Ning moved back and stared at his sword which had a dent on what should have been the edge. The blade of the sword itself was bent, so he tossed it aside.
"You're quite good at this," Gerrin said with a not-so-happy face. He was angry at the sight of his men dying.
Ning looked toward Carlos who was next to the wall of the house. He seemed to have struck the wall and couldn't move anymore.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you," Gerrin shouted as he sent out a massive burst of fire on Ning's way. Ning ducked at the last second, and the fire darkened the outer wall with black residue.
"Who are you exactly? Are you part of our gang too?" the man asked.
"I'm not with your little gang," Ning said. "He was just giving me a job because I needed one."
"Oh, nice lie," Gerrin said.
"I'm not," Ning said.
"Are you now?" Gerrin asked. "Whatever. It doesn't really matter, does it? After all, You killed my people, so all you can do now is die too."
Ning frowned and looked at the sword in Gerrin's hands. If he was struck by it, he was most likely going to burn alive. He did not want that.
'What do I do?' he thought. 'Think, Ning, think.'
He looked at Gerrin's fiery sword once more and then at his shield. 'Fire and Water Essence,' he thought. How were they using the Fire and Water Essence exactly?
Ning had learned something about Essence Weapons from the shop he was at yesterday.
The reason an Essence Weapon was rare and expensive, aside from the fact that it was hard to acquire, was the fact that it was very sought after.
The reason why these weapons were so sought after had nothing to do with the fact that they could be used as weapons, but rather that they could be used to use one's Essence inside of them.
For the first 3 realms on one's Essence journey, they could not use Essence on their own at all. It was always at the 4th realm, the Essence Manifestation realm that one finally was able to use their Essence on their own.
Before that, if they wanted to use the Essence, they had to rely on a conduit.
Natural conduits existed, but they were very rare. Essence weapons on the other hand were man-made conduits that allowed one to channel their Essence and turn it into an element of the conduit.
The conversion rate of Essence with these man-made conduits wasn't as high, but they were high enough that everyone owned one.
Sometimes, people even owned multiple ones, as Gerrin and Carlos did.
Ning owned one as well, the Earthen sword. And now he was wondering if he could also use the sword as a conduit.
He wasn't wondering if it was possible or not, but rather if he could do it or not. He hadn't practiced that just yet and was worried he couldn't do it.
But, worrying wasn't going to help him at all. So, he reached his waist and pulled the sword out.
The sword came out wrapped in the loose cloth, which he quickly got rid of, revealing the Earth sword.
Gerrin's eyes narrowed when he saw the sword and gave a nasty little smirk. "I knew you weren't normal," he said. "To own an Essence sword, you can't be an ordinary man."
He prepared his weapons. "Now, you will tell me who you are exactly. If you don't I will burn your leg first, then your arms, and finally your head," the man said.
Ning looked straight at him, but his eyes weren't seeing anything. His whole attention had gone to his body, which he was using to search for Essence deep within him.
He knew that he definitely had some Essence in him. After all, he had reached the first realm of every Essence user's journey, the Physical Improvement realm.
His body was stronger, faster, and more agile, so he knew he had improved. The only question now was if he could find the Essence deep within him.
"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Gerrin asked when he noticed that Ning's eyes weren't focusing on him at all.
"This bastard! He's not paying attention to me at all," he shouted. "Very well then, you can die now."
He thrust his sword forward and sent out a massive flame spray toward Ning.
At the same time, Ning's eyes shined as he felt something move in his body. The Essence in his body entered his sword through his hand.
The Essence mixed with the Earthen energy in the sword, and Ning imagined an earth attack emerging from the sword.
Just as he thought that something did appear out of the sword.
Ning looked at the thing that appeared out of nowhere, and his eyes went wide. Gerrin looked at what had appeared and his eyes went wide as well.
Carlos who was looking from the side was shocked to the point that he wondered if he had already died, or if he had been hit in the head too hard and was now hallucinating.
What had appeared out of nowhere was a massive rock that was larger than the house they were next to. If not only appeared but flew toward Gerrin.
The flame spray struck the massive rock, doing barely anything to it at all. He used his water shield as well, but that didn't do anything either.
Both Gerrin and the other man next to him turned around to run away, but before they could make it anywhere, the rock landed on them, and immediately crushed them to death.
Ning's eyes remained wide in shock as he looked at the massive rock and then at his sword. He couldn't believe what he was seeing at all.
"Is that… what this sword is made up of?" he couldn't help but ask. If that was the case, then he could finally understand why 15 different people were not able to pick the sword up at all.
