Rocky contemplated as he saw that the path could only allow for the passage of one carriage at a time,
with perilous cliffs on both sides. He then turned to the spirit manipulators of the sixth squad and
commanded, "Each three of you push a carriage of supply through here. I will handle the last one
myself."
"Captain, how could we trouble you with such hard labor? Let us handle this!" The spirit manipulators
from the sixth squad thought Rocky was trying to test their loyalty to him and volunteered to relieve him
of his load.
"Cut the chitchat. Let's roll." Rocky stared at them coldly, hurrying them to carry out his order.
Rocky was the leader of the sixth squad, so the spirit manipulators had to follow his orders without
question. They split up into groups of two, each group in charge of one carriage, and pushed the two
carriages through the narrow path. Rocky and Uriah were left with the supply carriage at the rear.
All of a sudden, the quiet tranquility of the area was broken with the thundering sound of a giant rolling
stone that emerged from one side of the cliff. It came tumbling down with great force, sending debris
everywhere. Finally, it landed right on the narrow path and blocked its passage completely. If Rocky
had not stayed behind with Uriah and the last supply carriage, they would have been killed. Fortunately,
the rest of the sixth squad made it through the pass smoothly.
The rest of the squad turned to the sound immediately and saw that the narrow path that they had just
taken was blocked by a huge rock with their leader stuck behind it. They panicked instantly at this
development as they had never encountered anything like this before. Without Rocky commanding
them, they had no idea how to deal with the situation at hand.
"Have we just walked into a trap by the enemy? The squad leader is stuck behind. Let's not panic, keep
calm, and try to remove the stone first. Then we will act on squad leader's command." Thor found all
this happening too fast, and felt as though something about this was off. He attempted to calm his
companions down and prevent further panic. If they had indeed been targeted by some hostile force, it
would be the worst-case scenario for both Rocky and the rest of the squad as they had been
separated. Divided and conquered!
All the spirit manipulators rapidly began to lose their composure. But they tried to steel their nerves.
They found Thor's suggestion to be sensible and set to push away the giant stone to clear the path so
that Rocky could make it through and join them for the rest of the journey.
Rocky, on the other side of the stone, was standing next to the carriage, arms folded to his chest and
looking indifferent to his surroundings. Uriah crouched down next to him. Both Rocky and his war beast
were quite calm about the situation unfurling before them. They were not scared or terrified by the
stone that had come out of blue. It was as though they had been expecting this very thing to happen.
Before long, three figures emerged from the cliff and landed in front of Rocky.
"Shit. Guess we are not lucky this time! We only got this one with such weak strength!" a bald man spat
in contempt as he sensed Rocky's extremely low aura as a spirit manipulator.
They were the three robbers, who had fixed sights on the sixth squad since they entered the valley.
They made a name for themselves in this area and proudly called themselves the Three Powers at the
Gehenna Border. There were also three similar-looking spirit-manipulated beasts along with them,
which all had the appearance of coyotes. They were like triplets. However, only one of them was a two-
star spirit-manipulated beast, while the other two were only one-star.
"Let's take our time and finish him off first. We can pick off the others one by one. He is wearing a
squad leader's uniform. If he's this weak, no wonder this squad looks so disorganized. If someone like
him could make a squad leader, I can be his general!" The one with a scar on his face, who seemed to
be in the lead, laughed at Rocky as he stared ferociously at him.
The other two, one bald and one fat, laughed also hearing their leader. However, they also found it a
little strange that Rocky showed no signs of fear or panic. Instead, he just stared at them. He remained
calm the whole time, as though he was not intimidated at all by their presence. It infuriated them greatly
that he acted as though they were not an infamous threat! He had such weak strength, yet he looked
down on them. A murderous intent began to fill the air.
"You know not who you are dealing with here. We are the infamous Three Powers at the Gehenna
Border in this region. Kneel down and beg for our mercy! If you do, maybe we will spare your life!" the
fat one shouted, intending to scare Rocky with the sound of their grandiose name.
However, Rocky was still calm and gave them just a cold stare without uttering a word. He quietly
measured their strength and a plan began to form in his mind. Except for the man with a scar to his
face, who was at the fourth grade of the Mortal Stage, the other two were only at the third grade of the
Mortal Stage, which was nothing compared to Rocky's level.
"Brother, he must be scared shitless now after hearing our name!" the bald man laughed, looking
satisfied with Rocky's reaction.
"Oh brother, he looks like he's still okay! Unlike the others who typically pass out at the mention of our
name. Looks we won't have to do it ourselves though. Our spirit-manipulated beasts are more than
enough to take care of him." The one in charge also looked complacent, convinced that Rocky was a
pathetic weakling.
The three spirit-manipulated beasts in front of them turned excited at hearing their masters' command.
They growled, showing their fangs, and brandished their claws. They looked utterly ferocious and were
chomping at the bit to launch themselves at Rocky.
"Howl!" Uriah bellowed, its voice stirring up a storm of dust, which was truly magnificent.
The spirit-manipulated beasts in front of them started to shake at this sound and growled with fear.
They were backing down at the mere sound of Uriah.
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