Overcoming The Beast

Around sunset Leon could finally see a man running towards the cave. He was dressed in a red robe, the one that disciples of the clan wore. "He should be a rank six summoning apprentice", Leon remembered from his past life. Seeing the man was the same cultivation rank Leon was sure it was him.

The man also saw Leon. But he couldn't tell who it was since Leon's face was masked and body shrouded in a black hooded cape. He was going to attack but as he took another step he felt he entered a world of blood. His soul screaming in fright as he froze in place. He stuttered as he chanted to summon his soul book. A book appeared in front of the man, it was a light red book with the edges turning an ugly brown. It was getting corrupted. None the less energy grew out of the book and formed a shield of soul energy.

"This person should have killed thousands of people at least. That aura of slaughter is too strong." The man said with a shiver. Feeling how threatening Leon was he took a different approach.

He asked "who are you. Are you the person boss sent? We were suppose to meet at the..." before he could finish he jumped behind a nearby dead tree. Two dark red knives flash into the sand where he had been previously standing.

"I get it now! Don't attack, the man who seeks greatness has two paths, the path of light that leads to saints and the path of darkness which leads to us" the man said with a curious look.

Leon thought for a moment, "he is actually working with them, all the more reason to kill him."

The man then continued "since you are not responding I can only assume you are not with us, I am sorry but you were the one that attacked first" with that he chanted a different incantation the before and a red circle appeared in front of him. The circle was a magic circle it had a smaller circle in the middle with runes between the circles in the center there was a character of representing fire in an ancient language.

A red cobra like creature slithered out of the circle which had started to fade behind it.

Leon finally responded "Why would I work with pathetic fools who are just tools for a parasite."

The man commanded "smoke cover, and then flame ball." The snake hissed then opened its mouth wide. White Smoke flooded out and cloaked the snake and Leon.

Leon had taken one look and judged the snake to be a four redstar level beast. As a member of the serpentine species it already had a strong resistance to fear. It was also a higher level then Leon who hadn't even cultivated. It wasn't affected by the slaughter qi.

As the smoke was released Leon unsheathed the two black daggers. He ran up to the snake and attacked it. Using quick swings he continued to slash at the snake aiming for its weak points. The snake dodged the strikes by swimming through the smoke. Through its ghastly means it launched ambush after ambush of balls of flame. Each Flame ball sliding just past Leon's clothes. Leon conserved energy by keeping movement to minimum, using only simple maneuvers to avoid the attacks.

He couldn't see through the smoke so he relied on his instincts.

The man spoke, "You should give up now, sooner or later you'll get tired. If you beg for forgiveness, I'll let you join us."

Leon acted like he had heard the funniest thing in the world said, "Sorry, I have bigger plans then to become a slave to someone who I already consider dead." Still using light footwork and body movements to evade the attacks.

The snake seeing the failure in strategy shakes thing up by trying to bite at Leon. It jumped and went straight for the throat. Leon blocked the snake by holding its mouth open with the dagger. Holding his arm in place he spun on the ball of his right foot and pulled up his left leg kicking the snake out of the smoke filled area. He then followed out and threw a knife.

The snake slithered out of the way shot back with a flame ball. Unfazed Leon threw a blue knife straight through the ball dissipating it. The knife scratched the snake as it landed.

Infuriated, the snake now went all out. It released another round of smoke and attacked. This time using its tail it fought Leon in a knife fight. Clangs resounded off and they exchanged well over a hundred moves. As the smoke cleared the man could see Leon. Leon was breathing heavily and his movements were getting sluggish, every now and then his cloths tearing from the snake's attacks.

The man wanted to utilise the opportunity to end this. He told the snake to get ready to finish the fight through soul vibrations and started chanting again. Another magic circle appeared before the man.

Leon fighting the snake seeing the glow of the summoning smiled. The snake seeing the opening attacked.

Behind him the snake coiled up and used its brown tale to strike at Leon's heart. It went for a quick kill.

From the circle a centipede like beast came out it was an ugly brown in colour and had large mandibles.

Swoosh, with a swift motion Leon controlled his slaughter qi and used it to stun the snake, centipede and man in fear. He threw the dagger in his right hand towards the centipede. It cut off its head and landed behind the man. He parted the dissipating smoke with his hand moving downwards, he spun again with the dagger still in his left hand. Through this continuous motion he cut the snake's head off.

Leon with a blink formed out of the shadow of the dagger behind the man and cut the back of his throat with the dagger. The man fell dyeing the sand crimson. The ugly red book in front of him disintegrates with his soul.

Leon couldn't help but laugh at how easily the man was tricked. He collected the throwing knives littered around and then the other dagger that had hit the man's shadow. But as he does latter, the dagger in the ground and hand turn dull and shiver into ash.

"The daggers went through too much strain when I used the shadow blink rune, well expected as much when using a high grade rune on a low grade weapon."

He went up to the man's corpse and took off the spatial ring on his finger. Looking through it he grabbed out a red book that read 'Pure Fire Cloud art' it was a high grade spirit rank. He then emptied out around fifty thousand gold. And finally he took out a bottle of pills.

"These pills should be corruption pills that cause you to grow stronger by corrupting your soul book. So Pandora were the ones that stole this book. Interesting I guess I'll get to kill Sebastian again." Leon said with a wicked smile as he smashed the bottle onto the floor and stamped the pills into mush.

He then put the spatial ring back onto the man's finger then made the man sit against the dead tree and wiped all traces that may show he faught another human.

He looked at the corpse of the cobra, "it should be a Burning Cobra. The man's primal beast. The centipede should be the parasitic beast that he was given from Pandora. It really is much weaker then how I remember it." Leon couldn't be faulted for the last statement because he remembered them as thousands of kilometer long centipedes that were immortal.

Leon then picked up the cut corpse of the snake took out a bottle and filled it with its blood. Then he located a desert ant nest nearby and using the snakes blood he left a trail until the corpses to lure then there.

Leon then walked far away until he reached the place where he saw the cave from earliar, he took out his bow and arrow. He climbed up the stone he was on before and then pulled the arrow back and fired it. The arrow flew through the air and went through the man's throat, the tree behind him and got stuck in the sand at an angle.

Leon made sure his footsteps were hidden. He then went back to the cave he was at before and jumped in the pond. The pond on its side caved in making it much bigger to what it actually seemed. Leon swam to the side found an air pocket for his head. He slowed down his breathing. He stuck to the wall underneath the ground hidding him form view. He then used Formless Presence to hide his aura completely.

"Now the ants will should feel the slaughter qi disappear. They should follow the trail and take most of the evidence."

He heard some walking and a beasts growl. He continued to close his eyes and minimize his breathing. He heard some talking, "this should be the traitor that stole the technique, it was actually Kian Flamesmith. How could he betray us!"

Another man's voice followed "he was killed by an arrow straight to the neck." The man looked around and see a trail of blood leading further into the desert. With the trail was a line of desert ants that had reached the corpses. "I can feel the fire energy here is a bit stronger, he must have run into this colony desert ants when he was assassinated with an arrow- a swift death."

One of the men said "Kill them."

The wolf next to him howled. Then the sound of burning could be heard.

The other man walked up to the body took the spatial ring. "He doesn't have the technique on him, it was stolen by the person who killed him." The men looked at the arrow "you look for where the arrow was shot I'll look around here."

One of the man jumped on the fire wolf and ran in the opposite direction the arrow is pointing. The other man called his fire Wolf to his side then looked at the corpse again making sure he didn't miss anything. He looked around and spotted a cave nearby. He walked in with a a gesture, the wolf opens mouth and shoots a flame ball. The cave lights up. The man saw the pond as he walked up to it.

Leon passive as always, was completely relaxed in the pond. He heard the man standing above him. The man looked at the pond and started to scrutinize it. The man took a few steps around the pond. He then said "I know you're there, you can stop hidding." The man then waited. "Give yourself in now and you can still be forgiven. You killed a traitor to the Clan. Just give the book back and the Clan will reward you."

Leon in the pond called the man's bluff and didn't respond.

The man clicked his tongue and walked away. Leon knowing this stayed still, even when the man had completely left he stayed hidden. Until the end of the next day Leon jumped out of the pond.

He streached and used the formless aura art to start recovering his body. "With this they won't know I was here". He walked out the cave and looked at an area of hard stone, a volcano that was further ahead.

"I have to go there next."