Malgav is already horrified. Last time, he hasn't seen Sam fighting. All he saw its destruction. He hasn't seen his moves, skills, or his precision. But now he has seen it all.
At least last time, Sam wasn't composed. He was almost borderline crazy. But now, he is completely clearheaded and for some reason, he is feeling a bit more afraid than before.
"I… I really have nothing to do with this. I am telling the truth. I have never even met these guys before."
Malgav immediately felt the need to disassociate with these people.
Sam slowly walked towards him. He doesn't know whether these guys are related to Malgav or not, but he is sure that he wouldn't be letting Malgav go.
And luckily for him, the barrier these guys used is still there and for a forever reason, that grand elder wasn't able to sense it until now. He figured it would be better if he killed this guy now and threw all the blame to the mercenaries that came here.
It wouldn't be that hard for him to make it look like this piece of shit died while fighting. Of course, his death would appear more heroically than what Sam would have wanted, but he could compromise.
As he was thinking on what approach he should use to kill this guy, he suddenly felt that something is wrong with his body.
He shook his head wildly and walked forward.
But soon he realized, his whole body is feeling numb and his tongue is going dry. He is feeling a bit weak and heavy.
He was drugged or he was poisoned and then he remembered the blood that was spat into his mouth and the eyes and he realized instantly what happened.
He immediately charged all of his energy into his bloodstream and used the observation ability on himself. Particularly the bodily fluid.
He felt his eyes swelling and going blurry. His legs felt heavy too. But he ignored all of them and stood there as he observed the bloodstream, the stomach, and his eyes to see if he could identify the foreign bodies that are causing this to him.
But before he even knew it, Sam involuntarily felt his one normal leg go heavy and knelt on it. He realized that all of his muscles are becoming hard to control and are becoming extremely stiff.
He is not the only one that noticed this though.
Malgav who is close to him and Jyon who is far away from him and finally the specter who is very near him also noticed this.
Sam didn't worry or become panicky. He kept a cool head and took out one of the detoxing vials along with the injector and gave himself a shot of it.
This is one of the basic vials that could slow down and sometimes even completely neutralize a broad spectrum of toxins.
At the same time, Sam gave himself a shot of another vial which could be considered the spiritual energy equivalent of the antibiotics, just in case it is some kind of infection that is rapidly spread.
And to his relief, he could feel the detoxing medicine acting up. It is doing perfectly good without any necessary aid from the antibiotic vial which made Sam heave a sigh of relief.
Sam who has his observation ability completely active noticed that after the detoxing medicine entered his bloodstream, the blood-red cells Sam saw until then turned black.
At least some of them and when the medicine completely reacted with it, the black blood became heavier almost to a consistency of sludge.
Sam used his spiritual energy to try and guide the sludge to his arm and made an incision there to let it out. But it is hard. After all, he is not a water elemental user now and if he solidifies the spiritual energy to do that, his bloodstream would be blocked.
As he was slowly guiding the sludge out of his eyes first, he suddenly sensed something around him.
Malgav who was standing still until then wanted to run away when he saw Sam's plight. But when he saw one of his legs go down, he immediately had a different thought. He changed his mind and ran towards Sam to tackle him to the ground.
Sam whose reaction is obviously late was tackled to the ground.
Malgav held Sam by his chest and tightly squeezed him with all of his strength.
He is not even trying to kill Sam quickly, he is trying to squeeze Sam to death. It seems like what Sam did really made him go crazy.
Sam felt the crushing pressure on his ribs which he shouldn't have with his cultivation level. But he is feeling weak at the moment and most of his concentration was at his eyes.
He is using the spiritual energy and even went as far as making very thin needles, almost as thin as hair strands to force the sludge out.
It almost looked like he is letting out black tears.
He couldn't divert any more of his energy to anywhere.
He wanted to just let Malgav be and go on with the process, but as a few seconds passed, he realized that the pain in his lungs is distracting him a lot. But he still tried his best to focus.
Jyon who saw this looked at the children and didn't dare to leave them alone as she was still vigilant.
When the specter was about to make a move, Sam refused.
"Don't focus on the soul extraction and process the memories. I will deal with this guy myself."
As soon as he muttered those words, he was done with the extraction from his eyes and then made a move. Even though his muscles still felt heavy and he felt a bit weak, he still managed to gain an upper hand immediately.
Sam pushed the head of Malgav to the side and made it go under his armpit as he held him a headlock.
He couldn't exert any physical strength because of the toxins that are still needed to be let out, but he manifested the spiritual energy around his arm and made it perform his hand the functions that are needed for a proper headlock and this spiritual energy itself held the lock tightly and made it tighter with every second.
He didn't leave his legs ideal. He wrapped them around the waist of Malgav, squeezing him with all he got, the metal leg acted as the foundation for leveraging the strength of the remaining leg and he once again used the spiritual energy to squeeze him tighter.
He then started whispering to Malgav.
"What is it Malgav? Are you feeling suffocated? All this while, you must have been feeling so good violating little kids, now, let me make you feel what would make a man feel violated."
As he spoke, he squeezed the locks tighter.
"ARR…arrgh…" He couldn't even scream as he felt the pressure on his neck and the waist. His whole face is pushed into the sand and he couldn't even breathe freely without the struggle. On top of that, the squeezing on his waist is making him feel immense pain as he felt his liver getting crushed slowly along with other internal organs.
"Come on, say something you piece of shit. You were so strong when you were crushing me, weren't you? Where did all of that strength go? Come on squeeze me like you mean to kill me. Otherwise, you would be dead."
Sam spoke through gritted teeth as he tightened his grip and within the next ten seconds, Malgav completely lost the grip on Sam's waist and he pulled his hands from under his body to try and free himself.
He was beating around like a fish out of the water and Sam made him suffer every second of it.
He could have snapped his neck and been done with it. But he didn't want to. He wanted to make him suffer.
He held that guy for the next five minutes like that. Letting his breath in the middle while breaking a bone here and there.
As he was about to finish him off after that, suddenly the barrier around them which is to keep this whole thing from the grand elder was blasted away as a familiar figure appeared in front of Sam's eyes.
It is actually Gail.
As soon as he arrived, Gail didn't go to Jyon or Sam, instead, he stepped up once again and slammed his fist straight. As if it was on cue a large dragon condensed with pure wind appeared out of nowhere and was destroyed.
"Uncle, it is completely unruly of you to sneak attack a junior with your cultivation. Don't you think so?"
His voice was not particularly loud, but he reverberated around and soon an old man came running from the depths of the area. He came running on the wind and floated there as he looked at Gail.
"How are you doing Gail? I heard you were back for a while.. Took you long enough for you to come here and visit your old uncle."