'Oh! This guy is quite tough. He must be about to reach level 47 to be able to last so long fighting with me,' Ruth was amazed as she pressed against guard Brian.
The reason why she was able to fight peers that were of a higher level, was obviously because of the Silver-grade techniques that she was a young disciple of the Gray Clouds Sect.
In addition to a specialized cultivation technique, she still had three others which were specialized in attack, defense, and movement.
The movement technique was called Instant Steps, which increased the user's movement speed three times.
The attack technique had the name of Fists of Pain, which could increase the strength of the user's punches by 100% and simultaneously increase the body's hardness by 50% for each phase of the technique which Ruth was in.
Fists of Pain!
She landed another blow in the direction of guard Brian's chest while the latter tried to defend himself.
Bone Blocking!
Plop!
"Arrrrgggghhhh! You bitch!" Brian could not deflect the attack and was left to defend himself with his only Black-grade defense technique.
However, Ruth's attack was at least over 30% more efficient than Brian's defense. So, the protection that the bald man had erected could not prevent such an attack from inflicting damage on him.
Meanwhile, on the side, Minos patiently watched Ruth destroy the defenses of Luke's subordinates. 'As I thought, her attack is surely Silver-grade. Otherwise, she would not be able to break the defenses of someone higher than her own level...'
Ruth and Brian continued this one-sided fight for a few more breaths until guard Brian finally fell to the ground unconscious.
His face had turned pale as he fell to the floor with a mouth covered in blood. His armor had also been damaged with various fist marks reaching the height of his chest.
At the same time, Ruth was almost exhausted from the confrontation, her breathing turned rapid and many drops of sweat could be seen on her beautiful face. After all, despite having Silver-grade techniques, she did not have a Devouring Art like Minos, so she had spent a lot of her energy while defeating those three guards.
"Not bad! It seems that you are not just talk. Haha, let's go back to the hotel and rest for the remainder of the day." Minos said as he smiled at Ruth.
Upon hearing this, she just uttered a "hmph" for that comment of Minos and then followed the group out of the building, where their carriage was standing.
Soon after, the six people left the city's south side and went to the Olson Hotel, located in the central part of the Old Stone.
…
Meanwhile, on the second floor of the building where the young Luke's trap had failed, two guards were helping their young master to pull himself together. "That wretch was very strong!" Luke exclaimed, looking at the trail of blood that had remained on the floor.
"Young master, rest assured, Chief Brian is going to hold that group, and we will be able to capture that brat!" one of the guards said while helping Luke steady himself.
"Hmm, come on, I can walk alone. You two go ahead and help guard Brian and get this over with. I will make sure that wretch tells all his secrets later," Luke grunted.
He had never been beaten so barbarically before, and to make matters worse, the enemy was many levels weaker than he was. If word got out about it, his reputation would be completely ruined, resulting in an even greater damage to his self-confidence!
"Ah! Shit!"
As he slowly descended the stairs, Luke heard a growl from the first floor. 'Eh? What happened…' He increased his pace, curious to find out what had happened.
When he reached the first floor, Luke was shocked by the scene in front of him. The three guards who had stayed to hold Minos' group were now lying unconscious on the floor. And puddles of blood could also be seen trailing from the mouths of the three men while some teeth were scattered around the site.
Upon seeing this, Luke felt so frightened that the pains of his previous battle seemed to have grown even more remarkable. His face had gone paler than before as he tried to wrap his mind around how this might have happened.
That's because, from Luke's point of view, these three people who were at levels 43, 44, and 46, should have been able to hold a group of four people at level 40 and the young woman at level 45 without a sweat. And even if they couldn't win, it still would have been a tough fight, and certainly, the other side would not be in any better condition than his subordinates.
However, in the scene, there was no sign of the Minos' group, as if they had ended the fight quickly and left.
'How did this happen? Is there someone else with the group?' as Luke thought to himself, his face turned ugly.
"Shit! Now I have no choice but to tell my father what happened. I will be thoroughly screwed when he finds out that I even have lost a Silver-grade technique. He'll want to kill me…" Luke muttered in a low voice.
"Let's go back home. After these three wake up, I want a full report of what happened, do you hear?" he said, looking at the two guards who were helping Ruth's victims.
…
Time passed, and thus an entire day had passed since the meeting between the group of Minos and Luke. By this time, the news about Luke being trashed by someone had already spread through the Nash family's palace and also reached Elen's ears.
"Ms. Elen, I heard from one of the young master Luke's subordinates that the incident that occurred was related to Mr. Minos, who had visited you three days ago," a servant said while helping Elen to comb her beautiful blond hair.
'Eh? So, that idiot was causing trouble for Mr. Minos... It seems that this time I have to take some action about these chases from Luke. I can't let him get in the way of business,' Elen thought to herself with a frown.
"Do you know what Luke has been doing all this long after the incident?"
"Ms. Elen, it appears like he's been at his residence all day since then," the servant replied.
"Well, keep an eye on him, and if he does anything different, you should tell me right away."
…
A few hours later, in Luke's apartment, guard Brian was reporting to Luke everything that had happened on the first floor.
"That's right, young master. It was just that woman who fought. She's much stronger than she looks, and can even fight against those at a higher level," Brian said with his head low and a solemn expression.
"Shit! Everything was spoiled because of this woman. Now, if I want to recover the Silver-grade cultivation technique that Minos snatched from me, I can only appeal to my father," Luke grunted unhappily.
This was the only remaining alternative for him. After all, if Ruth could handle someone above her level with such ease, then to defeat her, they would probably need many subordinates or some specialist from the Spiritual King stage.
Luke couldn't just get what he wanted without the Nash family's prior approval in both cases, despite being the young master of the family.
And even though Luke was the son of the family patriarch, he had no contact with many of the family's Spiritual Kings and the few he knew definitely would not help him before speaking about this to the family's patriarch first.
So, Luke only had one way to go, and that was to appeal to his father.
Shortly after, Luke was walking towards his father, the family patriarch's office.
The office had a rustic interior, with numerous books placed on shelves and some pictures with images of Stone Island hung on the walls. There was a large table placed next to one of the windows in that office with two chairs on one side and an oversized leather chair on the other.
At this moment, a well-dressed middle-aged man with blond hair sat in the armchair comfortably while reading a pile of documents.
He was Marvin Nash, the current patriarch of the Nash family and also Luke's father, he had a Black-grade talent and was at level 58.
Soon after Luke's arrival in his office, the middle-aged man realized his son had not spoken yet, so he set the stack of documents aside and inquired seriously, "Why did you come here, Luke? I don't think that you simply came to visit your old man, right?"
Luke then lowered his head and began to speak in a soft voice. "Dad, I underestimated someone and ended up being beaten by him. If it were just for this reason, I wouldn't have come here. However, the problem is that he stole my spatial ring which contained one of the copies of the Silver-grade cultivation technique that our family has."