Chapter 78: Unintentional Fabrication
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Looking back, Anfey could see clearly the group of savage looking orcs charging out of the forest. Among them was a young black-haired person dressed in black who looked particularly interesting. Anfey could feel that the young person was the leader of the orcs.
The orcs did not appear to want to give up their goal, and they continually produced weird shouts, charging towards Anfey and the others. Anfey’s knowledge about the orcs was that they were always disoriented, whether in single tribes or groups of tribes, and there shouldn’t be orcs living in Forest Clarm! But the orcs behind them were well equipped, and the javelin that was just thrown out was standard. At this time, every single orc was holding the same short handled wolf tooth rod, and some orcs were even wearing leather armor. How did this seem like a mess?
Anfey was able to float in the sky because of Christian and Riska’s ability to fly, so he didn’t need to use his strength and he could observe the movements of the orcs. The levitation speed wasn’t that fast, but it was more convenient when compared to going through the forest, and Susanna easily left the orcs far behind with reliance on combat power.
Those orcs saw that they could not keep up. Some gradually slowed their pace, while some could not bear it but continued to pursue in exhaustion. Their whole formation came apart.
"Let me down! Christian!" Anfey yelled. He believed in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Since these orcs had attempted a sneak attack, he would not let them go that easily!
Christian took Anfey’s direction, together with Riska let Anfey down onto the treetops, and were prompted to release a magic signal that meant counterattack. Zubin and Sante scattered in two directions of the roundabout, Suzanna came to a fast stop, and shot back immediately like a sharp arrow.
Anfey grasped a section of tree branches to first steady himself, and then used both feet to step forcefully on a thicker branch to test its flexibility. He stood up, held onto the treetop, and his body fell straight down. That tree branch could not hold Anfey’s weight. When Anfey was seven or eight meters away from the ground, it split open with the sound of a crack. Anfey took a deep breath, rolled as he hit to absorb the blow, pulled out the sword with his backhand, and stared coldly at the more than a dozen orcs that were charging forward.
Retreat was just a strategy; it did not mean being scared of the enemy. There were two beginner level magisters on the team, and also a high level swordsman. This type of strength would not be inferior to the other combatants! Just then they were on flat ground; the terrain was very unfavorable, but the team of orcs had already been pulled apart, so it was time to fight back!
Christian and the others who were in the air rose higher, and then started to gather fire energy to attack the orcs in the middle. In this type of battle, fire magic was the most substantial. Especially with the exploding nature of a big fireball, even if it could not reach its attack target, its explosion would still bring disaster to the nearby orcs. Christian also released numerous flame dusts; dusts as hot as fire clouds abruptly divided the orcs in the middle.
Suzanna brandished her sword, rushed to the two orcs in the front. They did not know better and charged toward Suzanna while waving their short-handled wolf tooth rod. The result was that Suzanna almost split one orc’s back in two, from the middle up to the shoulders. Another one suffered one of Suzanna’s kicks to his front chest. He flew back like a bullet, and crashed into a big tree. When he slid down the tree slowly, his back was already bloody and bruised His front chest was not visible, and one can’t say what could have become of it.
There were probably more than a hundred of them in this group of orcs. Most of them had already stopped chasing, especially since Christian and the others held off a part of them. There were only a few orcs who charged forward to the immediate fight, and they were not a threat for Suzanna. But before she first slaughtered, the corner of her eyes swept over to Anfey when she was charging towards the other few orcs. She was worried about Anfey’s safety.
In actuality, Anfey and Suzanna should have switched sword tactics to be appropriate for this time. That was because Suzanna’s sword’s skill was bold and unconstrained; using the fastest attack speed with the shortest attack distance, she hit every oncoming opponent. Unable to stop their movement forward, the fate of these orcs was the same no matter how fast they would respond. Being unable to defend would naturally lead to death, and if they were able to block Suzanna’s sword, they still lost weapons in the power of the collision. And Suzanna could rely on spare energy to behead the opponents.
Anfey had changed to a new sword tactic. It was elegant and flexible; now on the right, now on the left, his opponents were unable to figure it out. He seemed to know that the power of the orcs was very strong. The sword in his hand never seemed to come into contact with the opponent’s weapon, and he always waited for the orcs to attack first. He would then attack suddenly when the opponent’s tactics became predictable, and once he attacked, there would be blood.
In the blink of an eye, Anfey and Suzanna had taken down seven or eight of the orcs in the front, and then Anfey greeted an orc with its whole body green. Every one of the orcs had a ferocious look on its face, their colors were similar, and their bodies emitted a foul sweat smell. Anfey did not notice that the orc in front of him was a little darker in color than the other orcs. He stepped sideways to bypass the opponent’s attack, and then stabbed towards the opponent’s right ribs.
That orc appeared to be very agile. Anfey’s choices of his attack times were always very cunning, always choosing when the opponent was almost tired out and before the opponent could recharge its energy. But that orc could actually escape this type of situation. Anfey’s sword brushed against the bottom of his right ribs, and made a deep bloodstain. The orc yelled, and the short handled wolf tooth rod in his hand came smashing towards Anfey head-on. Although Anfey was a bit curious, he was not at all flustered. He stepped away suddenly and let the wolf tooth rod pass him. The sword in his hand twisted up like a poisonous snake, and with a flutter stabbed the orc’s neck.
Anfey swung the sword stealthily with strength in his wrist, and cut a wound so deep on the orc’s neck that the open throat was visible. Anfey did not stop, and rushed past that orc’s side to greet another orc.
"Careful!!" Suzanna suddenly yelled. Anfey felt a gush of wind behind his head, there was no time to think, his stature suddenly shortened, and he stretched the sword in his hand out backwards. Listening to the wind was basic work for Anfey. He could not only figure out the weapon of his opponent from the sound of air in the wind, but could also accurately figure out the path of attack. His sword blocked the opponent’s attack exactly.
Anfey’s sword broke with the sound of a clang. This sword was originally Zeda’s. Anfey had always kept it on him until today. Although the sword’s quality was pretty good, it was very torn, without having been protected by combat energy while training with Suzanna. This time when it collided with the heavy wolf tooth rod, the life of the sword had finally come to an end.
Anfey rolled around and avoided attacks with agility. He flipped over and jumped to one side. He then had an opportunity to look back. The orc whose neck had been cut one-third through was charging towards him with the wolf tooth rod held high.
Anfey was very confident in his means of attack. That was a definite fatal wound! If he did not think that the opponent would immediately fall down, he would never just have walked past the opponent’s side chicly and exposed his whole backside to the enemy!
Even though Anfey was a bit surprised, his expression still did not change one bit. He retrieved the manticore’s tail needle from the dimensional ring with his backhand. With a mighty demeanor, he pierced the tail needle into the counterpart’s shoulder at the sound of a flutter.
That orc suddenly froze and became rigid! The low chance of rigidity from the manticore’s tail actually was a success in the first real battle. Suzanna had also arrived. Throwing herself at the orc, her right leg drew an airwave visible to the naked eye, and landed a blow to the orc’s head .
Anfey had already sliced a third of the way into that orc’s neck, and the strength of Suzanna’s kick was too strong. The huge beast’s head went volleying up into the sky and flew far into the distance in the direction Suzanna’s leg had kicked. In front of them was only a headless torso, still spewing blood.
Anfey hastily jumped out of the way and avoided the bright red fountain. He tilted his head and saw Suzanna’s body was half stained with blood; but she acted as if it were nothing, and once again faced the last few orcs.
There was a saying that goes, "Mountains and rivers can be changed, but it is hard to change a person’s nature." Anfey was a person who liked to ponder people. Even during this battle he was like that. "This girl has definitely killed people before! Maybe…she even killed a lot!" From the side, he could see that Suzanna had a gutsy and fearless look on her face, and thus he made the judgment.
At this time, a low horn sound came from the forest. All the orcs turned neatly and ran back like a well-trained army. The few orcs that were attempting to surround Suzanna in the middle also turned around together and ran back. Suzanna hesitated, carved out a cross shape with her sword, light from the sword shot out, and two orcs were killed on the spot. Just when Suzanna was about to wield her sword again, Anfey’s voice rang out from behind her, "Leave this to me!"
Anfey had already rushed past Suzanna when she had paused for a second. His palm hit the orc’s back, and the orc screamed and flew out flailing his arms and legs. But his injury was not that serious. The orc rolled around a few times on the ground but got back up and continued to run forwards; and couldn’t tell where it was hurt.
"What are you doing?" Suzanna asked with a frown. Anfey smiled as he waved his hands, at the same time he sniffed the smell in the air, and revealed a well-thought-out smile. Suzanna shrugged and did not continue to question him. She thought: "This man is mysterious in many ways anyways. I wouldn’t be able to get any answers even if I do ask, and even then, the answers I get might not even be true."
Christian and a few others landed from the air. "Anfey, should we chase them?"
"No need, they can’t run away," Anfey said with a smile, "Suzanna, what was up with that orc just then? I obviously hurt him so badly, how did he still have strength to fight?"
"That wasn’t a normal orc, it was an orc warrior."
"Very powerful?"
"If it was very powerful you’d have long been dead," Suzanna rolled her eyes at Anfey, "Above the orc warrior is still the beast blood warrior, and the strongest is the beast soul warrior. Have you heard of Ahdibaijan?"
"This name…I’m very familiar with!" Anfey pondered. "It’s the powerful warrior that united all the savage tribes!"
Suzanna said slowly, "Ahdibaijan’s lineage is half wolf man. He is a beast soul warrior! The beast soul warrior is a very fearsome creature. Back then, master mage Richard entered Moon Shadow City at the cost of his life and sealed Ahdibaijan in with the use of a vacuum scroll, just because there was no other way."
"I also know this, Ahdibaijan once fell into the humans’ trap, and had hundreds of magic concealing arrows on his body, but he still killed his way out of the encirclement in the end. After half a year, he had completely recovered. If it was an ordinary human, or even if it were a legendary swordsman, this would not be possible!"
"How many beast soul warriors are there among the orcs?" Anfey asked.
That's what the novel says.
"Very few, luckily it’s very few," Christian smiled bitterly.
"I understand," Anfey nodded, and suddenly looked at Christian, then at Zubin. "At the time, who told me Forest Clarm had no orcs?"
"This…" Christian was speechless and slightly embarrassed.
"Forget it, and let’s not talk about this. Let’s go back immediately. The other people must be anxious."
"Anfey, are we really not chasing those orcs? I remember that most of the orcs are violent and cruel, but they are practically brainless. Those orcs were actually like an army, and also knew to arrange an ambush. They are too sinister. They will cause big trouble for us sooner or later," Zubin said suddenly.
"I’ve got the picture," Anfey said, smiling. "Let’s, go back!"
Back at the cave, Christian first told them of the two-footed flying dragon’s slaughter, so that the people were very happy. Then he told of the clash with the orcs, and the atmosphere became tense again.
Anfey solicited suggestions from everyone to get them to support going to war. Although there were many who did not have much experience handling things—they were generally childish and reckless—one thing was for sure: there were no cowards among them!
Anfey then started to organize the group. He first had Christian and Riska form some more magic arrays at the entrance of the cave. The following day, everyone would take off except Feller, Arrago, Niya, and little Shally with little guy. Christian was very curious why Anfey was so sure he could find the orc tribe. He only asked twice, and both times his questions were brushed off by Anfey. It appeared to be mysterious, but in actuality it was very simple. When Anfey was attacking, he left perfume powder on the barbarian. Under normal circumstances, Anfey could follow the smell of the perfume powder to find the adversary. Anfey wasn’t worried about Christian, but a secret was a secret, the less people knew, the better.
That night, almost everyone who knew they were joining the battle the next day went to sleep early, so they could wake up early to meditate before heading into battle. That way they could exert stronger combat power. Feller and Arrago regretted that they could not participate in the battle. Feller was terribly busy; he had to organize and sort out a lot of statistics every day. And Arrago’s injured leg had not healed yet. Even if they wanted to join in the battle, they were not able to.
Neither Anfey nor Christian slept. They chatted and walked in the grass under the moonlight. Christian was very eloquent, and mastered very profound knowledge. No matter what Anfey brought up, he would always have something to say, so Anfey really liked to chat with Christian.
According to Christian, the origin of magic and combat power in this world was very interesting. Originally, mankind did not know magic and did not have combat power. Humans, elves, barbarians, orcs, and dwarves all lived in peace on the continent. Every type of intelligent life embraced different deities, and there were sub-regional differences. Even the same groups of beings that believed in the same deity had differences.
There were many deities. And there were also many gods who displayed miracles. It was said that gods rely on the power of faith to survive. The more the people had faith in a god, the more powerful he was. Those gods who had no believers could only choose hibernation, or else they would become weaker and weaker. In order to gather more believers, the gods instigated their believers to start wars. At the same time, in order to ensure that their own believers would win, they gave the believers magic and combat power that originally only gods could comprehend. One god did that, and naturally there would be other gods who would not fall far behind. Gradually, all types of intelligent life mastered battle skills that were suitable for them. They expanded, and became unique systems.
But the gods neglected one thing. Under general circumstances, there would not be breakouts of life-or-death battles. That was because they already had the most valuable thing. They were already above all things; there was nothing for them to fight for. But the groups of earthly beings were not the same!
In the never-ending fights, the battle skills the various groups had mastered rapidly rose to a peak. Strong ones who could threaten the safety of the gods appeared. The sword sage of the people, the master magister, paladin, the sunset shooter of the elves, the master deity, the destroyers among the barbarians, sacrificial destructions, beast deity among the orcs, the master ghost, the king of the hills of the dwarves tribe... Those strong ones stood out, about a few dozen of them. The gods may not have cared, but if there was an influx of thousands, or millions, even the most powerful gods would have to retreat.
The gods could not tolerate this! But they could not do anything about it, because the gods needed the power of faith. They could not possibly risk the destruction of faith in order to make things hard for the strong ones. Something similar had happened in the magic world as well. Maybe…it was the result of the gods making peace with the monarchs of the magic world. A huge opening of time and space connected the two planes of space. From then on, mankind launched a bloody slaughter with the magic tribe. A large number of strong ones fell in the middle of the battle. After the ultimate strength of the two worlds collided several times, the battle skills that each person had mastered suffered devastating damage, and the ultimate strong ones who luckily survived the battle all mysteriously disappeared.
Having fought for hundreds of years, neither mankind nor the magic tribe wanted to continue to battle anymore, but they had accumulated too much hatred between them. No one could stop the inertia of this hatred. You came to my hometown to burn and kill, I also have to go loot your domain. Many people bore the hatred through many generations. Who was willing to put down his weapons? Finally after a sharp decrease in the amount of intelligent life on the Pan Continent, many gods sent down miracles, and the huge time and space door disappeared.
Christian started by telling Anfey what he had read from books, and towards the end he gave Saul’s own reasoning and speculation. Saul firmly believed that the century of holy war was just a conspiracy!! One of the most powerful pieces of evidence was that under outrageous circumstances, Brunswick decided to send out the army to block the magic tribe’s attack. Brunswick knew that this was his last battle, and he commanded his four bodyguards to take his children and leave through the magic array. Those four bodyguards were all sword sages, and were also the last inheritance Brunswick gifted to his children. In the end, the children appeared at the other end of the magic array, and the four bodyguards were gone without a trace. Not only Brunswick had this type of encounter. Intelligent beings liked to leave room for maneuver. When the habitat of the elf tribe suffered the siege of the magic tribe, the elf tribe assigned more than thirty sunset shooters and two master deities to other places, and those people also mysteriously disappeared!
When discussing topics related to gods, the fragile mage was actually the boldest among all the strong ones. They believed that as long as they could control enough elements, then they would be gods! Before the holy war, the most famous master magister Hahn had an extravagant saying, "What gods could do, mankind could also do!"
The mage went beyond the normal senses and communicated with the elements, and finally controlled the elements. They believed that elements were the fundamental constitutions of the world, and thus did not believe in any gods! That was why Saul only said those words after having done a lot of research. Of course, Saul was also very careful. Among these people, he had only talked about it with Christian.
Christian was also very careful when he talked about these things with Anfey, and had arranged a sound proof magic array before he dared to spill secrets. After Anfey had heard these things, he felt like a hero that had experienced things. He could totally understand. If he had been a god, and had come across the same situation, he would probably also have formulated a similar plan. This type of drastic approach was very simple and very effective!
The more the two talked, the more interested they got, and they forgot about the time. But the little unicorn was aggrieved. It had risked its life to go out with Anfey to be able to play with Anfey, but it knew Anfey just simply ignored it. It rubbed against Anfey, which annoyed Anfey. A slap made it fall on its back, and it finally obediently lied down behind Anfey.
"Anfey, it’s getting late. Let’s go back." Christian lifted his head, looked up at the night sky, and hesitated. "Anfey, don’t tell anyone what we talked about tonight! Or else we could bring trouble to our teacher. You know that the church and the magic guild have always had disagreements, and the power of the church is very strong now. They have eyes and ears everywhere. If these things leak out…"
"Alright, don’t worry! Do you think that I am a person with a loose tongue?" Anfey laughed.
"Haha…" Christian laughed a bit, and suddenly proclaimed in surprise, "Huh? Where’s the little guy?" They did not know when the little unicorn had actually slipped away. Anfey could not be blamed. He had been enthusiastically talking, so how could he have been in the mood to play around with that little thing?! "We need to make some reins tomorrow and harness it!" Anfey looked to the left and to the right, and yelled, "Hey!"
The little guy still did not have a name. According to Anfey, it could be named whatever. It could be Nao Nao, Liu Liu, Huan Huan…all could work, but Niya, Suzanna, and everyone else were firmly opposed. It was a pity that the name they gave was strongly opposed by Anfey. "Silver Lightning! It was pink at the moment! Also that name was too vulgar! The elegant wind on the divine mountain of Gruia! Please, that name wasn’t vulgar, but let me see first what kind of divine mountain Gruia was, alright? Besides…wasn’t it uncomfortable to give such a long name? Jungle nocturne! Save it, the little guy hums all day long, my singing sounds a lot better than it does. What song?" As a result, Anfey could only use "Hey" to call the little guy.
It was quiet all around. The little guy did not come happily running to Anfey’s call like it did in the past. "Hey! Hey! Hey…" Anfey raised his voice.
"Anfey, let’s go back. Maybe the little guy went back by itself."
"No, it doesn’t like to be in the cave. If someone did not watch it, it would have long escaped," Anfey shook his head. "Then…let’s divide up the search?"
"Sure."
Anfey was just about to get up but suddenly saw a small white shadow galloping towards him from a distance. That white shadow was the little unicorn. There was a bunch of things hanging from its mouth, and it looked like clothing. The little guy ran to Anfey and threw the things in his mouth onto the side, and intimately rubbed its head against Anfey’s chest.
But Anfey wasn’t a person who was easily influenced. He reached out and slapped the little guy’s butt two times, not hard but not softly either. "I dare you to run out again, I dare you to run out again!!"
Christian’s eyes fell on the pile of things, and his expression changed. "Anfey, sit here for a while, I’m going back first," he said unnaturally.
"Alright," Anfey nodded. He only focused on disciplining the little guy, and temporarily had not paid attention to the pile of stuff.
The little guy made sobbing sounds as it continued to rub against Anfey, and it even licked Anfey’s hand with its tongue just like a puppy. This was its experience. The fact that Anfey had hit it couldn’t be changed, but it could make Anfey stop disciplining it.
Sure enough, Anfey laughed, stroked the little guy’s head a few times, and then lied on the grass with his hands under his head as a pillow. The little guy then put its head on Anfey’s chest, and its cries grew softer and softer. This piece of grassland’s scenery was indeed good, but there were numerous insects, mosquitoes, and crustacean creatures in the grass. But the little guy had an invisible force that could be sensed, and could drive away all sorts of little living creatures. This was also a new recent discovery for everyone. When living in the cave previously, the entrance of the cave would always have a large cluster of mosquitoes each morning. Sometimes, they even fully blocked the sky. There would have to be a person in the sky to gather a large amount of water elements, to make the mosquitoes lose their ability to fly, and the fallen mosquitoes paved a whole layer on the ground. But after they brought in the little guy, the mosquitoes never appeared again.
After a long time, Anfey took a breath and slowly stood up. Only then did his gaze fall on the pile of things. It seemed like…women’s clothing?! A woman’s scream came from the left. Anfey was surprised for a moment. He heard that it was Niya’s scream. "Niya, what’s wrong?"
There was no reply. A moment after, a plump figure came out from the forest. The most unusual thing was that the figure actually had two heads. When it "walked" out of the shadows, Anfey recognized that it was two people. One was Niya, and one was Suzanna. The two were wrapped in a cloak. Four smooth legs covered in boots were exposed under the cloak, and could be seen under the moonlight.
Comparing the two figures, Suzanna’s calves were thinner than Niya’s calves. From the contours of the waist, Suzanna’s legs were about six or seven centimeters longer than Niya’s. Niya was slightly taller than Suzanna, and her frame was also wider than Suzanna’s. It was a pity that combat power had nothing to do with frame… One Suzanna could kill hundreds of Niyas. Combat power also had nothing to do with qualities. Niya appeared to be tall and slender and looked valiant, but had poor combat power, and Suzanna appeared to be very delicate.
Anfey immediately reacted to what had happened! Suzanna’s whole body was stained with blood; she definitely came to bathe together with Niya. While they were bathing, the little guy had stolen their clothes…The problem was…there was no use in reacting to what had happened. He may not be able to solve that problem!
"What are you guys doing?" Anfey walked two steps sideways as he talked, trying to block the clothes on the ground. This was not a guilty conscience. He was worried that he would not be able to explain clearly.
"Alright! It’s you again!!" Suzanna’s eyes were angry and wide, her demeanor resentful. "What’s ‘it’s me again’?" Anfey replied. "It’s you spying on us bathing again, and this time you even stole our clothes, what do you want? Anfey!!" "Ah…" Niya looked at Anfey in surprise. She wasn’t stupid. That word, "again", was worth examining. Gossip…
"You think I still have the need to secretly watch you bathe?"
"Ah…" Niya looked towards Suzanna in surprise. No need to look? What did that mean? Could it possibly mean that he had already looked…so there was no need to look?
"You…" Suzanna had already reached to the point of indescribable resentment. Old enmity and new hatred rose in her heart, and she raised her foot to charge forward.
"Don’t, Suzanna!!" Niya screamed, "You want to die!!" Niya screamed while tightly pulling onto Suzanna and the cloak with her hands, for the fear of them getting exposed. Actually, they were already exposed. If someone went behind them, they would be surprised with a pair of snow-white butts. The cloak was only so big, it could not possibly cover them both.
After they finished bathing, Niya and Suzanna found that all their clothes were missing. There were only two pairs of their boots at the scene. They had no choice, Niya retrieved a cloak from her own Dimensional ring, and barely escaped this, or else they could only have stayed in the lake…
Upon hearing Anfey’s voice, the two exchanged views on whether to go out or not under low voices. In the end they decided to go out. They’d rather let only Anfey see than having to go back to the cave and let everyone see…this way they could let Anfey go back by himself to find Shally, who could bring some spare clothes back.
"Don’t be agitated, don’t be agitated," Anfey laughed bitterly. "It wasn’t me who took your clothes, it was him," Anfey’s finger pointed at the little guy.