The dark cloaked man had a hood covering his head, his face was a cavern of darkness, it was as if there was no head under the cloak's hood just darkness. Everyone reflexively took a backward step as the man appraised the environment and evaluated the people stood before him, his stare stopped on each individual for just a split second.
He had an aura of black surrounding his body, it looked like a heat haze in the middle of the summer months which made the outline of his body seem blurry.
The man had no aura of power but a creepiness overcame all in his presence. He had the aura of death wreaking off him like the pungent scent of the unclean.
Tingles ran down Hartley's spine, unlike the rest, he had heard about the things this devil had gotten up to, but hearing and seeing were two different things and now seeing this character for himself, Hartley was in no doubt about the evil the merchants had spoken about.
The dark hood stopped turning his head and faced the direction of Lou Ang, then a croaky voice like metal grinding against metal spoke
"What a deliciously evil soul you have got, I want it."
Everyone looked on in puzzlement, then a black as jet sword appeared in the right hand of the cloaked man. He made a simple thrust forward. Whizzz! a black sword light flew out curving one way then arching the other in the shape of an 'S', Lou Ang who had a brown light protecting his body from neck to toes eyes bulged as he flung himself to the left in evasion.
The black sword light with the thickness of about an adult's wrist crashed through the brown screen protecting Lou Ang without a lick of resistance.
Lou Ang was moving to the left in a desperate attempt to avoid the strike but he was too slow, his body went rigid when the black sword-light left a gash on his right shoulder. The sword light behaved more like a whip than a conventional sword technique.
Blood trickled down Lou Ang's shoulder to his elbow then dripped down towards the dirt, the black sword light then went taut like a fishing line reeling in a strong fish, everyone gasped as they saw a pale ghost-like replica of Lou Ang being pulled forward from his body attached to the weird sword light.
Lou Ang's body stood ramrod straight as the ghost like apparition was being pulled from his body by the black sword light which now eerily resembled a black shadow tentacle, Lou Ang's real body didn't make a sound but the ghost-like replica being pulled out screamed and wailed with gut wrenching sounds like a wraith being punished in hell by the devil himself, that scene left sweat pouring off the other core disciples like a a fancy water fountain.
What was happening before everyone's eyes was unfathomable, in a panic and with eyes glazed with fright, Lou Tai started to frenetically blow the signal whistle given by the Lou clan, he was blowing the thing like it was a life saving device.
Lou Rylai clasped her hands while backing away with slow steps, reciting "Holy Matriarch have mercy, Holy matriarch have mercy" her voice cracking like a panicked goose.
Qin Li was no different the fright on his mature face made him look like a different person altogether while he too took slow steps backwards.
Hartley while also in mild shock, pulled himself together, retrieved one of his last two throwing knives left in his space ring and threw it out with gravity repel applied, the black knife shot out at the speed of light towards the cloaked man. The cloaked hood turned towards Hartley while his whole body morphed into black smoke and floated 5 meters to left, releasing Lou Ang as the knife flew harmlessly pass and off into the distance.
Lou Ang fell smack on his butt as the ghost like replica of him slammed back into his body, now Lou Ang's real body started screaming in terror and trepidation at the top of his lungs, his hands raked through the dirt as he scrambled backwards on his butt, eyes literally as big as a saucer, he had a look of madness over his face as if he wasn't aware of his surroundings.
Hartley shouted in a loud voice bringing everyone back to their senses "everyone prepare to retreat" the cloaked man slowly looked into their eyes and replied "do you think it is that easy to just walk away after killing my followers?" he cocked his head to the side at an angle as if he had asked himself a question which stumped him.
Hartley retrieved both his swords, this was serious, he felt in mortal danger. If the forest was open space he would have flashed a thousand meters away from here in a single breath already and leave those from the Lou clan to their own fates. He had a good impression of Qin Li but not enough to die for, if only he hadn't neglected his star feet movement technique he regretted.
Even so, he was still working his mind for escape routes, he would rather slice his own wrist before having his soul eaten.
Apparently Hartley wasn't the only one thinking about a quick escape from this devil, Every one's neck snapped around looking in every direction, making calculations in their minds. Hartley gritted his teeth and shouted
"Lou Rylai quickly heal Lou Ang and fall back"
Lou Tai was still blowing the signal whistle, he must have been hoping for a rescue squad. Hartley knew they were twenty miles into the forest and hundreds of miles from the Waltham province, the leader Lou Tai had lost his marbles, he would be of little use in the upcoming battle.
As Lou Rylai moved in the direction of Lou Ang, the cloaked man made his move, with lightning speed he blurred into a black shadow and appeared in front of Lou Ang, Lou Rylai backed off in fear without dare attacking the devil standing in front of her.
The cloaked man said "I'll save you for later, I want to take my time with you." he then punched out with his left free hand blasting Lou Ang away about ten meters. Lou Ang shrieked in pain, white bone shards showed, poking out through his collar and right shoulder mixed with bright red blood squirting out and staining his robes, Lou Ang took a look at his right shoulder, then his eyes rolled back leaving only the whites showing and he fainted.
Hartley made his move, he flashed over in front of Lou Rylai and slashed with his silver blade, a slash from middle to high-right, the cloaked man blurred and move to his left, Hartley's silver blade passed through thin air as the cloaked man reformed from his blurred state a couple meters away and thrust out his black blade, Hartley deduced that if the black sword light drew blood it would also try and capture your soul.
The sword light wriggled like a living thing, letting out howls and screams of the damned. Hartley went into state of focus, slashed diagonally from low to high-right with his red short sword and parried the black sword light with a clang, the black sword light shot pass Hartleys left shoulder and traveled about 3 meters before curling back aiming towards his back.
Hairs stood on end on the back of Hartley, he used gravity steps and maneuvered himself 3 meters pass the cloaked man, moving with gravity steps to such a short distant was no different from a teleport, he then produced an overhead strike, his silver blade with 20x gravity applied, the sword chopped down with the pressure of mountains.
The cloaked man blurred and moved just as fast, he was now where Hartley had just left. Hartley's sword touched the ground and it exploded flinging away the fainted body of Lou Ang.
Lou Tai ran off in the direction of the forest still blowing that blasted whistle. With a frantic face Lou Tai was often peeping over his left shoulder with wide eyes. The cloaked man moved in Lou Tai direction, Hartley moved behind him just as fast and slashed out horizontally with his red short blade glowing blue. The cloaked man blurred to the right five meters, stopping his forward momentum.
Lou Rylai now made her move in the opposite direction from Lou Tai, she too disappeared into the north of the forest faster than she had ever moved in her life.
Qin Li stood his ground and approached the battle between Hartley and the cloaked man hoping to give his support in the battle.
Hartley quickly formulated his battle plan, From the exchanges between him and the cloaked man, he had figured out the blurred state of the cloaked man was just a dodging technique and not a long distance movement technique... this was important.
Hartley applied his maximum 300 meter gravity field of 30x gravity, Qin Li fell to his knees with a scream, the big wooden building standing in the middle of the flat valley, had its 3rd floor collapsed into its 2nd floor, which then collapsed into the first floor which then flattened with an explosion of dust.
The horses at the make shift stable all fell on their side flat and couldn't get up. The cloaked man visibly slowed. Hartley's red sword glowing blue slashed at the slowed target, he blurred and moved five meters to this left. Gravity didn't affect his blurred state but he could at most move about ten meters in that state and Hartley had anticipated that, in fact he was counting on it.
The cloaked man re-materialized and swung out with his black sword, this time sending out two tentacle like black sword-lights. Hartley knew this meant the cloaked man was fearing for his own safety now.
This moment was exactly what Hartley was waiting for. Hartley released his gravity field which immediately released the pressure on Qin Li and the horses, then within a split second, the color bled from the world around them, everything now resembled a pencil sketch on white canvas.
The scene froze in front of Hartley's eyes.
This was monochrome, the seedling of Hartley's time domain, this was when time would come to a complete stop 15 meters in radius around Hartley for 2 seconds. The double black sword-light froze as it reached out.
The world exploded with detail. Feverish, creepy, mind-bending detail. Hartley could see every dust molecule in its frozen state and there wasn't a sound to be heard, everything was silent. Blue electric streaks exploded around Hartley's ankles, the blue sparks in a monochrome world made a drastic contrast between Hartley and the muted frozen world.
Hartley reached the front of the cloaked man frozen in time and with both swords glowing an Sapphire blue, he swung a high horizontal slash with his silver sword, aimed from high left to high right aimed at the mans shoulder, as soon as the blade touch the man's shoulder time restarted and the blade went through him without resistance, then his red sword swung from mid right to mid left going through the man above his waist.
The cloaked man body separated, both of his hands fell to the ground as the top part of the man's head and shoulder flew away, there was not much blood spilling, then the second strike separated his mid section leaving a black aura swirling out of his body with howls, shrieks and screams before quickly rising to the sky in a black column of light..