Chapter 339: Fate
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Mercenaries had their own fighting styles. They cooperated, but loosely. They had a main fighting force, but the formation of the army not strictly set. Generally speaking, there was only very rough coordination of their fighting styles. It was just because of this rough structure that they were able to react fast to situations. When there was someone calling for help, the rest of mercenaries would join the fight immediately. It was easy for them to figure out who the enemies were.
When Ozzic took some of his guys to the jail, the town was already in chaos. People were yelling and screaming everywhere. Ozzic was a bit worried and sped to the jail. He found the jail door locked, and the guards had disappeared.
Since they had openly offended Manlyn, the fence could not stop them. Ozzic and his men pushed down the fence in the blink of an eye. After they rushed into the jail, they saw the jail guards had retreated to an empty cell in fighting formation. There was a vanguard in the very front of the group.
The cuffs on Shinbela’s neck and ankles were taken off, showing her bruised skin. A gigantic sword, glowing cold light, was stuck in the ground in front of Shinbela. That sword seemed to be the weapon Shinbela had been using. Shinbela did not have any emotion showing on her face. She slowly moved her hands and feet and rotated her ankles. She was a senior swordswoman, but her muscles had become rigid after being tied up for a long time. It would take her some time to get herself back to normal.
Seeing this, Ozzic could not help feeling worried. He had taken only 30 people with him to the jail. They would be able to handle those guards and take control of the jail. However, with Shinbela there, in addition to taking control of the jail, they would be lucky if they could walk out of the jail safely. Ozzic was only an intermediate swordsman. Ye did not come, since he had been given another assignment. The big difference in fighting ability between Ozzic and Shinbella could not be made up with more people on Ozzic’s side.
Shinbella suddenly laid her eyes on Ozzic. She was quiet for a second before she said coldly, "Are you ready?"
Ozzic moved one step back and pulled his sword out backhanded. He pointed at Shinbela from a distance, as he was still nervously planning how to fight with her.
"Then let’s start," Shinbela murmured before Ozzic could respond. A glowing combat power radiated from her. She pulled the gigantic sword out from the ground backhanded. It felt like the whole jail was under strong pressure.
A mage behind Ozzic was so nervous that he shot out a wind blade at Shinbella. Shinbella did not seem to see it. She just raised her sword, turned around, and rushed towards the group of jail guards with a yell. Her yell was so loud and wild that she sounded that she had gone crazy. She simply let the wind blade shoot her in the back. A small wind blade could not cause any damage to Shinbella’s combat power. The wind blade rapidly turned into moving elements.
The group of jail guards looked terrified. They never thought Shinbella would want to kill them. Before they could even react to her attack, Shinbela had broken their formation. The blood splattered. Like Shinbela, Suzanna was a senior swordswoman. Suzanna was fast, swift, and flexible, but Shinbella was more about power. She used less strategy but more power. Her sword skills looked even more masculine than Ernest’s. With the extra-long, heavy gigantic sword and intense combat power, Shinbella had turned herself into a killing machine. Every time when she swung her sword, she killed a few jail guards.
A junior magister across from Shinbella shot out two big fireballs in a row at her. If it were Suzanna, she would not have let the fireballs hit her, but Shinbella swung at the fireballs and shattered them with a loud yell. This might be because she had built up so much hatred, almost to the point that she was almost crazy. Fireballs were explosive: after being shattered by the combat power, their explosion intensified. They looked like the fire flames a mage could shoot. Shinbella was covered with fire. The fire had a radius of about eight yards. It swallowed both Shinbella and that junior magister.
Ozzic’s cheeks twitched. He wanted to help Shinbela, but was scared away by her roaring. He decided to wait and see what happened. It proved wise; otherwise he and his subordinates would have been swallowed by the fire as well.
The fire sea finally disappeared. Unlike Shinbela, everyone of the jail guards was on the ground. The junior magister was laying against the corner of the walls. His head was vertically cut in half and both parts fell sideways. The cut was deep down to the jaw. The elastic of the muscle allowed the two halves of the head to shake slightly. The head looked like red, white, and yellow paint was dripping down the jaw.
Seeing this sight, Ozzic wanted to throw up. He barely could talk, "Are you ok?"
Shinbella gave Ozzic a cold look and did not respond. She swung her sword again forcefully and broke a hole on the back wall of the cell. She jumped through the hole.
"This woman is crazy," Ozzic sighed as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
Mercenaries were not politicians, but they knew how to maximize their benefits. No matter whether they worked for Anfey previously or just now showed their loyalty to him, they all acted in the same way; that is, they sent their capable assistants to lead a large group of people to kill the mercenaries from Jagged Roses mercenary group while they took a few of their loyal forces to attack Manlyn. They knew whoever could kill Manlyn would receive the biggest rewards.
When Anfey reached Manlyn’s house, the fight was at its peak. More than 20 intermediate swordsmen surrounded Manlyn. Elizabeth and few other good mages hid in the distance, constantly releasing Delaying and Gravity magic spells and other effective spells. Previously, it would not have been a problem for Manlyn to fight a few intermediate swordsmen. Now there were too many attacking him and, in addition, the mages were trying to affect his fighting ability. Manlyn was in a very disadvantageous situation. He was wounded all over his muscular body. One of his legs was hurt and he could not move well.
As Anfey quietly watched all this, he took out his bow from the dimensional ring. He put the wind intensified glove on his right hand. It was inevitable to have some conflict among mercenaries. Anfey did not want to see major casualties, since he needed these mercenaries to fight against the death spirits.
Manlyn was a very experienced warrior. He had already sensed Anfey pulling his bow as soon as it happened. He looked beyond the crowd at Anfey, like a fierce lion.
"Hurry up, kill him," Alice yelled worriedly.
Anfey was shocked for a second. He should have let the arrow fly at Manlyn. However, he had his suspicions about Alice. Her nervousness had made him think twice whether Alice might have been leading some conspiracy against Manlyn, so Alice wanted Manlyn die quickly.
Alice was shocked when she saw Anfey putting his bow down. Her face turned pale and she looked away.
"Anfey, do you dare to take my challenge?" Manly asked in a thunderous yell.
"Stupid." Anfey had a smirk on his face. He never did anything on impulse. He definitely had control of the situation. Why would he want to fight Manlyn one on one. Anfey wanted to see whether Alice had done anything that meant he should keep Manly alive. Anfey was about to give orders, but realized the situation was getting bad. The intermediate swordsmen all unwillingly stepped back. Manlyn stopped his attacking and proudly stood there with his sword.
What had happened? Anfey could not believe what he saw. He did not pay attention to the customs of Country of Mercenaries. Powerful people could receive high honors, even powerful opponents. It was reasonable to have a fight to see which one was more powerful. No one would think it was inappropriate. Of course, the challenges could be turned down.
Suzanna put her hand on the sword handle and moved one step forward. Anfey held his hand out and stopped Suzanna. He saw the expectations in the other mercenaries’ eyes. He thought for a second and realized what he could gain and lose in this situation. No one else could fight for Anfey, otherwise Anfey would have a bad reputation.
"Anfey?" Suzanna looked worried.
"I am alright." Anfey smiled and strode towards Manlyn. In fact, he knew this fight was not fair. Manlyn was like a trapped beast. He was not even scared of paying with his life, since he knew he was doomed. Anfey was not as committed to the fight as Manlyn, but this fight was inevitable.
After walking two steps forward, Anfey suddenly stopped and turned around to look at Alice. Alice refused to look at him. She watched them distantly.
"What are you hesitating for?" Manlyn yelled again. He looked so excited that his face was twisted. After being attacked by a group of mercenaries and finding out Alice had betrayed him, he had already felt desperate. He did not think he would get this last chance. It would be a good ending to be able to die together with Anfey.
"Thank God, you are still alive!" Another more excited and sharp voice rose. A person in covered in blood stepped into the center of the battle. She ignored everyone, but laid her eyes on Manlyn. "Come on, Manlyn, like a real man. Let’s fight."
"Shinbella…" After seeing Shinbella, Manlyn looked like he was going to lose control. His face was twitching, and his eyes were filled with panic, regret and much sadness.
"I have been disappointed in you for the past few days, Manlyn. I hope you can leave me with one last good impression." Shinbella slowly raised her sword, smirking.
Manlyn moved one step back. He avoided Shinbella’s look of hatred. He looked at Alice, and suddenly yelled, "Alice, tell me, why, why?"
Alice looked at Manlyn with disdain, then at other mercenaries in the field, and finally laid her eyes on Anfey. She turned around and walked away. She did not even care to givie Manlyn an answer. In fact, her answer was clear. Manlyn did not deserve her, or deserve her answer.