The two one metre plus gashes on him are deep enough to reveal the bones.

Tommy who somehow managed to protect his vitals in time felt his body wrecked with pain. His eyes widened with a blended swirl of confusion and shock. His trial would’ve ended prematurely had he reacted a moment slower.

His enemies did not give him the time to figure out what happened and continued their assault.

Sword Slave struck first. His slimmer weapon allowed him to fully utilise his speed. Lashing out with his right hand, a single strike broke past the sound barrier and created a sonic boom while he aimed at Tommy’s head.

A grin appeared on his face as his sword slashed across the boy’s throat. His target wounded and slow, coupled with the suddenness of his attack, the swordsman was certain that the fight is over. But, as the gleaming steel cut past his target, the smile on his face froze.

He twisted his head to the left at a flitting shadow he noticed at the edge of his eyes. What he had struck slowly flickered and dispersed into electric sparks.

Afterimage.

“No wonder my hit felt light.”

Tommy had dodged so fast that what Sword Slave cut down was mere air.

Against them, he dared not be careless and this time, he made certain to avoid the attack completely.

Swordy caught up quickly and cleave downwards with his giant blade, but just like before it was another afterimage.

The thing about barbarians are, they lose their heads very quickly in battle, and that is both literally and figuratively. Once they are dropped into action, the combat takes over their head and incite them to descend into madness. Out of a battle-frenzy, however, they know fear like any other man.

They attacked relentlessly, in their fury they are stronger and faster but they did not lose their martial form. The battleground shook with their every blow. Each slash was aimed to kill but all they could cut was air.

At the same time, Tommy was carefully observing every detail.

The strokes of their swords is always followed by a gush of wind. Although there are no outward display of elements or Ki, Tommy was certain that the distance of the slashes are more than meets the eye.

He looked downwards without fully letting the two barbarians out of his sight, and noticed that there are indeed small scratches on the ground.

Tommy had learned to fight without depending on his Soul Perception because in return for acquiring the details of everything around he will be flooded with unnecessary information, not to mention how draining it is over time.

His eyes squinted as an unsettling thought came to mind.

“These guys are using sword mastery! No, it’s definitely not the first form of the sword, or the second. It’s quite different from how Internal Ki Cultivators fight. Is it the third or fourth form?”

From his knowledge, the art of sword combat consists of but not limited to the following:

The first form, with the sword becoming an extension of the body, Body-Sword.

The second form, with the sword becoming freely wielded as the heart's desire, Heart-Sword.

The third form, with the sword projected by one's internal energy, Soul-Sword.

The fourth form, with the projected sword energy becoming one with the user, Spirit-Sword.

However, from the third form onwards, external practitioners who are not adept at projecting their Ki take on a different path and that is what he is seeing right now.

Although they cannot control Sword Ki like their counterparts, they found another way.

“There’s a slight flick of their wrist whenever they strike and the residual energy on my wounds are nothing I’ve seen before. It definitely isn’t Ki, but I’ve felt that before. When was that?”

A glimmer of realisation entered his eyes.

“Sword Intent! You guys are attacking me with your sword intents.”

“Hah, you only realise now?”

Unlike Sword Ki that could be controlled to some degree, Sword Intent was difficult to gather and direct as one wish. It was why the two swordsmen can harm Tommy without their blades touching his body.

Although the two couldn’t strike their foes from unexpected directions with Sword Ki, attacking with Sword Intent was just as deadly.

Even though Tommy is confident enough to go through the trial, he didn’t dare to take a single hit right now. If he was struck at the wrong place, the mission would be over.

Sword Slave and Swordy’s assault went on a few breaths longer as more images appeared while Tommy dodged, creating a stunning spectacle. But unlike the previous times, these ones are in the different stances of a warrior monk.

Formed by electricity, the copies could last a few minutes or until they are dispersed by an attack.

The two attacked tirelessly in their battle frenzy, but it doesn’t mean that they were unconscious of what is happening around. They felt it strange that more afterimages were left after their attacks, but their mental speed were running conversely to their attack speed. They didn’t understand until a glowing light announce an array’s activation.

“Northern Star Array: Arhat Pantheon - Strike!”

Like a gigantic mountain pressing down on them, Swordy and Sword Slave felt their body tremble with fear. Under the pressure of such tremendous danger, they were jolted out of their frenzy and forced to face the coming attack.

The copies of Tommy gathered towards their position, many of them overlapping with each other as they came close.

Though the two barbarians know that these were mere tricks of light and shadows, they instinctively felt a rising urge to flee.

With trembling lips, Swordy turned and asked his partner, “If one of those things touches it, it would be bad eh?”

“I… I don’t really know. There are too many of them, let’s just unleash our Ki Barrier and Sword Intent together, just in case.”

“Okay. But here, take this pill first. It’d drain all your energy in exchange for ten times your usual strength for a while.”

A black pill rolled into Sword Slave’s palm which he popped into his mouth without a word.

Instantly the two acted, and an incredibly sharp aura flooded the place as blades – instead of thin Ki spikes – covered their body.

Those nearby could feel a prickling on their skin. If they moved an inch right now, they will discover countless thin scratches on their body as the fearsome sword intent slices apart anything within their range.

Even the copies turn faint when they touched the sword intent aura but they did not disappear.

Tommy could tell, after having experienced what Jones unleashed previously, that the two of them here are only at the Third Form of the sword in their level of Sword Mastery.

At this strength, it isn’t something he couldn’t handle.

The images of him, still in their warrior monk stances, persisted and flew right towards the two barbarian swordsmen.

When they struck one or more of the blades covering their target, they finally disperse into tiny electric sparks together with the Ki blades.

As Swordy and Sword Slave had guessed, these images could attack, and they dealt formidable blows.

Their Ki Barriers are quickly stripped away but the copies are also dwindling in number.

This carried on for a few seconds until their sight was no longer covered by countless images, then their faces turned grim.

Hundreds more surround the two barbarians while their remaining Ki Barrier could barely defend against a dozen more.

They gritted their teeth and wielded their weapons.

A few hundred copies is still possible for them to strike down, if they grinded their heels.

However, the two barbarians had overestimated themselves. Even if they attacked as fast as they could, they couldn’t reach the speed they had during their frenzied state. Hundreds of fists and kicks came at the same time and struck them. The two barbarians fell heavily to the ground with blood dripping from their mouths.

Tommy’s figure reappeared next to the two of them.

To the surprise of everyone, he had wounds covering him from top the bottom.

Blood dyed his face red and sweat glistened down his back.

The copies that had sustained all the attacks weren’t clones nor shadows but Tommy himself.

He had managed to execute the Northern Star Array by himself by turning the movement technique – Lightning Flicker Body – into an attacking method.

It was a draining move. The heat escaping his body turned into a white haze.

The other barbarians stood a wide berth from him. They previously did not dare to come close for fear of being struck, but now it is no longer a concern and moreover their target looks tired and weakened.

Tommy stared at them coming close and roared like an enraged apex predator that was challenged.

The closest barbarian, a short but heavily muscled guy who is obviously pushed in front to lead the way suddenly shook like a leaf and stopped.

The guys behind him shoved him forward and yelled, “Why are you backing away! Coward!”

“I… I… I don’t know man… This guy is giving off really bad vibes.”