gathered within it. Then, dashing towards the black sword, it brought the dagger smashing down upon the black sword.

"Cling!"

With a crisp metallic sound, the black Sword dropped down to the ground powerlessly. And before Don could take the sword back, another creature sent an arrow through his shoulder.

"Pft!" he sprayed out a mouthful of blood as he pulled out the arrow with his left arm. The creature took another arrow to fire but he sent the arrow right through its heart and dropped it from the tree.

After having a large hole blown through its chest, the creature did not die but instead, it looked at him with a newfound fear. The creature who fired the arrow had only been a few meters away from Don and didn't have much time to prepare itself, but that second had led to him being unable to defend himself as the black sword landed in his hand and the last thing the creature saw was the black sword before his eyes.

The other creatures felt terrified looking at their friend's head flying in the air.

"Quick, hurry up, and end him!" The creature who formed a shield around its body barked at the rest of them.

Suddenly, a fire-red glow appeared above his head, brightening the area completely. Looking up, he saw a creature floating in the air was casting a spell that created a sword-shaped fire stream before shooting it towards him. The amount of pure life energy swelling up from the spell scared even Don.

Without any delay, he threw himself to the ground and rolled away right as the giant sword of fire slammed into the ground where he was standing a moment ago. The entire ground began to shake before splitting apart to reveal a long crack in the ground. Due to the jump he just made, his right leg bone was completely broken as he gritted his teeth and stood up with the support of his sword.

Just as he stood back up, a strong gust of wind could be felt coming from behind him. One of the creatures had suddenly appeared behind him to stab him with its spear.

Turning around abruptly, he raised his sword as it struck against the creature's spear. Considering he was not in the best shape, the backlash of the sword and spear clashing threw him back to the ground with an explosive boom. And with his strength and power nearly running dry, he was in no position to take a single blow from any of them.

"Cough!" he continued to spit out blood as his face turned paler and paler. A large amount of blood had already escaped his body through his many wounds, and with so many severe blows, he couldn't even keep his eyes open.

"You know you can't survive, why are you still struggling?" A coarse voice appeared as one of the creatures took out its sword and walked toward him.

Wiping off the blood that blocked his eyesight, he struggled to climb back up and clasp onto his sword. After taking on the last blow from the creature, several more ribs were broken in his body.

"I know…(cough) I'm going to die...(cough) but that doesn't mean I'll let...(cough) you take my life...(cough) without paying the price" Despite the heavy injuries, he still had a serious glare in his eyes. A faint glow of light appeared on his sword covering the entirety of his black sword. However, this time, dark and almost black blood kept flowing out of his mouth.

As the creature drew close to him, it swung the sword horizontally in an attempt to behead him.

he clutched his sword tightly and In that split moment, the last bit of his battle energy formed a black smoke around his sword and an eye piercing light shot forth from the black sword. 

Suddenly, an unbelievably strong amount of battle energy appeared and filled up the entire area. In a second, the entire scene turned darker as if it lost all the light in the world ". No matter where the creatures looked, all they could feel was the last bit of Don's battle energy mixed with Aathreya's dark energy.

Every vein in his body was destroyed when he fought against the dark energy within his body to use the last bit of his battle energy.

This scene had terrified all the remaining creatures as their eyes began to widen as they stared at the black smoke radiating from the sword. When they were looking at the sword, all they could feel was dread.

"Jus… just what is this energy?" one of the creature's voices began to tremble with fear.

Suddenly, a gentle gust of wind blew across the creatures as blade marks began to appear all over their bodies, and slowly, blood began to appear from their wounds and dyed their entire body with its redness.

The entire air around the area was no longer the same simple air, it was now imbued completely with battle energy and Aathreya's dark energy. When the light wind had blown across their bodies, it was the same as being struck with countless blades of battle energy. Even if they were to breathe in a breath of air, their inner organs would be instantly cut apart by the battle energy gathered around them.

With the fusion of the battle energy and Aathreya's dark energy, the entire area had become a realm ruled by a new type of energy. 

Each of the creatures was utterly breathless. Shortly afterward, they began to release a large amount of life energy within their bodies in an attempt to protect themselves from the battle energy that was looming all around them.

"Quick, kill him!" The creature with the sword shouted with a trembling voice.

The creature's shout seemed to have a rousing effect on everyone. Instantly snapping out of their trance, they all began to charge at Don.

The closest person to him was the creature with the sword whose eyes radiated with a menacing glow. Just as he dashed toward Don to swing his sword, a sudden change appeared on his face. This was because he had suddenly felt his body being crushed with an unknown amount of pressure from the surrounding air. Like an invisible force, he was unable to break free from his confines no matter just how much power he put into his movements.