Chapter 71: Top-level Magic Beast
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“What happened?” asked Anfey, surprised.
In the eye of the sky, Suzanna was galloping. Feller’s ability to control the eye of the sky had not improved. Moreover, Suzanna was running very fast: the eye of the sky could only capture Suzanna’s movements from behind. However, just the sight of her back was horrifying enough—her clothes were torn and her whole back was covered in blood. Who knew how much blood Suzanna had lost!
Anfey could not believe what he saw. To ensure Suzanna’s safety, he even equipped them with the magic scroll. Knowing Suzanne’s skills, coupled with the scroll and the assistance from Riska, there was no way she should be in such danger.
“Anfey, your turn!” urged Christian.
“I am ready.” Anfey nodded and said, “Zubin, enchant my arrow with air element for me please.” After saying this, Anfey dashed outside of the magic array, rushed ahead, drew back the string of the long bow in his hand, and aimed at distant cave which was covered by a dense silver magical web.
This was a long bow handmade by Anfey, with the help of a group of mages. The materials were easily accessible. The bow was made from rib bones of flash leopards, and they were strong and elastic; the bowstring was made from the tendon of a three-eyed cow, which Anfey had urgently asked little Shally for; arrows were even easier to make, as Anfey did not need arrowheads. He only planned to use the arrow to irritate the unicorn, not to actually injure or kill it.
Anfey experimented several hundred times and determined that the range of the arrow was about 150 meters. This range was moderate compared to some elf bowman’s record of 500 meters. However, Anfey was satisfied with the result. With the air element enchantment by Zubin, Anfey’s arrow could reach 300 meters.
Unlike manticores, unicorns normally did not like staying inside a cave. Usually, unicorns enjoyed falling asleep under the moon. They did not like the gloominess of the caves. Only after a new baby was born, the mother and the child would hide in caves for their own safety for a short time. Because of this, Anfey’s group predicted that the cave should be relatively shallow, even though none of them could scout the den.
Anfey’s arrow was no ordinary arrow: rather, it was a fire arrow. Not only was it wrapped with flammable and long-lasting burning oil, Anfey also mixed in several ingredients that would stink when burnt. Anfey basically turned the arrows into a primitive chemical weapon.
Zubin followed Anfey, enchanted his arrow with air element, and then cast a small fire ball to light up the arrow.
Anfey then released the bowstring. The burning arrow flew straight toward the cave and disappeared in the silvery web.
Magic beasts, even if they were high-level, were not capable of setting up a magic array. The silver web that was covering the unicorn’s den was placed to detect magic surge, and potentially cause some minor injury to any invaders. However, that silver web could have barely any impact on Anfey’s arrow, since it was lifeless and would not cause any magic surge.
Suzanne also arrived at this time. Anfey, after shooting the arrow, turned around and ordered, “Zubin, help Suzanna!”
Zubin cast a levitation spell toward Suzanna, controlled the air element to lift her body, and pulled her into the protection of the magic array. Realizing that she was safe, Suzanna let out a long sigh of relief, and then lost consciousness.
Anfey and Zubin fled back to the magic array without any delay. This array was set at a hidden spot behind a bunch of bushes, there was a gulley to the left and a rock to the right. The magic array was set to conceal a magic surge from being sensed, and the location of the array was chosen to visually conceal Anfey’s group.
A tall beast rushed out from the cave. The silver web was torn opened, and black smoke rose from inside the cave.
Anfey finally got to see a unicorn—it appeared just like a horse, except it had a long horn on its forehead. This was a large unicorn—feet to shoulder about two meters tall, and feet to head probably close to three meters. Its whole body was mostly silver. Only right above the four hooves was some long golden hair. Unicorns were known as high-level magic beasts of light, and they were just beautiful. Though horses and unicorns looked almost exactly alike, even the most appealing horse could not be compared to this unicorn. The confidence and the unruly nature of the unicorn could never be possessed by their domesticated counterparts.
In the eye of sky, Anfey and his group could clearly see the sky-blue horn and eyes of the unicorn glittering like gems. When the unicorn turned its head, slight waves of an arc could be seen in the air. Its four legs were gently kicking the ground, they were long—if little Shally was in front of the unicorn now, she could easily walk through under its belly—and slim, but known for explosive power. Its tail was silver, shimmering like sunshine, spreading out like a cloud, and waving with the wind.
At this time, the manticore had rushed out from the valley, flapping its short webbed wings, and entered the territory of the unicorn. The loss of children could destroy a human being mentally, and such pain would be even more destructive to a beast. The care for their next generation might be the only love that a magic beast could ever possess, and destroying that only love would certainly trigger the most unbearable hatred and madness. That manticore ignored the existence of the unicorn, and its bloody pupils were still searching for Suzanna.
The unicorn, however, would not offer its forgiveness to the invader. It was irritated, and threw its long horn toward the manticore. A flash of blue lightning shot out from sky-blue horn and hit the invader.
The manticore’s wings stiffened for a second, and then its body fell to the ground. This was what made unicorns terrifying—the lighting they produced was not fatal, but all of their lightning magic could naturally paralyze their opponents. Such paralyzing effects were much more powerful than a human mage could cause. Except for archmages and master swordsmen, most people would suffer from the impact of this unique power.
The manticore fell on its belly and looked at the unicorn furiously. Soon after, the manticore was able to launch an attack. Its bulky body was outlined by a dark red light and it charged toward the unicorn.
The unicorn was unwilling to give in. It stamped its back legs on the ground, jumped into the air, and charged straight at the manticore like a silver meteor. It sped so fast that it seemed that space was torn by the sky-blue horn. The overwhelming magic surge could be sensed in the air.
“Bam!” The two beasts crashed into each other. The battlefield was too messy to sort out what had happened. Dark red fog was everywhere, countless lighting flashes appeared in the air. Anfey’s group could not clearly see the fight between the two beasts, but the result was clear—the unicorn was tossed a dozen meters, and its huge body totally flattened the grass. The manticore, on the other hand, was only pushed back five or six meters, and then got up quickly to roar at the unicorn.
“Something is not right,” Sante lowered his voice and said. “The unicorn should be much more powerful than this!”
“True! Even a seven or eight thousand kilogram magic cow would not be able to handle a full charge from a unicorn.” Christian nodded his head and added, “Something is going on.”
“I wonder… whether this unicorn has just given birth?” Zubin said hesitantly.
Christian commented, “It is possible! Zubin probably has figured out what happened!”
“Anfey, if this is the case, that unicorn is not going to beat the manticore. Should we move forward with our plan?” asked Zubin.
“No, not yet. Let’s wait a little longer.”
From the eyes of the sky, the group could tell that the two beasts went back to their fight. Both had been injured in the collision. The neck of the unicorn was torn open and blue blood was dripping down; meanwhile, the eyes of the manticore were swelling; probably suffering from internal wounds.
The unicorn was not at all as agile or speedy as its reputation. It was a bit slower than the manticore. In addition, it also did not release any consecutive lighting. Anfey’s group figured that the unicorn probably lost the ability to release consecutive lighting temporarily after giving birth, otherwise it surely would use lighting to win the battle.
The situation became more and more unfavorable to the unicorn. The crazy and fierce manticore utilized its speed and circled around the unicorn. When it found an opportunity, it would injure the unicorn and retreat a safe distance to avoid the counterattack from the unicorn.
Gradually, the unicorn was covered with all sorts of wounds. Its power was fading, its movements were slower, and as a result, it got hurt more and more severely. The manticore’s weapons were its claws, fangs and tail, while the unicorn only could use its horn. The result of this battle could almost be foreseen.
Sante shook his head and commented, “There must be a baby, otherwise the unicorn would have been fleeing by now.”
“True. Magic beasts are no human heroes,” Christian agreed. “They would not be ashamed to lose a fight, and would retreat to save their lives whenever possible. However, this unicorn will not give in… the only explanation is that it wants to protect a baby in the cave.”
At this time, the manticore jumped to the left of the unicorn and attempted to claw at the ribs of the unicorn. As the unicorn turned around to fight back, the manticore stretched its webbed wings, pulled out its long-hidden needle tail, and pierced it into the unicorn in a flash.
The unicorn let out a painful neigh, but used its own body to trap the tail of the manticore. Then it leveraged the momentum and flipped the manticore upside down. Immediately, its long horn was planted into the chest of the manticore.
“Oh my! Magic immunization, magic immunization! That is a top-level unicorn!” Zubin shouted, shocked.
The needle tail of the manticore could paralyze its target, but that unicorn was not impacted, and that was a sign of a top-level unicorn!
Chapter 72: Tears of Stars
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The moment the unicorn stopped her attacks, her lethargic body fell to the floor slowly. Her immune system had shut down, but it was not hard to notice the fatal wound on her body. The manticore’s sting could almost be seen from under the unicorn’s skin. Obviously, it had pierced through the unicorn’s body.
“Fight!” Anfey gave the order and led his legion, running out of the magic array. In fact, Suzanna should have led, but she was still meditating. Anfey had no other option but to be the first one to run into battle. This was one of the qualities of leaders. If the leader did not have the courage to risk his life for the cause and just sat around giving orders asking others to risk their lives, the legion would just be a collection of atomized individuals. No one was stupid. Everyone had eyes to see and a brain to think and make their own judgements. Authority can be established and developed, but it also can be destroyed. To be more specific, Anfey was not a leader without courage. He waited for a while because he just wanted to plan well before taking any actions. He was looking for better chances to have the advantage in the battle. Of course, Anfey would not want to risk his life for anyone who always brought trouble to the team.
Everyone in the magic array had fighting skills, while the rest without fighting skills stayed in another cave to avoid unnecessary fatalities. Everyone used the levitation magic at the same time, flying forward in a line after they received Anfey’s order. Only Suzanna, who was still meditating, stayed in the magic array.
The unicorn’s last attack on the manticore before her death was severe. The manticore did not have an immune system to prevent nerve damage. When the unicorn pierced her horn into the manticore, the nerve damage was a lot worse than regular nerve damage created by magic. The damage was especially bad since she was a senior unicorn.
Anfey started to rush toward the manticore after counting to 46. The manticore was still paralyzed and could not lift his head. Anfey thrust his sword right into one of the manticore’s eyes. He had heard that manticores had very tough skin and bones, and would not easily be hurt when they were attacked without combat power. Therefore, Anfey found a weak part on his body and directly attacked there. Even though manticores had tough skin and bones, their eyes would always be fragile. If the eyes were not weak enough to be penetrated, the intestines would be soft enough to pierce, otherwise they would not be able to absorb the nutrition if the intestines were protected by scales and bones.
The sword was a foot into the manticore’s eye and would not go any further, since it seemed that it hit something hard. Anfey’s effort to kill the manticore was fantastic. He twisted the sword hard before he pulled it out, then he thrust his sword back in again. This time he pierced the other eye of the manticore. He killed the manticore without mercy.
Anfey repeated the same procedure with the second eye. He twisted the sword in the other eye and then pulled the sword out. He jumped behind the manticore, thrusting the sword inside the intestines through the anus. He even kicked the shaft of the sword at the end. The whole sword was stuck inside the manticore.
As one of the senior magic beasts, the manticore was one of the most powerful in the magic beast forest. Unluckily for the manticore, it could win the fight against Anfey. With the way Anfey killed the manticore, it had no chance to survive, since is was suffering from nerve damage.
The unicorn still had one breath left, and her cobalt-colored eyes stared at Anfey, a tear coming from the corner of one eye. Her neck relaxed and rested on the floor. She finally stopped moving.
Christian landed first and saw that the unicorn was gradually losing her life. He called to Anfey softly, “Hurry up! Anfey, you have gratitude from the unicorn. Hurry up and eat her tear. That was a Tear of Stars!”
“What?” Anfey was shocked for a second, and then he turned to look at the unicorn. The unicorn’s tear was formed into a drop that shone like a diamond. He wondered whether he had to eat that “diamond”?
“Hurry up!” Christian yelled. He was so excited that he was jumping up and down.
Anfey took the diamond-like tear off her face without a word and put it into his mouth. He reached under the other eye, searching for another tear. He felt it, and then took it and swallowed the other one. Anfey knew team members had to trust each other, so he believed Christian had not lied to him, even though he did not understand what those tears were for.
“Anfey, you are so lucky!” Christian heaved a sigh of relief with a very envious look on his face.
Before Anfey had a chance to ask Christian anything, Zubin landed with extreme excitement on his face and said in a calm voice, “Do not waste it. Do not waste it.”
“Hurry up, everybody. Let’s lift up the unicorn and take the unicorn’s blood,” Sante yelled.
Others landed one after another. Anfey saw the excitement and happiness on every one of them. They quickly accumulated the elements to lift the unicorn into the air. Some of them took the absorption magic tool from the Space Ring and started to collect the blue blood flowing out of the unicorn’s body.
“Is unicorn’s blood useful?” Anfey asked.
“Invaluable,” Christian said firmly. “But nothing compared to the Tears of Stars. Anfey, do you feel anything different now?”
“Me? Nothing different.” Anfey shook his head and walked to the front. He took out a knife. “Move. You cannot get much blood this way.” Anfey tried to stab at the unicorn to allow more blood come out.
Thoughts suddenly came to Anfey when his knife was in the air half way to the unicorn. He had an illusion that the unicorn in front of him was his sibling, and he had a really close relationship with her. His knife stopped in the air and would not go an inch closer to the unicorn.
Anfey was shocked and quickly shook his head, forcing this ridiculous idea from his head. He put more force on the knife to thrust it forward, but his arm became rigid and would not move forward again.
“Anfey, let me do it.” Sante took the knife from Anfey quickly and stabbed a few shallow holes on the unicorn. The unicorn had died, but she still had some defensive ability left. Sante could only create minor wounds, even thought he stabbed her with full force.
“Idiot, use wind blade,” Zubin said.
“You are the idiot,” Sante said in anger, even though he knew he should not miss this opportunity to collect unicorn’s blood instead of wasting time arguing with Zubin. The unicorn’s blood would coagulate quickly when exposed to the air and lose its value after coagulation.
Zubin’s idea reminded Blavi, Sanchez and Sante to slay the unicorn with wind blade. Sky-blue blood oozed out from the cuts like springs. It even dyed her hair blue.
Anfey walked away from the unicorn and looked at the unicorn in confusion. This was the first time Anfey had felt fear since he came to this world. He neither understood where that weird feeling was from, nor how this feeling had interfered with his determination and stopped him from stabbing the unicorn. As an assassin, he needed to act calmly and with determination. He should not have any emotional attachment to anything or anyone. Hesitation was fatal to an assassin. Anfey could not find a reasonable explanation for what just happened. He should not have been so soft-hearted, especially to the dead body of a unicorn.
“This scene is too bloody.” Christian smiled bitterly. He had misunderstood the reason Anfey was not looking good. “Anfey, please be more understanding. Unicorn’s blood is very, very precious. You know, the professor spent several months searching for unicorns just for their blood. They would just simply run away if they did not want to fight. The professor could not catch any unicorns, even with his power. An opportunity like today’s will never happen again.”
A group of people with excited and happy looks used absorption magic tools to take all the blood they could get, not missing a drop of it. This scene was really strange and merciless, but what Anfey feared was the feeling he had felt, not the bloody scene.
“Everybody, hurry up! Send all the absorption magic tools to Anfey. He will keep them for everyone. Understood?” Christian said loudly.
“Yes!” Sante and others answered loudly. They all knew the principle of working as a team. Team members had lived together 24/7 and experienced difficulties together, which helped build their relationship. Even though the unicorn’s blood was valuable, it was not invaluable to the point where it was worth them fighting with each other.
Anfey walked slowly to the cave that the unicorn had tried to protect with her life. The silver web at the entrance was long gone. For no reason, Anfey felt a voice calling him back into the cave.
The cave was just as everyone thought it should be. It was shallow, and the back could be seen from the entrance. The cave was dry, since unicorns do not like humidity. She kept her cave cozy. There was a thick layer of silk vanilla grass. This type of grass was rare. It could give out a fresh fragrance over time if it was dried by the sun. In human society, children from royal and wealthy families often had a blanket or pillow made of silk vanilla grass. Anfey had never seen it before, but he had smelled its fragrance when he was in Niya’s room. Niya had a pillow made from silk vanilla grass.
On top of the silk vanilla grass, there was a tiny unicorn babbling. He could not stand up yet, as his eyes were still closed. He could only smell what was in front of him.
The little unicorn had not developed any power yet, and it looked very cute, with a thin layer of light hair. At a glance, the little unicorn looked like a shining gem stone. The little unicorn was lovable, with the light pink skin. It only had a bump on his head instead of a horn. It had a weird patterned print on the bump.
Anfey walked slowly to the little unicorn. He bent over while the little unicorn struggled to lift his head to smell Anfey. Suddenly, he screamed with joy and moved towards Anfey.
Anfey touched his bump with a smile. The little unicorn enjoyed his touch so much that it kicked its legs in the air with his back on the grass. The sounds the little unicorn made seemed happy.
“Anfey, we have finished collecting the blood of the unicorn. We also got a treasure.” Zubin walked into the cave with a bloody long horn. “What a pretty little unicorn.”
The little unicorn suddenly sat up with its nose wrinkled, smelling something in the air.
“Put away the horn, quickly!” Anfey yelled.
“Ok.” Zubin quickly put away the horn in the dimensional ring.
The little unicorn sniffed for a while before he finally relaxed again. He stuck his tongue out, licking Anfey’s palm, and then he bit Anfey’s pinky with his tail wagging. The little unicorn seemed to play with Anfey.
“Anfey, we did well this time!” Christian walked in with a smile across his face just like Zubin’s. His attention was drawn to the little unicorn immediately as well, and he said, “What a beautiful little guy.”
“We did it? I guess we did what we wanted to do, but what was it that we ‘did’?” Anfey twitched the corners of his mouth. “We will talk about it later. How is Suzanna now? Where is Riska?”
“Suzanna has been meditating. I haven’t seen Riska yet. Anfey, do you think Riska is in danger?” Christian asked with his eyes opened wide like plates.
“He must have experienced some danger; otherwise Suzanna would not have ended up so wounded. I think Riska is fine though.” Anfey thought a while before he spoke again. “Ok, let’s clean up here first. We will talk about it when we go back to the cave.”
“Sure.” Christian nodded.
Anfey rubbed the little unicorn a bit before he forced himself to pull his fingers away. He stood up and walked outside the cave with such a determination. However, he felt sad when he turned around. He liked this little unicorn without any reason. If it was not because he liked this little guy, he might have already killed it mercilessly to get its blood according to the cruel way Anfey had acted in the past as an assassin, and because he knew the benefits of its blood.
That little unicorn’s crying changed from cheerful to anxious. It struggled to crawl out of the silk vanilla grass nest towards Anfey. His crying turned into screaming, and finally into desperation.
“It cannot be true. I heard unicorns only like girls,” Zubin said in surprise, with his eyes wide open.
“It could be the effect of the Tears of Stars. Anfey, this little unicorn has already considered you as its family.” Christian smiled.
“Did you say it was the effect of the Tears of Stars?” Anfey asked. Anfey responded quickly to Christian’s words. He realized the Tears of Stars had brought these changes upon him, otherwise the little unicorn would not consider him as a family and he would not feel bad leaving the little unicorn either.
“Yes,” Christian answered.
Anfey took a deep breath and glanced at Christian. In fact, he did not want this kind of change. He always had to be calm and cool in dangerous situations. Anfey did not want to blame Christian for it, because he knew the Tears of Stars must be very good for his body. Otherwise Christian would not be so stressed and worried. Christian wanted the best for him. However, he only saw the advantages of taking Tears of Stars without acknowledging the negative side effects of it. In other words, Christian thought the side effects of the Tears of Stars would be good anyway.
The little unicorn had come up to Anfey’s ankles and laid on his feet, as if crying. The crying sounded sad. If unicorns could cry, this would be what it was like.
Anfey sighed again. He bent down and held the little unicorn in his arms. He thought to himself, “You know what, I will just raise the little unicorn as a pet. I am just not sure how much he would eat, since unicorns are senior magic beasts. This little guy’s mom was a top-level unicorn. He could be my helpful assistant when he grows up.” Anfey had always paid attention to returns before he did anything. To convince himself to raise the little unicorn as a pet, he had to force himself to pay attention to the potential abilities the little unicorn would have in the future and the benefits and returns of raising the little guy.
“Let’s go,” Anfey told everyone. This little unicorn was not big, the same size as a puppy. Anfey weighed it in his arm and determined it was no more than 22 pounds. The unicorns felt comfortable once it was in Anfey’s arms. He moaned as he rubbed Anfey’s chest. He sounded like he was whining to Anfey to show how sad he felt before.
Christian and Zubin followed Anfey out of the cave. Anfey stopped suddenly after a few steps and asked, “Zubin, can you clean up the outside and bury the unicorn somewhere else? Uh, clean up the bloody smell as well.”
“I got it.” Zubin nodded to him.
Most times, changes in people happen unnoticeably. Anfey only wanted to raise the little unicorn as a pet, but he had already thought about and cared quite a lot about the little unicorn. He did not notice that he already thought about cleaning up the battle field in order to avoid causing any sadness to the little guy.
It was just starting to get dark when everyone gathered in the original cave with fire on. They all looked exultant. They not only won the battle, but also collected many good things. They had reasons to be happy, but there were two people with uneasy looks on their faces. One was Suzanna; the other was Riska. They both were glancing over at Anfey furtively.
The little unicorn was sleeping by Anfey’s feet. When it first came into the cave, it smelled over ten different smells and acted anxious. Later, the unicorn felt that its master was in control and that anyone it did not like would keep a distance from it. Only with its permission, a few people with the smells it liked could touch it. The little unicorn gradually got used to the cave, but demanded that Anfey not leave it alone. Even if it got a few steps away from Anfey, the little unicorn would cry mournfully, which forced Anfey to get back to it.
Riska and Suzanna had told Anfey what happened in detail. Riska seemed okay, while Suzanna looked weak and tired. Without a long rest, she would not recover. She had been forced to take attacks beyond her limits several times, which had damaged her physical and mental health. Suzanna had wanted to rest or meditate, but she did not dare to leave, even when Anfey was quietly sitting there. Suzanna was afraid of him. After a while, Anfey said slowly, “Suzanna, I am going to ask you one question. If you had been with Shally, would you have left her to fight with that little manticore?” Anfey’s question about her mistakes hit the target.
Suzanna felt so ashamed, she struggled to shake her head. “No, I would not have.”
“Why not?” Anfey asked.
“Because Shally would not have beenable to protect herself,” Suzanna answered.
“Riska used up his magic and was not able to protect himself either,” Anfey said.
“I did not notice it. It was all my fault,” Suzanna said with her teeth clenched together.
“Good,” Anfey nodded.
Suzanna was startled and thought Anfey was being sarcastic, which meant he would not keep her and Shally in his legion. Suzanna felt helpless and desperate. She was injured, and her power had been lowered significantly. If they were kicked out of Anfey’s legion, they would end up in a miserable situation.
Suzanna looked up at Anfey with a begging look, but Anfey had already turned his eyes elsewhere.
In fact, Suzanna had misread Anfey this time. Anfey was acting with decency.
From Anfey’s point of view, a person would be beyond help if he only blamed others and was not able admit his own mistakes after committing them. He appreciated Suzanna’s courage to admit her mistakes in front of people. This courage was valuable. If he always blamed others, he would make the same mistakes when he experienced the same situation again. The other kind of person, like Suzanna, would remember this experience for ever. Anfey could tell from Suzanna’s look that this experience had taught her a lesson and influenced her greatly. Anfey believed in what he saw about Suzanna.
“I would like to tell everyone one thing today. We should take care of each other. To a team, being united is always the priority! Your team members’ safety is always more important than any mission. Do not forget about your team members anytime or anywhere! Do you understand?” Anfey said slowly.
“Yes, we understand.” Everyone nodded.
“Alright. That was all I wanted to say. Feller, don’t you have some wine? Can you take some out so we can celebrate?”
Everyone cheered. Feller smiled and walked to the back of the cave. Anfey’s legion had recently formed, and Feller had been acting like an accountant and legion keeper in charge of all the receipts and expenses. If someone else did this kind of job, they might have found it tedious and boring, but Feller enjoyed doing it. He loved to handle anything related to money. Anfey knew how to bring out the best in his team members.
The little unicorn was woken up by the cheers. He looked up and sniffed, discovered that Anfey was still by his side, and then immediately felt relieved. The little unicorn crawled a few steps and laid on Anfey’s feet again.
“How about us?” Suzanna asked quietly. She had been worried since Anfey had not told her what he would do to them.
“Give me your hand,” Anfey said. This time Anfey misread Suzanna’s mind.
Suzanna was shocked for a second and held out her hand. Anfey laid two fingers on her wrist for a while. He smiled and said, “It is not too bad. If you want to drink with them, you can have a little bit.”
Suzanna smiled bitterly. She did not mean to ask if she could drink.
“Shally, do you want to drink?” Anfey asked with a smile.
“Yes, huh, no.” Shally stole a glance at Suzanna.
Anfey realized what was going on. He smiled at Suzanna and said, “Everyone is happy today. Could you let Shally drink a little bit? It will be fine. We will be watching over her.”
Even though Suzanna was still nervous, she knew Anfey was not focussing on her mistakes anymore. She had a lot of mixed feelings, but said nothing to Anfey. She turned to Shally and said quietly, “Go, but don’t drink too much.”
“Yeah!” Shally cheered and rushed to the back. “Feller, I will help you.”
“Christian,” Anfey called his name out loud.
“What is going on?” Christian asked. He was talking excitedly with Sante when he heard Anfey calling him. He stood up and walked towards Anfey.
“Do you have a moment? Can we talk outside? I have something to ask you,” Anfey said with a smile.
“Do you want to ask about Tears of Stars?” Christian responded quickly.
“You are right.” Anfey nodded. He had to ask and make sure he knew what benefits the Tears of Stars would bring him, so he would know what caused the changes in the way he thought and acted.
“Did you get Tears of Stars? How did you receive gratitude from that unicorn?” Suzanna eavesdropped on their conversation as she was about to leave. She yelled in surprise, “That’s ridiculous.”
It was ridiculous indeed. If it were not for Anfey, that manticore might have taken the little lion to wander around, and the unicorn also would be taking care of the little unicorn in the cave. It was Anfey’s idea that had ruined their lives, and even taken their lives. It was all because of Anfey. However, unexpectedly, Anfey received gratitude from the unicorn. If that unicorn’s spirit were still alive, she might have died from rage.
“Do you know about Tears of Stars as well?” Anfey asked.
“Of course.” Suzanna heaved a long sigh. She felt things happened in a weird way in this world. A person who did not know the value of the Tears of Stars actually was the one to receive this priceless treasure, while she never even got a chance to see it.
“What are Tears of Stars for?” Anfey asked hastily.
“I do not know the details, but I know a master swordsman, Hahn, who luckily got the Tears of Stars. He has been called the most dreaded warrior of humankind by the magical world. Hahn’s legion was surrounded by a group of people with magic in a battle. One mage released the magic. Around two million soldiers died in the spell. One grandmaster swordsman and three master swordsmen lost their lives in the battle, but Hahn was only slightly injured. He killed the mage who released the magic at the end and rushed off the battlefield to the human world. Do you know that he was considered the most glorious human warrior?”
“Hahn did not have other ways to dodge the magic? Are you sure it was the effect of Tears of Stars?” Anfey asked.
Suzanna smiled and did not respond to Anfey, although she wanted to. If she did not feel that she owed Anfey and had not felt bad about it, she probably would have told Anfey bluntly that he should stop displaying his ignorance.
“It is said that once your body and the Tears of Stars join together, you will have the protection of stars. Unless the stars in the sky disappear, no one can kill you,” Christian said with a smile.
“Bulls*^t.” Anfey thought for a little while and shook his head. The magic and combat power were full of legends. Anfey kept trying to find the reasoning in the magic. If that guy Hahn had avoided the magic attack with the Tears of Stars, it only meant that Tears of Stars helped build the immunization of the magic, just like what a top-level magic beast could do. Anfey thought it was nonsense to believe he would not die if the stars did not disappear. It was a folktale that the lifespan of every star could be described as eternal to human beings. “Does it mean I would have the same lifespan as stars after I ate the Tears of Stars?” Anfey thought to himself.
It was easy to prove the folk tale told by Christian was wrong with a simple response. Where was the grandmaster swordsman called Hahn? If the Tears of Stars are so legendary, Hahn should still be alive.
“Anfey, you know a lot of people would envy you if the news leaked out that you had Tears of Stars,” Christian said with a stern face.
“Maybe some of them would try to catch you and conduct research on you to figure out the secrets of Tears of Stars,” Suzanna said.
Anfey was shocked for a second. He did not care what Christian told him, but what Suzanna said made him nervous, because he could end up being someone’s lab animal.
Suzanna realized how serious it had sounded after she blurted it out. Christian was momentarily shocked to hear her say it as well.
“How many people know about it?” Anfey asked.
“Right now, Suzanna and I both know. Robin and Sante might know about it,” Christian said in low voice. He spoke louder, “However, I saw they only paid attention to the blood of the unicorn. It seemed they neither saw your actions, nor heard my words.”
“Nothing about Tears of Stars will be mentioned or talked about anymore.” Anfey was in thought for a while and then smiled bitterly. “Is the Tears of Stars that rare?”
The spirit crystal from the Evil Abyss was still sleeping in his body while Tears of Stars had been added to his body. One problem had not been solved, and another one had already appeared. Anfey got a headache.
“Anfey, think about it, unicorns are rare, since our professor was unable to catch one. How many people would have the opportunity to see them, how many of them would receive gratitude from them, especially from a top-level unicorn. Your luck could not be better,” Christian sighed quietly.
Chapter 73: Thinking of Danger Even in a Time of Peace
Anfey slowly woke from his dreams in the morning. He had not slept well for the past few days but his health had been good. His desire for sleep was not as strong as normal people, but he did feel tired. Last night’s sleep was sound and high-quality without any reason. He opened his eyes, feeling refreshed. The sky seemed clearer than before. Anfey could not have felt any better.
Anfey felt someone was staring at him. He turned to the side and saw the little unicorn, which had not been able to open its eyes yesterday, already had opened its eyes and stared at him in curiosity. The light blue eyes were so cute that Anfey could not help patting its head and smile. The little unicorn enjoyed his patting with its eyes half closed.
“Anfey, you are awake. Did you have a good dream last night?” Blavi smiled and sat next to Anfey.
“Me?” Anfey asked.
“Yes, you were smiling in the dream. Miss Niya was woken up by your laugh and complained about you.”
Anfey tried to recall his dreams but nothing came to him. He said, “I am so sorry if I disturbed your rest. You can wake me up next time when you see me dreaming.”
“It was alright. You had been the most tired one for the past few days. We all knew it. Miss Niya wanted to wake you up, but others stopped her. Hahaha,” Blavi said.
Anfey felt warm inside. Anfey was a person who could not express himself in words and did not like to express himself, so he did not respond in any way to Blavi. He looked out from the cave and found it was already bright outside. He was thought for a while to clear his mind.
Anfey said, “Blavi, is everyone awake yet?”
“Yes, they are meditating outside,” Blavi answered.
“Can you ask everybody to come back? We have to hurry to finish something,” Anfey said.
“Sure.” Blavi nodded, stood up, and walked outside.
Everyone returned to the cave after a while. Anfey looked around and found that Riska was not there. He frowned and asked, “Where is Riska?”
They looked at each other with excitement. Anfey was surprised and wondered if anything good had happened that had made them so happy. He had given them reasons to laugh at him last night though.
Smiles appeared on Anfey’s face as well. It was a good thing to see the bond among team members getting stronger. The stronger the team was, the safer they would feel. If all of them were mages, it would not be difficult to kill a Zedar. They might even be able to overthrow the king in any country on Pan Continent. Anfey understood that anyone who had the power could change the rules in this world, and anyone who could change rules could hold the truth. No one could disobey.
“Ok, we should not disturb Riska. Hmmm, how did Riska learn how to meditate,” Anfey asked out of curiosity.
“You should have asked Suzanna this question. She knows best.” Cristian smiled.
Anfey looked at Suzanna. Suzanna hesitated for a second and said slowly, “Yesterday I was carrying Riska as we ran with the manticore just behind us. I asked Riska to meditate immediately to restore his magic power, and then…”
“Is it that simple?” Anfey shook his head with a smile.
“I have already mastered the trick. Feller, we are going to look for a senior magic beast today. I will use up my magic first, and you will carry me as you run away from the beast. Hahaha, tomorrow I will be a magister.” Sante laughed.
“Sante, my magic power was far less than yours. I would not be able to carry you as we run. Why don’t you let me try to meditate in danger? I will protect you if I could be magister later. Don’t worry. I will protect you even if you were a mage your whole life.” Blavi said.
“Damn it! You are a mage all your life, Sante said angrily.
“Ok, ok. Stop playing. Danger could actually trigger your potential, but there have only been a few successful cases. You had better dedicate yourselves to your practice.” Anfey thought a little bit and continue to ask, “Christian, what are the benefits of the blood of a unicorn? Can you tell us in detail?”
Anfey understood that he should give rewards after the battle to better encourage everyone, so he needed to know about the benefits of the unicorn blood before he could distribute it to his legion.
“There are a lot of benefits. No matter for mages, swordsmen, or knights, it is priceless. However, it was more beneficial to mages. Anfey, let me put it this way. If Riska carried the unicorn blood with him yesterday, Suzanna and Riska would not have been in danger. At least Riska could have restored his magic power and escaped the danger with levitation magic. There will be changes to the body every time you take unicorn blood. For instance, both mental power and magic power could change. I can give you another example. If a muggle who had never practiced any magic before was fortunate enough to have unicorn blood, take it for a long time, and practiced magic for over ten years, he could break through to become a magister even without talent,” Christian said slowly.
“Does it have any other benefits?” Anfey asked.
“This is all I know, but it was blood from a top-level unicorn, Anfey. I think it will give us even more benefits,” Christian answered.
“Anyone else know other benefits?” Anfey looked around.
Everybody shook their heads. Suzanna noticed Anfey was looking at her. She gave it some serious thought and shook her head. “What I know is almost the same as Christian.”
“Then, Christian, can you distribute the unicorn blood to everyone, but not too much. Keep the rest of it. You guys listen up. This should be used to save your lives. You should take it only in life-threatening situations. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” everyone answered loudly.
“Suzanna, is the unicorn blood good for you as well?” Anfey asked.
“Yes,” Suzanna nodded.
“Christian, give Suzanna double amounts. Keep one for later and take the other one.” Anfey thought Suzanna needed it.
“No, I do not need it. I will take the same amount as everyone else.” Suzanna was shocked and turned it down immediately.
“This is an order, and everyone in this legion should follow my orders,” Anfey said flatly. In fact, Anfey decided to give her the double amounts of unicorn blood because he thought it was the best for the team, not because he wanted to give her special treatment. Senior swordsmen were considered high level, not only in this legion, but also outside the legion. Suzanna’s ability to fight with full force at dangerous moments would decide the fate of the team.
Suzanna looked down. She did not expect Anfey to give her any special treatment. Instead, she thought he would blame her for the damage she did to the team because of her carelessness yesterday. Maybe this man was not as evil as she thought. Suzanna remembered that particular night when the word “evil” came up in her mind. Her face turned red, and then she turned quickly to the side. She did not dare to look at Anfey.
“Christian, can you set up a passing magic array?” Anfey turned to Christian and asked.
“Magic crystal,” Christian said.
“I have said before that you do not have to worry about the magic crystal,” Anfey interrupted.
“Another passing magic array was set up in the manticore cave, about 20 miles away from here. If we run into any danger, we could move over there immediately.”
Christian was quiet for a while and smiled bitterly, shaking his head. “No, it is too far. My mastery of magic was not good enough, plus my ability was only enough to set up the smallest passing magic array. It could only send one person at a time. It would not be that helpful if we were in danger. We could only have one or two people escape, at the most.”
“So, never mind.” Anfey shook his head. “Sante and Sanchez, can you take a look at the manticore cave to see if there is anything we can use. Hmm, be careful. If there is anything unusual, come back immediately.”
“Yes.” Sante nodded.
Anfey was still a little worried. He thought a little bit and said. “Blavi, were you on watch last night? How do you feel now? Do you need any rest now?”
“No, I am ok. Anfey, do you need me to do anything?” Blavi asked.
“Can you go with Sante and Sanchez? I am worried about them,” Anfey said.
“No problem.” Blavi smiled.
“One more thing. We need make our shelter better,” Anfey said. “We had to sleep as a crowd before. You know we have girls in our legion. It looks inappropriate. I do not want us to look like just animals.”
“Yes, sure.” Niya nodded to agree. She was the one who really wished to change their living situation. She was used to comfortable living and suddenly she was on the run, which made her depressed. Anfey and his legion were clean enough that there was no one with untidy hair, no odor in the cave; but she could not sleep well every night.
“Christian, can you separate the cave with your construction magic,” Anfey asked.
“No. Magic is against the natural rules. It can temporally control elements, but not permanently. The elements will disappear at some point.”
“It seems that we have to build a wall with our bare hands,” Anfey said, smiling.
“Anfey, why are you separating the cave? Why don’t we build a house outside the cave?” Niya asked loudly.
“A house in the field would be an obvious target. What would happen if enemy saw it?” Anfey said, shaking his head.
“I know a good place. Shally and I used to live there. It was surrounded with very tall ancient trees and thick brush. If we build a house in the brush and cover it with some ivy, no one could find it, even people passing by,” Suzanna said with a smile.
“Sounds good. Anfey, let’s build a house over there, ok?” Niya was so happy. It seemed that she and the unicorns were inclined toward the light. They hated the dark and gloomy cave.
Anfey was quiet for a while before he said with a smile, “Ok.” In fact they were in some danger if they stayed there. He could not keep everyone in this cave for safety. They would be easily noticed if enemies flew by in the sky when Anfey’s legion went out to move around as a group. This was all Anfey could do. It was their fate if they would be noticed by accident.
“Yeah!” Niya jumped up happily.
“Blavi, three of you can go to the manticore’s cave now. Come back as soon as possible. The rest of you get some rest, and we will build our house later,” Anfey said.
The little unicorn seemed to sense the happiness in the air. He looked up and bit Anfey’s fingers with something that sounded like talking.
“This little guy is hungry.” Anfey smiled. He felt the little unicorn was constantly sucking his finger. “Feller, can you give me a piece of bread?”
Feller tossed Anfey a piece of bread. Anfey took the bread and patted it around the unicorn’s mouth. The little unicorn turned to the side to smell it and then continued to suck Anfey’s finger.
“You are picky about food, little buddy. Feller, can you give me a sausage?”
“Anfey, unicorns are not carnivores!” Niya yelled. She was jealous of Anfey because the little unicorn was only close to Anfey. She fell in love with the little unicorn at first sight. Unfortunately, the little guy did not pay any attention to her at all. The little unicorn could not have its eyes open, and of course it would not be able to look at her and pay attention to her either.
“How do we know unicorns are not carnivores if they were never fed with any meat?” Anfey took the sausage from Feller. He teased the unicorn with the sausage. Of course, the little unicorn did not care about the sausage.
“This little guy! Feller, can you give me a piece of steak?” Anfey said helplessly.
“Anfey, are you a fool? It is still a baby. It needs milk.”
“Right, right. This little unicorn needs milk,” Suzanna agreed with Niya and nodded. Like Niya, Suzanna liked the little unicorn, but this little guy had only been close to Anfey. Anyone who wanted to be close to the little unicorn had to be close to Anfey, so Suzanna could only watch from a distance.
“Bulls*^t!” Anfey’s lips curled down.
Niya got mad and yelled at Anfey with her hands resting on her hips. “What do you mean I am bullsh*^ting? Anfey, you need to give me an explanation!”
“Do you have milk?” Anfey asked.
Anfey’s question made Niya’s anger subside right away. Niya wasn’t sure whether he was speaking of cow milk or breast milk. Niya had to think in context, or think on the bright side that Anfey meant to ask about the milk to feed the little unicorn. She shook her head anxiously.
“Do you have milk?” Anfey laid his eyes on Suzanna.
Suzanna stepped back and curled up next to Niya with a red face.
“If neither of you have milk, why do you think I would have milk?” Anfey took the steak and touched it to the nose of the little unicorn. “Little guy, I am telling you this is the last try. If you do not want it, you will not have any food.”
Everyone was containing their laughter, but no one dared to laugh out loud. Niya did not dare to show her temper to Anfey when she was mad. However, to the others, it was a different story.
It seemed that unicorns did not care about meat. The little unicorn just held the steak on its nose and make some sounds in protest.
“How about we pick some fruit and crushed them into juice to see if he would like it,” Suzanna said quietly. She found that Anfey had the ability to make anything he said sound reasonable and just. She felt helpless in the face of it.
“Alright, you and Niya will be in charge of picking fruit. You guys could not help build the house anyway.” Anfey rushed to take some responsibilities off his shoulders. He tried to pull his finger out from the little unicorn’s mouth. It gripped his finger tightly even though it did not have any teeth yet. It bit on Anfey’s finger and would not let go, with the result that the little unicorn was hanging in the air.
Anfey did not know what to do with this little guy. He could try to hit him, but the baby unicorn was simply hungry and had done nothing wrong. If he tried to scold him, others would laugh at him for losing his patience. Great leaders throughout history do not scold others for no particular reason. He could not reason with it, because the little unicorn was not able to understand.
“Can you guys go and pick some fruit now?” Anfey lifted his head and asked for a facor.
“Sure,” Niya agreed quickly, nodding. She seemed to be even more enthusiastic about the little unicorn than Anfey.
On the other side of the cave, Christian was passing out the unicorn blood. Anfey was afraid Christian would distribute too much unicorn blood, so he reminded him about it beforehand. In fact, Christian was very careful with the amount of blood he gave away. He gave everyone only three drops and kept most of it. Everyone seemed fine with this, because they trusted Anfey, just as they trusted their team members. The unicorn blood would be theirs, and it did not matter where it was now because it would disappear for no reason.
Blavi led Sante and Sanchez to explore the manticore cave. Niya and Suzanna went to pick fruit. Feller stayed to take care of Riska, who had been meditating. Anfey lead Shally and the rest of the group to the cave where the two sisters used to live.
In terms of magic skills, Anfey was the second worst among the mages. This second-to-last position was earned by “battling” with Shally. Anfey beat Shally with fire balls. In other areas, Anfey was so much better than these mages. At least Anfey knew that no matter whether they were going to build a wood or brick house, they would have to start with the foundation.
Anfey walked around with the little unicorn in his arms. Suzanna was right that this area was hidden very well from the outside. Even though it was not surrounded by mountains in the front and back, the trees were tall and thick. The area they chose to build the house was especially surrounded by seven or eight huge ancient trees, one of which was so thick that it took four people to hold their hands together to hug the tree. These ancient trees were evergreen trees. Only tree branches could be seen from the top or sides. Even if they built a tall house, it would be covered by the ancient trees.
Anfey remembered that regular bushes did not grow well under the trees, since the trees would block the sunlight the bushes needed; but in the magic world his common sense had been turned around quite often. The bushes here not only grew everywhere but also very thick, showing their energetic life spirit. Grasses under the bushes grew as high as their knees. The air smelled fresh, which permitted people to feel refreshed as well.
“Let’s build it right here.” Anfey nodded. “Shally, come over for a second.”
“Yeah? What happened, brother Anfey?” Shally answered quickly, but did not move any closer.
“Shally, come over,” Anfey asked again.
“Why?” Shally saw Anfey looking over and felt a little nervous. She quietly moved her body to better block something from Anfey.
“What is behind you?” Anfey was a good observer. He noticed that Shally pretended to act casual, which raised a flag for Anfey. Anfey saw a little dirt pyramid behind Shally.
“Nothing, there is nothing.” Shally blushed and waved her hands nervously.
Anfey realized something and smiled after seeing Shally’s red face. Even if a person was an archmagi or master swordsman, the need to eat, drink, urinate, and defecate had to be met. That dirt pyramid must be the sisters’ temporary bathroom.
“Christian, let’s build the house here. Everyone else needs go and collect wood. It’s better to collect just one tree from one area. Don’t cut down too many trees, which would appear suspicious,” Anfey said.
“We got it. What will we do then?” Christian asked.
“Then build the house,” Anfey answered.
“We…we have never built a house before,” Christian said, smiling awkwardly.
“I have never built one either, so you guys can build it the way you want to. Make sure it’s sturdy.”
“But you need to give us some instructions,” Christian complained.
Instructions? Anfey shook his head. Neither of them had ever been a carpenter, nor did they have any tools for building the house. What could Anfey do? They had to build it with their instincts. The ancestors of human beings could survive and generate offspring under similar conditions. So could they. Moreover, practice makes perfect. If they failed once, they could try it again. They would improve later.
“I will make marks and you guys can just follow the marks to build the house.” Anfey walked to an area and tapped it with his foot. “For example, you can put a post here. You can hammer the post into the dirt.”
“Wait, Anfey, what do we hammer with?”
Anfey looked around and found a rock about up to his chest lying not far from him. “Do you see that rock? Two of you can hold the post still and the rest of you need to control the element in the air to lift the rock and smash it onto the post.”
“Oh, my god Anfey, are you kidding me? It will take so much of our magic power,” Christian said, his eyes wide.
Anfey had a wide grin. That smile looked wry in some way. Compared with their escape, they were comparatively safe now. What should they do when they felt safe? They should prepare for danger in advance, even in a time of peace. What could they do to deal with any potential danger? The simplest, most direct and effective way was to improve the legion’s power and skills.
Anfey could not give any suggestions with regards to magic. He could only think from another perspective. The mages were physically weak, so they would be very vulnerable once they lost their magic power. Anfey understood that it was not good to rely on just one thing. Therefore, he planned to make them do some physical work to build their bodies stronger.
Think about it: when mages cut down a big tree with their magic power, they would have to clean up the branches with their magic power, then carry the tree back and, finally, build the house. They would work a lot every day. Of course, they could take some rest when they were too tired. There was no due date for this project. It would be fine if it took them half a month or even one month to build the house. If they had a supervisor, it had to be Niya, since she wanted to move in so badly.
They would be stronger when they finished building the house. They would be able to do regular fitness training after it was done. If Anfey had asked them to do fitness training now, they would not benefit from it much. If Feller, for example, was asked to run 1000 meters, he would be exhausted to death. Working over their limits would not benefit him at all.
“If you use up your magic power, you guys can do meditation. Take this task as a practice. Ok, starting tomorrow, everyone will practice magic power in the morning, build the house in the afternoon, and rest after the dusk,” Anfey said with a smile on his face.
Christian walked to the rock and tried to move the rock by controlling the elements in the air. The rock almost weighed a thousand pounds, so Christian could not move it by controlling the elements in the air.
“How can this work?” Christian smiled bitterly.
“Try a few more times. You’ll catch on. If this rock is too heavy, you can find smaller ones first, but be careful with it. Don’t have any accident,” Anfey said with a smile.
“Anfey,” Niya’s voice rose from the bottom of the hill.
From the area where the sound came from, Anfey saw Niya running excitedly with a cup full of white glue-like stuff in her hand.
“Take a look, we got the fruit pulp.” Niya raised the cup high to show off.
“You guys finally came back,” Anfey sighed softly. His fingers were hurt from the little unicorn’s sucking. It had already been sucking all ten fingers for one round. He could not imagine what might have happened to his fingers if they had come back a day later. His fingers might lose their skin.
“Come, little one.” Niya held the cup out.
The little unicorn seemed to smell something and let Anfey’s finger go a little. Its little head turned to Niya and tested the fruit pulp by sticking its tongue in the cup. The little unicorn suddenly looked so happy. The little unicorn rolled its tongue two or three times in the fruit pulp. It quickly emptied the cup. It was obvious the little guy was starving.
“That’s it?” Anfey asked in a disappointing tone. He just had a feeling of relief because he did not want to walk around with this little guy any more.
“I’ll have some.” Suzannna smiled and took the cup. She took out an indistinguishable fruit and gripped it lightly. The fruit was crushed into white pulp, flowing down through her fingers.
This was the power of a senior swordswoman, a walking blender.
Niya caught the pulp with the cup and held it next to the little unicorn’s mouth. The little unicorn finished it in a few gulps again.
The little unicorn finally made a satisfying sound after eating seven or eight of those fruits. It licked Niya’s hands and moved closer to her. Niya was so happy about it, she jumped around. Most girls like cute animals. No matter how smart she was and what kind of personality she had, she was still a girl.
“What do we do later on?” Suzanna asked, frowning.
“What about later?” Anfey asked, momentarily shocked.
“When Shally and I used to live here, we searched everywhere. There were not many trees with fruit. Some of them are not edible, so it would not take long for this little guy to eat up all the fruit.”
“How much fruit do we have now?” Anfey asked.
“Not much. Those were saved by Shally and me for later, when we are starving,” Suzanna answered.
“It’s alright. We will talk about it when the time comes.” Anfey paused for a second and suddenly remembered something. “Right, unicorns do not eat honey, do they?”
“I am not sure about it,” Suzanna answered.
“I found a huge beehive yesterday. Today it’s too late, but I can go and get it tomorrow. If this little guy does not eat honey, we can have it. It will add one more dish to our meal anyway.” Anfey smiled.
“Sounds good. Anfey, I will go with you tomorrow.” Hearing honey was edible, Niya looked even more excited than the little unicorn when it was eating the fruit pulp. It was getting hard for Niya just to eat bread and sausages.
The little unicorn suddenly struggled in Anfey’s arms. Anfey could not wait for this moment to happen, so he quickly put the little unicorn on the ground. The little unicorn slowly struggled to stand up.
“Wow, it can stand up now. It can stand up!” Niya screamed in surprise.
The little guy did not give Niya any chance to show off. After she screamed, the little guy’s front legs buckled and its head hit the ground.
“Was it hurt?” Niya reached out her hand to touch the little unicorn.
Anfey pulled Niya away and smiled. “This is a unicorn. It would not get hurt easily.” Anfey even gave that little guy’s butt a little kick.
“You…” Niya was not happy with Anfey’s action.
Anfey pretended he did not hear her and gave it another kick on the butt. If it was not an significant issue or something involving providing directions to the team, Anfey did not want to confront Niya with it.
“Stop kicking!” Niya was so concerned that she grabbed Anfey’s foot to stop him.
The little unicorn started to stand up, trembling like a very sick person. It could not stop wobbling. The little guy was surprised after he first tried standing up. It did not dare to move: its feet were frozen to the ground.
“Look, my way is better.” Anfey smiled.
“You are so bad!” Niya complained.
“If men are not bad…” Anfey suddenly stopped right there. If he had finished his saying, it would have sounded like he was flirting with Niya.
Chapter 74: Reach out for a Yard after an Inch
Niya sat at the pond with a concerned look. She looked so upset. Suzanna found the water in the pond had already been polluted, which meant that they could not take a bath in the pond anymore. Suzanna tested the water in the pond with the horn they cut off the unicorn. It could purify the water poured into the horn, but could not purify the whole pond water. Purifying the water in the horn to shower was far from enough. The unicorn horn was dead, so its power was not comparable to when the unicorn was still alive.
Niya tried to stop Anfey from dipping the little guy’s mini unicorn into the pond, but Anfey ignored the complaining from her and the little guy and did it anyway. He waited for a while, but the water quality did not change at all.
The little guy whined and looked up at Anfey with his blue eyes filled with tears. It wished that Anfey could make up for his rudeness. Unfortunately, Anfey’s mind had flown somewhere else. Anfey did not care whether the water in the pond was poisonous. With a group of mages present, drinking water was not a problem, since there were plenty of water elements in the air, and even more water elements in the forest. Anfey never worried about that.
“Suzanna, can you come with me for a second?” Anfey stood up.
“Huh…” Suzanna was momentarily shocked. She hesitated a little bit before she followed Anfey, about 40 feet behind.
The little guy saw Anfey leaving and jumped to follow Anfey. It already had forgotten about its complaints. Senior magic beasts were rated as senior level for a reason. It only took the little unicorn two hours at the most to learn to run after it just learned how to walk. The problem with the little unicorn was its vision. He had tripped at the place where he should not, and then he would slide for a little bit before he fell heavily on the ground.
Suzanna felt unreasonably nervous when she saw Anfey walking straight ahead to the forest. In fact, from any outsider’s perspective, her nervousness was unnecessary. If Anfey and Suzanna wanted to have a fair fight, there was no way Anfey could beat Suzanna. There was no reason for Suzanna to be nervous.
“Anfey, let’s talk here.” Suzanna suddenly stopped. Her frequent eye movements showed she was thinking. She pinched the bark here and there on a tree. That poor tree seemed to suffer an unexpected natural disaster when a large piece of bark fell off in a very short period of time.
“Huh? Sure.” Anfey nodded and looked at Suzanna with a weird look.
“What is the matter?” Suzanna asked.
“Suzanna, do you feel someone has been watching us?” Anfey asked.
“No, Why? Do you think someone has been watching us?” Suzanna looked up in surprise.
“I was only guessing. I hope I was just thinking too much, but…” Anfey paused for a second. “Suzanna, can you walk around a little more when you have time. Maybe you can find something.”
“I got it. That night…” Suzanna blushed before she even finished her sentence. She remembered what Anfey had told her after he caught her, but she could not say out loud that she had understood what he meant that night. Suzanna felt so ashamed and wished there was a hole in the ground where she could hide from Anfey.
A wave of magic surges appeared in the air. The little unicorn felt it before Anfey and Suzanna. The little guy suddenly turned its head to the side and barked in a low pitch. The mini horn on its head pointed to the sky. Anfey looked quickly at Suzanna and walked slowly out of the forest. Suzanna followed Anfey about 40 feet behind.
Christian and the other two landed. Christian did not look too bad, but Blavi looked awkward, with mud and rotten leaves on him. Luckily there was no blood on him.
“What happened?” Anfey asked worriedly.
“S*^t! That manticore cave was occupied by a group of wyverns. We almost got caught,” Blavi blurted out with fury.
“Wyverns?” Anfey asked.
“Now I understand why I saw a pair of wyverns outside the manticore’s cave. I could not figure out the reason back then, but I see it now. They were trying to take that territory,” Suzanna said, showing in her eyes the enlightenment which had come to her.
“Didn’t you say there have rarely been any conflicts among senior magic beats?” Anfey asked.
“Anfey, have you ever seen a wyvern?”, Blavi asked.
“Riska mentioned them to me,” Anfey said.
“Their bodies are shaped like ducks with smaller heads. They eat a lot, and eating takes half of their day, so they like to prey on big magic beasts. They eat so much that an adult three-eyed magic cow could only be enough for two or three days of meals. They are like nomadic people, changing their caves for survival, since they have to change to a different cave when they eat up all the big magic beasts around it,” Suzanna said.
“Magic Beast Forest will never lack magic beasts, right?” Anfey asked.
“Anfey, you do not know the way wyverns prey. They are called “the ambusher” in the forest. They know their speed is not fast and flying style does not look sharp, so they rely on waiting for or slowly approaching their prey to catch them. When a group of wyverns go out to hunt, they would take almost the same amount of time to catch a magic rabbit as a three-eyed magic cow. A magic rabbit is far from enough for a group of wyverns to divide, while a three-eyed cow would be good enough for few days’ food. Do you think they would care about little magic beasts?” Suzanna said.
“Suzanna, you seem to know a lot about the magic beast forest. I am just curious why you did not prepare for it before you came to the magic beast forest.”
Suzanna bit her lips and said quietly, “That was an accident. I do not know much about the magic beast forest either. There are so many secrets that no human beings could understand.”
“If so, let’s not worry about it. We need to build the house here first.” Anfey felt a little helpless. He never thought his territory would be taken by magic beasts. His legion just had a fight and should not continue fighting so soon. In addition, Suzanna as the main force had not recovered yet. They needed to swallow their pride a little bit.
“No,” Suzanna and Christian said at the same time.
“Huh, why not?” Anfey was quite surprised.
“Anfey, wyverns are ambushers. If any of us fell into their trap,they would be in trouble, except for Suzanna. The range of the wyverns’ prey is quite wide. They have already posed big threats to us,” Christian looked worried.
“Right, Anfey. Christian is right. If they were unicorns, we would not have to bother with them. Unicorns would not hurt us as long as we do not offend them. However, the issue with senior magic beasts like manticores and wyverns needs to be addressed immediately,” Suzanna said after Christian.
Anfey looked down in thought. Wyverns were senior magic beasts, so their power should be about equal to unicorns and manticores. They also lived in groups which made it even harder to kill them. Most importantly, Suzanna had not fully recovered. Suzanna told Anfey before that if she gathered all her combat power, she could battle with a manticore for a while. However, her combat power would decrease over time. Once it was beyond her limit, running away would become a luxury.
Suzanna had allowed herself to be pushed to the corner by manticore because she wanted to protect Riska. She was a strong fighter. Anfey needed to make a good use of her. In any case, it was not Anfey’s style not to make good use of Suzanna. After giving it some thought, Anfey believed that Suznanna had to be part of the team, no matter whether they ambushed or confronted wyverns directly.
“We’d better wait a few more days. Ask everyone to be alert. If they absolutely need to go out, they need to go in pairs to take care of each other.” Anfey shook his head at the end. “Ok. We will talk about it later. Blavi, you guys go and get some rest first. Christian, how is the house building over there?”
Christian did not give any other suggestions after he saw Anfey switching topics. “It’s alright, but everyone is exhausted.”
Suzanna sighed. There was a big difference between Anfey and her when it came to taking pressure. Once seeing the potential dangers, Suzanna had always wanted to get rid of the dangers immediately. Therefore, Anfey’s decision had made Suzanna feel down.
“It’s getting dark outside.” Anfey looked up at the sky. “Christian, let everyone go back to get some rest. They can work on the house tomorrow.”
“Ok. I am letting them know now.” Christian nodded.
After Anfey and the others went back to the cave, it did not take long for other construction workers to come back one after another. Anfey did not get a chance to check on the progress of house building, but he could tell how hard this project was from the way these construction workers looked. Some of them simply laid on the mattress made from grass and fell asleep immediately.
Maybe everyone had high moral standards in the legion, or some sort of collectivism was developing in the team. No one slacked off. Everyone tried very hard without any complaints.
When Feller announced it was dinnertime, construction workers sprang up with energy and surrounded Feller. They gobbled the food down and fell back to sleep again. Was the day that bad for them? Not really: they felt lucky to be able to eat well and sleep well in life.
No one on the team heard the sigh outside the cave. There was a tree at the edge of a prairie opposite the cave. Ernest heaved a long sigh in the tree. He gripped his right hand into a fist. A cloud of powder blew with the wind into the dark when he opened his palm.
Ernest was very frustrated. It was not hard to understand his frustration, since he had been stressed, looking everywhere to locate an unknown wildflower. Ernest had already developed a severe wild-flower syndrome. Every time after he found the marks Anfey left him, Ernest could not resist holding the flowers in his palm, grinding them into powder. The powder particles were so fine that they could fly into the air.
After searching for Anfey for a couple of months, Ernest might already have felt dizzy and nauseous every time he saw those wild flowers. Luckily, he finally had tracked Anfey down today.
Ernest had planned to meet Anfey secretly, but he changed his mind when he found an adult size unicorn body with his strong sensibility. He could not figure out how Anfey and his legion killed a unicorn, since he could not have done it. Ernest was shocked by it, so he changed his mind about seeing Anfey. He wanted to follow Anfey for a couple of days to see what else he could do. It would be fine as long as he could help when Anfey was in danger. Anfey would grow more mature after handling dangerous situations. This was also the way Ernest taught his students back then.
At the same time, in the Sacred City far away from Anfey, the king of Maho Empire, Yolanthe, who had “passed away,” was sitting properly in a secret chamber with a serious face. He looked like he was going to kill someone. He squinted and looked like he was in thought. Below Yolanthe, a cloud of light grey shadow stood there quietly. That shadow looked clear sometimes, and blurry at others.
“Are you saying Philip turned down your request? Is that it?” Yolanthe asked.
“Yes, your majesty,” the shadow answered.
“Did you tell him anything about me?” Yolanthe asked.
“No, your majesty. Philip has been very stubborn and did not know what were the appropriate things to do. If he knew about it, he might have leaked the secrets in conversation, and then Ellisen Empire would be alerted to it,” the shadow answered.
“You are right.” Yolanthe was in thought for a while and said, “Let Wester be in charge of some of the Hurricane legion. If spies from Ellisen Empire learn about the Hurricane legion but do not see any action from it, it would raise the red flag for them.”
“I understand, your majesty. But what kind of people should be given to the prince?” the shadow asked.
“You don’t have to ask my opinion about these little issues, you can handle them yourself. Can you get in touch with Philip soon and ask him to come back to the Sacred City? Tell him the country needs him,” Yolanthe said, smiling.
“Your majesty, please allow me to be honest with you. Philip is very emotional right now. He is not going to listen to me,” the shadow said.
“Try to talk to him as an old friend. I hope he will not become an obstacle for the country. He contributed so much for this county. If it had to happen this way, maybe I need take some extreme methods.” Yolanthe shook his head. “I have waited for this opportunity too long, too long, I will do anything to destroy Dark Moon Magic Legion in Ellisen Empire to get rid of the biggest threat to Maho Empire. I will do anything. I will not allow anyone to ruin my plan.”
‘Your majesty, you know Phillip’s temper. I think we need to find Niya in the Forest Clarm and take her back. The rest of them we can leave to Phillip to handle. Only this way can we calm him,” the shadow said.
“Do you know what the most important quality for a king is?” Yolanthe smiled and said, “It’s justice. Niya is still young, naughty and stubborn. Niya would give them a lesson if she saw anyone in other royal families doing anything bad. However, she never bothered with Zeda, never. She did not want to put Saul in any awkward situations, but she was not afraid of Zeda. Zeda was just a bastard. He was not even comparable to a little girl. Where was he killed? It was in Saul’s house. He went to Saul’s house with some bodyguards to arrest people. Didn’t he know the consequences of doing that? If he knew and continued to do it, then he was looking to be killed. If he did not know and had been manipulated by someone, then he deserved it anyway. No matter the reason, I have no sympathy for him.”
“But…” the shadow said.
“There is no but. The Philips started it and they need to know to take responsibility for that. If Niya went to Philip’s house, beat up Zeda and killed him in his own house, I would not be on Saul’s side either,” Yolanthe said.
“Your majesty, I know you are right. But if Philip could not release his anger, he would not come back to the Sacred City,” the shadow said.
“If talking could not do the job, why don’t you try the sword and blood? If they put their family before the country, then I do not think there is any reason for their existence.” Yolanthe waved his hand and said, “You can leave now. Ask Miorich to see me now.”
“Your majesty…” The grey shadow trembled a little bit. He had followed Yolanthe for over twenty years. He knew better than anyone else how cruel Yolanthe could be if he made up his mind to kill someone.
“I will give Philip a last try and let him to choose his own path.” Yolanthe let out a slight sigh. If there were any other options, he did not want Philip to die. Philip had made such a scene recently that he seemed ready to start a fight. This was unbearable to Yolanthe. To plan everything, Yolanthe had manage everything to its maximum. However, Philip had ordered his students to leave their positions to search for Anfey, while many of Philip’s students were in high positions in the military. What Philip did was going to affect his military chain of command.
What was worse was that a student of Saul’s, Entos, who was in training at Mercenary, returned immediately to help Saul after he received a letter from Saul. He was ambushed on the way by a group people. Entos had severe wounds all over his body. Luckily, Entos was a senior magister and able to release Time Ship scroll at the last moment to escape.
No one had claimed responsibility for it, but everyone knew who did it. In other words, who gave them the order to do it. This made Yolanthe even madder. Entos came back to the country to help. His power was far less than Saul’s, but he was still a senior magister and a good helper. What Philip did was nothing different than dog-eat-dog.
To a king, an obedient dog was better than a furious flying dragon. Saul was a representative of the magic power for the Maho Empire, and Philip was a leader of the swordsmen of the Maho Empire. They had different personalities and ways to do things. Maybe because there were not many children in Philip’s family, they had a very strong concept of family. Philip had total control of his students. His students had to go back to the Sacred City to get together with the Philips on holidays and birthdays. Saul was not like Philip. Besides providing instructions in magic skills, he was barely up on students’ personal lives. Saul respected his students’ own interests and choices. This was the main reason that Yolanthe got closer to Saul and kept a distance from Philip. Yolanthe did not want to see anyone act against his authority, but what Philip did was making the relationship between Yolanthe and him even more tense.
Cling, Cling, the clear cling sound made by two pieces of metal arose above the prairie. Two people were fighting. Anfey was sweating profusely already. He tried to block Suzanna’s sword as he stepped back. Anfey had asked Ernest to use combat power when they were practicing sword skills. He realized how wise that decision was after he had had sword fights with Suzanna over the past few days. The skills Suzanna used were quite simple, either slay or thrust. Anfey’s used more “complex” skills like point, dodge, thrust, hold, move with sword trembling, slay, and press on. However, Anfey was at an obvious disadvantage in the fight. Within half an hour, Anfey was forced back from one end of the prairie to the other.
Suzanna thrust at his chest without any skill. Anfey thought he only needed to point his sword at Suzanna’s sword three to five inches away from the tip to change the direction of Suzanna’s sword and then make more offensive moves. He tried many times, but the results told him that he could not change the direction of her sword. Suzanna was fast and forceful when she used combat power. To Anfey, it felt like Suzanna’s sword was frozen in the air, very hard to move. Anfey might be able to block her thrust, but he had given up blocking her slay. His arm, wrist and fingers were cramped. It was so painful that Anfey did not want to even try it.
In fact, Anfey had been prepared to lose the fight. That night when they fought for the first time in the water, Suzanna’s punch did not get him, but the water waves created by her punch pulled some of his hairs off. He knew how good Suzanna was. The last few days’ practice with Suzanna only told Anfey that actually he was not ready for it.
It was fortunate that Suzanna’s speed was not super fast even though her attacks were fierce, otherwise Anfey would make himself look so bad.
Finally, Anfey raised up his hands to signal the end of morning training. Suzanna put her sword back into its sheath casually. She turned around and walked back to the cave. Anfey threw his sword on the ground and breathed heavily.
“Suzanna, did I make any progress today?” Anfey asked.
Suzanna turned around, looking at Anfey for a second, and then shrugged. She answered Anfey without saying anything.
Anfey smiled bitterly. He knew who he was and what he could do. When he was trying to kill the old guy in the Rose Home hotel, the old man was already hurt but he was still able to hit the heavy candlestick out of his hand. Anfey knew he might be able to handle swordsmen, but he had to be extremely careful with master swordsmen.
“What are you so proud of? Don’t you remember you have lost to me?” Anfey murmured. He cared more how to improve his ability fast than to make himself look good. However, Suzanna’s attitude of not wanting to talk to him still made him a little mad.
“You have lost to me hundreds of times over the past few days.” Suzanna did talk to Anfey this time, but Anfey wished she had not said anything.
“…” Anfey was speechless. Anfey had no other way to improve his sword skills than finding himself an opponent, since it would take too long to make any improvement if he practiced swordfighting by himself. Besides Suzanna, who else could he practice with? No one would recommend Shally, would they?
Suzanna suddenly stopped walking when she heard an unpleasant screaming. It only took her a few strides to get back to Anfey. She looked up to the sky, where a swan-like animal flew by. That animal seemed to have a longer neck and bigger body than a real swan.
There was a saying that nice people tend to be bullied more and a tame horse tends to be ridden more often. The saying seems like it might have been an exaggeration in this situation, but giving it a little bit of thought, it was not entirely wrong. Anfey had never tried to bother wyverns.
Wyverns came to this prairie, but found the people living on it were hard to catch, so they had been just watching over them for a while and flown to other areas. As time passed, they seemed to be more comfortable approaching Anfey’s legion. At the very beginning, several of the wyverns in a group were just flying by to check on them. Now even a wyvern was able to stop by and check on them. It was annoying.
“Anfey, We have to think about how to deal with these wyverns. Do we have to wait until something happens to us?” Suzanna said with a grave face.
“We do need take action,” Anfey nodded. There was another saying that restraint in moments of confrontation calms down the torment; Conceding a single step may take you to a higher plain. It made sense at some point, but it did not consider the point view of the bullies. If the bullies saw that you would easily compromise and concede, they would take advantage of it, and bully even more. These wyverns were good examples of the bullies. They started watching the prairie from outside and realized Anfey and his legion did not care about them, then they started to constantly fly over it. Niya and Shally did not have any combat power. If they did not protect those two well, they might have become victims of the wyverns.
The wyvern did not bother Suzanna. It just flapped its wings and flew towards the cave. Christian was on watch so he immediately released the levitation magic to chase after the wyvern. Zubin and Sanchez ran from the cave and hastened to the side of Christian to protect him.
That wyvern suddenly changed direction and flew out of the prairie, leaving a series of coarse howling. It sounded like the wyvern was making fun of them.
“Let’s go,” Anfey said quietly.
“Ok.” Suzanna nodded.
Anfey and Suzanna ran to the cave. Suzanna followed Anfey closely. Anfey knew Suzanna would remember the lesson from their last experience.When Suzanna heard the howling of the wyvern, she ran back to Anfey first. She put Anfey’s safety first instead of her mission to locate wyvern.
Some people do not learn from their mistakes, but others learn from any mistake. Suzanna undoubtedly belonged to the latter group.
“Anfey, let’s take these wyverns down. I cannot stand them anymore,” Sanchez said angrily as he walked toward Anfey.
“Right. There were a pair of wyverns hovering above us when we were collecting wood. They were just watching us from a distance. They just followed us as we carried the wood back. We were worried the whole way back.” Zubin smiled bitterly.
“Suzanna, how is your recovery coming along?” Anfey asked.
“Wyverns are far less powerful than manticores. I think I can handle them,” Suzanna said.
“Ok, we need to make a plan this morning.” Anfey was in thought for a while and then asked, “Christian, do we have any good material for fighting wyverns? We’d better not waste them.”
“Besides magic crystals and fangs, other parts of their bodies are worthless. When the upper-class royals are being sarcastic, they usually say ‘You are rotten like a wyvern.’ Wyverns are the worst among the senior magic beasts, not only because wyverns’ powers are the lowest, but also because their body parts are least useful to humans.”
“So…” Anfey became thoughtful. Anfey had seen what benefits unicorns and manticores could bring him. It was well known how valuable unicorn blood and the legendary Tears of Stars could be. Besides unicorn blood and Tears of Stars, its horn could detoxify, and taking ground unicorn horn powder could save your life. Unicorns and manticores’ fur could be made into top magic leather mail by alchemists. Manticores’ teeth could be made into arrowheads that could pierce through knights’ heavy armor. If fire element were added to the arrowhead, it would explode into a big fire ball when it hit the target. Its power could be a lot stronger than regular fireballs released by mages. Manticores’ claws and both manticores and unicorns’ bones were good as well.
All of them were just raw materials and needed be made into all kinds of magic tools by good alchemists. Generally speaking, all types of senior magic beasts, except for wyverns, were valuable.
Anfey’s favorite was the manticore’s stinger. The stinger was a little too thick to hold in his hands. Anfey hoped to turn it into a short-shafted spear if he could find a good alchemist. Christian said the magic effects of the stinger would partially remain, just like the unicorn horn. The unicorn horn partially kept the ability of purification, and the manticore’s sting could partially keep the paralyzing effects.
“Wyverns did not come by again, did they?” Niya walked out of the cave as she rubbed her eyes. For her safety, she had not been able to go anywhere for the past few days which she was not so happy about.
“I’ve recovered, Anfey.” Suzanna realized that Anfey could not make a decision yet because he was worried that her combat power had not recovered to its normal level. She had to firmly restate that she had recovered.
“Ok. Ask everyone to come here,” Anfey nodded.
Chapter 75: Greed Provokes Evil
The atmosphere in the cave became tense after the crew acknowledged that Anfey had decided to battle against the wyvern. Filled with excitement, they eagerly offered their advice and suggestions: some advocated direct attack in spread-out formation; some advocated sending a squad to harass, attract and split the wyvern’s power so that the main force could take the chance to take down parts of its body; some advocated setting plenty of traps, and then leading the wyvern into a trap to beat the crap out of it; however, the final decision was Anfey’s.
Using traps was indeed a solution, but to entirely follow Arrago’s idea could be irrational. Digging traps in the forest was not very easy, since they only had a limited number of helpers. How many total traps were they able to dig? What if the wyvern was not dashing along the ground? The traps would become useless decorations unless there was … some bait that could automatically lead the wyvern down to it.
“Zubin, in addition to the magic crystal and the fang, the rest of the parts are not one iota useful,” said Anfey in a low voice, hoping to finally confirm that. After all, the wyvern was a high-level magic beast. Anfey was reconciled to the fact that they might take risks that did not match the gain.
“No, in the same family of magic beasts, the value of a wyvern cannot even be compared to a seven-winged magic fly,” laughed Zubin.
“Seven-winged magic fly?”
“A seven-winged magic fly is a middle level magic beast. It is approximately as big as a sheeps head. Its combat effectiveness is very low. The attack can be accompanied with some weak magic, yet with little effect. Magic beasts that can beat the seven-winged magic fly would not be bothered by the weak beginner level magic. Those who cannot beat the magic fly… there is no need to fear at all. Since the seven-winged magic fly is very fast, even faster than the unicorn, the beginner level magic beast cannot escape in any case,” laughed Zubin. “Seven-winged magic flies likes to live close to the lair of the wyvern. The task of hunting seven-winged magic flies is often given to the mercenary line. In order to protect their own safety, mercenaries often have to choose to kill the wyvern first, and then hunt down the seven-winged magic flies, since in their eyes, the value of seven-winged magic flies is much higher than the wyvern.”
“What is the value of the seven-winged magic fly?”
“This,” Zubin blushed suddenly, “is what I do not know.
“Zubin, why avoid it? Say it out aloud,” Christian asked with curiosity, as he overheard Anfey and Zubin’s conversation.
“I really do not know.” Zubin shook his head again and again.
Anfey realized that Zubin was not comfortable saying it, so he waved it off. “Distraction, distraction. Let’s talk about how to deal with the wyvern.”
“What Zubin said should not be considered a distraction,” Suzanna said. “Seven-winged magic flies always follow the Wyvern to migrate. Near this group of wyverns, there should be seven-winged flies too. Having small appetites, after the wyvern’s successful hunting, the seven-winged flies can share some leftover carrion, which is enough for them to survive. On the other hand, the seven-winged flies’ speed is ultra-fast, and they have sensitive perception. They usually play the role of a sentry. Just a little bit of a disturbance, and they would immediately send an alert to the Wyvern. ”
“This may not be easy to deal with …” Anfey couldn’t help raising his brow.
“We did not see the seven-winged magic flies last time,” said Blavi. “Maybe the group of wyverns had just migrated here, and there was not yet enough time to attract the seven-winged flies?”
“The fact that they were not there in the past few days does not mean that they are not there now.” Susanna shook her head.
“It is meaningless to continue to this debate, I think … Christian, Suzanna, you two should go for a walk around the wyvern’s lair and see if you could find seven-winged magic flies.”
“Right,” Christian nodded.
“Sooner rather than later. You two should go now.”
Without further conversation, Christian and Susanna went out of the cave one after another.
Anfey pondered a moment, smiled, and waved toward Zubin, indicating Zubin to come over, then whispered to him, “Tell me what is the use of seven-winged magic flies?”
“I…” Zubin looked around and lowered his voice with a bitter smile, “If you grind the wings of the seven-winged magic fly into powder, you can use it to make a strong kind of aphrodisiac. It’s said that it has an effect on both men and women, and there is no age limit either.”
“How amazing?” Anfey was astonished.
“What are you two talking about,” asked Niya curiously, as Anfey and Zubin seemed sneaky.
“Nothing, Zubin said he would find you some good stuff to take,” Anfey grinned.
“What is it?” Niya was even more curious.
Zubin’s face turned pale and he desperately nodded at Anfey. If Niya understood the use of the seven-winged magic fly or would learn the specific use of it in the future, he would be dead for sure… it was not a funny joke!
“It is a type of snow lotus: have you heard of it?”
Zubin let out a long sigh of relief, looking at Anfey with a complicated expression on his face.
“What is the use of the snow lotus?” It seemed like Niya did not want to give up.
“The snow lotus contains natural essence that moisturizes the skin, making the skin moist, delicate. It restores the natural muscle elasticity, making the skin as soft as silk. It also prevents wrinkles…” Anfey dashed along without even thinking.
“Really? What a miracle,” shouted Niya elatedly.
“Of course, this is exactly what Zubin told me just now.”
“Zubin, thank you! Please bring me some!” Niya stared at Zubin earnestly. This girl too easily trusted others…
Zubin was stunned, and then immediately came back to reality. It seemed that it was too early for him to feel relieved. Snow lotus? He never heard of it. Let alone finding some.
“You’re welcome.” Zubin barely made a smile. Then he lowered his voice toward Anfey, “Anfey, you wanna kill me? Girls have extremely good memory of this type of thing. What if she asks me for snow lotus in the future?”
“It does not matter, I’ll take care of it,” Anfey laughed.
“Snow lotus? I just heard about it for the first time …do you really have it?”
“There’s plenty of stuff with similar effect, and those are easy to obtain.”
At this moment, a hoarse scream came from outside of the cave, followed by a shadow dashing by. Strong wind blew right into their faces. The stones at the entrance were blown down, making a crackling sound. The most unfortunate part was that Sanchez was sitting next to the campfire to read his magic book. The flame blew right on him. Black smoke came out of the dry pages of the magic book. Sanchez hastened to blow out the magic book, and put it back into his space ring.
Half lying prone on the ground, raising his little head solemnly, the little guy that attended the serious military meeting was filled with excitement. It stood up to dash outside the cave. Fortunately, Anfey didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the little guy’s neck. Although the unicorn was considered the most powerful of the high-level magic beasts, it had to be at least an adult first. There was no doubt that this little guy would very likely be killed if it rushed out.
“Sanchez, stop!” Zubin yelled.
Magic books were the lifeblood of the mages. The books were priceless, like a golden castle with a stunning beauty inside. This was first said by educated people from another world, but was not taken seriously by other educated people. On the contrary, almost every mage valued their magic materials, since they deeply understood that their status, power, and wealth were all bestowed by magic! Seeing his magic book was burned, Sanchez’s eyes turned red right then and there. He turned to dash outside, but was immediately stopped by Zubin.
“Riska, use the eyes of the sky!” Anfey stared at Sanchez.
Sanchez calmed down, hesitated for a moment, and slowly retreated.
Riska whispered a few spells, and the eyes of the sky opened between his hands. The scenery outside of the cave was clearly shown in the eyes of the sky.
Two wyverns were quietly hiding inside the cliff at the top of the cave, patiently waiting. Yet one wyvern hovered around, and rushed at the cave again. This time it did not just sweep by, but opened its mouth and breathed acid mist into the cave.
“How cunning the wyverns are.” Sanchez felt a chill down his spine. If he had run outside just now, he would have been attacked by two wyverns!
Zubin spouted a spell which released of a magic shield, isolating the acid mist outside the shield. Then he looked at Anfey quietly.
“Wait!” Anfey blurted out. Anyways, everybody was inside the cave. Maintaining this geographic advantage made people feel fearless to the attacks from the wyvern.
The wyvern who was baiting them provoked them repeatedly. Noticing that there was no response from the cave, the wyvern could no longer bear it but to land on the ground, blocking the cave’s exit and staggering about.
The eyes of the wyvern were very small, which made people cold and terrified. A pair of wings, half open and half shut, were just able to block the hole tightly. Its long neck shook from side to side flexibly, constantly letting out unpleasant calls.
Anfey suddenly realized that the focus of the wyvern was set on the little guy in his arms. He could not help but be stunned for a moment. The situation seemed a bit strange: in accordance with the description of the various wyverns’ habits, they should not cause trouble before food had become scarce. Now it became clearer and clearer to him that the two wyverns were probably after the little unicorn! They should also be aware of the benefits of the unicorn’s blood. In other words, they had an insatiable desire for the unicorn.
A certain degree of greed could lead to progress, but excessive greed could also bring disaster easily! It is a universal truth for both humans and animals!
This was a wyvern who was blinded by greed. It failed to control its own desires, landing on the ground and even getting into the cave. However, at the moment when its greedy eyes stared at the small unicorn, Anfey’s hand had waved down. Then the wyvern felt some violent magic fluctuations blowing right on its face. Realizing the danger, the Wyvern tried to squeeze its fat body out of the cave to escape, but it realized what was happening too late.
In order to avoid the phenomenon of elements of mutual exclusion or conflict, everybody used fire magic: small fireballs, rockets, gigantic fireballs, flame radiation, flame dust, etc. All of the fire magic attacks were tossed at that wyvern. Riska even released a fire meteor in no time at all. Even little Shally released two small fireballs. Numerous fire magic elements lit up the cave, looking even ten times brighter than the grasslands blazing in the sun. All of the people inside the cave almost invariably closed their eyes.
Since the body of the wyvern was way too fat, it was easy for it to come inside the cave, but difficult to go out. With no time to retreat from the cave, fire magic had been hitting right on its body repeatedly. Screaming tragically, the wyvern flew around a bit. Its light blue body became green and black. Its chest and abdomen had received numerous wounds. The disgusting burnt smell in the air made people sick. Especially Riska’s fire meteor put a meter-wide hole right in the middle of its chest. People could even see its internal organs.
The wyvern twisted on the ground, struggled, and failed to stand up again. Its flexible long neck had become bulky, and it let out a miserable cry. Among the family of high-level magic beasts, wyverns’ resistance to magic was the lowest. Although wyverns could be immune from primary magic like fireballs and rockets, people like Zubin, Sante, and Blavi, who were all high-level mages, could release enough flying flame dust and flame radiation to cause damage to the wyvern. Riska’s fire meteor was even stronger and caused serious injury to the wyvern!
If something had to be blamed, blame greed. If the wyvern had not crashed into the cave, facing a battle like this, it could at least have avoided some magic attacks instead of getting hit by them all.
Without leaving time for Anfey to speak, Riska had once again opened the eyes of the sky to see that the other two wyverns had already abandoned their partner and flown back to their nest.
“Magic beast, after all, are only beasts: too stupid.” Anfey smiled. “Riska, are you alright?”
“I’m alright.” Riska’s face turned pale, but his mental state remained very good. In the past, after the release of a fire meteor he would no longer have magic. Yet now he could continue to release the eyes of the sky, suggesting that he already had made great progress.
“Zubin, Sante, you two come out with me. Riska, hold on for a while. If the wyverns return, immediately send us an alarm.”
“Okay,” Riska nodded.
Anfey walked out of the cave slowly. The wyvern was still struggling feebly, but raised its triangular head, rotating it with the footsteps of Anfey.
While he walked, Anfey took the scorpion-tailed lion’s tail pin from his space ring. Since he had decided to make the tail pin his own exclusive weapon, he should be familiar with the performance of the weapon for sure. Or if an accident occurred, he would not know how he died!
Having seen that Anfey approached, the wyvern suddenly thrusted his head forward at Anfey’s head and tried to bite him. However, since it was seriously injured, it didn’t even have 20 percent of its original speed and strength. Anfey gently dodged and kicked the wyvern’s neck, five inches under its head. The wyvern’s triangular head bounced back with the attack.
The wyvern still attempted to recalcitrant, but Zubin and Sante each released a big fireball, both hitting right on the wyvern’s head. As the big fireballs exploded, the Wyvern’s head jumped twice, eventually dropping to the ground.
Chapter 76: The Experiment
“Lightly, don’t kill it!” Anfey declared, with an expression like that of a protective guardian. However, his movements were less polite, as he stabbed the wyvern with a manticore stinger. The wyvern screeched but lacked the strength to fight back.
The experiments of scientists must be rigorous! Three times Anfey mercilessly conducted his experiment on the wyvern. The force used was not extreme, so long as the tip of the stinger completely pierced the hide. After the seventh time, the strong beating of the wyvern’s chest suddenly weakened and its wings stiffened. The manticore venom’s paralytic effect had finally kicked in, but…such a small probability? Not even fifteen percent! Anfey was left a bit disappointed.
Patiently waiting, Anfey found that it took roughly twenty seconds for the wyvern’s frantic breathing to resume. In addition to the numerous previous injuries, this wyvern had just endured the paralytic effect of manticore venom. With the wyvern’s eyes losing focus, its life was rapidly approaching its end.
Anfey, feeling anxious, continued to repeatedly stab the manticore stinger into the wyvern’s hide. This time the result was even worse; only on the eleventh attempt was the wyvern paralyzed again.
Alas, the results continue to worsen! Anfey could not help but sigh and wait patiently. Who would have guessed that even after thirty seconds, the wyvern would still be paralyzed. Anfey turned to look at the wyvern’s head and noticed that its eyelids had already closed—fallen into the eternal paralysis of death…
“Anfey, what are you doing?” Sante asked, curious.
“I am testing the paralytic effect of the manticore stinger,” Anfey replied. Thinking for a moment, Anfey turned around and asked, “Sante, could one use magic to increase the probability of paralysis?”
“I believe…it is not possible,” Sante said, shaking his head.
“Never mind then.” With his interest waning, Anfey returned the manticore stinger to the dimensional ring. Now, speaking to his two assistants, he said: “Remove its magic crystal and venom fangs. As for the body…we will discuss what to do after Christian and Suzanna come, but we will leave it here for now.”
Suddenly, the unicorn foal rushed out from the cave. Despite only having learned to walk recently, his strides had already become second nature. In just a few gallops, it found itself atop the wyvern corpse. The unicorn initially bowed its head to inspect the corpse, then looked up with an air of conceited pride. As if facing a vast forest of magical beasts, the unicorn let out the cry of a mighty king. All the while his hind legs scornfully kicked at the wyvern corpse—such arrogance!
Unfortunately, the little guy had yet to fully express his desire for fighting or his contempt towards adversaries. Anfey sternly scolded, “You twit! Next time you run amok like this, I’ll break your legs!” Anfey could manage people just fine, but not this guy. This little guy had been quite the miracle; in just a few days able to run so quick and with such grace! With the threat of the wyvern, Anfey often worried about the little guy! That is the heartache of being a parent—very difficult!!!
To “bully the weak and fear the strong” is a universal and unassailable truth! Whether human or beast! Not only does this little guy take advantage of Niya and Shally, but even Suzanna. When bored, he often sneaks up behind people to ram them in the back or to pull at their clothes. But if he hears Anfey speak loudly, the little guy immediately becomes well-behaved. It seems that even he knows who can bully whom…
“Anfey, you are bullying my baby again!” Niya screamed from the cave.
It could be said that if Niya’s personality did not change, she would never amount to anything. To envy what others have is fine, to take by force what others have is fine as well. But one must consider the method. Where can one openly display one’s own insatiable greed? Would doing so not raise the vigilance of others? Say for instance her goal is also not right; that the little guy being close with her is just for fun, but him being close with Anfey is instinctive. Can she ever win this way? Niya’s painstaking effort to make that little unicorn into her little baby could only end poorly.
“Go, your mother is calling you again,” Anfey said as he put the little guy on the ground.
Niya walked out of the cave and tried to talk to Anfey about how to take care of the little animal. But she ended up feeling embarrassed and went back into the cave.
The little guy did not want to leave Anfey and curled up by his feet. A perceptive person could see that the little guy was always trying to please Anfey. But with others, he just waited for them to please him. This was a fundamental difference…
Christian and Suzanna came out to see the wyvern corpse. Instantly shocked, they hurriedly retreated to the cave. Christian immediately asked, “Is everybody okay?” while Suzanna anxiously searched for Shally.
As long as one is perceptive, one can always determine the inner thoughts of another through hints and clues. Take Suzanna for instance: although she had become a part of the team and treated each member as a close partner, her little sister was still the most important to her. In case of any danger, Suzanna would never hesitate to save her sister’s life over that of another team member. This of course was understandable!
“Everyone is all right! That wyvern foolishly got into the cave. When we combined our magic, and we took it down immediately,” Sanchez said with a big grin.
“That’s good,” Christian said, much relieved.
“Anfey, where is Shally?” Suzanne worriedly asked.
“She is inside meditating,” Anfey responded, “You guys saw a seven-winged magic fly?”
“Yes, there were a lot of them—at least 30!”
“Do they pose a danger to us?”
“They are generally weak and have poor magic. But when we are dealing with a wyvern, even weak magic can be quite dangerous.”
“Despite having so many powerful mages who can easily disperse negative magic,” Christian said, “allowing the seven-winged magic fly to outnumber and surround us is still incredibly imprudent.”
“Is there any way to lure them out?”
“Yes, but there are difficulties. They are attracted only to rotting magical corpses. Of course…if we use the unicorn corpse…we may be able to draw the magic flies out!” Christian declared.
Anfey suddenly remembered that pair of greedy eyes from when the wyvern was eyeing the little unicorn; “That’s a good idea. Suzanna, you take the second group and find a place to dig a trap. Zubin, Shante, and I will dig the unicorn corpse out. The rest of you, stay here. Niya, I’m handing the little guy over to you—do not let him run about!”
“I’ll handle it,” Niya said with a bright exuberance from being given this responsibility. Her heart was truly content.
“Let’s try this. If it does not work, we will try something else,” Anfey said slowly.
Anfey prefered to act cleanly and orderly. He initially did not want conflict with the wyvern; but now that conflict was inevitable, he had become vigorous and resolute. His soldiers were setting out on two separate tasks: one group to ready the trap, the other to retrieve the unicorn corpse.
What kind of creature is most merciless? The answer is quite simple: human!
Take for example the way humans deal with seals, whales, and mink; let alone the sheer cruelty of eating raw monkey brain and the dish of three sounds. Anfey would not partake in such indulgences here, as the unicorn had produced in him some kind of indescribable sentiment. But in circumstances such as these, he also would not oppose those on his team that do!
What was once an unparalleled and divine unicorn had become a wretched thing. It really could only be described as a thing now. Its once dazzling fur was taken as a commodity and would someday be made into the highest quality of magic leather. Its sky-blue horn neatly was placed in Christian’s dimensional ring. Its priceless blood was drawn and used as the team’s miracle medicine. With all its glory and power long departed, what remained was entirely covered by maggots.
“Anfey, do we really need to move this thing back?” Shante asked while pinching his nose.
“Let’s bury it first,” said Anfey. He did not know why, but ever since arriving here, Anfey had believed that decisions he made in the moment were even more surprising to the others.
“Bury…bury it?” Shante responded with a forced smile.
“Bury it now, and we will deal with it tomorrow,” Anfey decided.
Shante and Zubin looked at each other, both thinking the same thing—digging a hole would not be so easy, and burying this body also would not be so easy. For two mages, they must expend a lot of physical strength. But Anfey had already spoken; they had no choice but to act according to his directive.
After everyone returned in time for dinner; and each had noticed that Anfey still had not uttered a word. Nobody had ever seen Anfey be lost in himself like this. Even the time Anfey realized that he had killed the sole grandson of a master swordsman, his face had remained undisturbed. Seeing Anfey like this now, even Niya and Shally dared not make a sound. After dinner, Anfey’s appearance had just begun to ease, and everyone silently gestured for Christian to intervene. In everyone’s mind, Christian was the team’s second-in-command. As such, it was his job to help ease whatever worry the leader had.
“Anfey, are you busy? Can we go for a walk?” Christian asked as he approached Anfey’s side with a sympathetic smile.
“Sure, I have some things I want to discuss with you anyways,” Anfey nodded.
As everyone else watched silently, the two slowly left the cave.
Both were silent for a moment, then Christian began with, “Anfey, what’s weighing on your mind? It seemed like your mood suddenly shifted earlier.”
“Let’s go a bit farther first—I do not want our conversation to be overheard,” Anfey said.
“Sure,” Christian agreed.
Suddenly little Shally ran out of the cave, handed something to Christian and said, “Thank you, Christian.”
Anfey noticed that it was the unicorn horn.
“No problem, little Shally. You are too polite,” Christian chuckled.
Then Niya and Suzanna also appeared out of the cave, walking towards the garden.
Anfey frowned, “What are you two up to?”
“Going for a bath,” Niya timidly responded. Normally, she would certainly have responded with, “Who wants you to know” or “Not going to tell you.” But this evening Anfey seemed off, so she naturally responded more politely.
“Nonsense, the lake is toxic!” cried Anfey.
“Anfey, they tossed the unicorn horn into the lake a full day and a half ago. The toxins have all been neutralized,” Christian laughed. “If outsiders catch wind of us using a unicorn horn for bath water…we would probably get scolded for being too wasteful.”
“This is true,” Anfey agreed. “Susanna, you must be careful! Although wyverns have quite poor night vision and will not attack at night, what of other magical beasts?”
“I know,” Susanna replied.
“These women…they’re so delicate!” Anfey exclaimed, watching as Niya waited for the others. But just as the words left his mouth, he felt his back itch—he too wanted a bath…
“Women, they’re all that way,” Christian said, smiling. Returning to their conversation he asked, “Anfey, can we talk now?”
“Oh…how do I put this. Today, as Zubin, Shante, and I were digging up the unicorn corpse, I noticed that my mark had been moved.”
“Mark? What mark?”
“It is difficult to explain. What I can tell you is that someone had been digging around the unicorn corpse!”
“What happens if…other magical creatures had touched the body?”
“It was not magical creatures,” Anfey decisively replied.
“Do you mean…you think someone may be secretly monitoring us?”
“Beyond doubt, there is certainly someone!” Anfey smiled, “And through today’s events, I have realized some things.”
“What?”
“Remember Zeda?”
“Of course!”
“Has Zeda ever come to the master’s house?”
Christian thought carefully, “Never.”
“This confirms my hypothesis; we are inadvertently…or we are being forced into a huge conspiracy!”
“Anfey, why do you say that?”
“Zeda is too arrogant. Do you dare enter Philip’s home to stir up trouble? Do not say there is some royal decree. But even if there were such a command, for the sake of the future, they should still act politely,” Anfey sneered. “And if Maris is really working with Zeda, could you really call that a coincidence?
“I…am confused, Anfey,” Christian responded, wryly smiling.
“The first time we met the Knights of the Holy Flame Legion, there were those who helped us—why would they help us?”
“Might have been a friend of the master or…”
“Don’t you think that’s too naïve?”
“Then…what are you saying happened?”
“Someone needed us to escape! Someone needed us to do this—they used our movements to convey to the outside world some kind of…message. Do you understand now?”
“There are still…some things I do not understand,” Christian replied, perplexed.
“We have become pawns in somebody else’s game!” Anfey spat. “I hate being manipulated!!!”
Chapter 77: Attack
Neither Anfey nor Christian slept well that night. Anfey had only spoken half of his thoughts. He couldn’t tell Christian some of the plans, and Christian kept tossing and turning, his thoughts unknown. He rolled over into Anfey, who also had trouble falling asleep, and met his eyes. They exchanged smiles, and once again turned away in different directions.
Everyone got up early in the morning and efficiently divided the labor. Blavi, Sanchez, Feller, and others stayed behind to look after the base camp. Anfey, Christian, Riska and the main force went to dig up the unicorn corpse. Anfey was a little worried that the two-footed flying dragon might come to provoke them, so he especially took out a piece of the highest quality magic crystal to have Christian form a magic array. Soon afterwards he led the main battle squad out onto the prairie.
Ten miles from the manticore’s den, Christian and Suzanna were preparing the final touches. The trap was about five meters wide, with four tree branches on top to hold it in place. A net of woven tree sticks was laid on the branches as well. They had prepared a lot of timber for building houses these days, and weren’t lacking these materials.
At the very bottom of the trap, Christian had arranged a magic array with increased gravity. As long as he was at a far distance to stimulate the operation of the magic array with his mental strength, within ten meters of the magic array, the gravity would increase seven or eight fold, the weight of the branches and the net of sticks on top of the trap would also increase. With the addition of surface dust and the weight of the corpse of the unicorn, the branches would abruptly break, and everything on top would fall down.
After building it, Suzanna and Christian went around the trap, and even ran up on top of the trap and stomped on it a few times. It was pretty durable, although there was a loose feeling beneath the feet. But in the magic beasts forest, there were fallen sticks and leaves everywhere, and even if the ground appeared to be very strong, it was still surprising to suddenly have one foot trapped in the midst of a pile of fallen leaves.
Anfey, Riska and the others had carried the unicorn corpse over. At this time, Christian had already formed a magic array to mask all the fluctuations of the elements, ten meters away behind the bushes. After having placed the unicorn corpse properly, they would just have to wait.
The first to arrive weren’t the seven-winged magic flies, but a few types of small magic beasts. Anfey was surprised that he actually saw some magic beasts similar to grayish black rabbits biting at the carrion of the unicorn. He did not have the impression that rabbits were carnivores.
As time passed, an increasing number of magic beasts gathered near the unicorn corpse. It was probably due to the fact that the unicorn corpse was too immense, and caused all the magic beasts to believe there was enough food. There were no conflicts between them; they ate their own fill and appeared to be very peaceful.
The commotion of the gathering of all types of magical beasts quickly caught the attention of the seven-winged magic flies. Two golden lights appeared and sped nearer, finally stopping eight or nine meters in the air, and shining downwards.
Anfey had heard Christian tell him before that the seven-winged magic fly was enormous, and similar to the size of a human brain. That was why Anfey had subconsciously thought of the seven-winged magic fly as a type of spherically shaped magic beast. It wasn’t until he had seen with his own eyes that he understood that Christian meant the body length. It could only be said that Christian’s description was mistaken.
The seven-winged magic fly had a very soft body. Its body was about as thick as a person’s two fingers, its whole body appeared to be a pale gold, and there were indeed seven pairs of wings, three pairs on each side and a pair on their back that appeared to be very small and short compared to the other wings.
This splint on the back helped it to be able to change its flight direction even more rapidly, which made it even more difficult to predict the course of its flight.
The seven-winged magic fly is a worthy flight master; its action of being suspended in air seemed very easy and natural. Behind it was a small sunflower shaped sucker that shook around as if it was looking for something. A seven–winged fly rapidly turned its body around and flew in the direction it came from, and another seven-winged magic fly then continued to circle over the unicorn corpse.
Not long after, the distant forest began to glow with bits of golden light. A group of seven-winged magic flies flew towards them aggressively, and the magic beasts that were fighting over the unicorn corpse seemed somewhat afraid. They slowly stopped eating and looked towards the sky.
This group of seven-winged magic flies first attacked the grayish black rabbit-looking magic beast. It seemed that not only humans know to pinch persimmons that are ripe [1]…
The rest of the magic beasts stood aloof, as if it did not affect them, and took a bite of carrion from time to time. That rabbit-like magic beast obviously wasn’t an opponent, and would soon be banished and disappear in the midst of the magic beast forest.
Immediately after that, the group of seven-winged magic flies started to attack a big spider with a weird totem on its back, and thus, at that moment, it finally experienced the fruit of having watched coldly on the sideline.
It waved it’s little legs in rebellion as it let out calls of chirps, as if it was asking the other magical beasts to rescue it. But just as it had not help the rabbit just then, no magic beasts came to help it now.
The seven-winged magic flies attacked very fast, and once they attacked, they flew away immediately, not lingering over the big spider. In the blink of an eye, their attack came wave after wave, and left many wounds on the big spider. Luckily, the seven-winged magic flies’ could only heal themselves once. If it could be combined, this big spider probably would have been immobilized already.
Finally, the big spider couldn’t stand the collective attack of the seven-winged magic flies and fled into the forest. The seven-winged magic flies regrouped in the air, as if they were choosing their next opponent.
A magic wolf with a lame leg let out a howl to warn the seven-winged magic flies not to mess with it; to go bully the others because it was not to be trifled with. Who could have known that even before the wolf’s cry had stopped, a very horrible scream came from afar. Immediately, a huge figure in the sky came pressing towards them.
The wolf was very vigilant.. Before the other magic beasts could respond, it had already opened its mouth and ripped off a big piece of carrion from the unicorn corpse, and immediately went into the forest. Even though it had just pronounced its solemn declaration, it fled into the forest in the blink of an eye; that was too much of a loss of face. But high-level magic beasts were at the top of the food chain in the magic beasts forest. Even a group of starving magic wolves wouldn’t dare to wage an attack on the two-footed flying dragon, and magic beasts like the magic wolf don’t really care for its reputation either.
The rest of the magic beasts coaxed to disperse. The magic beast forest was a region where the strong ones were respected, and it was also a region of survival of the fittest. All the magic beasts understood that; they knew what they should do when in the face of irresistible force.
A two-footed flying dragon lazily landed. This two-footed flying dragon was a bit bigger than the two-footed flying dragon that broke into the cave yesterday. It was too lazy to pay attention to the scattered fleeing magic beasts.
It tilted its head and looked around, then shook its stout body and slowly walked towards the unicorn corpse.
Within the magic shield, Anfey carefully watched the two-footed flying dragon’s every movement, but Christian was watching Anfey instead, and was quietly waiting for Anfey to give a signal.
The two-footed flying dragon finally set down on the trap under everyone’s eyes. But at this moment, an accident occurred. Although Anfey and everyone had carefully compiled the branches into a net, and Suzanna had carefully inspected it as well, there would always be some omissions. In this case, this two-footed flying dragon’s weight was beyond imagination. As a result, its right leg broke the branches underneath, and it fell deep into the trap, with its whole body slanted.
“Begin!” Anfey said in a low voice. He wanted the painstakingly created trap to be of great use; to be able to kill all the seven-winged magic flies and even a few two-footed flying dragons. But hope is just hope. That two-footed flying dragon’s accident had already destroyed Anfey’s hopes.
Christian quickly used mental strength to launch a magic array to increase gravitational strength. There came a light hoot from the air, and the surrounding weeds ten meters or so from the unicorn corpse, as well as the shrubs, fell neatly onto the ground all at the same time, as if the ground beneath had some random force of attraction. Their leaves stuck entirely onto the ground, and also produced breaking sounds from time to time.
The most unfortunate were the seven-winged magic flies. Their wings were actually very thin, and they relied on having a light body in order for them to be able to fly fast. During the start of the magic array, there body weight immediately increased a few times.
At the same time, they flapped their wings rapidly on instinct, in hopes of ridding that kind of force of attraction. Due to the intensity of the struggle, their wings either abruptly snapped, or their bodies were strained. They fell to the ground one after another as a result.
But the two-footed flying dragon and the unicorn corpse in front of it disappeared together. The ground trembled. An adult two-footed flying dragon’s weight was around 4,000 pounds, and with the addition of the increased gravity, something around the weight of nearly 30 thousand pounds crashed into the trap. It was not a surprise to have this kind of result. Not to mention that the unicorn’s corpse was also affected by the increased gravity, and together, it would be an intimidating figure.
Suzanna jumped up and rushed towards the trap first. To have arranged the magic array in the middle of the trap was a last resort; they would not get the desired result if the magic array were formed in other places. But after the heavy weight had fallen into the trap, it could possibly have done damage to the magic array. The effect of the increased gravity would disappear, and she did not have a lot of time.
Suzanna stopped for moment when she rushed out of the area enveloped in the magic array. The undulation that the magic array produced suddenly disappeared. Only then did Suzanna conveyed her energy for battle and sprung up straight towards the inside of the trap like a meteor. She wanted to resolve the hidden danger before the two-footed flying dragon restored its combat power.
The second one to charge was Anfey, while Riska released a frost tactic. White frost flowers that are visible to the naked eye began to condense on the ground surrounding the trap. The seven-winged magic flies like hot and humid weather; the frost tactic would make them suffer! As for Suzanna and Anfey, a temperature around zero degrees was completely tolerable.
Since time was short, there were only three raised top sharp-pointed stakes in the trap. The two-footed flying dragon was lucky: it laid right in the middle of the three stakes, and only one of the stakes gave it a minor scrape. The two-footed flying dragon struggled to flip its body, wanting to get itself upright. The light from the sword that Suzanna released had already arrived. A crescent moon shaped sword light struck the belly of the two-footed flying dragon and immediately left a wound about 4 inches long, and the two-footed flying dragon screamed loudly.
“Yeah!” Suzanna yelled, and kicked the inside wall of the trap forcefully with her right leg. Her attack when her whole body was shrouded in combat mode was very scary. That kick made a big hole in the wall, and Suzanna sprung up and leapt towards the two-footed flying dragon’s neck.
The two-footed flying dragon had an unusually agile neck. It was the main weapon for hunting, but it was also its fatal weakness. Compared to its huge body, the two-footed flying dragon’s neck was way too thin and small, and it could not withstand an attack that was too fierce.
And at the moment, Anfey was waving the tail needle of the manticore, attacking the seven-winged magic flies that practically had not defense against it. Suzanna was the strong one anyways; there was no need for him to exert his utmost strength.
A brutal cold light flashed across the small pupils of the two-footed flying dragon. It shook its neck and bypassed Suzanna’s attack, and instead, it bit towards Suzanna’s lower abdomen from below. Although the two-footed flying dragon was fighting Suzanna while lying down on the ground, its speed of movement was still very rapid.
Suzanna gripped her left fist tightly, and bounded with dazzling combat energy, she struck out downwards. Suzanna’s small hand normally appeared to be delicate, but after conveying combat energy, her hand became hard like iron, and her punch struck the two-footed flying dragon’s head with a direct hit. Suzanna only felt bursts of soreness in her hand, and her body could not help but to float upwards, while the two-footed flying dragon screamed loudly in more pain.
At this time, Christian and Riska came charging forward. Christian raised his hand and a flash of lightning fell out of thin air and struck the two-footed flying dragon’s head. Riska’s release of magic was much slower than Christian’s, but what he released, however, was a fire meteor. The two-footed flying dragon still flipped over on its belly, but it simply could not dodge, and could only watch the fire meteor crash onto its body.
Hot flames shot everywhere. Suzanna eyed the exact position of the two-footed flying dragon, and still relying on the overpowering combat energy, she pushed into the fire. The two-footed flying dragon was about to go crazy with pain, and did not expect a human silhouette to sprung out of the flames. There was no time for it to resist again, and the long sword bathed in combat energy heavily hacked onto the back of its neck.
Although the sword attack that Suzanna had summoned with all her strength did not fully chop through the two-footed flying dragon’s neck, the attack left the dragon with no chance of survival. The two-footed flying dragon’s scream suddenly died down, and its long neck fell weakly to the ground. Under its mouth was the unicorn corpse of its dreams: It was a pity that it did not have enough strength left to even eat just a small piece of the carrion.
Riska let out a breath of relief, and repeatedly released a few whirlwinds. The two-footed flying dragon’s ability to resist magic was the lowest amongst the high level magic beasts, and their ability to resist the magic of the fire series was beyond hideous and horrible to look at. The fire meteor abruptly exploded a hole in the two-footed flying dragon’s chest. The stink of burnt flesh penetrated the air, and Riska could barely stand it.
Christian and Suzanna’s expressions became more relaxed, and they turned around together to look towards Anfey. Anfey was seriously brandishing the manticore’s tail needle, and the attack made the last seven-winged magic fly that was trying to escape fall to the ground. Sante and Zubin followed behind Anfey, collecting the seven-winged magic flies. The three strong combatants—the high level swordsman, the beginner level magister, and one who had just become a magister—joined forces, and Anfey was not worried that they would have some type of accident. His concentration was all on the seven-winged magic flies.
Although there were countless good things in Anfey’s dimensional ring, they were not his own. Anfey never had a selfish thought of private possession; they would have to be returned to Saul sooner or later. But the unicorn corpse, manticore, and the seven-winged magic flies were different. These were the fruits of their team’s labor. Anfey had always valued his own private belongings…
Achoo … Anfey contentedly took back the manticore’s tail needle into the dimensional ring and sneezed. The effects of the frost tactic had gradually dissipated, but the air was still very cold. On the other hand, Christian was waiting for people not in the midst of combat and was surrounded by the magic shield, so he had no problems. Anfey glanced with envy at Christian and the others; he didn’t know when he’d be able to generate a magic shield. How impressive would that be.
“Is everyone alright?” Anfey jumped in place a few times and began to do warm-up exercises. Anfey’s wariness gradually decreased with the increase in the amount of time he had spent with everyone, and his temperament became easy-going. In the past, he would not have done this type of action under everyone’s eyes.
“We still have no problem in dealing with a two-footed flying dragon,” said Riska confidently. They all said that strength was ambition’s cradle. With the increase of strength, almost everyone’s ambitions would gradually grow. In actuality, confidence would also increase along with strength. Knowing that he had broken the bottleneck, and that becoming a magister was just around the corner, Riska became more confident.
“Don’t be careless!” Anfey shook his head. “Suzanna, take out that two-footed flying dragon’s magic crystal and poisonous tooth before the other two-footed flying dragons rush here.”
Anfey was beginning to like Suzanna more and more, but this was not the usual kind of affinity between a man and a woman. Apart from the times when they had disputes, Suzanna did not have that many shortcomings, and her merits were obvious. She could endure hardship and trouble, she was willing to exert her utmost strength, her ability was the strongest amongst the team, and she knew how to obey commands. She was simply the role model citizen of another world…Where could one go to find such a good opponent?!
“Okay.” Sure enough, after Suzanna nodded, she obediently extracted the two-footed flying dragon’s poisonous tooth.
“Anfey, let’s go check out the two-footed flying dragons’ nest. Although the two-footed flying dragons live in groups, they are separated when they are hunting, and at most only two or three are together. If we go to their nest, we might have a lot to gain,” Christian suggested. Having won so easily gave him a lot of confidence, and all those people at the scene were all the core members of the team’s combat power. No one would be getting in the way of anyone. In case they came across any danger, there would still be no problem in retreat.
“Might as well.” Anfey nodded his head. It did not mean that they would definitely have to fight if they went. Without the seven-winged magic flies being their eyes and ears, the two-footed flying dragons would have a hard time discovering them, and they could use the eye of the sky to observe movement from far away. If there were advantages to take, then they would attack. If there were no advantages, then they would just go back.
They all knew the specific location of the manticore’s nest. After Suzanna had taken out the spoils of war, everyone rushed toward the nest of the two-footed flying dragons together. Christian released the eye of the sky once again, at the place where everyone had stayed last time, and searched for the trail of the two-footed flying dragons.
Compared to last time, the surrounding scenery had changed a lot. First, on the ancient tree near the resting ground of the manticore, there were seven or eight large mud nests. Those were indeed the nests of the two-footed flying dragons. The two-footed flying dragons liked to rest in trees, because their night vision was very poor, and resting on top of trees could help them to avoid a lot of dangers. Otherwise, a group of magic wolves could cause them big trouble at night.
After having searched for a while, Suzanna exclaimed in surprise, “Weird, how come I can’t see even one two-footed flying dragon?”
“Search again,” Anfey said quietly.
After searching again, they were still not able to find a single one. Christian suddenly became nervous. “Anfey, they didn’t go attack our camping ground, right?”
“That’s probably not possible.” Anfey pondered for a moment, “You don’t have to worry. Didn’t we already arrange a magic array to protect everyone? Besides, they have a lighting chain scroll and hell’s fire scroll. Even if all the two-footed flying dragons went, they would still be able to ward them off.”
“I say we go back immediately,” Christian said. “We’ll talk again in a while.” Anfey shook his head. “Riska, release the eye of the sky as well, and go in two different directions with Christian to search for the two-footed flying dragons!”
According to Christian and other people’s analyses of the habits of the two-footed flying dragons, even if they had gone out to hunt collectively, there should still be two or three two-footed flying dragons that stayed behind in the nest. But now not a single one was to be found, and Anfey kept feeling it was a bit strange.
In order to find the two-footed flying dragons’ trail faster, Christian and Riska both increased the scope of the eye of the sky this time. Searching from two directions, Riska shortly found a two-footed flying dragon’s corpse first. “Anfey, hurry and come look!” Riska shouted. Anfey and the others quickly rushed over. A two-footed flying dragon’s corpse lay quietly in the grass, with a blood hole as thick as a baby’s arm on its body. Their initial estimate was that there were probably more than a hundred two-footed flying dragons. The surrounding shrubs hadn’t changed that much, which proved that the battle ended very fast!
“Riska, give me your magic coordinates!” Christian said anxiously.
“Alright,” Riska nodded his head.
With accurate magic coordinates, Christian’s eye of the sky’s search range moved closer. After they both worked very hard, they again found another two corpses of two-footed flying dragons. If it was a battle of equal strengths, then the surrounding grass and shrubs would not have been untrampled. But the scene of the two-footed flying dragons’ death appeared to be very peaceful.
“Could it be…done by the top level magic beasts?” Anfey asked.
“Not possible. This way of attack does not seem to be of magic beasts,” Suzanna shook her head.
“Then what do you say it was?”
“People!”
“People?” Anfey was surprised. The first person he thought of was the old Phillip, whom he had never met. “Could he have already caught up to us here?” Anfey thought.
“It must also be a lot of people!” Suzanna’s second sentence gave Anfey a huge feeling of relief.
“Anfey, what about me?” Christian asked. His mood at the moment was very contradictory. Having been hanging around in the magic beasts forest for so long, he really wanted to see other people, but he was also worried about coming across danger. Human nature could not be controlled, and even Anfey had wanted people to come onto the island.
“Christian, meditate with Riska for a while first, and then we will go over there to look together.” Anfey pondered for a moment and made up his mind. Kings always had a saying, “How can an outsider sleep on my bed!” Anfey and they had risked danger to eliminate the unicorn and manticore, and were even prepared to get rid of the two-footed flying dragons. It was for the team that he could become the ruler of this region, and so they would be able to live safely. But now a group of people appeared randomly; they had to get to the bottom of this no matter what!
Christian knew that it was a serious matter, didn’t say much either and went into meditation with Riska. The two had mastered the method of deep meditation. They had not lost much magic energy, so returned to their best condition fast.
Following along the magic coordinate, a party very carefully made their way to the scene of the battle. This time, everyone appeared to be much more cautious. When investigating the nest of the two-footed flying dragons, Christian and the others had released a drifting tactic, and landed when they had just rushed in. But at the moment, he was carefully going through the forest with Suzanna. Not only were their movements very slow, and they heard some noises now and then, their companions also became silent, and only continued to move forward after deciding that there were no dangerous circumstances.
Apart from Anfey, the rest of them could not accurately estimate the time. After 20 or 30 minutes, everyone rushed to a two-footed flying dragon’s corpse and began to carefully examine it.
Two or three wounds were nothing, but hundreds of holes crowded together seemed a bit scary. The two-footed flying dragon’s eyes were still opened, and its light green skin had already became greenish black. There were bloodstains all over its body. Anfey walked to the front, pinched a small piece of flesh from the wound with his fingers, and tore it off with force. He then gently twisted it between his two fingers, and concentrated fully on feeling the elasticity of the flesh.
But Suzanna and the others did not understood what Anfey was doing. They observed vigilantly, and sensed the state of affairs of the outside world while looking at Anfey.
Anfey again grabbed a handful of bloodstained soil from the two-footed flying dragon’s corpse, smelled it, then gently let it go. He then broke off a branch from the middle of the shrubs, broke the twigs and leaves, and inserted it deep into the two-footed flying dragon’s wound. The wound wasn’t deep, but it wasn’t shallow either; it was about seven or eight centimeters deep. Anfey had also tested a few other wounds, and found that they were about the same depth.
It could be said that there was no lethal wound on this two-footed flying dragon’s body, but the key was that there were too many wounds. No matter what magic beast, excessive blood loss would lead to rapid exhaustion and would lead straight to death!
“Anfey, what did you see?” Suzanna asked.
Anfey pondered for a moment, “Minus the time they spent searching for the two-footed flying dragons, minus the meditation, minus the time spent rushing here.” He came to a conclusion: “This two-footed flying dragon just died right before we arrived here!”
“Then what about these wounds? Can you tell what kind of weapon it was?” Suzanna asked.
“Suzanna, how deep of a wound can you inflict on the two-footed flying dragon’s body if you summoned all your combat power, and attacked with full force?” Anfey asked in return.
“Let me try.” Suzanna gathered her combat power, walked slowly to the front of the two-footed flying dragon’s body, and forcefully stabbed towards the two-footed flying dragon’s belly. As a result, the sword went in deeply, almost to the sword hilt.
“This does not count.” Suzanna shook her head. “After a magic beast dies, its defense would decrease, and…I think that this two-footed flying dragon is very strange, as if it was a bunch of grass. I could not feel any resistance at all.”
“Take a look at this.” Anfey raised up the tree branch in his hand, “If you were facing a live two-footed flying dragon, and used a full force attack, would you be able to stab such a deep wound?”
“Probably two or three times as deep as this,” Suzanna said.
“Then that would be thirty centimeters…” Anfey pondered for a moment. “Depending on a high level swordsman’s combat power, with a handle of mystery in hand, always unwilling to tell of the origin of the top sword, only then could Suzanna leave a thirty centimeters deep wound on the two-footed flying dragon. What kind of person is he? Could it be there were hundreds of beginner level swordsman?”
“I have a feeling this two-footed flying dragon’s body does not contain the magic crystal anymore!” Suzanna exclaimed suddenly.
“Oh?” Anfey was stunned.
Suzanna did not wait for Anfey to speak, and had already jumped onto the two-footed flying dragon’s body. She stabbed downwards, split opened the carcass, and this time Anfey and the others all saw the strange and unusual sight. The unicorn’s magic crystal grew in the unicorn’s brain, and the two-footed flying dragon’s magic crystal grew in its chest, wrapped up by its heart.
When Suzanna had retrieved the magic crystal from the two-footed flying dragon that had been in the trap, she chopped and cut, and after after working hard for a while, she finally retrieved it. But now, this two-footed flying dragon seemed as if it was made of mud, and was easily cut open by Suzanna. Both were two-footed flying dragons and both were corpses, so there shouldn’t have been that much of a difference!
“Heavens! There is indeed no magic crystal! How did they do it?!” Suzanna exclaimed in surprise. She had already cut the two-footed flying dragon’s heart open. It was empty inside; there was no magic crystal, and not even blood!
Just at this time, hundreds of meters away in the forest, came a person’s scream. Anfey and the others looked back towards the location of the scream.
“Attack!!” Another person’s shout was heard. Promptly, that person yelled again in a very furious tone, “Who screamed just now!? I will f***king cut him into pieces!!”
Immediately, a dense javelin like thing shot out from the forest in every direction, and landed at the spot Anfey and the others were.
There was a penetrating whining sound everywhere in the sky, and the javelin-like thing that was shot overhead was like a group of dark clouds.
Luckily, Anfey and the others had already developed a sense of vigilance. Christian and four mages had already set up four walls, which firmly blocked everyone, and Christian also released a magic shield, which protected everyone inside. Christian brought out the sword, stood at the very front, and anxiously guarded.
Although the momentum of the javelin was jarring, the wall was a very effective magic shield. The javelin destroyed two walls in a row, but in front of the third wall, it did not have much energy left and could only drill into the wall in vain, its tail still trembling.
“My god! Orc!! Let’s get out of here!!” Suzanna screamed urgently. Numerous savage faces emerged from the forest, and came charging forward at swift speed.
Christian and Riska held onto Anfey on either side, levitated, and flew into the sky. Zubin and Sante also followed from behind.
“Turn!! Towards north!!” Anfey said in a low voice, then preceded to lift his voice, “Suzanna, catch up with us, hurry!” Although having suffered from the sudden attack, Anfey’s senses were very clear, but Christian was actually thrown into a panic. He fled straight towards the camp, but this could probably lure the Orcs to the campsite. In order to temporarily protect the safety of the camp, there had to be a change in direction.
Footnotes:
[1] To pick on those who are easy to bully
Chapter 78: Unintentional Fabrication
Looking back, Anfey could see clearly the group of savage looking orcs charging out of the forest. Among them was a young black-haired person dressed in black who looked particularly interesting. Anfey could feel that the young person was the leader of the orcs.
The orcs did not appear to want to give up their goal, and they continually produced weird shouts, charging towards Anfey and the others. Anfey’s knowledge about the orcs was that they were always disoriented, whether in single tribes or groups of tribes, and there shouldn’t be orcs living in Forest Clarm! But the orcs behind them were well equipped, and the javelin that was just thrown out was standard. At this time, every single orc was holding the same short handled wolf tooth rod, and some orcs were even wearing leather armor. How did this seem like a mess?
Anfey was able to float in the sky because of Christian and Riska’s ability to fly, so he didn’t need to use his strength and he could observe the movements of the orcs. The levitation speed wasn’t that fast, but it was more convenient when compared to going through the forest, and Susanna easily left the orcs far behind with reliance on combat power.
Those orcs saw that they could not keep up. Some gradually slowed their pace, while some could not bear it but continued to pursue in exhaustion. Their whole formation came apart.
“Let me down! Christian!” Anfey yelled. He believed in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Since these orcs had attempted a sneak attack, he would not let them go that easily!
Christian took Anfey’s direction, together with Riska let Anfey down onto the treetops, and were prompted to release a magic signal that meant counterattack. Zubin and Sante scattered in two directions of the roundabout, Suzanna came to a fast stop, and shot back immediately like a sharp arrow.
Anfey grasped a section of tree branches to first steady himself, and then used both feet to step forcefully on a thicker branch to test its flexibility. He stood up, held onto the treetop, and his body fell straight down. That tree branch could not hold Anfey’s weight. When Anfey was seven or eight meters away from the ground, it split open with the sound of a crack. Anfey took a deep breath, rolled as he hit to absorb the blow, pulled out the sword with his backhand, and stared coldly at the more than a dozen orcs that were charging forward.
Retreat was just a strategy; it did not mean being scared of the enemy. There were two beginner level magisters on the team, and also a high level swordsman. This type of strength would not be inferior to the other combatants! Just then they were on flat ground; the terrain was very unfavorable, but the team of orcs had already been pulled apart, so it was time to fight back!
Christian and the others who were in the air rose higher, and then started to gather fire energy to attack the orcs in the middle. In this type of battle, fire magic was the most substantial. Especially with the exploding nature of a big fireball, even if it could not reach its attack target, its explosion would still bring disaster to the nearby orcs. Christian also released numerous flame dusts; dusts as hot as fire clouds abruptly divided the orcs in the middle.
Suzanna brandished her sword, rushed to the two orcs in the front. They did not know better and charged toward Suzanna while waving their short-handled wolf tooth rod. The result was that Suzanna almost split one orc’s back in two, from the middle up to the shoulders. Another one suffered one of Suzanna’s kicks to his front chest. He flew back like a bullet, and crashed into a big tree. When he slid down the tree slowly, his back was already bloody and bruised His front chest was not visible, and one can’t say what could have become of it.
There were probably more than a hundred of them in this group of orcs. Most of them had already stopped chasing, especially since Christian and the others held off a part of them. There were only a few orcs who charged forward to the immediate fight, and they were not a threat for Suzanna. But before she first slaughtered, the corner of her eyes swept over to Anfey when she was charging towards the other few orcs. She was worried about Anfey’s safety.
In actuality, Anfey and Suzanna should have switched sword tactics to be appropriate for this time. That was because Suzanna’s sword’s skill was bold and unconstrained; using the fastest attack speed with the shortest attack distance, she hit every oncoming opponent. Unable to stop their movement forward, the fate of these orcs was the same no matter how fast they would respond. Being unable to defend would naturally lead to death, and if they were able to block Suzanna’s sword, they still lost weapons in the power of the collision. And Suzanna could rely on spare energy to behead the opponents.
Anfey had changed to a new sword tactic. It was elegant and flexible; now on the right, now on the left, his opponents were unable to figure it out. He seemed to know that the power of the orcs was very strong. The sword in his hand never seemed to come into contact with the opponent’s weapon, and he always waited for the orcs to attack first. He would then attack suddenly when the opponent’s tactics became predictable, and once he attacked, there would be blood.
In the blink of an eye, Anfey and Suzanna had taken down seven or eight of the orcs in the front, and then Anfey greeted an orc with its whole body green. Every one of the orcs had a ferocious look on its face, their colors were similar, and their bodies emitted a foul sweat smell. Anfey did not notice that the orc in front of him was a little darker in color than the other orcs. He stepped sideways to bypass the opponent’s attack, and then stabbed towards the opponent’s right ribs.
That orc appeared to be very agile. Anfey’s choices of his attack times were always very cunning, always choosing when the opponent was almost tired out and before the opponent could recharge its energy. But that orc could actually escape this type of situation. Anfey’s sword brushed against the bottom of his right ribs, and made a deep bloodstain. The orc yelled, and the short handled wolf tooth rod in his hand came smashing towards Anfey head-on. Although Anfey was a bit curious, he was not at all flustered. He stepped away suddenly and let the wolf tooth rod pass him. The sword in his hand twisted up like a poisonous snake, and with a flutter stabbed the orc’s neck.
Anfey swung the sword stealthily with strength in his wrist, and cut a wound so deep on the orc’s neck that the open throat was visible. Anfey did not stop, and rushed past that orc’s side to greet another orc.
“Careful!!” Suzanna suddenly yelled. Anfey felt a gush of wind behind his head, there was no time to think, his stature suddenly shortened, and he stretched the sword in his hand out backwards. Listening to the wind was basic work for Anfey. He could not only figure out the weapon of his opponent from the sound of air in the wind, but could also accurately figure out the path of attack. His sword blocked the opponent’s attack exactly.
Anfey’s sword broke with the sound of a clang. This sword was originally Zeda’s. Anfey had always kept it on him until today. Although the sword’s quality was pretty good, it was very torn, without having been protected by combat energy while training with Suzanna. This time when it collided with the heavy wolf tooth rod, the life of the sword had finally come to an end.
Anfey rolled around and avoided attacks with agility. He flipped over and jumped to one side. He then had an opportunity to look back. The orc whose neck had been cut one-third through was charging towards him with the wolf tooth rod held high.
Anfey was very confident in his means of attack. That was a definite fatal wound! If he did not think that the opponent would immediately fall down, he would never just have walked past the opponent’s side chicly and exposed his whole backside to the enemy!
Even though Anfey was a bit surprised, his expression still did not change one bit. He retrieved the manticore’s tail needle from the dimensional ring with his backhand. With a mighty demeanor, he pierced the tail needle into the counterpart’s shoulder at the sound of a flutter.
That orc suddenly froze and became rigid! The low chance of rigidity from the manticore’s tail actually was a success in the first real battle. Suzanna had also arrived. Throwing herself at the orc, her right leg drew an airwave visible to the naked eye, and landed a blow to the orc’s head .
Anfey had already sliced a third of the way into that orc’s neck, and the strength of Suzanna’s kick was too strong. The huge beast’s head went volleying up into the sky and flew far into the distance in the direction Suzanna’s leg had kicked. In front of them was only a headless torso, still spewing blood.
Anfey hastily jumped out of the way and avoided the bright red fountain. He tilted his head and saw Suzanna’s body was half stained with blood; but she acted as if it were nothing, and once again faced the last few orcs.
There was a saying that goes, “Mountains and rivers can be changed, but it is hard to change a person’s nature.” Anfey was a person who liked to ponder people. Even during this battle he was like that. “This girl has definitely killed people before! Maybe…she even killed a lot!” From the side, he could see that Suzanna had a gutsy and fearless look on her face, and thus he made the judgment.
At this time, a low horn sound came from the forest. All the orcs turned neatly and ran back like a well-trained army. The few orcs that were attempting to surround Suzanna in the middle also turned around together and ran back. Suzanna hesitated, carved out a cross shape with her sword, light from the sword shot out, and two orcs were killed on the spot. Just when Suzanna was about to wield her sword again, Anfey’s voice rang out from behind her, “Leave this to me!”
Anfey had already rushed past Suzanna when she had paused for a second. His palm hit the orc’s back, and the orc screamed and flew out flailing his arms and legs. But his injury was not that serious. The orc rolled around a few times on the ground but got back up and continued to run forwards; and couldn’t tell where it was hurt.
“What are you doing?” Suzanna asked with a frown. Anfey smiled as he waved his hands, at the same time he sniffed the smell in the air, and revealed a well-thought-out smile. Suzanna shrugged and did not continue to question him. She thought: “This man is mysterious in many ways anyways. I wouldn’t be able to get any answers even if I do ask, and even then, the answers I get might not even be true.”
Christian and a few others landed from the air. “Anfey, should we chase them?”
“No need, they can’t run away,” Anfey said with a smile, “Suzanna, what was up with that orc just then? I obviously hurt him so badly, how did he still have strength to fight?”
“That wasn’t a normal orc, it was an orc warrior.”
“Very powerful?”
“If it was very powerful you’d have long been dead,” Suzanna rolled her eyes at Anfey, “Above the orc warrior is still the beast blood warrior, and the strongest is the beast soul warrior. Have you heard of Ahdibaijan?”
“This name…I’m very familiar with!” Anfey pondered. “It’s the powerful warrior that united all the savage tribes!”
Suzanna said slowly, “Ahdibaijan’s lineage is half wolf man. He is a beast soul warrior! The beast soul warrior is a very fearsome creature. Back then, master mage Richard entered Moon Shadow City at the cost of his life and sealed Ahdibaijan in with the use of a vacuum scroll, just because there was no other way.”
“I also know this, Ahdibaijan once fell into the humans’ trap, and had hundreds of magic concealing arrows on his body, but he still killed his way out of the encirclement in the end. After half a year, he had completely recovered. If it was an ordinary human, or even if it were a legendary swordsman, this would not be possible!”
“How many beast soul warriors are there among the orcs?” Anfey asked.
That’s what the novel says.
“Very few, luckily it’s very few,” Christian smiled bitterly.
“I understand,” Anfey nodded, and suddenly looked at Christian, then at Zubin. “At the time, who told me Forest Clarm had no orcs?”
“This…” Christian was speechless and slightly embarrassed.
“Forget it, and let’s not talk about this. Let’s go back immediately. The other people must be anxious.”
“Anfey, are we really not chasing those orcs? I remember that most of the orcs are violent and cruel, but they are practically brainless. Those orcs were actually like an army, and also knew to arrange an ambush. They are too sinister. They will cause big trouble for us sooner or later,” Zubin said suddenly.
“I’ve got the picture,” Anfey said, smiling. “Let’s, go back!”
Back at the cave, Christian first told them of the two-footed flying dragon’s slaughter, so that the people were very happy. Then he told of the clash with the orcs, and the atmosphere became tense again.
Anfey solicited suggestions from everyone to get them to support going to war. Although there were many who did not have much experience handling things—they were generally childish and reckless—one thing was for sure: there were no cowards among them!
Anfey then started to organize the group. He first had Christian and Riska form some more magic arrays at the entrance of the cave. The following day, everyone would take off except Feller, Arrago, Niya, and little Shally with little guy. Christian was very curious why Anfey was so sure he could find the orc tribe. He only asked twice, and both times his questions were brushed off by Anfey. It appeared to be mysterious, but in actuality it was very simple. When Anfey was attacking, he left perfume powder on the barbarian. Under normal circumstances, Anfey could follow the smell of the perfume powder to find the adversary. Anfey wasn’t worried about Christian, but a secret was a secret, the less people knew, the better.
That night, almost everyone who knew they were joining the battle the next day went to sleep early, so they could wake up early to meditate before heading into battle. That way they could exert stronger combat power. Feller and Arrago regretted that they could not participate in the battle. Feller was terribly busy; he had to organize and sort out a lot of statistics every day. And Arrago’s injured leg had not healed yet. Even if they wanted to join in the battle, they were not able to.
Neither Anfey nor Christian slept. They chatted and walked in the grass under the moonlight. Christian was very eloquent, and mastered very profound knowledge. No matter what Anfey brought up, he would always have something to say, so Anfey really liked to chat with Christian.
According to Christian, the origin of magic and combat power in this world was very interesting. Originally, mankind did not know magic and did not have combat power. Humans, elves, barbarians, orcs, and dwarves all lived in peace on the continent. Every type of intelligent life embraced different deities, and there were sub-regional differences. Even the same groups of beings that believed in the same deity had differences.
There were many deities. And there were also many gods who displayed miracles. It was said that gods rely on the power of faith to survive. The more the people had faith in a god, the more powerful he was. Those gods who had no believers could only choose hibernation, or else they would become weaker and weaker. In order to gather more believers, the gods instigated their believers to start wars. At the same time, in order to ensure that their own believers would win, they gave the believers magic and combat power that originally only gods could comprehend. One god did that, and naturally there would be other gods who would not fall far behind. Gradually, all types of intelligent life mastered battle skills that were suitable for them. They expanded, and became unique systems.
But the gods neglected one thing. Under general circumstances, there would not be breakouts of life-or-death battles. That was because they already had the most valuable thing. They were already above all things; there was nothing for them to fight for. But the groups of earthly beings were not the same!
In the never-ending fights, the battle skills the various groups had mastered rapidly rose to a peak. Strong ones who could threaten the safety of the gods appeared. The sword sage of the people, the master magister, paladin, the sunset shooter of the elves, the master deity, the destroyers among the barbarians, sacrificial destructions, beast deity among the orcs, the master ghost, the king of the hills of the dwarves tribe… Those strong ones stood out, about a few dozen of them. The gods may not have cared, but if there was an influx of thousands, or millions, even the most powerful gods would have to retreat.
The gods could not tolerate this! But they could not do anything about it, because the gods needed the power of faith. They could not possibly risk the destruction of faith in order to make things hard for the strong ones. Something similar had happened in the magic world as well. Maybe…it was the result of the gods making peace with the monarchs of the magic world. A huge opening of time and space connected the two planes of space. From then on, mankind launched a bloody slaughter with the magic tribe. A large number of strong ones fell in the middle of the battle. After the ultimate strength of the two worlds collided several times, the battle skills that each person had mastered suffered devastating damage, and the ultimate strong ones who luckily survived the battle all mysteriously disappeared.
Having fought for hundreds of years, neither mankind nor the magic tribe wanted to continue to battle anymore, but they had accumulated too much hatred between them. No one could stop the inertia of this hatred. You came to my hometown to burn and kill, I also have to go loot your domain. Many people bore the hatred through many generations. Who was willing to put down his weapons? Finally after a sharp decrease in the amount of intelligent life on the Pan Continent, many gods sent down miracles, and the huge time and space door disappeared.
Christian started by telling Anfey what he had read from books, and towards the end he gave Saul’s own reasoning and speculation. Saul firmly believed that the century of holy war was just a conspiracy!! One of the most powerful pieces of evidence was that under outrageous circumstances, Brunswick decided to send out the army to block the magic tribe’s attack. Brunswick knew that this was his last battle, and he commanded his four bodyguards to take his children and leave through the magic array. Those four bodyguards were all sword sages, and were also the last inheritance Brunswick gifted to his children. In the end, the children appeared at the other end of the magic array, and the four bodyguards were gone without a trace. Not only Brunswick had this type of encounter. Intelligent beings liked to leave room for maneuver. When the habitat of the elf tribe suffered the siege of the magic tribe, the elf tribe assigned more than thirty sunset shooters and two master deities to other places, and those people also mysteriously disappeared!
When discussing topics related to gods, the fragile mage was actually the boldest among all the strong ones. They believed that as long as they could control enough elements, then they would be gods! Before the holy war, the most famous master magister Hahn had an extravagant saying, “What gods could do, mankind could also do!”
The mage went beyond the normal senses and communicated with the elements, and finally controlled the elements. They believed that elements were the fundamental constitutions of the world, and thus did not believe in any gods! That was why Saul only said those words after having done a lot of research. Of course, Saul was also very careful. Among these people, he had only talked about it with Christian.
Christian was also very careful when he talked about these things with Anfey, and had arranged a sound proof magic array before he dared to spill secrets. After Anfey had heard these things, he felt like a hero that had experienced things. He could totally understand. If he had been a god, and had come across the same situation, he would probably also have formulated a similar plan. This type of drastic approach was very simple and very effective!
The more the two talked, the more interested they got, and they forgot about the time. But the little unicorn was aggrieved. It had risked its life to go out with Anfey to be able to play with Anfey, but it knew Anfey just simply ignored it. It rubbed against Anfey, which annoyed Anfey. A slap made it fall on its back, and it finally obediently lied down behind Anfey.
“Anfey, it’s getting late. Let’s go back.” Christian lifted his head, looked up at the night sky, and hesitated. “Anfey, don’t tell anyone what we talked about tonight! Or else we could bring trouble to our teacher. You know that the church and the magic guild have always had disagreements, and the power of the church is very strong now. They have eyes and ears everywhere. If these things leak out…”
“Alright, don’t worry! Do you think that I am a person with a loose tongue?” Anfey laughed.
“Haha…” Christian laughed a bit, and suddenly proclaimed in surprise, “Huh? Where’s the little guy?” They did not know when the little unicorn had actually slipped away. Anfey could not be blamed. He had been enthusiastically talking, so how could he have been in the mood to play around with that little thing?! “We need to make some reins tomorrow and harness it!” Anfey looked to the left and to the right, and yelled, “Hey!”
The little guy still did not have a name. According to Anfey, it could be named whatever. It could be Nao Nao, Liu Liu, Huan Huan…all could work, but Niya, Suzanna, and everyone else were firmly opposed. It was a pity that the name they gave was strongly opposed by Anfey. “Silver Lightning! It was pink at the moment! Also that name was too vulgar! The elegant wind on the divine mountain of Gruia! Please, that name wasn’t vulgar, but let me see first what kind of divine mountain Gruia was, alright? Besides…wasn’t it uncomfortable to give such a long name? Jungle nocturne! Save it, the little guy hums all day long, my singing sounds a lot better than it does. What song?” As a result, Anfey could only use “Hey” to call the little guy.
It was quiet all around. The little guy did not come happily running to Anfey’s call like it did in the past. “Hey! Hey! Hey…” Anfey raised his voice.
“Anfey, let’s go back. Maybe the little guy went back by itself.”
“No, it doesn’t like to be in the cave. If someone did not watch it, it would have long escaped,” Anfey shook his head. “Then…let’s divide up the search?”
“Sure.”
Anfey was just about to get up but suddenly saw a small white shadow galloping towards him from a distance. That white shadow was the little unicorn. There was a bunch of things hanging from its mouth, and it looked like clothing. The little guy ran to Anfey and threw the things in his mouth onto the side, and intimately rubbed its head against Anfey’s chest.
But Anfey wasn’t a person who was easily influenced. He reached out and slapped the little guy’s butt two times, not hard but not softly either. “I dare you to run out again, I dare you to run out again!!”
Christian’s eyes fell on the pile of things, and his expression changed. “Anfey, sit here for a while, I’m going back first,” he said unnaturally.
“Alright,” Anfey nodded. He only focused on disciplining the little guy, and temporarily had not paid attention to the pile of stuff.
The little guy made sobbing sounds as it continued to rub against Anfey, and it even licked Anfey’s hand with its tongue just like a puppy. This was its experience. The fact that Anfey had hit it couldn’t be changed, but it could make Anfey stop disciplining it.
Sure enough, Anfey laughed, stroked the little guy’s head a few times, and then lied on the grass with his hands under his head as a pillow. The little guy then put its head on Anfey’s chest, and its cries grew softer and softer. This piece of grassland’s scenery was indeed good, but there were numerous insects, mosquitoes, and crustacean creatures in the grass. But the little guy had an invisible force that could be sensed, and could drive away all sorts of little living creatures. This was also a new recent discovery for everyone. When living in the cave previously, the entrance of the cave would always have a large cluster of mosquitoes each morning. Sometimes, they even fully blocked the sky. There would have to be a person in the sky to gather a large amount of water elements, to make the mosquitoes lose their ability to fly, and the fallen mosquitoes paved a whole layer on the ground. But after they brought in the little guy, the mosquitoes never appeared again.
After a long time, Anfey took a breath and slowly stood up. Only then did his gaze fall on the pile of things. It seemed like…women’s clothing?! A woman’s scream came from the left. Anfey was surprised for a moment. He heard that it was Niya’s scream. “Niya, what’s wrong?”
There was no reply. A moment after, a plump figure came out from the forest. The most unusual thing was that the figure actually had two heads. When it “walked” out of the shadows, Anfey recognized that it was two people. One was Niya, and one was Suzanna. The two were wrapped in a cloak. Four smooth legs covered in boots were exposed under the cloak, and could be seen under the moonlight.
Comparing the two figures, Suzanna’s calves were thinner than Niya’s calves. From the contours of the waist, Suzanna’s legs were about six or seven centimeters longer than Niya’s. Niya was slightly taller than Suzanna, and her frame was also wider than Suzanna’s. It was a pity that combat power had nothing to do with frame… One Suzanna could kill hundreds of Niyas. Combat power also had nothing to do with qualities. Niya appeared to be tall and slender and looked valiant, but had poor combat power, and Suzanna appeared to be very delicate.
Anfey immediately reacted to what had happened! Suzanna’s whole body was stained with blood; she definitely came to bathe together with Niya. While they were bathing, the little guy had stolen their clothes…The problem was…there was no use in reacting to what had happened. He may not be able to solve that problem!
“What are you guys doing?” Anfey walked two steps sideways as he talked, trying to block the clothes on the ground. This was not a guilty conscience. He was worried that he would not be able to explain clearly.
“Alright! It’s you again!!” Suzanna’s eyes were angry and wide, her demeanor resentful. “What’s ‘it’s me again’?” Anfey replied. “It’s you spying on us bathing again, and this time you even stole our clothes, what do you want? Anfey!!” “Ah…” Niya looked at Anfey in surprise. She wasn’t stupid. That word, “again”, was worth examining. Gossip…
“You think I still have the need to secretly watch you bathe?”
“Ah…” Niya looked towards Suzanna in surprise. No need to look? What did that mean? Could it possibly mean that he had already looked…so there was no need to look?
“You…” Suzanna had already reached to the point of indescribable resentment. Old enmity and new hatred rose in her heart, and she raised her foot to charge forward.
“Don’t, Suzanna!!” Niya screamed, “You want to die!!” Niya screamed while tightly pulling onto Suzanna and the cloak with her hands, for the fear of them getting exposed. Actually, they were already exposed. If someone went behind them, they would be surprised with a pair of snow-white butts. The cloak was only so big, it could not possibly cover them both.
After they finished bathing, Niya and Suzanna found that all their clothes were missing. There were only two pairs of their boots at the scene. They had no choice, Niya retrieved a cloak from her own Dimensional ring, and barely escaped this, or else they could only have stayed in the lake…
Upon hearing Anfey’s voice, the two exchanged views on whether to go out or not under low voices. In the end they decided to go out. They’d rather let only Anfey see than having to go back to the cave and let everyone see…this way they could let Anfey go back by himself to find Shally, who could bring some spare clothes back.
“Don’t be agitated, don’t be agitated,” Anfey laughed bitterly. “It wasn’t me who took your clothes, it was him,” Anfey’s finger pointed at the little guy.
Chapter 79: Trust
Stealing clothes would normally be a difficult situation to get out of, but thanks to Christian, whom everyone trusted, and his testimonies, Anfey felt himself relaxing. Since Christian had vouched for him, Suzanna and Niya found themselves believing Anfey’s story. The actual perpetrator, on the other hand, showed no remorse. The young unicorn looked around at everyone happily. The more boisterous the scene, the happier it got.
Anfey, since he did not know what to do with it, picked up the young unicorn. He handed it to Christian and told him to retrieve the girls’ clothes. Then he said down by the mouth of the cave and began thinking.
A few days ago, he was able to defeat Shally with a small fireball, and officially became the second worst mage on the team. Even though the magical surges in the fight were very weak, Anfey’s power had shocked his companions. Christian even said that Anfey could be a genius with his elemental powers.
Elemental power sounded like an amazing power, but in truth it really wasn’t a useful power. There wasn’t anyone in history who managed to achieve great things solely relying on elemental power. There was a famous hero that had the power, but the most he could do was to summon a fire element and use it to form a sword. Of course, he wasn’t a hero because he could summon the sword or use it to defeat anyone. It was because he sacrificed himself for mankind and became a spy for the humans among the magic beasts. He slowly gained their trust and even became a leader among them. In the end, he led an elite group of magic beasts into an ambush laid by humans.
Initially Anfey was overjoyed when he heard Christian’s compliments, but after a thorough explanation, he was disappointed. He had mostly forgotten about it, but he had lost his longsword in the fight earlier that day, and the manticore’s sting was still an unfamiliar weapon. He was unarmed at that moment, and had only then remembered the story about the fire sword.
They had kept some spare swords in the storage room in the cave, but they had found those swords on the ship, and Anfey did not trust their quality.
Anfey thought perhaps he could learn to master the skills of making a fire sword. He also wanted to learn more about this ability. If he could make a sword out of it, he could probably figure out how to make other things as well.
A small ball of fire appeared, hovering over his hand, and tumbled in midair according to his will. Like always, he only felt warmth and obedience, and was not at all threatened.
Theoretically speaking, magic would become harmful as soon as it was released. It was not intelligent and couldn’t distinguish between friend and foe. There were many records of magic hurting the wrong side, or harming the person that had initially released it. On the contrary, people like Anfey, who could use magic freely, were rare.
Under his control, the fireball bounced up and down slowly in front of him. He then took a deep breath and conjured another ball of flame. Slowly, Anfey felt himself getting more accustomed to controlling the fire. He merged the two fireballs and carefully observed it.
After the two fireballs merged, its color became brighter and the size increased. After a few minutes with no strange activity, Anfey merged the bigger one with three other smaller fireballs.
The five fireballs together became a magical presence slightly smaller than a large fireball. The fireball hovered a few inches over Anfey’s palm, and when he probed the power, he felt nothing but warmth and obedience.
Anfey used all of his power to control the fireball. He tried to pull on the fireball, and managed to stretch it. This took up most of his time and energy, since he still needed to work on his mental strength. Oftentimes he would forget about one thing while working on another. This caused the fireball to twist and change shapes like a tree in a strong wind. After what seemed like forever, Anfey’s forehead was covered in sweat and a stick about two foot long appeared in his hands.
Anfey had initially wanted a sword and was disappointed it was only a stick. He looked at his hands and felt no burning sensation or pain. The fire from the stick brushed his sleeves but did not damage them.
He probed a nearby bush with it, and saw the leaves curl up and blacken under the moonlight. Then with a small spark, the bush began to emit smoke.
Anfey thought about it and touched the tip of the stick to his own shirt. The shirt was undamaged. He felt that the element was purposefully protecting him. He decided to change the course of its action and directed its aggression towards something else. He touched his shirt again and it burst into flame.
He hurriedly put out the fire and realized that the fire’s power purely depended on his commands. If he wanted it to attack, it would.
For normal people, it would be very hard to control their own minds. For example, sometimes the more one wants to forget, the harder it is to do so. When someone focuses their mind on one thing, it would only take minutes for their minds to go to other places. Hearts of men were like wild animals. They were hard to tame and control. Just like there are many ways to take a wild beast, people invented many ways to control their own minds. For someone like Anfey, controlling his mind was not hard work.
If a normal person saw their shirt on fire, they could freak out and imagine what might happen if the fire harmed them. Then perhaps the fire would really injure them. Imagining the fire harming themselves would be a hint that the fire could harm them. However, once a man could control his own mind, the fire would be warm and obedient.
Anfey walked over to a tree and slashed the stick towards its trunk. The stick dissolved into thousands of tiny pieces and disappeared into the night, leaving no more than a small burn mark on the tree.
Anfey was shocked by the fragility of the stick. Christian had told him that the hero could fight with his fire sword. Logically speaking, it shouldn’t be so weak that it couldn’t even cut a tree. What did he do wrong?
Anfey sat down on a patch of grass and began going over the steps he took to form that stick. Then he began meditating in order to replenish his magic. Even though he was slowly working towards becoming a mage, he wasn’t even an apprentice yet, and the small fireballs were all it took to drain him of his magic.
He went through several rounds of meditation and experimentation, looking for an answer. Once he even used eight fireballs at the same time, but it was no stronger than five, and had shattered against the tree.
The moon was high in the sky, and it was almost time for them to move on. Anfey stopped his experimentation. His work tonight pushed him a step closer to becoming a mage, but he wasn’t satisfied and felt slightly defeated.
“Did you not sleep?” Feller, who was the vigil that night, asked as Anfey walked into the cave, exhausted.
“Not tired,” Anfey said, shaking his head. “Feller, fetch me Suzanna and a sword from the storage room.”
“Alright,” Feller said. He disappeared into one of the rooms in the back of the cave.
Anfey approached Christian. He tapped Christian on the shoulder and patted Riska. The two sat up, rubbing their eyes.
“It’s time?”
“Yes,” Anfey said. “Christian, I’ll take Riska and Suzanna first. Bring everyone else with you later. We will leave marks on the way. If you run into orcs, try not to tangle with them and find us first.”
“Alright,” Christian said. “Anfey, why don’t you bring Sante and Zubin as well? It’s too dangerous with just you three.”
“We’re just scouting. If we get into trouble, it’s easier with less people.”
“If you say so.”
“Be careful yourselves, alright?”
“You as well.”
The hours before dawn were always the darkest, and the quietest in the forest. Both the nocturnal creatures and the diurnal creatures would slumber during this time.
A lone squirrel with a long, fiery red tail, poked its head out of a small hole in the ground. It stared at the east as if it was a zealot staring at his god, waiting for the sun to rise. A few large bats flew over the trees, and the squirrel hurriedly returned to its hiding place. The bats, however, didn’t seemed to pay the squirrel any heed. They needed to return to their nests before the sun came up.
There were many different animals inhabiting the Magic Beast Forest, and sometimes even the same animals would branch into different species. Take spiders for example. There were thousands of spiders in the forest—some as big as a wheel, some as small as a fingernail. Some lived in the bushes, others could make webs dozen of feet long. Others relied not on webs but superior jumps and venomous fangs to hunt. At the crack of dawn, these spiders would scurry away from their nighttime hunting places and return to their daytime hiding places. There was a kind of hummingbird living the forest. They were the predator of all spiders and enjoyed draining the spiders of their body fluids. If the spiders were still out after sunrise, they were good as dead.
A few wolves brushed past Anfey and disappeared into the woods, clearly satisfied. Humans tend to view wolves as cruel, but always forget that wolves seek no more than food and shelter, while men’s greed was limitless. Of course, civilization flourished because of greed, and it was not wrong to say that desire drives humanity.
Anfey had his eyes closed, sniffing the scented powder from the air. Suzanna and Riska stayed close to him, alert to any danger that could be near.
Anfey knew that as long as it was within twenty-four hours and the people he was tracking did not enter a completely sealed off space, he could find them.
Suzanna stared at the night sky and had a sudden realization. Not only did the young unicorn have the ability to avoid any evil and everything bad, Anfey did too. There were thousands of bugs hovering around them, but not a single one dared to land. It must be the power of the Tear of Stars. Suzanna wanted to ask Anfey if he could feel any difference, but then she remembered Anfey had told her that the less she knew about the Tear of Stars, the better. Now that Riska was here, she didn’t want to talk about it.
Cutting through the forest was easy, but tracking an enemy was much more dangerous. On their way, they could use magic and combat power to protect themselves. Using those powers when tracking enemies would give their enemies a warning. However, Suzanna was still worried about being attacked by insects.
“This way,” Anfey said, pointing towards the distance.
“Alright.” Riska and Suzanna nodded together.
“Riska, bring me up with levitation. Suzanna, remain on the ground. We’re still far from the orcs. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about.”
Suzanna and Riska didn’t know how Anfey knew the orcs were far away, but they didn’t want to ask. Anfey was a mysterious man, because he needed the mystery for protection.
The three cut through the forest quickly, every once in a while Anfey would stop and look for the remaining scent. After two dozen times, the three arrived at the edge of a swamp. Anfey felt the scent of the powder had grown stronger, and told Riska to land on a nearby hill. Suzanna caught up quickly. The three stood on the hill and observed their surroundings.
A few mutant hippopotamuses climbed ashore slowly and walked towards their dens, their large bodies shifting. They looked completely defenseless, and there was no need for them to be defensive. The hippopotamuses were all very mild, but because their flesh had a strange chemical that made it extremely sour, they were able to live without predators. Even a magic beast with a varied diet could not consume their meat without getting sick.
The hippopotamuses were so useless that the other magic beasts would be better off just leaving them alone. No beasts would try to attack each other, and they lived in relative peace. For other magic beasts, the forest was a place of danger and challenge. For the hippopotamuses, however, it was a comfortable place to make home.
A nearby bush rustled, and a fire alligator appeared. It walked straight past the hippopotamus without even looking at it. Perhaps it was because its ancestor had once eaten it by accident, and taught all of its children, which in turn taught its children, never to go near those things.
A flash leopard appeared from a bush on top of the hill. It glanced towards the humans, and appeared spooked. Its beautiful back arched, and it gave a deep growl before running down the hill.
The alligator had heard the leopard’s growls but didn’t see its movement. It turned and headed straight for the hill. It seems like it was too starving to care that it was way too slow to ever catch a flash leopard.
The alligator reached the top of the hill, and, instead of a flash leopard, it found three humans. Its small, cruel eyes lit up, and it began to twist its body and stomp on the ground. Then it headed straight to Suzanna, whom it had deemed to be the weakest. The magic beasts all had their own advantages. Flash leopards were fast and sensitive to their surroundings, while the fire alligators were thick skinned and hard to kill.
Suzanna’s eyes were filled with disgust. She kicked the alligator in the jaw, sending it tumbling down the hill.
A few other alligators that had gathered around returned to their hideouts, while the one that tried to attack them laid on the ground. It was twisting in pain and making gurgling noises. Suzanna had shattered its jaw, and in a few days it would starve to death.
“Riska, you ready?” Anfey asked.
Riska nodded. He whispered a spell, and used eyes of the sky.
Anfey was growing very fond of this magic. It was like a spy satellite. After a few times using it, Anfey thought he could find a few mediocre members of the team and have them focus on this magic.
Riska changed a few coordinates, but with no success. He looked at Anfey and shook his head.
“There,” Anfey said. He pointed to the place he could clearly smell the powder.
Riska summoned his magic and began looking again. After changing the coordinates a dozen times, there were still no clues. He was about to talk to Anfey, when a dozen orcs appeared in his view.
“Look,” Riska called to Anfey.
“Keep an eye on them,” Anfey told him.
Watching orcs moving through a forest was very hard, and Riska had to focus all of his attention on the task. In order to keep track, every time the orcs walk into the shade, he immediately had to find a nearby coordinate and search carefully.
After a while, when Riska’s magic was almost all used up, the orcs disappeared into the woods near a small mountain.
Riska waited a few more moments and stopped the magic. He wiped the sweat on his forehead and said, “That’s the best I can do.”
“Take a break,” Anfey said. “I feel like that is the orcs’ hideout. Suzanna, what do you think?”
Suzanna did not reply. Anfey turned around, and found Suzanna standing there. She looked excited, and her eyes were staring at a mountain in the distance.
“Suzanna? What happened?” Anfey asked.
“Nothing,” Suzanna replied, as if waking from a dream. “Nothing. Just remembered something in the past”
“Really?”
Suzanna bit her lip and turned her gaze towards Anfey. The latter was staring at the alligator down the hill, as if it was too interesting for him to turn his eyes away.
Suzanna’s eyes were filled with emotion, as if she was making some difficult decisions. After a moment, she walked over and whispered to Anfey, “Do you remember the map I once talked about?”
“Of course. The one you talked about that day…” Anfey stopped his sentence mid track. There were some memories neither one of them were willing to speak of.
“If I am not mistaken, this is the place on the map.”
“Can I see it?” Anfey asked. “Don’t worry, I won’t take it. I know how much it means to you. I just want to help.”
Suzanna nodded. “Alright,” she said, “I trust you.” When she first mentioned the map, she already knew that she won’t find the treasure all by herself. She needed help, and Anfey was her only option. She didn’t like him and thought badly of him, but at least she didn’t have to worry about Anfey taking the treasure for himself after they had found it. After working together for some time, Suzanna was sure of it.
She drew her sword and took out a piece of tattered and stained paper from the sheath. She handed it to Anfey and said, “Don’t damage it!”
Anfey smiled and opened the paper. It was a map, but only half of it was there. The other half was ripped off and missing, leaving a jagged edge. It seemed like the map had some stories to it, as well.
“You see the mountain there? It’s the one over there,” Suzanna said, pointing from the map to the mountain she was looking at earlier.
The mountain that appeared in Riska’s eyes of the sky had a flat top, like it was once cut down by a god. The mountain on the map had a flat top as well. There were some wavy lines drawn next to the mountain, and it was labeled “Clarm Swamp.”
It was the same swamp and mountain. The possibility of the treasure being hidden there was very high. High enough for them to look into it.
“Where’s the other half?” Anfey asked.
“It was taken away from me,” Suzanna said. She shook her head and seemed to have remembered some unpleasant memories.
“It’s alright,” Anfey reassured her. “We’ll find it.”
“The other half contained the spell to open whatever contains the treasure,” Suzanna said, shaking her head. “Without it, we can’t open the lock.”
“That troublesome?”
“Yes,” Suzanna said, nodding. “Don’t you want to know what is in that treasure?” she asked after glancing at him for a few moments. “Are you not interested in it?”
“Why would I be?” Anfey asked. He had remembered his conversation with Suzanna. If she wanted to tell him about everything, he would offer her his help. If she chose to remain secretive, it wasn’t his place to intervene. Everything came at a price, and there wouldn’t be any treasure without risks.
“I have no idea what kind of a man you are,” Suzanna said, shaking her head. A normal person would be very interested after hearing about treasures. People like Anfey were very strange to her.
“I’m an honest man,” Anfey said. “I won’t seek things that are not mine. What is mine will never be another’s.”
“Honest?” Suzanna rolled her eyes. “Are you joking?”
“Jokes?” Riska had just woken up from his deep meditation, and since he could not sense anything of the outside world when he was meditating, he had only heard the last sentence.
“Anfey was joking,” Suzanna said. She took the map from Anfey and returned it to the secret compartment in her sheath.
“Hm.” Seeing that Suzanna didn’t want to talk about it, Riska shrugged and turned to Anfey. “What are we doing next? Are we going to keep waiting here?”
“Can you tell how far away the orcs are? Exactly?”
“I have the coordinates,” Riska told him. “It’s about eight miles.”
“Do you have a plan?” Suzanna asked. “The orcs aren’t easy targets. We don’t know how many there are, and how many are warriors and fighters. We don’t know if they have any obsidian mages or spirit mages. If they really do have an obsidian mage, they could detect our presence miles away.” Suzanna had the feeling that there were many things Anfey did not know about, so she felt the need to talk to him in case he made a rushed decision. After spending time with them, Suzanna didn’t want to see anyone hurt.
Of course, she agreed with Anfey’s decision. If the orcs had attacked her without even an attempt of negotiation, they would attack any and everyone. They needed to strike fast to eliminate the threats.
“Christian talked about the spirit mages before. What are they?”
“Obsidian mages are like human mages, and the spirit mages are like the human magisters. They are not as powerful as humans, of course, but they shouldn’t be taken lightly, either,” Suzanna said slowly. “If an orc tribe has an Obsidian Mage, their strength would increase significantly. They can enhance the strength of individual orcs, increasing an orc’s attack, speed, defense, and life force. If the tribe has a spirit mage, it would be even more terrifying. The orcs’ strength would depend on the mage’s faith power, and a spirit mage’s faith power is much stronger than an obsidian mage. A spirit mage can even summon a blood moon, which would turn orcs into terrifying fighting machines, their strength increasing tenfold. In the Sacred War, a spirit mage summoned the blood moon for three hundred werewolves, who in turn defeated an elite legion of forty thousand men. It was called the great miracle of the war.”
“So, if a warrior of the Beast God was under the blood moon, it would fight the gods? And that Ahdibaijan, what if he was under that moon?” Anfey asked.
“In reality, among the sentient beings, the direct lineages from the ancient beasts are very rare, but they are treated as equal because of their incredible strength. The great spirit mages were all killed in the Sacred War. Those that could summon the blood moon are no longer alive. Those that were left behind were forced to work with savages like the orcs.”
Chapter 80: Murderous Intent
“Suzanna, you’re saying that if there is an obsidian mage or a spirit mage, we are bound to lose?”
“No, that isn’t what I mean. We do have two magisters, and I’m with you as well, so they won’t have much of an upper hand but… I just want you to make a good decision. I don’t want to see anyone hurt or killed.”
“Remember when the orcs attacked us yesterday?” Anfey asked.
“Yes, why?”
“There was one orc that had a battlecry, and signaled us. You know what I’m talking about?”
“No,” Riska said. “Be more specific, Anfey, why does that matter?”
“You’re saying…someone’s watching us?” Suzanna asked, suddenly remembering her conversation with Anfey.
“Of course. Or else it wouldn’t make sense.” Anfey stopped for a second before continuing. “Did you see that leader? He didn’t look like an orc.”
“It’s not just that he didn’t look like an orc,” Suzanna said. “He wasn’t an orc. I don’t know how it was possible for him to command so many orcs, though.”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” Anfey said. “What’s taking them so long?”
“Should be quick,” Riska said. “My magic coordination should be accurate.”
After a few minutes, the three finally spotted the rest of the group, with Christian in the lead. They landed on the hill, and Christian hurried over. “Sorry about the delay,” he said.
“What happened?”
“We can’t control that unicorn,” Christian said. “It ran off by itself, and it took us a while to catch it. Did we miss anything?”
“Nothing much. Rest here a little. We are attacking in a bit.”
“Are we just rushing in like that?” Suzanna asked.
“What do you think we should do?”
“I don’t think we should rush into this,” Suzanna said.
“Did you find their campsite?” Christian asked.
“Yes,” Riska replied. “About eight miles from here.”
“Give me the coordinates,” Christian said, as he set up the eyes of the sky.
Christian picked just the right time to use the magic. When he found the mountain Riska marked, he saw about fifty orcs walking out of the woods in a line.
“Anfey, I agree with Suzanna,” Christian said. “Even if they don’t have an obsidian mage, going there might risk discovery miles away.”
“What do you recommend we do now?” Anfey asked.
“Riska and I can use a mist shield together,” Christian said. “The shield can effectively block our magical surges, and it’s fairly common for the forest to fog up. I don’t think it’s going to arouse any suspicions. The only thing is: we both need time for meditation afterwards.”
“What if we circle around the back of the mountain. With the mist as a disguise, they might not realize we’re there until we attack,” Zubin said.
“He’s right,” Christian said, nodding. “Anfey, what do you say?”
“I like the plan,” he said. “Go ahead. Discuss it among yourselves.”
The group glanced at each other, feeling slightly uncomfortable. They were already used to Anfey giving them instructions on what to do. Now that Anfey gave them full control over the plan, it felt strange to them.
“What are you doing? Right now mist and fog would attract much attention. Once the sun is up you’ve lost your opportunity,” Anfey told them. “Everyone needs to start thinking and come up with a possible plan.”
He could teach them how to lose their naivety with cruelty, but there were many things he couldn’t teach them. Things like planning an attack. That required their own efforts.
Right now it was like he was leading a group of children and playing a game of survival. A few weeks were fine, a few months could work as well, but any longer than that would never work. Sooner or later, they would encounter some sort of crisis. If they were still like naive children, the result could be devastating. Sometimes he needed to let go, because that was the only way they could truly grow up.
Soon the conversation became heated. Everyone tossed out their own opinions and ideas. In reality, their abilities were undoubtedly some of the best in the world. Not everyone could be chosen be Saul’s student. Even the common ones like Feller would surely be one of the best if he was in the academy.
After a few more rounds of discussion, the group came up with a final plan. Christian and Risk would release a mist shield. Then, when they meditated to recover their magic, Suzanna, Sante, Zubin, and Sanchez would go to the back of the mountain and attack from behind. If the orcs tried to flee, Christian and the rest of the group could cut them off in the front. If they tried to fight, then the group also would attack from the front.
Anfey thought he could have came up with a better plan, but there were parts he admired as well. At least they knew how to trick their enemies. Distractions and mass attack from the magisters combined to form a solid attack plan. If the orcs had only around two hundred fighters, this team could easily take them out.
Seeing that Anfey agreed to the plan, the rest of the team was very happy. “Anfey, are you going with Suzanna or us?” Christian asked.
“Come with us,” Suzanna said.
“Alright,” Anfey agreed.
The orcs fighters would never imagine what kind of a team they were about to encounter. There were fewer than a dozen people in the world who joined the magister rank in their twenties, and two of them were on the team.
Swordsmasters under the age of twenty were even rarer. Even Ernest couldn’t achieve that. The only reason Suzanna wasn’t known throughout the land was because of certain events in her past.
Phillip didn’t think much of the team, because he was so focused on getting revenge for his grandson. However, anyone with a brain could tell how valuable this team would be in the future.
The fog gathered around them and slowly became more and more opaque. It began spreading into the surroundings. Suzanna’s group had already headed out, and was heading towards the back of the mountain after taking the long way around. With the magic coordinates, they wouldn’t miss it, even if the fog was heavy enough to obscure sights.
The tribe was just over the small hill ahead. The team slowly walked towards the hill, their senses heightened to watch for any possible enemy movements. Suddenly, they heard voices up ahead. They hurriedly hid behind a bush and peered out quietly.
Two orcs, a man and a woman, walked onto the hill. After the Sacred War, the entire world was disorganized and chaotic. One sentient species would often take refuge in another’s territory if it was attacked or experienced traumatic loss. After a few centuries, the world languages became very much assimilated. Now, every intelligent being knew at least two languages. One of the two was the species’ own language, and the other was the human language. This was because humans had the largest population, and only humans and savages kept their own territories. After the magic beasts lost most of their strength, the humans had attacked and took over some of their territories. The other species, on the other hand, were forced to take refuge with the humans.
The approaching orcs, however, weren’t speaking human language. Anfey had heard about orcs before. In the rumors, the orcs were painted as ruthless, cruel savages. It was said that they knew no shame, and their tribes were filled with nakedness and incest. Now that he had seen an orc, he realized that at least the naked part was untrue. Both orcs were wearing crudely made clothes. Plus, the two orcs looked awkward and uncomfortable just holding hands.
When they were a few feet away, a slight breeze blew by. The female orc raised her head and sniffed the air. Anfey knew that she was sniffing a strange scent. He didn’t smell like anything, but the girls would put scented powder on their faces every morning. She must have smelled Suzanna.
Anfey jumped out of the bush and lunged towards the orcs. He found the manticore sting from his ring, and aimed it towards the female orc.
The male orc crouched down and retrieved the short staff hanging from his belt. He pushed the female orc aside, and tried to shout, either for help or a warning, as he was fending off the attacker. His reaction was according to Anfey’s plan, who was trying to draw him over.
Anfey changed the direction of his attack. He drew back the manticore sting, then stabbed the male orc in the mouth with it.
This time the petrification did not happen. The male orc was very brave. The sting protruded from the back of his head, but he was still able to grab the sting with both of his hands, trying to buy some time for the female orc to escape.
Anfey kicked the female orc in the face. Then he raised his arms and lifted the male orc into the air. He pushed forward and threw the orc’s body. It landed a few feet away and stopped moving.
The female orc was clearly weaker than the male one. She rolled on the ground a few times, then raised her head. She was lying on the ground in shock, and had forgotten to use the staff hanging from her belt.
Seeing that her companion was dead, she let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Anfey jumped up and struck her in the back with the sting. The sting pierced her body and nailed her to the ground. Then he pressed his foot against her head, pressed down, and pulled the sting out.
She grabbed his leg and scratched. Her strength grew weak, her body finally slumped onto the ground, and she laid dead.
“Idiot, why didn’t you attack?” Anfey asked angrily.
“I…” Suzanna walked away, her eyes downcast.
That was the first time Anfey had become angry with her. She knew that she made a mistake, though. After Anfey jumped out, she should have followed him, but did not, which resulted in a mistake. They heard sounds coming from the other side of the hill. Clearly the woman’s scream had alerted the other orcs.
Suzanna had killed a lot of people to date, but it was because they had threatened her and her sister. She couldn’t turn herself from a victim acting in self-defense to a murderer. Compared to the people who had attacked her before, she couldn’t bring herself to harm the two orcs because of their helplessness.
“What are you doing standing there? Do you still want me to fight for you?” Anfey asked her again.
Suzanna walked past him. “Think about it,” he said coldly. “If the orcs kill us, who would protect Shally?”
Even though she was angry with Anfey, after she remembered what had happened to Shally before, she found herself even more angry with these ugly, armed orcs. She used her combat power, and dashed towards the orcs.
The obsidian and spirit mages did not appear. There were a few orc fighters that tried to stop Suzanna, but could not even touch her. She swept through their ranks, showing no mercy as her sword danced from orc to orc. Wherever her sword went, blood followed.
Anfey stood and watched, stunned. Everything that stood in Suzanna’s way was severed by the blinding sword. Necks, arms, legs, even the staffs were no match for the sword, and were cut in half by the blade. Nothing was able to stop her.
Two orc-raised Armored Rhinos were led to the fight, but after seeing Suzanna’s ability, both of them turned and ran away. Magic beasts were not stupid. They didn’t relate to orcs, and weren’t willing to sacrifice themselves for them.
There were only two states one can be in when doing something. In one of them, a person’s whole mind was focused on the task, and in the other, it was not. When one was completely committed, sometimes even defeating more powerful enemies was possible.
Clearly now Suzanna was wholeheartedly committed to what she was doing. Suzanna was thinking, about her attack was instinctive. Her eyes were glazed over, but she was certain of every orc’s movement and attack. With every swing of the sword, she could take out an orc, but she couldn’t tell why she was swinging her sword. She could even predict the orcs’ movements, and shield Anfey from an attack.
The rest of the group lingered behind Anfey and Suzanna. Sante and Sanchez were responsible for finishing off the remaining orcs, and Zubin was responsible for killing any orc mages should they appear.
The hill was already covered with bodies of orcs. The few dozen orcs that came to the scene were all finished off, but Suzanna did not stop. She began heading for the village.
The village seemed to be impoverished. There were only around half a dozen huts, all built from grass and mud.
The women and the children were running around the village. Suzanna turned her gaze towards a heavily guarded cave in the distance. Some orcs were there, guarding the cave. Suzanna was fast with her killing, but it still took some time. These orcs hadn’t gone to help their friends, and it was obvious they were guarding something valuable.
Suzanna jumped into the air and headed for the cave. On the other side of the village, around seventy orcs with weapons came to the rescue of the ones in the village. Some of them even climbed onto a watchtower and began attacking Suzanna with arrows.
Magic surges ripped through the way. A fiery comet descended from the sky and hit the watchtower, which then burst into flame. A few orcs fell to the ground in flames.
Christian, who released the comet, was leading the attack. Immediately, fireballs, wind blades, and earth spikes bloomed throughout the village.
Compared to Suzanna, the mages had appeared relatively at ease. The fog shield was still in place, and they couldn’t tell if they had killed soldiers or defenseless women and children.
The grass huts were either set aflame or leveled by the magic. Sante summoned a fire wall that stood in the middle of the village. The orcs that had just arrived weren’t sure how to get around it, and the mages took advantage of that time. A wind blade swept through their ranks, and a few fireballs incinerated the orcs.
The orcs in front of the cave gathered in to close rank. Every one of them appeared enraged. None of them tried to run, and none of them showed signs of fear. They were natural warriors, and it didn’t matter how powerful their enemy was, they would not back down.
Suzanna didn’t want to test her determination against theirs. She was there to kill. The bright white combat power around her froze for a second, then she waved her sword and swept it across the orcs.
The sword cut through the orcs and their armor, leaving half a dozen of them on the ground. It left a deep wound on their chest, almost severing them.
Suzanna dashed into the cave without stopping.
Sanchez used a spell and summoned a small light that hovered in front of the remaining orcs. The small light quickly grew in size and became orange in color. It became a fire wave and enveloped all the remaining orcs.
Facing weaker enemies, swordsmen were never as efficient as mages. Suzanna had only killed half a dozen orcs with a stroke of her sword, but Sanchez had killed more than twenty. The pain of being burned alive wasn’t something determination could fight. The orcs wailed in pain and squirmed on the ground. Some slammed their bodies against the wall in the blinding pain.
The fire only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to kill or seriously injure the remaining orcs.
Anfey stopped. Zubin knew what he was worried about, and used a frozen spell to lower the temperature of the cave.
Anfey worried for Suzanna’s safety and jumped into the cave. After he landed, he looked around and found no armed orcs. Suzanna was standing there with her sword held out in front of her, staring at a raised platform. On the platform was a large chair made out of bones, and a black-haired young man was sitting on it. In front of him were three old orcs. They were on the floor, and crying. They looked very emotional, as if they were begging the young man.
The cave wall was covered with carving by the orcs, and it looked very mysterious. The cave was very clean, and there were a few young female orcs standing by, too scared to move.
The young man looked as if he didn’t know what had happened outside. He was looking at his own feet. His expression was strangely calm, as if he couldn’t see Suzanna.
Anfey looked at the young man and saw that his hands were gripping the arms of the chair. Usually when someone gripped something, it meant they were nervous. Anfey smiled. If they were able to make him nervous now, it meant that he had no other cards to play. Suzanna was confused by the strange appearance of the cave and the way the man presented himself, and didn’t attack. He could fool Suzanna, but could not fool Anfey.
“How long are you going to sit there? Until we leave?” Anfey said as he joined Suzanna.
“Sorry to disappointed you. We’re not leaving.”
“My dear visitors, are you trying to anger me?”
“I’m not trying to anger you,” Anfey said. “You angered me. I have a problem, you see. I don’t like it when people look down on me. So you better get down here.”
“My lord, please, use your godly powers, and let this be the murderers’ eternal grave,” one of the old orcs called. Perhaps because the young man was using human language, he did too.
“My lord, they were slaughtering our people outside. You cannot let them go,” another old orc called.
“Slaughter? You were the ones that attacked us first,” Sante snorted. “The great mage Harn once said that time changes everything. Now even the orcs know trickery.”
“Get up,” the young man said. “Let me think about it.” Then he closed his eyes, and it was as if he didn’t even see Suzanna and the rest of the group.
Suzanna frowned and leaped into the air. She was the most powerful one there, and she would be the one to see exactly how powerful the man was.
When she was still a few feet away from him, a bright light flashed. Suzanna gasped, and her combat power disappeared.
“Is that Antimagic Terra?” Christian and Zubin called in surprise together.
Suzanna was caught off guard. She lost her balance and almost fell to the ground. A sword appeared in the young man’s hand. He waved the sword and Suzanna’s sword flew out of her hand. By the time Suzanna caught up to what was going on, the young man had already placed a sword on her neck.
“You can disrespect me once, but not twice,” he said. He returned the sword to its scabbard and closed his eyes. “Go.”
Anfey was worried for a second, but then wasn’t. He didn’t care how powerful that terra was. He remembered very clearly how the man had declared that he would kill everyone that talked too much.
He couldn’t fool Anfey after saying something like that.
Suzanna clenched her fist and her body shook, as if she was regathering her power. The Antimagic Terra was too powerful, and all magic and combat power stopped functioning within its range. After a while, Suzanna picked up her sword and walked off the platform. She admitted defeat.
Zubin and Sante stared, frowning. Terra was something that surpassed the power of men. Very few people could use it, and they were all blessed by the gods themselves. There were very few even in history. Even the Great Magister couldn’t fight people with Terra, let along young mages like them.
“Sorry,” Suzanna whispered.
“It’s alright,” Anfey said. He began ascending the platform. Terra? If he really had the power of Terra, why did he let Suzanna go? Letting her go meant that he didn’t want to, or couldn’t, kill her. There must be something wrong with that terra.