33 Chapter 33 – Deadly Battle

Blood claw's both hands bulged and it became dark red, like it was covered by a layer of blood.

Zhu Xuan now understood why he was called blood claw and he felt danger screaming in his mind when facing Blood claw.

He slashed a cross with his daggers at blood claw's hand with a probing attack and found it didn't even leave a mark in his hand. He realised Blood claw must have trained this technique to a higher realm than the leaders, and only way to injure him is to avoid his hands and attack other places. He really wished he had his twin dragons with him to test whether blood claw's hands are stronger or his swords were sharper.

He started using his techniques to find a way to get past Blood claw's hands and injure him, but Blood claw was faster than him; he moved aside and attacked his shoulders. Zhu Xuan side stepped and gained distance and realised Blood claw is faster than him in his movement technique.

They both stopped and looked at each other. Blood claw felt Zhu Xuan is strong and he asked in his hard tone "Who are you young man? Why are you attacking our stronghold?"

Zhu Xuan also felt Blood claw is strong and more troublesome then he thought. He understood blood claw is also practising a Wind element movement technique and he reached completion level. He also still doesn't know anything about the absurdly strong claw technique performed by these bandits.

But, he calmed down. He believed high cultivation levels and techniques don't always decide the winner of the fight. So he replied with a sarcastic tone "Dead man doesn't need to know the details"

"Arrogant bastard" Blood claw shouted in anger and charged towards Zhu Xuan.

Zhu Xuan again brought his dagger aiming at blood claw's hand ready to attack, but when blood claw got close to him, he suddenly crouched and sidestepped. He used his full strength and slashed with his dagger at the side of his leg. There was only a clang sound and it only left a shallow wound with blood slightly trickling. Zhu Xuan rolled, got up and moved away from blood claw in shock.

He thought "Isn't it they can only strengthen their hands. But how is his body also so strong? Wait, it's not right. If he practiced with his whole body, his body should have bulged out like his hands and turned red."

Suddenly he thought of a possibility and exclaimed loudly "You are a two element cultivator practising with wind and metal."

Zhu Xuan heard there are some rare techniques to strengthen your body used by metal element cultivators, making your skin hard like metal. He never would have thought he will come across someone who practiced such technique and now he know why Blood claw's body is also so strong. He was planning to finish the battle soon, but now he realised this is going to be a long battle.

He suddenly felt danger from behind him when he was thinking of his next move, he used his movement technique and dodged, but Blood claw suddenly appeared behind him and slashed with his claw attack. He tried to move in front to dodge the attack but he still received an injury and flew few meters away. Thanks to his Earth Qi protection, it was not a severe wound.

He got up and saw it was Tiger claw's attack he dodged first, and found tiger claw and more than ten people with pale faces standing in the distance. It looks like they were all affected by the poison. He cursed himself for focusing too much in the fight and not even realising the arrival of these bandits.

Blood claw spoke with a cold tone when Zhu Xuan steadied himself "Looks like you also practice more than one element like me, but you are still weak and there are more people now to attack you. This is the end of the line for you."

Zhu Xuan didn't say anything and maintained his silence. He was thinking of a battle plan to face all these people with no success.

Blood claw then turned and asked his people with pale face "What happened to you all and where are the rest of our people?"

One of the bandit replied in an aggrieved tone "Everyone else is dead commander. The poison was too potent and they didn't stand a chance. We also would have died if we didn't have some antidotes with us."

Zhu Xuan laughed out loud when he heard that and thought "Didn't expect that few random poisonous herbs I mixed would be this effective. Now then, only the people with antidotes for poison would have lived and looking at their face, they clearly still haven't recovered."

Blood claw roared in anger when he heard everyone else is dead. He shouted at Zhu Xuan "I'm going to skin you alive and torture you for days before killing you."

Zhu Xuan didn't say anything and got ready to fight. He knew even though many bandits have died and only few left, he was still in a critical situation having to face attack from both sides now. Blood claw and the surviving bandits worked well together and Zhu Xuan's got in a disadvantageous situation.

When he dodge from Blood claw's attack and try to attack him back, he will receive attacks from behind him from the other bandits. And blood claw will use that dodging time to launch another attack on him. Zhu Xuan tried to change his tactic and attack Tiger claw and other bandits, but Blood claw didn't let him disengage from him.

So he could only dodge continuously avoiding the attacks from both sides. But suddenly, he saw a hand reaching for his head. He didn't realise Tiger claw sneaked without him noticing and suddenly launched an attack. He tried to dodge and at the same time trying to form few layers of Earth elemental Qi, but he was hit by Tiger claw and flew a distance away and fell upside down.

He got up unsteadily with blood flowing from his head. He used his movement technique and increased further distance away from them. He cleared his head and suddenly a thought hit him. He cursed out loudly "You fucking idiot"

He charged again towards the confused and angered Blood claw. The bandits were wondering why he was cursing them idiots all of a sudden. When he got close, he suddenly sheathed his dagger and formed a lightning net using both his hands and covered Blood claw without giving him a chance to escape. Blood claw was shocked to find Zhu Xuan was hiding another element and that too a rare Lightning element, but he wasn't bothered by it and thought trying to entrap him was a stupid idea.

But something unexpected happened the next moment. He felt extreme pain inside his body when the net touched him; he fell down and started convulsing.

Everyone else was shocked at this sudden change, and Tiger claw shouted "What did you do to our commander?"

Zhu Xuan looked at Tiger claw and felt little thankful to him. He has been fighting with full pressure and blood rushed to his head and he was not able to think clearly during the fight. But from Tiger claw's attack, his blood rush cleared from his head and he was able to think clearly.

That's when he remembered a simple concept back from Earth that Metal conduct Electricity and Blood claw practising Metal technique, and made his skin with metal Qi is the perfect conductor of his Lightning Qi. It will absorb the lightning Qi and damage his internal organs directly, multiple times more than a direct attack from normal attacks. That is the reason Blood claw is in terrible pain and convulsing in the ground, and Zhu Xuan cursing himself as an idiot for not thinking such a simple concept earlier.

Zhu Xuan simply smiled and charged towards the other bandits. He know Blood claw will recover soon and he needs to kill the others before he recovers. Since they were already weakened by the poison, they didn't pose him any danger and he easily killed all of them. There was only Tiger claw standing with an enraged face apart from the still convulsing Blood claw.

Zhu Xuan charged towards Tiger claw with his daggers, but what he didn't expect was he didn't dodge or defend himself and instead rushed towards the dagger. As soon as the dagger entered his chest, Tiger claw used his remaining energy and attacked Zhu Xuan's hand with full force with his hand. Zhu Xuan heard a crushing sound and reeled back leaving a heavily injured Tiger claw who was laughing maniacally.

Zhu Xuan realised his bones were not just broken, but crushed and will take a long time for it to heal. In anger, he moved in front of still laughing Tiger claw's and sliced his head off.

He calmed down and looked at Blood claw recovering from the lightning Qi damage and slowly trying to stand. He must have been severely injured internally, but Zhu Xuan is not any better. He is bleeding from his head and there are numerous injuries all over his body, and he can only use one hand to fight now.

Zhu Xuan charged towards blood claw with determination and shouting "Let's end this now."