Chapter 50: Perfected Arts of Killing
Darcel and Aniela may not have lived a long life, but the disturbances they've been through far surpasses any other youths their age.
But this….creature?
Whatever this thing was had to be one of the top five most grotesque beings they ever encounter!
Parts of its long horrid red tongue slithered out of its mouth like a poisonous snake. Fresh, bright red blood stained its whole body, making it eerily stand out amongst this floor's sickly green.
Red beating booming eyes gazed at them with genuine chilling excitement. The human-like creature's terrifying lips was twitching in a savage smile. Everything about this creature screams of terror.
And compared to the more experienced Darcel and Aniela, Hao Cao was far out of her element dealing with this. Like all other youths that encounter this thing, she nearly froze up in disgust bewilderment.
Though, beyond its horrid appearance, there was another massive reason why this creature immediately became so ominous.
Striking the trio in the pits of their stomachs was an immense deadly dreadful feeling of imminent death.
Hao Cao was already on edge after having her purple lightning barrier burn from whatever hit her. But for Darcel and Aniela….they felt like this creature's presence was….familiar?
Instantly they recalled back to just before going inside the Labyrinth.
Only, whatever they felt back then, it caused a different kind of hair rising dread. Darcel and Aniela didn't know what to call it, but the creature in front of them now had a different yet similar chilling vibe.
And among all of this, the three also sense the single most terrifying thing about the creature. Its aura was actually at the sixth level of the Nascent Core Realm!
Hao Cao even felt the slightest bit suppressed by the creature aura.
While Darcel and Aniela had then made a split-second decision. Before the creature took a single step, tremendous storms of power spewed out in the area!
'Whir!!'
Accompanying the massive waves of power was the magical sight of black and white exuding from Darcel and Aniela.
Their arms glowed with extraordinary bloodline power sparing no inhibitions about going all out at the start.
Whatever this creature was, it forced their instincts to scream at them to kill it as quickly as possible. But there was one worrisome thing about going all out that caused slight worry in the duo.
For every fight that they used their bloodline powers, at least somewhat, whoever took the full brunt of their aura would have their minds and will stir.
Yet this thing….its eyes only lit up in a sick passion about their powers!
"Don't hold back, Aniela!" Darcel shouted to her while also speedily igniting his spatial ring. He brought out his purple rapier and immediately sparked in a black fire blaze in a split second!
"Right! Do it now!!" Aniela similarly shouted back while also hurriedly igniting her spatial ring at the same time.
Using the same split second, she whipped out her purple rapier and ignited it in a whitish black fire blaze!
Hao Cao couldn't even react to the near-instantaneous speed of the duo. Moments after she blocked the creature attack, she suddenly felt tremendous power, and the temperature significantly rose!
'Chi!'
With speed and power surpassing anything Hao Cao could do, Darcel and Aniela unleashed their powerful black flaming attacks! Darcel blasted a giant black flaming claw that tore through sickly green walls.
Aniela, on the other hand, shot out several large whitish black flaming whips. Each whip sailed with speeds slightly faster than Darcel though they had lightly less potency in prowess.
Despite being separated by a mile, Darcel and Aniela attack near the creature in mere seconds!
For any other sixth level or hell even a sixth level Nascent Core cultivator, this attack would be near impossible to dodge.
But, in the face of such overwhelming speeds, the human-like creature only grew more excited. The creature quickly got all fours and sprang to the nearest wall before the raging black fire attacks reached it.
Nimbly, the creature skirted right by the duo's black flaming attacks, clinging on to the left sickly green wall like a roach.
The black fire claw and multiple whitish black fires whip blitz straight passed the creature with no stopping intentions.
"It dodged it?!" Aniela exclaimed in disbelief.
She, Darcel, and Hao Cao were all in slight shock at the creature's extreme speed. They guessed it wouldn't be so easy to kill this thing, but this kind of speed was unprecedented.
Taking hold of herself, Hao Cao's eyes quickly snapped to the wall the human-like creature was on. Swiftly she sprang to the wall with bright raging purple lightning swirling in her hand as she said,
"Dodge this then!"
Hao Cao slammed her hand into the wall while the creature was starting to charge at them. The sheer force of Hao Cao caused her hand to sink into the green wall as,
'Zzzt!'
A massively wide field of purple lightning covered the giant wall from after Hao Cao's hand! The human-like creature only moved a few steps before its eyes came to face with endless purple lightning.
Being a special attack of her, the lightning reached speeds nearly comparable to Darcel and Aniela attacks. A few seconds were only needed for the lightning to near the creature, but it took notice of Hao Cao's stance.
Her hand is sunken deep into the wall while her body rooted herself into the floor. The creature grossly swirled its tongue in small joy once guessing why its prey stood oddly like this.
With immense speeds once again, the creature sprang up to the ceiling now, avoiding the massively wide purple lightning field. Simultaneously while jumping, the creature spat out rancid red fluids to Hao Cao.
Darcel's eyes snapped to the rapidly approaching horrid fluids. Without thinking, he poured immense power into his legs and practically flashed over to Hao Cao's side.
Whatever this acid was shot off incomparable dangerous flags in Darcel's mind. Hell, he could barely see the gross red fluids at first and was sure without his bloodline state, he wouldn't spot it all.
Even more shocking was right when Darcel got next to Hao Cao.
The rancid red fluid was only a couple of centimeters from the purple lightning barrier! Focusing on moving, Darcel grabbed the surprised Hao Cao's waist and jumped away.
'Sssch!!'
While dodging, they both heard a spine-chilling sizzling noise.
Looking at just where Hao Cao stood, their eyes widened. The horrid red fluids had now broken through the purple lightning barrier and precisely landed where Hao Cao stood.
Darcel didn't even register the heavenly soft feeling of holding Hao Cao's body close or her enchanting fragrance. If he was just a second slower, then they both would've been horrifically burnt!
However, it wasn't over yet as Darcel's death senses frantically went off again.
Hurriedly, he jerked his head up only to see that creature just a few meters away from them on the ceiling, and that same putrid red fluid sailing straight at him!
At the speeds he was going, Darcel could barely control his midair mobility. Basically, he had no other options but to forcefully block this dangerous attack.
Yet, before attempting to do so, a warm sensation wrapped around his waist. Quickly but gently did his body get tugged along with Hao Cao. Just barely did the two dodges another bask of red fluid.
'Sssch!!'
Another chilling sizzling noise entered their ears as they knew that putrid red fluid tore through the purple lightning barrier. Safely, Darcel and Hao landed on their feet next to Aniela as she dropped her black flaming whip.
Darcel and Aniela only took one look over to each other but had silently communicated a couple of things. One that acid shouldn't be touched at any cost, and two, this thing is too damn fast!
Somehow, it can even match their bloodline state speeds!
This fight only just started, yet the odds already weren't in the trio favor. Before the trio could even think about their next move, however, they were soon in for another horrifying surprise.
Something in Darcel and Aniela's blood crazily stirs, forcing the two to snap their heads back up to the creature. Their eyes narrowed in crisis as hair-raising red mist spewed down to them.
And much like everything this creature does, the mist speed was nearly instantaneous! The mist was only a meter apart from surrounded them.
This mist….it almost reminded Darcel and Aniela of one previous purple haze they faced in the past. Only this mist was causing their bloodlines to go off before it even got to them.
Every instinct in their bloodlines was signaling to them to not even get close to this particular red mist.
Although Darcel and Aniela had no plans in wanting to risk getting affected by another mysterious mist in the first place.
Matching the creature's speed, Darcel's bloodline arm brightly shimmered with abyss pitch-black Darkness. Aniela's glowed with a luminous, radiant white light that perfectly mixed with the Darkness.
'Chi!'
A brilliant dual black and white light flashed!
Around the trio, a black and white barrier formed as Darcel and Aniela held their rapiers out to the red mist. For the first time in this battle, they finally felt like they got somewhere.
The all-encompassing red mist had seeped through the broken spots of the purple lighting barrier.
Yet, it suddenly stopped before even reaching the trio. Quirking its eyebrows, the human-like creature was a bit surprised for its first time. Bits of white light sparked through its red mist, and patches of Darkness seemed to be neutralizing its mist all together.
With Aniela's light holding the whole red mist at bay and Darcel's Darkness neutralizing it, the duo thought they took a slight advantage.
However, a bright red glare that shined into their eyes spoke a different story. Straight through the mist and into the purple lightning barrier, did the trio see the creature's sharp red hue claws come right at them!
At this point, Darcel and Aniela couldn't dodge and poured all of their Qi into their barriers. They head on met the first full-power strike of this grotesque creature!
'BANG!'
The exchange of three immense Nascent powers widely stormed in the air and blasted away the red mist. Darcel and Aniela felt their feet sink into the ground but the two still managed to swiftly react.
Immediately Darcel used his other arm and took Hao Cao by the waist while also emitting immense power into his legs once again. Simultaneously, Aniela flowed all of her energy into her legs as well.
'Hua!'
Darcel and Aniela managed to swiftly jump back while avoiding the creatures blaring red hue claws.
The creature had broken through the dual mix barrier through its full power force and pierced its claw into the green, sickly floor.
And while the duo did manage to dodge, Darcel and Aniela's faces were filled with dread. Even as they used their rapiers for the barrier. Their hands still had this unbearable burning sensation raging around in it.
Moreover, whatever power this creature slipped into them even forced their bloodline to swirl and obstruct this poisonous energy.
This ghastly energy caused their stomachs to agitate slightly, causing the two to feel nauseated and a little bit weakened.
Though only being a bit weakened was a colossal achievement, neither knew about. Any other Nascent Core youth that would directly clash with the creature wouldn't be able to move their bodies at all!
It had then dawned on Darcel and Aniela like whiplash.
This creature had perfected the art of killing. They could tell from this short exchange that if they can't strongly resist its poisonous energy, it's all but impossible to beat this creature.
The mere fact that its red hue claw already caused damage to their hands without even direct contact spoke volumes to the duo. Plus, this thing red fluids and claws also tore through Hao Cao's barrier like it was paper.
Adding to their decision was also the fact that this horrid thing could make even their mighty bloodline swirl on its own.
Darcel and Aniela, while in midair, quickly shared a look at each other.
Instead of taking this tremendous risk of trying to beat this incomparable dangerous foe, it was time for the second-best option. Darcel and Aniela guessed they'll most likely gain nothing for even killing it, so when their feets touched the ground,
'Swish!'
The two blasted off with instantaneous speeds! The human-like creature was just taking its claws from the ground as the duo reached the escaping conclusion.
"Stop when I say so!" Hao Cao shouted from Darcel's arms showing no resistance from his touch.
"Kehh!!"
From behind, the trio all smelt their air turn foul and spreading out their Spirit Senses nearly caused them to throw up from a putrid aura.
Taking only a single glance behind them, Darcel, Aniela, and Hao Cao all felt their chest tighten.
Madly rushing them down was the feral creature, and surrounding it was a wide area of the terrifying red mist. The red mist seemed far more potent, turning the sickly green floor into a nightmarish red hell.