Chapter 45: The Might of the Sword Dragon

"It's an illusion! No, not the whole thing, only a part of it is an illusion." He quickly flexed his mental power as if flexing his muscles to dispel the fog clouding his mind. The reality in front of him was that his opponents had somehow trapped him in an illusion. However, this illusion did not alter his perception to a great degree thus making it difficult to for him to sense the changes. The brothers only used the illusion to hide the extensive damage the earth dragon took and to conceal the true form of the sword dragon.

This sword dragon was not an autonomous technique but a whip. The twins controlled thousands of knives telekinetically to form the [Dragon Tail Whip] which the elder brother wielded in his right hand. The younger brother was focused on using his psychic abilities to maintain the psychic link with his older brother as well as set up minor illusions.

"Oh, big brother looks like he found out." These 2 brothers were psychic experts who could also share their mind space through a psychic link to coordinate attacks and multiply their psychic abilities. They also had other abilities such as: minor mind reading to predict attacks, telepathy to share their plans without alerting the enemy, and minor illusion control. As Grand Mole looked at the twins, he found that the tail of the dragon was in the hands of one of them. This made it much more lethal than his earth dragon.

As the sword dragon also doubled as a whip, it could be controlled manually while also receiving a constant stream of energy injected into it.

"They played me!" Before he realized it, his earth dragon was already destroyed. He quickly put up a building-sized earth wall and prepared to escape by quickly diving into the ground. In an instant he had covered a hundred meters deep underground as if he was a mole. However, before he could burrow further, a great pressure came from behind him causing him to perspire despite the rain and cold.

The sword dragon had smashed his earth wall defense before following him deep underground while cutting apart the earth with slashes of sharp knife energy. Its might was unbelievable.

"Aaaaargh!"

A pitiful scream was heard from deep underground piercing through the rain all the way into the sky. The sword dragon had swallowed Grand Mole whole. He could not escape the dragon's maw! As the dragon moved around in the rain, its body seemed to compress and decompress as blood flowed from the gaps in between the knives forming its jaw and neck.

Seeing this, everyone knew that Grand Mole who had mostly been known for his escape techniques was dead.

Apart from [Grand Mole], the last of the 'Middle-men' in the 12 Martyrs of Death assassin team was also embroiled in a risky battle. Standing opposite [Wind Walker Swift Gale] was Kato's uncle, a Hidden Elder in the royal family called Ficho. The remnants of the royal family in Sese had their own hierarchy starting from Grand Matriarchs like Granny Kena, followed by Hidden Elders, Supreme Elders, Core Elders, and finally the Young Elders.

In terms of authority, Hidden Elders possessed the most power under the Matriarchs. However, their position was not acknowledged in the royal clan registry and all their meetings and plans had to be done in secret. All the Hidden Elders had to live in hiding as they were the secret weapons of the waning royal family.

Before rising to the position of a Hidden Elder, a Supreme Elder had to show outstanding strength and gain great accomplishments. They would then proceed to sever their ties with the mortal world by faking their deaths. This was a practice that Kato hated a lot as it signified their family's weakness and decline.

"We are still weak. However, I promise you that I will let you see the light of day again in your lifetime. You will be able to go home with your head held up high and enjoy life with your family." Remembering Kato's promise to him, the Hidden Elder Ficho could not help but be impassioned as he clashed against the Wind Walker.