Liu Xun looked around at the destruction of the sect. The dead disciples, the broken buildings, his own junior brother in such a horrible condition.
Rage built up inside him as his face changed pretty quickly.
"I will kill you!" he turned to look at Black Venom. A sword appeared in his hand, bloody and chipped at parts from the fight he had before coming here.
He held the shield back up. The shield was made up of wood with metal on the outer edge as well as two strips of metal making a + sign in the middle.
The shield itself was a kite-shield with 3 pointy edges on the top and 1 at the bottom. The wood was colored red, and the metal, silver.
Liu Xun got into a stance with his shield and sword and dashed into the fight.
Black Venom wasn't expecting a newcomer, and even less she was expecting him to attack her the moment he arrived.
She tried to back away, but suddenly vines grew from Liu Xun's shield that wrapped around her, keeping her from moving away.
She immediately used her sickle to cut off the vines and barely made an escape when Liu Xun's sword reached her.
She retaliated by jumping forward at him and struck with a golden sickle, but Liu Xun put up his shield that blocked the attack.
Liu Xun was pushed back a few steps but he took no damage. He pushed himself forward once more and slashed towards her again.
Black Venom couldn't run away in time, so he used her bracers to protect herself. The sword landed directly on the bracers, and she was sent back a dozen or so meters.
Her eyes narrowed when she realized that she wasn't taking much damage. Finally, she focused on the man attacking her and realized that he was weak. Much weaker than him.
While she was in the 4th True Lord realm, the man was only around the 6th realm of the True Master realm. There was no way he could ever deal enough damage to her unless she was careless.
She looked behind him and noticed only 2 of the 3 youngsters. One of them was gone. Alex was missing.
'Dammit,' she thought. She was angry that she didn't get to kill Alex like she had wanted to.
She used a movement technique and immediately sped up. Liu Xun did the same. The violent clashes between the two were sending shockwaves all around them.
Luo Mei was worried for her senior brother, while Du Yuhan was just engrossed in the fight. Liu Xun was someone he had never seen give his all in fights. Even during the challenges when he was still a disciple many years ago, Du Yuhan remembered him having it easy for the fights.
Now, watching him finally bring out his fullest, he could see just how good he was at battle.
Liu Xun weaved left and right. The Elusive Heavenly Sword technique that he had learned as well as helped him dodge most of the simple attacks. The stronger ones, he simply used his shield to block.
Black Venom was starting to lose her mind with anger watching the way Liu Xun fought. She was so much stronger than him, and yet she could do nothing to him.
She could also tell that on a technical level, his skills were far better than her own. After all, she was never a fighter, nor was she trained as one.
But the anger only grew and she started attacking recklessly. She nearly took damage a few times even. That only served to get her more reckless.
Her fit of anger disappeared when she heard a 'twang' noise from behind her. 'That bastard,' she thought and turned around to grab Alex. However, the person who had attacked her was someone else.
She didn't recognize the person at all, nor did she have the time to since behind the man were other men, all running towards her.
Her heart skipped a beat and she immediately flew away from the fight. She instinctively reached to grab her mask on her face but stopped.
'That bastard is still hiding around somewhere,' she thought. She deliberated for a moment, but now was not the time for that. There were too many opponents for her to remain safe.
She immediately opened her mask and shouted, "GET AWAY!"
It wasn't a normal shout since the sound was quite extreme. She was definitely using a skill to amplify her voice.
Alex wanted to launch his own attack at her, but she had been careful. After she spoke, she immediately put her mask back on, not letting the Heaven's Impact that Alex did launch at her affect her.
Everyone around her fell unconscious at the same time, with faces of bliss on them. She wanted to kill them right away, now that they were all down.
However, when she started getting close, she could see 2 of the bodies start moving a little.
Alex was the first to open his eyes and look towards her. Seeing that others would be waking up at any moment as well, Black Venom decided to leave.
Alex walked her leave without a way to stop.
A few moments after she left, Liu Xun got up as well. He looked around but was unable to find her.
"She's gone, brother," Alex said. "She ran away."
"Dammit!" Liu Xun shouted. "I couldn't kill her at all."
"It's okay… for now. At least we managed to protect the others," Alex said as he looked back. Some of the houses had been destroyed with quite a few disciples dead, but at least they had been able to save a lot of them.
Alex curiously turned around at Liu Xun and asked, "do you have a mental protection artifact on you?"
"Hm, yes," Liu Xun said as he brought out a necklace from his robe. "Why?"
"Her voice is a mental attack. I was just surprised to see you wake up so fast after she knocked you out," Alex said.
"You woke up sooner than me though," he said and looked towards Alex's arm. "Will you be alright?"
Alex grabbed his left arm and put on a solemn face. "I will be alright," he said.
Liu Xun then turned around at the elders who were asleep again. "Good thinking waking them. While I could've held her back for a while, eventually, I would have ended up losing due to me not having more Qi than her," he said.
"I will go wake them up. The city should still be in danger," Alex said, and Liu Xun nodded.
After the elders woke up, they all went out back to fight. Alex helped Luo Mei and Du Yuhan wake up and sent them to take care of the disciples.
Soon enough, they were knocking on every door, making the disciple leave towards the back of the mountain to hide them.
Alex on the other hand didn't stay with them. He too wanted to go help out in the city.. He didn't know how much help he would be with a single arm, but he would give it his all to protect the sect and the city.