Chapter 251 - Cardinal Ghost Part Two

Their gazes interlocked, and for a split second time seemed to come to a pause. Fell's heartbeat twice in a split second, and for the first time since he entered the dark valley, he went with the flow of the ambient killing intent.

He closed his eyes and mumbled in a faint low voice. "Let us kill each other then!", his face turned calm as the abnormal amount of killing intent he was filling was directed to his right arm. Soldier's Fortune appeared-splitting the air surrounding her edges- and the next moment, Fell stepped forward.

The feline creature was half a step slower-her starting speed clearly slower than Fell- but her savage instinct helped her cross the gap with Fell's speed. However, although her starting speed of her dash could be said to be average, the momentum she gathered on a large but sleep body was incredibly strong.

"My body is too weak for a frontal attack.", he thought in a split second. The fact that he has gone with the flow of the poisonous aura strangely made his mind clearer, allowing him to focus on the battle in front of him. He knew that his weakened physical body was too weakened to tank the creature's sheer momentum.

He continued running forward, and just the feline charge was going to make contact with him. He stepped twice in a single beat, executed a small pirouette that made him slide off the creature's attack. The feline's sharp and thick canines pushed against the ghost of Fell's body, with the youth now having opened him a frame of opportunity to deal damage to the creature's flank.

One, two, three blow left his sword in an upbeat- blood splashed everywhere- and the creature continued running. When she came to a stop, her white fur had turned red on her right side, and a menacing low growl field with pain and anger left her throat.

Fell mechanically faced her with a clear, and strangely calm mind that surprised him. To be such clear headed in an environment that made him depersonalize a few minutes earlier made him confident in taking care of the fierce beast in front of him. Even if fast, his eyes clearly caught every single movement of the creature, every single twitch from her firm and flexible feline muscles.

He, once again, was the first to move. His rapid dash made him seemingly pierce through the space separating them, he reappeared under the beast's head with his sword had already finished unleashing a broad swipe aimed at the thick furred neck. But the creature still managed to read the youth's position in advance, and had sent a paw hurling toward his face.

If that massive paw connected, Fell wouldn't be surprised if his face was disfigured in an instant. Or worse, the strength contained in that paw, and with those sharp claw, it wouldn't be surprising that his head ends up flying in the air.

Still, none of that happened, as both opened had unleashed their attack in advance in a highspeed fashion: the sword and the claws connected, one noticeably weaker than the other. The sword might be slower and contained less physical momentum than the creature's attack. Still, Soldier's Fortune had acquired an incredible sharp intent nourished by the surrounding's killing intent.

And with Fell's breakthrough, the strength of his sword rose once again to another peak, higher than the last one. A magnificent red line appeared in the creature's front legs before it fell down on the ground with a thud. The feline creature hissed sharply, before pouncing on the youth of him.

No surprise appeared on the youth's face as he had expected the creature's instant retaliation. He read through her bestial movement and predicted the feline pounce trajectory before speeding close across it toward the left. His body seemingly turned into a soft leaf that brushed past the creature's sharp mouth and moved akin to a ghost he positioned himself on her back.

The beast's attack hit the dusty ground under their legs, and Fell's leg was deeply rooted on the creature's back with his sheeted sword in his hand. "Just like he had done.", the image of a giant with multiple arms drawing several blades in an Iai stance appeared in his mind. "I can also do the same!", he exclaimed as he breathe a sharp hiss.

His killing intent swelled, and Fell moved in the blink of an eye. His left hand grabbed the scabbard in steel-like grasp, seemingly forming together into one entity, and his right hand did the same with his sword.

His hand moved, and his sword left the scabbard and streaked toward the beast's back. The movement looked slow, but it was only an illusion, and the speed of his draw was impressive. A sharp breath escaped from his lips, forming a small arrow of air condensation that spread through the air.

"Faster!", his mouth opened, and a large amount of hair filled his lung. A ghostly phantom image appeared around him, and in the next moment, seven afterimages appeared around him. His blade left and entered the scabbard at an extreme speed that made the air around him release sparks.

His attack cleared the dust raised by the feline creature's attack, and before long, on her back appeared a flower that blossomed with a deep vivid slash of red. Fell sheeted his sword for one last time and jumped out of the creature's back before leaving the dying beast.

"Unless you evolve once again right now, your body will soon become void of any life!".

"I pierced through every single vital organ in your body.", he thought as he felt the effect of the ominous poisonous killing intent had disappeared.

He gazed at the sword grasped in his hand, and quickly felt the ominous and constant influx of killing intent was being fed to it.

Suddenly, he turned around and saw the feline beast standing behind him. Her white moonlight colored fur had turned red, and her neck was only hanging due to a sturdy tread of muscles.

Fell's heart thumped, and his eyes interlocked with the creature's eyes. He felt a shiver traverse his spine, and he couldn't help but stay immobile while gazing at the creature standing at death's door. Time seemed to come to a standstill. He continued looking at the animals who was currently bleeding chunks of her lifespan with every few seconds that passed.

"What a fierce vitality!", he thought while lowering his defense after a minute passed. "You died the moment you moved to attack my back. Wasting your last bit of strength in an attempt to take my life.", he exhaled a sharp breath before breaking contact with the creature.

Their fights had lasted less than a minute, yet the intensity of it cause Fell to grow once more. "The battlefield is truly the best way to progress in the sword way.", he mumbled as he continued feeding the surrounding killing intent to his sword. "I wonder what will happen If I continue feeding this much killing intent to Soldier's Fortune."

"I'll try and accelerate the process.", he thought as he sat in a place nearby that wasn't filthied by the monsters blood. He closed his eyes, and opened his pores to the utmost. Before long, he felt that the flux of killing intent had turned steady and was continually being fed to his sword.

Somewhere around the mountains, close to Fell's position but in a somewhat deeper place among the numerous valleys stood a red haired man with a bloodied figure. The amount of blood on his body was shocking, and not a single inch of his body was clean; blood still fresh from the constant fighting he was in.

Under his legs was a pile of fresh corpse of monstrosities- their shapes differed and they were clearly from different species- and the only common point between them were their advanced state of mutation.

His breathing was rough, and his eyes were muddled and cloudy without any speck of humanity left in them. He had indeed turned into the embodiment of the killing intent that encompassed the masses of mountains. His breathing was rough, and it took him a few second to recover the stamina he had lost from the berserker fighting style he had used earlier.

A few moments passed, and a mass of red bubbling substance began escaping from the numerous carcass close to where he sat. The strange phenomenon appeared close to the man before extending toward every single dead body that existed in a hundred-meter radius from him; the further was the corpse's position, the slower was the process.

The man breathed a sharp breath, and a sentient glint appeared in his completely red eyes. He slowly sat on the ground, as his body began absorbing the mass of blood essence that regularly escaped the masses of corpse near him.

"This mountain is a god sent gift.", he mumbled in a slightly coherent tone before falling silent as he focused on cultivating.