Sam is surrounded by all the remaining Astral Plane cultivators of the Kala tribe.
But his attention is on the second elder.
He is not ready to attack for some reason. Sam activated energy vision, but he could gain little because of that guy's superior cultivation, but there is a speculation in his mind.
He didn't wait anymore and made the first move. His body is covered in shadow energy as he channeled it through the shadow sword.
[Finally, I get a chance to taste some blood. I think you should be this pissed off more often] The sword spirit sent a message to Sam which he ignored blatantly and jumped at the nearest barbarian.
The barbarian who could see Sam clearly became confused when he neared him. The shadow looked like a shadow as if it in intangible and fluid, he doesn't know where he has to block, but before he could comprehend, the shadow sword sliced on his body leaving a large scar.
*BOOM*
A small explosion of spiritual energy due to the void style made the cut bigger as the shadow energy crept into his body and internal organs.
By the time the energy reactions stopped and the rest could see what happened, they saw the barbarian rolling on the floor twitching as his body slowly gained these black patterns all over him.
This is shadow corruption. The same thing happened to Sam years ago when he escaped from the Beast faction to shadow transverse. He only managed to overcome that because of the shadow element within his body.
But the barbarians don't have any elements.
They can only take it all in and submit to the corruption of their own bodies as they experienced the soul-searing pains and labors their body is subjected to.
Sam finished the first target in one slash and he moved to the next one. He didn't levitate anymore. He just jumped around like a shadow and slashed the barbarians one after the other.
The numbers are dwindling and the second elder is still not doing anything about it. The Barbarians are dying like flies.
Many people who escaped the city because of Dhar's reminder saw this and their mouths went dry. Their Kala tribe has always been strong and tyrannical.
There is no such thing as rival for them in the barbarian realm. Even though there are some equally large tribe, the Kala tribe stood out among them completely crushing the rest.
This is the first time they are watching the barbarian tribe ground to dust by a single person.
Sam is like shadow of death as he slashed them one by one.
While he is slashing them down, his left arm is not ildle. The arm which was covered with the thunder prison and looked like a robotic arm is creating a shield made of condensed lightning as he defended the attacks of the rest of the barbarians.
After the first initial ten deaths, the barbarians are afraid. Sam stood there with the cold breeze brushing past his blood-soaked body and the lightning shield on his hand crackling as it amplified his shadow form.
For the first time ever, the whole race is afraid of one man this much. They didn't expect that Sam would be this strong.
This also gave them a new understanding of Dhar's strength, because that guy clashed with the monster right in front of him for a long time.
While they are taking in the effect of Sam's work, Sam is thinking something else. His body is taking the toll of using the shadow sword.
The sword was not something he could wield like he wielded the reaper sword or the executioner sword. He was fascinated to know this. He thought he would be able to wield it at the Consummate stage, but the power of the sword is beyond that.
Even the Astral Plane Initiation might not be enough and he is only at the initial state.
He would have to take some rest after this or he could think of ideas to alleviate the physical toll.
He is trying to stand to just do that.
While he is looking at them with that intimidating death glare the wood elemental energy which is not as eye-catching as the light elemental energy is healing the muscle tissues of the right hand.
But the Barbarians who are struck by the fear didn't just stand there for long. They started attacking him as soon as they got out of their shock.
Sam moved his left hand. The lightning shield expanded and it completely surrounded his whole body like a cage and blocked one attack after another.
Not a single attack went through and Sam went on another slashing. Even though all the physical pain he is enduring, Sam has one advantage, the shadow sword only needs one perfect slash to end a man and if he couldn't defend the strike, he wouldn't be able to defend against the corruption of the shadow energy.
While is Sam is killing them left and right, there is something else that is making him more concerned. It is the fact that the second elder is not exactly attacking him.
By now he killed around fifteen members of the remaining Astral Plane cultivators and he is pretty sure that he would be able to kill another ten or so without any resistance.
And he knew this because he is targeting all the Initial stage Initiation and the Middle stage Initiation stage cultivation.
Then he would have to fight a little more to kill the rest and he is sure that he would be able to kill the Second elder if he took some more power out of that sword.
If he could put it directly, the barbarians have no hope, but the second elder shouldn't be knowing that, so he shouldn't be standing there passively while Sam destroyed his forces. Something else is going on here and he has to know what it is.
So, he stopped his attacks on the small fries and moved to attack the Second elder directly.
He kicked the ground and got ready to stab his sword right in his eyes.
The second elder dodged to the side, but the thunder prison on Sam's hand suddenly extended and it acted like a metallic power hammer and hit him in the guts with a large amount of lightning energy.
The second elder flew across the air and when Sam was about to follow up the right-hand man of this second elder came and attacked him.
The thunder prison extended once again and acted like a pincer. Sam blocked the attack with his sword and used the lightning pincer to pin the guy to the ground before stabbing the sword into his neck, but he forcefully moved to the side and took the full brunt of the attack on the shoulder.
He is a peak stage Astral Plane Initiation cultivator and he is one of the five that could resist the corruption a bit.
But Sam didn't want to give him the chance to do that and was about to stab him once again, but the other parties are not exactly willing to give him that chance.
The remaining three out of the strongest five here came at Sam from three sides, so he has to let go of that guy and defend himself.
But he is still focused on going after the Second elder.
He didn't stop at all and only dealt with the remaining four when they got in the way. As for the rest of the candidates, they didn't try to interfere.
These five are the only ones who can even defend against the sword and they are happy to not get it in the middle and get slashed.
The second elder mostly focused on dodging and defending than attacking Sam while the remaining four focused so much on stopping him which only made them get the shocks by the lightning and stabs from the Shadow sword which is increasing the corruption slowly.
The second elder looked at Sam with a frustrated look as Sam just used the thunder prison like a pile bunker and slammed one of the four into the ground while continuously stabbing him in the chest.
One of the four finally died, but at the cost of exposing Sam's own body for the attacks of the rest of the three and he spat out some blood in pain.
After one of them dead, Sam used the thunder prison to take another recovery break.
After recovering, he went after the second elder once again and he is once again dodging while the remaining three tried to stop him.
The cycle repeated again and again and finally, Sam managed to slash him on the shoulder.
The second elder looked at him coldly and attacked back with his spear. Sam took the brunt of the attack and crashed to the ground, which he rebounded from with the help of thunder prison to bounce back.
He knew that something is wrong with the Second elder and he just confirmed this attack. The second elder is weak at the moment, it might be a result of something that happened to him, but he is not in his strongest state.
That is why he is not attacking Sam actively because he is afraid of Sam's attacks. But if that is the only case, there is always a surrender that would help him from saving the lives of his tribesmen. But he is completely ignoring their lives, no matter how many of them are dead.
This is all a bit fishy.
