The Confidante's eyes widened and he leaped away from Rita before using Cosmic energy to separate the flames from his body. He succeeded but that had given the purple-eyed lady the opportunity to strike at him unhindered.

*clang*

​​

The confidante got his sword up just in time to parry her blade but that hardly bothered Rita who simply spun around to strike at him again but the confidant simply blocked it continuously. Showcasing his speed as well as proficiency with a sword.

Rita moved back away from him and charged up a Cosmic attack imbued with a cosmic phenomenon which she tossed towards her opponent who retaliated with a cosmic attack of his own.

*Bang!*

The connecting blasts created a loud sound before dissipating.

The confidant wondered what Rita was hoping to achieve with her strikes which only proved that she as a cultivator at the early stage could not possibly contend with him who was at the mid-stage.

Eventually, he decided to forgo all those questions and take care of this. Whatever her reasons, Rita was sure to kill him if she had the chance and it would do well for him not to give her that chance.

Suddenly, he harnessed the full might of his cultivation base and charged his whole body with it before dashing towards Rita to deliver a definite final strike to put an end to this... Duel of theirs.

After all, there was a whole host of enemies to be defeated.

However, the strangest thing happened right at the moment his sword was supposed to be making contact with her neck... Rita vanished.

Right from his sight.

He turned to where he expected her to be appearing next... Behind him.

However, she was not there.

She had leaped up, dispersed of her sword cosmic armament, and summoned Essence stealer to attack him from above...

*whoosh*

The purple arrow shot right downwards towards the confidante's head and even leaping away did not bring him safety as the arrow exploded upon contact with the ground.

"Ahh" he yelled as it propelled him away and hard against the ground.

Rita landed gracefully with the bow pointed at him.

The confidante summoned his sword cosmic armament once again and took on a battle stance but then Rita let the bowstring go and turned away from him towards someone else.

"Where are you going?" The confidante yelled at her before he began to feel his body heating up.

Rita turned her head a fraction in his direction,

"You never stood a chance" she said.

"What...?" He began before...

*Boom*

... His entire body combusted and his essence was drained and sent to the one who still controlled the flames.

Meanwhile...

Red Beard had seen this display and it quite irked him how easily Rita had ended the life of one of his closest.

Ever since the toxic arrow attack which finally caused the ongoing battle to commence, he and Hal had simply looked at each other while things dissolved into chaos.

However, seeing as continuous lack of reaction was only increasing the rate at which he lost those closest to him. Those with whom, he planned to take over the region, he decided it was time to take action.

He stood up and released the pressure of his Late-stage Cosmic Phenomenon realm cultivation to send a charged Cosmic attack at Hal who did not retaliate but dashed away from its trajectory.

And it was not him that counter-attacked, it was Sassy. She slithered with incredible speed to Red Beard's side while still leaving a distance between them before sending another toxic arrow attack at him.

Red Beard frowned as he wondered if Hal had any intentions at all to actually face him or would only keep entrusting things to his serpent.

Whatever the case might be, he might as well focus on the serpent whose toxic arrows were surely potent enough to put an end to him should they make contact.

However, judging from the pressure coming off the body of the serpent, it was at the mid-stage of the Cosmic phenomenon realm just like Hal and Red Beard highly doubted that alert as he was, the serpent could actually nail him with such a targeting based attack.

That said, the battle between him and Sassy shifted from her shooting long-distance toxic arrow attacks at him and his dodging it to one where she engaged him physically.

For any other cultivator in Red Beard shoes, this would have been a conundrum since with their stronger physical bodies, Demon beasts could contend with those a stage above them but Red beard was far from worried.

In fact, he soon began parrying Sassy's attacks which involved her trunk and tail with his fists and occasionally, even outmatching her.

Quite an impressive feat of strength.

*Hissssss*

Sassy let out a long angry hiss and slithered towards her opponent to attempt to coil around him and hit him with her toxic arrow at point-blank range which he would not be able to evade and would have difficulty blocking.

The speed with which she slithered far surpassed what should have been her limit by virtue of cultivation base but it was nothing Red Beard could not avoid.

Strength and speed.

That was Hal's assessment after watching the two battle.

The reason he had Sassy start the battle was simply so he could make this assessment.

From the memories of the female bandit, Hal already knew Red Beard's cultivation as the Bandit leader was never really secretive about it in camp.

Hal even knew that Red Beard was confident of defeating someone at the peak stage of the Cosmic Phenomenon realm, he just did not why he was confident.

On account of how little the female bandit had actually seen Red heard in action, he had little to in knowledge of his combative prowess.

Through this battle with Sassy, Hal could now ascertain that Red beard had somehow developed a perfect mix of speed and strength that far surpassed what a Late-stage cosmic phenomenon realm expert was truly capable of.

However, as this was not actually enough to contend with a Peak stage Cosmic phenomenon realm expert, Hal still believed there was more to Red Beard. There was something, a trump card the bandit leader had that truly guaranteed him victory over the mayor of Dell city.

'It's an Ordinance' Grimoire said

Hal's eyes widened,

'What? That's impossible' he said to the artifact and it was no wonder why he said so.

The monument of ordinances opened last five hundred years ago and Hal highly doubted Red Beard could have been able to visit the monument back then and that was assuming he had even been born.

Also, if he had enough aptitude to comprehend an ordinance why would he spend the last ten years robbing merchants when an ordinance was sure to open up much more lucrative opportunities for him in the continent at large.

Grimoire did a mental appropriation of a shrug,

'I don't know how he got it. I just know I can sense an Ordinance within him." it said.

Hal furrowed his brows,

"Sassy" he called and after one more toxic arrow attack, the serpent slithered back to his side.

Red Beard frowned at Hal and actually summoned his cosmic armament, a large Red war hammer, and gripped it tightly.

A smile slowly crept onto Hal's face and his sclera turned black while his sapphire blue iris remained the same. His body began releasing black vapor before he vanished.

He was so fast that Red Beard had no idea where he was and only by acting instinctively was he able to block the scythe blade that almost stabbed through his chest,

Hal was now grinning manically,

"I heard you have an Ordinance... Let me see it..."