As Ivory returned to the battlefield in the skies of Dry City, more than half of Abe's group had already been eliminated in the last 30 minutes of combat.
Most of the more than 80 mercenaries killed until now were Spiritual Emperors. But more than a dozen Spiritual Saints, including a level 77 one, had died in this confrontation.
On the other hand, the group defending Dry City had significantly suffered to achieve these results, with over 300 individuals perishing to eliminate so few opponents.
Many soldiers from the Black Plain Army were among the fatalities of the confrontation. Still, there were also individuals from other areas of the northern region and even from Vogel and the Flaming Empire among the dead.
In addition to those who had lost their lives up to the present moment, there were hundreds of severely wounded individuals lying in the surroundings of the Black Plain and satellite cities. They were in agony or passed out while waiting for help from local doctors.
But there were no wounded to that condition on the enemy group. After all, when any of them were in this state, members of the local forces would not miss the opportunity to attack them with force and end these lives quickly.
But even though the numbers of both sides had fallen to about half of their original, the battles continued in the skies of Dry City.
Amongst those fighting, Abe was still standing, although quite tired and with several wounds all over his body.
The Spiritual Sage of the Eastern Empire was there to prevent this individual's death, but that did not mean he would prevent every kind of confrontation that Abe would go through. And in this way, this former Vogel heir was naturally quite wounded and weakened after facing so many individuals who hated him strongly.
On the other hand, Abby, Ruth, and Gloria were still fighting, the first two quite tired, given their levels. At the same time, the Matriarch of the Spiritual Church still had sparks of strength to actively use in battle.
But they had all gained wounds, battle marks to remind themselves of the risks they took on this fateful day.
Abe and his men had tried to act against each of them, tried to press them in a way that risked their lives, as was Abe's goal.
But acting against them was not easy given how strong they were, but also the conviction of Minos' allies that they could not let the worst happen to these women.
So, even though he tried a little bit of everything, Abe could not cause more than danger to those women. Unfortunately for him, he has reached this point of the battle without knowing how to eliminate at least one of them.
His strongest cultivators could not kill any of them now. That was because they had suffered a lot after Gavin's attack, which caused several of them to risk themselves for the sake of the level 78 individual. That had ended many members of Minos' forces but also weakened many of the stronger cultivators in Abe's group.
As a result, some level 77 Spiritual Saints had perished, leaving only two left at this moment, alongside that level 78 individual who was highly injured.
'That person we didn't expect did all this! It was because of him that my plans were so messed up!' Abe complained in his mind, looking in the direction where Gavin was standing next to the Dry City allies.
Gavin had received similar treatment to Ivory, been awakened by a doctor, and ingested several pills to get him back on his feet.
Because of this, even with several broken and fractured bones, this individual fought alongside his comrades!
Unfortunately for Abe, his group underestimated the usefulness of doctors and alchemists, so his most seriously injured were suffering from their conditions, while Minos' side had such an alternative.
"You'll regret this, you bastard!" Abe shouted in Gavin's direction, having already identified this individual as someone from the Saints Killing Sect.
"You're from that organization, right? Your eyes are just like those bastards' eyes." Abe yelled as he looked at the circular patterns around Gavin's eyes.
Abe did not know what the third eye on Gavin's forehead was. Still, the eyes with circular patterns around the pupils were a mark of the lineage of one of the families of that sect. In this way, this terrorist knew a method of threatening his opponent.
"I'll give you back everything you've caused us today, you worm! I'll make that sect hunt you down! You must be on the run, huh? Hahaha."
Gavin ignored that, already knowing he would end up attracting such people one way or another, turning his attention to the enemies still fighting.
'We're starting to run out of energy...' He pondered this as he saw that those still fighting on the Dry City side were getting increasingly tired.
As much as the enemies were also wearing out and had their low points, their side would be more vulnerable if they ran out of spiritual energy. After all, most of them were just Spiritual Emperors, while the opposing side had more Spiritual Saints than 7th-stage cultivators on their side at the moment.
Knowing this situation, Gavin was beginning to get nervous, feeling that the situation in Dry City could get even worse as this conflict developed!
Minos' wives were also aware of this, seeing how the opponents seemed to be saving themselves to expend their final energies when the battle was 'already' decided.
"What are we going to do?" Abby asked, feeling powerless to fight, given that she had the lowest cultivation of all Minos' wives.
Ruth was also almost out of fighting condition and looked to Gloria, hoping that such a woman had some way of creating the advantage they needed.
The Dry City group was slowly taking the upper hand in this conflict. Still, they were in danger of running out of energy before that happened. So they needed to find a way to get a victory before their time was up!
"I don't know," Gloria replied. "Besides using the Spiritual Kings in Dry City, we don't have much else at our disposal."
They had plenty of Spiritual Kings at their disposal to participate in this conflict. But if these people entered the battlefield, the risk of many dying would not be small. That was why they had not been used so far so that the state would not lose future Spiritual Emperors who were about to be 'born.'
But in this decisive situation, Gloria could only think of this alternative as she saw that the opponents were preparing to move in a few moments.
"You will not be able to survive today!" Abe said, full of malice in his voice, preparing to make his group's last move before their retreat.
With that comment of his, his group began to show the last strength they had. At the same time, the opposing side could no longer demonstrate its prowess efficiently.
"Initiate the emergency plan!" Gloria shouted in a sound array, giving the orders for the peak Spiritual Kings to move to help the main forces at this decisive moment.
But then, when thousands of individuals were showing themselves on the outskirts of Dry City, and enemy Spiritual Saints were acting against Minos' wives, a shadow appeared on the battlefield!
...
