Last Stand

Luckas was dazed, if he was slower by just a fraction he would be the one dead right now, Jothyr who was close to him helped him stand up, Luckas looked at the hopeless villagers inside the cell and lost all focus, the people screaming for help remembered him of his death in the past world.

Luckas gulped and started opening the lock again, now he genuinely wanted to help the villagers trapped as he too knew the agony of dying a hopeless death.

Monark saw Luckas getting up and fidgeting the lock again and started performing a few runes with his hand, the walls of the cell started to glow a bright red color, and wisps of energy started to leave the body of the villagers.

Byrth noticing this attacked Monark, which counterattacked with a punch, Byrth flew and crashed the table. The villagers that were free were terrified but one of the men grabbed a sword that was lying around and pounced at Monark.

Monark gaze grew dark, he was a true cultivator, not someone from the Qi Gathering Realm, and a normal person was daring enough to attack him. He grabbed the man by the neck and squeezed, the man felt his energy being sucked but he steeled his resolve and waved the sword at Monark.

Monark meet the slash without caring, the attacks of a normal person on a body cultivator were nothing much he wanted to absorb the man blood essence he threw the man away and swung a few more blood feathers at Luckas but before he could aim properly, Monark sensed someone approaching him from the side.

Jothyr seeing the attack threw himself and pushed Luckas down, a few more villagers died by the feathers. The villagers inside the cell were desperate and began to scream even more, this affected Luckas mental state but he still got up and started to work on lockpicking again.

-" Fucking bastard, how dare you kill Jean!!" Nicko was enraged that his partner was killed. The two of them were friends from the same village that embarked on the bandit life together.

Seeing that Monark was getting stalled once again Luckas put all his focus on lockpicking, his hands were drenched in the blood of the fallen villagers which made opening the lock harder.

-" What a useless insect, if I knew you guys had failed even to keep a bunch of country bumpkins imprisoned I would give him a death worse than that." Monark kicked Nicko who also was thrown in the distance.

Byrth taking advantage of Nicko attack gathered his remaining energy and launched a punch at Monark, seeing the attack Monark threw the man away and used his hand to block.

As he blocked the attack he felt his hand burn, he looked at Byrth with interest. -" Why is a nobody like you cultivating Eternal Sun Energy?" while Monark looked relaxed this alarmed him, the nemesis of the Heigong was the Eternal Sun Sect, and this young man cultivated a technique from there

Byrth didn't respond and dashed towards him again, he knew he couldn't do much but every little second he could stall the man counted. As Monark prepared to punch Byrth again more people gathered the weapons in the room and started to attack him. While those attacks didn't do much damage, he was already injured and needed to be careful, the energy from Jeffrey attack still was in his body.

Monark dispelled the runes of his left hand and used his two hands to peferm and attack. -" Blood Wave." A red shockwave engulfed the villagers that got close to him. As the smoke of the shockwave dissipated everyone looked at him in fear. Monark was angry, a bunch of insect dared to raise arms against him.

Just as he was preparing another attack Luckas opened the fourth cell. Monark felt even angrier. Him and Dale came here to gather enough people to create a blood core for his master. That is why he didn't hesitate to leave Dale behind to perform the ritual, even if he didn't have enough sacrifices to create a blood core he could at least bring his master a few bloodstones.

Monark felt that he was running out of time, he wanted to massacre all the villagers with his own hands but he didn't know the situation of the battle, and he knew of Dale character, once Monark backed down Dale would run away as soon as possible.

But now it looked like he couldn't bring back even a bloodstone to his master, seeing Luckas rushing towards the last cell he laughed. -" HAHAHA HAHAHA, insects are truly disgusting resisting even in their final moments." He took a crystal from this pocket and looked at Luckas. -" Even if you guys escape from the cell, you all will die here." He bit his hand and chanted. -" Incantation of Hell!". Monark was enraged, he failed on obtaining anything and what made him even angrier was that who stopped him was just a Qi Gathering novice and a bunch of cultivators, if news of this leaked he would be the laughingstock of all the Heigong. "Resist all you want, but every single one of you will die today." He crushed the stone he was holding and his body transformed in light and vanished.

Monark attack caused the room the engulfed by fire, Luckas looked at the fire and panicked, the trauma of his death reemerged, he tried to calm himself but it was useless. Byrth ran away from the fire and looked at it with sad eyes. As he was a cultivator too he knew how diabolic the fire was, people around him found some barrels with water and threw them at the fire but the fire continued to expand.

A few villagers tried running across the fire but they were engulfed and incinerated as soon as they reached the fire. The fire grew stronger as people tried to cross him. Byrth looked at it and felt as if the fire was fueled by Vital Energy, he tried to warn everyone but the situation was too chaotic and nobody paid attention to him.

Luckas finally opened the last cell and faced the fire, images of his death crossed his mind, the hellish heat, the burning air everything was too identical, he even thought that the gods were pranking him, transmigrating after death only to die in the same manner.

Luckas started to tear up and scream for help, he didn't want to die in the same way, he even regretted dodging the cultivator attack, at least he would have a quick death.