Chapter 44: The Crossed Sword

　　"I know you, Alan. Top of the rankings, winning people over with your pretty face ..." The boy raised his alloy battle knife and said with half-smiled eyes, "But do you really think that you can ... "

　　A whistling sound suddenly broke his words.

　　The boy's talk turned sharply into a scream, panic and anger flashed in his eyes, while his eyes were filled with Alan's chopping blade. He didn't expect Allen to hit him as soon as he said he would, and without even letting him finish his sentence, Mad Butcher had already posted up with a regal whine!

　　Alan's gaze was cold, and his pupils were like gorgeous rubies emitting a faint glow. Looking into his eyes, it was like seeing a piece of floating red liquid, as intoxicating as red wine and as terrifying as blood! What mesmerized the heart was his beautiful eyes, what made people's hearts palpitate was the merciless killing intent at this moment!

　　He slashed three times in a row!

　　When dang dang dang, three loud and clear to the point of clashing sounds rang out one by one.

　　In the first cut, the boy gave the chop three steps backward; in the second cut, the boy's tiger's mouth was violently cracked, and blood flowed out; in the third cut, the alloy battle knife chipped off a corner on the sharp edge, and several cracks spread out on the smooth surface of the knife, making the boy's face that was reflected on the knife body look horrified.

　　Alan slashed three times, and the boy retreated nine steps in a row. For a while, his arms were sore and numb, his body's qi and blood flew, and his source power screamed and pounded in his veins like a wild horse out of control. At this time, Allen dragged his greatsword to help him run and leap up. Mad Butcher popped up and swung a black arc of light in mid-air from back to front. Allen's eyes exploded with essence, and the source power vortexes in his body vibrated and sped dramatically. The three vortexes surged through the veins of his arms like meteors rushing blood to his palms, consecutively colliding together before reaching their destinations, erupting with tremendous power to propel Mad Butcher.

　　Like a sleeping ferocious beast awakening, Mad Butcher's blade trembled sharply, letting out a low buzzing sound as it suddenly accelerated!

　　A pitch-black lunar arc flashed across the boy's body, although he held his battle sword in a deadlocked position to block. But Allen's power-stored strike had blasted him back several meters. The boy kept retreating backward, leaving a blood splatter behind with every step he took. He only stood still after retreating three meters in a row. The boy's eyes were wide open as he looked down at the battle sword. A hideous crack in the blade's body suddenly stretched out and crossed the blade's body. With a click, the battle knife split in two. It turned out that it was because Allen's knife just now accurately chopped on the chipping of the previous battle knife that the alloy battle knife was chopped into two!

　　The boy's body swayed, blood coming out of his eyes, nostrils and mouth all at the same time. He looked at Alan and tried to say something. But his throat was filled with blood and he only made a few "gurgling" sounds before falling to the ground, already dead.

　　The young girl next to her watched all of this dumbfounded, from Alan grabbing the first attack, to finally ending his companion's life with a stunning slash, all of this happened in just a short moment. The change was so fast that she couldn't support him in time, and the boy was slashed to death by Alan's four connected slashes.

　　Alan coldly looked at the remaining girl, and with his new victory, he managed to stun the young girl and buy himself time to regain his breath. The seemingly simple attack just now was actually extremely exhausting. Especially the last slash, a large amount of source power swept through like a wild horse galloping, making the blood vessels in his arm along with the small half of his shoulder numb and rise, making it very difficult to bear.

　　That was because his body strength was not yet able to adapt to this level of source power impact, and this was only the impact force of three vortices. One could imagine how terrifying the impact on his body would be when driving nine vortexes to collide with each other, and it was no wonder that Hughton had said that impacting the barrier with the power of nine vortexes was really not a good idea.

　　The young girl finally came back to her senses, and she seemed to look at Allen with fear as she kept shaking her head and said, "Don't kill me."

　　Alan also calmed down the effects of the overly huge source impact on his body as he calmly looked at the young girl, "You should know that there are only four people who can leave here alive."

　　"I know." The young girl nodded desperately, "So you see, I can help you kill Lucien. Of course, that's one more person. If I had my choice, I'd kill Mike. He and you had a grudge in the first place, didn't you? Oh, and he doesn't look too good either ..."

　　The young girl looked in Lucien's direction, and Allen seemed to be affected by her, turning his head towards Fatty. In this moment of his distraction, the young girl's gaze suddenly became stern, and she rushed up with great speed, popping out a dagger in each hand. The left dagger was thrown out first, aiming straight for Alan's face. Just as she thought, Allen looked back with a shocked and angry expression, dodging the dagger that acted as a flying prop in a bit of panic.

　　Ellen's reaction, her evasive maneuvers were all in the young girl's calculations. She had already taken the opportunity to approach, her dagger wiping towards Allen's neck. In this moment of victory, the great joy made her unable to resist saying out of her mouth, "Idiot, I lied ..."

　　At the end of her words, the young girl suddenly felt a coldness in her chest, and then the surging power in her body seemed to quickly diarrhea out of her body along with this coldness. She looked down and saw that Alan's Mad Butcher was pressing against her. The Berserk Butcher was a square shaped blade with no tip. However, at this time, the lines on its blade lit up, and the activated energy blade penetrated the young girl's thin body, cutting off all the blood vessels and internal organs in her body!

　　The dagger in the young girl's hand was only one blade position away from Allen's neck. It was then that she saw that Ellen's eyes were calm, not at all like someone who was panicking.

　　"I lied to you too." Alan said softly, withdrawing his source power as the pattern of the Mad Buttons resumed its darkness. He reached out and pushed the young girl to the ground. It was then that a red line gradually appeared on the girl's chest, followed by blood staining her blouse.

　　"Ah!"

　　"No!"

　　Two screams rang out at the same time, and as Alan looked, the screams came from Mike and Verne.

　　Mike was really no match for the fat man, and Lucien had a military spike lodged in his shoulder, which was supposed to be Mike's weapon. But Mike gave Lucien a smashing blow to the ground, the huge impact made the not-so-strong teenager unable to get up for a moment, and Lucien laughed even harder as he sat down hard on top of him. The fat man's weight combined with the deliberate strike nearly sat Mike's spine down, causing him to let out a yelp of pain.

　　On the other side, Verne found an opportunity for Anse to close in. Anse passed his hands under Venn's armpits and looped his neck in reverse to keep Venn immobile. Lucy took the opportunity to fire a point-blank shot, accurately putting a bullet hole in Verne's forehead, spraying Anse with blood.

　　Seeing that Verne was being finished off, Lucien stifled a grunt and caught Mike's head in his fat hand and twisted it with force. With a click, Mike's neck snapped and his head hung down helplessly.

　　This came as a surprise to Allen, who glanced towards Anse thoughtfully, and then lifted Berserk Butcher upside down. With his body leaning forward, he rushed towards the fat man. But before he could get close to Lucien, a beam of light fell from the sky and crossed the ground in front of Allen. The rising heat met his face, and Allen couldn't help but stop his stance. The ground had already made a scorched black mark ten centimeters deep, and the white smoke rising from it told Alan that the beam also had a high heat effect.

　　"It ends here." Alstair's voice rang out again from the cube, "You guys put on a surprisingly good show, and the energy shields only dropped two notches before you've already split the difference. Not bad, but rules are rules, and when I say four can leave, it's never three. So, boys, grab your rewards where they belong and get outta here. For the next 24 hours, you can rest for a while. I promise, there will be absolutely no dangerous species in your sight."

　　Allen could only put away the Mad Slaughter unwillingly, it wasn't that he wanted to avenge Mike. It was just that one less opponent like Lucien was one less, especially when the fat man's physical and energy power had all gone down now, it was a perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, the committee did not allow him to do so.

　　Lucien arrogantly flashed his middle finger at Allen and grinned again, shaking Mike's head, "Look at this guy, he's your downfall."

　　"You should be glad the committee intervened, or there would be one more body lying on the ground right now." Allen returned the greeting coldly, then walked over to the cube and picked up two injections from the robotic arm.

　　One was tossed to Lucy who approached, and both of them stuck needles into their arms, after pressing all the nanobots inside into their bodies. Alan nodded to Lucy, and the two chose to leave to the east. As they stepped out of the energy shield, the dangerous species around them naturally parted to form a passageway. The nanobots were already working, allowing the two of them to pass through this beastly corridor without any danger.

　　Climbing onto the shore of the lake, Alan glanced in the direction of the island in the lake. Anse was waving goodbye to him, and Alan shook his head, pulling Lucy away.

　　"Lucien ..." Anse picked up the injection that belonged to him just after the two Allen's had left. Lucien had finished his injection and was about to leave when Anse called out to him.

　　"What? You want a fight with me?" Lucien narrowed his eyes.

　　Anse smiled, "No, I think it's time we joined forces."

　　"With you?" Lucien looked disdainful.

　　"Yeah, with me." Anse was all smiles, "You should be thanking me, if I hadn't been dragging my feet on the kill, Verne would have had to be on his way a long time ago. By the time Lucy and I teamed up on you, do you think you'd have time to kill Mike?"

　　Lucien's expression froze, then slowly opened his eyes. As if he was recognizing Anse for the first time, he looked him over carefully, "You're not on Allen's side, so why are you doing this?"

　　Anse sighed and said, "It's called a situation. As you can see, Allen and Lucy teamed up. They're a good combination, and if I kill you, I'm bound to have to pick Mike. But honestly, I can't see this guy."

　　"So you see, there's your power, plus my mind." Anse nodded towards his head, "Alan and the rest of them would be insufficient in this combination. Or would you prefer to go one on three?"

　　Lucien smacked his big mouth, "Only a fool would do such a thing, alright Anse, we're partners. But don't blame me if you try to make bad water on me before you take out Alan."

　　"Of course not." Anse looked sincere.