The Dawn of the New World

The Scorpion King was ready for him this time and as soon as Sotir got in melee range, he lashed out like a crazed bull.

*GROWL*

His claws left green afterimages in the air as they ripped Sotir in two, or so he thought.

But that was just his afterimage and he had already passed the Scorpion King. His pupils shrunk as he realized who Sotir's actual target was.

"STOP HIM!" he grolwed towards Ensis who was closest to Hao Xuan and the only other person capable of interrupting him.

Ensis's black robe fluttered as he pulled the sword halfway from the sheath and bent his knees, ready to attack. His eyes moved left and right, following the faint images left behind in the air from where Sotir had been.

There wasn't much to Sotir's ability. He was just extremely fast and strong. And more often than not, it was enough to handle any opponents he faced.

For Ensis, time had slowed down to a crawl.

The raindrops stopped moving completely. His squinted eyes were flittering all over the place. Left, right, front. One second Sotir was there and the next he was gone.

Ensis tightened the grip around the black sword while his eyes glimmered on their own. Every single drop of God's Blood coursing through his veins was activated all at once.

His aura shot up and broke through directly to the top of the Spirit realm in an instant.

"There!"

A shadow appeared for 100th of a second to his left and before he could even think, the black sword had already left its sheath.

*SLASH!*

A black crescent-shaped Qi cut apart the air itself and pierced the shadow.

*Phew*

Ensis let out the breath he had been holding in and his senses returned to normal. The raindrops continued their descent and everything returned to its usual speed.

But as soon as Ensis relaxed, he noticed a new group of people standing on his left, staring at them with wide eyes.

They didn't emit any killing intent so there were probably no bad intentions. But the surprised look on their faces drew his interest.

He followed their line of sight and turned around to see Hao Xuan, at which point his mouth almost fell open due to several reasons.

In front of Hao Xuan stood Sotir with his right hand around Hao Xuan's neck.

"Who then..." Ensis looked back at the silhouette he had cut down and saw a pirate corpse cut in two.

At some point Sotir had picked it up and threw it out to draw Ensis's attention towards it while he himself approached his original target, Hao Xuan.

Sotir was raised by his master from a young age, who himself was one of the most sought after mercenaries in the entire region.

Taught in the ways of the Shadow Assasins, he knew to always target the weakest one first, which to him was Hao Xuan. So he did exactly that.

Avoiding all the others he appeared right in front of Hao Xuan and had his hand around his throat before anyone could realize what was happening.

***

Alte, Ceni, and Ignac's group moved from the control room and made their way down towards the warehouse. They killed any pirates that had managed to break-in on their way which took a bit longer than expected.

But when they reached the runway, the battle had already ended. There was just a last fight going on between one of the hooded men and a group of monsters and people they didn't recognize, well no one other than Alte, Ceni, and three others knew them.

Ceni's brow scrunched up as soon as she saw Hao Xuan. She leaned in towards Alte and whispered.

"Big brother, is that him?"

Alte who was in somewhat of shock himself nodded blankly.

"He woke up a few hours ago, but why is he here? And who are those monsters around him? Why are they fighting?"

Ceni heard Alte's series of questions and understood he barely knew anything so she didn't bother asking again. Instead, she put an innocent smile on her face and looked up at Ignac who was towering over her.

"Uncle Ignac, can you save that man over there? I want to talk to him," she pointed at Hao Xuan.

Ignac who was initially looking at the leader of the hooded men shifted his gaze towards Hao Xuan and shook his head.

"He is peeking through the veil, no need to help him. He will not be hurt, not by that man at least."

"Eh?"

Ceni was, understandably, incredulous at his comment. That hooded figure had at least the cultivation of the Profound realm even though he wasn't using it. How could he not get to Hao Xuan?

***

Sotir quickly put some strength in his hand and closed his grasp, intending on beheading Hao Xuan in one smooth motion when he noticed something was amiss.

He couldn't gather any Qi. It was all in disarray and no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't listen to him.

A cold feeling spread out from his abdomen. He looked down and saw Hao Xuan's left arm halfway inside his abdomen.

"Wh...at..."

He tried to move back but a sharp, cold pain went down his spine and he could feel Hao Xuan's hand touching it. He looked up to see his face but his eyes were still closed.

"Asleep...?" he muttered weakly, holding onto Hao Xuan's arm for dear life.

But no matter how much he tried to free himself, it was all useless. His body simply wasn't listening to him. All his Qi and energy might as well belong to a stranger.

The leader of the hooded figures saw Hao Xuan's hand poking out of Sotir's back and for a second he was dumbfounded. How was this possible? How could it ever be possible?

He wanted to step in and stop him but a heart-wrenching sound reached his ears before he could. He looked over and saw Hao Xuan standing over Sotir's limp body.

In his hand was Sotir's entire spinal column and below him was his already dead body.

Hao Xuan looked back at Ensis in confusion, "What....happened?"