1742 A missing piece

Should he trust the vampire or not? So was the question going through Vincent's mind when he heard the Guardian's words. He knew the vampire in front of him wasn't attacking at full strength while still making their fight look somewhat flashy.

So it was clear he didn't want to fight, but the thing was, they still wanted Vincent to come along with them. What was the guarantee that this was not an elaborate trap for him to surrender in order to save the others?

'Let's see how he deals with this!' As he increased the blood aura in his strike, Vincent thought and sent out a powerful strike. Seeing this, the Guardian jumped back, covered his fist in a red aura, and punched the incoming attack, shattering it to pieces.

'That answered one question. At least I know he does have the strength to do something.' Vincent thought.

It was then that Vincent charged in and went back to hand-to-hand combat because there were multiple vampires around them. If they shouted, there was a good chance the others could hear. A clash of fake fist punches hit each other, and now the two were blocking and attacking simultaneously.

"Who are you? Why would I even trust what you say? If you want me to at least listen to you, then tell me who you are?" Vincent asked and suddenly increased his strength a little, giving a hard kick on the Guardian's guts.

"Damn you." The Guardian replied. "Can't you see, Laxmus is just playing with you all? He hasn't even used the extent of his shadow powers, and neither has he joined the fight. And trust me, he can do things that none of you can even imagine."

Looking at the field, Vincent saw how the others were fairing, and it looked like they were struggling against the Guardians alone. Still, at the same time, Vincent had a feeling that those that had gathered around Quinn wouldn't lose out so quickly either, and it was then that he saw Jake Green, along with Peter, kill two of the shadow beasts that Laxmus had summoned earlier.

"They aren't as weak as you think, and if they are really friends of him, then Laxmus is a fool if he thinks he can just do what he wants and get away," Vincent replied.

"Laxmus is after you, Vincent. He only wants you! So you can save everyone!" The person charged in, punching harder and faster as he got frustrated. "And also don't want anyone to get hurt!"

Vincent parried away the hit and, at that moment, saw the look in the Guardian's eyes. They were fierce, and Vincent believed he had seen them before, but they were incredibly hard to recall as they couldn't have been someone he had seen often.

"I work with Layla." The man finally replied. "And I promise that the two of us will do anything in our power to make sure you are safe. So if you don't believe me, then at least believe in her!"

------

With Peter being the only one taking out the Guardian and beast in front of him, the other guardians weren't so quick to stop him, and Laxmus welcomed the person in front of him.

"I can tell you have the power of a god inside you," Laxmus said as he walked forward, the shadow covering his body, mainly his back. Over his shoulders, it looked almost like there were two large spikes formed from shadows and had the image of horrifying faces inside as well.

"The others are no match for you." Laxmus continued. "Unfortunately, my God is a strong one and has been quite generous to me, so you are no match for me either."

The two of them were about ten metres apart, but even then, Laxmus threw out his hand as if he was reaching out to grab Peter. At that moment, the shadow left his hand in the form of a huge claw.

And when Laxmus closed his hand, it closed on Peter and grabbed him. The next second, Laxmus lifted him into the air.

"My shadow is faster and stronger than before, and no amount of Qi, celestial energy, or vampire energy can break it!" Laxmus replied in a smug tone.

These words seemed quite true as Peter swung his head-tail into the shadow. But, when it came in contact with the shadow, it slowed down again. It was the same for Peter's body himself. He struggled and tried to move and break free, but it seemed that he was unable to do anything even with all of the new celestial points he gained.

"It looks like you are the strongest that your little group has to offer. I haven't even used my energy to transform my body, and I can defeat you simply like this. I guess your god must not care about you so much." Lexus smirked.

Then, lifting Peter with the shadow hand, he slammed the former to the ground at a frightening speed and force. It sank the whole arena a little bit, sending shockwaves through the pillars attached to the arena connected to the sea underneath.

Everyone paused as the arena shook for a few seconds as they felt the power in the slam of the shadow arm. And as Laxmus lifted Peter off the ground once again, Peter coughed out a load of blood, but he was still alive, his body transformed.

"You...would never be able to amount to him," Peter gritted his teeth. The rage inside him had reached a tipping point.

Laxmus narrowed his eyes and then used the shadow hand to pull Peter towards him while clenching the fist, ready to punch the life out of the latter. And at the same time, power was rising through his hand, and it started to grow slightly in size, the outer skin began to change to a solid black, and strange white lines were running up and down where the veins would be.

His fingers elongated, and the tip of them turned solid white. It was clear that Laxmus was using his celestial energy now to change his body parts, but it looked different from before. Now, he had changed, and he had gotten stronger.

'Laxmus, he had a 1000 years to gather his strength, he truly is dangerous...and Peter is far beyond the power I can rise within me unless I have to resort to some serious methods...should I trust this person? Maybe it's the only choice I have.' Vincent started to think as he reconsidered the Guardian's offer.

Being dragged through the air, Peter thought of the words Laxmus had said.

'I need to protect Quinn...it's my job to protect and help him. I owe him everything, even my whole life, and I can't even take out one person for him?'

Desperate, Peter started to focus his celestial energy on his two fists. His hands had never let him down. He didn't know if it would do anything because activating the celestial energy was usually something that would just change his whole body. Still, of course, he was in a desperate situation and would use any means within his limits.

Just like he would normally focus his Qi, he was doing the same, putting all the energy into his fists. The black outer casing with the red lines running up to Peter's fingertips had a red brilliance as they got brighter.

At the same time, the rest of Peter's body was starting to change, his head-tail was disappearing, and his old appearance was coming back. Looking at his fists, they were now twice the size they were before.

"Get your f*cking hand off of me!" Peter shouted as he slammed both his fists down on the wrist of the shadow, trying to force Laxmus to let go. A large explosion pierced the sky, shaking the clouds and the air above the arena.

A shockwave that appeared out of nowhere shocked the others, pushing them a few inches back, and for the first time, Laxmus's smug expression had faltered, and the smile on his face had receded. That was because Peter had destroyed half of the shadow hand with just one punch.

It was the first experience for Laxmus, but the shadow was slowly coming back and was still holding onto Peter. So he wasn't able to completely destroy it as he wished.

"You just need a little help!" A voice suddenly called out from above Peter's head.

And when he looked up, Peter thought he imagined things for a second as he could see Quinn, but that was because he quickly remembered that there was another on the battlefield that looked like him.

Swinging his arms down, Vincent looked like he was punching the air, but he was actually moving a piece of string, and attached to its other end was a sword. And as this extraordinary sword struck down and touched the shadow hand, large explosions went off one after another.

It had hit Peter, but he had moved away, and that's when he noticed he was free. Now in front of him, there was Vincent.

"You saved me, and I returned the favour," Vincent said as he pulled the string, retracting the sword back into his hand. As soon as Peter saw the sword, only one thought flashed in his mind.

'This is Arthur's sword.'

*****

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