After passing the thick woods, Bobby and his subordinates finally reached the principal route leading to Three Towers Town.
From there, they continued their journey on foot. The region was a part of the Gray Dragon Rift Valley. So, other than the dusty gray road, everything around was covered with patches of verdant vegetation of grasses, trees, and mostly weeds.
They continued walking without a break for five hours, passing several terrains, and the sun finally set on the horizon.
Suddenly, Layla said, "Master, I saw ten figures hiding in those bushes beside that huge rock." The three tiny comma-shaped black vision shards spun rapidly around each of her corneas as she scanned the vast patches of weeds.
"I know. Keep walking. Everything is under my control." Bobby responded, and they continued treading in their path. Then he turned and gave his order, "Shadow Slave, take care of those flies."
"Right away, sire!" Shadow Slave responded politely, bowing slightly, and his figure turned blurry, disappearing along with the gust of wind blowing toward the huge rock.
In the next few seconds, a commotion occurred, coming from there.
Bobby looked at her and said, "Layla, now you tell me all the minute details of the clash between Shadow Slaves and those ten assassins."
Layla observed the clash between eleven Naginas for a couple of minutes and responded, "My good lord, Uncle Shadow, is dominating the fight. Um, it's not just winning. It seems he is toying with them."
"Good! That's how wide the gap in strengths between him and those weaklings," Bobby lectured. "Remember this. Whenever you face an opponent who is overwhelmingly stronger than you, then you should not engage. You must use all of your tricks to get the hell away from that situation. Do you understand?"
Layla nodded her head obediently.
Meanwhile, the ten shadows hiding carefully were startled as Shadow Slave emerged from behind them and said, "Hohoho, so you call this an ambush. Bullshit!"
The ten were the ruthless Mamba assassins working under Tenth Vice-Captain Kunch. Recollecting themself, they quickly surrounded Shadow Slave and started launching their skills.
While raising only one finger, Shadow Slave blocked all their attacks, showing the difference in strength between those with energy levels over 340s and those with energy levels under 375.
About a mile away from them, a large flying python was hiding within a cloud of dusk. Four people were also riding on its back. They were none other than Town Leader KoKo Cha, the Second Vice-Captain Buma, the Fourth Vice-Captain Shikan, and the Tenth Vice-Captain Kunch. They were currently looking around for any helpers.
After observing the boring fight, Shikan, the Fourth Vice-Captain opened his mouth, disturbing the silence, "Milord, Chieftain Juno clearly knows we are ambushing him since he came in this path. Maybe we're wrong. No one is coming for his help."
"I agree! Other than those two slaves and wild lives around this place, I don't see anything around the radius of six miles. So, why don't we just gang up on that bastard and end this fart already?" Buma, the Second agreed as he was skimming the area over ten times using his stone eye ocular observation technique.
The other two including KoKo Cha also trusted with his eye technique.
After a minute, KoKo Cha said, "Alright, whatever the case, let's end this quickly. Kunch, you go first. Be careful, you're almost as strong as him."
Kunch knelt slightly while touching his forehead and responded politely, "Yes, sir! I'll take care of this villain." Then he lifted his large body in the air and darted toward the region.
Sensing his arrival, Shadow Slave who was standing still all this time said, "Good news, your master is here to join this little party. Alright, you can all die!" He then pulled out a red katana and the next thing, his figure turned all blurry, flickering from one place to another.
Just after Kunch reached there, the first thing he saw was the ten flying heads of his subordinates. Blood sprayed out from their necks and dropped onto the ground lifeless.
Amidst the mist of red, Shadow Slave reappeared and said, "Hello, Brother Kunch! Finally, you show up. Kek-kek-kek, are you ready to join the afterlife trip along with your ten Mamba Assassins?"
Kunch snorted, "Humph, we'll see about that soon." Then without another word, he raised his hand in the air and started chanting a spell in Archaic Sanskrit. Ending his incantation, he cried at the top of his lungs, "My Soul Weapon Vabimba* Come Forth!" Immediately afterward, a temporal spatial fluctuation occurred in the air and a large gray staff materialized in his head. There were multiple blades at one end of the polearm and the other end was designed in the shape of a red cobra head.
Kunch slithered toward Shadow Slave in a flash and bashed aiming for Shadow Slave's head.
Clank! Shadow Slave blocked it with the red katana and then the clanking sound of metal filled the air as the two started exchanging blows with their weapons.
Soon, the land around them turned barren as the energy explosion from their fight destroyed everything around them. This continued for the next three minutes and they separated, panting and gasping heavily for air.
"Brother Kunch, you seem to have improved a lot from our last exchange." Shadow Slave praised him, still acting as the Chieftain Juno.
But it turned out to be a sarcastic comment on the other receiver's end. Kunch shouted, "Juno, are you looking down on me?"
"Ahh! What are you even talking about? I'm praising you, brother… Unable to differentiate between insult and praise. Hmm, it seems like your intelligence is also going down to the gutter as you gain your strength." Shadow Slave responded with a devilish grin.
Seeing the ugly smirk on his face further aggravated him, so Vice-Captain Kunch infused the polearm with his energy and yelled while slashing it in the air, "Bastard Juno! Why are you not summoning your soul weapon? Are you fucking insulting me?"