The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

The whole crowd turned to look at Isaac who was standing in the dark alley. The sun had long since set and the street was lit up by lumnos stone lamps, but the alley Isaac was in didn't have any. So when the crowd turned to look at him, they simply saw a mysterious, unidentifiable figure standing in the shadows as snow fell lightly from above.

It wasn't just the crowd – the group of 7 also stared at Isaac with ferocious gazes. At first Isaac thought they were angry about what he'd done to their friends. But then he quickly realised that might not be the case.

'If they were really close friends, they would've come to rob me as a group of 10 and then split the rewards between themselves. Since those 3 came by themselves, it means they wanted to rob me and keep what I had for themselves – they didn't want to share any profits with the other 7. In that case, they're probably not that close and these 7 aren't too worried about the other 3. Their main priority in coming here is probably to steal what I have and gain some prestige from defeating me. I obviously can't let that happen.'

After thinking it through and deciding to fight, Isaac stepped out of the alleyway. He pulled his hood back and the light from the street lamps shone on his face, showcasing his thin lips, angular nose and pale blue eyes.

He stared directly at the group. Then, without saying anything, he created a sword and dashed forwards at the nearest man. The man didn't expect it at all. He couldn't dodge since there were people behind him and to his left, and the house was to his right – he could only try to block as Isaac's sword sliced towards his head.

However, his reactions were late and Isaac's blade slipped past his poor defences. The flat side of Isaac's blade collided with the man's head and sent him tumbling to the ground. The other 6 people were immediately infuriated and wanted to attack Isaac. However, they were penned in by the crowd and only one person could actually get to Isaac.

The other 5 tried to push through the crowd and reach him, while the 6th person fired 3 small icicles at him. Isaac deflected 2 with his sword and the 3rd missed. This gave him a chance to rush forwards and attack again. The woman couldn't defend herself as Isaac smacked her with the hilt of his sword and knocked her out.

By now, 3 of the group had got out of the crowd and the other 2 would be out in a couple of seconds. 2 people rushed at Isaac while the 3rd circled around to get behind him.

The 2 people confronting Isaac were both men, one of whom had long hair and wore a jade hairpin. The other was muscular and well-built with rugged facial features and deep, dark green eyes. Isaac used the Snowshoe Anima to retreat and avoid both their attacks. As he dodged, Isaac moved towards the person who was trying to flank him – it would be best to take out this guy before he got surrounded.

Isaac thrust towards him with his sword, but the man was prepared. He drew a long dagger from his belt and parried Isaac's attack. It was hard for him to block it with such a small weapon, but he seemed rather skilled.

After blocking, his rat-like facial features contorted into a smirk. Then his body flickered and transformed into a coil of black smoke.

The smoke snaked towards Isaac, but he used the Snowshoe Anima to dart backwards and avoid it. He didn't know what it could do, and he didn't want to find out.

After moving back to avoid the smoke, Isaac had created a small distance between him and the group. The last 2 members had made it out of the crowd, meaning Isaac had missed the opportunity to fight 3 of them on their own.

The smoke turned back into a thin, rat-faced man and he regrouped with the other 4. Now the whole group was advancing towards Isaac – the rat-faced man brandished his dagger; stone coated the fists of the muscular guy; the man with the jade hairpin made a finger gun at Isaac and white light began to coalesce on his fingertip; a girl with twin ponytails began to grow vicious-looking spikes from her elbows; a woman who was missing 2 fingers on her left hand... glared at Isaac?

Oh. He felt himself slow down slightly – probably an effect of that woman's Anima. This was slightly problematic, since he needed to be able to move quickly and dodge the other 4 people's attacks. This made him want to target this woman first, but she was standing at the back of the group and he couldn't get to her.

*Vwoom*

A beam of white light scorched the tips of Isaac's hair as he barely dodged it. He'd been keeping a cautious eye on the man with the hairpin, and was prepared to dodge this long-ranged attack. The man followed up with a series of smaller but quicker light beams.

*Vwoom* *Vwoom* *Vwoom*

Isaac evaded all the attacks, but the group's 3 melee fighters closed in on him whilst he was busy dodging. Just as Isaac ducked the last light ray, he saw a fist approaching rapidly from the right. He brought his sword up to block, expecting it to cut into the fist.

Fist and blade collided with a clanging sound. The spirit sword bounced off of the stone-covered fist and Isaac was pushed back. In fact, the force of the blow was so strong that his wrist hurt from trying to block it.

He quickly recognised this as the simply named Stone Fist Anima. This Anima's main weakness was lack of range, so Isaac tried to back off and put some distance between himself and the man.

As he was about to move back, Isaac noticed a trail of black smoke behind him. Without thinking, he thrust his sword backwards at the smoke to see if it would have any effect. There was a sudden cry and the smoke materialised back into the form of a man – a man who was clutching at his arm which had been impaled by a sword.

Isaac hurriedly pulled his sword back and used the Snowshoe Anima to retreat again. Another barrage of light rays tried to block off his path, but Isaac was agile enough to avoid most of them. Unfortunately, he was hit by a couple – partly due to being slowed down and partly due to his lack of skill with the Snowshoe Anima – but they didn't cause any injuries. In fact, they didn't even burn through his 3 layers of clothing. It seemed that this Anima was quite weak unless the user charged up a shot.

Now that he was further away from the group, Isaac felt himself get slightly quicker. It looked like the Anima slowing him down worked based on how close he was. The further away he moved, the less effective it would get.

After working this out, Isaac smirked. He'd used a short period of probing to work out the opponents' strengths and weaknesses, so now it was time for the real fight to begin.

Isaac waited for the trio of melee fighters to approach again. They were a little more hesitant this time, but they were still determined to defeat Isaac and they couldn't do that without approaching him. The trio advanced towards Isaac – the rat-faced man to his left, the woman with spikes growing from her elbows on the right, and the muscular man in the middle. The thin, rat-faced man was grimacing in pain. His right arm had been stabbed was quite severely injured. He stopped for a moment to find something to bind his bleeding arm with, and Isaac took advantage of that opening.

He activated the Snowshoe Anima and shot forwards, moving as fast as he could while remaining in control. He steered towards the left, making sure the rat-faced man was positioned between himself and the long-ranged attacker so he wouldn't get sniped. When the rat-faced man saw Isaac approaching, he hurriedly turned into black mist and tried to escape. Originally, the Dark Mist Travel Anima would've been quicker than the Snowshoe Anima since Isaac was being slowed down. However, Isaac was a middle stage cultivator while the rat-faced man was merely lower stage.

Being supplied with Isaac's pure Qi made the Snowshoe Anima move quicker and Isaac managed to catch up before the smoke escaped. Now that he knew the smoke was still vulnerable to attacks, he smacked it with the flat of his blade.

This time the man didn't materialise. He stayed as smoke, but Isaac heard a grunt of pain anyway. The smoke continued to flee, but it couldn't get away from Isaac. He stayed with it and hit it again – harder this time. There was another grunt of pain but the smoke kept trying to escape. Isaac had to hit it a 3rd time before the smoke condensed into the shape of a man – a man who was curled up on the floor, clutching his stomach and groaning.

It really was so troublesome trying to incapacitate enemies rather than killing them. The sword was a weapon which was designed to kill – if you weren't using it to kill, you weren't using it to its full potential. Just one well-aimed stab at the smoke would've been enough to defeat the rat-faced man, but unfortunately sect rules wouldn't allow that. It had taken 3 whacks with the flat of the blade to put the man down, and that had given the ranged attacker time to charge a powerful bolt of light.

A dazzling dot shone at the tip of his finger, radiating a dangerous glow. Suddenly, that light was unleashed. It shot towards Isaac like a bullet from a gun, and he had no way to defend himself from it.