Assassin’s Chronicle - Chapter 401

Anfey clumsily crawled out through the hole Suzanna had hit open for him. Yes, Anfey crawled out. He wished he could gracefully jumped through the hole like a rabbit. The problem was, he felt so weak that he could not even jump.

He had reached the perfect level of the Spirit Refining Stage. He could easily close off his breathing, even to the point where he could become like a baby in the womb; but this only happened when he was meditation. If he was moving and doing things, he could not reach the Spirit Refining Stage. The air in the secret chamber was bad from the beginning. The oxygen he accumulated and stored was exhausted. Now Anfey felt like his chest was going to explode.

“Anfey!” Suzanna screamed in excitement and surprise. She grabbed Anfey and pushed on his back. She neither had time to ask what had happened nor wipe the sweat from his face. She yelled, “Go, hurry up! I got it here.”

“Anfey, come out quickly!” Blavi yelled at the end of the tunnel. Riska was there as well. A top power might scare others, but not the friends who had gone through thick and thin with Anfey. Even if Suzanna had asked them not to come, they still would come. Seeing Suzanna bashing further into the tunnel, Anfey grabbed her. He could not even talk. The only strength he had was used to breathe. Anfey’s lips moved as a struggling fish on the land. He looked as bad as anyone could imagine. Anfey was not a gentleman like Christian, but still paid a lot of attention to his looks and behavior. However, at that moment he could not spare any energy on his looks and behaviors.

Seeing Anfey grabbing her, Suzanna thought Anfey did not want her to take any risk. She struggled a little bit and just obeyed Anfey. She still had her back to Anfey, looking at the dark hole. Her eyes had real fire in them. She hoped that the top level power was strong that she could fight him for a long time after she sent Anfey away to a safe place so she could vent her anger.

In fact, Suzanna wanted badly to talk to Anfey. She regreted that she easily agreed like a fool to follow those Knights of Light to the north of the city. She wanted to touch Anfey. Only feeling his body could make her believe Fortune did not take Anfey away from her. She also wanted very much to cry. She was in a fighting mood and needed to tear that top level power to pieces before she could throw herself into Anfey’s arms and cry.

“Let’s go,” Anfey said, finally able to breathe. He pulled Suzanna to signal her to leave. He crawled out on his hands and knees.

“Anfey, hurry up!” Blavi walked two steps towards the hole. “Where is that guy?”

“I have killed him,” Anfey said as he crawled out. He suddenly felt something was strange. He looked up and saw Blavi and Riska were stunned. Suzanna behind him was stunned as well.

“Anfey, what did you say?” Blavi stuttered.

Blavi did not mean to look down on Anfey’s fighting ability. Ye had told him that it was a master swordsman attacking Anfey. The fight between two top level powers usually took a long time. After they got the news, they tried to get back as fast as they could. They dug the collapsed secret chamber to look for Anfey. It did not take long for them to find Anfey, since they were all worried about him. Even though Anfey had the fighting ability equivalent to a top level power, it was not possible to kill his opponent so quickly unless Anfey was way better than the top level power. It did not seem to make sense either.

“What are you doing?” Anfey was mad but found it funny at the same time. “Let’s talk when we get out. The air is not good here.” His chest still felt tight, and he needed to breathe some fresh air.

He pulled the stunned Suzanna out of the hole. Anfey heard the yelling above him. It was Ozzic. He was yelling at someone.

When Anfey pulled himself out of the hole, he saw Ozzic yelling at Ye. Ye’s cheeks were swollen as if he had been smacked on the face. Ozzic had his back to Anfey as he was scolding Ye. Ye was a very capable person, at least he could lead a unit. Every time Anfey hinted that he should lead a unit, Ye politely turned Anfey’s offer down. He told Anfey he would like to continue as Ozzic’s assistant. He also mentioned to Anfey that Ozzic had saved him a few times. Ozzic was nice to Ye as well, even better than his biological brother. Ozzic understood how helpful Ye was to him.

Ye bit his lips with his head down. In fact, he felt the worst right now. He suddenly saw someone crawling out of the hole out of the corner of his eye. He looked closer and realized it was Anfey. Suddenly he looked excited and surprised. He broke into a smile.

“What are you f*cking smiling for? Don’t you feel ashamed?” Ozzic yelled in anger at Ye. His voice was a little coarse. He grabbed Ye’s collar and swung his fist at him.

“Ozzic, I am not dead yet. What are you yelling for?” Anfey immediately stopped Ozzic.

“What the f*ck! Master?” Ozzic’s facial expression was a lot more interesting than Ye’s when he turned around to see Anfey. He looked like he was going to give Anfey a hug, but hesitated because he realized the difference in status between him and Anfey.

Seeing the look on Ozzic, he knew he trusted the right person. Ozzic did some not-so-decent things, but he was super loyal to Anfey, which was enough for Anfey.

“I asked Ye to leave. Don’t blame him,” Anfey said slowly. Ye always returned his favors, so Anfey wanted to him to be able to do so to Ozzic, and tried to clear up any misunderstandings between them.

“Huh.” Ozzic realized something and suddenly jumped up. “Guys, are you ready? What about the master swordsman. I do not think a master swordsman could hide in the tunnel and never come out. When he comes out, let’s kill him.”

“F*cking kill him,” a mercenary said.

“F*cking kill him,” another mercenary agreed.

Hundreds of mercenaries surrounding Ozzic raised their weapons and said it loudly together. They looked like they had found a common enemy. It was very impressive that they had stayed there even though they knew there was a top level power. Only well-trained military dared to surround the top level power. The lives of mercenaries were dangerous, but they could choose what they wanted for the future. They could take on dangerous tasks, but no one was required to take on tasks that could cost them their lives. With their fighting ability, it was like suicide to surround a top level power.

“Stopping yelling. The master swordsman has died,” Blavi said.

After they heard that Anfey had killed the master swordsman, Suzanna, Blavi and a few others had become very strange. They had doubts and questions, but just could not ask Anfey, otherwise it would look like they doubted Anfey’s fighting ability. It was common sense that a paladin could be equivalent to a top level power, but never be able to break through. How could Anfey kill a top level power? What confused them most was the timing. Even a herbivore Three-Eyed magic bull took some time to chase and slay. This guy had been a top level power; and Anfey had killed him too quickly. He was a top level power, not a chicken or small dog.

“Yes, we will f*cking kill him.” Ozzic turned around and said to Blavi as he waved his fist. He looked excited and was ready for the fight. He looked like he agreed with Blavi. When he turned around, he was shocked. He slowly turned back after a moment. He stared at Blavi and then turned to look at Anfey with a weird look. Ozzic did not want to look like a clown, but he was really shocked.

“What are you looking at? Didn’t you understand me? Anfey killed that master swordsman,” Blavi yelled as he grew more cheerful.

The mercenaries at the scene all heard what Blavi said. The yelling and cheering suddenly stopped. It was completely quiet. The air felt quiet serious.

Most mercenaries had never seen top level powers before. They seemed to be so far away from their lives, like gods. They had seen Ernest and Fernando since they joined the League of Mercenaries. They were all proud of that. The advancement of Suzanna made everybody excited as well. Master swordsmen were so powerful. They wondered how he could die so easily.

“What are you doing? Why don’t you believe me?” Anfey felt uncomfortable. “Ozzic!”

“Yes!” Ozzic stuck out his chest. He had followed Anfey for quite a long time. They always kept a casual relationship no matter when they talked or when Anfey asked him to do something. Ozzic had no idea why he acted so formally.

“Can you take some people to dig open the hole? Let it air out for a while before bringing that guy’s body out of the hole,” Anfey said. “He is my enemy, but he is already dead. We’d better let the hatred go. He was a top level power. We could not let him die without a tomb.” Anfey sounded upright and forgiving, but in fact that was not the case. At that moment, what did he lack the most? It was fame! He wanted to be seen stepping on his dead opponent’s body. This was a great opportunity to be a hero and increase his fame.

“Yes, master!” Ozzic answered loudly. He strode over to the hole where it had caved in. When he passed by Anfey, he paused for a second and asked timidly in a low voice, “Master, Master Alice has told us your previous teacher is a supreme power. Is it true?”

“Keep it to yourself. Don’t tell others,” Anfey said calmly.

“I understand.” Ozzic’s voice trembled from excitement. He had doubted it when Alice told him the secret. There had been no supreme power on the Pan Continent for the past thousand years. How could Anfey have such an amazing background? What had happened made him realize it was true. It was like being slapped on the face. Anfey did not have terrifying combat power nor destructive magic power, but his fighting ability was beyond a top level power. Otherwise how could he so easily kill a master swordsman. It looked like he would leave his footprint on history. The people who worked with him would be marked in history as well. What glory that people would still recognize his name in thousands of years!

Anfey laid his eyes on Ye and smiled. “I am sorry you had to take all the blame.”

Ye did not pay too much attention to Anfey’s words of comfort. “After this battle, Master, you will be making a name for yourself,” he said, emphasizing each word.

“Making a name for myself?” Anfey shook his head and smiled.

“Making a name! Making a name!” The mercenaries around them started to cheer together. If Anfey could make a name for himself, their League of Mercenaries would make a name for itself as well, and so would they. They were worried whenever the issue came up about unifying the Country of Mercenaries. Four super mercenary groups had been there for hundreds of years, so much stronger than other, smaller mercenary groups. Master swordsman Anthony led the best mercenary group. It was unclear whether they would win if they fought his mercenary group. But the result was no longer in question. Anthony might now be able to beat Master Suzanna. If Anfey joined the fight, he could easily take Anthony’s life. They thought to themselves that they had nothing to worry about.

“What are you yelling?” a female voice called from the distance. “Did you save Master?” After a brief moment, a bloodied Shinbella showed up in front of everyone. She was leading a priest by the collar. That priest looked really miserable. His hands were cut off and one foot was missing. He was in coma.

A few mercenaries pursed their lips. They wondered when Master Shinbella had started to talk nonsense. Anfey needed no one to save him. What a joke.

Anfey cleared his throat.

Shinbella had not seen Anfey until that moment. She looked happy and surprised. “Master, are you ok?”

“Why did you all hope to see something happening to me?” Anfey said with a curious smile.

“Good. That is good.” Shinbella was even worse than Suzanna in terms of articulating herself. She did not know how to respond to Anfey’s joke and tossed the priest to the ground. “Master, those Knights of Light and priests were all killed. He is the only one alive. Well…the mercenaries in my unit were too worried about your safety so they were a little too harsh on him.”

“They did a good job!” Anfey nodded with a smile. He slowly walked over and kicked the unconscious priest.

Even though she was a woman, Shinbella was a lot harsher than Anfey. She hit the priest with the sheath of her sword and yelled, “Get up, don’t play dead.”

That priest vaguely moaned. He did not play dead. He was indeed in a coma. Even if he was conscious, he could not follow Shinbella’s order to stand up, not before he could get artificial limbs, if there were any on the Pan Continent.

“Master, I will do it.” A mercenary ran over, smiling. He tossed a snow ball at the priest’s face.

In fact, Knights of Light and priests deserved it. According to Anfey’s plan, he should have moved against those Knights of Light and priests first. However, except for Ye, who was cruel, the mercenaries would hesitate or develop a feeling against killing Knights of Light and priests, since they had fought together and received help from them during the battle. At that moment, though, it was different story. Knights of Light and priest even went to attack Anfey. They had become mutual enemies. No amount of torture of Knights of Light and priests would be unreasonable.

The coldness from the snow ball made the priest open his eyes as he made moaning sounds. When he saw Anfey, he was shocked. Seeing anyone except Anfey would have been reasonable. “Master Deswright was there. How could Anfey be alive? Am I in the hell?” the priest thought to himself.

“Tell me why you attacked me,” Anfey asked calmly.

That priest did not answer. He wanted to rub his eyes, but saw Anfey right in front of his face. His limbs moved a little bit before he realized he had lost his arms. He tried to look up to see what was around him. He looked like he was looking for someone.

“Are you looking for Deswright? Don’t bother. He is dead. Can you answer my question now? Why did you attack me?” Anfey asked calmly.

That priest spit at Anfey. This was his only way to attack.

Anfey looked casual, with a smile. He gave Ye a look. He was actually nervous. There were things he had to know. Shinbella told him this priest was the only one alive. If this priest lied to them, it would be hard for them to prove he lied.

Seeing Anfey’s smile, the priest hated Anfey with passion. He suddenly yelled, “Anfey, you don’t have to act so proud. You killed Archpriest Slanbrea. The Church will never forget it. You will pay for it!”

“Huh!” Ozzic, who was checking the caved-in part of the hole, slipped and almost fell into it. He pulled himself back to his feet. His eyes were open wide, staring at the back of Anfey. What happened? What happened? Had Master really killed Archpriest Slanbrea? Oh my God. Master is so powerful. If he had any doubts before that Anfey tricked that master swordsman and killed him, he finally realized that a master swordsman was not up to Anfey’s fighting ability; Anfey killing a famous archpriest should be enough to prove Anfey’s fighting ability had reached an amazing level. Ozzic badly wanted to shout to show how excited he was.

Suzanna and Blavi looked more normal than Ozzic because they knew what was behind the story. If Anfey told them he killed the Archmage Yagor, they would look as shocked as Ozzic did at that moment. If Ozzic knew Anfey had killed three top level powers in total, he would probably pass out.

Anfey quietly watched the priest. After a while, he said quietly, “Master, I will always remember your help and support. Thank you so much!”

“Help and support”? The mercenaries all looked at each other. They did not understand what Anfey meant. Neither did the priest. He just stared at Anfey.

“I do not understand how you came to know that secret?” Anfey replied.

The color on the priest’s face kept changing from blue to purple. His bloody lips were trembling. He was not sure whether it was out of anger or regret. He closed his eyes and passed out again.

“I’m ready, sir,” Warner said quietly. “Waiting on your order.”

“Be careful,” Anfey warned.

“Don’t worry, sir. I won’t risk my life for this.”

“Good,” Anfey nodded. “I trust you.”

Warner nodded and hurried away. Anfey watched the man with a frown as he disappeared.

“What’s wrong?” Blavi asked.

“This is the first time I am trusting someone I don’t know well,” Anfey said with a shrug. “Just a bit nervous.”

“Don’t worry,” Blavi said with a grin. “He won’t risk his life. Plus, we still have Suzanna and you. If you can defeat a grand swordsman, a few necromancers shouldn’t be a big problem.”

“I defeated him because he wasn’t thinking,” Anfey said. “If it had been Anthony or Manstuly, I probably wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

“You’re just being modest,” Blavi said.

“No, it’s the truth.”

Blavi smiled. “What should we do if Fernando turns against us? Most of his men came from Maho Empire, but he is still their commander.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Anfey said. “I won’t give him the chance.”

“Are you going to kill Fernando too?” Blavi asked, shocked. Fernando was a senior knight with a lot of powerful guards. Killing him would be very difficult.

“No, of course not,” Anfey said. “Fernando’s fate lies in the hands of His Majesty. Let’s wait for Warner. If he can protect us, we will break through and head north.”

“If we are going to break through, there are going to be thousands of zombies in our way,” Blavi said. “We can’t guarantee that we’re all going to make it out.”

“We’re not leaving immediately,” Anfey said. “We’re going to leave when everyone’s too distracted to notice that we’re gone.”

“That’s a plan, I suppose,” Blavi said. “Don’t have to worry about Fernando and his scheming that way.”

“Our food supply is running low, though,” Black Eleven suddenly said.

“Really? We brought so much food when we left. How is it gone already?” Blavi asked.

“We left Reddenburg and spent six days on the road. Those mercenaries who joined us needed food as well. This is the seventh day we are trapped here.”

“How much do we have left?” Anfey asked.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Black Eleven said, “but I know that we’re running out.”

“This is bad,” Blavi said with a frown. “All the cities we passed had no food. Everyone was starving. Even if we head north, we may not find supplies.”

“Are you saying we should go south and back to Moramatch?” Riska asked, shaking his head. “This is too good an opportunity. We can’t give it up.”

“I know that!” Blavi retorted. If even Riska knew this was a good opportunity, Blavi must also have known. He was ambitious and knew this was their best chance at expanding their influence. “But what can we do without supplies? There must be thousands of mercenaries waiting for us along the way. If we don’t have food, they have no reason to join us or help us. If we just leave with no supplies, no one will join us.”

“You’re right,” Anfey said. “But we can’t turn back now. Armin, go find Ozzic and see how much supplies we have left. We need to limit everyone’s portion.”

Black Eleven stood, nodded at Anfey, Riska, and Blavi, then quickly left the room.

“Hopefully the mercenaries will be fine with losing part of their portion,” Riska said worriedly.

“They have to,” Blavi said, shaking his head. “They have to know that without limiting their portion, we’re going to run out of food even faster.”

“This is not a long term plan, though,” Riska said. “What should we do when we find new mercenaries who need food? Are we going to decrease the portion even more?”

Blavi frowned and nodded.

“You’re right,” Anfey said. “We won’t go north, then. We’re going east.”

“Where are we going then?”

“We’re going to Entos,” Anfey said.

“That seems good,” Blavi said with a wide grin on his face. “Marino seems like a good person. He and Entos will surely help us.”

“It’s going to be a long hike,” Riska said, looking at the map. “It will take at least half a dozen days.”

“We should be able to make it,” Anfey said. “We need to talk to Ozzic and Shinbella and the others.”

“Wait,” Blavi suddenly said. “I have a way. Maybe we don’t have to go to Entos.”

“What is it?”

“Most people in the Shield of Light Legion are from Maho Empire,” Blavi said. “Even though Fernando is their commander, their loyalty surely still lies with Maho Empire. They won’t ignore the needs of their countrymen.”

“We can’t do that,” Anfey said, shaking his head.

“Why not?”

“Fernando was friendly before because he needed to stabilize his relationship with us,” Anfey said. “Now that he doesn’t need to do that, he will not react kindly to this request. We have thousands of mercenaries, we can’t risk him finding out about it. He will know better than us how much supplies we took.”

“You’re saying he can guess how much we need and set a trap?”

“Very possibly.”

“Really?” Riska asked incredulously.

“What kind of a person is Pope William?” Anfey asked.

“He’s powerful, that’s for sure,” Blavi said. “And smart.”

“He gave the legion to Fernando for a reason,” Anfey said. “He’s not stupid. Everything the pope did, he did for a reason. We cannot underestimate Fernando.”

Anfey wasn’t scared of Fernando, but he was scared about what kind of situation a conflict with Fernando would put him in. Fernando was a top level power, and Anfey knew better than to underestimate those people.

“Alright,” Riska said, nodding.

“Fernando must know that His Majesty wanted to take him out from the beginning,” Anfey said. “He must have prepared for this. If things go bad, we can’t let ourselves become Fernando’s scapegoats.”

“Can’t he just blame the generals?” Riska asked, frowning.

“Are you stupid?” Blavi asked, his eyes wide. “No matter who wins this, we aren’t the ones responsible. We only have so much power.”

“Who are you calling stupid?” Riska retorted angrily.

“Oh let it go,” Suzanna said, shaking her head. “Blavi’s right. We need to do our best not to get tangled up in this.”

A strong surge of magic rippled through the air. Anfey glanced at his friends and they all stood and dashed outside. Zagreen City was covered by blinding white light. A large magic barrier was expanding and covering the city. In the middle was Warner, holding the Book of Life.

Because Anfey kept Warner’s presence a secret, a lot of mercenaries did not know who he was and thought he was one of the priests. Some aimed their bows at him.

“Wait!” Ozzic jumped up and hurried towards the mercenaries. “Goodness gracious, wait! He’s on our side!”

It made sense to have Warner show the power of the Book of Life and practice it in front of everyone. Anfey could not rush out of the city and then put all the hope on Warner. That would be irresponsible. However, Anfey did not expect Warner’s practice to be so noticeable.

The Book of Life was a holy object in the Church of Light. The power of the Book of Life was so great that magic surges created with it covered a larger area and were more pure and clear than the magic surges created by Light Series magic. Against the sensation of gloom and death in the air, the magic dome Warner released was bright, like a torch in the dark. The intense element surges could even reach dozens of miles away.

When Slanbrea had the Book of Life, countless Knights and Priests of Light had claimed their loyalty to him. Unfortunately, Warner was just a regular priest. Everyone knew someone would want to kill him to take the Book of Life. They would never work together with Warner, not to mention claiming loyalty to him. His background and fighting ability were very weak, which could not ignored.

When Warner showed up in Moramatch with the Book of Life in his hands and showed his power by killing groups of death spirits, Anfey, as a layman, was not fooled, so there was no way he could fool the people in the church. What the Book of Life represented concerned the Knights and Priests of Light.

An incapable person with treasure would be considered a criminal, while capable people with power and treasure would help him become a person of high morals. Warner had weak fighting ability, so he would be seen as a criminal. If he had strong fighting ability, he would be seen as a person with high morals.

Anfey wanted to let his league rest a little and try to avoid a fight at night, when death spirits’ fighting ability was stronger. The Shield of Light legion planned to fight again early the next morning. This time they started to fight with full force as soon as the horn was blown, when the moon just rose above the trees.

At necromacers’ orders, about a hundred Death Knights led a group of specters and countless death spirits back to Zagreen City.

At the same time, Anfey was standing on the city wall north of Zagreen City. He gathered the fire elements as he was watching what was happening ahead of him. Anfey’s Fire Sword had been ruined by Deswright, so he had to make a new one. A few mages from the mage group were stunned as they watched Anfey’s make the Fire Sword. They were newbies and had never seen anyone control the fire elements as well as Anfey. Yet the people who had been in the mage group for a while no longer saw it as anything special.

“Anfey!” Blavi hurried over from the stairs. “Now? Are you sure?”

“I do not want to fight at this moment, but Fernando has started the fight already,” Anfey said quietly.

“Can’t we just wait a little bit more?” Blavi said bitterly. “We do not have to worry much about the low level death spirits, but specters at night would…”

“I will handle the specters,” Anfey said. “If they have death knights, Suzanna will handle them.”

“Yes,” Suzanna responded.

“I feel it is too risky.” Riska did not want to fight with death spirits at night either.

“We are far from the Country of Mercenaries. We are here for the adventure. Besides, we do not have any other options at the moment,” Anfey said. “I just do not understand why Fernando started the fight at night, since he should hate to fight at night even more than us.”

Blavi and Riska looked at each other and both shook their heads.

Anfey thought for a moment, frowning, but he could not figure out the reasons. He had never lived in the church. He would never understand how Fernando and church people would think. It was nothing different than a blind man trying to feel an elephant: in other words, a person making an overall judgement on the basis of partial understanding. Whoever had possession of the Book of Life would be the legal successor of the pope. Possessing the Book of Life did not guarantee a person would become a pope, but without it, that person would have no chance. To ambitious priests, the Book of Life was as important as the current War against the Dead.

Anfey stopping thinking and slowly looked up. Fernando must have his own reasons to start the battle at this moment. It would not matter anyway, since he would fight his battle as Anfey fought his own battle. Even if Fernando won the battle, they would be long gone from Zagreen City.

Fire balls merged into Anfey’s Fire Sword one after another. The temperature around the Fire Sword had gone up a lot. Blavi and Riska had to release a magic dome to fight against the heat, while some mercenaries and mages had retreated back down to the city to give Anfey space on the city wall.

Anfey suddenly paused. His memory was amazing. He remembered he had released over a hundred fire balls up to that point. In order to make the Fire Sword previously, he used about that same amount of fire balls, and it had been very challenging to gather fire elements at the end. This time, he used more fire balls than he had used on his previous Fire Sword, but he did not find it difficult to add more fire balls to the Fire Sword.

“Master, we are ready!” Orsie yelled at the city gate.

All the mercenaries in Zagreen City stood in square formation by units. This time Orsie would start the fight. Ozzic and Thompson stayed in the middle and Shinbella stayed in the rear.

“Warner!” Anfey called out.

“Master, I am here.” Warner walked up the stairs. He only walked about a dozen steps before he covered his face and stepped back. He looked at Anfey in surprise. He was still about 30 yards away from Anfey, but already felt the burning on his skin and dared not to walk any further.

“Warner, your show time!” Anfey said.

“Don’t worry, master! I got it!” Warner answered immediately.

Anfey heaved a sigh. He continued to warn Warner because he was worried. However, he had no other options. He took a deep breath, as three big fire balls surrounded him. He swirled the Fire Sword. The three big fire balls seemed to be attacked by the Fire Sword and attached themselves to the sword. The battle was about to start. He had not exhausted all his telepathy on the Fire Swords and did not want to deplete it now. The Fire Sword seemed to be able to take more fire elements, but it would work as it was.

“Blavi, Riska, can you protect Warner with your mage group. Please make sure he is well protected. You cannot have anything happen to him.” Anfey emphasized the last part and then yelled, “Open the gate!”

The sand bags at the city gate had been removed. A few mercenaries had chopped the twisted chain off and slowly pushed the door open.

“We got it!” Blavi yelled. Riska was ready to turn around to leave but suddenly screamed. “Anfey, look at your sword!”

In fact, Anfey did not need to look. He had already felt the change in the Fire Sword. When the very last fire ball merged into the Fire Sword, the dark red crystal-like blade started to shake and made a rattling sound. Flares and flames were everywhere on the blade, out of control. In the end, the blade turned a bright orange.

“This is…” Anfey stared at the Fire Sword in his hand.

“Guys, are you ready for battle?” Orsie yelled. His mercenary group had not completely passed the gate, but a group of dark death spirits had rushed over under the moon light.

Anfey was shocked and suddenly realized something. He put the Fire Sword back into the sheath and jumped off the city wall.

Orsie, who rushed to the front, had performed combat power, and then he realized it was just a false alarm. A light screen as clear as water spread out quickly, covering a space about a thousand of cubic meters. The countless running death spirits were killed in the blink of an eye.

Warner raised the Book of Life and flew into the sky. People with value would have a future, so Warner had been waiting for this opportunity to show off his skills for a long time. He would wait no longer.

Warner chanted as he peered at his surroundings. He trusted the power of the Book of Life, so he was not worried about the death spirits surrounded him. He had been scared last time when he hurt his own people, which made him worry about it all the time. He knew it would not happen again, but he was still worried mercenaries would hit him.

Blavi and Elizabeth ordered hundreds of mages to fly into the sky with Levitation magic. They flew at different altitudes around Warner and surrounded him with protection. The enemies they faced were not only zombies, but also specters, death knights and necromancers. Necromancers were the most terrifying ones. Warner probably could be killed by one bone spear if he had been alone. Mages dared not get distracted at all. In addition, Anfey asked them to protect Warner at all costs. The mages used to hide behind their peers in battle, but not this time. They had to counter any attacks to protect Warner at their center, at the risk of their lives.

Zombies were low-level death spirits without any intelligence and judgement. As necromancers herded them forward, they rushed ahead group by group. Unfortunately, they immediately turned into ashes once they got under the light screen. The necromancers did not seem to understand the power of the Book of Life. The more death spirits the Book of Life saved, the more power the Book of Life would have. If they wanted to exhaust the power of the Book of Life with zombies, they made an essential mistake.

Mercenaries in Orsie’s unit did not receive any resistance. They ran as fast as they could. Those mercenaries quickly covered a few miles. The light screen had created a very wide and pure path among the sea of death spirits. It was hard to estimate the number of zombies that had been killed.

“Suzanna,” Anfey called out loudly. He saw a group of about one hundred death knights and specters rushing from the side. Suzanna turned around and rushed towards them, following Anfey. Anfey looked he was struggling a little bit compared with Suzanna. He needed the Fire Sword to make a path through the death spirits, but for Suzanna, who had advanced to a higher level, these death spirits were no different than ants. She could crush the zombies with combat power. Their flesh splattered everywhere.

Reputation can be very convenient at time, but it can also cause a lot of trouble. Anfey wasn’t the most famous person, but he wasn’t unknown, either. If he had been more famous, maybe convincing the mercenaries to join him would have been much easier. He could move through the sea of death because he wasn’t famous enough for everyone to know.

The necromancers did not pay much attention to him. They were more worried about Suzanna. They did not know the mercenaries had a top level power until they saw the blinding combat power.

Whether he wanted to or not, Anfey knew this was his only chance of breaking through. Fernando could press ahead without any concerns, but the necromancers needed to spare part of their force to attack the mercenaries. The fight for the Book of Life was almost as important as the entire battle itself.

A few dark figures appeared in midair. Six necromancers arrived to assist in the battle. Anfey and Suzanna had already separated and were heading in different directions. One was stopping the Knights of Death, while the other was dealing with the floating specters.

Suzanna was under a lot of pressure. It wasn’t easy facing hundreds of Knights of Death alone. Anfey’s job wasn’t easy, either. He needed to kill of the specters. The priests were gone and the mercenaries could not take care of those specters by themselves. If the specters reached the city, it would mean chaos and disorder.

Anfey saw the necromancers, but he couldn’t let himself be distracted. The specters were way too fast. Luckily, the specters did not try to attack the mercenaries. The specters howled as they swooped towards Anfey, bombarding him with mind magic, then quickly flying away again, waiting for their next chance to attack. If it had been another system of magic, Anfey would have to use his mind to control the elements. However, he was almost immune to the specters’ magic. It was almost impossible for the specters to defeat him unless they all attacked him at the same time.

The necromancers arrived and observed the battle. They had not come to kill anyone. Their goal was to take the Book of Life. If they must kill someone, they would rather focus their energy on the swordswoman. If they could turn her, it would be an invaluable addition to their forces.

Anfey ignored the necromancers as well. He turned and ducked the attack from a specter, then thrusted at it with his Fire Sword. Specters were very strong and very hard to destroy. However, because Anfey knew their weaknesses, it became an easy task for him.

One of the necromancers suddenly turned and, with a wave of his hand, sent a bone lance towards Anfey.

Anfey jumped aside and dashed away from the spot where a bone cage suddenly appeared. Anfey waved his Fire Sword and sliced through the bone lance. He jumped towards another specter and sliced through the creature’s body, turning it into mist.

The necromancer spat angrily.

“Hans, what are you doing?” another necromancer stopped and asked.

“He killed my specter!”

“Hans! Get your priorities straight,” the necromancer said angrily.

“Go ahead,” Hans said. “I’ll catch up.” Anfey had destroyed another specter and the necromancer called Hans grew even angrier. He was very close with his specters.

Anfey dashed through the zombies. Every time he waved his sword, he could kill a few zombies, though they were not his target. The specters were fast, but he was not slow. The necromancer’s magic did not bother him, and he largely ignored it.

Hans released two bone cages and missed Anfey both times. He grew frustrated and released the Touch of Death.

Touch of Death was a very powerful spell with a large range. The dark fog it created could cover a large area in a matter of seconds. The fog was very corrosive and everything it touched, including the zombies, would turn into dust.

Anfey had his eyes on another specter when he felt a sudden change in the elements. He knew this must be a powerful spell, and he needed to avoid it. Anfey ducked, releasing a magic shield around himself and quickly summoned a wall of earth.

The corrosive black fog appeared out of nowhere and began spreading quickly. The magic shield, however, had already formed and blocked the advance of the fog.

The necromancer frowned. He had seen people avoiding his spells, but he had never seen anyone avoid it in such a strange way.

The magic shield began shaking and exploded. The Touch of Death was too powerful a spell for a small magic shield to defend against, but it gave Anfey enough time to get away. By the time the magic shield disappeared and the fog began moving again, Anfey was already out of the way of the fog.

The specters must have felt the anger of their owner and surrounded Anfey, trying to take him out. Anfey pursed his lips and swept his sword around himself, taking out several specters at a time.

Hans spat. He now knew that whoever was killing his specters was not someone he could easily deal with. He held out his bone wand and began chanting. The specters all stopped streaking through the air and began shaking. The specters gathered and sent a strong but hard-to-detect wave of mind magic towards Anfey.

The specters were using the Touch of Dread, a powerful spell even top level powers could not defend themselves against. It would bring back the most painful thing in anyone’s memory. The spell itself could not harm anyone, but it would send people into their own minds.

Anfey suddenly stopped moving.

Before Hans could celebrate, though, Anfey lifted his head and his eyes found Hans. The calmness in his eyes was replaced by anger.

If the spell was used on Suzanna, she would recall her time with her mother. That would effectively deter her and give the necromancer a good opportunity to injure or kill her. For Anfey, the spell brought to mind the spook that once killed him. It was painful, but it was not enough to stop him.

He grew angry because he did not know if the specters caught a glimpse of his memory. As the specters approached him, Anfey’s body began shaking, and he let out a loud roar. The specters stopped as if they were frozen, then all exploded at the same time.

“Dear god,” Hans whispered. “That’s a forbidden spell from the abyss!”

Seeing the specters killed, Hans did not have time to feel bad. He knew he could be next.

Hans turned to run in the opposite direction as fast as he could. He would rather fight with a powerful swordsman or mage than an opponent who had released the Forbidden Abyss magic. If Hans took off the mage gown, he would look no different than a zombie. The only difference between him and zombies was his immortal spirit and powerful telepathy. He could release all kinds of death magic. As far as Hans knew, the evil spirits from the Evil Abyss were destroying the spirits of their opponents. Seeing his opponent could release Mental Destruction, he thought his opponent must know other skills. He worried that his spirits could be destroyed by Anfey By then he would be no different than a zombie, maybe even worse. He knew about zombies, which made him even more scared about becoming one of them.

Anfey had been very skillful in battle. Hans regretted that he had not paid more attention to Anfey’s skills. The word “paladin” had the meaning of both magic and swords, but magic was more prominent than sword.

After flying about a dozen yards, Hans felt something was not right. He turned around and found Anfey using Levitation magic to follow right behind him. The distance between them closed. They both released Levitation magic, although neither possessed the magic power or telepathy to fly as fast as Archmage Saul. Anfey’s magic power was not high, but his ability to controlling elements were phenomenal. Anfey could fly a lot faster than Hans. If Anfey could be described as a flying eagle, Hans was just a sparrow running for his life.

Hans felt a numb feeling in his scalp. If he still could sweat, he would have had cold sweat all over him. He turned around with a weird screaming sound. He released all his magic power and lowered his altitude, diving to the ground.

As Hans turned around, he suddenly realized something that made him want to smack himself. He was a terrific necromancer. He had millions of ways to interfere with his opponents’ flying speed. He should have been able to escape from Anfey with a magic spell.

Hans plucked up his courage and turned back again. He was almost stunned. His millions of ways to interfere with his opponents seemed pointless now. More than twenty big fire balls shaped in a dome flew at him.

Some fire balls flew slow while others came at him faster. Some fire balls shot upwards into the sky, while others shot underneath Hans. These fire balls did not look like they would hit Hans, but he had a weird feeling that all of them would hit him directly.

With no other option, Hans had to take the risk. He released a bone shield first and then a magic dome. He tossed a bone spear backhanded. Unfortunately, a bone spear was nothing compared with dozens of big fire balls. Hans still hoped he could escape. He had never seen anyone with this kind of magic. The senior mages indeed could instantly shoot big fire balls, but could not shoot out so many. It took time for the big fire balls to cool down. Hans thought the power of the fire balls would die out, even though Anfey’s magic was scary. He felt he could counter the big fire balls with his magic dome and shield.

Just as he came to this conclusion, those big fire balls shot toward him all at once. They exploded next to him at the same time. What surprised him was the magic dome he released got smashed immediately, then the bone shield shattered, and then his body exploded into millions of pieces. The explosion shot his body out like fire works with flesh and blood.

Anfey swung his Fire Sword and hit away the bone spear pieces. He paused in the air and slightly closed his eyes. Making the Fire Sword had taken more than half his magic power, and then he had used the rest on the fight. He did not have strong magic power from the beginning. Now he had completely exhausted his magic power. Luckily, he could do deep meditation at any time to refill his magic power. He usually repeated this cycle more than ten times every day. It became his routine. Soon, when Anfey opened his eyes, more than half his magic power had been restored.

Anfey laid his eyes on Suzanna in the distance. Suzanna looked like a strong, isolated island. No matter how many groups of death knights kept coming at her, she could counter their attack without changing her stance. Suzanna would be swallowed by waves of death knights in black, but the next moment, golden light would appear again. It was so bright that it seemed like it could blind people.

Anfey’s vision was amazing. Even though he was quite far from Suzanna, he still could see the sweat on her nose. Obviously, Suzanna was not having an easy time. Anfey frowned, but not because Suzanna did not fight the hardest. The reason Suzanna struggled some in this fight was because of her fighting style and the unique opponents she faced.

Death knights inherited the characteristics of their previous life. They fought fiercely. They lost their combat power, but the power of death spirits made up for the lost combat power. They were extremely tough. Zombies would die immediately if their heads were chopped off. Headless death knights could still fight. They would crawl back up unless they exploded into pieces. Suzanna’s sword skills were very direct. She counterattacked with force. She would become stronger if her opponents were stronger. She could put a lot of pressure on her opponents. She had put herself at a disadvantage when she fought the death knights, who did not have any feeling and did not mind losing their lives.

Anfey thought maybe it was time to show Suzanna different sword skills. He had considered it before, but it was not easy to change someone’s poor habits, which in Suzanna’s case had resulted in backward progress in terms of overall fighting ability while she was the main force of his legion. Anfey had suffered from this kind of experience. He used to practice punch as fast as he could and then learned about Large Hand Wrapping in tai chi. When he was practicing with his dad, he did not know if he should block the punch or using the skill of Grasping Hands as he saw the punch from his dad. He had been so hesitant that he lost the fight as a result. Anfey did not figure it out for a full six months until he completely mastered Large Hands Wrapping.

Suddenly, a change caught Anfey’s attention. Five necromancers had started fighting with mercenaries. The holy light from the Book of Life could pose a fatal threat to them, but it did not stop them from releasing magic outside the range of the holy light. There were more mages than necromancers, but they were not at a senior level and were not highly lethal. If a mage stepped out to fight with a necromancer, that necromancer was sure he would win. That was why they could start the fight without any concerns.

Luckily, these necromancers were not Fallen necromancers. The so-called Fallen necromancers were those who had been mages in a previous life but had been allured by the death spirts and stooped to become a necromancer, and finally became a death spirit at the end.

Magic academies in different areas contributed to the spread of magic. After systematic training, the best people were selected. Necromancers had their own academies as well. They would not produce enough necromancers if they only relied on voluntary fallen necromancers to pass on death magic.

Students in a death magic academy were the orphans or abducted kids from all over. They were brain-washed to select the best candidates to be necromancers. When they reached adulthood, the academies would make them necromancers. In their minds, the existence of death spirits was reasonable and honorable. Living things with blood and flesh needed to be killed or assimilated.

Mages and swordsmen needed to do an internship after they graduated to develop their social skills and built experience in fighting. However, necromancers did not have such opportunities. To go out to do an internship? It would be nothing more than asking them to kill others. What these necromancers had done was something even Annunciata would not dare to do: pick a fight with a mature mage group.

The mage group in the League of Mercenaries had been together for a while. They had consensus on fighting techniques. When bone spears flew over, the mages who were waiting for orders released magic spells at the same time.

Silver snakes danced in the sky. Lightning tore the dark sky and shot down at extreme speed. The clanking sound from the sky almost pieced their ear drums. While continuing to attack the necromancers, mercenaries could not help covering their ears with their hands, in pain.

Any mage group’s fighting ability should not be neglected. Dark Moon Magic legion in Ellison Empire was so powerful and intimidating because they had about a thousand mages under their command. The magic they released together could change the color of the ground and the sky or destroy a city. No one could stop them. Even if they fought with a top level power, they could explode him into powder.

The necromancers were stunned by what the mage group could do. Only one necromancer realized what had happened. He took out a magic scroll from his Dimensional ring. But he looked like he was trembling. His judgement was right though. No matter what kind of magic dome and magic shield they released, they would not able to counter hundreds of magic lightning bolts.

A phantom dragon appeared in the sky. It was not a real phantom dragon, just one created by magic. It was just a personalized phantom dragon. It’s attacking and defensive abilities were only half those of a real phantom dragon, but it was large and it could cover those necromancers under its bony wings.

With a huge blast, about a hundred lightning bolts neatly hit the phantom dragon all at once. The phantom dragon twisted in pain. There were so many cracks of different sizes in the bony wings that it looked like spider web.

Necromancers did not get hurt, but mages did. Because of the differences in their levels, two of the mages were hit by bony spears and fell, screaming.

Blavi got mad immediately. Every mage was a treasure. This saying was carved on the door of the mage academy to encourage people to study magic. If students who were still learning magic were considered so important, then definitely so were mages who had already finished their studies and worked in their internships.

Blavi waved his hand and sent a large fireball towards the phantom dragon. The mages around him followed suit, summoning and launching hundreds of fireballs towards the dragon. An attack like this was no different than a high level spell, like the meteor spell.

The ghost dragon flapped its wings and dove down, flying through the fire. The dragon roared and was blown into pieces. A few fireballs flew past the dragon and towards the necromancers behind it. Unfortunately, the attack was blocked by the bone shields.

The scroll that enabled the necromancers to summon ghost dragons was very rare and usually reserved for use against a difficult opponent. Using it on some mages was a waste, but the necromancers did not have time to regret their decision. “Hurry,” one of the necromancers called. “Let’s go!”

“Who said you can go?” Anfey said sharply. He jumped up and lunged at the necromancers, gripping his fire sword in one hand. He pulled out his other sword, gripping it in his other hand.

More lightning appeared in the sky. The lightning flew towards the necromancers like hundreds of relentless whips.

Jacob had not given Anfey and Suzanna any important weapons for their wedding because he knew that Anfey would get too many gifts that day. After the war began, he made several powerful weapons to protect those he deemed worthy. One of those weapons was the magic sword in Anfey’s hand.

The magic sword could release serial lightning and had taken a long time and lots of materials to forge. Jacob never mentioned it because he did not forge it for money. Otherwise he wouldn’t have given it to Anfey.

The necromancers summoned some magic shields, but the shields all shattered under the relentless attacks of the lightning. Lightning summoned by a normal mage could numb its target but could not kill anyone. Serial lightening released by Jacob’s sword, however, was very powerful. Not only could it numb its target, it was powerful enough to cause serious injuries and even death.

Lightning bolts were still hitting them, and the necromancers were already falling to the ground. Even if they were still conscious, they couldn’t do anything in defense.

Anfey dove after them, holding out his fire sword and returning the magic sword to its sheath. He swung the sword, slicing through the necromancers. The necromancers’ robes caught fire as they crashed into the zombies.

“Protect Warner!” Anfey called to the mages, then dashed off to find Suzanna.

On another battlefield, Fernando felt frustrated as he watched the sea of zombies. He had no problem supporting Anfey with a third of his men, but now that he stood on the battlefield of the final battle, he knew that he should have kept some of those men.

Fifty miles to the east of the main battlefield, a legion of two hundred thousand soldiers was waiting. At the head of this army was a young woman. She stood watching the battlefield with a deep frown.

A few specks appeared in the air. The griffin knights landed near the army and hurried up to the young woman. They whispered something to her, and she nodded. The griffin knights hurried away. She turned to her army and waved her hand.

“Raise your flags,” she called to her men.

Anfey could not pay any attention to what was happening in the surrounding area. All he wanted to do was to break through this army of zombies. He had been trying to search for other necromancers, because he thought that the necromancers wouldn’t let him get away that easily.

However, no new necromancers arrived. Even those Knights of Death broke away as if they were opening a path.

After making sure that there were no more zombies around, Warner closed the Book of Life around dawn. He still had a lot of magic power, but he was exhausted. The mercenaries did not have time celebrate their victory. They did not even have time to set up camp. Instead of tents, they all sat down on the ground and slept huddling together. This was still a dangerous location, and they must be on their way soon.

The mercenaries were resting, but Anfey, Suzanna, and the other leaders could not. Along with the other mercenary leaders, they needed to calculate their losses.

Anfey had around 4,000 mercenaries under his command when he first arrived at Zagreen City. Now, he had around 2,600 men. They lost about 1,500 men while guarding the city for seven days.

Everyone knew that this was bad, but this was the way of war. The mercenaries that had survived were all powerful enough to survive, and the weak were eliminated. Most were senior swordsmen who were very close to leveling up to swordsmasters.

Country of Mercenaries had many powerful men and women who had not been discovered. If all these mercenaries teamed up against Ellisen Empire, Ellisen army would not stand a chance against them.

Even the smallest mercenary group had powerful members, or else it would be impossible to survive in the harsh environment of the Country of Mercenaries. These mercenaries were forced to work together because they were trapped in the same city by the zombies. Those that could survive were usually the strongest. Mercenaries believed in survival of the fittest, and strength was the most important thing in a world at war. When facing thousands of zombies, brilliance was secondary. The most important thing was raw power.

Guarding Zagreen City was an audition in a way. Shinbella’s legion lost only a hundred men, while Ozzic’s lost almost half. Thompson’s legion was formed from several different mercenary groups. He did not even know everyone’s names, yet he only lost fifty. This was because all the mercenaries Thompson recruited were strong and experienced fighters. After Thompson joined the alliance, there were four legions and each legion contained around seven hundred men.

No one was following them as they were heading into the mountains. If anything happened, the mountains would be a natural defense. Anfey and the mercenary leaders decided that they would stop for a day or two and regroup the mercenaries.

Shinbella did not appear shaken by the loss of her men. She was a senior swordsmaster and wasn’t worried about her reputation. Her men were very loyal and could easily take in any new members. Ozzic wasn’t worried, either. Anfey trusted him, and he had Ye to help him.

Thompson was very relaxed. He was the last to join and was popular among the mercenaries who had jumped over to the alliance. His legion did not lose a lot of men and did not require a lot of new members.

Orsie was the only one that was worried. He did not lose as many people as Ozzic, but he still lost a considerable amount. Two of his intermediate swordsmasters lost all of their men. He was worried what they might say about this situation. He wasn’t as powerful as Shinbella and had no assistants. He had to deal with everything alone.

After a day of rest, the mercenaries began marching to the northeast and towards where Band of Brothers mercenary group had settled. South of Zagreen City, a battle that could determine the fate of Country of Mercenaries was unfolding, and the necromancers were at a disadvantage. If they could not win the battle at night, there was no promise that the necromancers and their zombies could make it through the day.

In four days, Anfey and his mercenaries travelled over 400 miles. They had finished half of the trip, according to the map. In fact, travelling 100 miles a day was not a problem for Anfey’s mercenaries. However, Anfey had his own concerns. They did not have enough food. Everyone was asked to reduce the amount of their food to half. In general, people need food to provide energy and feel hungry even if they only miss one meal. Asking hungry mercenaries to speed up was too much.

Mages should have been treated differently, since their bodies were not as strong as swordsmen. However, they acted really tough, insisting on being treated the same as others after seeing Anfey and Suzanna only take half portions, like all the other mercenaries. They gave their half of their food to foreman Black Eleven to keep.

It was undeniable that people tended to unite in difficult times. The mercenaries in the League of Mercenaries had a culture of helping each other when anyone was in need. Of course, Anfey contributed to this culture by setting an example. Leaders demanded special treatment everywhere on Pan Continent. Not many people like Anfey would set an example for others. In fact, he did not have to follow the rule he made. No matter how much food he wanted to eat, even ten portions, there would be no objection from the 2,600 mercenaries. Anfey was not only an earl, but also the leader of the League of Mercenaries. As an earl and the leader of the League of Mercenaries, he had the right to make his life more comfortable.

However, Anfey did as regular mercenaries would do and asked Suzanna, Blavi, and Ozzic to follow the rule as well. Others in the league who could have enjoyed the special treatment voluntarily gave up their special rights on their own, following Anfey’s example.

In history, as a civilization develops, everyone acts to constrain individuals’ power to prevent dictatorship. The information did not pass so freely on the Pan Continent. Heroism played a big role in society. Sometimes, the nature and characteristics of a leader could decide the culture of the whole legion.

Taking druids as an example. Bear tribe druids represented strength and power, while Wolf tribe druids represented toughness and persistence. When there was a conflict with non-druids, Bear tribe druids would be the main force, while Wolf tribe druids would counterattack, and Hawk tribe druids would be in charge of scouting and providing reinforcements.

Since the third generation of leaders was in place, the structure of druid organization had been changing. Bruzuryano was honest and did not like conflict. He did not want to see people dying in battle. He did not believe fighting was the only way to solve problems. He would start fierce counterattacks only when someone crossed him. That was the reason he was honored with a nickname “Guardian”. At the same time, Bear tribe druids gradually gave up their main force position.

Manstuly was paranoid and sought revenge for the smallest grievance. He would kill a person even when they only had a minor conflict. People were influenced positively by good people and negatively by bad people. Over 100,000 druids in Wolf tribe had changed with the influence of Manstuly. They used to fight for the purpose of defending themselves. Later they fought for food to feed themselves, and then fought to obtain wealth, and then started to rob others, or even kill others to satisfy their craving for the excitement.

No one would judge whether Bruzuryano and Manstuly was right or wrong. The law of the jungle and bullying did exist. Manstuly was so cruel that other groups accepted his expansion for the time being, which allowed Wolf tribe to see gains. Manstuly’s wife was an elf pharaoh, so he received a lot of support from Goddess of Nature. He had more clout than Mauso or Bruzuryano.

In addition, Saul’s students formed a united group with Anfey as the founder. He had been taking care of everyone and making plans whenever things happened. Suzanna and he were always in the front when there was a war to try to protect the mages behind them. Everyone saw and knew what Anfey had done for them. They consciously or unconsciously compared themselves with him and learned from him. The culture of this group was decided by Anfey. If Anfey were jealous of Christian’s prestige and tried to put him down, or showed any dislike of Niya’s stubbornness and impulsiveness, there could have been many conflicts among them even, even when survival was at stake.

In Blackwater City, everyone in Anfey’s legion asked Christian to tell Anfey not to treat them as kids, since Anfey and Suzanna had been doing everything but never asked for their help. They had developed a sense of responsibility and did not passively hide from fights. Instead, they volunteered to join the battles, which meant this group had matured, and the bonds among them had strengthened.

However, Anfey did not realized how influential he was to his legion: otherwise, he would have acted more generous and knowledgeable. He was facing Suzanna with his sword. “Don’t use combat power. You would not know where the weaknesses in your sword skills are if you use combat power.”

“I understand,” Suzanna said.

“Whoever’s sword hits the floor loses.” Anfey thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s bet.”

“Bet on what?” Suzanna asked.

“Hitting the palm? Not fun. How about flicking foreheads? Not fun either. Never mind. Whoever loses will get spanked. What do you think?” Anfey grinned. There was not much to bet between a couple. They could only bet on this.

“Sure.” Suzanna looked excited.

“I am not putting all my strength into it either. Watch out!” Anfey stepped forward and thrusted his sword at Suzanna’s chest.

Suzanna blocked him in a very standard position. The two swords clashed with a clear clanking sound. Anfey’s sword swirled and then pressed on Suzanna’s sword. He suddenly yelled, “Let it go!”

With the swirling and pressing, Anfey’s sword had pressed the tip of Suzanna’s sword. He thought Suzanna would not be able to hold the sword anymore. Anfey was shocked that Suzanna still could hold her sword steady in the air, while he almost lost hold of his sword.

“You!” Anfey was irritated. “Didn’t I tell you that you could not use combat power!” Anfey seemed to forget he was a leader when he was with Suzanna. At that moment, he was just a husband, playing with his wife. He definitely would get mad if he was played by his wife.

Suzanna giggled awkwardly. She knew she was not right. “I got used to using combat power.”

“Don’t use combat power.” Seeing Suzanna feeling bad about it, Anfey let it go, but he was nervous about it.

“I got it, got it,” Suzanna said.

They went back to fighting. Swords clashed in the air. If Ernest was at a disadvantage when he fought Anfey without combat power, then surely Suzanna would be. Soon, Anfey screamed again. This time, he did not ask Suzanna to let her sword go. Instead, he called out her name, “Suzanna!”

“One more time.” Suzanna stuck her tongue out. The sword was the life of a swordswoman, so whenever Suzanna felt she was about to lose her sword, she could not help performing combat power. She felt bad about violating the rule twice.

“Couldn’t you keep your promise?” Anfey asked helplessly.

“Let’s try again.” Suzanna pretended she did not hear it.

“You are losing the fight if you use combat power again.” Anfey put the magic sword back into the sheath. “I am not using my sword.”

“Not using your sword? Don’t blame me if you lose the fight,” Suzanna said.

“Losing? I will show you what my real skills are.” Anfey chuckled.

If someone else had said it, Suzanna not would not pay too much attention to it. However, it was different story when Anfey said it. She still did not completely understand Anfey. She knew Anfey had a lot of secrets. A playful smile appeared on her face. “Ok, I will try my best.”

“Come on!” Anfey did not pay attention to the words “try her best,” He did not realize what it meant until he saw the bright golden light on Suzanna. “You…”

Before Anfey could finish his sentence, Suzanna’s sword radiance had shoot at Anfey’s head. Anfey had to step back to dodge it. He yelled, “You used combat power again. You lose!”

Suzanna did not seem to hear what Anfey said. She swung her sword sideways. Anfey flipped backwards, and he was already about eight yards away from Suzanna. “You should get your punishment as you promised.”

“Come get me!” Suzanna giggled. She chased after Anfey. It was fine when there were alone. Now Ozzic, Blavi and few others stopped to watch. They seemed to come to see Anfey. She would never get spanked in the public. She would not keep her promise today.

Anfey was speechless. He thought to himself, How dare you play so shamelessly with me? He suddenly closed his eyes. He did not step back to dodge. Instead, he stepped forward to counter Suzanna’s sword radiance.

Suzanna was shocked by Anfey’s move. No matter how good Anfey was, he would not be able to counter the sword radiance with his body. She turned her sword away and took off the combat power at the same time. The leftover sword radiance shot to the ground to the right of Suzanna and made a fairly loud sound.

Anfey reached his hand out and grabbed at Suzanna’s wrist. The tai chi move of large hand wrapping was a very skillful seizing art. In addition, Suzanna was worried that Anfey would get hurt, and she tried to take back her combat power when she felt half of her body go numb. Her right arm had been twisted behind her back.

“This is for not keeping your promise.” Anfey felt proud of himself and grinned. He spanked Suzanna three times because she did not keep her word three times. He was accounting for everything that had happened.

Ozzic cleared his throat. They felt a little awkward as they walked toward Anfey. They had business to talk about. “Master”

When Anfey turned around, he had a straight face. He did not look too serious, but business-like. “What’s wrong?”

“Master, a mage group found a group of mercenaries. There are about 400 of them. Do you think we should contact them?” Ozzic said in a serious voice.

The Eye of the Sky found a group of mercenaries marching through the forest. There were no enemies around them, but the mercenaries were all very careful.

“They all look very powerful,” Ozzic commented, “or else they wouldn’t have been able to get to this point. Storm City is about sixty miles from here. They might have come from there.”

“Not necessarily,” Orsie said, shaking his head. “I don’t think they broke through the line of zombies by themselves.”

“What?” Ozzic asked, frowning. “Are you saying the necromancers let them out?”

“That’s just my thought,” Orsie shrugged.

“But why?” Ozzic asked incredulously.

“I’m not joking,” Orsie said. “Think about it. We haven’t encountered large groups of zombies in days, which means the necromancers aren’t as powerful as they appear. I think they have moved most of their forces to deal with the Shield of Light legion.”

“I agree,” Anfey said, nodding. He had thought about this before, as well. The necromancers did not try to stop him from leaving, and even allowed the Knights of Death to retreat. The necromancers must feel pressured by the battle with Fernando, which proved that the necromancers were not as powerful as he had originally expected. They could not fight on two fronts at the same time. Fernando must have already cornered them. Anfey felt respect towards the man. Despite what he may have planned, Fernando was an able and smart man.

“Should we send someone to talk to them?” Ozzic asked.

“That’s a good idea,” Anfey said. “We need to know more about our surroundings.”

“Wait! Guys, look!” Blavi suddenly called.

The group moved their attention to another Eye of the Sky and saw an army marching through the forest. There were not a lot of soldiers, but there were a lot of carts carrying supplies.

“Why is there an army here?” Anfey asked, shocked.

Ozzic frowned when he spotted the army’s flag. “It’s from Shansa Empire.”

“What are they doing here?”

The mercenaries glanced at each other, unsure how to answer that question.

“That’s their supply line,” Black Elven said. “The main army must have already passed. This is a lot of supplies. They must have at least fifty thousand troops.”

Anfey frowned. He wasn’t worried about ruining his relationship with the Church. Most members of the Shield of Light legion were from Maho Empire, anyway. Fernando wouldn’t do anything out of line. But now that Shansa army had joined the fight, the situation became much more complicated. He was famous for destroying part of Shansa Empire’s Griffin Aerial Unit, and he was certain that Shansa Empire wouldn’t mind killing a few thousand mercenaries in retaliation.

Black Eleven was a very honest person, and he wouldn’t try to scare them. If he said that the army must have at least fifty thousand, then the army must have at least fifty thousand.

The mercenaries turned to Anfey. They knew that the relationship between Anfey and Shansa Empire was not good, and having Shansa army in the Country of Mercenaries could threaten the alliance.

A few minutes later, the mercenaries and the Shansa army saw each other. After a few moments of chaos, both sides realized that they had not encountered zombies or necromancers. The army sent out a few soldiers to greet the mercenaries.

After a brief conversation, the mercenaries ran towards the army and surrounded a supply cart. A few mercenaries jumped onto the cart and found some waterskins.

“Blavi,” Anfey said. “Keep an eye on the army.”

“Alright,” Blavi said, nodding.

“Armin, count how many soldiers they have.”

Black Eleven nodded.

Ozzic blinked. “You’re not…”

“You’re not going rob them, are you?” Orsie asked.

“We’re not robbers,” Thompson said with a grin. Then he realized that Orsie wasn’t joking and frowned.

Thompson was a new member. He had never met Alice and did not know Anfey’s past, which was why he was surprised.

“I don’t know,” Anfey said. “I need to think about it.” He knew that it was better for the world if he left the Shansa army alone, but robbing them would be beneficial to him and Maho Empire.

“We should do it!” Ozzic said. “This is a perfect opportunity!”

“This army is here to help with the war effort,” Anfey said. “We shouldn’t take advantage of that.” He looked up from the Eye of the Sky and found the others around him staring at him, strangely. To his companions, he wasn’t one to say something like this. Priests were the most important part of the war effort, yet he had just ordered the mercenaries to murder a few hundred a couple of days ago.

“Sir, do you need some rest?” Ozzic asked quietly.

“No,” Anfey said with a laugh. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“Sir,” Shinbella said, “if we run into the army, will they recognize you and attack us?”

“Maybe,” Anfey said. “I don’t know.” Shinbella nodded and did not say anything else. She did not need to. If the Shansa army could attack the mercenaries, why couldn’t the mercenaries attack them?

“They outnumber us,” Thompson said. “If we are going to attack, we need a good plan to minimize damage. Shansa Empire doesn’t have the best armies, but we cannot underestimate them.”

“You’re already underestimating them,” Black Eleven said, shaking his head. “They never performed well because they lacked a good general.”

“You mean…”

“Do you see that flag? That is the flag of Silver Griffins. I’ve read about it before. That is the standard of Scarlet. I don’t know why General Baery would speak so highly of a woman so young, but I know that General Baery never makes mistakes.”

“Armin, you know General Baery?” Thompson asked, shocked.

Black Eleven froze. He had made a mistake and exposed his identity. Anfey coughed. “Concentrate,” he told Black Eleven. Then he turned to Thompson and shook his head.

Thompson frowned. “We can’t fight them head on, then,” he said, trying to change the topic.

“He’s right,” Ozzic said. “We need a plan.”

“What is that?” one of the mages suddenly asked.

“What is it?” Riska hurried over and asked.

“I just saw a shadow, but it was too fast.”

“You sure you didn’t just make a mistake?” Blavi asked, frowning.

“No,” the mage said. “Here it is again!” He leaned closer and his eyes widened. “God, it’s a griffin!”

As the griffin suddenly made a high pitched scream in the air, the shadow changed at the same time. If someone had been watching the flying pattern of griffins, it was not hard to notice the griffin was flying around an oval track.

Griffins had wide vision. Their ability to observer was right below the druids’ enormous eagle, but far less intelligent. The druid’s enormous eagle was transformed from druids with transformation magic. They only changed their appearance, but their intelligence was not affected. If they were smart druids, they would still be smart eagles. If they were stupid as druids, they would be stupid as eagles. However, even the dumbest druid would be much more intelligent than griffins.

With strict training, griffins mastered two common patterns. If they found people, but only a few of them, they would fly around in an oval pattern. If they discovered many people, they would fly in a figure eight pattern. Griffins would not know how to estimate the number of people. They relied on the griffin rider to see and make an estimate.

The general in Shansa Empire underneath the griffin saw the signals from the griffin, but he did not think it was a big deal, since the griffin thought there were not many in that group. Whether they were friends or enemies, they would not be able to pose any threat to them.

Before long, two black spots appeared in the sky. When they flew closer, the soldiers and mercenaries who just had eaten could not help cheering for them. It was a girl and a guy. The guy looked handsome, with clear sharp eyes. The girl had long hair. She looked like she just walked out of a painting. She looked so feminine and so adorable. What a couple! The horses they rode were beautiful as well. They were pure white. The knights from Shansa Empire were amazed by the horses’ build and muscles. They were rare breeds, which made them think of the special horses in Knights of Light mercenary. They were called “Snow Beasts”.

“How are you?” The general in the front stepped forward. He greeted Anfey and Suzanna with welcome laughs. He wanted to make friends with the two of them. It was not hard to believe they had amazing skills, since they dared to pass the area full of death spirits with just two people. “You guys are…”

“My name is Anfey. This is Suzanna.” Anfey said with a smile.

“Anfey? The earl in Maho Empire?” The general was shocked.

“Yes, that’s me,” Anfey said, smiling. “I have been dealing with necromancers and death spirits for many days. I’m very happy to finally see humans. Judging from your equipment, you are probably not mercenaries.”

“We are soldiers of Shansa Empire.” The general glanced at his own flag. He knew he could not lie about it.

“When did Shansa Empire send its military over?” Anfey asked in surprise.

“Master Anfey, I know we have had some conflicts before, but death spirits are our common enemies since the War against the Dead broke out.” The general smiled. “You should not have asked us when we came down. You should have said we came too late.”

Anfey was shocked for a second, then smiled and said, “You are right. If all the military people could be as upright as you, I think we definitely would win in this War against the Dead.”

“Thank you for your compliment,” the general said. “Master Anfey, Master Suzanna, where are you going?”

“We do not have a destination. We fled all the way here. We will go anywhere there are fewer death spirits,” Anfey said.

“It looks like you guys had a tough time,” the general said.

“Not just a tough time, it was miserable,” Anfey said with a bitter smile.

That general looked up at the sky to check the time. “It is time to set up camp. I know you are very experienced and knowledgeable. If you do not mind our simple camping conditions, you can stay with us for a day. Please tell us your adventures. Soldiers will open their eyes after they hear your stories.”

“Do you have wine?” Anfey licked his lips.

“Master, don’t worry. We have plenty of wine.” The general laughed. “I have enough for you to take a bath in the wine.”

“Wonderful!” Anfey looked very pleased.

The general waved his hand to signal the knights in front to make a path. Anfey and Suzanna directed their horses forward. At that moment, something weird happened. After Anfey passed through those knights, they gathered together again. It did not looked like they were welcoming guests. Instead, they surrounded Anfey. Some knights even looked hostile towards him.

“What are you doing?” Anfey was not blind. He became alert immediately.

“Fight!” the general yelled. At the same time, he pulled the reigns so his horse would move to the back, not because he was scared, but because he was too close to Anfey and Suzanna. A strategy in the war was to seize the ringleader before catching all the followers. To avoid it that, the general moved back.

Knights had been waiting for this order for a while. Over twenty knight spears were tossed at Anfey and Suzanna together. The combat powers were everywhere, while spears came at Suzanna and Anfey from all angles.

The horse Suzanna rode screamed in pain and then fell on the ground. The next second, Suzanna’s feet touched the ground. She shoot up so fast that she looked like a shoot of light. She jumped over the heads of knights. Anfey’s moves seemed to be against common sense. Without seeing him getting ready or jumping on anything, Anfey was able to fly up. Eight knight spears pierced through the horse in a second. The knights all liked this handsome horse, but they could care less about it right now.

Anfey dodged away. He stepped on a knight’s head. A bone cracking sound was heard. That knight’s body jerked immediately. Anfey borrowed the momentum to jump into the air and dodge the attacks from knights.

When Suzanna landed, she could not help falling on her knees. This girl had gotten so much better with practice. Anfey could not help giving her compliments in his head. He landed next to Suzanna. He held her up and yelled immediately, “You go first. I will take care of this situation.” He winked at Suzanna.

Suzanna, rolled her eyes at him. Without saying a word, she started to run back in the direction she had come.

Seeing the sudden change, a griffin rider suddenly lower its altitude and yelled, “What happened? Why did you attack mercenaries?” Obviously, they were in charge of safety and scouting. They were in a different unit and did not take orders from each other. Otherwise he not would ask this way.

“He is Anfey,” the general yelled in acute pain. The best approach would have been to invite Anfey to his camp and try to kill him when Anfey was relaxed after the meal and drinks. He would have had a much better chance to kill him when Anfey was not alert. He was able to keep a straight face. Unfortunately, his followers could not and showed their hostility on their faces too early. Lies helped him bond with Anfey, but he could not explain where the hostility was from. Anfey had led his legion and wiped out Griffin Aerial Unit. He knew it was not that easy to deceive Anfey. He had fought Anfey earlier, but it gave Anfey a chance to escape.

“Anfey?” The griffin circled in the air. The griffin rider yelled, “Is he really Anfey?”

“It is him,” the general said.

The griffin rider took a deep breath as the griffin paused for a second before flying after the fleeing Anfey. Another griffin knight lowered his altitude and followed that griffin rider after they saw what had happened.

The general turned around to look at the stunned mercenaries. He hesitated before he yelled, “Cavalry units one, two and three, stay. The rest of you follow me. Get Anfey for me!” The generals in charge of logistics could only earn rewards by working very hard. They rarely had the chance to accomplish heroic deeds in battle. Seeing Anfey and Suzanna flee, he was not willing to simply give up this chance to the griffin riders. In addition, he could tell Suzanna was hurt. He had to take advantage of it to kill Anfey. He felt blessed to have this opportunity to seize Anfey and accomplish a heroic deed in the war.

The soldiers from Shansa Empire rushed toward Anfey as he fled. Some flew, some rode horses, while others ran. They had many different types of soldiers. Anfey dared not be in the fight too long after he had killed a few knights with his element spear. He left the battle as fast as possible. He was so fast that he looked like he flew everywhere with lightning speed. However, he was weighed down. Suzanna’s was fast at times, but slow at other times. The combat power was strong sometimes but very weak other times. Obviously, she did not have good control over her combat powers.

As soldiers got closer to them, Anfey had to run back to swing his sword to protect Suzanna. He was able to escape each time before he was caught by the soldiers.

Neither griffin riders nor regular soldiers from Shansa Empire knew Suzanna had advanced to be a master swordswoman. If they had known, they would not have chased her. They would not have had the courage to fight her.

The griffin riders in the sky seemed to be the toughest enemies. To soldiers in Shansa Empire, it was easy for them to be knights, but the army was very selective in choosing griffin rider. Most griffin riders were the best of the best. Without knowing why, they were constantly shooting magic spells at Anfey, and did not seem to notice Suzanna was different. It might have been that they were too proud to do so, or tried to keep the Knight’s principles.

The general from Shansa Empire acted really weird. Whenever Anfey was attacked by crossbow, he would look worried. He looked like he was worried Anfey would get killed by the crossbow. Whenever Anfey dodged those attacks or knock away a crossbow, he had a smile on his face. Luckily, those griffin riders had all their attention on Anfey and did not notice the change to his face; otherwise they would think he was a traitor.

Anfey fled while soldiers from Shansa Empire chased him. Without knowing how long he had run, he noticed it was getting dark. Griffin riders appeared to have forgotten one thing: griffins lost their vision when they tried to attack only a dozen yards above the ground. The general from Shansa Empire also forgot that knights could chase Suzanna and Anfey on horses, but cavalry in armor could not keep pace with them. In fact, the general’s management skills and intelligence seemed to be very limited; otherwise he would be a general on the front lines instead of in charge of supplies and logistics.

Anfey stopped as Suzanna stumbled to the ground a second time and turned around slowly. The griffin knights saw this as an opportunity and flew towards Anfey from several different angles.

Anfey did not move to duck the attacks from the griffins. Instead, he stood his ground and raised his sword. The general from Shansa Empire gripped his reins and narrowed his eyes. Anfey did not look like a man who was being attacked from all angles. He looked too calm to be prey of the griffins.

Anfey gripped his sword and a strong magic surge rippled from it. The sky darkened for a moment, and hundreds of lightning bolts fell from the sky and headed towards the griffins.

The Shansa general’s eyes widened at the sight.

The griffin knights and the soldiers nearby sensed the danger and summoned their combat power, but it was almost impossible to block the attack of serial lightening.

Griffins were famous for strong defense against magical attacks, but there was still a limit. Other than Dark Hell Dragon, there was almost no other creature that was completely immune to magic attacks. The griffins fell from the sky with a large crack and crashed into the soldiers below.

Anfey jumped up and dashed towards the soldiers, his sword sweeping through the air. He didn’t care if his target was alive or not. He just needed to get to the griffins and take them out.

“That’s a magic sword,” the Shansa general called. “He needs time to use it again!” The general knew that he was doomed. Even if he could kill Anfey, he would still be punished.

A year ago, after the news of the destruction of the Griffins Aerial Unit reached Shansa Empire, the king was furious. He jailed several generals and ordered their families sold into slavery. General Kumaraghosha’s family experienced the worst punishment. The men of his family were sold into slavery, while the women were executed, their bodies cut up and fed to the griffins. Edward VIII claimed it was out of revenge for Kumaraghosha’s traitorous actions, but it was still unfitting for a king to do such cruel things to his subjects. The information about Kumaraghosha’s family was sealed up in a secret document, and people were forbidden from speaking of this event. However, word still got out. Something as cruel as that could never stay a secret and had a way of making rounds among the upperclasses of Shansa Empire.

Scarlet had requested aid from the Griffins Aerial Unit, and the request was initially denied. Edward the VIII told her that there was no room for negotiation. Later, the crown prince himself went to his father and begged on behalf of Scarlet. Edward the VIII finally agreed to send a hundred griffin knights to aid Scarlet. Scarlet did not want to put the griffins in danger and used them solely as scouts. Now that several had died, the general knew that the king would be furious.

The Shansa soldiers hesitated, then dashed forward. The general rode after them. He had nothing to lose anymore. He knew that he was doomed, and he had doomed his family as well.

Anfey returned the magic sword to its sheath and turned to Suzanna. Suzanna stood and nodded at him and summoned her combat power. She burst into blinding light.

Suzanna dashed towards the soldiers, gripping her sword tight. The soldiers present were not the most powerful in the Shansa army. The highest-ranking among them were only some silver knights. These silver knights were at the forefront of the attack and were mostly injured by the serial lightning released by the magic sword. The remaining soldiers were too low of a rank to be Suzanna’s opponent.

The Shansa general watched in shock. He never expected Anfey to have a master swordsman under his command. It was possible to take out a top level powers, but that would require overwhelming numbers and more than a dozen senior level fighters. His soldiers were not trained for direct combat and stood no chance against a top level power.

The Shansa general was too distracted by Suzanna and had ignored Anfey. He had forgotten that Anfey, not Suzanna, was supposed to be his main target.

Anfey held his sword in front of him but did not move. The blade of his fire sword was radiating such intense heat it had warped the air around him. To the Shansa soldiers, Anfey’s figure was very distorted.

The horses began to whinny and refuse to go forward as they got closer to Anfey. The animals were much more sensitive to the change in environment than their riders. Some horses halted so suddenly their riders lost control and stumbled off. The soldiers tried to force their horses to go forward, but the heat was so intense the horses burst into flames before even reaching him. The combat power of the soldiers wavered in the heat like bubbles.

Anfey took a step forward and thrust his sword towards the soldiers. The sword suddenly grew in size and reached even the soldiers who could not convince their horses to go forward. The heat of the sword lit the entire field on fire.

Anfey jumped forward and dashed through the fiery field and towards the remaining soldiers. The fire licked at his legs but did not burn or hurt him. The burning air was surging and beating against the soldiers’ combat power. Even though the combat power was still intact and was protecting them, the soldiers still felt sharp stings from the heat of the flame. It was as if they were burning, even though they were protected.

Anfey zigzagged through the soldiers, waving his sword and slicing through the Shansa soldiers. Cutting through the combat power and armors became as easy as cutting butter.

The Shansa general watched in despair. He understood now why Edward VIII had named Newyoheim as the commander of the Dark Moon Magic Legion, despite Newyoheim never having any experience with armies. Newyoheim was a top level power and had the reputation a regular general does not. Defeating a top level power requires another top level power. Defeating top level powers with large numbers was not a good plan and would lead to too many casualties.

The Shansa general spotted a few mages in the air, but his hope of backup quickly died as the mages began raining down magic on his men. A magic signal rose into the air behind him, signaling that his supply carts had been attacked.

The Shansa general laughed and rode towards Suzanna. He had been avoiding contact with her, but he had nothing to lose anymore. He didn’t want to kill Suzanna because he knew that it was impossible. He just wanted her to kill him and to spare him of any further punishments he might face once he returned to Shansa Empire.

“Wait!” Anfey called out to Suzanna when he saw the general riding towards her. “Don’t kill him! I need to talk to him.”

Suzanna nodded. She turned her sword around and slammed the hilt of the sword into the Shansa general’s head. The general stumbled off of his horse and crashed into the ground. He was unconscious by the time he hit the ground.