Assassin’s Chronicle - Chapter 141

Anfey, Suzanna and Black Eleven stood side by side with a lush valley in front of them. They watched the camp in the distance and lost themselves in thought. In the past few days, they had not gone back to the wagon route. Instead, they stayed behind to look for the trace of their enemies. It had been five days, but they had not found anything yet.

Time did not allow them to look for enemies anymore. Black Eleven received new information. Maybe it was because the commander of Roaring Dead Legion did not know Yolanthe had not died yet. He acted very cautiously. He was different than those war maniacs. He did not attack the Shansa Empire military. Instead, he led the Roaring Dead Legion in a quiet retreat to the Maho Empire. Even though he tried to keep his moves secret, they were noticed. After this message was spread, Maho Empire was shocked. The upper classes in Ellisen Empire and Shansa Empire got into a long and intense disagreement over it.

When things had already gone so far, everyone knew the intention of Baery. Yolanthe had died so Roaring Dead Legion became Baery’s legion. He could use Roaring Dead Legion as a bargaining chip. No matter which prince he would support, he would play an important role. The three princesses of Maho Empire who hid themselves in their own fiefdoms should be counted out. The eldest prince, Webster, only had Miorich on his side. Compared with Granden, who had control over the North Line military, Miorich seemed to be a lot weaker. If Webster could get Baery’s support, he could be on par with Granden. On the other hand, if Granden had Baery’s support, Webster had better choose to give up his power and leave Sacred City, or flee to another county, or hide in remote areas to survive.

The upper classes in Ellisen Empire and Shansa Empre were quite happy. They understood Baery’s situation. It was all because Yolanthe died at a wrong time.

Royalty had absolute control over militaries, whether or not Yolanthe had died. If there were anyone who could legally succeed to the throne after Yolanhe in Maho Empire, Baery would not be able to have total control over Roaring Dead Legion. In other words, the upper classes in Ellisen Empire and Shansa Empre had predicted they were going to have a perfect opportunity to attack Maho Empire: not only because of the death of Yolanthe, but also because the situation in Maho Empire was turbulent and showed many conflicts inside.

In this situation, Newyoheim and Jerrofick in Ellisen Empire finally became allies. They lead Dark Moon Magic Legion and Storm Legion and launched a fierce attack. They had fought with all kinds of temptation before because they did not know what Roaring Dead Legion would do to them. For exactly the same reason, Yolanthe had been cautious of making moves on Dark Moon Magic Legion. The upper class in Ellisen Empire was also careful about Roaring Dead Legion. Maho Empire had played their last card. Therefore, there was nothing to hold them back. They would not wait to attack, in case Maho Empire got stronger.

Shansa Empire stopped worrying and reduced the number of their soldiers at other areas to allow their main force to attack Blackania City. Blackania City had already been in danger. Webster was in charge of the Sacred City military for the time being. When he saw this situation, he had to put aside what was between the brothers and ask Miorich to lead Sacred City Palace bodyguards to the aid of Blackania City.

Maho Empire still had a very strong military power, but the upper classes in Ellisen Empire and Shansa Empire both felt relieved. Roaring Dead Legion was the last card that Maho Empire could play. When they had to use Sacred City Palace bodyguards as military, it only proved that Maho Empire had come to a point that they had nothing else left to defend themselves. It also proved Baery’s indecisive attitude. If he had put the country as his priority, he would not just stand and see Webster using Sacred City Palace bodyguards as military.

The eldest prince, Webster used Sacred City Palace bodyguards as a signal to tell other countries that he was ready for the fight more than he was fighting for his country. It was harsh to make this judgement, but the fact was obviously showing though.

The situation was clear to everyone. If Webster wanted to help Blackania City, he had to cut off the supplies from Shansa Empire. First, though, he had to wipe out Griffin Aerial Unit to cut off the supplies from Shansa Empire. Black Eleven was worried. Anfey, Suzanna and Black Eleven decided to stop looking for Evil Mist out of concern for time.

Hengduan Mountain Range appeared straight ahead them. The Hengduan Valley was nestled in the hills. To the left, towards the southeast, was the Town of Moramatch. To the right, towards the southwest, was the Forest of Death. The wagon route had reached this crossing, which led to three different areas.

Anfey understood why Black Eleven looked so weird after he heard the name of Moramatch. Moramatch was not a deserted area. It was said that there were many intelligent beings living there. The reason to call them intelligent beings was there were all kinds of tribes, but no human beings.

Suzanna had foreseen that Christian would lose a lot of money on the deal. She predicted that they would not be able to collect more than one hundred gold coins in taxes. The reality was Suzanna was even too optimistic about it. They would not even collect one gold coin. The intelligent beings did not want to follow human beings’ lead. The Band of Brothers mercenary groups had sent mercenaries to put down the uprising several times, but the dwarves and gnomes had allied and worked together, overcoming their race problem. They dug underground tunnels in Moramatch. There were many connected tunnels, which looked like a spider web. When mercenaries came, they would hide in the underground tunnels and looked for opportunity to attack human beings in surprise. When mercenaries left, they would come out from the underground tunnel to enjoy their peaceful life. They simply played guerrilla.

Of course, human beings were still dominant on Pan Continent. The reason those intelligent lives were safe in Moramatch was they were useless. If they were protecting a treasure left by a gigantic dragon, the mercenaries would rush to Moramatch and crush them like bugs. Even if they could dig ten or a hundred times more underground tunnels, they could not escape from human beings’ hunting.

If Chuang Tzu were here, he would brag about his philosophy and stress the universal truth about “the use of useless”.

“Anfey, are we going to the Hengduan Mountain Range or Town of Moramatch?” Black Eleven asked in a low voice.

“Let’s go to Moramatch first. We will decide after your people bring us more updates,” Anfey said.

“Ok.” Black Eleven nodded. “But we’d better get ready for battles, since it was not that easy to enter the town of Moramatch.”

“It gives me a headache.” Anfey heaved a slight sigh. “It’s better not have any blood in any battle.”

“No blood? It does not sound like you.” Black Eleven smiled.

“If there is any way we could have them gather in the town to welcome us, I do not mind even using a Flash Series Scroll.” Anfey gave a weak smile. “I am just concerned they would cause trouble for us after any bloody fight.”

“Flash Series Scroll is very precious.” Black Eleven smiled bitterly. He found he had lived like a kid compared with Anfey. “Don’t waste it. Are the scrolls you have collected by Master Saul? You are so…”

“Do we have any other ways to avoid the bloody fights?” Anfey asked slowly. “They could not feed themselves, could they? They need to purchase many of life’s necessities outside of Moramatch. Can we do any business with them?” Anfey asked.

“They are hostile towards human beings, so they are very cautious when they deal with humans. They were slaves or entertainment for humans before. They risked their lives to flee here.” Black Eleven shook his head. “They only do business with certain merchant caravans and merchants.”

“We can give them a lower price. It should be attempting to them,” Anfey said.

“It was not tempting enough.” Black Eleven smiled. “If they rob us, they would not need to pay even a bronze coin.”

“F*ck!” Anfey could not help cursing. “Do they dare?”

“They have done it many times to others,” Black Eleven answered.

“What if we use Earthquake Magic? Could we destruct their underground tunnels?” Anfey started to look for alternatives to fight these intellectual beings.

“No, the tunnels dwarves dug were several miles or even more than ten miles deep underground. Unless it was Earth Series Magic, others would not be too helpful,” Black Eleven said.

“What if we use Water Series Magic? If we flood their tunnel, would they drown?” Anfey asked.

“Underground tunnels are like cities for dwarves and gnomes. They connect the tunnels with the rivers. It is not possible to drown them. In addition, we do not have enough mages to gather that many water elements.”

“Never mind then. We will know when the time comes.” Anfey shook his head. “I will give them an olive branch and have them choose their own fate.”

“What is an olive branch?” Suzanna asked in low pitch.

“It’s a symbol for peace.” Anfey smiled. “Ok. Let’s go.”

In the camp, Christian was instructing others how to build tents. Seeing Anfey finally show up, he looked happy. Everyone else seemed to feel relieved as well. They knew they were being stalked. Christian did not try to hide it from them. Seeing Anfey, Suzanna and Black Eleven back, it meant the enemies were taken care of.

Girls were stilling chatting and singing. Some were fooling around, some were helping with chores. The saying “ignorance is bliss” made some sense. Even if the sky had fallen, the bigger and stronger men had to hold it for others. The girls had been care free.

“Christian, you must have been really busy when I was not here,” Anfey looked around the camp as he commented.

Christian was shocked for a second before he heaved a long sigh. “Come on, Anfey, You never took care of these things even when you were in the camp. I have been doing it no matter whether you are here or not. There is no difference with or without you.”

“You are too honest.” Anfey gave Christian a smile. It was generally hard for people to notice any changes in themselves, and Anfey was no different. He did not realize he was getting more outgoing.

“You are so boring.” Christian rolled his eyes at Anfey and then he looked concerned. “Did you get hurt? Is everything ok?”

“Yes, Anfey killed a senior swordsman by himself.” Suzanna was bragging about Anfey’s success. She looked happier than if she could kill a senior swordsman herself.

“Really?” Christian was startled.

“I actually had a lot of advantages. I’m really not as powerful as he,” Anfey said.

“But you already know levitation,” Suzanna countered.

“That’s good news.” Christian grinned. “I don’t have to carry you anymore. Truth be told, Anfey, you’re quite heavy.”

Anfey turned and looked at Suzanna. It was evident from her expression that she was very happy for his growth. Even though it had been a few days already, Suzanna couldn’t help but smile whenever she recalled it.

Women were much more sensitive than men, especially when it came to love. Suzanna knew very well what her heart desired. After the incident with Shally, Suzanna felt she didn’t need to hide anymore. After the initial awkwardness, she chose to be more open about her feelings. This was why she had been talking about Anfey a lot lately.

Sensing his gaze, Suzanna turned to look at Anfey. When their eyes met, she quickly turned her gaze away.

“Where’s Hui Wei?” Anfey asked.

“Over there.” Christian pointed the young man out for Anfey. “Do you need to talk to him?”

“He had dealings with some of the weaker species before. I need to ask him something.”

“Is it about Moramatch?” Christian asked.

“It is,” Anfey said.

“It’s really my fault,” Christian said. He shook his head. “I should have been smart and rented that Zambia village.”

Zambia was a jungle town in the middle of Transverse Mountains. It was the last large supply town on the way to Shansa Empire. It was a large town with mostly humans. It covered a lot of territory and was fairly prosperous. Plus, it was in the middle of the Transverse Mountains, which would make it easier for them to execute their plans.

“Thank god you didn’t rent that town,” Black Eleven said. “It’s under the control of Shansa Empire. It is a major city in Transverse Mountains. They would never ignore it.”

“Do you have anything from Band of Brother mercenary?”

“Not yet.”

“Shouldn’t we be trying to create some chaos?” Christian asked, frowning.

“Definitely. We cannot disrupt Shansa Empire’s supply lines all by ourselves. We need other mercenaries to help us.” Anfey smiled. “I’m going to look for Hui Wei. Suzanna, why don’t you get some rest?”

After the few days away from his friends, Anfey had some new understanding of magic. He would try to meditate as often as he could, so keeping nightly vigils became Suzanna’s and Black Eleven’s job. During the day they had travel. The two of them were often extremely tired because of this lack of sleep. Anfey still hadn’t expressed anything, or promised anything to Suzanna. He wasn’t even sure of their relationship himself. However, he saw everything and remembered everything. Silence was just the way he was. He would still care for her when the time was right.

“I’m not tired,” Suzanna said. She didn’t want to act clingy. She was worried that some people wouldn’t just let her rest. Like Niya, who would always be asking her strange questions.

Anfey glanced at Suzanna. He misunderstood her intentions, for once. All men, more or less, had big egos. When a girl like Suzanna falls in love with a man, he would try to stay with her to prove to her his masculinity.

Hui Wei was talking with Vonmerge. Seeing Anfey, the two of them stood up to greet him. Hui Wei was calm, but Vonmerge’s expression was hard to read. He glanced at Suzanna, and his eyes dropped to the ground silently. He wanted to keep himself away from the spotlight. He didn’t need sympathy or jabs. Both would hurt his pride.

However, Vonmerge was a happy person who liked talking to people. He was well traveled, so the job of dealing with strangers fell to Vonmerge. A talkative person suddenly keeping to himself was a sign that something was wrong.

Suzanna hadn’t realized Vonmerge was there. She stopped and looked worried. One was her old friend, her companion, who had pursued her relentlessly. The other was her lover, her leader. She was worried that there would be conflicts over the matter. She would be upset no matter what happened.

Anfey felt that Suzanna and Vonmerge were acting strange. He frowned, then remembered Vonmerge once was pursuing Suzanna. It was common for hatred to replace love. If Vonmerge were to overthink the situation, he could potentially do things that were harmful to the team. However, Anfey couldn’t do anything. He needed to wait for Vonmerge to make his own decision. For a victor, anything he did could be mistaken as showing off.

Killing him? The idea entered his mind. It wasn’t his fault for having such an idea. For an assassin, his first reaction to any potential danger was whether the situation could be resolved with violence or not. The other choice would be to distance himself. Only fools and warriors danced with the devil. Never assassins.

“Vonmerge,” Anfey said. “I didn’t know you were here. I need to ask you something.” He tried to keep his tone as natural as possible.

“What is it?” Hui Wei asked slowly.

“Do you know where we’re going?”

Hui Wei and Vonmerge glanced at each other and both shook their heads.

“We’re going to Moramatch,” Anfey said. “Christian rented the place, and that will be our base from now on.”

“Moramatch? Why are we going there?” The two asked at the same time.

“I know how chaotic the place is, but that is a good thing. If we can settle down there, no one could challenge our leadership for a long time.” Anfey wasn’t joking. Every sentient race had its own skills to protect itself. If they could be recognized by the residents of Moramatch, they could use their defense system against outside threats.

“Wishful thinking.” Hui Wei shook his head. “Those creatures are filled with hatred. There is no easy way to stabilizing the place.”

“I know it’s hard, so I need to learn more,” Anfey told him. “Have you dealt with dwarves and gnomes?”

“I’ve dealt with them, sure.”

“Tell me more about it.”

Hui Wei thought about it for a moment. “Dwarves are short tempered. Both the men and the women are quick to anger. I’ve seen one angry dwarf before. His beard was so long you couldn’t see his mouth. His eyes were huge and he was jumping around, screaming at me. But he was half of my height. It was honestly quite annoying, and I wanted to smash him with a rock. Dealing with dwarves is hard work. They wouldn’t bend to violence. They can and will sacrifice themselves, even if just to prove a point. They’re very stubborn and very determined. You cannot dissuade a dwarf.”

“You’re saying neither words nor violence can force the dwarves into doing anything?”

“Yes.” Hui Wei nodded.

“What about the gnomes?”

“They are a very selfish race. The only thing they really care about is themselves. Because of their selfishness, their civilization is dying very fast; or else they would still be the dominant race.” Hui Wei stopped for a moment before continuing, “Years ago, the rise of the savage clans marked the fall of the gnome civilization. A team of a hundred savages could defeat an army of ten thousand gnomes. Because of the individual differences, the gnome soldiers did not even have the guts to go to war. They would scatter before the savages. Because of their selfishness, they did not unite against their common enemies and gave up very easily. If it wasn’t for that, the savages wouldn’t have had their gold age, and humans wouldn’t have came around.”

“Wait, I have a question,” Anfey said. “Humans are made by gods. What does that have anything to do with the gnomes?” He had read about the development of human civilization in the library when he was researching magic.

“Of course, you’re right.” Hui Wei smiled and stopped talking.

“Did the gods create the gnomes?” Anfey asked tentatively.

“When the gnomes controlled the world, the gods weren’t even born,” Hui Wei said quietly. “Let’s move on. You won’t believe me even if I tell you.”

“You haven’t told me anything yet.”

“Let’s just say the God of Destruction worshipped by the dark mages is a battle monster created by the gnomes.”

“What?” Vonmerge asked. He was really shocked.

Suzanna stared at Hui Wei with wide eyes. His theory was too strange for them to accept easily. Most people would take him for a madman. Anfey, however, was thinking about what Hui Wei just told him.

“If gnomes could control gods, then why were the savages able to destroy them?” Anfey asked slowly.

“Like I’ve said, the gnomes are very selfish. They declared war on each other over the right to control this battle monster. I am not sure what happened in the end. All I know is that the gnomes lost control of the monster.”

“Bulls^t! Totally bulls^t!” Vonmerge shook his head non-stop. They were friends, but he could not stand Hui Wei’s nonsense.

Hui Wei gave a disdaining smile. He glanced at Anfey, finding him lost in thought. He was shocked for a second, since he did not think Anfey would take his bizarre talking without reacting. However he was wrong.

“Hui Wei, you will be on the wanted list if you speak this nonsense to others.” Suzanna smiled bitterly. “You are crazier than any defiler in history.”

Hui Wei hesitated for a second and said, “I’ve already been on the wanted list.”

“No wonder you would rather stay with orcs.” Suzanna gave Hui Wei a weird look.

“Defilers are everywhere in the world. Churches’ abilities are limited.” Hui Wei looked calm. “For instance, there have been so many archmages in history. They have devoted themselves to improving spells, silent chanting magic, immediate magic and many other techniques. They were doing it more to challenge old rules than to improve their combat powers. Some archmages were able to release antimagic spells in silence in the Sacred Battle. They represented the archmages who hoped to have control of everything with their innovation on spells rather than praying to God for it.”

“You are using crazy logic,” Vonmerge yelled.

“Your vision is too short,” Hui Wei responded.

“It does not make sense to argue about these. Let’s get back to gnomes,” Anfey said casually. “Hui Wei, are you saying gnomes are strong?”

“No, they are not strong at all.” Hui Wei thought for a moment and then said, “Civilization is the backbone of intelligent life. Losing it means losing everything. If human orphans were kept in a cave without being taught anything, they would be more stupid than any barbarian when they were kicked out of the cave as they reach adulthood. The gnomes had already lost their culture. If you have seen any gnome, you would think they are just garbage.”

“What else do you know?” Anfey asked.

“No matter whether gnomes are male or female, they are just as selfish as their ancestors. Even when they receive more stress from outside, they still look for opportunities to pick fights inside their group, even over very small things, and they…” Hui Wei said.

“Hold on, when you talked about dwarves, you divided them into men and women. Why are you dividing gnomes into males and females? Isn’t it showing disdain?” Anfey asked.

“Hehehe, gnomes are at a disadvantage in the magic world, but they have looked down upon other intelligent races, including human beings. They are still as proud of themselves as they were in ancient times. Therefore, other intelligent beings disdain them. It is not just me; all intelligent beings on Pan Continent divide them into males and females. We are isolating them this way.” Hui Wei looked at Anfey, “Don’t tell me you do not even know about this? This is common knowledge.”

“Anfey has followed Archmage Yagor to learn magic since he was little. He did not have much experience on Pan Continent. Of course, he did not know about it. Did you know everything when you were just born?” Suzanna asked unhappily.

Hui Wei looked at Suzanna with curiosity, “Did you say Anfey is not experienced? Does he lack experience?”

Suzanna was shocked. Anfey paid attention to details, and the strategies he used were phenomenal as well, but he had always made a fool of himself on issues involving common sense. It was hard to explain this contradiction. Not to mention with Suzanna: even Anfey himself could not explain it.

“We are talking about gnomes. Why are you talking about me?” Anfey shook his head helplessly.

“When we enter Moramatch, we have to be careful of gnomes. Hatred and revenge are only part of it. There are some other things that could make gnomes go crazy,” Hui Wei said.

“What is it?” Anfey asked.

“Male gnomes love beautiful girls. You can understand them. Besides elves, human beings have the best looks.” Hui Wei smiled. “Female gnomes also like men. Besides the looks, compared with short gnomes, male human beings can give them more intense sensual pleasures and orgasms.”

Suzanna blushed right away. She was just a virgin without any bedroom experience. She was not able to take it when Hui Wei was talking about sensual pleasure and orgasms.

“Sorry, Miss. Suzanna, it was my bad.” Hui Wei noticed Suzanna was comfortable with his talking. He immediately apologized.

“It’s alright. It’s fine.” Suzanna hurriedly waving her hands.

“Did you say gnomes would attack us first if there is any conflict?” Anfey asked.

“Pretty much. They act more on impulse than hot-tempered dwarves. If they get to know we are powerful, they would be the first ones to run away as well,” Hui Wei said.

“Any powerful ones among gnomes?” Anfey asked.

“Well…” Hui Wei thought for a while. “Gnomes could practice neither magic nor combat powers. I would say there is no powerful gnome.”

“How could they survive till now?” Anfey was fascinated.

“They have fighting puppets.” Suzanna answered Anfey’s question first. Anfey had asked another stupid question. She did not want Hui Wei to answer it, in case he would mock Anfey for having no common sense. Although others did not think Hui Wei mocked Anfey, Suzanna still felt uncomfortable about his comments.

“Fighting puppets?” Anfey asked.

“Death magic includes puppet magic. Do you know about it?” Suzanna asked.

“No,” Anfey answered honestly.

“You know about puppets, right?” Suzanna was a little worried.

“Yes,” Anfey answered. “Fighting puppets are the puppets that can fight.”

Suzanna heaved a sigh of relief. “Fighting Puppets were empty inside. Gnomes could get into them to control Fighting Puppets so they could know how to fight, but Fighting Puppets are generated by magic crystals,” Suzanna said.

Hui Wei added, “A Fighting Puppet with high accuracy has unbelievable fighting power, but this kind of Fighting Puppet has not been seen for a long time. Steel Fighting Puppets are not powerful, at least they could not pose any threat to us. Miss Suzanna could handle more than ten of them by herself.”

Anfey got a sense of what Fighting Puppets were. Fighting Puppets were similar to robots. He was shocked for a second and said, “Why did other countries not do any research on Fighting Puppets? Thousands of Fighting Puppets could form a military, and then their military power would be powerful.”

“Archmages could burn groups of Fighting Puppets into ore while master swordsmen could cut them into pieces like slicing bread. What do you think of their fighting ability now?” Hui Wei smiled. “Fighting Puppets with high accuracy could pose some threat. However, these rare things could be melted into ore and made into all kinds of weapons once they were found by human beings. Human beings would never allow gnomes to have them.”

“It is weird. How could barbarians defeat gnomes when they had so many Fighting Puppets at their peak?” Anfey asked.

“You curiosity is crazy.” Hui Wei smiled bitterly. “It happened ten thousand years ago. You ask me. How can I know the answer ?”

“It’s better to ask than pretending to know everything.” Anfey laughed at himself. “According to what you said, gnomes should be posing no threat to us.”

“We still have to be careful. If Fighting Puppets come out of nowhere, it would pose a lot of threats to mages. There was a layer of defense inside the Fighting Puppets. As long as the gnomes are not hurt, their Fighting Puppets would not stop fighting. Junior mages could not hurt gnomes. Intermediate mages were not powerful enough either. Only senior mages could do fatal damage to them. We do have Suzanna, so we do not have to be scared by them. Those gnomes would not have more than two Fighting Puppets. Suzanna could destroy them in a second,” Hui Wei said slowly.

“Ok.” Anfey nodded. “I know what we should do now. Hui Wei, did you have any contact with gnomes?”

“Yes,” Hui Wei answered.

“How about you, Vonmerge?” Anfey asked.

“I did not have any contact with gnomes, but I had contact with dwarves,” Vonmerge answered.

“Would you dare to negotiate with gnomes and dwarves if I ask you to?” Anfey asked.

Hui Wei hesitated for a second, but Vonmerge nodded. “Sure, no problem.”

“Don’t worry. I would not ask you to risk your life without any protection.” Anfey smiled. Vonmerge’s response made Anfey happy. At least, he could tell what his job was and what his preferences were, otherwise he would have tried to talk Anfey out of it.

“Anfey, negotiation would not do us much good. No matter whether they are dwarves or gnomes, it would be hard to achieve any negotiation with them.”

“I understand your concerns.” Anfey nodded. “Ok, all of you can go take some rest.”

Anfey and Suzanna walked slowly outside together. Suzanna hesitated for a second before she asked, “Anfey, do you really want them to negotiate with gnomes and dwarves? It is too dangerous.”

“Are you worried about him?” Anfey smiled.

Anfey could swear he was just joking, but what he said just rubbed Suzanna the wrong way. She was shocked and stared at Anfey. Her face turned a little pale as well.

“Suzanna, I was just joking. Don’t be mad at me.” Anfey just realized that Suzanna was very sensitive, and his joke was a little overboard. He gave Suzanna a smile right away. This was the first time he had ever tried to please someone with a smile.

Suzanna bit her lip without saying anything. She felt wronged.

“Ok, ok. I apologize,” Anfey said gently. He even made a move to hold Suzanna’s hand.

Suzanna swung her arm and got away from Anfey’s hand.

As Anfey was trying to comfort Suzanna, a woman’s voice came from behind. “Anfey, you are here. I am looking for you.”

Anfey turned around and saw Shansa Empire’s princess standing there, lookikng beautiful.

“Alice, what do you need?” Anfey asked.

“Can I talk to you in private?” the princess asked.

“I…” Anfey hesitated for a second, and then he felt something warm and soft in his hand. Suzanna held his hand. Suzanna stepped forward, standing next to Anfey.

“I am sorry to bother you. We can talk later.” Alice stared at Suzanna’s hand. She looked sad.

Suzanna snorted quietly. She held Anfey’s hand even tighter.

It took Anfey a minute to process what he was seeing when he first saw Moramatch. It was a large town with a lot of houses, but the houses were all of different sizes. Some houses were short and small, barely seven feet tall, while others were tall. The difference was striking and made the city looked very ugly.

This, however, did not come as a surprise. A human of normal height would build taller, bigger houses. Dwarves and gnomes, who were generally less than three foot tall, built the smaller, shorter houses.

Anfey remembered listening to a traveling minstrel’s songs when he was still in Sacred City. The main character of the story was a human hero who was well liked by every race. He was welcomed by the dwarves, who gave the hero one of their best weapons. The hero commented on how well made the weapon was and waved the weapon around. The dwarves lauded the hero for his work for the world. The hero lounged in the home of the dwarf leader and was treated like a royalty. There was a fruitless love story, as well.

He had to admit, though, there was a huge difference between the story and real life. The house was too low for a man to straighten his back in, let along wave around a weapon. Even though the dwarves were well known for crafting weapons, Anfey had never actually seen a dwarf-made weapon. Stories tended to use humans as their focus, and all the other races existed to serve and assist the human hero. That was likely why dwarves would waste precious materials to craft weapons suitable for humans, then hide the weapon away until a certain hero appeared. They wasted precious materials and countless hours just so they could wait for the human hero.

Staying with the dwarves must have been even more boring. The dwarves must have small beds, and it must have taken half a dozen beds to make one bed suitable for a human. Having a love affair with a dwarf woman was even more unthinkable. Anfey imagined himself holding Shally, and shuddered at the thought.

“What’s wrong?” Suzanna asked him.

Thank god she couldn’t read his mind! Thankfully everyone had the right to keep their thoughts away from the world. If Suzanna learned what Anfey was thinking, she would not waste time asking him what was wrong.

“Nothing,” Anfey said. “I just thought about how much work we have to do.”

“What are you worrying about? You won’t actually have to work.” Suzanna grinned at him.

Steel was forged under pressure. Experience, strength, and wits came from practice and time. Insensitivity was something that came with time, as well. The first time Suzanna held hands with Anfey, she was blushing and flustered. Later, when they were talking and stargazing, Suzanna found herself stumbling over her own words. Now they were holding hands, but Suzanna was acting much more natural.

Suzanna also could feel that Anfey would often stare at her feet. That was why Suzanna took off her boots after the two of them went to Anfey’s carriage. Women would not only dress to impress their lovers, sometimes they would undress to impress them.

“There are a lot of things other than physical work,” Anfey said. Suzanna’s hand was soft and gentle in his hand. It was hard to imagine such a gentle hand could bring about so much destruction.

“Anfey, can I come in?” Christian knocked on the carriage and asked.

“No,” Anfey said.

“What are you doing?” Suzanna asked hurriedly. She rolled her eyes at Anfey. Not letting Christian inside right now meant that there would be rumors saying they were doing something inappropriate. “Christian, come in,” Suzanna called. She drew her hand back and covered her feet with her dress.

“What should I do about you two?” Christian asked, smiling. “Anfey, we’re about to enter the town.”

“Wait in here, Suzanna,” Anfey said. “You’re our trump card.”

Suzanna nodded and smiled sweetly. She did not care for other’s adoration, but Anfey wasn’t just anyone.

Anfey climbed out of the carriage. Feller, who was driving the carriage, moved over to make space for him. Anfey observed the town carefully. Perhaps it was because the caravan was too large, no one tried to stop them. There were shadows in the houses, as if the residents were observing them.

“Christian, tell Black Eleven to keep his men outside of the city. We’re going in by ourselves,” Anfey said.

Christian nodded in response.

The caravan split into two. Half a dozen carriages entered the city, while the rest stayed behind. They found a clearing not far from the town. Under an old tree was a large bell. Clearly this was where the leader of the town called the residents together for meetings.

“Feller, sound the bell,” Anfey ordered.

“No one would reply,” Feller argued.

“Try it anyway.”

Feller nodded. However, before he could get off of his horse, he heard a loud thud coming from a large house to the right. The door was pushed open and a woman dashed out.

The woman wasn’t two feet away from the house when a werewolf chased out after her and grabbed her by her hair. The woman grunted in pain, and her head was drawn back. Anfey’s eyes flashed with strange emotions. He recognized the woman.

“Barak! Let her go! She saved my life,” a few other werewolves jumped out of a nearby alleyway and called.

The werewolf in the lead was wounded, his left arm was covered with different colored fabrics, and he limped as he walked. He was with two other werewolves, and stared at the first werewolf angrily.

The werewolf called Barak shook his head and said slowly, “She is my slave now.”

“What do you mean? Are you trying to shame me?” the other werewolf barked.

Barak smirked but did not say anything. He turned his head and glanced at Anfey.

“Are they acting?” Feller leaned over and asked.

“I don’t know, but I know the woman isn’t acting,” Anfey said. “Go sound the bells.”

Feller walked over to the bell. He grabbed the large wood stake that hung next to the bell and began hitting it. The bell made a deep sound that could be heard throughout the town.

The werewolves were well aware of the bell’s sound, but they did not even turn their heads. None of the townspeople came, either.

The werewolf called Barak snorted and turned, dragging the woman behind.

“Barak, this is my last warning. Let her go,” the other werewolf growled.

“Bergman, I want you to remember. I am in charge now,” Barak said coldly.

“You were in charge. Not anymore,” Anfey said slowly. He walked over and said, “I am in charge now. Let her go.”

The woman noticed Anfey, and her eyes were filled with joy. However, her hands were still bound and her mouth was gagged. The only thing she could do was struggle and try to catch his attention.

“Who in hell are you?” Barak turned and looked at Anfey. His eyes narrowed dangerously. He was going to wait a bit then decide what he would do. However, he could not tolerate anyone who challenge him openly.

“Get away, human. This is none of your business,” Bergman growled as well. Even though Anfey had asked Barak to let the woman go, it was clear that Bergman did not want to befriend a human.

Anfey hesitated, then said quietly, “I rented this town for several hundred gold coins, but I didn’t know I would have to take care of beasts who don’t even know how to speak properly.” He had made several plans beforehand, but plans must vary according to the situation. Seeing that the werewolves were clearly respected here, he wanted to try and befriend one side. He didn’t know both sides would express enmity toward him. He had to take a stand, else his time in Moramatch would be very difficult.

“What did you just say?” Barak barked angrily. He pointed at Anfey and looked like he was ready to fight him at any time. However, he was worried about Christian, who was standing by a carriage, not Anfey.

“I don’t like people pointing at me,” Anfey said.

“So what if I do?” Barak asked, provoking him.

Anfey shook his head. His eyes moved away from the werewolf and glanced upwards. This was an elementary trick, and Anfey didn’t care if Barak fell for it. Though it seemed like the werewolf wasn’t too bright. His gaze followed Anfey’s.

Just as Barak looked up, Anfey grabbed the werewolf’s hand. Barak knew he had fell for a trap when pain shot up from his hand. When he was about to fight back, Anfey’s fist struck his nose. Barak yelped in pain and stumbled back.

“Dirty beasts,” Anfey spat. He felt something wet on his hands. He found a handkerchief and cleaned his hand, then he dropped the handkerchief on the ground.

Barak jumped up, his eyes were blood red and his furs were standing on its ends. He was getting taller and stronger. A werewolf’s nose is more fragile than a human’s. Barak’s nose did not break after taking a hit like that, and that showed how strong he must have been.

The werewolves standing beside Barak attacked Anfey, but not Barak himself. They stepped forward as their bodies transformed. When they rushed in front of Anfey, they had finished transforming. The werewolves’ fighting powers were strong. When they were in their fighting status, they became even stronger in terms of offensive ability, speed, antimagic skills, and physical abilities. Their sharp claws even made bellowing sounds as they swung their arms in the air. They fearlessly attacked Anfey’s back.

Barak rushed after them and reached his sharp claws on Anfey’s forehead. The girl with her arms tied behind her back was leaning against the wall. She looked desperate. She knew Anfey’s fighting power. He would not have any defensive ability under four werewolves’ attack. The girl was startled by what she saw. Anfey lowered his body a little bit and jumped out of the fighting zone with lightning speed before the werewolves could even surround him in the fighting zone. Hundreds of fire balls suddenly appeared around Anfey at the same time. They were like huge rain drops above his head. The magic Anfey released shocked everyone. It was such a scene to see hundreds of fire balls shooting at those werewolves. Those werewolves almost thought they would be hit by fire-ball rain. Unluckily, Anfey’s junior magic was not strong enough. Although every werewolf got attacked by some fire balls, there was no damage to their bodies.

Christian was shocked as well. He was ready to step forward to help Anfey. Seeing Anfey releasing magic, he immediately released magic signals and then he turned his wagon around. Feller pulled on the reigns to turn his wagon around as well. Suzanna watched Anfey closely through a crack in the curtain. Seeing Anfey shooting the fireballs, her hand on the sword shaft loosened a little, and she took a breath to calm down. She did not want others to notice her breathing.

Zubin was in the second wagon. When Anfey released his magic, Zubin was even quicker than Feller to turn around his wagon. His moves were not smooth, and he even dropped a small box with over three hundred gold coins everywhere. He did not have time to pick them up. He held the reins tight to rush out of the town.

Anfey thought to himself, “We are all humans. Why are we treated so differently? Those werewolves could fight with each other for a girl, but also could become allies to fight with me. It seems that women could definitely be more valuable than men.”

Barak jumped high with his rear legs kicking the ground. He kicked so hard that it created a huge cloud of dust. He threw himself at Anfey with a lightening speed. His claws shone with cold color as they moved towards Anfey’s heart. Most werewolves were good hunters. When they hunted, they would not pick any unimportant or non-fatal areas to attack.

“Niya, can you take a look at what is going on over there?” Riska asked in low voice.

“Me?” Niya had been sitting quietly in the wagon when Riska asked her. She was shocked by Riska’s request. Stubborn Niya had learned to accept the reality to save everyone some trouble by staying behind whenever there was a battle. She learned to hold Shally with one hand and hold the little unicorn in her arm hiding in a safe area. She had gotten used to this procedure, so she did not get Riska’s request right away.

“Yes.” Riska nodded sincerely.

Niya lifted the wagon curtain and stuck her head out to see what was going on.

Hundreds of fire balls appeared around Anfey again and gathered to form a giant flaming shield above his hands. Anfey raised the giant shield. With a huge crashing sound, Barak’s claws hit hard on the giant shield. His body was stopped by the shield, while Anfey flew away from the crash. He flipped a couple of times in the air to keep a distance from Barak.

“Go! Everybody, hurry!” Christian yelled.

“Anfey, run, run fast.” Niya subconsciously thought those four werewolves were way too powerful when she heard Christian ask them to withdraw. She was scared to death and screamed when she saw Anfey was hit in the air.

Many people believed women looked the most beautiful when they smiled. To a real good looking woman, as long as her face was not distorted, she could always make people astonished by her beauty.

Niya’s big blue eyes were filled with panic, two sword-shaped brows snapping together, her silky blond hair flying in the wind, her sexy lips were slightly open, showing her snow white teeth. Right now, Niya replaced Suzanna, acting like a woman worried about her lover. Niya looked panicked and helpless.

Barak and the other werewolves all had their eyes on Niya. Their contracted pupils were a little distracted. With their social status and living environment, they had no opportunity to meet such beautiful girls. Niya, who was like a great archmage, controlled their souls with a blink of her eyes. She also allowed their passion to come out like exploding volcanos.

Anfey suddenly turned around and chased after the wagon route. He jumped on the last wagon and stared fiercely at Barak. He yelled, “You guys had better wait for me. I will come back to take my revenge. I swear!”

If it were an unprepared wagon route, they might panic for a while when something like this happened. Since Anfey had planned thoroughly, the wagon route turned around in a very short time to rush out of the town.

Niya had tucked herself back to the wagon, which caused the werewolves to lose their focus. However, the sparkling on the ground caught their attention. Hundreds of gold coins on the ground gave out gentle and attempting shines.

The werewolf named Barak took few heavy breaths before he lifted his head with a long and low-pitched howl. Countless gnomes, dwarves, orcs and werewolves rushed out from their hidden places to chase the direction Barak pointed at.

Anfey had a good understanding of psychology so he made plans based on it. He planned around one theme, that is, desires. They should fall if werewolves like beautiful girls or money. If they liked neither, they would be a threat to Anfey and his companions. He had said he would come back for revenge. If Anfey wanted to eliminate any threat posed to him, wiping out enemies was the only option. Anfey was quite frank about his fighting ability. If he had any chance to win,there would be no way that he would flee.

Other than Barak, even an experienced commander of a mercenary group could have a hard time controlling himself with so many temptations.

Black Eleven was giving instructions on how to look for areas to set up camps when he received magic signals. He did not have time to see Anfey first. He ran back hurriedly to the route from the direction they came.

Anfey easily jumped over the rail with a hand on it to support himself. He landed next to Feller and ducked in the wagon. He saw Suzanna’s worried big eyes. “Anfey, are you ok?” Suzanna asked.

“I am ok. They cannot hurt me.” Anfey smiled.

“Did they fall for it?Anfey, are we really killing all of them?” Suzanna asked.

“As you see, I did not have any chance to negotiate with them.” Anfey shook his head. “They did not want any other options, so we had to kill all of them.”

They heard a few coarse chirps. Anfey lifted the curtain to look out. He saw a falcon-sized bird landed in the town.

“Genius, I almost missed a genius,” Anfey sighed as he put the curtain down.

“Who are you talking about?” Suzanna asked.

“Hui Wei.” Anfey smiled. “Some werewolves have magic pets. They can communicate with magic pets with their minds. Powerful werewolves could even exchange visions with magic pets. If Hui Wei did not remind me of that, we could have given out clues and never could have them fall for us.”

“Hui Wei’s history is a mystery,” Suzanna said in a low pitch.

“So are you,” Anfey said.

“So are you.” Suzanna could not help rolling her eyes at Anfey.

“Suzanna, can we talk about your past sometime? Please. We should…” Anfey suddenly shut his mouth. A faintly discernible wind was approaching, and then with a huge explosion sound, there was a big hole in the rear wall of the wagon. A werewolf’s claw reached into the wagon.

An intense magic surge came above the wagon. Christian released levitation magic, flying above the wagon. He chanted an abracadabra in low pitch, and then a flaming meteor rushing down to Barak.

Barak responded quickly. He started a somersault by kicking on the wagon wall. A flaming meteor smashed on the ground and made a smothered explosion sound. The wagon was shaken by the explosion.

Christian released a magic shield because he knew he had to be careful of werewolves. Compared with werewolves, physically mages were weaker. If mages were attacked by werewolves without any protection, they could get hurt seriously or even die. Facing more than ten werewolves approaching him, Christian was very cautious.

The wagon moved very fast. The dwarves and gnomes were left behind. The wagon was not able to pull away from the werewolves though. In fact, werewolves could even run faster than a wagon in a short period of time.

When they were fleeing, Christian had been Anfey’s assistant. He had been behind the scenes, since Anfey took most of glory. This time, he finally got the stage just for himself.

Christian was nervous but did not panic, cautious but not scared. The corners of his mouth even curved up. He waved his hands fast to release magic in silence.

His magic was not so powerful, but very effective. He attacked the werewolves’ eyes with fire balls, sliced the tips of their noses with wind blades, swiped their ears with electric arcs, and made them step on slippery ice and then released delaying and spider web magic to interfere with their moves. Because he lost his magic power slowly, Christian could fight for a long time.

The strategy to interfere with the opponents instead of damaging them was definitely annoying. Barak and the other werewolves hated this smiling mage, but could do nothing to him. As long as there was a distance between them, mages were unmatched. Sometimes werewolves ran onto the ice, slid and fell on their backs, or their legs were tangled in spider webs and they fell on their face.

Normally, when a mage’s life was threatened, the mage would release as much magic as possible to save themselves. The fact that Christian could keep calm must have had something to do with his past and his practices. Unfortunately, Anfey had missed Christian’s performance. For him, having Christian next to him in battle was something comfortable, but that was about it.

One of the werewolves couldn’t wait any longer. His body crouched down, his powerful legs kicked on the ground and his body shot into the air. The air around his wide open mouth rippled and a transparent wave of energy shot towards Christian. It was a form of attack called sound wave attack that was unique to the werewolves.

The magic shield around Christian quivered and returned to normal. The two sides were far apart in the first place: the carriage’s speed combined with the werewolf’s dives and jump increased the distance even more. The sound wave had to cross seventy feet to reach Christian, and its power had been greatly reduced. It therefore could not penetrate the shield.

Christian wasn’t about to let the werewolf go unscathed. He waved his hand and summoned a big fireball that hit the werewolf in the head. The fireball exploded and obscured the werewolf’s vision. Then a flash lightening struck the werewolf’s mouth like a snake.

After werewolves mutate, their physical abilities would increase significantly. However, they still had some obvious flaws, like their noses, eyes, and ears. Tongues and throats were even more vulnerable. The werewolf growled and fell from the sky.

“Don’t rush! They can’t get away,” Barak called.

It was true. The carriages had already turned onto a winding dirty road, and the werewolves found a shortcut through the piles of rocks and boulders. Not only couldn’t the carriages find a shortcut, the dwarves and gnomes all joined the fight as well. The shorter races ran down the hills, chanting war cries. There were a lot of female dwarves and gnomes present. The dwarves and gnomes both lacked fighting powers, and had to mobilize their entire population to ensure their victory. Facing the humans, Barak’s orders were meant for all three races.

A few werewolves jumped across the stones and were less than twenty feet from the carriages. The two in front jumped up and lunged at Christian. For the werewolves, the people in the carriages weren’t enough to post a threat. They needed to take care of the magister first.

Christian didn’t want to fight. He floated away from the carriage. A transparent arrow shot through the air and hit one of the werewolves in the abdomen. Then the arrow exited the werewolf’s body with a boom.

Blinding white combat power shattered the carriage’s ceiling. One of the werewolves had just landed there, and was instantly ripped apart by the white light. A figure jumped out of the carriage and kicked the body of the werewolf.

A senior swordsmaster? Barak and the other werewolves froze. Nearby, Riska was already floating in the air.

“What a waste,” he mumbled. Then he shook the magic scroll in his hand. A powerful magical surge ripped through the air, and the world suddenly became very hot. Lava pools appeared on hills and all the grass and bushes were charred in an instant. Flaming bits of plants floated through the air. Hundreds of dwarves and gnomes were charred as well.

The surviving creatures shrieked. Their ranks were broken, and the creatures dashed left and right, trying to escape. Some dwarves and gnomes were pushed into the lava pools by their panicking friends, then those creatures were in turn pushed to the ground.

The lava pools were flowing down the hills. Ground touched by lava was almost as hot as lava itself. It burned the feet of the escaping dwarves and gnomes. With the lava still behind them, the remaining dwarves and gnomes shrieked and cried.

The mages floated into the air. They did not stop, instead they quickly flew over the hill behind Blavi towards Moramatch. Their job was to prevent any enemies from escaping.

The carriages turned and dashed toward another hill. Lava was mindless and could not distinguish between friend and foe. Before the magic wears off, the lava would hurt them as much as it would hurt their enemies.

Anfey climbed out of the carriage, his bow already pulled to the fullest. He glanced at Barak and let the arrow fly.

Barak jumped aside. He realized that the arrow could not harm him, and all it did was brush past him. His fear was unnecessary. Before he could say anything, however, he heard a cry of agony. He looked over and found one of his men fallen to the ground, clutching his chest.

It was all a trap! Barak understood now. The cries of agony from the gnomes and the dwarves distracted him. Barak sighed to calm himself down. Then he asked with a raspy voice, “Why?” These people had made their minds up about killing them from the beginning. He couldn’t imagine how he had wronged them.

“That should be my question,” Anfey replied. “I didn’t do anything. You are the ones that are chasing after us. What do you want from us?”

Barak couldn’t find a reply. He turned and looked at his men. It didn’t matter what their morals or ways of life were, but one thing about them was respectable. They were willing to sacrifice themselves.

An emotion that could not be put into words spread among the werewolves. Barak growled loudly and lunged towards Anfey. Before he could reach Anfey, Suzanna appeared in front of him and slashed at him with her sword.

Even a mutated werewolf was no match for a swordsmaster’s blade. Barak had to move away to avoid the sword. He tried to grab Suzanna with his claws, but Suzanna was not slow. She did not jump back. Instead she took a step forward and rendered Barak’s attack meaningless. Her sword thrust out and struck his arm.

The rest of the werewolves all joined the fight. However, only two came to Barak’s aid. The rest all lunged at Anfey.

Anfey understood what the werewolves were planning the moment they jumped at him. He wasn’t planning on seeking help from Christian and his other companions. Countless small fireballs appeared around him. The werewolves thought he was releasing the pointless fireballs again, and did not try to avoid the fireballs. As they were closing in, a large fire sword and a shield appeared in Anfey’s hand, and he dashed forward in a strange pattern.

Anfey’s change was too sudden: The werewolves did not expect he would be so fast and unpredictable.

Anfey’s body began spinning. The fire shield hit one of the werewolves on the head. He took a few steps back to avoid the attack from two other werewolves, then he dashed forward again and caught up to one of the werewolves who could not retreat in time. His longsword struck out and slashed at the werewolf. He wasn’t sure how much damage he had done, but he knew he had at least severed the werewolf’s tail. The werewolf yelped in pain and fell to the ground.

Since he was under attack, Anfey could not stop to examine the werewolf’s wounds. His body ducked and he jumped forward to avoid the claws. Then he blocked a kick from one of the werewolves, which required real skill. He attacked his opponent’s knee, and the leg’s shape changed. He didn’t know whether he had broken the leg or dislocated the knee. Either way, the werewolf fell to the ground and could not fight anymore.

Anfey dashed forward and reached Suzanna. They stood with their backs to each other. Barak was injured with a deep wound on his waist and blood was gushing from it. If he had been any slower, he would have been cut in half by now. Senior swordsmasters weren’t people werewolves could take on, or else he wouldn’t have chosen to fight the Band of Brother mercenaries with gorilla tactics. In this world, one powerful person was all that was needed change the battle.

“Anfey, you alright?” Suzanna asked quietly.

“Of course,” Anfey said. He glanced at the werewolves. “If we combine our swords, we are unstoppable. A few beasts cannot touch us.”

“Combining our sword? What?” Suzanna asked. They were already surrounded, but she wanted to figure out what Anfey was trying to say.

“I’m saying as long as you are with me, I am not afraid of anything.” Anfey sighed. The worst jokes were the ones people could not understand.

Suzanna smiled sweetly, which made the other werewolves even more angry.

“Interesting. You’re usually cold as ice when you use combat power.”

“You know why? That’s because you saved me.”

“I saved you? How?” Anfey asked curiously. It was his turn to be confused.

The werewolves couldn’t wait any longer. They growled, hissed, and lunged at the two of them. Their attack shattered Anfey’s curiosity.

“Go!” Suzanna yelled in a low voice. Her combat power suddenly became even more intense and brighter. Anfey stood back to back with Suzanna. He could sense the pressure and prickling pain from Suzanna’s body. He jumped into the sky like a shooting arrow without any hesitation.

Suzanna swung her sword sideways. Her combat power stirred the dirt up from the ground and moved outwards in circular waves. A circle of clear sword radiance appeared and radiated outwards with Suzanna at the center.

When Barak and other werewolves saw Suzanna’s combat power and sword radiance, they either jumped or lowered their bodies to dodge her sword radiance. Only one werewolf was quite unfortunate. He was not quick enough and was not able to dodge in time. He was only a hair too high. Before he could completely lower his body, the sword radiance had already hit his eye. Blood immediately gushed from his eyes. The werewolf held his face hard as he screamed in pain. He wobbled, rushing towards Suzanna. He obviously had become blind.

Anfey jumped into the sky fast and landed fast as well. He looked like a falcon swooping down quick as a hare was flushed out. Anfey kicked that wounded werewolf’s crotch. His scream sounded even more panicked and chaotic than the chaos magic. That werewolf summersaulted a couple of times in the air and fell to the ground, dead.

“My sword did not seem to work as well as my legs.” The corners of Anfey’s mouth curled up.

“Werewolves’ defensive abilities are high.” Suzanna was teaching Anfey a lesson. “Paladins are good at turning element energy into physical energy. It was not because your sword was not useful. It was because your fireballs did not work.”

“Try again.” Anfey suddenly rushed towards Barak. Suzanna seemed to sense Anfey’s need and followed right behind him.

Barak was shocked by Anfey’s moves and moved a few steps back. Other werewolves ran to Anfey from the side of Barak.

Anfey shook his wrist and a flaming sword appeared in his hand. He thrust the flaming sword at Barak’s neck with a strong heat wave. Barak reached his left claw out to grab the flaming sword while the right claw tried to grab Anfey’s neck at lightning speed.

Anfey continued to rush forward. When Barak’s claw was almost on his neck, Anfey slid two inches to the right as fast as a ghost. Two inches were just the right distance to dodge Barak’s attack without wasting any of his energy at the same time. As they passed each other, Anfey’s giant flaming shield smashed at Barak’s head.

Even though Barak had quick responses, he was not quick enough to make any defensive moves. Barak was hit by the giant flaming shield. With a huge banging sound, Barak was shaken by the hit. He did not have any wounds on his body from the heat, but he felt dizzy from the hit. Anfey passed Barak on his right side while Suzanna passed his left side. They looked like a pair of swallows flying in the storm. Suzanna cut deep into Barak’s neck with her sword. Barak was not as good as Suzanna from the beginning. With the hit on his head, Barak had no way to counter or dodge Suzanna, which allowed Suzanna to give him a fatal blow.

Anfey pushed off with the tips of his foot to rush a step forward to stop himself. “Turning the element energy into physical energy. I think I got it.”

Suzanna stopped next to Anfey and gave him a warm smile. “What did you get?”

“Here.” Anfey held out his hands.

Christian focused on watching Anfey on the battlefield. Suddenly someone patted his shoulder hard. Christian jumped and turned around to look. He saw Black Eleven behind him. He said angrily, “What are you doing?”

“Is that Suzanna?” Black Eleven pointed at Suzanna, looking weird.

“Who else could it be if it were not Suzanna?” Christian did not seem to understand Black Eleven’s question.

“That girl used to be cold-hearted as an ice queen whenever she pulled her sword out. I never thought I would see her smile.” Black Eleven heaved a sigh.

“What do you know? It is the power of love,” Christian said.

“What do you know about love?” Black Elven gave Christian a dirty look.

“I am better than you. What is Anfey doing?” Christian asked with surprise.

It did not look abnormal as Suzanna stood behind Anfey. However, Anfey looked greyish. They had to open their eyes wider to see carefully, but could not see Anfey’s face clearly.

As a magister, Christian could tell that countless dirty elements were gathering around Anfey. After those werewolves saw what happened to Barak, they slowly walked to Anfey without expecting to survive after this fight. As the dirty elements stopped moving, a rusty-looking giant axe showed in Anfey’s hand.

It did not look exactly like an axe; to be more specific, the weapon looked more like a blacksmith’s hammer. Of course, it was more than ten times larger.

“This is all I can come up with.” Anfey watched the werewolves slowly approaching him without any emotion on his face.

Werewolves howled wildly with so much ferocity and passion for revenge. They threw themselves at Anfey one after another. Anfey swung that giant weapon at the werewolf running in the front. The werewolf coldly looked at the element weapon flying in front of him. He was not bothered too much by the weapon and countered it with his arm. In his mind, Anfey’s element weapons were never too powerful, so there was no need for him to be scared.

As a senior swordswoman, Suzanna had been very sharp. She could clearly tell that werewolf’s arm was hit back and smashed back into his face as it was hit by Anfey’s weapon. Anfey swung that giant axe on that werewolf’s head and his head immediately became distorted. His body was also thrown into the air, which created a trace of a parabola with a height of about 24 feet. He fell down into a magma pool that was 70 feet away. His body dipped into the lava and floated back twice before his whole body turned into charcoal black. The charcoal turned into powder like dirt.

“It is a homerun.” Anfey heaved a slight sigh, but he did not stop his moves. He swung the giant axe at the next werewolf.

The werewolves were startled to see their peer was hit into the sky like a straw. They slowed down. Anfey’s attacks were as fast as lightning. That werewolf only had time to cover his head with his arms when Anfey’s element weapon reached him.

Suzanna saw another werewolf distorted in front of her. That werewolf’s arms could not counter Anfey’s axe. When the elements smashed onto that werewolf’s head, he looked suddenly a lot shorter. Hs head was smashed into his neck, his fierce needle-sized pupils suddenly turned dull, both of his legs were broken, the bones pierced through the thighs and stuck through his skin, his body slid to the side and fell to the ground.

With a huge banging sound, the element weapon hit the ground hard. The element weapon was not able to take the hit and broke like the bones on that werewolf. There was half shaft left in Anfey’s hand. Anfey looked a little pale.

Smart people could tell Anfey had used up his magic power. He did not have any magic surge left. Although werewolves felt scared from the bottom of their hearts, they summoned up their courage to rush towards Anfey when they saw what had happened to that werewolf. This could be their last chance.

“Anfey!” Suzanna yelled in a low pitch. She rushed forward in front of Anfey before the werewolves could surround him. The werewolves’ suicidal attacks gave Suzanna an excellent opportunity. It was hard to catch them since they jumped up and down and moved swiftly. Now they rushed towards Anfey like they were expecting their death in this attack. Therefore, they did not even bother to dodge. Suzanna performed her sword skills to the max. She swung and thrust to block most of the werewolves, but there were two of them who were able to dodge Suzanna’s attack and rushed to Anfey from the left and right.

Anfey did not make any extra moves. He opened his hand and a knife appeared on his palm. He quietly waited for the werewolves to get close to him and then he suddenly started his body to dodge their attack at the last moment.

In martial arts, there was a saying that the shorter the weapon was, the more dangerous for use in an attack, the longer the weapon was, the more advantage a person could have. In fights, the two parties were competing for who was more fierce and willing to take risks. There was a very thin line between living and dying in fights.

The werewolf on Anfey’s left missed his attack, so he hurriedly turned around. He felt something flash at his eyes. Anfey had stabbed his knife in his eye. The werewolf screamed in pain. He grabbed the knife hard with one hand and tried to grab Anfey with the other. Anfey let go of the knife. He did not mean to continue the fight with that werewolf. He jumped high without too much effort and kicked right on the knife shaft. That werewolf raised his head and fell hard on his back. Unfortunately, he was just a little too slow. The knife went a few inches deeper. If he was hurt in some other part of the body, a few inches might be ok, but to the brain, even one inch difference could cause fatal damage.

The werewolf wobbled, but his hand was still holding on to the knife while the other hand was trying to grab something in the air. Anfey summersaulted and beautifully landed on the ground. He stepped forward and gave a little push on that werewolf’s elbow. A string of blood flew from that werewolf’s eye. The werewolf wobbled a little before he slid to the ground.

A super hot fireball fell from the sky, which turned the other werewolf into a flaming werewolf. Christian rushed in to help. Flaming meteors usually would not pose any fatal threat to werewolves since they move swiftly. However, it was a totally different story when they were unprepared for the attack.

Suzanna was doing awesome. Every werewolf who tried to pass her to attack Anfey suffered a fatal attack from her. Being crazily excited was beneficial on the battlefield. However, being crazy could only make werewolves die quicker when they were fighting with a lot stronger opponent. When Anfey turned around to look, Suzanna’s sword had thrust into the last werewolf’s chest. That werewolf looked like he could not take his defeat and he suddenly managed to open his mouth. A faintly seen surge came out of his mouth.

Anfey kicked a werewolf’s body with the tip of his foot. The body flew into the air and block the surge for Anfey. Anfey had already turned to look at the hill. Magic spells started to disappear, but dead bodies were everywhere on the hill. Getting away from the lava did not guarantee their survival. Super hot lava caused a temperature change in the air. Regular dwarves and gnomes would definitely die if they sucked in any air.

“Christian, can you guys wait here for a second. Suzanna, let’s go to Moramatch first.” The temperature on the dirt road was still too high. They had to wait a little bit to ride the wagon.

“Ok.” Suzanna answered in a low voice.

As they were walking to the clearing outside of the town, Suzanna and Anfey saw Blavi kicking a gnome with another mage. Blavi would kick it to his friend, who would then kick the gnome back to him. Suzanna frowned. She did not mind killing the creatures, but torturing one like this made her uncomfortable.

“Blavi, what are you doing?” Suzanna asked.

“Lady Suzanna,” Blavi turned around and replied. After Anfey and Suzanna confirmed their relationship, the team members began to respect Suzanna even more than before. “Is everyone safe?”

“Everyone’s accounted for,” Suzanna said. She glanced at the gnome and appeared disgusted. The gnome had a large head and a small, thin body and was very disproportionate. Not only was it ugly, it reeked as well. Suzanna took a step away from the gnome. She did not like things that she deemed dirty. “Blavi, why don’t you just kill it? Why torture it like this?”

“You don’t know what it was doing. When we found it, it was taking advantage of… Miss, what’s your name again?” Blavi turned and looked at the woman.

“Doris, are you alright?” Anfey asked softly.

“Anfey?” The weeping woman looked up, and her eyes landed on Anfey. She jumped forward, threw her arms around him, and began sobbing loudly.

Anfey hesitated, then raised his hands and patted Doris’s shoulders awkwardly. Suzanna frowned and turned her gaze towards the sky. Seeing a stranger hugging her lover was uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to say anything and make the situation even more awkward than it already was.

Blavi looked like he did not know what to do with his hands. After Suzanna joined their team, he found himself attracted to the powerful and beautiful swordsmaster. However, he knew that be it strength, family background, or looks, he was not good enough for Suzanna. After Suzanna and Anfey confirmed their relationship, he made a decision to keep the feelings to himself. He wouldn’t do anything stupid or anything to harm the team because of unrequited feelings.

This time at Moramatch, he had saved a girl and discovered that she was a senior mage. Blavi was a hopeless romantic, and imagined a romantic future between himself and the girl. He didn’t know that she was a friend of Anfey’s and was close to him.

“Alright, Doris, everything will be alright,” Anfey said softly. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I passed my test and I c-came here to-to…” Doris was sobbing too hard to speak properly.

“To train?”

“Y-Yes.” Doris nodded and wiped her eyes. Her tears stained Anfey’s shirt.

“As long as you’re with me, no one will harm you. Here, let me introduce some friends to you.” Anfey snuck a glance at Suzanna. Suzanna’s expression was cold, and she was frowning. She was staring at the sky, seemingly lost in thought. Anfey blinked and turned back to Doris, “This is my fiancée, Suzanna.”

Suzanna began to smile, and her eyebrows lifted. Her mood thawed as quickly as a block of ice tossed into a pit of fire. The suspicion she had a few seconds ago disappeared as well. “Nice to meet you,” she said.

“Nice to meet you.” Doris wiped her tears and forced a smile.

“This is my friend, Blavi.”

“Greetings, Lady Doris,” Blavi said as he bowed dramatically.

“Greetings. Thank you…for saving me back there.”

“No need to thank me. It is my duty.”

“Doris, how did you end up here? Shouldn’t you have gone to Forest of Death or Wild Plain to train?” Anfey asked.

An unfortunate story began to unfold through Doris’s narration. The magic school in this world was different from modern schools. The school did not hold regularly-scheduled tests. Instead, students would apply to take the test whenever they were ready. Students could keep studying in the school even if they failed the test. If a student wanted to, he or she could apply for as many tests as he or she want. As long as the fees were paid, no one would be thrown out of the school.

Doris was lucky and passed the test on her first try. After that, she was desperate for money. She went to the Country of Mercenaries and joined a mercenary group. During one of her missions, her team discovered a werewolf with a slave brand. Due to systemic discrimination, the team did not treat the werewolf as an intelligent being. They tortured the werewolf and almost killed it.

Doris, however, did not like their deeds. She rescued the werewolf in the middle of the night and released him, but the werewolf had lost most of his mobility. Leaving the werewolf alone in the forest would be a death sentence. The werewolf begged Doris to come with him, and Doris agreed.

After she arrived in the town, she was not welcomed with grateful words. Instead, she was greeted by Barak and his lustfulness. Had Anfey and his team arrive half an hour late, she would have been assaulted.

Anfey was speechless after listening to Doris’s story. He had never met anyone who would willingly help a werewolf. When he was still studying at the academy, Doris was the only person willing to help. She talked with him and taught him many things about magic. She even warned him after seeing his dimensional ring. Anfey had experienced Doris’s kindness first hand, but this time she was too kind.

The carriages entered the town slowly. After a careful search, the team found a few dozen dwarves and some gnomes who were either too young or too old to fight. There were some humans as well, either dressed in rags or naked. Clearly they were human slaves bought by the original residents of the town. Most of the residents were once slaves, and it made sense for them to act in retaliation after their escape.

There were some residents who escaped into an underground tunnel. Killing all of them would be impossible, but the surviving ones were not enough to post a threat.

The team had just taken over the city, and there were a lot of things to take care of. They needed people to take care of the carriages and the horses, guard the prisoners, clean the battlefield, and search the tunnels. Christian couldn’t do everything by himself. Thankfully, he had help from Black Eleven. Everyone in the team had their own role and began working methodically.

The good thing about being in power was that one didn’t always have to do what everyone else was doing. Anfey didn’t care for the chores, so when everyone was busy, Anfey and Suzanna snuck away to a hill outside of the town to watch the sunset.

“Anfey, look at my hand,” Suzanna said after a few minutes of gathering her courage. She held out her hand shyly. If Anfey hadn’t introduced her as his fiancée earlier, she would have never said that.

“It’s very white.”

“You…”

“And beautiful,” Anfey added hurriedly.

“Look at it again,” Suzanna said.

“It’s very beautiful,” Anfey said. He was thinking about Shansa’s griffins, so his attention was not entirely focused on Suzanna.

“Don’t you think it’s missing something?” Suzanna asked, slightly frustrated.

“One, two, three, four, five,” Anfey frowned as he counted Suzanna’s fingers.

“You idiot!” Suzanna stomped the ground angrily and pushed Anfey. However, without combat power, she was too weak compared to him.

“It’s not missing anything,” Anfey said. He stopped thinking about the griffins and observed Suzanna’s hand carefully.

“A ring!” Suzanna said. She was blushing furiously, and her face was redder than the sunset.

“Isn’t this a ring?” Anfey asked.

“That’s a dimensional ring.” Suzanna sighed and shook her head.

“A person can only use one dimensional ring. I…”

“I don’t need a dimensional ring! It doesn’t matter what kind of ring it is, as long as you’re the one…” Suzanna’s voice died down slowly, and was almost inaudible. She was too shy to finish.

Anfey stared at Suzanna’s hand as if dumbstruck, and began recounting his time with Suzanna. At first he only treated her as a friend, and her presence often reassured him. Women weren’t the only people that need reassurance; men need it as well. Even if Anfey was a cold and calculating person and treated Suzanna as a piece in his game, she had became an indispensable part of his game.

Anfey rarely hesitated once he made up his mind. Suzanna’s hand was in front of him, but he did not take it. Taking her hand meant that he would take on more responsibilities, but he was fond of Suzanna.

Under her passionate gaze, listening to her slightly heavy breathing, Anfey’s hand moved towards Suzanna’s.

“Look!” Riska called out. In his Eye of the Sky, Anfey and Suzanna were moving closer together.

“Enough is enough,” Christian scolded him playfully.

“A bit longer,” Riska said, grinning. Anfey may be smart, but he would never imagine his own teammates spying on him.

A group of armored soldiers marched into Hengduan Valley. There was a wagon caravan carrying military supplies behind the soldiers. The supply train was so long that the end of route could not be seen. Of course, they had been careful transporting supplies. Every time the military logistics force entered Hengduan Valley, the military would send thousands of elite soldiers to escort them. The Country of Mercenaries had been experiencing tension. The structure of the Country of Mercenaries was very complex, which made it hard for officials to reach consensus. With the help of Tawau mercenary group in the Country of Mercenaries, the military did not need to worry much about military logistics. The reality just proved they were right about it. Since the war broke out, the transportation of supplies had not suffered any damage or loss. They were cautious about it because of the instincts of soldiers, not because they sensed any particular danger.

Two merchant caravans moved to the side to allow the supply wagons to pass. The Shansa Empire soldiers coldly looked at the merchant caravans. They were ready for anything that might happen. They were real elite soldiers, so they would never let their guard down.

Groups of people were not allowed within a radius of a dozen miles of transports of armor and supplies during peaceful times. Right now, they could not do it, at least not in Hengduan Valley. Merchants did not have high social status, but the influence they had could not be ignored. Every country had merchants working for the countries or private businesses. If any military had done anything in the Hengduan Valley, then merchants of their country would suffer revenge. If the military killed any merchant, their merchants would be slaughtered somewhere else.

The problem was Hengduan Valley was not Shansa Empire’s territory. They had no right to block any road for their use. Otherwise it would draw a response from the Country of Mercenaries. Before they could conquer Blackania City, they needed to keep a low key.

In the far-off city of Moramatch, Anfey was reading a magic book by candle light. Two girls were making the bed for Anfey. They also spread some fragrant powers around to cover the odor left by previous owner. Black Eleven walked in big strides with some excitement on his face.

“Can you guys leave for a second?” Anfey asked in a low voice.

“Yes, master,” the two girls answered obediently and left the room.

“Any update?” Anfey closed his magic book.

“Yes, they have left. According to their speed, they should be passing us in five days,” Black Eleven reported.

“Ok. Are they transporting dead or live boarbeasts?” Anfey asked.

“Dead ones. Blood could make griffins excited, so griffin riders usually do not feed them with alive animals unless it was the last resort.

Anfey became quiet and slightly closed his eyes.

“More than three thousand elite soldiers protecting their armors and supplies? That is too many people.” Black Eleven smiled bitterly. “If Christian and Risk were both senior magisters, we could set up a few more magic arrays of chaos with crystals. No matter what, we need to think in different ways, otherwise we would not be able to pose any threat to them.” Anfey said.

“Didn’t you say I am wasting magic crystals?” Anfey smiled. When Anfey asked Christian to set up the magic arrays of chaos for the first time, Black Eleven did not know what Anfey was trying to do and was against him. He realized later on that those trashy magic arrays could still work well as long as they were used properly.

“Are you really going to set up magic arrays of chaos?” Black Eleven asked.

“No, we are just doing little things. There is no need to make a big deal out of it.” Anfey said.

“What do you want to do?” Black Eleven asked.

“How many people do you have? I mean, the ones disguised as soldiers in a logistical force,” Anfey asked.

“Three. The information I just gave you was from them,” Black Eleven said.

“Pass my stuff to them. Tell them to leave it in the bodies of the boarbeasts. I do not care how they do it. I only need to know they put the stuff in boarbeasts’ bodies. They cannot have Shansa Empire notice.”

“Are you asking them to do it?” Black Eleven opened his eyes wide.

“I can’t?” Anfey asked.

“Too risky, Anfey,” Black Eleven said.

“To be honest, I do not want to attack Griffin Aerial Unit. You asked me to. If we need to take risks, why couldn’t they take risks?” Anfey said.

“I did not mean it that way. Anfey, Shansa Empire is transporting more than four hundred boarbeasts this time. It would take a long time for three of them to do it. What if they were discovered?” Black Eleven said.

Anfey was lost in thought for awhile. “Do griffins eat rotten meat?”

“They only eat fresh meat. They love to tear up live animals and eat the meat with their blood. For rotten meat, they might eat it when they are starving,” Black Eleven said.

“Would rotten meat affect griffins?” Anfey asked.

“It would affect griffins just the way it would do to humans, maybe even worse. At least, we could cook the rotten meat. Griffins do not eat cooked meat,” Black Eleven said.

“We could think about this another way. Give your people this,” Anfey said, taking out a bottle of green liquid from his shirt.

“What is this?” Black Eleven asked.

“Hagan made a rotting chemical. This can speed up the rotting process of the meat. It can spread as well. A few drops on each wagon would do the trick.”

“If it is this simple, they should have no problem.” Black Eleven took the bottle. “And then what?”

“You have to purchase five hundred boarbeasts in five days and deliver them here,” Anfey said.

“What?” Black Eleven was shocked by Anfey’s request. The town of Moramatch was located in the middle of nowhere. The natives in Moramatch raised only four boarbeasts in total. It would be really hard to buy so many boarbeasts in such a short period of time.

“It does not have to be exactly five hundred. The more, the better. You just give your best try,” Anfey said.

“Do we put that chemical in boarbeasts’ bodies and then sell them to Shansa Empire soldiers?” Black Eleven smiled bitterly.

“Yes, but we need to discuss more details” Anfey continued slowly, “Didn’t you say the boarbeasts that they transported are dead. Didn’t it take seven or eight days to get to their destination? How could they keep the meat from getting rotten?” Anfey asked.

“The wagons for transporting armor and supplies were made special. Our Maho Empire does the same thing. There is a permanent magic array in each wagon. As long as the magic crystals can provide energy, the permanent magic arrays keep the temperature in the wagon low. If it were not a long journey, the goods in the wagon would not go bad,” Black Eleven said.

“I see. Hagan told me before that this chemical would work if the temperature is not too high or too low.” Anfey said. “There are still other problems that give me headaches. If we provide them borebeasts after they have just lost so many boarbeasts, I am afraid it would raise a red flag,” Anfey said.

“We definitely could not give them all the boarbeasts all at once. We can sell them dozens of boarbeasts first, and we can hint to them that we have more in stock, but those are saved for ourselves. We could do some bargaining with them at the end. Maybe we could even make good money out of it,” Black Eleven said.

“It sounds doable.” Anfey smiled. “I have one more question. I do not think Shansa Empire soldiers would just feed our boarbeasts to their griffins. They may pick some to eat themselves first. It would be difficult if this is the case. What do we do if they find something unusual?”

Black Eleven went quiet for a while and said slowly, “We do not need to poison the first dozens boarbeasts. That way they would not find anything wrong.”

“But if their commander is a very cautious person, he would not just check once.” Anfey shook his head. “He would find out what we are doing to the boarbeasts then.”

“What can we do then?” Black Eleven heaved a long sigh. He was not willing to give up. They had gone so far when this problem happened. However, he had to admit Anfey’s concerns were reasonable. It’s better to think about how to solve the problem now than selling themselves out by their neglect later.

It was getting quiet in the room. After a long silence, Anfey said, “Maybe I should do an experiment.”

“What experiment?” Black Eleven asked.

“What do you think is the difference in the boarbeast meat that griffins and humans eat?” Anfey smiled.

Black Eleven’s eyes brightened. He gave Anfey an admiring look. “One is cooked, the other one is raw meat.”

“It’s possible the chemical Hagan makes loses its effectiveness after cooking. If this does not work, we still can figure another way around the ‘cooked’ and ‘raw’ problem.” Anfey smiled. “We can make it happen. Don’t worry.”

“Anfey, if we can wipe out Griffin Aerial Unit, Maho Empire would never forget you,” Black Eleven said.

“Your words give me goose bumps.” Anfey could not help smiling. “I would believe you if you said you would not forget me. You must be lying to me if you say Maho Empire would not forget me.”

“I…” Black Eleven blushed a little.

“We are doing such a little thing for the whole war,” Anfey said.

“The king has said before that a little thing sometimes could be enough to make a big difference, or even decide which side wins and loses a battle,” Black Eleven said.

“Ok. We will stop talking about it for now. Can you hurry and send the rotting chemical to your people. Tell them to do it on the third or fourth day. Count today as one of those days. This way Shansa Empire will have to continue to purchase boarbeasts from us,” Anfey said.

“I understand. Anfey, anything else?” Black Eleven asked.

“Let me sit on the details and other small problems,” Anfey said slowly.

After Black Eleven’s departure, Anfey remained seated, deep in his own thoughts. He then left the room slowly. The campsite was brightly lit, and a lot of people walked about, taking care of their chores. Anfey spotted Christian across the camp. Christian had been busy at work ever since they entered the town. Seeing that he was still busy this close to midnight, Anfey felt somewhat guilty and wanted to go talk to him. However, he changed his mind and changed his direction.

Anfey felt something stirring within him as he watched the stars. Speaking with Black Eleven struck a chord in him. Saying that no one would forget him…that is an ode to a hero. He was very familiar with the topic and had seen it in countless books and movies. The old world may not be kind to him, and he may not miss it, but it was still his home.

He knew where to go when he was sad or upset. He had familiar friends there. He could opt for traveling as well, and see the world for himself. In this world, however, he could do very little of that.

Anfey knew that he was not a hero. Saving the slaves and creating an image for himself were something he did to hide who he truly was. He preferred to stay in the darkness and observe the world, but being observed by those in the dark. Even if he wanted to change something, he would do so in secret. He was not someone who enjoyed being the face of a movement.

People’s personalities may change, but for someone like Anfey, who had already experienced so much, it was unlikely to change, unless something traumatic happened.

Suddenly, he heard a voice from one of the rooms. He stopped to listen.

“Hui Wei, use your combat power. Quickly!” Hagan called.

“Why?”

“Aren’t you a two-discipliner? I want to try something.”

“So is Anfey. Go find him,” Hui Wei said.

“He doesn’t have combat power.”

“Go find Niya then.” Hui Wei clearly knew his excuses weren’t working, because his voice was getting quieter.

“Are you a man or not?”

“Fine, I’ll cooperate this time. I have a condition, though.”

“What is it?”

“You have to tell me what kind of potion you’ve been making.”

“No. Ask something else.”

“Why not? So what if I know? I won’t tell anyone.”

“I still can’t tell you.” Hagan may have been desperate to find someone to experiment on, but he still had his standards.

“Really? Guess you have to find someone…” Before Hui Wei could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the sound of fighting and grunting. A few moments later Hui Wei said, “Fine, fine. Do your experiment.”

“You should have known better than to fight with me,” Hagan said.

“Shut up. You’re the only alchemist here. You’re precious. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at this. Can you fix it?”

“Where did you get this?”

“This is an advantage that comes with studying ancient languages. My favorite pastime is to look for ancient ruins,” Hui Wei said.

“You’re saying you found all these in ruins? How many ruins have you found?”

“It’s not that easy, I found one by luck,” Hui Wei said in a hushed voice. “Hagan, lower your voice. This is our secret.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” Hagan promised. “By the way, Vonmerge told me you encountered Anfey when they were searching for treasure. Is that the ancient ruin?”

“No, that was just something I found by luck,” Hui Wei sighed and said. “I’ve spent some time there already. Who would have thought there was treasure there? Or else he wouldn’t have been the one to find it.”

“Well, that’s a good thing, or else you wouldn’t have befriend Anfey. And we wouldn’t be friends.”

“It’s a good thing to be friends with him?”

“Did he not treat you well?”

“He conned me! He stole my…never mind. What is gone is gone.”

“You’re too simple,” Hagan sighed and said.

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it. If other people found you, what would they do? They would try to take everything you have. If a necromancer found you, he might try to turn you into one of his little puppets. Has Anfey ever physically mistreated you?”

“Not really.”

“Now he treats you as one of his own, and comes to you for advice. What more do you want?”

“He talks crap about me all day. You wouldn’t like it, either.”

“I am very comfortable. I like this mercenary group. Except for the name.”

“You don’t even know him. He is a…”

“I do know him. Back in Blackwater City, he had me make a lot of things. I know what those things were for. While you guys were comfortable in your beds, he was out with Suzanna, putting himself in danger doing who knows what. Who did he do that for?” Hagan said slowly. “After all this potion is done, Anfey will leave with Suzanna again and you will stay where it is safe. I bet you.”

Hui Wei fell quiet.

“I don’t care how he treats his enemies, I only know how he treats his friends. I feel very safe here.”

“Whatever. Look. Do you think you can fix this?” Hui Wei asked.

“I’m just an alchemist. If you don’t mind me destroying this, I can try.”

“Never mind then,” Hui Wei said nervously.

Outside, Anfey smiled faintly. He did not want to disturb the two inside. He turned and walked away from the house. He only took two steps before an arc of lightning swept towards him. This was the first time he had experienced a lightning attack, but as the lightning passed him, he did not feel any pain.

The voices inside stopped, then Hagan called, “Wait, let me do my experiment!”

“No, does it hurt?” Hui Wei sounded exasperated.

“Hagan, what are you doing?” Anfey asked.

The door was pushed open and Hagan appeared. “Anfey, it’s you. What is it?”

“Hagan, how is it going with the potions?” Anfey asked as he made his way into the house.

“I ran out of materials. Vonmerge’s friends should be delivering it in two days.”

Anfey was already inside the house. Hui Wei stood up and greeted him with a nod. He watched Anfey carefully, but Anfey wouldn’t make mistakes in situations like this. He kept his face neutral. “Five more days. Two more for you. Can you finish all the potion?”

“I should be able to.”

“Good,” Anfey smiled and said. “What were you doing just then?”

“Hagan wanted to do experiment on me,” Hui Wei complained.

“Don’t injure anyone.”

“Of course not,” Hagan said.

Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden ruckus outside. Anfey turned and walked out of the house. Two tiny figures dashed by, then two bolts of lightning appeared and struck the two figures. Both fell to the ground.

By the time Anfey, Hagan, and Hui Wei approached, there was already a group of people gathered there. The dwarf children’s bodies were strewn on the ground.

“Blavi, what happened?” Anfey asked Blavi, who had just released the lightning bolts.

“They were getting away. I had to do something.”

Dwarves’ defense may not be as good as the werewolves, but it was still very impressive. However, it was a result of years of strengthening themselves. Dwarf children could not have defended themselves against the lightning. The magic left two large, bloody wounds on the children’s bodies.

Anfey saw Doris and Suzanna walking over as well. He assessed the situation quickly, then turned to Blavi and said, “Don’t worry about the children anymore. If they want to go, they’re free to go. Don’t try to stop them.” For Anfey, these young prisoners were practically useless. Not only did his people have to spend time and energy to guard them, killing them could upset those with gentler hearts. Letting them go was the ultimate solution. The children would have a difficult time surviving alone in the wild. They would either be turned into slaves or food for the magic beasts, if they didn’t starve to death before that.

“God…” Doris called out in shock. Luckily she had not witnessed the battlefield, or else she would have been sick to her stomach. Choosing Country of Mercenaries as her training ground was a mistake on Doris’s part. It was not a good place for someone like her.

Suzanna, on the other hand, did not say anything. She looked at the children, then turned to look at Anfey. Perhaps it was because she was in love, she would always look at Anfey, as if Anfey was the most handsome man alive.

“Letting them all go?” Blavi asked.

“Yes. They’re children. They can’t do much.”