Karn was also surprised at what he had seen. He was not able to see Dean with his ethereal eye but his other vision thru his senses was able to see a figure covered with ki head to toe, slowly making his way behind him.
'He must have been invisible' Karn understood when Dean came out of invisibility. If he still had normal eyes he would have probably been killed by the man.
"What a interesting technique. But you met the wrong person this time!" said the smiling Karn as he moved quickly towards Dean.
Dean who saw the approaching Old man decided to use his invisibility again.
'This old man is blind so he must have a technique to see others and through my invisibility.' Dean was able to obtain the 'myriad mirror martial art' and 'Fire fist martial art' by chance when he found a dead body of a student from the Dragon meteor Sect. If not for the lucky find him and Ban would never have been able to become the quasi bandit leaders of the group.
Karn decided to use his full speed comparable to a first tier martial warrior (50) and the heavenly thief technique to chase down Dean down before he could escape and use Ban to cover for him again.
Dean did not expect the old man to be so fast. As soon as Karn used his full speed he was caught off guard expecting the old man to be as strong as him if not slightly stronger. The speed Karn had just displayed was definitely comparable to the Bandit leader he had seen countless times.
Just as Karn was about to take Dean's head Ban barely made his way between the two. Ban's fiery fist made his way towards Karn's face but just as they hit Karn's body instantly dissipated like mist like before.
"NOO! Dean run!" Ban realized what had just happened and just as he turned around looking towards Dean. He saw the horrifying sight of his friend's arm being cut off. Karn had tried to kill Dean but the latter was able to sacrifice his arm for his life.
"Shit this old man is truly strong!" Dean said barely escaping with his life from the attack. He held his arm heavily with a gloomy face.
Today was truly a misfortunate day. Not only had he met a cultivator who had a direct counter to his technique but he had also lost his arm. If he did not get any treatment soon he would die to blood loss.
Ban looked at Dean understanding the situation and decidedly stood before Karn. His fire fist technique being used at max capacity.
"I will take care of him, go get the leader Dean!" Ban said to Dean ready to take care of his friend.
Dean nodded and turned invisible and ran as fast as he could towards the cave entrance while holding the massive wound where his arm used to be.
Ban looked at Karn with eyes full of determination.
"You will have to get over my dead body to get to him now!" said Ban with a smile.
"It is a shame I have to kill you." Sighed Karn. The man in front of him was willing to sacrifice himself for his friend. People like this were hard to find even in the normal world let alone the cultivation world.
'If not for this darned mission I would have just let them live' He had been able to live in the Nam war due to a friend too. It made his heart ache for what he had to do.
Karn moved using his full speed and illusions to fight. Karn's speed was much higher than Ban who was a measly 2nd tier martial warrior. Moreover his stats were not geared towards agility causing a massive disadvantage for Ban.
Wounds stacked up on Ban's body but he could nothing about them unless he wanted to die. His speed was clearly lower than Karn's so the only thing he could do was wait for Dean to bring the Bandit leader.
'This old man is sweating a lot, If I can keep him going I can just exhaust him.' As the fight continued Ban became more confident that he could win if he just exhausted Karn.
Karn also knew what was going on, he was going to run of breath in 1-3 mins if they kept going. He needed to make a decisive strike or he would lose this fight. Ban was injured but it would take 5 more minutes at this rate to kill him. Not mentioning the Bandit leader who Dean had left to call.
As they fought Karn had also noticed another thing. He could see every movement in Ban's muscles and vision changes when they fought. He had wounded Ban a few times already due to this ability.
'If I can predict his next action using this skill I can kill him before they come back' Karn decided and tried to study the movement of muscles and actions while he fought. His 50 intelligence helped him do this very quickly.
----
Ban saw the old man coming towards him again. He punched out but pulled back just in time and looked around waiting for an attack.
'If I throw a feint and bring it back just in time he will have to use an illusion and I can block his attack.' A strange thing had happened this time though. When he threw a feint towards the old man, the body of the old man did not disappear like before.
'Shit! hes the real one!' Ban quickly retreated. As soon as he retreated the old man's figure was behind him.
"How did he know what I was going to do!?" Said Ban but before he could run or block Karn's dagger had already made a deep wound on the man's back.
Karn quickly threw more strikes with the dagger after the first one causing Ban's mangled body to tip over on the ground.
Ban's eyes became lifeless soon after as he laid on the ground. He had died.
*Gained 5 Ability Points*
A blue window popped up as soon as Ban died. And then another one popped up.
*Gained 5 Ability Points*
Karn had gained 10 ability points as soon as Ban died.