Boom!
In the middle of the central region of the Flooded Valley, explosions sounded through the air. At the same time, the land of that place was thrown into the air, considerably reducing the visibility there.
Several craters were rapidly forming at the same time as structures that looked like wooden houses were gradually being destroyed.
On one side of what looked like a camp, dozens of people were gathered in a place not far from where the fight occurred, crouched on the ground, hiding their heads between their legs.
And while this group of people with necklaces around their necks didn't even try to see the fight that was going on in this place, about 30 people were intensely fighting right now.
Many of them dressed wildly, with clothing made mainly from the leather of beasts, along with incomplete shields. Each of them had a serious look on their bronzed faces, while bloodstains could be seen coming out of their facial holes.
Finally, two people were fighting this group of men. One of them wore only a set of lightweight clothing, typical for fights, as he moved at high speed through that place, making his brown hair wave from side to side.
He wielded a 1-meter long sword in his left hand, with a smile on his face.
Beside him was a young woman with blue hair, wearing blue armor, who at this moment had countless sweat stains on her clothing. She was hurriedly breathing as she felt more and more tired of this struggle.
These two, of course, were Abby and Minos, that had come all the way to this camp after a few hours of traveling since their unusual encounter with the Feathered Serpents.
And after arriving at this location, Minos and Abby immediately invaded the camp, with this young man quickly killing the leaders of the enemy side. After that, the two had reached the present situation, where the young ruler of the Black Plain was watching over his partner's struggle, protecting her from time to time.
That was part of Abby's training. Consequently, Minos wouldn't waste such an opportunity.
As for why these criminals didn't run away, well, that was simply because every time one tried such a thing, right away, Minos would cut their heads...
It was a cruel fate, but none of these men had a choice about it. When two sides faced each other in the Spiritual World, usually the stronger would decide the fate of the other!
And the fate of these men had already been reaped by Minos, the moment that the previous group had attacked Abby and him.
Pow!
Boom!
"Ahhh!"
Screams rang out through that camp as Abby's merciless attacks killed another bandit.
"Hah, hah, I'm getting exhausted... Hah, can you finish them for me?" Abby asked when finally the number of her opponents had decreased to 15.
"OK."
After saying this to Abby, Minos ran towards the place where most of these men were, simultaneously directing blows in the direction of the others.
He was moving so fast that many of the criminals in this place could barely see the sword moves Minos was making as he ran through that camp.
Swooish!
Swooish!
Simultaneously, several blades cut the surroundings of that
region, emitting a threatening presence that was scaring each of these thugs.
'Shit!'
And finally, when the young Stuart was close to the larger group, he promptly activated his attack technique, ready to end their lives.
Spatial Sword!
Puff!
Puff!
But this time, unlike the screams of pain that were heard earlier when they fought Abby, now only the sound of their bodies being cut sounded in that spot.
Different heads and body parts of each of them tumbled onto the degraded terrain, almost instantly soaking the ground with several liters of blood.
The unpleasant smell of death was already spreading through that place due to the numerous corpses when Minos' sword decapitated the last bandit.
At this moment, silence finally prevailed there, for the first time since the last 20 minutes, that Minos and Abby started this fight.
Almost all the houses in this location had been destroyed by the remnant attacks of the battle, while the earth raised by the explosions finally returned to the surface.
Finally, the captives who worried for their own lives and hid their heads over their legs eventually dared to look at the outcome of the battle.
Everything had happened suddenly, and now the entire group that had enslaved them was destroyed.
"Rhea, Roger, are you all right?"
"Are we saved?"
"Don't talk too loud. Who knows what these two want? Be careful..."
Several voices sounded among that group as these people watched the outcome of the struggle and the two youths who had caused it all.
Meanwhile, Minos and Abby could finally relax a little when the two started to eat some spiritual fruits to recover themselves.
"Hah, hah, are you going to release them?" Abby asked at the same time as she was eating a pink apple.
Minos then nodded and replied. "Hmm, these are just ordinary people. Otherwise, they wouldn't have ended up in this situation."
He wasn't worried about hiding from these people. After all, the situation he was in wasn't bad. He'd just attacked a bunch of bandits, scum that no one would miss.
On the other hand, these people probably came from entirely different places. They couldn't even figure out from where Minos and Abby were just by their appearances. So, releasing them wouldn't do any harm to these two.
After saying this, Minos went to the place where the captives were gathered while eating another apple, just like Abby's.
He then stopped a few meters away from those people, who were watching him with awe on their faces. "I'm going to free you, but I want you to help me burn the bodies of these bandits. All right?"
"Are you going to set us free?"
"Ahh, thank heavens!"
"Finally free!" Several of them commented on happiness.
However, amid this moment of liberation, one of them asked in a disgruntled way. "Sir, why do we have to burn these bastards? They deserve to be devoured by the local beasts!"
"Hmm, we should do this!" Other people agreed.
And hearing this, Minos moved his head from side to side in denial and asked. "So, you're just going to run away from the center of the forest right after you're released? Are you sure you want to leave this place without even regaining your energy?"
"No." Some of them said in low voices.
The young Stuart then continued. "Then, you need to stay here for a while longer… In that case, do you truly want to let these thugs cause trouble for you even after their deaths? Because they will start attracting these local beasts to where you should be resting."
"No..." The man from before said in a low voice, understanding the problem of his suggestion.
He had been so traumatized by those criminals that he wanted these men to suffer even after death...
Such was the effect of hatred on the mentality of certain people!
Anyway, after explaining this to that group, Minos soon used the Devouring Art to destroy all those necklaces, freeing all those individuals.
He then turned to go back to Abby's side while saying. "Gather all these bandits' belongings and bring them to me. I'll give you some crystals and pills after that."
"Yes, sir!" Some more proactive said this as they got up to do the task Minos had given them.
The young Stuart had his way of knowing whether one of these freed captives would try to steal his and Abby's battle gains. So, he wasn't worried about whether these people were honest or not.
He would take spiritual techniques, spatial rings, and at least most artifacts to the Black Plain. As for the crystals these bandits might have, that couldn't get Minos' attention.
At most, he could get a few hundred thousand crystals. And while it's not bad for him to get more of these things, he wouldn't mind giving a certain amount to these people run away from here.
The same for the pills. In general, this used to be the most popular item among cultivators due to the lower price compared to arrays and weapons. Therefore, normally even those ordinary cultivators, without the typical wealth of the nobles, would have several times more pills than spiritual artifacts.
And Minos was willing to let these people have some of those resources. After all, as much as he and Abby had eliminated those bandits, probably a part of those bandits' items had come from these newly freed captives.
'Hmm, it's time to count my gains…' Minos thought about it briefly as he sat down next to Abby and began to recover from the previous fight.
