Assassin's Chronicle

It was easy to think about notorious necromancers whenever zombies were mentioned. People on the outside of the crowd suddenly run away. Anfey only saw a few areas of fighting there. Maybe it was because their friends and families had been killed by zombies, or they had nowhere to hide from if the zombies chased them. Each battle had over ten mercenaries fighting hard with one or a few zombies. When people were pushed to the corner, they usually would become terribly crazy. At that moment, the roaring of the zombies was overcome by mercenaries’ noises. Without the protection of dark magic, warm sunlight had caused a lot of damage to the zombies. They were just struggling before they died. Anfey made a decision not to join the battle, since it was obvious the mercenaries were going to win.

"Anfey, what are you doing here?" A person walked in big strides towards Anfey..

"Orsie, we are seeing each other again." Anfey had a good impression on Orsie. He was the commander of Warflame mercenary group. Orsie was the only one who had spoken up for Anfey. In other words, he was the only one who spoke up for justice.

"Why are you here?" Orsie looked up and down at Anfey.

"Anfey, are you messing with us?" Ozzic came from nowhere. He looked angry, and few mercenary commanders followed him.

"Don’t be so rude. If we had not destroyed their magic array, you would have turned into zombies," Riska said coldly. Ozzic was shocked for a second. The other mercenary commanders looked at the each other and had awkward smiles on their faces. They would not have become commanders if they were stupid. They felt they were in an unknown dark world with that unknown magic array. They could not see anything, but were still able to hear each other. The endless dark weakened them physically and mentally. They had felt like they were about to go crazy. Mages found their ability to call elements slowed down to nothing when they chanted. They heard their companions screaming and felt helpless. They were finally saved from the dark when the beautiful sunlight came. Ozzic and other mercenary commanders thought it might have been Anfey who had saved them, and now were sure it could only have been Anfey saving them after hearing Riska speak.

"We discovered a group of necromancers in Hengduan Valley. We have been tracking them since yesterday," Anfey explained.

Ozzic suddenly looked terrible. "Anfey, what did you say? A group of necromancers?"

"Yes, a group of them. I am not sure about the specific number," Anfey said slowly. "There is a senior necromancer in that group. He is the leader. I did not want him to see me, so I was only able to watch from a distance."

"A senior necromancer?" Ozzic raised his voice. It was rare to see a necromancer. They never thought they would see a senior necromancer. Ozzic started to doubt whether he was "blessed" by Moros. He had stumbled into all kinds of bad luck.

"You are right. You are not the first mercenary group that came under surprise attack by necromancers. You will not be the last one either," Anfey sighed. "There have been several mercenary groups attacked by them."

"How do you know?" Ozzic asked.

"There are more than a thousand zombies. Where are they from?" Anfey asked a rhetorical question.

"These damn necromancers." Ozzic cursed and gritted his teeth. He had killed other mercenaries for his own benefit or some other reason, but could see others killing mercenaries in the Country of Mercenaries. From one side, mercenaries were united. From the other side, there had been conflicts and struggles among mercenaries. This could be a rare scene for the Country of Mercenaries.

The battle with the zombies had approached its end. The zombies who received direct sunlight had no strength to fight back. They were slayed on the ground one by one by mercenaries. Some mercenaries worried that slaying them on the ground was not enough to kill them. They got cruder. They cut the zombies into pieces until they thought the zombie had no way to survive.

Over a dozen of mercenaries who had first joined the battle finally felt relieved. They felt like they had beaten vicious senior magic beasts. They straightened their backs and walked to Ozzic with proud faces. They did not realize how other mercenaries looked at them until Ozzic stepped back to dodge them. They were shocked and froze in their places.

The battle was over, but the wounds on their bodies were still there. One of the mercenaries had been bitten on the face. His left cheek was so bloody that it was hard to tell the bare bone from the flesh. The blood ran down his face and neck, and dyed half his shoulder a blood red. The wound caused by zombies’ scratches on another mercenary’s chest was so deep that his bones were exposed. Two mercenaries were missing an ear. They stood side by side, which made them look funny. At least half of the other dozen-plus mercenaries were hurt to some degree. Other mercenaries seemed to have similar situations as they did. Most of them had gotten hurt fighting with zombies. Ozzic felt discomfort in his throat, and he swallowed. He looked sophisticated. He looked like he was making a tough decision.

The mercenaries standing over there seemed to know what had happened. Some mercenaries immediately looked for wounds on their bodies, while others looked desperate, since they knew they had wounds on them. They had been through thick and thin together. They might not be scared by death, but they got scared by actually facing the reality they were turning into zombies.

"Do not panic. I know a Priest of Light. He can remove the Breath of Death from you," Ozzic suddenly said loudly. "All the people who got hurt by zombies need to step out. Stand here. Let me make arrangements for you guys."

Ozzic’s claims had encouraged those desperate mercenaries. They looked relieved and gathered together quickly as Ozzic instructed.

"Ozzic, where is the Priest of Light?" A skinny young man asked loudly.

"In White Water City," Ozzic said.

"How would the Priest of Light come to White Water City?" the skinny young man asked.

"That is not your business. It is my secret," Ozzic yelled in anger.

"Ok, it is your business. I just have a question to ask. How long does it take for us to get to White Water City?" the young man named Ye asked, neither in an arrogant nor obsequious tone.

Ozzic did not know how to respond to that question. He slowly lowered his head.

"The Breath of Death will come out when dark prevails. They all will become zombies. Unless you are a Space series archmage, they could not reach White Water City before the sun rises," Ye said slowly. "I also doubt whether you know a Priest of Light."

"Ye, what do you mean?" Ozzic yelled.

"I am saying you are lying," Ye said.

Ozzic had nothing to say in response. His body started to slightly tremble.

"Actually everyone knows about it, but they do not want to admit it," Ye said, looking around. "Even if the Priest of Light suddenly showed up here, he might not be able to save them. I did not mean to say all of this out loud, but I had to. They were our companions and brothers before, but they will die soon."

"Right, they will attack us," a mercenary yelled. Ye’s speach had won some mercenaries over.

The wounded mercenaries went quiet. They turned to look at Ozzic, waiting for their union leader’s promise that he would keep his word. Ozzic suddenly squatted down. He pulled his hair hard with a painful look. His reaction made those wounded and unwounded mercenaries all understand what was happening.

Anfey had a slight grin on his face. He had not had much contact with Ozzic, but he knew Ozzic had many schemes. Anfey did not believe Ozzic could not control himself and had to show his struggles visibly. Obviously, Ozzic knew what strategies he needed to take at the right time. He wanted to win those wounded mercenaries’ sympathies. Therefore, he and that young man, Ye, had this show.

An older mercenary around fifty years old coughed to draw everyone’s attention. He said with a coarse voice, "I am getting old and not afraid of death, but I do not want to be a zombie without any spirit in me." That old mercenary kneeled on the ground with his eyes closed. He prayed silently.

Other wounded mercenaries followed him and kneeled on the ground. Everyone could hear their praying. The sad atmosphere was hard to describe in words. The female mercenaries at the scene could not help crying. Men’s face became tense and their fists clenched. They looked like they were ready to hit someone. The wounded mercenaries knelt down, which meant they had made their decision. It would just be a sad scene if they would not make any compromise. No matter whether they chose to try to convince the unwounded mercenaries to asked them to save their lives, or chose to die themselves, the situation would have a horrible outcome, but the latter choice was slightly better than the former option.

"If you still think we are your friends, please save us," the older mercenary said as he opened his eyes.

"I am sorry." Ye, hesitated for a second before he pulled out his sword. He quickly went up to the old mercenary. He raised his arm and thrust his sword into that old mercenary’s chest.

"No!" Ozzic yelled with such a painful voice. He rushed forward, but stumbled and fell on the ground. Obviously, he looked like he was in such pain that he had passed out. Orsie and other mercenary commanders were shocked by what they saw. They surrounded Ozzic.

"Don’t worry. Let me take a look." Anfey walked up to Ozzic. He grabbed Ozzic’s wrists and shook a little bit. He pressed the Qi on Ozzic. He did not try to save Ozzic with the martial art skills passed on in his family. Those martial art skills, Fenjin Cuogu, could tear tendons and break bones like nothing, which caused tremendous pain for the opponents. So many mercenaries were willing die to save unwounded mercenaries’ lives, while Ozzic was still putting on a show for everyone. Ozzic made Anfey feel sick, so he decided to teach Ozzic a lesson. The pain from Fenjin Cuogu was unbearable for most people, Ozzic screamed and sat up like a spring. He looked at Anfey in panic.