Time passed slowly. To Suzanna’s surprise, Anfey was extremely calm while he was staring at Christian’s eye of the sky. She was the one who started to get impatient.
Waiting was not a big deal to Anfey. He often had to spend a long time following a target in order to know his or her routines and habits. Sometimes it took him a few months to make a rigorous plan.
They had been waiting until dawn. Anfey didn’t even change his position. Suzanna almost thought that he had fallen asleep; however when she turned to look at him, his eyes were blinking. This man’s patience was beyond imagination.
For some reason, Suzanna focused only on Anfey but ignored Christian, who was controlling the eye of the sky. In fact, at this time, Christian was much more tired than Anfey. His forehead began sweating. Suzanna had been very nice to Christian, but not to Anfey. She should’ve paid more attention to Christian.
The big manticore was lying on its stomach the whole time and pretended to be sleeping. The small manticore was playing. Each time it stumbled too far away, the big manticore reached out its tail to draw it back.
This boring scene lasted for a long while. The big manticore had gotten enough rest, stood up slowly, picked up the small manticore which was rolling on the ground, and gradually walked to its cave. The small manticore seemed to want to keep playing. It was struggling with its mouth wide open, showing its small canines. The eye of the sky only displayed images, not sound.
"Follow them!" Anfey said.
"Understood," Christian answered. He was in control of the eye of the sky and kept the manticores under control.
The bigger manticore jumped up and disappeared in a second. Christian hastily fixed the focus of the eye of the sky to where the manticore disappeared. Dense weeds and shrubs were all over the place. The shrubs were tall. Based on the images in the eye of the sky, they were at least as tall as a person.
"Why did it disappear all of a sudden?" Anfey asked in surprise.
"Manticores build their caves underground. There must be an entrance to their cave somewhere near here," Suzanna said.
"Suzanna, look at the eye of the sky. Remember the terrain!" Anfey said.
"Okay. Why?"
"You should go there: use all your fighting power to cut a tree and then run back as fast as you can."
"Sure," Suzanna answered immediately, bent forward and ran up quickly.
After a moment, Suzanna appeared in the eye of the sky. First, she carefully observed the environment, and then her body suddenly released a dazzling white flash. An old tree crashed down with the light.
Suzanna was extremely quick. A normal person would not be able to see her sword move. However, Anfey clearly saw it. In his mind, he also evaluated Suzanna's swordsmanship.
After Suzanna left, a manticore’s head suddenly appeared in the bushes. Its bloody red eyes exuded a terrible cold light in the evening. Apparently, it was aware of Suzanna's fighting power. A high-level magic beast was extremely sensitive about its territory. If a strong enemy were active in its territory, it would be desperate to fight until the enemy was gone!
"That’s right. That is the manticore that appeared just a minute ago. It looks like we will fight only one manticore today," Anfey chuckled.
"Anfey, how do you know that was the same manticore?"
"Look, the left canine in the manticore’s mouth was tilted. It might be from fighting or bruising something hard. Only when you look closely, you will find a scar on its nose as well. It is not easy to notice."
Christian and Zubin both looked with their eyes wide open and saw what Anfey was referring to. The upper canines of a manticore should be close to the jaw, but this manticore had serious problems with its left canine. Compared to the right canine, the left one looked funny. Also, there was a black scar on its nose.
"Anfey, you are truly detail-oriented!" Christian said.
At that time, the manticore looked up and opened its big mouth in the direction of Suzanna. And then there was a faint roar. Obviously, that was a warning about its territory: no one should step in again!
"We can go when Suzanna comes back," Anfey laughed, "Christian, turn off the eye of the sky. Don’t waste any more magic power."
*****
"That’s the plan. Anyone have more to add?" Anfey asked.
Everyone was gearing up with excitement. They were going to fight against high level magic beasts. Anfey’s plan was to have the two high level magic beasts fight against each other and get hurt. Then the group would fight against them. It was a much easier approach for winning, but after all, it was a battle against a high level magic beast!
"If everything sounds good, let’s get to be early." Anfey stood up slowly, ""Blavi, it is your team’s turn for sentry duty. Um…Your group doesn’t need to join the fight tomorrow. Stay to protect Miss Niya and Shally."
A lot of the principles were similar. Assassins were sometimes similar to soldiers. They would be prepared for losing the battle but winning the war. Before each attack, they would plan a safe escape route. If they lost the fight, there would be a safe way out, and they could learn from the failure. Otherwise, they could only feel remorse in hell.
Anfey could not let Niya go into battle with everyone else. If anything happened to the group, at least he must keep Saul’s last child safe. Of course, this thought was to prepare himself in case they were in for the worst.
After everyone left, Christian slowly walked over to Anfey. After hesitating for a second, he said, "Anfey, how are you going to infuriate the unicorn? It is very dangerous! Even worse than Suzanna’s task. How about…Let me help you?"
"That’s fine." Anfey shook his head. "After being with me for such a long time, you should know me better. I don’t do things that I am not sure about. The magic array needs you more."
"Then tell me your plan. Let me think it through with you."
At this time, Suzanna came, threw something on the ground at Anfey’s feet, and looked at him calmly.
Anfey looked carefully. It was a bunch of dry wild flowers. He certainly knew what it was. He asked surprisingly, "Why did you pull them down?"
"I think…you owe me an explanation," Suzanna said peacefully.
"Explanation? What explanation?"
"When I first saw you put the wildflowers in the tree, I was suspicious. I talked to Feller intentionally and found out where you came from. After dinner, I went back in that direction and found the same kind of wildflowers in the trees every five or six hundred meters. I want to know what your real intention is, and whom you are trying to lure here."
"Haha…Great observations!" Anfey laughed.
"Thanks. But I don’t need your praise. I want an answer!"
"Suzanna, watch your tone of voice! What was Anfey attempting? If it weren’t for him, we all would have died along the way." Christian stood up for Anfey, then said, "But… Anfey, I am also curious. Why did you have me put the wildflowers in the trees every so often? What are they for?"
"Why didn’t you ask me then?"
"I …I was worried that you wouldn’t like being questioned, so I didn’t ask." Christian rubbed his nose and forced a smile.
"Suzanna was right. I do want to help a person catch up to us," Anfey smiled. Although Suzanna had been rude, Anfey wasn’t angry. It was good to have such a detail-oriented person on the team. Misunderstandings and conflicts could be resolved as time went on. However, it was difficult to change a person’s characteristics. A good assistant would be very helpful right now.
"Who is it?" Suzanna and Christian asked at the same time.
"It is Ernest."
"Ernest? The coward who used the poisonous sword in a duel?" Suzanna was shocked.
"Bulls*%t!" He hadn’t been angry up to that point. However, when he heard Suzanna slandering Ernest, he was truly angry. "Who told you that Ernest used the poisonous sword in a duel?"
Suzanna was shocked and could not help stepping back. She placed her hand on the hilt and said nervously, "Everyone…we all know!"
"Do not talk nonsense about things you have never seen. Only idiots believe rumors!" Anfey said coldly. "I tell you, Ernest is an excellent swordsman! He also is the most trustworthy person I have ever met! If you dare to slander him again, I will not let it go!"
"Uncle Ernest…Anfey, did Uncle Ernest come?" Niya rushed out of the cave with joy. She looked around. Ernest wasn’t there. The joy on her face soon was replaced by disappointment.
"Niya, why don’t you go back? Ernest will find us soon. Don’t worry," Anfey said.
"Oh…" Niya nodded and walked out of the cave, disappointed.
Perhaps because it was the first time Anfey was being so serious, Susanna was somehow in a panic. In her heart, she regretted saying something wrong. Anfey was giving a signal that he took Ernest’s side. As a result, the whole group should have a deep respect for Ernest and not want to hear anything bad about him. In fact, she was quite innocent. Everyone had been badmouthing Ernest. She was only repeating what she had heard, and she didn’t anticipate that Anfey would be so mad about it.