When that level 79 man stayed behind to protect the core of his group retreat, Minos had not yet identified Abe's position and was fighting his way through the surrounding area.
Emperor Stuart had earlier received information that Abe was likely to appear at this outpost today through one of the enemies arrested by members of his sect this morning.
With this intelligence, he had immediately ordered the group closest to this location to attack this enemy outpost as soon as possible, considering that such information would expire quickly.
Luckily, Maisie's group was nearby, and she had come to this location and promptly established a teleportation port for Minos to come from Dry City to this place.
With that, although he knew of the likelihood of Abe appearing in this place, as soon as he appeared there, Minos had no idea whether this individual was there.
When he began to look for Abe, Minos took advantage of the fact that he was on a battlefield and promptly began to fight, knocking opponents down and using the energies of part of them.
Devouring Art!
He flew through the area while many enemies were already floating around him because of the Chaotic Gravity. Many of them were also under the effects of Minos' auxiliary technique, losing their energy to him.
Spatial Sword!
Minos saw a level 75 enemy in front of him, trying to hinder him from vascularizing the surroundings. He decided to attack this person, turning his sword against his chest, ignoring the Soul Avatar of this person.
The Soul Avatar was the proper form of a cultivator, the way they had to access the full potential of their techniques. But defensively speaking, this possibility had the same strength as the fleshy body would have using defensive techniques.
Since Minos knew that his strength could already be compared to that of a Spiritual Saint at such a level, he attacked that person intending to hurt him significantly.
Swooish!
The blade of his sword slashed toward the Soul Avatar's abdomen as this individual tried to attack him, using his strongest techniques to challenge the enemy leader.
Minos could be scary with a black hole or Black Hole Bomb on his side. But without those things, this person judged this local leader as only slightly above average!
"Die, you bastard!" He shouted as he looked up with a smart little smile on his face while the water in the surroundings condensed and formed blades of ice.
Such blades condensed in the Soul Avatar's hands, and he directed them to where Minos was attacking his abdomen.
However, contrary to what that man with long black hair thought, he failed to prepare for both Minos' attack and his attack!
When the blade of Minos' sword pressed against the 'skin' of his Soul Avatar, this man felt like two attacks had struck him simultaneously.
One attack would be difficult for him to withstand without suffering even one damage. Still, it would not cause him any tremendous suffering. But two was beyond his limit, and as soon as the collision of Minos' sword blade and his 'skin' happened, that part of his avatar split open like a torn plastic.
"Damn it!"
He saw Minos entering his avatar control space as his own blades struck this opponent's body.
To the misfortune of this mercenary coming from the Western Empire, besides some of those blades injuring his own body, none of them hurt Minos!
Minos smiled as he felt those things 'massaging' his body while his passive ability to absorb spiritual blows sucked out much of the attack power of those blades.
But not only that, he had his defensive technique, Indestructible Body, active, which would protect him from that.
Finally, his medium-level grade-3 armor did its job and prevented those blades that were left over after the absorption of the Devouring Art passive skill from reaching his skin.
That shocked the level 75 Spiritual Saint, with him realizing that his views regarding the local leader were utterly wrong!
'Shit! I made a mistake!' He tried to escape Minos since, as much as Spiritual Saints could temporarily live without a body and not be completely dependent on them, that was their biggest weakness.
To kill a Spiritual Saint, one would have to strike a blow that afflicted both body and soul. But such a thing had to be specifically on the fleshy body since the Soul Avatar itself was only a projection of the cultivator's soul, not the actual soul.
It would be strange if someone used something so vital to fight, after all...
And so, that individual found himself in range of Minos' sword, promptly returning all his attention to his body and causing his avatar to vanish.
The Soul Avatar was the most powerful form of a Spiritual Saint. But they would have to cast it aside in case their fleshy body was reached by an opponent capable of killing them!
That was how weaker people, specifically those of lower stages, had to defeat a Spiritual Saint capable of using the Soul Avatar!
Clash!
Such a person could grab a dagger from his spatial ring and fend off Minos' point-blank attack.
But Minos had many surprises for him and soon made that man discover some of them.
.
Dark Sea!
Darkness appeared in the surroundings of the two as that man lost sight of Minos, and that fellow moved to alternate his fighting mode.
Chaotic Gravity!
As this mercenary stopped sensing his surroundings, a powerful gravitational force began to act against him.
'Damn., What is that now?' He wondered, just before he was punched in the back of the head and narrowly diverted an ax coming from above.
'What the fuck!'
Suddenly, he found himself surrounded by several Spiritual Saints, levels 72, 73, and 74 people, the hostages Minos was holding as batteries in his vicinity.
Because of this, in the blink of an eye these individuals controlled by the Dark Sea and Infinite Dream broke this man's guard, leaving him exposed to Minos.
Poof!
Minos pierced this person's chest with a decisive blow, striking him with a deadly serious impact.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" That person screamed in fear as blood rose up his throat and began to trickle out of his mouth.
Minos saw this and acted, removing his sword from that body and throwing that man to the ground, where people from his group could finish the life of this opponent.
"Soon, you will join the others in nurturing the roots of the empire!" He said as he smiled and flew off in the direction of where he had finally identified the strongest enemies in the area, where Abe probably was.
"Abe!" Minos shouted sharply in the direction of where that individual was fleeing, scaring not only this member of the Vogel family but the other mercenaries escaping the area.
'Bastard!'
'Go to hell!' Abe looked back but kept running, knowing that Minos had no black hole with him to threaten them, but certain that the Gray Clouds Sect reinforcements could be nearby.
In this case, he had to run, even though his mortal enemy was 'vulnerable' right now!
...
