In the chapter of Romance of the Three Kingdoms ent.i.tled Three Heroes Combat LĂĽ Bu in Front of a Tiger Cage Fort, Liu Bei dared only to chase LĂĽ Bu and hit the hind quarters of his horse. Once LĂĽ Bu turned around to fight back, Liu Bei immediately ran away. At that moment, Anfey was in a similar situation to Liu Bei. He was extremely skillful with a spear as long as 12 feet. He kept a distance between him and Ernest. He dared not get close to him.
The main force confronting Ernest was Suzanna. Although she felt the pressure from Ernest and was sweating profusely, she still had her momentum and countered Ernest’s strikes. Once Ernest stop pressuring her in the attack, she would start a aggressive attack in case Ernest got the chance to attack Anfey.
Against this cooperating couple, Anfey and Suzanna, Ernest seemed busy defending himself. It was a "friendly compet.i.tion," so Ernest could not fight with his full force, otherwise he could had taken Anfey’s strikes simply with his combat power and defeated Suzanna afterwards.
Suzanna had a variety of sword skills. They looked perfect. Anfey was having some problems. He could attack with fast speed and change his strikes swiftly. He only attacked the areas below the knees, which disrupted Ernest’s plan of attack. The strikes were to kill the opponents, not to interrupt them. Anfey attacked in a dirty way.
It was obvious what Ernest thought of Anfey’s attacks. Anfey had been attacking with full force. As he changed his moves, he did not forget to give s.h.i.+nbella a look and ask her to join the fight. s.h.i.+nbella was very excited watching them fight and wanted to join in anyway. She raised her gigantic sword and joined the fight without any concerns after Anfey gave her the signal. It was the first time for s.h.i.+nbella to watch top powers fighting. How could she not get excited when she was offered a chance to join the fight?
Ernest could not help sighing. If s.h.i.+nbella joined the fight, he would get exhausted or annoyed to death by Anfey, so he decided to fight with full force.
The combat power on Ernest suddenly brightened. He thrust his sword out and clashed with Suzanna’s in the air, resulting in a huge clas.h.i.+ng sould. When the swords clashed, the fighters would get rigid, no matter how powerful they were. How long the rigidity would last depended on the power of the fighters and the protection of combat powers. Ernest was much more powerful than Suzanna in terms of those two factors. Ernest had made his second strike before Suzanna could take control of her sword gain. Ernest swung his sword against Suzanna’s sword, and then made a third strike.
Suzanna could not hold her sword anymore. Her sword flew out. At the same time, Ernest turned around to avoid s.h.i.+nbella’s sword and Anfey’s spear at his ankles. He swung his sword at s.h.i.+nbella’s gigantic sword.
s.h.i.+nbella was not as good as Suzanna. In addition, Ernest calculated the time so well that with one strike s.h.i.+nbella’s sword was sent to the ground.
As Ernest was ready to strike at Anfey, Anfey sent out wind elements. He stood there with bare hands. Anfey looked calm and said, "Let’s stop here today. I am exhausted." Although he said he was tired, his breath was slowly and regular. He did not show any trace of being tired.
"You…" Ernest did not know whether he should laugh or cry. He had been treating Anfey like his son. Even though Anfey was his opponent now, he could not attack him when he had no weapons.
Suzanna quietly walked over and picked up her sword. She looked a little upset.
"Suzanna, you emptied your combat power at the end, otherwise Uncle Ernest would not win that easily." Anfey knew what Suzanna was thinking.
Ernest thought for a second and nodded. "Anfey is right, Suzanna. You have made huge progress."
"Really?" Suzanna finally smiled. She could ignore what Anfey said because he knew Anfey was just trying to comfort her. However, Ernest
never lied about anything, not even when he was trying to comfort someone.
"Of course," Anfey said. He turned around and saw s.h.i.+nbella looking even more upset than Suzanna. Suzanna had fought with Ernest for a while, but s.h.i.+nbella lost the game just as she made her first strike. It was easy to imagine how frustrated and upset s.h.i.+nbella was. "s.h.i.+nbella, you do not have to worry too much about it. Uncle Ernest was the best among all the master swordsmen. In addition, you are still young." He continued, chuckling, "s.h.i.+nbela, I still do not know how old you are."
"I am 25," s.h.i.+nbela answered in a low voice.
25 years old? She would be considered old in the magic world. Anfey remembered all the information about s.h.i.+nbella. He moved his eyes away from s.h.i.+nbella because he did not want s.h.i.+nbella to see his sympathy towards her.
"Anfey, I have to remind you that the Chapter of Salvation could possibly bring us dangers," Ernest said, suddenly changing the topic.
"Danger?" Anfey was shocked for a second. If the Chapter of Salvation could bring danger to them, Alice should have known about it even though Anfey did not notice it. He started to understand Alice better after hanging out with her for a while. "What danger? Alice…"
"I am not denying Alice is a very smart girl, but you are still young. You see things differently than me. Young people always think they can challenge anything, especially you guys who do not lack confidence," Ernest said slowly. He rarely talked so much. It seemed like he could not hold out any longer. "I have met the people from churches. I do not know much about them, but I do know more than you guys. Didn’t some of them try to attack Bergkamp for the Chapter of Salvation? I can tell you this. If it happened once, it will happen again for the second or third time until they get what they want. Right now the Chapter of Salvation is in your hands, and you will be their target."
"Could those church people spare any time from death spirits to come after me?" Anfey frowned.
"That depends on the issues. If it was about the successor to the pope, no one would guarantee death spirits would be their priority," Ernest said. "In addition, necromancers are interested in the Chapter of Salvation as well. Last time, many zombies escaped, didn’t they? Those necromancers should know about it as well."
"This world is so complicated. Necromancers and death spirits should be allies. Church of Light and other bodies on the Pan Continent were allies. However, the reality was not like that. Those evolved zombies with intelligence have fought to defend their rights and benefits. There were fights in the Church of Light over the succession of the pope. It is…" Anfey said with a bitter smile.
"Could death spirits fight? Did you find out about it from that zombie?" Ernest asked.
Anfey nodded.
"That is some news!" Ernest let out a short laugh. "Humans are complicated creatures."
"Uncle Ernest, are you saying…" Anfey said.
"We will have guests soon," Ernest said.
"What should we do?" Anfey asked.
"We’d better send people to ask for help. Moramatch is not too far from Blackania City. King Yolanthe knows the value of the Chapter of Salvation better. He will send troops out to help."
"There were death spirits everywhere in the Transverse Mountains. Few people could pa.s.s through safely." Anfey paused for a moment, then said, "Uncle Ernest, you are the best candidate for that, but you cannot leave here. The mercenaries would be out of control if you were not here." Even though it was clear that Moramatch was the last defense against Transverse Mountain, mercenaries were motivated to fight with death spirits because they believed in the top powers. Ernest could not leave at the moment.
"Did you forget those two druids of Shadow mercenary group?" Ernest smiled. "They were great with stealth. I did not even notice them before."
Anfey’s eyes brightened. He turned around and said to Suzanna, "Suzanna, can you find them for me?" Anfey might not think of everything, but after being reminded, he would not hesitate to take action. "Time is everything" might be just a slogan for some people, but Anfey truly believed in it. He was used to calculating his time to seconds.
Shortly, Long and Ling showed up in the fighting arena. Anfey took the time ask s.h.i.+nbella to write a letter when Suzanna was trying to bring Long and Ling to Anfey. As he folded the letter, he said with a smile, "Long, are you feeling better?"
"Master, don’t worry. I am absolutely fine now," Long said firmly.
"This letter is very important. We cannot let anything happen to it," Anfey said slowly. "If you meet zombies, do not fight them. Get to Blackania City as fast as possible. When you come back, we will count it as one important accomplishment you made for us." Anfey’s words had deep meaning. If Long and Ling’s face changed, it meant they were not ready to work for Anfey. If they acted excited, it meant they already had the intention to work for him.
"Master, I will remember what you just told me," Long said, carefully taking the letter from Anfey.
"If you do not need to prepare anything for the trip," Anfey looked up to check the time, "you should leave now."
Long and Ling hurried away. Anfey was quiet for a moment, then said, "s.h.i.+nbella, do you know where Alice is?"
"She should be in the underground city right now," s.h.i.+nbela said.
"Could you go get her for me? I need to discuss something with her," Anfey said.