"TK!"
A crow faced Awakened let out a grief stricken howl, staring at the man Zayne had just cut down with a face twisted in pain.
"All of you, get in there. That kid took TK's Iron Fist head on. He cannot keep this up much longer."
Someone charged first, refusing to hesitate. This one was a sword class, his longsword flashing with a cold gleam in the dark.
His thrust was fast and vicious, driving diagonally into Zayne's lung and piercing straight through the lobe.
"Relax. My aim is perfect. This will not kill you, but it will take away every bit of your fighting strength. If you move, your lung will feel a searing pain…"
He did not finish.
Zayne's blade was already there.
Sacrificial Blade Technique had stacked to seventy layers. The power was even more horrifying.
One slash, and the swordsman became two.
"WTF!"
The crow faced Awakened wailed again, voice cracking.
"Move. Now. He's been stabbed. He cannot hold on much longer."
Whoosh.
A point of cold light arrived first, then the spear followed like a dragon.
A spear user burst forward and drove the weapon straight through Zayne, clean and deep.
Zayne's response was simple. With seventy five layers of Sacrificial Blade Technique stacked, he thrust a brutal counter, skewering the spearman through the body as well. Blood spilled from the man's mouth, and he went limp within seconds.
"Go, go. He took a sword and a spear. This time he has to be done." The crow faced Awakened howled again, almost hysterical.
"Wind Arts. Wind Blade Barrage."
Another Awakened formed signs rapidly with both hands. The air around Zayne turned violent, like a raging beast roaring. Invisible force compressed and gathered, shaping into razor sharp wind blades that sliced through the night and tore straight toward Zayne.
Zayne's silhouette, lit by the cutting arcs, looked eerily solitary. Facing the lethal barrage, he still did not dodge.
Rip.
The sound of flesh being carved rang out. Wind blades opened countless wounds across Zayne's body, deep enough to expose bone. One slash tore across his abdomen so badly his intestines nearly spilled out.
Under that level of damage, Zayne finally collapsed, going limp as he fell.
"Hah. I told you he was done." The crow faced Awakened shouted in triumph. "Tie him up. Deliver him to Boss Dano."
Everyone exhaled. With injuries like that, if Zayne had stayed standing, they would have lost their minds.
Three Awakened stepped in to bind Zayne tight.
Then Zayne sprang up.
He swung Starfall Skytrace in a violent spin. With eighty five layers stacked, the sweeping arc cut the three men clean in half at the waist.
"No. No. No, no!"
The crow faced Awakened screamed again, a miserable, broken sound. He could not understand it. How could Zayne still fight after taking that kind of damage?
Zayne was drenched in blood, practically a walking corpse. A sword and a spear were still embedded in him. By any normal logic, someone with those wounds would be in intensive care, hooked up to transfusions, barely clinging to life.
But Zayne was still moving like nothing mattered. It was unreal.
"This is just a last burst before he dies. Get him. Take him down." The crow faced Awakened shrieked.
This time, nobody tried to play hero. Three Awakened attacked at once, striking from three different angles.
One was the wind user from earlier, sending razor blades again. The other two were a blade wielder and a fire mage.
Wind fed the flames. Wind and fire together, and the inferno exploded outward, filling the air.
But Zayne's Sacrificial Blade Technique had already reached the full ninety nine stacks. He was done waiting.
"Forbidden Spell Swiftstep Waltz!"
Zayne sacrificed a heart, buying ten times his agility. He became a streak of light and plunged straight into the ocean of fire.
By the time the two casters realized what happened, Zayne was already in front of them, blade raised, like death stepping out of the smoke.
Slash. Slash.
Two arcs of steel, and the wind caster and the fire mage dropped as warm bodies.
With ninety nine stacks on him, once he got in close, they had no chance.
"No. Please, no." The crow faced Awakened wailed again, voice cracking into panic.
Two shadows appeared behind Zayne.
They were the blade wielder and Neil, who had been lurking for the perfect moment.
The blade wielder chopped into Zayne's back. At the same time, a sharp dagger flashed in Neil's hand and punched straight into Zayne's kidney. In an instant, Zayne was heavily wounded again.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. You think you can kill me?"
Zayne slashed backward once, ending both ambushers in a clean, merciless motion.
"No. My brothers."
The crow faced Awakened let out his sixth howl. Now he was the only one left alive.
He stared at Zayne staggering forward, blood leaking from every opening, his body mangled and torn. A sword was lodged in the left side of his chest, a spear in the right, a blade buried in his back, a dagger stuck in his kidney, and yet he kept walking, one step at a time.
The crow faced Awakened broke.
"M monster. You're a monster."
"Why are you still alive after all that. What are you, human or ghost?"
Zayne tilted his head slightly.
"A monster? That is not wrong. I only keep a human shape because I feel like it."
Zayne had discovered long ago that with his immortal body, even if he cut himself into pieces and stitched himself into something inhuman, he would still live. But after living as a person for so long, he preferred to stay in a form that felt familiar.
Zayne raised his blade.
In two quick cuts, he severed the tendons in the crow faced man's wrists and ankles.
As the man screamed, Zayne lowered his gaze without emotion and set the edge of his blade against the man's throat.
"Now tell me. Where is Dano? And in this underground market, what level is the highest Awakened?"