"You sure can speak. Now, die!"
The criminal was quite angry after hearing Yale's words, so he attacked immediately, but it only made Yale smile while evading it perfectly.
He was shocked that his attack was evaded, but his shock increased when he discovered a huge wound on his chest.
Although the wound wasn't something serious for someone at his level, he didn't notice when Yale had counterattacked.
"So, you have some skill, after all. However, with that power, you can't win."
Yale didn't care about the words because he had just slashed the criminal casually with Lar's sword.
An opponent that charged to battle like that was too easy to predict for Yale, but he did that counterattack as a test just in case that the criminal was only feigning that carelessness.
If Yale had used a full-strength attack and the criminal had been setting a trap, Yale would have had a difficult time defending.
However, after that moment, Yale didn't doubt about his chances to win anymore.
That criminal was strong, quick, and resilient, but he had a great lack of ability due to always relying on superior raw power.
Of course, that wasn't a problem of that criminal alone, it was a generalized problem in that universe.
Since the training was far easier than in Yale's universe, those with potential didn't spend too much time training anything that wasn't their level.
Thus, unless that person felt a bottleneck that couldn't surpass in a short time, it was difficult that someone would spend time to polish anything else.
Mostly, ninth level immortals were those who had enough time to do it. Other than them, immortals that didn't have a training method to continue training did it to increase their power, but that clearly wasn't the case of that criminal.
He had a method to become a ninth level immortal, but he needed time, so he decided to hide in the wastelands until making a breakthrough. Only then he would go to kill his enemies.
The criminal used a saber, but regardless of the strength, in pure ability, Yale could consider the criminal a complete newbie.
In fact, that criminal was far stronger than the Governor despite being at the same level since he had a training method to ninth level immortal while the Governor didn't, the reason the two were considered of similar power was that the Governor was incredibly good at swordsmanship.
Methods to become a ninth level immortal were incredibly rare. Moreover, finding one compatible with oneself was even more difficult.
Usually, those training methods were strictly confidential, but the criminal stole one and thus, became a wanted criminal. That had been the start of his days as a criminal, and after that, he lost any moral restraints and acted as pleased.
After assessing his opponent's strength, Yale wielded Lar's sword in one hand and the Essence Slayer Sword in the other.
Lar's sword was great because it could devour the opponent's soul, which Yale felt that would help Lar a lot. The sword was completely restored after his battle with the Supreme Garbage thanks to the Godly power he obtained, but since he couldn't restore Lar even with that power, he at least wanted to strengthen her as much as he could.
The other sword was just a sword in name since it could change to any weapon Yale wished, so it was far more versatile in battle.
Yale was the one who attacked that time, but given his speed, the criminal just went back a bit to evade it.
"Too slow!"
He said that, but another wound appeared on his chest just afterward.
In pure speed without using any aid like controlling elements, Yale was indeed slower than the criminal due to the difference of levels, but that time Yale had just stabbed him with a lance when his opponent expected the length of a sword.
He could have avoided it by evading further away, but since Yale avoided the previous attack without moving too much, the criminal wanted to do the same.
Of course, that was just as Yale predicted.
The injury was still something that couldn't threaten the criminal's life, but it was still part of Yale's plan.
He wanted to test his skills with someone powerful, so he didn't plan to finish the battle in one hit. He would execute that criminal latter, but he felt like using it to test his own power for a while.
He had even wondered about asking the Governor to have a mocking battle to test his skills, but an enemy was far better since Yale didn't need to restrain himself.
"A weapon that can change its form. What a treasure… After killing you, it will be mine."
Yale didn't bother to tell him that it was impossible that someone else used that sword. That criminal was already dead on Yale's eyes, so there was no need to waste words with him.
The criminal attacked after that while being sure that his first injury was also thanks to the shape-shifting weapon, but Yale's next attack left him without words.
It was a firestorm and a very powerful one. Although he didn't feel like it could injure him, he would definitely have an opening if he wasn't careful.
The criminal was hit, but he avoided most of the attack. However, and an instant later as thunderstorm caught him.
"Shit! How many elements can control that bastard? Isn't that supposed to be extremely hard?"
He was shocked, but none of those attacks had enough power to threaten his life.
Thus, the criminal attacked again and decided to ignore those attacks to hit Yale with his full strength.
That made that he ignored the rain of ice lances that Yale used since it seemed obvious that they couldn't harm him.
However, that was a mistake.
When one of the ice lances hit him, he noticed the even his soul was being frozen. Moreover, the attack hit just on the wound made just before by the spear, which increased the internal damage.
"This ice is completely at another level. I saw once a ninth level immortal control ice, but it wasn't this strong… Maybe, this ice is already at that legendary threshold… Dangerous. I can't let this ice hit me again."
He just wanted to think it, but with the shock, he ended up speaking, which provided Yale with valuable information about the level of his ice element.
If a ninth level immortal controlled that level of ice, it would be far more fearsome than Yale controlling it, but against that criminal, that ice was already fearsome enough.
The criminal felt that his opponent didn't have any method to injure him, so he lowered his guard and attacked frontally, but he didn't expect that it was just what Yale had been planning the whole time.
The people in the city was watching the battle happening on the skies and couldn't believe what they were seeing.
They had never expected to see a seventh level immortal having the advantage against an eighth level immortal. They never expected that the master of their Governor was so strong.
They all respected Yale before because of his status as the Governor master, and anyway a seventh level immortal was worthy of their respect, but at that moment, they all understood that they had underestimated Master Liye a lot.
The criminal evaded all the ice after that moment, so Yale attacked frontally with his weapons, but the criminal avoided them carefully that time.
However, he was still hurt.
"How?"
That time he made sure that he wasn't hit by the weapon or any of its transformations, but he had been hurt anyway.
The worst of all was that he felt that he was freezing from the wound. That hadn't been a mere injury, it had been infused with the ice that he feared.
The same scene repeated five times, and the criminal started to feel fear.
He wasn't able to notice how Yale had been harming him, but at that moment he had only a wild guess. A wild guess that made his blood froze from fear.
"You… Are you controlling the time?"
That was the only answer he could reach. He was definitely avoiding the hits, but he always found that he had been hit.
"You finally guessed it, right. I excel at controlling time, although it is still behind my ice."
Yale felt that although his control over time was better than other elements, it was lacking compared with the ice, so he felt that he hadn't reached that threshold with the time yet.
Yale was cutting the past with his attacks; he didn't cut where his opponent was but where it had been seconds before. An unavoidable attack unless the other party could also control time.
The criminal turned back and ran. Control over the time combined with that ice wasn't something he could beat. At that pace, he would really be just executed.
He knew that Yale had been just playing with him.
Yale didn't bother to pursue him, but he transformed his weapon to a bow and put Lar's Sword as an arrow before using ice, time, and space into it.
"Lar, that is your snack, don't let it run."
After Yale spoke softly to the sword used as an arrow, he shot.
Lar's sword disappeared and appeared just in front of the criminal, who got stabbed by the sword and frozen to death before being able to be surprised by the attack.
