Titan's Throne

Chapter 49- The Art of Killing

CHAPTER 49

The Art of Killing

...

Bastian found no joy in killing, yet it did not disturb him in the slightest. He did not see himself as a morally upright person, and this type of mentality had cemented itself in his mind the longer he stayed in the Sovereign Continent.

He had no qualms with killing anyone who got in his way, thus all the warriors in front of him were walking corpses as far as he was concerned. To Bastian, mercy to one's enemy was cruelty to one's self, especially when the enemy killed for a living.

One of Kenshin's conditions in the past was that Bastian should not kill anyone, which made Bastian's task significantly harder. Most people would assume that killing was harder than just fighting, but when there is a significant gap in strength between you and your opponents, it's much more difficult to fight a group of people weaker without causing injury. Not to mention Bastian's mind had experience that his body was unaccustomed to.

So when Kenshin lifted the restriction on killing, Bastian's job became much easier. Not only because he was now able to fight properly, but also because of another crucial fact. The majority of his opponents were using swords!

Although Bastian did not want to use swords, he was very familiar with them, and he had no doubt that he could use them better than anyone else here except for Kenshin.

According to what Kenshin had told him, it was very rare for a person to gain insights into the Dao before they left the Foundation Realm, and even rarer for said person to be below the Teacher/Scholar level, thus Bastian had no worries, so long as his opponent was using a sword, the battle would hold no suspense. Such was the influence of the Dao.

Bastian's major worry at this moment was meeting an opponent in this mob who was at the limit of the Fighter stage and was not a sword user. The worst case scenario would be meeting a person like that who is in possession of a Martial Technique.

Bastian had not used his e-vision for the whole day, particularly because he didn't want to be overly reliant on it and particularly because it had been another condition of Kenshin's to only use it once the situation was dire.

Bastian didn't know how long the skill would last. Kenshin had warned him not to be overly reliant on the skill, but refused to comment further, so Bastian assumed that perhaps the skill was only temporary.

His current situation was dire, so Bastian needed to use his e-vision. After activating it, he started looking around.

Let's see, there are 6 fighters at the limit of the Fighter stage. Three with the water attribute two with the fire attribute and one with the earth attribute. The rest are cannon fodder. Alright, let's do this.

After formulating a plan in his mind, Bastian moved. He was not the kind to just wait there and receive attacks when he had freedom of movement. No, on the contrary he liked to make the first move. Which one wouldn't expect, considering his normally passive personality.

I wouldn't have to do this if I could use magic!

If Bastian had a choice, he would rather sit back and attack using his newly developed magic, but Kenshin had other plans it seems, leaving Bastian with no option but to fight.

The warriors closest to Bastian were all sword wielders, 4 had the water attribute and one who was wielding a large broad sword had the earth attribute. They were surprised by Bastian's sudden movements, but being the experienced warriors that they were, they quickly adjusted and attacked as well. These five were all either middle or lower Fighters, so Bastian didn't hold them in any regard.

The higher your cultivation, the greater the gap between each level becomes, this especially becomes clear in the fighter stage.

A lot of these warriors did not know each other, but after spending some time cooperating they had an understanding of how to move. The water attribute warriors quickly activated their qi and covered their feet. Two of them then used their superior movement speed to go around Bastian while he was still in his motion whilst the other two attacked him from the side.

The earth attribute warrior was not fast, but in this situation he didn't need to be, or at least that's what he thought. As far as he was concerned, Bastian was flanked on all sides except one, so he had no choice but to go forward.

In preparation for Bastian moving forward, the earth attribute warrior covered his hands in earth qi and placed himself in the right position in front of Bastian, ready to attack.

Bastian was being attacked from five directions, and as far as the warriors were concerned his qi must have depleted earlier on in the day before they had arrived, because none of them had seen him use qi, so they had absolute confidence in their plan. Unfortunately for them, they were chasing wind with broken legs.

Bastian's senses were on point, so he saw through their plan from the moment they had moved, but he wanted to kill them all in one go, so he went along with their plan and kept going forward, straight for the earth attribute warrior

In terms of movement speed in the Fighter stage, water attribute warriors were unparalleled. Yet movement speed was not necessarily the same thing as attack speed, especially in a situation like Bastian's. The attacks from the two warriors who had gone behind Bastian, had landed first, or rather they were supposed to, yet before they could register what had occurred, their heads were already flying.

If they had known that they had been beheaded by their own swords, they would have been turning in their graves. The water qi warriors by the sides, who were still in attack motion, had just barely seen what had happened when the same thing happened to them as well.

They were immediately beheaded right after their counter parts, and just like the latter, they didn't even have the time to realize what had happened.

The earth attribute warrior had begun to prepare to swing his sword at this time, but due to seeing what had happened to his companions, fear struck him. Bastian's movements were like a blur to him. The same kind of blur he had seen when Kenshin had moved, except this blur was much slower and more visible. Yet it was still a movement the earth attribute warrior could not see clearly.

All the earth attribute warrior could tell was that in that fraction of a second, Bastian had managed to disarm the four and behead them with their own swords. To the earth attribute warrior, the very notion was absurd, yet it had occurred right in front of him.

Fear can operate without reason, and often it does. The earth attribute warrior didn't want to believe what he was seeing, but his body was already showing signs of fear, one particular sign would prove fatal to the earth attribute warrior, and that sign was hesitation.

The warrior wanted to flee, yet he also wanted to strike, and that brief moment of hesitation created a window for Bastian to move in. In one swift movement, the earth attribute warrior was beheaded by a disheveled Bastian who was holding two swords in each hand.

This all took some time to describe, but it happened in only two seconds. Bastian's plan did not end there.

While standing next to a headless warrior holding a sword above his head, Bastian was preparing to end four more lives in that very instant.

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