Assassin’s Chronicle - Chapter 341

Chapter 341: Differentiate

 

“We are not philanthropists,” Alice said slowly. “Moramatch is not a place they can come and leave as they wish. If Moramatch had provided them safety, they should have contributed something for Moramatch. I wanted them to join us from the very beginning. People will never hear the names of some mercenary groups anymore, including Jagged Rose, Warflame and Wuming. I did not specifically say it, but I think those mercenary group commanders had prepared for the future.”

“Manlyn knew what you were thinking and that was why he did that?” Anfey asked.

“Without me telling you, you can tell he is very ambitious,” Alice said.

“I know what you are thinking now, but do you think we can do it?” Anfey said. “I met the couple of Shadow mercenary group on the way here. I can tell they did not like you and Manlyn. Not everyone would work for you.”

“What did they tell you?” Alice asked.

“They said Manlyn wanted them to work their asses for him,” Anfey said.

“They felt embarrassed to tell you the truth. I knew what happened to them. Nibison thought Ling was beautiful and tried to flirt with her. They could not stand it anymore, so they tried to escape from Moramatch.” Seeing Anfey did not want to look like he was interrogating her and just wanted to discuss the issues, Alice finally smiled. “Shadow mercenary group only had two of them. What else could they lose? Even if they had something to lose, it would be nothing compared with other commanders.”

“Are you sure they would not fight against us?” Anfey asked.

“I cannot guarantee you that, but I think you can totally solve these small conflicts,” Alice said with a smile. “Master, when you came back, how did Ozzic treat you?”

“He welcomed me warmly. He was very respectful as well,” Anfey said.

“Manlyn had talked about reforming the mercenaries, but Ozzic never agreed with him. They were firmly against Manlyn on that. If you propose the same issue, what do you think they would do?” Alice asked.

“I do not know.” Anfey was quiet for a moment, then said, “I saved them before, but they could take it or leave it. Now they want to be on my side only because I am more powerful than Manlyn. If they could find someone more powerful than me later on, I am not sure what they would do.”

“You are wrong. I think they would 100% support you even if you wanted to mix all the mercenaries together and do a total reorganization,” Alice said.

“Don’t you think you are a little too confident?” Anfey asked.

“No, you are too cautious and think of people in a bad way, just like…” Alice suddenly stopped. She switched the topic. “Master, if you had a precious item you got from your family, and you had to sell it because you were in a very difficult situation, wouldn’t you find someone and try to sell it to him?”

“Like what? Just like I have been suspecting you?” Anfey shook his head and smiled. “No. I have to find the best guy to sell it to because it was such a precious thing for me.”

“They could only sell their mercenary groups once as well, but Manlyn was not the best guy,” Alice said.

“I have given a lot of thought to what you said, but…” Anfey said.

“Are you worrying about their loyalty?” Alice heaved a sigh. “You do not have to worry about it. There is malicious competition among mercenaries, but they have their own justice, much more trustworthy than those royalty who only know how to kiss ass and bully weak ones. Even if you took away their position later, as long as you give them hope, they would not betray you. In fact, I should congratulate you right now since you already have a group of loyal subordinates.”

“I feel Kumaraghosha is more trustworthy,” Anfey said.

Alice was shocked for a second and said slowly, “Master, I can promise you, at some point Kumaraghosha would betray you, just as I would not.”

Anfey chuckled. “I trust you, otherwise I would not come to talk to you.” Anfey’s smile looked even more sincere than Alice’s. His eyes were even more clear. In fact, he was still not so sure about Alice when he walked into her room. If Alice could not give him a reasonable answer, this could have been a totally different situation.

“Master, do you know Kumaraghosha? I feel you are very interested in him,” Alice said.

“After the conflict with him at Moramatch, I sent people to investigate him. He is an honorable and capable general. If he had better opportunity to show off his capability, he would have become like Baery in Shansa Empire.” Anfey sighed. “It is so unfortunate that the people he has worked for have such a deep bias against him, while the people who appreciate him could not have him.”

Alice grinned. “I feel much better now.”

Kumaraghosha and a few other soldiers were quietly listening to Anfey and Alice’s conversation a few yards away from Alice’s room. There was an iron tube wrapped with vines in front of Kumaraghosha, with which he could hear the conversation between Alice and Anfey. The sound was weak, but loud enough to understand what they were talking about. Kumaraghosha did not think Anfey thought so highly of him. Baery enjoyed such fame, while he only shared similar fame with the commander of Dark Moon mercenary group, Newyoheim, in Ellisen Empire. They both represented two ever-victorious generals in two empires. However, Kumaraghosha had gotten used to being criticized as a traitor some time ago. What Anfey said made him so excited that he unconsciously pulled the vine off and pinched it.

“What made you feel better?” Anfey asked in surprise.

“I did not plan on having you contact Kumaraghosha because I was afraid you would not trust him and destroy him in the end.” Alice thought for a moment. “Since you appreciate him so much, you can take him as your bodyguard. You are already an earl. You need have a bodyguard. Kumaraghosha will be a very good chief guard.”

“I do not think he wants to be my bodyguard. He held hostility towards me. This only made him dislike me even more,” Anfey said bitterly. He had set a trap for Alice.

Anfey knew his vision sometimes was not as good as Alice’s, nor was he as perceptive, but he had his own strengths. Alice was good at government affairs and pretty popular in Shansa Empire. After she escaped from her wedding, she took her maid with her on the run. They took the risk of asking for help from a merchant wagon, which made her a slave. She was wise on small issues, but did not have street smarts. Anfey was very street smart and rarely made any mistakes on these kinds of issues. The way they acted had nothing to do with their capability; rather, it totally depended on their upbringing and experience.

Anfey had vision that very few people could have. He could see as far as he wanted. He had sensed the existence of Kumaraghosha a long time ago. He actually meant to let Kumaraghosha hear how what Anfey thought of him. If Alice had any other intention or personal interests, she definitely would not be willing to recommend Kumaraghosha to Anfey, since Kumaraghosha was the only person she trusted. After Anfey politely turned her suggestion down, Alice could have taken her suggestion back.

“The key is how you see him. The rest is not important,” Alice said naturally. “Let him follow you. This way he could be at his best. I do not want to see his talent being ignored and getting frustrated by it.”

“We will talk about it later.” Anfey finally felt relieved. He sounded as if he was getting playful. “It looks like you would have had the confidence to kill Manlyn, even if I had not come back.”

“He did not suspect me at all. If I could have planned it well, it should have been easy,” Alice said.

“Why did you wait so long?” Anfey asked.

“Master, mercenaries are wild. If you want their respect, you have to respect them. For example, being tough. We have to reform. Forcing those mercenaries to listen to you can work for a while, but it would make others dislike you.” Alice smiled. “Right now is the perfect time. You killed Manlyn. You have successfully shown your power and skills, but did not hurt anyone else. Everything seems to be falling into the right place.”

“I mean, you could have done these things as well. Why were you waiting for me to come back?” Anfey asked.

“I am just a woman without a home country. I do not need them to respect me or listen to me. You are their best choice,” Alice said.

Anfey crossed his legs and smiled. Alice had explained clearly and answered all his concerns. He went quiet for a while. “Alice, do you know about Scarlet?”

“Scarlet? She is really famous right now,” Alice said.

Anfey looked serious. He could tell Alice held much hatred towards Scarlet. Could they have had some conflict before? Anfey thought to himself.

“I admire Princess Victoria the most. She is an example for me. Scarlet is not interested in government affairs. She only wanted to take revenge for her mother, so she took the other route.”

“Do you hate her?” Anfey asked directly.

“Master, don’t you understand there could be only one princess regent in the empire? I am a failure,” Alice said. Perhaps because she did not want Anfey to see the hatred on her face, Alice looked to the side. She said very deliberately, “I could not forget how she treated me. I never wanted to hurt her, but she hurt me without any hesitation.”

Anfey suddenly realized why Alice admired Princess Victoria as her example. Now he knew everything. Deciding her own wedding was only a wish of Alice’s. Her wish and her dreams were two different things. Becoming the next princess regent was her real aim. Scarlet, as the only daughter of Victoria, wanted to be the regent herself. The competition between them was inevitable. From the way Alice talked about, she seemed to care too much about family and was not as cruel in the competition, so she got hurt.

Suzanna’s voice rose outside of the door. “Anfey, are you inside?”

“I am coming back now.” Then to Alice he said, “You’d better get to bed early.” Anfey stood up. He hesitated for a second and said, “Don’t worry. The worst is passed, isn’t it?”

Chapter 342: Target

 

“What’s wrong?” Anfey asked Suzanna.

“Nothing,” Suzanna said. “It’s too chaotic. I thought it would be a good idea to follow you.” Suzanna pursed her lips and glanced at Alice’s house. “What did you two talk about?”

“Nothing much,” Anfey said, taking Suzanna’s hand in his. “Let’s go take a walk.”

“You sure took a long time to talk about nothing,” Suzanna said. She did not jerk her hand away the way she would before they were married.

Anfey shrugged. “She’s a tough one,” he said. “She’s cunning. More than me, even. She’s hard to deal with.” Anfey paused and grinned. “Suzanna, you’re not jealous, are you?”

“No,” Suzanna said. She smiled softly.

Suzanna knew that jealousy means nothing. She couldn’t control how another person feels. If Anfey was like her father Darius, he would find ways to cheat even if she stayed with him all day long. She knew Anfey and she trusted him. She knew that monitoring his movements would affect their relationship.

After Anfey saved those elves, Niya was even more worried than Suzanna. She kept trying to get Suzanna to keep the elves away, but Suzanna told her that there was nothing wrong with keeping maids. Niya told her that she was too naive. Niya spent a lot of time and energy monitoring the elves and Anfey, and concluded that Suzanna was right to trust him. He rarely even spoke to the elves, let along do anything inappropriate. Suzanna may not be the smartest woman in the world, but she had her own rules and judgement. She knew Anfey very well and knew that it took more than a pretty face to win his heart.

“You’re not jealous?” Anfey asked with a grin. “Why were you so worried, then?”

Some men wanted their wives to understand them, but there were men like Anfey who wished that their wives would grow jealous when they talked to other women.

“I need to talk to you,” Suzanna said, glancing around nervously.

“What is it?” Anfey asked. He could tell that Suzanna was seriously worried, and it had nothing to do with him talking to Alice.

Suzanna took a deep breath and said, “Niya left Sacred City with us.”

“What?” Anfey asked, shocked. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Anfey wasn’t politically savvy, but he still knew the impact of Niya leaving Sacred City.

“Do you remember how we stopped you from getting into our carriage?” Suzanna asked. “Well, it’s because Niya was there.” Suzanna sighed and shook her head. “I wanted to tell you, of course, but…I felt so bad for her. I wanted to help her. She was so determined that she refused to eat or drink so she wouldn’t get discovered.”

“Why are you telling me now?”

“We’re not with her anymore. I’m worried about her.”

“Does Entos know?”

Suzanna shook her head and stared at Anfey. This wasn’t entirely her fault. It was Niya who found her and begged her to take her along. Unlike everyone else, Suzanna had never met Grandon and was closer to Christian. She didn’t like the fact that Grandon hosted a feast on the day his own brother was celebrating his birthday. She thought that it would do no good for Niya to keep courting a man like that. She wanted to tell Anfey about it, but she knew that Anfey would send Niya back, and she didn’t want to betray her friend like that.

Like Anfey, Suzanna knew nothing about politics. Niya was her friend and she needed Suzanna’s help.

Anfey sighed and shook his head. “Are we in trouble?” Suzanna asked nervously.

Anfey looked at Suzanna’s anxious face and smiled. He patted her on the shoulder and said, “No, we’re not. Don’t worry too much about it.”

Before this, their conflict with Grandon could still have been solved peacefully. Now, it didn’t matter whether Niya came willingly or not. Grandon’s biggest supporter in this race for the throne was Saul, and Saul’s reward was to have his daughter become queen. Saul might not care, but others would. After Grandon married Niya, he would win the support of the Mages Guild. Now that Niya had left Sacred City, the assumption would be that her loyalty lied with Christian. Grandon would never let them get away with this.

Before, Anfey did not have a clear allegiance. He was Christian’s friend and their futures were intertwined. He could influence Christian, and Christian could influence him. What he did in the future depended greatly on Christian.

Neither he nor Christian could dictate the course of events now. Grandon would become their enemy, and Anfey knew he needed Christian to stay alive. If Christian was killed, Anfey knew he was as good as dead. Moramatch had just became more important, as well. This was their base in Country of Mercenaries, and they could always come back to this place if things did not go well in Maho Empire.

“You’re not just saying that so I can feel better, are you?” Suzanna asked. She could tell Anfey was troubled just by reading his expression.

“Alice just told me that I’m too cautious,” Anfey said with a sigh. “She’s right, though. I think too much and act too carefully. Now that I think about it, I should really try to be more impulsive.”

“Really?”

“Yes, of course,” Anfey said. “I would never lie to you.”

Suzanna nodded and smiled. They walked around the street corner in silence.

“Does Christian know?” Anfey suddenly asked.

“Not yet,” Suzanna said, shaking her head. “I was worried how he would react.”

“You’re right. Keep this away from him for a bit longer.”

Suzanna nodded. “Hopefully nothing happens to Niya,” she said.

“Nothing will,” Anfey said. “Entos will find her sooner or later. Did you hide Niya on the carriage?”

“No. She was there before me.”

Anfey frowned and recalled the day they left Sacred City. Saul’s mansion was heavily monitored and all the carriages had guards. It was hard to imagine how someone could sneak around those guards and get into the carriage without anyone knowing.

“Maybe we are worrying too much,” Anfey said. “I think Entos knows Niya’s plan.”

Entos had known Niya since she was a child and helped raise her when Saul was busy. He was practically a brother to her. Entos cared about Niya as much as Saul did. If Niya went to him with a request, Entos would never refuse her. What perplexed Anfey was that Entos should know the implications of Niya leaving Sacred City. Why would he risk angering a prince? Entos was Saul’s student, but he was rarely at Saul’s place. Instead, he spent more time with Baery. Could Baery know about Niya’s escapade?

Anfey frowned and shook his head. He was never a politician and this web of intrigue was too complex. However, if he was right, this placed them in an advantage because it showed where Baery’s loyalty lied. Dark Moon Magic Legion and Griffins Aerial Unit were both gone, and the only major military power left in the world was Baery’s Roaring Death Legion. With Baery’s support, the possibility of Christian taking the throne was much greater.

“If Entos knows, then I’m sure he can take care of Niya.”

“I know,” Anfey said. “I’m thinking about tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes. We have to reconvene all the mercenaries tomorrow, but there may be objections.”

Chapter 343: Ecosystem

 

Anfey thought too much again this time. The meeting the following day ran all day. All the reform ideas were approved by all the mercenary group commanders, even though some of the changes seriously affected their interests, which even made unemotional Anfey feel bad for them.

Mages in different mercenary groups gathered together and formed a mage group. The chief commander of the mage group was Christian and the vice commander was Blavi. Most of the mage group were senior mages, but their fighting ability could not be underestimated when they would fight together. If they shot large fireballs together at a target as powerful as Ernest, he had to avoid them instead of fighting them off.

The first unit was formed mainly by Ozzic’s mercenary group. Of course, the commander was Ozzic. The vice commander was Ye. Female mage Elizabeth’s mercenary group joined the first unit, while she herself became vice commander of the mage group. She shared the same rank as Blavi. Among other commanders, she suffered the most losses. From now on, she would not have her own mercenary group anymore. Maybe because she was thinking of everyone’s interests, or maybe Ernest’s powerful strike made her worried. After a little hesitation, she nodded and agreed to Alice’s arrangement.

Ozzie’s Warflame mercenary group was renamed the second unit, while Beastman Tiger’s Wuming mercenary group became the third unit. Alice merged a few other mercenary groups into these second and third units. Those mercenary group commanders became Ozzie and Tiger’s assistants.

The rest of the mercenary groups were merged into the fourth and fifth units. The commander of the fourth unit was an intermediate swordsman named Stein, while the commander of the fifth unit was a gigantic axe warrior, Khufu. Khufu had blood of a barbarian in him. Anfey had only met Stein and Khufu once, at the previous day’s meeting, and did not know much about them. But Anfey could tell Alice had planned this a long time ago and knew what she was doing. He knew they were good picks, because other commanders all heaved a sigh of relief when they heard Stein and Khufu were appointed commanders of the fourth and fifth units. The rest of the commanders seemed to think they were good picks as well.

Anfey and Alice argued heatedly over the candidates of the sixth unit. In the end, Alice agreed with Anfey on Shinbella as the commander. The sixth unit was the smallest. Because of the unpleasant experience, it was not possible to merge other mercenary groups into the six unit. The sixth unit was composed of all the surviving mercenaries of Jagged Roses mercenary group. After they heard Shinbella would be commander, the concerns of other commanders had seemed to calm down.

After Anfey finished the errands, the sun had gone down beyond the horizon. This day had been the toughest for Anfey. He had not realized he had so many errands to run. Since he was the official ruler of Moramatch, he had to stay here and make sure he got everything under control.

Seeing the newly-appointed commanders leave the conference room, Anfey stood up and stretched his sore neck. He laid eyes on Alice. “Alice, can you be honest with me and tell me whether we have enough food?”

Anfey did not know much about politics or military strategies. He did have a good understanding of the concept “Before making any military moves, food and ammunition should be in place.”

This line had been in many works of fiction and historical novels. Anfey had never attended a military academy: all of his military common sense was from fiction and historical novels. That was why he was worried about food.

“Master, would you like to walk with me in the underground city?” Alice broke into a smile.

“The underground city?” Anfey asked.

“Yes, but I think you should be prepared for the changes. Since you left, those gnomes and dwarves have been busy working on it. They have totally changed it,” Alice said.

“I would love to take a look.” Anfey was intrigued. “Let’s go, Suzanna.”

After they resolved the problems between them, they all looked comfortable with each other’s presence. Alice briefed them on the way. When Shansa Empire retreated, they burned many items and buried the stuff they could not take with them. Kumaraghosha had all the records. When he came to Moramatch and the necromancers had not attacked them yet, Alice had took dwarves, gnomes and Kumaraghosha’s subordinates to dig out lots of ammunition.

Dwarves were famous for their forging skills. They could really make a lot of things out of the ammunition. Dozens of smelting surfaces were built underground with unlimited fuel from forests. They should have no problem with armaments for a long time.

After passing through the dark cave, the dwarves opened the heavy doors for them, because they got the news in advance that Alice was leading Anfey down there. Under Alice’s guidance, they walked into another alley. At one turn, Anfey remembered there should be a small underground city in about a dozen yards. They bright light made Anfey surprised. To save magic crystals, most magic everlasting lights were not lit up in Moramatch. How many magic crystals had they used to keep this underground so bright? Anfey thought to himself.

Alice gave Anfey a mysterious smile and walked straight to where the lights were. Walking along the corridors of the underground city, Anfey noticed a silver white paint all over the roof and walls. There were only three magic everlasting lights, but they lit up every corner. It was obvious this kind of paint had strong reflection.

Anfey walked over and felt the wall. It felt cold. Alice walked next to Anfey and said in a low voice, “Gnomes made them. They could mix mercury and other stuff and made them into this paint, like alchemists. Master, you probably can tell this paint can reflect lights like mirrors. The whole city only needs about twenty magic everlasting lights to light up everything. However, the rooms on the sides are still dim. We could not install magic everlasting lights in every room. It would be such a waste.”

“Nice, nice. It makes it very convenient.” Anfey nodded. “Alice, where do you store food?”

“Follow me, please,” Alice said.

They walked to the border of the city and followed along the drainage pipe for a few hundred yards before they reached the underground river, which flowed quietly. Anfey did not expect more changes here than in the underground city. The high arch was installed with dozens of magic everlasting lights. The light radiating from every light was reflected on the arch painted with the same silver white paint. The light reflected on the river and its banks. They could even see the fish swimming in the river.

A wooden bridge was built over the river. The bank of the river had been built up. It seemed all of these changes were made by dwarves and gnomes. The most surprising thing were the green plants and the different sized boarbeasts running everywhere. Adult boarbeasts were only a small percentage of all the boarbeasts, while young ones were the majority.

Boarbeasts were naturally timid and afraid of darkness. They only played around in places with lights and did not run elsewhere. Two small boarbeasts caught Anfey’s attention. It seemed they had caught something like a snake. They bit on each end of it and fought over it.

“What is that?” Anfey asked.

“That is a gigantic earthworm,” Alice said.

“Earthworm?” Anfey asked.

“Yes. These earthworms eat boarbeast’s waste, while boarbeasts eat gigantic earthworms. They live off each other while we have food source as well,” Alice said.

“Did you think of this?” Anfey thought about the ecosystem. He had a weird feeling that this woman might come from his previous world as well. Could she be a professional poultry feeder? Anfey thought to himself.

“No, it was a suggestion from a gnome,” Alice said.

“How many boarbeasts do you have?” Anfey felt relieved and stopped wondering.

“About five hundred,” Alice said.

“Do you think it will be enough for us?” Anfey asked.

“We only had just over a hundred of them at the beginning, but we have about five hundred now. The more boarbeasts we have, the more gigantic earthworms will grow. The more gigantic earthworms we have, the number of boarbeasts will grow as well.” Alice smiled. “If these are not enough for us, I have stored a lot of flour in other parts of the underground city. I think these boarbeasts and flour should last until next summer without any other help.”

“How much flour do you have?” Anfey asked.

“Because the number of mercenaries keeps growing, it would feed us for two months,” Alice said.

“Why did you store so much flour? I remember I only left you two hundred gold coins. You…?” Anfey asked.

“I sold some defective armor. Of course, dwarves thought they were defective, but those merchants thought they were high-quality military equipment. They gave me a good price. I bought a large amount of flour with that money.” Alice smiled. “You told me to turn this place into a fort. If we do not have enough food storage, no matter how strong the fort is, we could not stay here long. You do not think I made that decision without your permission, do you?”

Anfey chuckled. “I do not blame you for that.” Anfey turned to look at the magic everlasting light above him. “How many magic crystals do you need for these magic everlasting lights?”

“When I bought boarbeasts, I was thinking of raising them in the city. Later, when the Death War broke out, I had to raise boarbeasts here.” Alice sighed. “It was a coincidence. A businessman from Tumen Commercial Union bought a lot of magic crystals. He wanted to ship them back for sale, but he was attacked by death spirits in the valley. Most mercenaries he hired died, while the rest of them retreat back to us. That businessman was bitten by a death spirit. Before he lost himself, he handed me all his goods and gave me all the top magic crystals in his Dimensional ring. He hoped those could help us fight the death spirits. Those evil organisms were the enemies of all humans. I understood his wishes.”

Anfey nodded vigorously. Now he finally felt relieved.

Chapter 344: Evolved Zombies

 

Anfey had been in Mormatch more than two weeks, but no new mercenaries arrived after that. Alice theorized that it was getting too dangerous to travel and the Transverse Mountains had been lost to necromancers. This left Moramatch surrounded by enemies.

Immediately after Alice told him her theory, Blavi hurried in and told them about the presence of creatures of death around the town.

The mages in Moramatch would regularly use Eye of the Sky to patrol the area surrounding the town. If a lone zombie wandered too close to the city, the mages might miss it. However, they would not miss large hordes of zombies.

Anfey arrived at the mage tower and was soon joined by Alice and Suzanna. Christian and Elizabeth were chatting with intently. Christian turned and waved at Anfey as he approached. “Come here and look at this,” Christian said.

Next to Christian were a few mages scanning the area with Eye of the Sky. One of the Eyes was following a few strange zombies. Normally, a zombie’s body should be rotting and falling apart. These zombies, however, looked strong and complete. If it weren’t for the strange copper shade of their skin, they could be mistaken as living humans. The zombies were huddled together as if they were discussing something. It was widely known that zombies did not have the ability to talk. Zombies communicated with each other with basic telepathy, not spoken words. This defied the rules of nature.

“How many are there?” Anfey asked.

“About three thousand,” Christian said.

As soon as enemy combatants were discovered, the mages could band together and discover how many enemies there were and their location. This was one of the benefits of having a group of mages. Of course, even Eye of the Sky could not discover everything about their enemies.

“They’re talking?” Suzanna asked incredulously.

“Yes,” Christian said with a deep frown. “It seems like these zombies are more… evolved, in a sense.” He turned and glanced at the Eye of the Sky and shook his head. “This is not good. Not good at all. We could win the wars past because of the necromancers’ arrogance and the zombies’ inability to communicate. If the zombies are now intelligent… this war just got a lot more difficult.”

“My lords, look!” Elizabeth suddenly called.

The zombies seemed to have reached an agreement and split up. In Eye of the Sky, a group of around three hundred zombies were moving slowly towards Moramatch.

A battle was inevitable. Anfey and Alice turned and glanced at each other. The two of them were both very analytical. They knew themselves and their limits very well. Anfey could coordinate small-scale fights, but a battle against three hundred zombies was beyond his power. Alice, on the other hand, knew nothing about coordinating battles. There was only one person here that could command an army.

“Kumaraghosha, what do you think we should do?” Anfey asked.

Kumaraghosha frowned and looked at the Eye of the Sky. Suddenly, the zombies started running towards Moramatch. Soon, those in the city could hear the clamor of the zombies.

Christian used a levitation spell and headed towards the mage tower.

“Wait!” Kumaraghosha called hurriedly.

“What is it?”

“Wait. Don’t reveal how powerful we are yet,” Kumaraghosha said. “Get some mages and stop them with magic.”

“What? Why?”

“Those zombies are just testing us,” Kumaraghosha said. “If we reveal too much, it would be disadvantageous.”

“But if we let the zombies…”

“This is war, my lord,” Kumaraghosha said coolly. “Casualties are unavoidable. Listen to me, or you will increase your casualties tenfold!”

Christian sighed and nodded.

“Who are the people camping out there?” Kumaraghosha asked.

“Shinbella’s.”

“Then we are set,” Kumaraghosha said. “They would last the longest against the zombies.”

One of the mages called out in terror. The zombies had already reached the first barrier. Shinbella appeared in the Eye of the Sky. She stood on top of the barrier and waved her lance, ordering her men to attack. Normally, Shinbella and her men could hold off zombies for days like this. However, the zombies suddenly increased their speed and, even though they were slowed by the magic raining down on them, reached the barrier in no time.

The barrier was about five feet wide and was made of heavy logs and very durable. The zombies did not know how to use fire magic, and it was thought that it would take longer for them to break through the barrier. The zombies lunged at the barrier, clawing at the wood with their sharp nails. They opened their mouths and squirted dark pus onto the barrier.

The Eye of the Sky was vertically above the battle, but it wasn’t hard figuring out what the zombies were doing.

A zombie had broken through the barrier and appeared on the other side. It opened its mouth and screeched. Shinbella jumped off the barrier and sliced through the zombie with her sword.

More zombies began streaming through the hole to get beyond the barrier. Another group of around four hundred zombies headed in that direction as backup to the first group. Shinbella fought valiantly but could not hold off the zombies and was forced to retreat with her men.

Anfey glanced at Kumaraghosha, who shook his head. Blavi frowned and turned to Suzanna, “He doesn’t have a vendetta against Shinbella, does he?”

“I don’t think so,” Suzanna whispered back.

More and more zombies broke through the barrier. Christian led the mages in engaging the zombies with magic, but there were too many zombies and too few mages. Shinbella was forced to retreat into the town.

“Are you sure about this?” Alice asked.

“There are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of zombies in Transverse Mountains, my lady,” Kumaraghosha said. “This is only the first step. It’s less of a battle and more a skirmish, really. It’s only going to get harder from here.”

“You just said that Shinbella can last a long time against these things,” Alice said, not convinced.

“No one told me that those zombies can use magic.”

“We’ve seen those things before,” Blavi whispered. “They are the leaders of normal zombies. If we kill these things, the other zombies would be a lot easier to kill.”

“They are not the leaders,” Kumaraghosha said. “The ones that were talking are the leaders. We need to assess how intelligent these things are before we can fight them.”

“So this is your assessment?” Alice asked, frowning. She needed to know because she did not want to see anyone questioning Kumaraghosha’s abilities.

“I’m sure they have follow up plans,” Kumaraghosha said. He suddenly stopped, his eyes wide. More zombies appeared in the Eye of the Sky, marching towards Moramatch. According to the mages, there were three thousand zombies. This should be all of them.

“Search the surrounding areas,” Kumaraghosha said. “See if any zombies are hiding nearby.”

Blavi nodded. He turned and barked an order at the mages.

There were about forty mages left on the tower. All of them released the Eye of the Sky and saw that there were no other zombies except for the ones heading towards them.

“I overestimated them,” Kumaraghosha said, visibly relaxing. “They don’t even have a plan.”

“Does that mean we can engage?”

Kumaraghosha hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Chapter 345: Double-Sided

 

When a large group of zombies was about to rush into Moramatch, the mage group finally started their first strike. There were waves of intense magic surges. Even the dwarves and gnomes in the underground city felt the magic surges. They stopped what they were doing and stared at the cave roof in wonder.

A master swordsman might be a match for an archmage, but a hundred master swordsmen would not win over a hundred archmages, without any doubt. If mages released large-scale destructive magic, it would be as if each archmage was under hundreds of magic attacks. Even the legendary grandmaster swordsmen would not necessarily win.

Firewalls suddenly appeared and formed a sea of fire. It did not only cut a large group of zombies in half, it also fatally burned about a hundred zombies. Regular zombies did not have intelligence. After they received the order to rush forward, they would rush forward without caring about what would be in front of them. Unfortunately, they could no rush through a fire as wide as a hundred yards. Countless zombies first turned themselves into fire balls and then turned into ashes, blowing away into the sky.

One group of zombies was burned dead, but another group rushed in. The sea of fire was like hell for zombies. The firewalls took zombies’ lives not singly but in groups.

A wall appeared at the entrance of Moramatch and temporarily stopped the zombies’ aggressive attacks. Shinbella took the opportunity and her mercenaries surrounded the zombies who had already rushed into the town. They slayed zombies like cutting melons. Shinbella and her mercenaries stood in fighting formation to be ready for the next round of fighting.

Finally, a large piece of swamp land appeared. Before the zombies surrounded by fire could react to the Swamp magic, their bodies were already stuck in the mud. The loud screams and determination not to be stuck in the swamp could not keep them from sinking.

Before Christian took the mage group to start a large-scale attack, Anfey had walked around to survey the battle with Suzanna. Anfey’s unusual vision had firmly locked on those few zombies.

Those few zombies looked like desperate kids who just lost their favorite toys. Those zombies who could speak consulted with each other and went straight forward into the sea of fire, screaming. The reasons for this were unclear: perhaps their intelligence had not yet fully developed, or perhaps they had never suffered attacks like this and they could not accept the reality, or perhaps they had been too confident in their abilities.

One of the zombies screamed even louder than his companions. He retreat quickly as his peers rushed into the sea of fire. His peers all ran forward into the fire and could not see what he did. The regular zombies passing him lacked the judgement and did not understand what their leader was doing. They did not care about asking anyway, in other words, they could not ask.

Some mages had to stop using firewall magic because their magic power was running low. The rest of the firewalls could still cause a lot of damage to zombies. The zombie leaders rushed over the firewall, but their bodies seemed to get slimmer once they had some flames on them. At the same time, their companions had run towards the forest and high-tailed it into the woods.

That is it! Anfey snorted. He and Suzanna separated, both running into the forest.

Anfey did not risk experiencing the excitement. He was calm and reasonable. In addition, he had extraordinary ability to anticipate his opponent’s thoughts and moves. Christian, Blavi and others, including sophisticated Alice, were all shocked when they saw zombies had the skill to communicate. They were thinking it would be a disaster to deal with a group of intelligent zombies when they had paid dearly in the Death War to dealing with death spirits who did not have intelligence.

Anfey was not only thinking about these things, but also thought deeper. It was not all bad that zombies had communication skills. It would be worse if they could not communicate. After zombies learned a language and had intelligence, they could show their confusion, anger, terror and even their secrets in certain occasions. This was the problem of all intelligence.

The zombies without intelligence had a fatal defect, but the zombies with intelligence had their own weakness. There is no perfect organism in the world. Anfey was the first one to realize it after seeing these new zombies.

At the same time, the necromancers all gathered in one place, celebrating their success as they dreamed about their future life. They were the creators of the new zombies, but none of them realized that everything had two sides, including the new zombies. Even though they could develop as they wanted, there would be conflicts among death spirits, like the current human society.

Very few people could avoid Anfey’s sense in the forest, nor could they find Anfey if he were stalking them. This was no exception for the zombie that had followed them into the woods. After he escaped a thousand yards and stopped next to an ancient tree, he removed the rotten leaves, branches and dirt with his bare hands and dug a big puddle. He laid inside the puddle and swept the dirt on himself with his hands to bury himself.

No matter whether burying a body or a live person, it was a pretty heavy labor. If he wanted to bury himself, it would have to be skillful work. The zombie looked ridiculous. He covered his head well with dirt, but his legs and half of his body were still in the air. It seemed that he felt he had buried himself well.

Anfey could not help thinking that what this zombie did was comparable to an ostrich burying its tiny head.

Anfey wanted to follow the zombie to figure out where new zombies gathered. The zombie did not move at all for quite a while. Does he want to wait until it’s dark? Anfey thought to himself. Anfey thoughts for a moment then gave Suzanna a look. They both ran fast to the puddle where the zombie had buried himself.

“Anfey, where are we going?” Suzanna asked softly. She did not know Anfey’s specific plan. Anfey blocked the view of the zombie with his body so she could not see it.

“Here.” Anfey pointed. “That zombie buried himself.”

Suzanna looked where Anfey was pointing. She was shocked by what she saw. She could not believe there could be zombies like this one. She never heard of such a thing.

“Get up! Stop playing dead,” Anfey said, waving his hand. A green branch suddenly turned into a flexible whip and whipped the zombie. That zombie kept still. He seemed to want to play dead to the end.

“I am going to set you on fire if you do not get up.” Anfey walked over as he talked. Without seeing how, hundreds of small fireballs suddenly appeared and revolved around Anfey.

That zombie suddenly screamed and jumped to his feet. He looked fiercely at Anfey and tried to snatch Anfey’s heart with his sharp fingers. The next moment, the zombie saw Suzanna had pulled her sword out and the white combat power radiated from her.

If nothing went wrong, his hands could pierce Anfey’s chest with one more inch. However, his ferocity left him the moment he saw Suzanna. That zombie turned around without any hesitation and tried to run away.

It was a fatal mistake for the zombie to think Anfey was not threatening only because he did not sense Anfey’s combat power. Anfey stepped forward as little fireballs gathered into a gigantic flame shield on his left arm. He swung the gigantic shield forward and hit right on the back of the zombie’s head. The zombie screamed in pain while his body was thrown forward as if it had been shot out of a cannon. He slammed into a tree and fell on his back on the ground.

Anfey slowly walked up to him. The zombie struggled to sit up. The ferocity in his eyes turned into a look of terror. He moved backwards as he timidly looked at Anfey. He backed into the trunk of the tree and could not move back any further.

“Do not try to run away. If you dare to move again,…” Anfey raised his thumb at Suzanna like a thug. “She will cut off your head for sure.”

The zombie finally looked like a real zombie now. He stood against the tree and roared in a deep voice, but his body did not move at all.

“Tell me how many death spirits there are in the Transverse Mountain? How many zombies are like you?” Anfey was interrogating a zombie, but he was still a little too blunt.

That zombie kept roaring in a deep pitch. His body trembled slightly. He looked really scared.

“Do you understand what I am asking?” Anfey did not think he would get an answer anyway.

That zombie roared again.

“F*ck! If you do not understand me, why did you jump up when I said I would set you on fire? If you do not understand me, why are you scared to even move?” Anfey held his hand out. There was a gigantic flame sword in his hand. He swung it at the zombie’s cheek.

Anfey wanted him to be alive so he only hit him with the back edge of the sword instead of cutting him. Anfey did not put too much strength into it, but the zombie had a deep cut on his cheek. Black blood oozed out from the wound.

With close observation, Anfey had found many special things about this new zombie. He did not have that unbearable fishy stink. He had greyish pupils and could move freely. However, his fighting ability and stamina were not as good as the zombies that could be released with magic. Could it be the cost of evolution?

“I…” the zombie finally said in a coarse and machine-like voice.

Anfey looked excited. It proved that he was right. He was no longer worried. There must be more of this kind of zombie if he had seen one.

Chapter 346: Cleanup

 

Residents of Moramatch were already cleaning up the battlefield by the time Anfey returned with the zombie, bound by some vines he summoned. Even though they had eliminated a large number of zombies with few casualties, the town was still damaged. Shinbella’s old camp was completely under the marsh, and it would take a lot of digging to recover the lost recourses.

“Why did you bring that thing back?” Alice asked with a frown after she saw the zombie.

“It can talk,” Anfey said with a shrug. “It can give us some information.”

“You heard it speak?” Alice asked incredulously. Zombies communicating with humans was something unheard of.

Anfey nodded. “How are things going?” he asked

“Shinbella lost about thirty men,” Alice said with a sigh. “We are wrapping up cleanup.”

“Cleanup?”

Alice nodded. “They’re about to finish treating those who were injured.”

“There’s no objection? Should we go check on them?”

“No need,” Alice said. “They know what we are facing. You did not see how intense the battle was back here. Thank god for Shinbella’s men. Without them, we would have lost even more people.”

“If that’s the case, then we have to be there,” Anfey said.

Alice sighed, then nodded.

“After this is done, ask the dwarves to make a cage,” Anfey ordered.

“You’re not thinking about keeping this thing, are you?” Alice asked. She glanced at the zombie with disgust.

“Of course,” Anfey said. He tugged on the vine and said, “I can’t lead it around all day, can I?”

Alice nodded. “I’ll see it done.”

Some of the nearby mercenaries gathered around, pointing and cursing at the zombie. They would have beaten the zombie up if it weren’t for the zombie’s power to infect people. The zombie cowered low to the ground, shaking as if it could feel the hatred the mercenaries held for it.

“Suzanna, keep an eye on it. Keep it away from people,” Anfey ordered.

Suzanna nodded.

Moramatch was not a big town, and it didn’t take long for Anfey to find Shinbella and her men. Christian and Blavi were there with a dozen mages. Mercenaries were hardened and merciless, but they could not bring themselves to kill their friends. The mages were summoned to take care of the injured ones. The deceased and the injured were all gathered in a group and burned.

The surviving mercenaries stood around in a circle, their heads hanging low out of respect. Unlike her men, Shinbella stood with no expression on her face. She had experienced too much pain lately for her to feel anything other than numbness. She wasn’t married to Manlyn, but it was widely known that they were once in love.

All these mercenaries were her elites, and she trusted and cherished them deeply. The only reason the mercenaries did not object to Manlyn was because they knew it would be futile. They chose to keep their objections to themselves and wait for the moment for revenge. They knew that if they died, Shinbella would lose her last chance at survival.

Shinbella chose to give power to Manlyn even though she was as powerful as he was. This was because she respected and loved him. She didn’t want to fight with him for powerful and create a rift between them. She would give Manlyn everything he demanded and support his decisions. His betrayal had caught her off guard and caused her great distress.

The older mercenaries in Jagged Rose mercenary group knew that the group started off as a second rate mercenary group founded by Shinbella’s family, which was once a Shansa noble family with a rose as its sigil. It was renamed Jagged Rose by Manlyn. Shinbella and Manlyn, two senior swordsmasters, quickly made a name for themselves and expanded their mercenary group. However, when Shinbella suggested that they marry, Manlyn said that they should wait until Jagged Rose become a first rate mercenary group. Shinbella accepted his answer and patiently waited for the day the mercenary group rose in the rankings.

After Jagged Rose was recognized as a first rate mercenary group, however, Manlyn still found excuses to put off marrying Shinbella. Shinbella understood Manlyn’s concerns and waited. She never imagined that their relationship would end in tragedy.

The mercenaries understood Shinbella’s feelings, but they were more concerned with their own future. Why didn’t the mages join the fight earlier? Why didn’t they receive any aid? They didn’t want to think about it because they knew that once they did, they would no longer be willing to serve Anfey and his people. They also knew that they needed Anfey’s help and did not want to break away during the middle of a war.

“What are you doing here?” Christian said when he saw Anfey. He looked every sad. Kumaraghosha could face losses without any emotional distress, but Christian couldn’t.

Anfey sighed and joined the mercenaries in their mourning. He turned to Shinbella and said, “How many men did you lose tonight?”

“Forty-seven.”

“Give me their names and the names of their families,” Anfey said.

“I will,” Shinbella said with a nod, then turned back to the pyre. The loss of her lover was a great blow to her, and the loss of her men was an even greater one. She knew this day was coming, but she was already mentally exhausted, which made this loss even more painful.

Anfey sighed. He was poked Christian, who was too consumed by the sadness and did not notice him.

“Why do you want their names?” Christian asked.

“They’re heroes,” Anfey said with a shrug. “They died for us. They can’t take care of their families now, so we must.”

“There’s no need for that,” Shinbella said, shaking her head.

“What do you mean?”

“Our city had already fallen,” Shinbella whispered. “We barely escaped.”

“You mean…”

“Yes, my lord,” Shinbella sighed and lowered her head. This was the first time Anfey saw emotion in her eyes that night.

The mercenaries around them turned their heads away to hide the sadness in their eyes. They had sworn to protect their city and families, but there were too many zombies and necromancers. They were forced to abandon the city and flee with Manlyn.

Anfey looked around and saw a few dwarves nearby with armor and weapons. These were the weapons of mercenaries who participated in the battle. Any gear that had come into contact with zombies must be thoroughly cleansed before it could be used again.

Anfey walked over to the dwarves and asked, “Can you make a large stone tablet?”

“Yes, my lord,” one of the dwarves said respectfully.

“Good,” Anfey said. “These are heroes. We can’t let their sacrifice be forgotten. We need at least to engrave their names in stone.”

Anfey knew that he couldn’t give the mercenaries money, as money was useless during a war. The only thing he could do was honor the memory of the deceased.

“Shinbella, hold the funeral off until tomorrow,” Anfey said. “We will hold a collective funeral tomorrow for all the mercenaries killed in action.”

Chapter 347: Group Fight

 

After the grand funeral, Moramatch returned to calm. Unfortunately, people could not have peace in their heart. No matter whether mercenaries were carefree or ambitious, they all tried to practice as much as they could. They hoped they could improve and be able to survive the battle when death spirits attacked them next time. In Moramatch, training became a habit.

They did not expect the large body of death spirits to suddenly disappear for over a month. They could only see several zombies here and there, wandering outside of town. Every time they showed up, the mercenaries who had pent-up anger would rush out and killed the zombies like cutting melons to vent their anger.

Everybody knew the number of death spirits was enormous. Even though they were in a time of peace, everyone was still alert for any potential dangers.

One day, Anfey brought Suzanna and the Shadow mercenary couple to watch Kumaraghosha train his mercenaries. In fact, both parties suffered from this training. The mercenaries did not enjoyed the training. The formation training was boring. They did not think standing straight or walking in formation was helpful for real wars. Kumaraghosha suffered even more. He could not figure out why these mercenaries would be so stupid. They looked pretty smart, but they messed up the cavalry formation really bad in the training. The mercenaries looked like wild animals. Some went straight forward and knocked others down like bulls, while others jumped around like monkeys. Some mercenaries went out of formation and ran in either direction. They looked like two packs of wolves, running in different directions. Kumaraghosha knew in real battles it was necessary to surround the enemy, but it should be done by cavalries in formation. The mercenaries’ job was to hold the defense line and destroy the enemy’s strength.

Kumaraghosha was experienced in battle, but he was a little too old-fashioned. Mercenaries were good at fighting with a freer styles. Even when their formation was broken by magic beasts, they could form another formation with a few other mercenaries and start another strike. They had a main force, main defense and cooperation, but having hundreds of them repeat one move over and over again was too hard. Kumaraghosha was training them wrong. To motivate the mercenaries, he decided to reward the winners by allowing them to eat the losers’ food. Since the food was being rationed, the losers had to eat left-over soup and rice. In the first drill, the party in formation was defeated by the party with free-style fighting. After having no food for a day, these mercenaries realized there was no point to keeping in formation. They needed to use all the skills they had to fight for their lives.

The battle training was a real mess. The wood swords had lime powder on them. According to the rules, if they were hit and had lime on their bodies, this mercenary would be considered dead and needed to step of the battlefield. Some people simply did not follow the rules just for a good dinner. The opponents were angry when they saw these mercenaries not following the protocols. They copied them and stopped following the protocols as well. When there was one mercenary not following the rules, there would be more following that one. It should have been a hard-fought battle, but some did not leave the field after being hit with the wood sword, especially the strong ones. They would rush everywhere, with clothes turning white with lime, but they still swung their swords on the field. If this were a real battlefield, they would only be able to act this way if they were grandmaster swordsmen.

Long and Ling were laughing so hard that they could not keep themselves straight. This was not a fight drill. It was a fight between two groups of gangsters. Luckily, they were not allowed to use combat power, otherwise there would have been big casualties.

The Anfey broke into a smile after he took a look at that couple. He never asked them to join any group. He provided accommodations for free. The couple felt bad and asked to take on some tasks themselves. Anfey turned their offers down by pointing to their injuries. In fact, he was saving them for more important tasks. If they could hide next to zombies and not being noticed, it showed they had some special effect. They were the perfect candidates for scouts. Anfey currently had mage group to on patrol, so he did not need the couple to do anything yet. However, there would be a time when they would be needed.

Kumaraghosha looked defeated when he walked over. He had given up. At least he gave up for the day. He just let the mercenaries fight without any drilling. He walked up to Anfey and said in a low voice, “Master, they might be good mercenaries, but they would never be good soldiers. I am sorry that I let you down.”

“Kumaraghosha, I think you misunderstood me,” Anfey said. “I asked you to train them, but did not want you to train them to become something other than they are. I wanted you to make them better at what were good at.”

“Their strength? This is their strength,” Kumaraghosha said, pointing and smiling bitterly.

Anfey shook his head. You have been in the military for a long time and have a different way of doing things than they do. I have an idea. Let’s talk about it tonight.”

“What a chaotic scene. Are they fighting again?” Alice walked over with a smile. There was a sparkling item in her hand.

“Alice, what do you have in your hand?” Anfey asked out of curiosity.

“It is a crossbow made by dwarves.” Alice passed the crossbow to Anfey.

“When did dwarves learn to make crossbows?” Kumaraghosha asked in surprise. Crossbows had been existence for a long time but were not popular. People did not like them since they thought crossbows were shameless weapons. They had such power that a starving beggar could cause damage to knights, swordsmen and mages with crossbows. Kings in many countries liked this weapon a lot. Because of their support, they argued that crossbows did not be banned. The skill of making crossbows improved.

“Don’t underestimate dwarves. They are the smartest craftsmen,” Alice said slowly. “Master, would you like to try it?”

Anfely looked around and picked a wall as his target. He was familiar with crossbows. Even though there was a big difference in how they were made in this world and his previous world, they had a lot in common. Anfey pulled the trigger. The arrow shot out with a sharp whooping sound and hit directly into the wall.

With a gust of white smoke, the arrow got visibly softer. It turned into bright red liquid and dripped down against the wall. Where the bright red liquid dripped, it made sizzling sounds.

“Is it a magic arrow?” Kumaraghosha said, wide-eyed. He felt a slight magic surge.

“Yes, unfortunately, Hagan is not here,” Alice sighed. “We have so many mages. If we had Hagan’s help, we could make much better magic arrows. Dwarves only have very basic alchemy. This is the best they could do.”

Anfey nodded. “This is not bad.”

“Far from being good, master,” Alice heaved a sigh. “Magic arrows have splashing shooting ability. This was a low-level one.”

“Better than nothing.” Anfey thought a moment and said, “Suzanna, if someone hit you with this kind of crossbow, could it cause any damage to you?”

Suzanna shook her head. Alice smiled. “Master, you are way underestimating senior swordsmen. Only well-made magic arrows could pose any threat to Ms. Suzanna.”

“What if thousands of people attacked you with crossbows?” Anfey asked.

“I am not stupid. I would not stand there and wait for them to hit me,” Suzanna said.

A dwarf excitedly ran toward them. When he was about a dozen yards away, he raised something high. “Master, we made it.”

There was a crossbow in the dwarf’s hands. It looked a lot smaller, only as big as the hand. Alice nodded. “Bring it over and let master take a look.”

The dwarf had only taken one step when some something flew over from the battlegrounds. A wood sword flew off in a fight. That wood sword arched through the air and hit the dwarf in the back of the head. That dwarf stumbled. With a sharp whooping sound, the crossbow in the dwarf’s hand shot out.

The dwarf had been walking toward Anfey, so the arrow shot in the direction of Anfey. Alice stepped forward, but she was not a swordswoman and was not good with magic either. A woman without any combat power or magic power could not react quickly. By the time she reacted, the arrow had passed her. Kumaraghosha tried to pull his sword out, but the sword was not there. He had taken it off at the drill. Only Suzanna reacted the fast. As her sword was already thrust half way, she paused because Anfey had grabbed that arrow with his bare hand.

Everybody looked stunned. It was not that a big deal for Anfey to catch an arrow with his bare hand. What shocked them was that the arrow quietly stayed on Anfey’s palm without any change. It did not make sense, since it was a magic arrow.

Anfey turned his hand over and let his fingers go. The arrow fell on the ground and turned into bright red liquid instantly. The ground, covered with hard yellow dirt, was burned with a long, deep ditch.

Everybody went silent. Long and Ling stood still, their mouths gaping. What Anfey had done did not make sense. It seemed to them that this could only happen in a legend. Suzanna still looked normal. She knew the secret between Anfey and little Shally. Anfey asked Shally to attack him with magic at the beginning, later he got bolder and tried to take control of Shally’s fireballs. Little Shally felt she was bullied, and told Suzanna on Anfey. Anfey actions showed his improved ability to control fireballs had helped him here.

Chapter 348: Convenient Opponent

 

The dwarf stood where he was, confused. Kumaraghosha handed him a small bow, but he did not take it. He knew that he had messed up. Even though Anfey did not intend to punish him, the dwarf still felt ashamed for making such a big mistake.

“Why are you still standing there? Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Anfey asked, lifting a brow. He could be very forgiving when forgiveness was the best solution. He knew that the dwarf had made a mistake and there was no point in punishing him.

He killed the orcs in Forest of Death because the orcs were greedy and capable of revolts. If he had not taken care of them, the orcs would surely rob him and escape. The dwarves, however, were different. They were much more humanlike than the orcs, and even though they had a temper, they had served him well. Anfey didn’t want to punish this dwarf and anger the other dwarves.

“Go,” Alice whispered, trying to contain her anxiousness. She was nervous because she knew that she was different from Suzanna and Christian. She had not yet earned the trust of Anfey and his companions and their relationship was frail. Thankfully there were witnesses testifying that the dwarf had indeed fired the arrow by accident, or else she did not know how to explain it herself.

“How did you control that arrow?” Kumaraghosha asked. The question was on everyone’s mind. According to legend, there was a group of mages who could swipe other mages’ power to use magic. As time went on, these people slowly died out. Figuring out Anfey’s method of controlling the magic arrow could be key to rediscovering these legendary mages.

“I don’t know,” Anfey admitted.

Kumaraghosha, Alice, Ling, and Long all fell silent. They looked at Anfey and narrowed their eyes.

The legends had exaggerated the legendary mages’ power. No one liked people who could take their magic way. Modern day mages all feared and hated these legendary mages.

After the legendary mages disappeared, common mages came into power. The legends recorded and exaggerated the ancient mages’ power but not their allegiance and their morals.

“Anfey,” Suzanna suddenly said, “I’m bored. Let’s go take a walk.”

“Sounds good,” Anfey said. He knew that Suzanna would not do things for no reason. She must have something to tell him.

After telling Alice to take care of the aftermath, Anfey and Suzanna left together and went to the woods near the entrance of the underground tunnels. Anfey glanced at the gnomes and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Do you remember when you told me that you’re stuck in your training?”

“Yeah,” Anfey said. “Why’d you ask? What’s wrong?” After he received the Heart of Nature, he found that he could sense things he could not sense before. This led to new discoveries, like the ability to sense the elements that make up everything in the world. However, there were no records of how to harness this power, and Anfey could not figure it out by himself.

“Do you want to take some time off and train?” Suzanna asked.

“Why?”

“Didn’t you see Alice’s reaction?”

“I did,” Anfey said. “I know this ability is rare, but not all of my enemies are mages.”

“Then why don’t you use more magic in battle?”

“Habit, I suppose,” Anfey said with a shrug. “I trust my fists more than I trust magic.”

“I’m serious,” Suzanna said, frowning.

“I am too,” Anfey said earnestly.

“All joking aside,” Suzanna said with a sigh, “if you want to be a paladin, you have to practice magic. If you don’t, you can’t flaunt that title.” Suzanna paused for a moment. “You aren’t spending nearly enough time meditating. You should start that habit again. You do not understand the power of people who could do what you just did. If you become an archmage one day, you will be practically immune to magic.”

“That road will be difficult, surely,” Anfey said with a smile.

“Either way, right now you barely know enough magic to bully Shally,” Suzanna said, clicking her tongue.

“She told you?” Anfey asked, surprised. That was not something he was proud of.

“She’s my sister,” Suzanna said with a snort. “She keeps no secret from me.”

Anfey sighed but did not say anything.

“We’ll talk about that later,” Suzanna said. “I’m not saying that you have to become an archmage. I just want you to try harder.”

“Alright,” Anfey said, nodding. “I’ll practice more magic.”

Suzanna grinned. She took Anfey’s hand and leaned against him.

“Maybe you’re right,” Anfey said. “I should pay more attention to magic.” He looked at Suzanna and added, “You’ve been acting strange lately.”

“How so?”

“You’re always distracted,” Anfey said. “What’s wrong?” He remembered Suzanna’s mother and what she was going through. Yolanthe promised that he would protect Suzanna’s mother, but with a war going on, who knew what would happen? Yolanthe wasn’t omnipotent.

Suzanna sighed. “I’ve been having this strange urge lately.”

“What kind of urge?” Anfey asked, curious.

“I don’t know how to explain it to you,” Suzanna said, shaking her head. “I don’t think you will understand.”

“Maybe I will.”

“Well, it’s like this urge to fight, you know what I mean? This urge to find a swordsman on my level and use my combat power.”

“Hmm,” Anfey said. “That’s strange.” Suzanna grew up with harsh discipline and constant danger. She shouldn’t be easily disturbed by urges.

“I know,” Suzanna said, “but I can’t help it.”

“Did you talk to Ernest about it?” Anfey asked. He was worried that it was a side effect of Divine Punishment.

“I did,” Suzanna said. “He said to just let it be.”

“What?” Anfey frowned. “What kind of advice is that?”

“I’m not sure,” Suzanna said. “But I have a theory.”

“What is it?”

“My mentor told me that it is very possible that I would rise in level within five years,” Suzanna said. “I think I might be nearing it.”

“Master swordsman?” Anfey asked, surprised. Even though he knew that Suzanna would likely become the youngest master swordsman since the Holy War, he was still surprised.

“Maybe,” Suzanna said. “It’s just my guess.”

“This is wonderful!” Anfey said, hugging Suzanna tightly.

“Thanks,” Suzanna said with a smile. “Though… I’m worried. I don’t know what will happen.”

“This is good news,” Anfey said. “It’s wonderful. Don’t be afraid. Why don’t you practice with Shinbella sometime?”

Chapter 349: A Special Cardinal

 

“Anfey, Anfey!” Blavi yelled as he hurried in from outside.

“Shh…Lower your voice,” Christian scolded Blavi quietly as he closed his magic book.

“Is Anfey still in samadhi?” Blavi asked.

“Yes.” Christian unconsciously glanced at the door. In fact, the inner room was set up with a sound proof magic array. No matter how loud Blavi yelled, he could not interrupt Anfey. Maybe Christian cared so much about disturbing Anfey that he thought too much about it.

“How many days has he been there? Anfey has not had any food yet,” Blavi said.

Christian chuckled. “Is it abnormal for Anfey to have some special skills?”

“Are you sure he is fine? Should we go inside to check on him,” Blavi said.

“Don’t worry. If he did not feel good, he would have come out.” Christian smiled. “It will have been five days. The longest samadhi our professor could do previously was two days. I actually really want to know how long can Anfey do it.” Christian said.

The door of the inner room was still shut. The sound proof magic array stopped any sound from entering. Anfey sat on the bed with his palms and bottom of his feet pointing up. He looked peaceful with his eyes slightly closed. Regular mages always chose the most comfortable way to sit when they did samadhi. This way they could get into the state of samadhi to do deeper into meditation. They would not even be able to hold Anfey’s position for half an hour.

There were two different theories in the field of magic. One theory was once a person had strong telepathy, he could have more magic power, while the other said that as magic power got stronger, the telepathy would get better. Even the wisest archmagi could not give a definite answer on which theory made more sense. Anfey was just an inexperienced mage. He had to be cautious because he had limited understanding of samadhi.

Anfey never paid attention to the magic in meditation. Every time he completed his samadhi, he always emptied out his magic power. The first reason he did that was because he was afraid the magic power would conflict with his internal qi. He cared more about the practice of internal qi than he did about magic. The second reason was that the magic crystal inside him trembled for no apparent reason when magic power reached a certain level. Intelligent people had a natural fear of anything they could not explain. Anfey was no exception. Finally, he could only change magic power since it was external power. He could not change himself.

The difference between combat power and magic power was similar to the difference between strengthening one’s character and lengthening one’s life span. The argument over character and life span was also the argument between Taoists and Buddhists. Taoists criticized Buddhists for only knowing how to do Zen meditation without paying attention to their physical health, while Buddhists criticized Taoists for only paying attention to strengthen their life span and ignored character development.

Anfey felt the argument between Taoists and Buddhists was pointless. Character was the real host of a person, while the physical being was just an agent. The person who only paid attention to life was similar to a person living in a shabby house without a peaceful mind. How could a person be in the state of samadhi without a peaceful mind? If a person only paid attention to prolonging his life span, he was nothing more than a stupid person in a fancy house. Developing only one or the other was extreme, and stopped people from performing to the maximum. The real Tao was to develop both.

Outside the inner room, Christian asked quietly, “Blavi, what made you rush here?”

“A mage group found a weird guy in the Eyes of Sky,” Blavi said.

“Are you sure there was just one person?” Christian asked in surprise. In those days, humans were rarely seen in Transverse Mountain. In their routine check, they usually could only see some death spirits and run-away magic beasts in the Eyes of Sky.

“Yes, he was by himself,” Blavi said.

“Let me take a look.” Christian hesitated for a second, then walked outside. Black Eleven sat lost in thought next to the door. Christian said quietly, “Armin, I need go out now. Can you be in charge here?”

“Sure.” Black Eleven nodded.

As Christian and Blavi walked to the center of the town, they released Levitation magic and flew to the top of the mage tower. From the birds-eye view, the whole town of Moramatch looked like a checker board. Christian took a look at the practice grounds. He was surprised. “Is that Suzanna and Shinbella again?”

“Yes, poor Shinbella,” Blavi said.

Suzanna and Shinbella had fought many times in the past few days. They were both senior swordswomen, but Suzanna had the absolute advantage in the fights. Shinbella definitely could defend herself, otherwise Suzanna would have lost her interest in fighting a long time ago. Suzanna was fast, skillful, and flexible, like a leopard, while Shinbella was tough and strong-willed, like a lone wolf. Even when Suzanna would point her sword at Shinbella’s abdomen or knock Shinbella’s weapon away, or Shinbella was emptied of combat power, Shinbela would not give up in the fight.

Mercenaries were intrigued by two senior swordswomen’s fighting at the beginning, but they only watched once. It was not fun to be affected by the aftermath of their combat power. An innocent mercenary had been hurt, so no one wanted to get close to them.

“Master, something is not right. Right now there are more death spirits,” a mage said urgently.

Christian laid his eyes on the Eyes of Sky. A guy in a Church of Light priest gown walked slowly in the forest. Zombies were everywhere in the radius of a dozen of yards around him. They looked fierce and roared, but none of them dared to get close to that priest.

“Is he a cardinal?” Christian was shocked for a second. He recognized him as a cardinal from his gown as well.

“We have watched him for a while. He does not have any followers. How did he walk up here alive?” the mage said with a bitter smile.

“Those death spirits seemed to be afraid of him,” another mage said.

“Of course, everyone can see that,” Blavi said impatiently. “Christian, that guy looks he is coming our way. With his speed, he reach Moramatch in the afternoon.”

As Christian wanted to take a closer look at the guy, the cardinal had already walked into a thick forest. The Eyes of Sky could not see though the forest, so Christian could not see anything.

“No matter what, he is alone, and our friend. He probably could bring us some information from outside,” Christian said. “Should we send someone out to meet him?”

“No need. I think the cardinal will not be in any danger. If we send mercenaries out to meet him, those death spirits definitely would attack them. We should not lose them for nothing,” Blavi said.

“Master, the number of death spirits keeps increasing. I think we should get ready for the fight,” a mage said.

Winter was approaching. Some trees in Transverse Mountain had lost their leaves while others were evergreens. In some clear areas, they could see a large number of death spirits walking. Christian had only paid attention to the cardinal at the beginning. With the reminder from the mages, he noticed groups of death spirits. He could not help getting nervous. “Blavi, can you go and get Alice for me. I am going to look for Anfey. Hurry!”

“Ok. Look, that guy walked out of the forest!” Blavi suddenly yelled.

Christian turned around to look. That cardinal had walked out of the forest and stopped at a gigantic rock. He slowly took a seat on the ground and leaned against the rock. He took a piece of bread out of his shirt and nibbled on it. He looked up at the sky to check the time. The zombies tightly surrounded the gigantic rock as they roared, but they still dared not to get close to that cardinal.

When the cardinal looked up, everyone got a chance to see his face. He was a middle-aged man. He had a pretty handsome face but looked very serious. He did look like a cardinal.

“You guys watch him. Blavi, let’s go,” Christian said.

“Ok. Master, you…” Before the mage could finish his words, he was shocked and his face turned very rigid.

Christian was shocked as he followed the mage’s eyes to take a look. The cardinal in the Eyes of Sky stood up with the piece of unfinished bread in his mouth. He unbuttoned his pants. It was normal when nature called. But what was shocking was the cardinal’s looks and moves. He had looked handsome and serious a second ago, but now he had this ugly look on his face. He kept moving his head like he was on drugs as his pelvis pushed back and forth. He walked in a weird way and created different arches in the air as he walked to those zombies.

Where the cardinal walked, the area emptied of zombies. It looked like humans seeing devils. After walking in a half circle, he finally finished urinating. That cardinal pulled up his pants and wiped his hands on his gown. He did not care about his dirty hands and grabbed the bread in his hand and kept eating.

“What the f*ck!” A few mages could not help spitting. Most mages like to be clean. It was not hard for them to maintain hygiene as long as they released a spring magic spell. Therefore, they could not understand why the cardinal did that.

“Is he really a cardinal?” Christian could not believe his eyes. He thought all cardinals were humble, merciful and forgiving. How could this carnival do something like this?

“Master, he looks like he is from Gruce Principality,” a mage stuttered

“How do you know?” Christian asked.

“He was dancing, wasn’t he? Those moves were similar to the Harvest Dance in Gruce Principality.”

Chapter 350: Book of Life

 

Christian paused when he saw the front door to the house open. Anfey and Black Eleven appeared.

“Black Eleven, Anfey,” Christian said, hurrying over to greet them.

“What are the zombies doing?” Anfey asked.

“They’re getting close,” Christian said. “Let’s go to the city walls.” They turned and followed Christian towards Moramatch’s walls.

Alice was already waiting near the mage tower by the time they arrived. She stood next to the mages, staring at the Eye of the Sky. In the Eye of the Sky they could see thousands of zombies marching towards the city in neat columns. With her were Suzanna and Shinbella, who were taking a break from fight training. All three women turned to look at Anfey, Chrisitan, and Black Eleven. They appeared deeply disturbed and worried.

“Look at this,” Alice said sullenly, moving aside. “What do you propose we do?”

Anfey looked at the Eye of the Sky. The zombies surged towards the city like ocean waves. There were more zombies present than he had ever anticipated. He never thought the necromancers would pay so much attention to a small town like Moramatch. If the mysterious Priest of Light was a small island to provide the mercenaries with the light of hope and a sanctuary, the zombies were the ocean that surrounded that sanctuary. The mercenaries, the dwarves, and the gnomes had constructed two more walls outside the barriers they had set up in case the zombies broke through the barrier again as they had the previous time. However, the walls were made of dirt and could not hold for long against this many zombies.

“You have to make a decision,” Suzanna said, “or else we all die.”

“There are so many,” Anfey whispered under his breath.

Alice nodded. “It’s unexpected,” she said, shaking her head. “We aren’t prepared for this. I had the dwarves open the entrances into the tunnels just in case. They’re easier to defend than the city.”

“Is that the priest you talked about?” Anfey asked, pointing at a figure in the Eye of the Sky. Alice sighed and nodded. “He’s looks… different than I expected,” Anfey said.

Alice had gathered all the mages in the town and ordered them to use the Eye of the Sky. Right now, most of the Eyes were following the priest and the zombies he was fighting. The other Eyes were focused on other fronts. The only side of the town that wasn’t monitored was the western front, under Ozzic’s charge, where the priest had come from. There were enough zombies to immediately surround and take over the town.

“I don’t know how to feel about the priest,” Christian admitted. “He’s our best hope at survival right now, but he’s acting strange.”

The priest climbed onto a small hill and turned towards Moramatch, waving and mumbling something. Then he turned around and dusted off his robes. A book appeared in his left hand and he raised his staff. The priest marched towards the zombies confidently. Christian gasped when he saw the staff.

“What is it?” Anfey asked.

“The first pope St. Robin appeared on the battlefield like this,” Christian said, “but back then, the zombies were not immune to light magic.”

“He seems confident,” Anfey commented. “Why? He has to know something we are not aware of.”

Elizabeth shook his head. “The Church of Light has a strict code. They will not allow any priests to reveal secrets. You can interrogate him all you want. You won’t get anything out of him.”

Anfey frowned. He wasn’t fond of anyone affiliated with the Church of Light, but this priest was their best hope. He knew very well that if he ordered the mercenaries to strike, they would lose the city.

“Look at him!” Blavi suddenly called.

The priest paused and rested the staff and book on the ground. He stretched and rubbed his shoulder, then picked up his belongings again.

“Interesting,” Christian commented. He turned to Anfey and asked, “Should we go in?”

“Wait,” Anfey said. “I don’t want to alert the zombies. Let’s see what that priest has to offer.”

After a few minutes, the priest appeared on the horizon. He walked towards the town, the sun behind him. He wasn’t a large man, but in that moment he appeared as a figure from a legend. His staff was raised high above his head and he walked with confidence. As he approached the zombies, the creatures automatically cleared a path for him as if they were afraid of him and did not even want to be near him. Ozzic gulped nervously. He had never seen so many zombies in the same place. He did not know what he should do if the zombies began charging. He took a deep breath and turned to look at the wall. The presence of the mages and swordsmasters was the only thing that stopped him from retreating back into the city.

The priest stopped under the first dirt wall and turned to look at the zombies. He waved his hand and his figure rose into the air. He hovered above the dirt walls and waved his wand. The book burst into blinding light. Zombies around him howled in pain and turned to shade their eyes from the light.

The priest waved his wand and the light rose. Anfey narrowed his eyes and realized that even he could not look at the book and must turn away so his eyes wouldn’t be blinded.

As the light expanded, the zombies’ howls died down and the creatures all froze. The priest flipped through the book slowly. All the mercenaries were forced to close their eyes. After a few more pages, even Anfey had to close his eyes.

The priest began chanting in a foreign language. The light enveloped the zombies and the creatures began turning into dust. Then even the dust puffed away into nothing.

This was such an unexpected display of power. Clearly, the man was no ordinary priest. Anfey opened his eyes and watched as the last of the zombies disappeared. By the time the light was gone, there were no more zombies to be seen. Anfey widened his eyes, gaping. He now knew why the priest was confident.

He was so powerful, but why didn’t he do something earlier?

“My god,” Elizabeth muttered. “That’s the Revelation of Light.”

“What is that?”

“It’s two books: the first part is called the Book of Doom, the second is the Book of Life,” Elizabeth muttered. “This must be the Book of Life. But how did it come to this man?”

The book reappeared through the light and fell back into the priest’s hands. The priest rested on the dirt wall and dusted his robes again. The mercenaries watched in shock, then they all bowed towards the priest. They knew that the man had just saved all of their lives.

Some of the surviving zombies dashed away from the town, howling in fear. Anfey frowned. He didn’t want the zombies getting away with this news. They could report it to the necromancers, and he had no idea what the necromancers would do once they knew.