Chapter 161: A Disciplined Mage

“Did you all hear what Hagan said? Ok, Hagan, you will be in charge this time.” Anfey tossed the chemical bottle to Christian. “I hope things turn out just as Hagan said.” The reason he changed his plan to fight with Shansa Empire’s cavalry was all because Hagan guaranteed him the effects of this chemical. Otherwise, he already would have been in the underground tunnels.

Christian took the chemical bottle. He was shocked for a second and said, “Anfey, what are you doing?”

“I will be watching from behind. That way I can give you a hand at any crucial moment.” If fighting an opponent on his own, Anfey could always think about many different plans and pick the best one to beat the opponent as fast and fierce as he could. However, when he was asked to give commands to a group of people, he was not that great. Anfey had realized the areas that he needed to work on in the past few battles.

His weak area of leading a group in battle was because of his martial arts experience. Anfey needed to concentrate to the point that he would not forget about his surroundings. His combat power would reach its height this way. When he attacked the orcs in the forest, he had treated each of them as if they were powerful men. Overlooking and underestimating were fatal toxins to assassins. Anfey did not want to make any mistakes.

It was hard for him to do two things at one time, so he asked Christian to give commands. Besides Suzanna and he, everyone else was mages. Maybe Christian could help the legion perform better.

“Ok.” Christian nodded. “But I need Suzanna’s help.”

“You are in charge. We will do what you say. Hurry up. They are coming,” Anfey said.

Christian chanted in a low pitch. A thick wall of dirt appeared in the town. “Riska, take the chemical to the left side of the town, and Blavi to the right side. Do not fight hard with them. It would be great if you can buy us some time.”

“Got it.” Riska and Blavi showed respect to Christian and took the order from him. They took the chemical and flew to the sky.

With a huge sound, the dirt wall collapsed. Kumaraghosha walked through the hole in the wall with heavy combat power. He rushed in the front with an unstoppable momentum.

“Dirt wall magic,” Christian yelled.

Christian, Zubin, and Sante released dirt wall magic together. This was not the legendary magic combo. The techniques of magic combo were completely lost in the Sacred War. Christian and his friends just teamed up to release the dirt wall magic together to allow the gap between the walls to be really small. Looking from a distance, the huge square-shape dirt wall grew out from the ground. If adding all the walls together, it was more than 11 yards wide. Unless the magic elements disappeared, this thick wall could definitely withstand Kumaraghosha’s attacks.

“Their general is just ahead of us. If we can defeat this team of knights, they will lose this battle.” Christian yelled, “Suzanna, you can start joining the fight after we fight with Kumaraghsha. Black Eleven, you take your people through the underground tunnels. Wait for my magic signals and rush out to give them a surprise attack.”

“Shooting the cavalry means shooting the horses first; we capture the ringleader first in order to capture all the followers. However, Suzanna, we do not need kill Kumaraghosha. As long as we make him aware of the odds against him and have him back out, someone else will do the dirty work for us.” Anfey smiled and refused to explain more. No matter whether Kumaraghosha was going to win or lose this battle, he was set up anyway. With thousands of people hearing Anfey’s magic broadcasting, Kumaraghosha would lose his control. If Mintel were an upright person and never thought of setting Kumaraghosha up, there might be some evil ideas flashing in his head after hearing some gossip about Kumaraghosha.

“Got it.” Suzanna nodded. She understood what Anfey meant. He was afraid she would give herself the mindset of having to kill Kumaraghosha.

“Everyone, toss your chemical bottles,” Christian yelled.

Over ten chemical bottles travelled in a parabola shape and landed on the street behind the dirt wall. A rusty blood smell slowly rose in the air as red liquid flew out from the bottles. Anfey jumped on a fence and continued to jump over a few roofs to get to the top of an ancient tree. He watched through the gaps between branches.

On the other side of the dirt wall, Kumaraghosha tried to shake the numb feeling from his wrists. He turned around to look. He showed a slight helplessness and sadness in his eyes. There were four mages in the cavalry. If they had been with him, they could release simple dispel magic to destroy the dirt walls. Unfortunately, they were not in the front with Kumaraghosha. They had stayed behind, watching what happened in front of them with a troubled look.

A less intelligent person had the chance to be a swordsman, but never would become a mage. Being a mage required high intelligence. In general, mages were smarter than swordsmen and soldiers. They also had more street smarts. After hearing what Anfey said, they did not want to help the cavalry to fight. Instead, they wanted nothing to do with Kumaraghosha and wanted to report him to their supervisors for some reward.

The gathered dirt elements finally disappeared. Kumaraghosha refreshed himself to get ready for the next round of attack. The horse under him suddenly squealed and reared. Not only Kumaraghosha’s horse did it, with a wind blowing by, almost all the horses panicked. No matter how much the cavalry yelled, those horses refused to step forward.

The chemical bottle contained scare chemicals extracted from manticores’ blood and feathers. Manticores were the natural enemies of cows, horses, boarbeasts and other large herbivores. This scare chemical had a fantastic effect. Beasts were beasts. No matter what training they had, their natural instincts would take over.

Christian chanted in a low pitch and swung his arm. A large marsh appeared around a street in Moramatch. The radius of the marsh was getting larger and larger. It not only closed in around Kumaraghosha’s two hundred-plus riders, but also around a dozen completed and unfinished houses. Magic could not alter nature. When elements disappeared, everything would go back to normal. The damage caused by magic varied, but it was not constrained by natural law. Those houses had been built for nothing.

Those two hundred riders struggled to stand up in the marsh. Lucky ones had half of their bodies in the air, the unfortunate ones only had their heads out of the marsh. Hundreds of the knights looked at those mages together. Dirt walls were only for defensive purposes. They were not meant to cause any damage, but the marsh was a totally different story. Except for a few powerful fighters, most of them could not move in the marsh. As a result, they were either submerged in the marsh, or became shooting targets.

Those few mages looked awful. Although marsh magic could not be dispelled by dispel magic, but recovery magic could be released. The chance of it working was not guaranteed; it would depend on the opponent’s controlling ability, magic skills and luck. Things were getting too complicated. They definitely could have saved those riders lives, but what would happen afterwards? The reason they stayed back was they did not want anything to do with Kumaraghosha. If they stood out to help him, how could they tell others they had nothing to do with him in the future.

A white lightning bolt flashed in the sky and struck right at where those mages stood.

One of the mages fell on the ground immediately. He laid sideways on the ground, moaning.

“Watch out!” The other three mages stopped and released magic domes to protect themselves. They looked a little strange. They were glad rather than angry.

“Did it get him? It’s over three hundred yards!” Feller was shocked that he actually hit that mage. His mouth was wide open. It seemed like a fist could fit into his mouth.

Skilled archers were the enemies of mages, especially the sunset archers among the elves. “Mage Killer” was their nickname, because the distance they could shoot was a lot further than mages. The chance to strike a senior mage was next-to-nothing when lightning magic was released from three hundred yards away. It would perform well if the lightning magic was released from one hundred yards away. The larger the distance, the less accurate and powerful the lightning magic would be. Feller’s record could be described as legendary.

“Continue to release lightning magic” Christian yelled. “Zubin, Sante, you guys help him.”

One after another, lightning bolts flashed in the sky, hitting outside Moramatch. They hit everywhere. Some got riders and their horses, while others hit the magic domes those three mages built. Some even just hit the ground, where shattered stones flew in the air. The only compliment one could give this later magic was that it was frequent.

When lightning hit on the magic shields, the magic shields’ shapes did not change at all. Those three mages guarded themselves against all possible dangers. They used a lot of magic to make the domes bigger and thicker. They spared no time for the mash in front of them. Their reactions were reasonable. No one could blame them for what they did, since mages were the precious resources for different departments in the country. When mages were attacked by the other party, they could choose to protect themselves first and put helping and protecting others second. In other words, when they were in danger, they did not have to help the knights.

Chapter 162: Disappearing as Fast as It Had Appeared

Kumaraghosha’s horse suddenly fell to the ground. He leapt off and jumped out of the swamp. Then his body turned into blinding white light as he dashed towards Christian. He held out his long lance in front of him. If the lance was the arrow’s shaft, than his body, so low it was almost parallel to the ground, was the feathers. Kumaraghosha knew that if he couldn’t distract the mages, then all the knights that followed him into the town would face certain doom.

At that moment, Kumaraghosha was very certain of himself, but he suddenly recalled another fact about his enemy. The last time he was at Moramatch, the swordsmaster did not join the fight. He wasn’t the only one that could determine the battle’s outcome.

Whenever someone was unlucky, his premonitions tend to come true, and Kumaraghosha was very unlucky. Before Christian could even react to the attack, another bright white light collided with Kumaraghosha. The two balls of bright light shook with a loud crash. Sparks flew. An almost undetectable dark shadow dashed by.

Suzanna jumped backwards and landed solidly. The white light around her dimmed slightly. She took a deep breath and it became blinding again. Anfey had told her to not be too absorbed in the fight, but when facing a senior platinum knight, she had to be completely committed to the fight; or else there was no way she would live to tell the tale.

Kumaraghosha stumbled, and his left leg almost gave out. On his leg was a black arrow, quivering. The arrow did not burrow deep into the flesh, but was enough to impede his movements. When fighting someone of similar rank, a wound like this could be devastating.

This sudden attack helped Kumaraghosha understood what kind of enemy he was facing. He had already learned the truth about the arrows before, but he did not expect Anfey to be joining the fight right now. If this arrow had come a few seconds earlier or later, or he was aiming for his head or chest, the arrow would not have found its target.

Suzanna looked at Kumaraghosha’s leg and smiled. She was never formally trained and did not know the eight creeds of swordsmanship. She did not follow the rules traditional swordsmen followed, and Anfey was someone with no sense of shame or honor. Over time, Suzanna stopped believing that fights had to be fair to both sides. For her, two against one was a normal thing to do.

Kumaraghosha glanced past Suzanna and his gaze landed on a tree a hundred feet away. He could not see Anfey, but he could feel his eyes, cold and calculating.

Most of the knights that fell into the swamp could not get out. The few dozen that managed to free themselves began charging again, their lances held out in front of them. The mages floated into the air and flew backwards to put some distance between themselves and Kumaraghosha. Suzanna saw the knights charging out of the corners of her eyes. She took a few steps back, leapt into the air and disappeared behind a roof.

Kumaraghosha felt a strange worry. Before he could figure it out, a knight to his left screamed out in agony. His body was thrown back like he was punched by an invisible fist. His blood sprayed onto the dirt, and he was still. A black arrow stuck out of his chest.

The mages had already retreated to a safe distance and began releasing magic. Lightning, fireballs, and wind blades rained down on the knights. Among the magic was fire meteor that could hurt even a high tier magic beast. However, the swamp Christian summoned was starting to dry up. The mud began to recede quickly, and some of the knights took this chance to free themselves from the swamp. However, there were still a number of knights trapped by the magic. This was the worst thing about swamp magic. Even if the ground returned to normal, the damage would linger. Those that were swallowed by the swamp could not be saved.

“Save whoever you can!” Kumaraghosha called.

The knights lunged at their companions and began pulling them out of the ground before the magic completely disappeared. Some places were already dry, and the act of pulling caused some of the men great pain. Some men were buried all the way up to their necks, and their cries for help were only met with pitying eyes.

“Retreat!” Kumaraghosha ordered.

Anfey had made himself very clear. There were hundreds of tunnels under the town, and even if they could successfully take the town, Anfey could take his men and retreat into the tunnels. If his mages had assisted him, Kumaraghosha would gladly have turned the town into rubble. However, the mages fell for Anfey’s lies and did not join the fight. The only way Kumaraghosha could take Moramatch was to sacrifice more men than necessary. This would yield nothing.

The attacking order had been resisted by half of the army, but no one resisted the retreating order. Even the knights who had lost their horses were hardly slower than their mounted companions. After a few moments, the army was merely a dot on the horizon. The only thing that proved Shansa’s army had visited the town was a dozen men still stuck in the ground.

The doors of the houses next to the dirt road was pushed open, and a group of swordsmen walked out. Black Eleven stroked the hilt of his sword as he walked, as if he was lamenting his lack of involvement in the battle. One of the swordsmen kicked one of the stuck soldiers. Shansa Empire’s act of invading Maho Empire had made these soldiers from Maho Empire very angry, so this act of humiliating the enemy did not make the observers upset.

“Anfey?” Suzanna called after realizing Anfey was still hiding in the tree.

Anfey stopped his thinking process and hopped out. The battle had given him some new inspiration. When he first heard a thousand-man Shansa cavalry was approaching, he felt it would be a hopeless battle. They were too greatly outnumbered. Anfey could not put together a possible plan to stop a thousand knights on horseback with a dozen mages and a swordsmaster.

Anfey, however, was still relatively new to magic. He only remembered how magic could cause mass destruction, but had forgotten that it could affect nature. The other mages clearly had different ideas, and that was why they had opposed the idea of retreating. Along with the potion Hagan had presented, Anfey changed his mind.

“Christian, you did a good job today,” Anfey praised him.

“Thank god we had Hagan’s fear potion. Swamp magic did so much more damage because they lost their horses.”

“This is the most damaging swamp magic I’ve ever seen,” Sante agreed.

“Anfey!” Riska landed in front of them. “You guys are finished with the riders?” He had only just seen the stuck riders.

Anfey nodded.

“Shansa armies are useless,” Riska said with a snort.

“They aren’t useless. I could tell Kumaraghosha did not take this seriously,” Anfey told him, “or else we would be in the tunnels by now.”

“So what if they had made it into the town? Their numbers would have been greatly reduced anyway.” Sante shrugged. “Zubin and I know swamp magic as well. We can potentially turn the entire town of Moramatch into swamp.”

“Yea, then Moramatch would be called Swamp,” Zubin corrected him.

“Sante, are you planning on attacking the enemies or destroy our own houses?” Feller asked.

“Victory comes at a price,” Sante defended himself. “Don’t you know?”

“Shut up.” Anfey kicked Sante on the calf lightly and scolded.

“Christian, you had Feller attack their mages on purpose, didn’t you?” Zubin asked.

“I felt that their mages didn’t want to fight, so I gave them a reason,” Christian said. He continued, “Anfey, what should we do with those people?”

Anfey looked at the Shansa riders, who were still writhing in the ground. “Tell the dwarves and gnomes to dig them out tomorrow. Have them start widening the entrances to the tunnels tonight. They must finish by tomorrow morning, and we will began moving our belongings down there.”

“I don’t think they can wait until tomorrow.” Black Eleven walked over and joined the conversation. The knights’ bodies were tightly restrained by the ground, and they were struggling to breathe.

Anfey frowned. Personally, he did not care whether those riders lived or died. However, he could not bring himself to tell Black Eleven to kill those riders in front of a group of inexperienced youth. “Black Eleven, have your men dig them out.”

“Me?” Black Eleven frowned, then smiled bitterly. “It seems like my presence was not needed!”

Chapter 163: Allies

The sun slowly set behind the hill. The town of Moramatch was aglow with red rays from the sunset. Anfey and his legion had successfully scared away Shansa Empire’s cavalry. Besides some collapsed houses, they did not lose anything else. They deserved to be happy about it. Christian and his companions, Black Eleven and his subordinates, and hired mercenaries all looked happy and excited. They chatted and laughed in groups. Dwarves and gnomes worked hard on the underground tunnel project. Anfey commanded them to finish the project before dawn the next day. They had to make the main tunnel entrance higher and wider to allow horses to come in. If they could not finish the project in time, they would be punished. Of course, to encourage them, Anfey had raised their wages to ten times higher than normal.

There was a not too deep, but very steep valley behind Moramatch where people were on watch. The other side of the valley was steep as well. Christian and his companions had set up many alarming magic arrays and magic outposts. If any enemy tried to come over through there, they might escape people’s watch, but would trigger the alarming magic. People in the town would know there were enemies coming.

The main underground tunnel was at the foot of the valley. Gnomes and dwarves were working hard on the project. Anfey and Suzanna chatted under an ancient tree not far from the entrance of the main tunnel. They looked quite different. Anfey looked confused while Suzanna blushed as she rolled her eyes at Anfey.

“Why am I bad?” Anfey asked.

“You know why,” Suzanna said.

“I don’t know. Why am I asking you about it if I knew?” Anfey said.

“Think about what you have done,” Suzanna said.

“I have done a lot of things. How do I know which one you are talking about?” Anfey argued.

“Is it because you have done so many bad things?” Suzanna asked.

“Ok. Give me some hints,” Anfey suggested.

“Did you forget about that wine?” Suzanna hinted for him.

“What wine?” Anfey still did not get it.

“The wine with the aphrodisiac in it. You put it in the wine and forced me to drink it.” Suzanna blushed even more.

Anfey blinked and then he finally remembered. “When did I force you to drink it. I was just playing with you. Who would know you drank it without even asking about what it was?” Anfey said.

“Heng.” Suzanna snorted.

“I did take it away from you right away. You only had a sip. I drank the rest of it,” Anfey said.

“Why did you come to see me when everyone had gone to rest. You knew that wine had aphrodisiac in it, what did you want to do to me?” Suzanna asked.

“I wanted to…” Anfey tried to explain.

“You had evil thoughts, didn’t you?” Suzanna asked.

“I wanted to experiment with the effects of the aphrodisiac on myself. You see, my plan was to give aphrodisiac to griffins. I did not want to see our plan fail if the aphrodisiac was not strong enough,” Anfey said.

“Excuses!” Suzanna rolled her eyes as she pulled a handful of grass next to her.

She was a little regretful of bringing this topic up. It made her feel awkward, shameful, and nervous. When people were nervous, they always had some unconscious habits. So did Suzanna.

“”I am telling you the truth.” Anfey tried to convince Suzanna that he was innocent.

“I do not believe you. You had evil thoughts,” Suzanna said.

“Ok, ok. I had evil thoughts. What do you want then?” Anfey said.

Suzanna did not know how to answer that question. There was a saying that went “aggressive women tend to be touched by men who keep showing interest in them, and good girls are scared by lazy boys.” What could Suzanna do to Anfey?

“I still have some seven-winged magic fly chemicals left. Do you want me to buy you drinks?” Anfey decided to be naughty all the way. He even grabbed Suzanna’s hand.

“Stop it!” Suzanna shook off Anfey’s hand. “I wondered why I felt weird after having your wine. I was kind of scared of you and…”

“And horny?” Anfey helped Suzanna with the words she could not say.

“Go to hell!” Suzanna could not take it anymore. She threw that handful of grass on Anfey’s face.

Suzanna spoke a little too loudly, so the gnomes and dwarves who were working not far from them heard their conversation. A few heads stuck out of the cave, looking at Anfey and Suzanna.

“Shhh, quieter, if you don’t want to be others’ joke,” Anfey reminded Suzanna.

“I am not talking to you anymore. I am going back to take a nap.” Suzanna stood up.

“Sit down, take a seat. What are you rushing back for?” Anfey grabbed Suzanna’s arm. Sometimes Suzanna was a lot stronger than Anfey, but other times Suzanna became very weak. With Anfey’s pull, Suzanna could not help wobbling and sat back.

“Anything else?” Suzanna talked as low as a mosquito’s buzzing sound.

“Of course, I said I will buy you drinks,” Anfey said.

“You are so bad.” Suzanna tried to shake off Anfey’s hand one more time, but she failed this time.

“You are so bad!” Anfey sighed as he shook his head.

“Why am I bad?” Suzanna said.

“You know it.” They had the same conversation not long ago. They just switched their roles.

“I don’t know.” Suzanna looked a little unhappy. Since she was more sensitive than Anfey, Suzanna could say that Anfey was bad but not allow him to say the same thing to her.

“I only want to buy you some drinks, but you are thinking about me in the wrong way,” Anfey said.

“You…You said you still have some chemicals left and now want to buy me drinks again,” Suzanna said angrily.

“Right, I am buying you drinks but not poisoned ones,” Anfey said sincerely, “What are you afraid of.”

“Why are you still talking about chemicals.” Suzanna felt she was so wronged.

“Anfey,” Black Eleven rushed in as he called Anfey’s name. “Something happened.”

“What? Kumaraghosha came back?” Anfey suddenly stood up.

“No, a mercenary group is marching towards us. Watching from the Eyes of Sky, I think there are about one hundred twenty to one hundred thirty mercenaries in it. Telling by their flag, they seemed to belong to the Dragon Rider mercenary group,” Black Eleven said.

“Dragon Rider mercenary group? What an arrogant name. I never heard you talk about them before?” Anfey said.

“It is just a name. It does not mean anything. If there is a mercenary group called Home of God, would all of them be gods?” Black Eleven smiled as he shook his head. “As far as I know, they are just a secondary mercenary group, but I am not sure what they are coming here for.”

“Send your people out to ask around and find out what they are coming here for,” Anfey said.

“I already did,” Black Eleven said.

“Who did you send?” Anfey asked.

“Leyco.” Black Eleven smiled. Leyco was the leader of the hired mercenary group. “It’s risky to be a messenger. We’d better ask an outsider to do it.”

“Let’s go. Let’s take a look at them,” Anfey said.

By the time Anfey and Suzanna got there and spoke briefly with Christian, Leyco had already come back. A few mercenaries followed him. The one in the front was a guy around forty years old. His eyebrows were thick and dark. He had a wide and big forehead and sideburns. He looked tall and strong. The sword shafts over his shoulders showed he used a two-hand sword. Two-hand swords in general were longer and heavier than regular swords. Some two-hand swords were even wider than palms, so it was not possible to hang them on waists.

The mercenary in the front looked around and laid his eyes on Anfey at the end. Everyone else stood behind Anfey, which made him look like the moon surrounded by stars. It was easy to tell who the leader was.

“Hello, you must be Anfey.” The mercenary walked to Anfey with a smile.

“Yes, I am Anfey. May I know who you are?” Anfey said.

“My name is Ozzic, commander of Dragon Rider mercenary group,” Ozzic said.

“How can I help you?” Anfey chose to go directly to the topic. He did not even bother with courteous expressions like “I have heard so much about you” or “It’s my honor to have a guest like you.” Anfey was not great with social skills and definitely needed more practice. He used to observe and criticize others in the dark rather than helping coordinate for the team.

“The reason I came here was I got news that Shansa Empire’s cavalry is coming to attack Moramatach.” Ozzic looked around again. “It looks like they haven’t come yet.”

“No.” Anfey tried to answer before anyone else could. “Is your information accurate?”

The battle had ended very quickly. The town did not show any trace of fighting. Those collapsed houses did not mean anything. Outsiders could not tell that a battle had happened based on the collapsed houses.

“Absolutely,” Ozzic answered.

“Are you coming to help us fight the Shansa Empire military?” Anfey asked.

“Of course!” Ozzic said with justice. “Shansa Empire and Tiger of Tawau mercenary took over our Hengduan Valley. It was unbearable. They are thinking of taking over our village. They acted against the law and reason. Our Dragon Rider mercenary group has decided to fight Shansa Empire all the way to the end.”

“You really impress me.” Anfey nodded hard. “In fact, we did receive the same information and sent our people to ambush them. This is why they haven’t gotten here yet. If I calculated the time right, they still have over one hundred miles before they can reach Moramatch. They should be here tonight or tomorrow. We are thinking of withdrawing from Moramatch. Your coming is such an encouragement for us. Let’s fight together.” Anfey held his hand out.

“Are you saying Shansa Empire’s military is still over one hundred miles away?” Ozzic was shocked for a second.

“To be more specific, it should be less than one hundred miles now,” Christian said slowly. If they were still at Saul’s house practicing their magic and had not experienced so much, they would have given weird glances when they heard Anfey’s lies. Maybe some of them would even ask Anfey if he was making any mistakes. Everybody seemed to hide their emotions better now. Christian could even team up with Anfey in the lie.

“Good.” Ozzic shook Anfey’s hand. “Anfey, I know you have many mages. You are familiar with Moramatch as well. How about I take my Dragon Rider mercenaries to fight the Shansa Empire military first to buy you some time. You guys can stay and set up defensive magic arrays.”

Chapter 164: Traitor

“This…this is too dangerous!” Anfey said. He looked very gratefully at the man.

“That is part of being a mercenary!” Ozzic said, laughing. “Shansa Empire had publicly challenged us. This problem is all of ours together. We must band together against this common threat.”

“Well said,” Anfey agreed, nodding. “Then I won’t hold back my request. We do need help. Why don’t I send some mages to assist you?”

“There is no need for that. My Dragon Riders mercenary group isn’t big, but we have been working together for a long time. We all trust and rely on each other. If there are some new people, we may not work as efficiently. Don’t worry, we can handle this,” Ozzic said, with a wave of his hand. “Time isn’t on our side. I will head out immediately.”

“This soon? You came all this way, you must be tired. Why don’t you rest a bit before leaving?”

“We will rest after we defeat the Shansa army. By then, even if you want me to leave I won’t,” Ozzic said, grinning.

“Alright. Be careful,” Anfey said slowly. “If the Shansa army outnumbers you, don’t engage them head to head. Try to stall for as long as possible.”

“I understand. I am not stupid enough to do something like that,” Ozzic replied. “You have to start your part of the plan soon.”

Anfey nodded.

Ozzic did not say anything else. He left town quickly with his men. Christian stared at the departing men, then turned to Anfey and asked, “Don’t you think there’s something strange about them?”

“Not really,” Anfey said with a smile. “But we have to remember that we should never let our guard down. They chose their timing very well.”

“They must have a motive. What would it be? Do you think they genuinely want to help us?” Christian asked.

“We will find out soon enough,” Anfey said. He turned to Riska and said, “Bring Feller with you and keep an eye on them. Suzanna, you are responsible for their safety. Come back when it’s getting dark. Don’t approach them.”

“Alright,” Riska nodded and said.

“Anfey!” Sante walked over and called. Behind him was a werewolf. “He wanted to speak with you.”

Anfey glanced at the werewolf, then turned and told Suzanna, “Three of you, go right now. Be careful.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Suzanna smiled sweetly.

After the trio left town, Anfey walked over and sat down on a piece of stone and waved the werewolf over. The werewolf walked over timidly.

“You want to talk to me?” Anfey asked softly. Normally, werewolves were very fierce creatures, even the female ones were fighters. They had given the original residents who were trapped in the tunnels two choices. One was to leave town, the other was to work for Anfey. He would provide protection to the residents no matter which decision they made.

Most residents had lost the will to fight and chose to work. There were two werewolves who encouraged the residents to fight, and Suzanna had to kill them in the end. This timid werewolf did not fit the usual werewolf image, and made Anfey curious.

“Yes. I have something I want to report,” the werewolf said and glanced around.

“Sante, go check the tunnels and make sure nothing unusual is going on,” Anfey said, waving his head. “Christian, stay.”

The rest of the group began making their way to the tunnels. Christian walked closer and said gently, “What is it? You can tell us now.”

“If you tell you, can you keep my sister and I safe?” the werewolf asked, its eyes sad and desperate.

“Of course! Don’t worry. We will keep you safe.”

The werewolf took a deep breath and said, “Katuru has a secret vault in the tunnels.”

“Katuru?”

“He was the old leader.”

“I see,” Anfey said with a smile. He thought it was a big secret, but it was nothing more than a werewolf’s private collection. Seeing the living conditions of Moramatch’s residents, Anfey did not expect Katuru’s treasure to be shocking. “Christian, go with him and find the vault.”

Christian nodded.

“My lord, what you promised…”

“I am a man of my word. I will protect you and your sister.”

“But my lord, if they find out that I was the one who spilled the secret, they will kill me.”

“They? Christian, how many werewolves are still here?”

“Four. He must be talking about the other two. There is one female that must be his sister,” Christian said with hushed voice.

“Do they know about the vault?”

“All the werewolves do. The others left to find backups. We were left to guard the vault.”

“Then why did you tell me about the vault?” Anfey narrowed his eyes in disdain, but he was able to hide his sentiments well. Even though werewolves like this were beneficial, if this werewolf could betray his own kind, he could betray Anfey and his companions as well.

“Because they are terrorizing my sister.”

“Can’t you protect her?”

“I’m too weak to take on two of them,” the werewolf said, lowering his head.

“Unbelievable,” Anfey said slowly.

“Yes, my lord! I couldn’t take it anymore and this was my last resort.” Seeing that Anfey understood him, the werewolf appeared very grateful.

“Christian, kill the other two werewolves.” If the werewolves had second thoughts and were not planning on working with them, there was no use keeping them alive. “Don’t worry,” Anfey told the werewolf. “Dead men tell no tales.”

“Thank you, my lord!” The werewolf sank to his knees, satisfied with Anfey’s decision.

“If your kind finds backups, will they contact you?”

“I am the only one they could contact.”

“There was just a group of mercenaries here. Dragon Rider mercenaries. Do they look like backups your people speak of?”

“No way. Humans would never fight for werewolves,” the werewolf said.

“You’re saying the backups must also be werewolves? As far as I know, this is the only place werewolves reside within the Country of Mercenaries. Where are they going to find backups?”

“That…that I don’t know, my lord.”

Anfey frowned and was about to ask another questions. Christian poked his back, and Anfey sighed. “Alright,” he said. “Go wait for us by the tunnels. We will be there in a few moments.”

“Yes, my lord.” The werewolf bowed and left quietly.

Anfey waited for a few moments, then turned to Christian and said, “Did you discover something?”

“Anfey, remember the orcs?”

“You’re saying they’re looking for a sanctuary?” Anfey asked, quickly making the connection.

Christian nodded.

“I don’t understand. If the werewolves have a sanctuary, why did they stay in the Country of Mercenaries? Why did they stay in Moramatch?”

“Maybe waiting for more werewolves to appear,” Christian said after a few moments of silence. “From our point of view, the werewolves here live a difficult life. For the werewolves, maybe this is a place where they could observe and learn more about humans.”

“Makes sense,” Anfey nodded slowly and said.

“I began to have my suspicions a few days ago when I was cleaning out the tunnels with Feller.”

“About what?”

“I talked to you about it, but you weren’t paying attention,” Christian said. “After you enter the tunnels from the main entrance, there are nineteen major tunnels. Every tunnel has a built-in cave large enough for more than a hundred people. There were ample food and weapons as well. One was more than enough to contain all of Moramatch’s population. Why did they build nineteen tunnels? To prepare for war? To expand their territory? I don’t think either of those are the right answer.”

“I see what you’re talking about. You’re saying that those were built to prepare for the mass migration of werewolves from the sanctuary.”

Christian nodded. “Katuru is just a small part of this. I feel like the real leader is somewhere in the sanctuary. Band of Brothers mercenary tried to get the werewolves out of Moramatch a few times, and every time the mercenary group suffered great casualties. I don’t think we are more powerful than a major mercenary group. Maybe it was because we attacked at the right time, when the town was relatively empty.”

“God…” Anfey frowned and shook his head. “That werewolf must have known this as well. Why did he tell about the vault? Isn’t he afraid of retribution?”

“If we keep the other werewolves, who will know?”

“We can…”

“Orcs, beasts, savages, and elves all believe humans are the worst and most sly of all creatures. They would not believe us.”

“That means we can’t just kill the other werewolves.”

Chapter 165: Rewards

Christian did everything as they planned. Anfey stayed where he was and kept rubbing his forehead. He had not settled the troubles he made in Maho Empire, but he had to face the threat from Shansa Empire’s military and Dragon Rider mercenary group with some evil thoughts. Orcs could also come back at any time, and their combat ability was unknown to Anfey and his legion. He had been starting fires, which made him a little nervous.

If it were the old Anfey, he would have chosen to do what he was good at and avoid areas he was not familiar with. He should have already led his people out of Moramatch. It was not easy to just leave Moramatch, since they were already there and had done so much to the town. They regularly watched the areas within a radius of twenty miles through Eyes of Sky.

It was not possible to be attacked by a large military. However, if there were a few scouts out there, the Eyes of Sky could not detect them. If those scouts sent out information, especially to Shansa Empire, who were just waiting to attack Anfey and his legion, they could be easily encircled. In Moramatch, at least they had underground tunnels to protect themselves. They would have nothing outside of Moramatch. Although they wiped out the Griffin Aerial Unit, it was very possible that there were still a few griffin rider survivors out there. If Anfey and his legion were seen by griffin riders outside Moramatch, they would definitely be killed. The griffin riders could locate them no matter where they were. They would not be able to escape when chased.

Anfey felt lucky that the coordinates of Shelters were not in the underground tunnels, otherwise natives would have gotten their reinforcements, since they had fought with Anfey and his legion for quite a while.

“Anfey.” Suzanna’s calling interrupted Anfey’s thinking.

“You are back. What is it going on?” Anfey looked up.

“That Ozzic was such a liar.” Suzanna walked over and sat next to Anfey on a greenish stone. She said angrily, “They set up their camp thirty miles away from here in the north. He did not even mean to go to Hengduan Valley.”

“Yes.” Riska also walked over to Anfey. “After they set up their camp, we watched their surroundings a little and then they started to drink and eat. They even lit up the bonfire. I do not think they meant to fight with anyone.”

“Anfey, when they come back, we need to tell them we know about their lie. I have to humiliate them right in front of their faces to make me feel better,” Feller implored.

“Not necessary.” Anfey smiled. “It would be a free lesson for them if we humiliate them. It would allow them to act more real later on. We will pretend we know nothing about it. We will let them give us a show.”

“Anfey, what do you think was their purpose?” Riska asked.

“How do I know? Either they want to do something to us, want something from us, or are waiting to see something happen,” Anfey said.

“Nonsense.” Black Eleven heard their conversation. He walked over as he talked.

“How about you say something that was not nonsense?” Anfey smiled.

“I think they should be waiting for something.” Black Elven wiped off the stone and sat on the other side of Anfey. “When did they come?”

“At dusk. Don’t you remember?” Feller answered.

“When did we have the fight with Shansa Empire’s military?” Black Eleven asked.

“Noon,” Feller answered.

“That is it,” Black Eleven said coldly, “With common sense, by the time they came, we should have been wiped out by Shansa Empire’s military. Moramatch would have been nothing but debris.”

Anfey’s eyebrows lifted. “It surely would be like that.”

“If Moramatch did not exist anymore, then they are coming here for…” Riska was in thought for a while. “Is there something in the underground tunnels?”

“Maybe.” Anfey shook his head. “Let’s see what is going to happen in the next few days. We will know by then.”

“Oh, Anfey, I have a good news for you.” Black Eleven smiled.

“What good news?” Anfey asked.

“The king found out that we wiped out Griffin Aerial Unit, and he was really, really happy about it. Do you know you are a duke now? Christian, Suzanna and Zubin and everyone else are all granted titles of nobility. Last time, when the king gave you the title of nobility, he kept it secret. This time he put signs up everywhere. Your name is well known now.”

“I have a title of nobility as well?” Feller opened his eyes wide as he pointed at himself.

“Of course. Didn’t I just say that? Everyone has the title of nobility.” Black Eleven smiled. “It is disappointing that we are in the Country of Mercenaries now. The king could not grant our titles in person.”

Suzanna was the only one who did not look excited. Feller and Riska both looked excited and exhilarated. It was such an honor for them to receive the title of nobility from the king.

“So…is my name also on the placards?” Feller kept asking Black Eleven.

“Yes,” Black Eleven said.

“Awesome, awesome.” Feller almost jumped for joy.

“It does not feel right.” Anfey was not excited about the rewards from the king. He recalled the saying, “If you want the horse to run, you have to feed the horse grass.” As a king, he surely knew the importance of giving rewards. Receiving rewards was not out of Anfey’s expectation.

“What’s wrong?” Black Eleven asked in surprise.

“We are in the Country of Mercenaries right now and we still have things to deal with here. If this news travels here, we would expose ourselves. It would cause a lot of trouble for us.”

“Yes, it is a little inappropriate. However, you should look on the positive side,” Black Eleven said slowly. “You guys cannot stay in the Country of Mercenary for your whole lives. You will go back to Maho Empire someday. Our king is going to make you guys heroes of our country this time.”

“What do you mean ‘make us heroes’? We are heroes,” Feller complained. He seemed to be very sensitive to anything related to honor. “Who wiped out the Griffin Aerial Unit? No one else but us.”

“Yes, Yes, I made a mistake. You are heroes. Of course, it includes me.” Black Eleven smiled. “People are getting to know your names. Next time when Philip sees you, he has to think twice before doing anything to you.”

“I heard old Philip had a bad temper. I do not think your names would work too much with him.” Anfey smiled bitterly.

“Old Philip still has his title and land. When his time comes, he could pass those to a non-family member, even though his grandson had died. If old Philip does anything bad, he would not only humiliate his family, but also would lose his title and land,” Black Eleven said casually. “This is not just about old Philip. His ancestors have devoted their lives to the country to receive those honors. How could old Philip take the pressure of losing all the honors. If he were not constrained by anything, he would not have hurried back to North Line and fought together with Master Saul.

“I hope you are right,” Anfey sighed. He felt helpless when he dealt with old Philip. The reason he could not kill Philip was not only because he was powerful and influential, but also he thought it would be too much to kill Philip and his grandson. He had already killed his grandson. It would be too much to kill both of them.

In Anfey’s world, he was used to living by himself. The experience of being lonely and highly tolerant had made him cold. He got a taste of a different life when he reincarnated in the Evil Abyss. He experienced what “power” could bring him in the Evil Abyss. In this magic world, he saw a big contrast between friend and father like Saul and Ernest.

Saul and Ernest were at the same level in terms of their power. Ernest always did everything on his own, which caused him to bear it when he was wronged. He knew who he should take revenge on, but he had to wait for the right time. Saul was so influential that his daughter, innocent Niya, could “bully everyone” in Sacred City. If Saul didn’t have her back, Niya became a regular girl, and she could have been charged and enslaved.

Anfey was never greedy about power, but that did not mean he would be against authority. Being against authority would not do him any good, but instead cause more trouble for him, or he might even die because of the troubles.

“Even if the news that we wiped out Griffin Aerial Unit leaks out, it still would take some time for them to know, since the Country of Mercenaries does not know we work for Maho Empire. Do not worry.” Black Eleven smiled. “Things have changed.”

“What changed?” Anfey asked.

“Band of Brothers mercenary group held ambiguous attitudes as to which side they were on. Now everyone on Pan Continent knows that our king feigned his death. Band of Brothers mercenary group had claimed to be on the side of Maho Empire. If something happens, we could immediately ask for help from Band of Brother mercenary group. They would give us a hand,” Black Eleven said.

“My concerns were nothing but Tiger of Tawau mercenary group and Glory mercenary group.” Anfey sighed again. “If they knew about us, it would not be difficult for them to figure everything out, since we stayed in Blackwater City for a while. During that period of time, Tiger of Tawau mercenary group and Glory mercenary group had the fight. Anthony was fine, but Mourtta knew he had an unreasonable fight. He could easily suspect us.”

“Tiger of Tawau mercenary group is hiding in Blackwater City now. They dare not come out. You do not have to worry about them.” Black Eleven smiled.

“Ok, since we did it to them, there is no point in worrying about it. I remember a saying, “Counter soldiers with arms, water with a levee.” Different situations call for different actions. We will deal with it when things come.” Anfey stood up. “Everybody, go take some rest. Something happened on Christian’s end. I need go to see him right now.”

“What happened?” Suzanna asked in surprise.

“Not a big deal. There was a traitor among the werewolves,” Anfey said, smiling.

Chapter 166: Disappointment

Riska and Feller retired to their rooms, but Suzanna insisted on staying with Anfey. The two entered the underground tunnels following a few dwarves. The main entrance to the tunnels was slanted and facing upwards, and took a sharp turn downwards after about thirty feet. Anfey thought it might have been built this way to prevent flooding and keep excess rain from pooling in the tunnels. There could be other reasons that Anfey did not know. The dwarves and the gnomes obviously knew better than he did.

Anfey had been to the tunnels a dozen times before, but every time he was down there he felt very uncomfortable. The dwarves clearly did not care to waterproof the tunnel, which was extremely humid. There was obviously no electricity, and the dwarves could not afford to buy ever-burning lamps. They used as a kind of phosphorus light that runs on magic potions. The lights glowed an eerie faint green. The light stretched people’s shadows and cast strange shadows on their faces. Living in a place like this was surely uncomfortable.

After two hundred feet, the tunnel opened up and became more spacious. Countless dwarves were busy at work, the sound of tools hitting the soil rang out. There were dwarves working on expanding the cave nearby. Anfey wanted the work to be done by dawn, but it seemed like the dwarves could finish before that. He was shocked by the efficiency of the dwarves.

After another two hundred feet, they came to a large hall. The hall had no decorations and looked like a large beehive. The walls were dotted with holes. This was where the tunnels in the town’s houses led. In the past, Anfey did not think much of this place. Now, after his conversation with Christian, Anfey found himself looking at the place differently. This cavern wasn’t a byproduct of population expansion. It was part of the larger plan and was meant to be built.

If it had been built for protection, it should be hard to navigate, so it could confuse the enemies. If the tunnels were so hard to navigate that even its residents could get lost, it would be a death trap for enemies unfamiliar with it. Concentrating all the entrances meant that it would be easier to control and regulate. The builders not only wanted to protect the residents, they wanted to control them as well.

Beyond the great hall was a large stone door that blocked the way. The door was bright and glowed with a strange green light, though it was unclear whether the glow came from the door itself or from the eerie lights. Feller had already told Anfey about the door. It was very strong, at least a few tons. Even if they destroyed the tunnels, the door would still be standing.

The dwarf in front of them walked to the left side of the door and pulled on a piece of metal chain. Anfey heard the faint sound of bells from above, and the door began to rise slowly. The dwarf walked in without waiting for the humans. The door was open, but the humans had to crouch to enter. This was a major obstacle in expanding the tunnels. Unless they completely destroyed the door, they needed to dig a trench under the door for the horses and the carriages.

After the door, there were more holes in the ground. Some slanted upwards, others pointed downwards. Some had large openings, while others had tiny openings. This was the most dangerous thing in the tunnels. Only two openings led to the real tunnels. The others were all fake. In some of the fake tunnels were openings that led to the real tunnels. All the fake tunnels were cramped, only enough for one man to climb through. This was something used to confuse the town’s enemies. They could come out and attack their enemies and retreat quickly. Even if the enemies could find the fake tunnels, they couldn’t do much. Even a swordsmaster couldn’t do much if he was stuck in a tunnel. The fake tunnels were filled with traps as well, helping the dwarves defeat their enemies fast.

Anfey didn’t know what to do with it, either. In the end, he had to use a very despicable way to find the right tunnels. He released the children, telling them that they could go home. He had Christian mark the children, and waited for the children to find each other. That was how they were able to find the two usable tunnels. The remaining residents were forced to move around in the different caverns, and were forced to surrender.

They entered a side tunnel, and it was even more dank than the large cavern. There were hundreds of smaller tunnels branching off to the side. A long line of magic lanterns appeared on the side. This was what Christian left as markers. Seeing the lanterns meant that they were on the right path.

A small underground city appeared before Anfey and Suzanna. The city consisted of two major paths that crossed at the middle of the city. Next to the roads were neat lines of houses. Where the roads crossed was a small square. A stone slab laid on the ground, and under the stone slab was the city’s supplies. To show this was a city, the dwarves and gnomes had the walls of the cavern very high. It was just enough for a human to stand up straight.

“Didn’t Katuru tell you to make the walls taller?” Anfey asked quietly. Unless the dwarf was trying to provoke him, he was always gentler with the dwarves. One could not establish respect with shouts and accusations.

“No,” one of the dwarves replied.

“Wouldn’t it be hard for them to move around down here?”

“Doesn’t make that big of a difference whether they walk on two legs or four,” Suzanna said.

“I’ve never seen one walking on four legs, though.”

Suzanna shrugged.

“It’s probably because of their dignity. They had to prove that they are not like the wild wolves.”

Suzanna giggled. Anfey did not intend to make fun of the werewolves, and intended his words as a joke. However, the dwarves took it differently. After Moramatch fell under the control of Alibaba mercenary, the discrimination towards the dwarves ceased. The dwarves and gnomes’ lives improved greatly, as well. They had time to drink ale and eat chicken after work everyday, and they had wages. These things had been unthinkable in the past. Therefore, they laughed at Anfey’s words instead of getting angry.

“My lord, Lord Christian is already down there.” A dwarf lifted the stone slab and told Anfey.

“He just went down there like that?” Anfey frowned. He knew the danger of carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide had a distinct smell to it. Carbon dioxide was scentless. When the buildup in the air exceeded ten percent, it could cause loss of consciousness. If it exceeded twenty percent, it could cause paralysis and death in seconds.

“Yes.”

“Christian!” Anfey hurried to the cave and called out.

“Down here!” Christian called back.

Anfey spotted a segment of thin rope swaying by the mouth of the cave. He realized that although dwarves might not know exactly how much carbon dioxide would lead to death, they knew the importance of keeping the air flowing.

Anfey jumped into the cave and glanced around. The cave was very unorganized. The food bags were pushed aside, exposing another cave’s entrance. There were lights flickering down there. Sante was sitting on the food bags. He looked at Anfey and grinned. Next to Sante were two bonded werewolves. They seemed like they were still conscious, and were struggling.

“Did they cause any troubles?”

“No. I told them that I had to talk to them, and they fell for it. Christian and I knocked them out easily,” Sante said, grinning.

“Good.” Anfey nodded.

“You’re going to be disappointed, Anfey,” Christian said. He appeared through the cave, floating. He left the lantern down in the cave, and looked like a ghost in the eerie green light. “I looked through everything. Nothing worth our time.”

“Really?” Anfey walked to the cave and peered down. “These are things those werewolves treasure. There has to be something more valuable.”

“What did you expect? Like last time?” Christian smiled and shook his head. “Go look for yourself.”