Chapter 222: We’re all mercenaries

“So it’s a loser ……” muttered Grider.

The kid immediately yelled, “Waste? I really felt it, but if anything! Maybe it’s a not-so-strong spellcaster, or a human who hasn’t realized he has arcane talent! Or a source of mana that hasn’t been discovered by the mage wastes of the Stormwind Kingdom!”

“Okay, okay, we get it, stop yelling …… you shut up for a second.” Jace said and the brat immediately stopped chattering.

Jace lowered his voice and said, “He’s got no reason to lie, either way, let’s be careful moving forward.”

Grid muttered reluctantly, “Instead of going with this useless demon, why don’t we call Winressa, at the very least a ranger would be quite useful at this point.”

“It’s not like she’s traveling …… how do you call it?” Jace stared at him and whispered, “Besides, do you want one more person to split the money?”

“An elf noble has the nerve to steal money from us?”

“You mean for her to come to charity?”

“A favor isn’t enough, you’ve done her so many favors ……”

Jess thought about how she hadn’t acted like she’d brought enough money the day before at the gold-encrusted rose, so maybe the series of tests she’d set for herself included not bringing money.

“Honestly, I don’t think she has a lot of money, and not wanting money to help is never going to happen.”

Grid said, “Surely her family has more money than the elf who bought that letter?”

“Just because her family is rich doesn’t mean she’s rich ……”

Before Jace could finish his sentence, the Kid suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

“Why is it gone?” Grid asked.

Jess said, “Someone, hide.”

The two found the trunk of a large oak tree to lean back against, and after the quiet came the sound of people in the distance.

It wasn’t long before there was a back and forth of almost half a dozen men coming through the woods, they didn’t seem to have much spirit, one of them kept cursing something while the other kept telling him to shut up.

From the clear words that occasionally popped out, they were also heard discussing the Jackals, who they seemed to have just fought, and as their voices got closer, more and more other information about the Jackals was heard.

This was probably the same mercenary group that hunted Hogg as the two of them, one of the ones that the sheriff had told them about earlier that had entered the forest in the last few days.

Jace tried to incline his head out for a closer look, noting that most of them were armed with swords and wearing simple leather armor or thick tunics, with a metal shoulder guard tethered to the shoulder of the leading bald man.

Behind him was a human in a cloak who followed silently with a light crossbow in his hand, not really participating in the argument.

If the Kid had sensed a mage approaching just now, it was undoubtedly this man.

“Is it possible that this is the same group?” Grid asked softly as he moved closer.

“You said kill the guy who just did it? I’m afraid to say.” Jace said, “Let them pass and forget about it, there’s seven of them.”

The two continued to hide behind a tree to keep as quiet as possible, the

But Jace’s thoughts had gone just a little farther when he unexpectedly realized that the men seemed to be getting closer.

Grid’s face changed a bit as well, and he looked over at Jace, not even quite daring to make a sound.

The group didn’t seem to want to cross the forest either, they were also trying to find the channel of the Nafriti River and follow it, so they kept coming this way.

Jace slowly moved his feet to the side, beckoning Grid to the road as he did so, and the two tried to avoid the group’s sight by circling around the large marked tree, however, he didn’t know if it was the fallen leaves all over the ground that exposed their footsteps, or if the men had sensed something was wrong.

“Who?!”

A loud cry came from across the trunk.

“What did you hear?”

“You scared me, Chuck.”

Jace and Grider had both pressed themselves against the trunk of the tree, waiting for the other to forget the voice and move on.

But I didn’t expect one of them to say, “I’ll check it out, you guys cover me in case it’s a damn jackal scout ……”

The footsteps behind him were getting closer, and Grid glanced at Jace, who pointed to the Shadow Protection potion in his bag.

Grid swallowed the potion, slammed it down with his eyes closed, and then looked over at him with a “what the fuck did you give me to drink?” look on his face.

“Don’t do it!” He shouted, “We’re here to kill the Jackals too.”

“Come out!” The visitor from behind the tree shouted, “Drop your weapons and come out!”

Hearing this, Jace looked to Grider and glared, and Grider hung his hammer on his belt and walked out with Jace.

The men quickly rounded up the two, leaving only one to watch the wounded behind them, and one of them watched as Jace stepped out from behind a tree with his staff and said, “Mage, throw your staff, now!”

Jace obeyed immediately dropping his staff and raising his hands in the air.

“Remove your hammer and toss it aside as well, Dwarf.” A bald man said pointing his sword at the dwarf’s nose.

As soon as he made the gesture, Jace knew that there was no way this could end peacefully, that he was definitely going to die, and there was no doubt about it, and he didn’t even have to look at the expression on Grid’s face.

“You have no idea how much this hammer means to me, young man.” Grid stared at him and said, “No less than your own father meant to you.”

“Coincidentally, I have never met my own father.” The bald man said, “Come on, cut the crap, drop the hammer and get everything you have on you, I just heard the sound of a potion bottle, a healing potion, or whatever the other potion …… is or coins, hurry up.”

Jace looked at the bald man and asked, “Don’t rush it, sir.”

The bald man looked back at the others and let out a laugh.

A few of the other soldiers who were on the sidelines hemmed and hawed, and the one with the crossbow not far away sneered.

“Alright, I’ll unchain it.” Greed unchained his warhammer, and the bald man nodded and said, “That’s more like it …… so we can give you guys a pain in the ass.”

Suddenly, Jace felt the air around the hammer had distorted a bit.

The people around them seemed to see the difference as well, as Grid seemed to be chattering something softly under his breath, and the expressions on each face followed suit, morphing from the mockery of a moment ago to nervousness, and anger.

“What are you doing?”

I do not know who shouted, Jace put down his right hand held high and stretched out, the staff on the ground violently sprang out a shadowy magic light, when he put his hand to his waist suddenly lifted up to be held tightly, came over to pick up the staff of the man quickly walked two steps did not grab ……

Jace raised his staff high in obedience and shouted the Dread spell incantation, an eerie, ear-piercing motion rose and fell as he chanted, and the bald man in front of him yelled, “It’s black magic!”

The soldier with the mace who was closest covered his eyes, the bald man’s nostrils dilated and his legs warred as if he was frightened by some frightening spectacle, and a few of those who were far away began to whimper uncontrollably ……

Wails, screams, all eventually blown out by a sudden flash of thunder ……

When the white light passed, the bald man in front of him had already had his head smashed off, leaving only a charred black body sprawled on the ground, and the closest one with the axe had half of his flesh blackened with electricity, and he wailed and crawled to the side, to be picked up by Grid and thrown over hard with a smoking broken sword and stabbed straight into his back.

In the distance there was a man with trembling hands holding his sword up to Grid, his pants were all wet but he seemed to have his wits about him, yelling for Grid to stay back, Grid took a step over to him, the hammer in his hand already raised high.

Jace stood up where he was, but felt his legs go a little weak.

What’s going on ……

He lowered his head and was surprised to see that there was a crossbow bolt lodged squarely in his lower abdomen, the whole thing deeply impaled, with only half of it remaining on the outside.