In four days, Anfey and his mercenaries travelled over 400 miles. They had finished half of the trip, according to the map. In fact, travelling 100 miles a day was not a problem for Anfey’s mercenaries. However, Anfey had his own concerns. They did not have enough food. Everyone was asked to reduce the amount of their food to half. In general, people need food to provide energy and feel hungry even if they only miss one meal. Asking hungry mercenaries to speed up was too much.
Mages should have been treated differently, since their bodies were not as strong as swordsmen. However, they acted really tough, insisting on being treated the same as others after seeing Anfey and Suzanna only take half portions, like all the other mercenaries. They gave their half of their food to foreman Black Eleven to keep.
It was undeniable that people tended to unite in difficult times. The mercenaries in the League of Mercenaries had a culture of helping each other when anyone was in need. Of course, Anfey contributed to this culture by setting an example. Leaders demanded special treatment everywhere on Pan Continent. Not many people like Anfey would set an example for others. In fact, he did not have to follow the rule he made. No matter how much food he wanted to eat, even ten portions, there would be no objection from the 2,600 mercenaries. Anfey was not only an earl, but also the leader of the League of Mercenaries. As an earl and the leader of the League of Mercenaries, he had the right to make his life more comfortable.
However, Anfey did as regular mercenaries would do and asked Suzanna, Blavi, and Ozzic to follow the rule as well. Others in the league who could have enjoyed the special treatment voluntarily gave up their special rights on their own, following Anfey’s example.
In history, as a civilization develops, everyone acts to constrain individuals’ power to prevent dictatorship. The information did not pass so freely on the Pan Continent. Heroism played a big role in society. Sometimes, the nature and characteristics of a leader could decide the culture of the whole legion.
Taking druids as an example. Bear tribe druids represented strength and power, while Wolf tribe druids represented toughness and persistence. When there was a conflict with non-druids, Bear tribe druids would be the main force, while Wolf tribe druids would counterattack, and Hawk tribe druids would be in charge of scouting and providing reinforcements.
Since the third generation of leaders was in place, the structure of druid organization had been changing. Bruzuryano was honest and did not like conflict. He did not want to see people dying in battle. He did not believe fighting was the only way to solve problems. He would start fierce counterattacks only when someone crossed him. That was the reason he was honored with a nickname "Guardian". At the same time, Bear tribe druids gradually gave up their main force position.
Manstuly was paranoid and sought revenge for the smallest grievance. He would kill a person even when they only had a minor conflict. People were influenced positively by good people and negatively by bad people. Over 100,000 druids in Wolf tribe had changed with the influence of Manstuly. They used to fight for the purpose of defending themselves. Later they fought for food to feed themselves, and then fought to obtain wealth, and then started to rob others, or even kill others to satisfy their craving for the excitement.
No one would judge whether Bruzuryano and Manstuly was right or wrong. The law of the jungle and bullying did exist. Manstuly was so cruel that other groups accepted his expansion for the time being, which allowed Wolf tribe to see gains. Manstuly’s wife was an elf pharaoh, so he received a lot of support from Goddess of Nature. He had more clout than Mauso or Bruzuryano.
In addition, Saul’s students formed a united group with Anfey as the founder. He had been taking care of everyone and making plans whenever things happened. Suzanna and he were always in the front when there was a war to try to protect the mages behind them. Everyone saw and knew what Anfey had done for them. They consciously or unconsciously compared themselves with him and learned from him. The culture of this group was decided by Anfey. If Anfey were jealous of Christian’s prestige and tried to put him down, or showed any dislike of Niya’s stubbornness and impulsiveness, there could have been many conflicts among them even, even when survival was at stake.
In Blackwater City, everyone in Anfey’s legion asked Christian to tell Anfey not to treat them as kids, since Anfey and Suzanna had been doing everything but never asked for their help. They had developed a sense of responsibility and did not passively hide from fights. Instead, they volunteered to join the battles, which meant this group had matured, and the bonds among them had strengthened.
However, Anfey did not realized how influential he was to his legion: otherwise, he would have acted more generous and knowledgeable. He was facing Suzanna with his sword. "Don’t use combat power. You would not know where the weaknesses in your sword skills are if you use combat power."
"I understand," Suzanna said.
"Whoever’s sword hits the floor loses." Anfey thought for a moment, then said, "Let’s bet."
"Bet on what?" Suzanna asked.
"Hitting the palm? Not fun. How about flicking foreheads? Not fun either. Never mind. Whoever loses will get spanked. What do you think?" Anfey grinned. There was not much to bet between a couple. They could only bet on this.
"Sure." Suzanna looked excited.
"I am not putting all my strength into it either. Watch out!" Anfey stepped forward and thrusted his sword at Suzanna’s chest.
Suzanna blocked him in a very standard position. The two swords clashed with a clear clanking sound. Anfey’s sword swirled and then pressed on Suzanna’s sword. He suddenly yelled, "Let it go!"
With the swirling and pressing, Anfey’s sword had pressed the tip of Suzanna’s sword. He thought Suzanna would not be able to hold the sword anymore. Anfey was shocked that Suzanna still could hold her sword steady in the air, while he almost lost hold of his sword.
"You!" Anfey was irritated. "Didn’t I tell you that you could not use combat power!" Anfey seemed to forget he was a leader when he was with Suzanna. At that moment, he was just a husband, playing with his wife. He definitely would get mad if he was played by his wife.
Suzanna giggled awkwardly. She knew she was not right. "I got used to using combat power."
"Don’t use combat power." Seeing Suzanna feeling bad about it, Anfey let it go, but he was nervous about it.
"I got it, got it," Suzanna said.
They went back to fighting. Swords clashed in the air. If Ernest was at a disadvantage when he fought Anfey without combat power, then surely Suzanna would be. Soon, Anfey screamed again. This time, he did not ask Suzanna to let her sword go. Instead, he called out her name, "Suzanna!"
"One more time." Suzanna stuck her tongue out. The sword was the life of a swordswoman, so whenever Suzanna felt she was about to lose her sword, she could not help performing combat power. She felt bad about violating the rule twice.
"Couldn’t you keep your promise?" Anfey asked helplessly.
"Let’s try again." Suzanna pretended she did not hear it.
"You are losing the fight if you use combat power again." Anfey put the magic sword back into the sheath. "I am not using my sword."
"Not using your sword? Don’t blame me if you lose the fight," Suzanna said.
"Losing? I will show you what my real skills are." Anfey chuckled.
If someone else had said it, Suzanna not would not pay too much attention to it. However, it was different story when Anfey said it. She still did not completely understand Anfey. She knew Anfey had a lot of secrets. A playful smile appeared on her face. "Ok, I will try my best."
"Come on!" Anfey did not pay attention to the words "try her best," He did not realize what it meant until he saw the bright golden light on Suzanna. "You…"
Before Anfey could finish his sentence, Suzanna’s sword radiance had shoot at Anfey’s head. Anfey had to step back to dodge it. He yelled, "You used combat power again. You lose!"
Suzanna did not seem to hear what Anfey said. She swung her sword sideways. Anfey flipped backwards, and he was already about eight yards away from Suzanna. "You should get your punishment as you promised."
"Come get me!" Suzanna giggled. She chased after Anfey. It was fine when there were alone. Now Ozzic, Blavi and few others stopped to watch. They seemed to come to see Anfey. She would never get spanked in the public. She would not keep her promise today.
Anfey was speechless. He thought to himself, How dare you play so shamelessly with me? He suddenly closed his eyes. He did not step back to dodge. Instead, he stepped forward to counter Suzanna’s sword radiance.
Suzanna was shocked by Anfey’s move. No matter how good Anfey was, he would not be able to counter the sword radiance with his body. She turned her sword away and took off the combat power at the same time. The leftover sword radiance shot to the ground to the right of Suzanna and made a fairly loud sound.
Anfey reached his hand out and grabbed at Suzanna’s wrist. The tai chi move of large hand wrapping was a very skillful seizing art. In addition, Suzanna was worried that Anfey would get hurt, and she tried to take back her combat power when she felt half of her body go numb. Her right arm had been twisted behind her back.
"This is for not keeping your promise." Anfey felt proud of himself and grinned. He spanked Suzanna three times because she did not keep her word three times. He was accounting for everything that had happened.
Ozzic cleared his throat. They felt a little awkward as they walked toward Anfey. They had business to talk about. "Master"
When Anfey turned around, he had a straight face. He did not look too serious, but business-like. "What’s wrong?"
"Master, a mage group found a group of mercenaries. There are about 400 of them. Do you think we should contact them?" Ozzic said in a serious voice.