The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan let out an anxious sigh, 'Can you...still fight?'

Isak answered by unsheathing both his swords. He lowered his stance and leaned forward until his forehead was touching Hao Xuan's back and his body was perfectly hidden behind Hao Xuan.

"Where and how many? How far do we have to go?" he asked in a low voice. He held the swords sideways, drawing them closer towards his body.

A thin film of black flame ignited at the edge of the blades, resembling a pencil drawing rather than anything dangerous but even Hao Xuan was able to feel a threatening aura releasing from Isak's stance even though it wasn't aimed at him.

It felt like some kind of a monster was sharpening its claws in anticipation. Hao Xuan could hear Isak's muscles contract by almost a quarter and his towering figure lowering as a result. A stupendous amount of power was stored in his muscles, all of which was called out and compressed as much as possible.

Hao Xuan didn't have to see with his eyes to know what was happening. Isak was putting everything behind a single attack.

'More than....I can...see. We don't....have to...go far...' he relayed the situation to the best of his abilities considering the language barrier and the time constraints.

"Okay. Tell me when we are close and then get down. When I attack, you might have to carry me. I don't have a lot of energy left."

'Okay,' Hao Xuan was already prepared and knew what to do.

He circulated the strand of Chaos Qi that was the size of a newborn snake now, circulating within his body. A gurgling sound was created as it picked up speed, circulating faster and faster with every passing second.

After what felt like years, Hao Xuan decided to utilize the most basic movement technique he knew, The Demonic Steps.

Previously, the nature of demonic steps changed whenever Hao Xuan used it with a different energy from one of the meridians. He turned into a charging beast when using the Force Qi, was akin to a peal of thunder when using Heavenly Blare, and invoked shame and fear when utilizing the Emperor's Arrival.

But now the Chaos Qi had consumed everything other than a smidgen of Emperor's Qi which had somehow managed to hang on by a thread, hiding within one of the meridians in a small shell made of its own solidified spiritual energy.

Unbeknownst to him, when Hao Xuan directed the Chaos Qi towards his lower body to use demonic steps, quite a peculiar scene unfolded.

Thin hairline crack's appeared on the ground below and dark grey smoke discharged from it, surrounding Hao Xuan's feet and lower legs. He couldn't feel its presence but it was most certainly there.

It looked like the ground was decaying under his feet, simply falling apart and breaking down piece by piece.

Hao Xuan raised the shield in front of him and started walking towards the white tree creatures that were looking right at him. Their hollow eyes resembled black holes that could swallow a person's soul in a heartbeat if they weren't careful enough.

In fact even Hao Xuan felt like something was trying to pull at his soul when he looked into them, which made him that much more alert. Isak was moving right behind him, matching his pace and stepping exactly where Hao Xuan had, even though he couldn't see anything.

One had to praise the man's skills and rich fighting experiences that allowed him to make such precise movements even when he couldn't see or hear anything at all.

The tree creatures didn't do anything until Hao Xuan and Isak were less than 10 meters away from them. As soon as they entered that radius, the ground exploded with a bang and multiple thick veiny roots shot out in an arc from in front of them.

Hao Xuan's pupils contracted as he simply fell straight down while giving Isak the go-ahead, 'NOW!'

**

Burak was sitting by the entrance with his eyes closed. His hammer-like face was caked in sweat as he focused the entirety of his mental energy and poured it towards the two words of power on the back of his hands.

Most of the other barbarians had already regained consciousness and were resting with their backs against the cavernous walls to recover the energy they had used up and heal the injuries they had amassed, well, everyone other than one Barbarian, Jarek.

He was upright on two feet and seemed to be in the best condition here. His gaze was fixated on Burak. He looked left and right at the other barbarians and when he was sure no one else was paying attention, with light, soundless steps he walked towards Burak.

The veins on his right hand suddenly ballooned up and turned black, separating from his skin that looked like it was made from clay. They extended to three times their original size, flailing about in the air.

He stopped a meter away from Burak and extended his hand towards him.. The worm-like veins straightened and started becoming thinner.