The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Andreas had killed Niko with the Ice Fragment Anima. It was a secret only his daughter knew: he was a cultivator.

Andreas stepped over Niko and stood by the bed. After scrutinizing the pillow, he picked up a hair.

Suddenly, the hair disappeared from between his fingers. The village head had used the rather unusual Proximity Hair Anima.

It could only be activated on a person or animal's hair. It would help the user find the hair's owner; the user's hair would stand on end when the target was nearby. For the village head's Rank 1 Anima, his hair would start to rise when Isaac was within 300m. The closer Isaac was, the more his hair would rise. The Anima was strange and had a requirement of needing a strand of hair. However, it was a very effective searching Anima under the correct circumstances.

After securing the piece of hair, the village head left. Minutes later, there was a piercing scream as Seliora found Niko's body. The neighbours were not very happy.

Meanwhile, Andreas was rushing all over the village. He was frantically searching for Isaac, waiting for the Proximity Hair Anima to react. However, it never did. No matter how desperately he looked, it never showed a sign of Isaac.

The village head was exhausted. His breathing problem was made worse by all this running. Eventually, he decided to head back to his house and plan his next move more thoroughly.

It was then. Just as he was heading towards his house, his hair twitched. His previous calm was gone; now he wore a bloodthirsty grin. He moved in a circle, seeing what direction his hair reacted to most. When he went north-east, his hair started to rise higher and higher. Now that revenge was so close, he forgot his previous exhaustion and ran like a cheetah towards his daughter's murderer.

Isaac was lying on a rooftop, observing the village head's house. He'd only seen guards moving around and hadn't spotted the village head even once. Suddenly, he noticed a commotion in the street to his left. A man was charging in his direction, hair on end like he'd been hit by lightning.

Isaac didn't recognise him at first since he'd only heard a vague description of the village head before. However, the ragged breathing and obvious desire to kill told Isaac who it was. He didn't know how the village head had found him, but now wasn't the time to think about it.

He stood up and got ready to run. However, he had to wait for a second first. He couldn't get caught, but he also couldn't completely escape the village head; he needed to bait him towards the tavern. Surprisingly, the village head stopped and raised his arm. There was a flash of blue light from his palm and Isaac felt blood dripping down his arm.

Only then did he realise that an icicle had been fired at him. However, the village head was breathing heavily, making his arm shake and causing his shot to be off-target, just grazing Isaac instead of hitting him directly.

Isaac was stunned; it was apparent the village head was a cultivator. His cautious nature told him to escape since he hadn't planned for this. On the other hand, his logic told him this was the best chance he'd get. The village head was sick and obviously exhausted. If he could injure him with the glass trap, he'd have a chance.

By now the village head was near enough. Isaac ran at a moderate pace across the rooftop and jumped to the next one. Looking back, he saw the village head climb onto the roof he had been on.

Two more icicles went whistling past Isaac, but he'd expected these so he managed to dodge completely. The village head quickly realised he couldn't hit Isaac and stopped firing since continuing would only be wasting his Qi.

The chase continued across the village's rooftops. Isaac was quicker but he never escaped even though he could have. The village head realised he was being baited after a short period of chasing, but he didn't care. He just wanted his revenge. In fact, he started to slow down when he saw Isaac wasn't escaping. He knew Isaac wouldn't run away so he slowed down to conserve energy.

When they reached Isaac's trap, the village head wasn't as tired as Isaac would have liked. He might actually have recovered a little energy.

Isaac dropped down and grabbed the roof edge with his fingers. Then he kicked off the wall and jumped over the rows of glass he'd left there. A small cloud of dust was kicked up when he landed in the alley.

The village head appeared on the roof a few seconds later, looking down at Isaac and smirking. He already knew Isaac was leading him somewhere so he expected an ambush or a trap. In that case, he would much rather stay on the roof and fire icicles at Isaac.

"She looked really peaceful before I killed her. Imagine the life she had ahead of her... inheriting the village, marrying a good husband, living happily and successfully with a family. But no, your decisions and my actions cut all of that short. Now she's gone to join your wife in the nether realm. I bet they're having fun with the thousands of male demons there."

Isaac began to provoke the village head, trying to lure him down into the alleyway. His words were clearly effective since the village head was staring daggers at Isaac, but he still didn't jump down.

Andreas was furious. His mental state could even be described as a murderous rage, but he still retained his rationality. Isaac's taunts had only made him surer the alleyway was a trap.

However, Isaac didn't mind this outcome either since Andreas would continue to attack and waste Qi. Isaac had been scratched by the village head's icicles before, but that was because he got caught by surprise. Now he knew Andreas' palm glowed blue before he fired, giving him time to react and dodge the icicles whenever he saw that. Since he was confident in dodging, it didn't matter how many icicles Andreas fired; he would evade them all.

The alleyway was quite wide so Isaac had room to dodge.

*Thud thud thud*

3 more icicles slammed into the earth. Isaac stood there with a mocking grin which almost said 'Come and get me'.

"I killed your daughter! Me! She kicked and she tried to scream, but she couldn't! It was so pitiful watching her... you should've been there to see it!"

The more he provoked Andreas, the more reluctant Andreas was to jump down. However, the battle wore on and he realised he was only wasting Qi.

"You little prick, your remaining lifespan can be measured in seconds!"

He jumped down from the roof directly.

"Arghhhhh!"

The village head's right foot had landed on a particularly sharp spike of glass. It pierced his shoe and left a deep wound on the sole of his foot. Luckily, the glass his left foot landed on was less sharp and couldn't puncture his shoe. However, he could still barely walk. Dodging and manoeuvring would be difficult, so he would have to keep Isaac at medium range and attack with icicles.

On the other hand, Isaac had no ranged methods of attack. He had to get up close and personal to deal a decisive blow, which meant closing the distance and dodging icicles at a much closer range than he had before.

Running in immediately would be suicide: he'd walk right into a fatal icicle. He had to make Andreas exhaust his Qi by making Andreas think he could hit him whilst not actually getting hit.

Isaac took 2 long strides towards Andreas. However, he had to stop and duck left as an icicle whizzed by. Ice Fragment Anima was among the most common offensive Anima in Northern Tundra. At Rank 1, the icicles it fired were about half the length of a pencil and were shot at considerable pace. They had a lot of momentum and getting hit by one would do considerable damage.

However, Isaac kept dodging. One icicle was shot to his left with another one aimed at his right leg. He moved left and ducked under the icicle. Then one directly at him. He dived and rolled right, then quickly stood and stepped back. An icicle stabbed into the ground in front of him.

The village head was already breathing raggedly. He looked like he was nearly out of Qi as well since he was firing fewer icicles. Isaac saw this and rushed in for the kill. However, as soon as he got closer, Andreas' eyes lit up. He quickly fired a fan of 3 icicles, giving Isaac no space to dodge.

Isaac didn't expect it, but he still ducked by instinct. He felt a searing pain as an icicle caught the top of his head and he knew death had only been inches away. It was bleeding a lot and it hurt like hell, but luckily he'd avoided a critical injury.

Isaac staggered backwards a step but caught his balance in time to evade the next icicle. He looked up at the village head but his vision was obscured by the blood flowing down into his left eye. Andreas looked back with utter hatred and contempt. He was firing icicles from his right hand, meaning he could shoot them from Isaac's blind spot.

Isaac tried to close the distance again. He wanted to injure Andreas' right arm and stop him using the Ice Fragment Anima. Andreas let him get closer this time, since he wanted to take advantage of the blind spot in close quarters.

When Isaac was 2 metres away, Andreas fired an icicle. It was one of the last he could manage with his Qi running out. However, it was in Isaac's blind spot. He saw it late and had no time to dodge, so he tried to twist his body and was hit in the left arm. Meanwhile, he took a final step forward and slashed at Andreas' right shoulder with his knife.

Andreas' eyes widened in surprise, but a thin shield of wind protected his shoulder just before the knife made contact. Breeze Barrier Anima was normally used to block projectiles, but Andreas poured most of his Qi into it to soften this blow. Despite that, the knife still cut deep. If he didn't use the Anima, Isaac might've cut all the way to his bone.

Andreas roared in pain and gave Isaac a powerful left hook to the body. Isaac stumbled backwards, creating some separation again. Andreas tried firing more icicles, but his accuracy was dramatically decreased. Isaac didn't even have to dodge since the 2 icicles missed.

Both sides were struggling. Blood was streaming into Isaac's eye, his left arm had an icicle sticking out of it, and he was winded from the blow he just took. On the other hand, Andreas couldn't put pressure on his right foot, was almost entirely out of Qi, and was unable to aim properly. He was also having major trouble breathing. Isaac noticed this and kicked a large cloud of dust at him.

The village head coughed violently, creating an opening. Isaac rushed in again, his knife aimed at Andreas' neck. However, he couldn't see Andreas' right palm angle upwards. With the last of his Qi, Andreas fired an icicle into Isaac's midriff. In the moment before his death, he was content knowing that Isaac's wounds would kill him. It had cost him his life, but he had avenged his daughter.

As Isaac collapsed to the ground, bleeding heavily, he also sighed in relief. Then bright light filled his vision.