The Rise of the Black Plain

Sssss!

The flames slowly began to diminish as they lost their power after that powerful explosion from earlier.

Simultaneously, Minos had slid several meters in the opposite direction of Celeste, his two swords crossed in front of his face, protecting the main parts of his body.

As he slid backward, with his upper body parallel to the ground, his speed finally slowed until he came to a complete stop.

"Ohhh, that hurts a lot..." He muttered in a low voice, feeling some minor burns around his legs and arms.

That attack from Celeste had been mighty indeed, even exceeding the defenses generated by this young man's defensive technique. Because of this, the most vulnerable parts of Minos' body had been burned by the opponent's technique, causing him great pain.

However, although he had been hit, young Stuart was well enough to continue fighting since he had plenty of energy to use against Celeste.

With that in mind, he didn't take long to return to an offensive position, once again trying to get closer to that woman, attacking her in several different ways while trying not to get hit again.

...

Pow!

Sss!

"Ahhh!"

Several sounds spread throughout that part of the Spatial Kingdom, where Minos and Celeste were still fighting.

After almost ten whole minutes of intensely fighting each other, finally, the energy reserves of the two were coming to an end. Consequently, they were exchanging the last blows of this battle.

Pow!

Minos then punched Celeste hard in the stomach as he struggled to stand upright, despite the fatigue spreading throughout his body.

He was utterly sweaty at the moment, breathing with his tongue out of his mouth, while he had several low burns here and there on his body. On the other hand, purple bruises could be seen between the torn parts of this young man's clothing, places that Celeste had managed to hit with one of her attack techniques.

But while he was struggling to knock out his opponent, Celeste was doing precisely the same thing.

The only difference between the two was that she seemed less tired, although the bloodstains on her clothes were much more significant.

However, this was not strange. After all, Minos was using a sword technique. Such a thing was undoubtedly more prone to this kind of injury than Celeste's techniques focused on explosions and brute force.

Finally, as much as Minos could continue fighting while absorbing his opponent's energies, he was almost completely exhausted at this point, in a worse state than his opponent.

But that was only the expected thing to happen in this situation. That is because the effects of his Devouring Art were not that significant on a person as strong as Celeste, someone who had more than twice as much spiritual energy as he did.

Consequently, in facing this opponent who had much more energy than him, this young man had not gained a clear advantage in this fight, despite all the privileges he had.

Besides being able to steal some of his opponent's energy and slow down her movement speed, he also had a mental technique to torment Celeste.

Anyway, after receiving the punch thrown by Minos, Celeste took a step backward while feeling intense pain in her abdomen. However, such a thing had already been much weaker than the previous blows, and she had endured this without the discomfort in her body increasing much.

"Let's end the fight!" She muttered under her breath as a few drops of sweat fell from her brown hair.

At the same time as that, she looked at Minos' face, which had an expression of exhaustion. After this brief observation, she used her second attack technique, focused on hand-to-hand combat, to launch a slap at his chest.

Pa!

"Ahhh!"

After that, as a low sound of pain spread through that place, Minos' body was thrown back 2 meters until he fell on his back, almost passed out.

"Hah... Hah... You have won..." He said in a hoarse tone, breathing rapidly, as he tried to look in Celeste's direction.

He felt pain all over his body while his vision was somewhat blurred. But he had still tried to see that woman, who was already standing with her hands on her knees, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

"Cough! Cough!"

"Hah... Hah, that was pretty hard, huh? Cough! You are very persistent..." She said amidst her coughing and irregular breathing, remembering that Minos had at no point backed down from the battle.

Even when he took a blow, he tried hard not to lose his composure and open more gaps for his opponent. On the contrary, when he was in such a situation, he usually tried to take advantage of the opportunity to deliver an even more decisive blow to his opponent.

Hence, this woman had suffered quite a bit, even considering that she was a bit stronger than him.

While those two were talking slowly, one lying on the ground and the other almost kneeling, Abby ran toward that spot.

"Minos, let me help you..." She said sweetly, just after approaching the exhausted body of her boyfriend.

"Let's rest for a few hours before we head back to Dry City." She said as she took the young man on her lap and began carrying him in the direction of the lake house.

"Hah... OK... Hah, enjoy your rest too, Celeste..." He briefly commented, looking in that woman's direction. "When I am done resting, I will send you to the naval base."

"OK."

After that, all those who had watched or participated in that battle dispersed throughout the Spatial Kingdom, going to train, cultivate, or rest.

...

Hours later, Minos and those two women had left the Spatial Kingdom and returned to Dry City.

After having done so, it wasn't long before Celeste left Dry City and made her way to the naval base, using an army beast that was at the 4th stage of cultivation.

She could walk to that base herself more quickly than using that beast, but that would be for a slight difference, to be precise, less than an hour. And since there were advantages to not using her energy to make that kind of trip, she had followed on one of the mounts available at headquarters.

But while this woman was quietly traveling to that western part of the Black Plain, a group of three ordinary carriages was arriving in the vicinity of Dry City at this very moment.

In this group, about 12 people were traveling in those three means of transportation, each dressed in a manner commonly seen in small villages in this region.

On the other hand, besides their clothing being quite common, each of these people had cultivations that were also on par with the region's standards.

There were 11 Spiritual Warriors there, with only the last person in the group already being at the 5th stage.

However, even that individual was only at level 41. As such, this group could easily integrate into any small town or village in this region without drawing attention.

"Colonel Payne, Dry City is only 100 kilometers from where we are." One of those people said as he opened the carriage window and communicated the strongest person in that group.

"That's good. Let's get a little closer, and then we'll leave our carriages..." That level 41 person was about to say something more when suddenly, sounds of air being cut off sounded throughout that area.

Immediately after hearing that noise, the people standing outside the carriages saw two long arrows hitting the ground right in front of them.

Upon seeing this, those beasts pulling the three carriages made strange sounds as they slowed their speeds rapidly until they stopped.

"Damn! What just happened?" Someone in that group shouted in a dissatisfied manner. At the same time, he had part of his face against the floor of that carriage and several suitcases on top of the rest of his body.

However, while that person and others were complaining in anger about what had just happened, three men appeared coming from different directions of those three carriages.

'Bandits? Really? There are bandits even in this place?'