Upon hearing young Stuart's threats, the six individuals did not change their behavior as they began to act.
That is, an enemy surrounded by people stronger than himself would speak or act in a way to disrupt the opponents' plans somehow, maybe improving his chances of survival.
And knowing this, those people did not fail on this simple point, not allowing young Stuart to enter their minds.
The opposite of that, they finally began to attack their target, using their favorite strategy when fighting together against supposedly powerful opponents.
At that moment, some of them were guarding young Stuart's possible escape points, while others were attacking from different directions.
Not only were they acting to give Minos no room to escape or to counterattack, but they were also using different techniques among themselves.
One of them used a mental technique to impair their opponent's attention. Another was using a restrictive technique to immobilize Minos. And finally, one of them, who was carrying a giant war hammer, was sending long-range attacks in Minos' direction.
All this was happening simultaneously, as Minos was still standing there, circulating his energies in his Indestructible Body, waiting to run away or fight.
And while he was doing this, he felt several hands coming from underground towards his fists and heels, which undoubtedly had the purpose of trapping him in this place.
As Minos felt the powerful long-range attacks approaching his position, he felt a slight mental pressure, as if someone was trying to get into his mind.
"Tsk!"
'If that's all, you will all die!' He thought about this as he realized that the techniques used by those opponents were not that much better than that of the regional leaders.
He even felt that the technique used by the three people who were guarding his escape options could be considered Silver-grade ones. But that alone would not be enough to prevent him from defeating this group or even escaping.
That is, of course, if those people did not have other Silver-grade techniques.
So, Minos had quickly realized that this group did not seem that dangerous to him.
Devouring Art!
Then, upon activating his support technique, the significant black ring appeared in his surroundings, slowly spinning as it already began to suck in the enemies' energies.
But as it did so, Minos did not take long to look at the enemy he thought was the weakest one there and attacked him!
Infinite Dream!
Activating his mental technique, Minos did not immediately kill that level 58 person as he had done several times in the past. Instead, he trapped that person in an illusion in which the individual was facing his worst fear.
With this, part of Minos' consciousness also appeared in that illusion, something that this young man wanted to use to interrogate that person.
He did not think that such a group could be from the northern region of the Central Continent, but he had no idea who was behind this attack. Consequently, to get this information, he would try to interrogate that weaker enemy instead of killing them all at once.
As for trying to capture any of them, this would not be simple as they were strong and probably had experience fighting together.
So, in this case, if the enemies were committed to keeping their mouths shut, Minos could very well force them to sacrifice themselves instead of getting something worthwhile.
But that would not be interesting!
Thus, he acted in this 'softer' way, ready to torture that person inside the illusion created by the Infinite Dream.
But his other five opponents were in a different situation.
Maybe these people even had helpful information. But as Minos did not have enough to be sure that he could interrogate more than one of them, then all he could do was try to eliminate them all!
Explosive Steps!
With that, after such level 58 person fell face down on the ground, trapped in the illusion created by Minos, this young man began to run around that area, evading enemy attacks.
Spatial Sword!
Immediately after changing position, Minos cut through the air with one of his swords, targeting one of the strongest enemies there, someone at the peak of the 6th stage.
Swooish!
The blades of energy created by Minos' movements quickly rushed through that area, causing those people to shiver in shock.
'What's going on?' One of them wondered in shock, realizing that Minos seemed stronger than he should be.
'Shouldn't that brat be a match for someone at level 59? Don't tell me we've been tricked?' The leader of this mercenary group coming from the Flaming Empire wondered this while feeling a sinister premonition.
That was a mercenary group from the Flaming Empire that acted on the fringes of the law, even being willing to take orders for this region without caring who hired them.
That is, regional families could hire mercenaries from outside, as long as they used their own resources and these individuals were not above level 59.
But this group was one of those who took the risk of accepting orders without asking questions about the origin of the payment resources. That is, without caring whether they were paid by people from the empire or from this region, something essential to consider if one wanted to stay away from the church!
In any case, they accepted the risks of doing this kind of mission. Because of this characteristic, they could demand higher amounts from their clients to provide their services without asking unwanted questions.
But from time to time, some groups like this would find clients, shall we say, clever enough to lie to them...
And when this happened, well, they ended up in situations like the present one.
They had relied on the information passed on by their contractor months ago when Minos was still at level 51. And with their good mounts, they came to this young man quickly, without having had the opportunity to learn more about him.
Besides, for individuals like them, it was hard to ignore the natural arrogance that people who grew up in more prosperous places would have when going to weaker, poorer places.
Thus, they did not know how strong Minos was at level 52!
But now that they had reached this situation, all they could do was swallow their saliva in anger and prepare to act, seeking their only chance to survive.
Unlike the regional kings, people of extremely high purchasing power and status, these mercenaries were ordinary people in the Flaming Empire.
And without the resources of a royal family, they did not have teleportation devices like Minos' recent enemies!
Because of this, they did not have many alternatives here!
Puff!
However, for Minos, it did not matter what these people were thinking. Since they had come to him with bad intentions, he would not let them get away easily.
So, just after a dozen of his attacks had broken out from his surroundings, it was not long before another level 58 one fell to the ground.
This time, dead!
After his initial wave of attacks, the enemy offensives slowly began to suffer, disappearing or being destroyed by young Stuart's attacks.
And as this ruler had no mercy, each of his attacks targeted the vital organs of his enemies.
Because of this, as soon as one of those level 58 Spiritual Kings weakened, he had his head severed by one of the blades created by Minos!
Pow!
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
After that, Minos got close enough to one of the level 59 cultivators, delivering a solid kick to the opponent's belly right after spinning in the air, already dancing with his sword.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" One of them shouted as he felt the deep cut that had just been made on his back from a close-range attack made by Minos.
"Humph!" Minos made a distinctive sound, as he had one of those enemies on his feet.
"So, it was them!" Minos muttered in a low voice, right after receiving the information from that man under mental torture.
