The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

The bolt of light pierced Isaac's right shoulder, and he felt nothing for a second. Then a searing pain beset him.

He dropped his sword and clutched at his shoulder, feeling a circular hole about 6cm wide and 4cm deep. His finger accidentally slipped into the wound and it hurt like hell. However, he could feel that it wasn't bleeding – his flesh had been horrifically burnt. Even his blood vessels had been seared, preventing them from bleeding more. Isaac quickly withdrew his finger and looked up with a grimace. He knew he'd been careless – this group was more skilled than expected.

Isaac cast a glance at the man with the jade hairpin and saw him charging another shot. The other 2 melee attackers were also approaching from behind him, but Isaac didn't have a way to fight them off. He could no longer wield a sword with his right hand, so he forced his Spirit Sword Anima to fly out of his right hand and into his left. Normally he would only practice swordsmanship while holding the sword in his right hand, but he'd practiced with both hands when he was first learning swordsmanship.

This gave him the confidence to face his enemies once again.

Isaac created a sword in his left hand and rushed towards the long-ranged attacker. The Snowshoe Anima carried him forwards at high speed, but he grew slower and slower as he approached. The woman's Anima grew more effective the closer he got, so his speed decreased as he neared her.

Nevertheless, Isaac continued to press forwards. He injected more of his Qi into the Snowshoe Anima, trying to push it to go faster. As he pushed forwards, Isaac locked eyes with the man with the hairpin. Isaac's gaze was determined, ready to fight through the pain of his injured shoulder and defeat his foes. Meanwhile, the other man's eyes were filled with confidence – he was in a 4 vs 1 against an injured opponent. There was no way they could lose. In fact, he was certain of his ability to land his next shot and end the fight there.

*Vwooooom*

He unleashed another powerful beam from his Anima, which tore through the air as it headed directly towards Isaac. However, Isaac had pre-empted this attack. He swerved to the left and ray of light flashed past him.

Now he was only 10 metres away from the man, who suddenly realised how bad his situation was. He didn't have enough time to charge another strong shot and the 2 melee fighters were way behind Isaac, meaning there was very little in Isaac's way.

The man stayed cool=headed. He knew he had to delay Isaac and buy some time for the melee fighters to get back in position, so he unleashed a rain of small light beams at Isaac. He expected Isaac to dodge the beams and waste time, but Isaac defied those expectations. He charged right through the storm of light, letting the hundreds of tiny beams pepper him. Most were blocked by his thick coat, but some made their way through and left small burn marks on his pale skin.

Dashing through the light beams felt like getting splashed with boiling hot oil, but Isaac endured it. His eyes were locked onto his target and he charged forwards like a demonic bull.

When he was 2 metres away from the man, the rain of light beams stopped and the man keeled over while holding his stomach. It looked like he had been too focused on Isaac and exhausted his Qi.

If the Qi Core was simply a container for Qi, this wouldn't be much of a problem. However, it would be more accurate to call the Qi Core an organ of the body which specialised in the use of Qi. Therefore, overusing it would come with a cost, just like any other organ.

The man was currently experienced a heart-rending pain as if a hole had just been drilled all the way through his stomach and out the other side.

Thankfully, Isaac was a kind and compassionate person. He swung his blade at the man, cleanly knocking him out so he didn't need to keep enduring the pain. Then he deactivated the Snowshoe Anima to try and conserve Qi and stepped towards the woman with 2 fingers missing.

She tried to assume a fighting stance and square up to Isaac, but she clearly wasn't very skilled at fighting. Her stance was weak and full of openings, almost inviting Isaac to break through.

However, he'd learnt to take his enemies seriously no matter how weak they might look. He made a feint to the left before stabbing towards the right. It was a rather mediocre feint since he performed it with his weak hand, but the woman still fell for it anyway. She tried to block the sword, but the blade seemed to slither past her guard and stab into her shoulder.

She cried in pain, but Isaac did not relent. He stepped forwards again and hit her hard with the hilt of his sword, breaking her nose. Then her hit her again in the side of the head, making sure to knock her out.

Now Isaac turned to face the 2 melee fighters who were still approaching them. His Qi Core was still about 25% full, so he wouldn't have any problems continuing to fight. The only issue was his shoulder, which continued to ache more and more; it might be difficult to win if his opponents targeted this weak point. However, his original speed had been fully restored after defeating the woman, so he was confident in dodging most blows.

Isaac activated the Snowshoe Anima and sped towards his opponents. Just before he reached them, he veered to the right and slashed towards the face of the muscular man. The man reached out to catch the blade, but Isaac suddenly cut downwards. It was a difficult technique to perform with his left arm, but this was Isaac's most practiced skill and he was confident he could pull it off.

The path of the blade changed slightly, slipping below the man's arm. The sword was sharp; very sharp. It sliced through the man's side, causing blood to spill everywhere and maybe even rupturing his stomach – Isaac couldn't tell. The man's life would be in danger if he wasn't treated in a short amount of time, so Isaac needed to defeat the last woman quickly and bring him to a healer, otherwise the man would die and Isaac would be punished to 10 years of confinement in 'The Crevasse'.

Watching her friend spilling a bucket of blood on the pavement, the last woman's face went pale. She experienced a series of emotions including pity, despair and fear, but her heart quickly settled on anger.

Her face regained its colour as it started to flush red with rage, but before she could fully express her feelings, she was struck across the temple by the flat of Isaac's sword. His opponent had just been standing there completely defencelessly... he wasn't going to wait until she regained her composure!

After finally defeating the whole group of 7, Isaac gave a sigh of relief. Then he took a deep breath and shouted at the crowd who'd been watching the fight,

"Does anybody have a healing Anima?!"

None of them stepped forwards. Rank 1 healing Anima were nearly useless. They could reduce a wound's bleeding or close minor cuts, and that was about it. Because of this, few people had picked a healing Anima when they entered the sect.

Isaac had somewhat expected this response, so he wasn't disappointed at the answer. Everybody had learnt first-aid and basic medical treatments in the academy, so Isaac quickly went over to the muscular man to try and reduce his bleeding.

First he cut both arms off the man's coat and tied them together. Then he took that and tied it very tightly around the man's stomach so that it covered the cut.

After that, Isaac applied strong pressure to the wound – the muscular man would've screamed out in pain, but he didn't have the energy to.

Isaac kept the pressure on for about 2 minutes until the bleeding gradually slowed. However, the man fell asleep just around this point. Isaac had been doing his best to keep the man awake, and him dozing off was definitely a bad sign.

Isaac dashed over to where the man with black hair and a hairpin was laying. He slapped the man awake and quickly told him the situation.

"Get over here, now! Your friend's about to die!"

The man was confused and still in a drowsy stupor, but he heard the words "friend" and "die" and began to panic. Isaac grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him,

"There's no time for any of that shit! Just listen to what I say and he'll be fine!"

The man forcibly calmed himself down. He was regaining some of his senses after waking up and he finally got a grasp of what was going on around him – he realised his whole group had been defeated and Frederick, the muscular man, had been injured in the process.

Mikhail pulled himself together and ran over to Frederick's side, ready to help. Isaac carefully unwrapped the cloth he'd tied around Frederick's wound. Mikhail gasped when he saw it, but Isaac just stared coldly,

"Shoot some small light bolts at the wound, just enough to scorch his flesh."

"What?! Why–"

"Why would you do that? Because it'll cauterize the wound and reduce the bleeding. I told you, just listen to me."

"But I don't have any Qi..."

"Overdraw it. Unless you want him to die, that is."

Asking Mikhail to overdraw his Qi was akin to asking him to damage his foundation. Overdrawing your Qi was something some cultivators could do as a last resort when they ran out of Qi – they would draw upon the Qi possessed by the Qi Core itself. It was extremely painful and would cause permanent damage to the core.

Overdrawing a tiny amount of Qi would not do much damage, but it could still be the difference between reaching a higher stage or being stuck in the lower realms of cultivation for life.

Mikhail knew this. He knew he was choosing between the life of a friend and his own future prospects.