It was getting so dark that normal people had locked their doors and gone to sleep; only some stray cats and dogs still wandered the streets.
A group of people quietly moved toward the harbor. This was the newly formed squad’s first action. Anfey was up front, leading the first team, and followed by the second and third teams. Riska’s fourth team kept the rear, with ten meters in between the groups.
Maybe all young people were like this. Once a well-behaved girl, who stayed at home most of the time, tasted rebellion, she would likely remember that adventure for a long time. After Anfey gave the order to take over a ship, these young people forgot about the dangerous situation they were in. They rolled up their sleeves and itched to have a go, which made Anfey snicker.
"Are you sure the ship is nearby?" Anfey hissed.
"It is here," Feller whispered. "That was a larger ship. The ferry won’t arrive until dusk. Zubin said the next ferry is about 100 miles away from Baidah City. They are not able to sail the boat in the dark and should be resting here tonight."
"I see it now." Anfey nodded.
In a few moments, four groups gathered at a place about 100 meters away from the berth. Anfey observed their surroundings and ordered, "Execute the plan. This is the last chance for questions."
"I have one… What do we do if we hurt someone?" someone in the fourth group asked.
"I do not care if you kill or wound anyone, but you have to keep everything under control without drawing attention. This is my only request! As long as you can do that, I am fine with anything, even if you want to make peace with the people on the ship. However," Anfey said coldly, "you have to understand, we are one big team. If anyone hesitates and jeopardizes the safety of the team, I will have him leave right away! We do not need anyone who would put us in danger!"
No one said anything else. Anfey disappeared in the quiet darkness.
To be honest, Anfey did not want to bring a group of novices with him, but he had no other options. Training should be done when kids were young. The path of escape was dangerous. They needed to start learning and growing up. No matter what they would get out of the training in the end, at least it should increase their likelihood of surviving.
Yolanthe had ruled the country very well. Except for the latent dangers and threats between countries, people in the Maho Empire seemed to live a happy life, and the country enjoyed its peace. This commercial ship seemed to have sailed without danger for too long, so they had loosened their precautions. Not to mention having very few guards, there were only one or two men standing outside the cabin, sleeping against tarpaulins. In fact, they were more concerned with thieves than bandits. Right now, the boat was resting on the water, which could usually prevent thieves from getting aboard. Even if they were able to get on board, they would have no way to escape with the goods. As such, no one was willing to be on watch the whole night while knowing that nothing was going to happen.
Anfey walked around the boat twice, sneaking into the cabin and going upstairs and downstairs once. Nothing happened except that a business man who woke up early to pee saw Anfey.
Leading a group of novices to attack a group of ordinary people in surprise… sounded like decent training. A young dog would never be able to fight a tiger no matter how hard it was trained, because it wouldn’t survive the first try, instead being killed by the tiger a long time ago.
Anfey returned to the cabin and sent out the signal. Over ten people levitated in the air in the dark. Only Niya did not know levitation magic—everyone else could float. The differences among them laid on the distance, speed, and stability. Christian was a junior mage, so he didn’t have a problem flying a short distance with a person.
Soon, the squad landed on the deck. They all wore dark clothes. Anfey had requested everyone wear black, but at least two thirds of them didn’t have black clothes, and it wasn’t practical to make them immediately, so they substituted dark clothes instead.
Anfey waved, and then Christian quietly took two members from the second team forward. On the other side, Riska led the fourth team to the aft. Blavi was breathing heavily against the bulwark. He shouldn’t have participated in this action due to his health, but he had insisted on coming, and Anfey had acquiesced.
"Get up!" Niya yelled in a low pitch.
The two men were sleeping so soundly that they did not wake up even when Christian and his team members walked across them. They also treated Niya’s order as mosquito noise, until Niya stepped on them heavily.
"You…" one of them reached his hand out to grab the sword on his waist. Niya was quicker than him and laid her sword at his neck.
"Do not move. I do not want to hurt you!" Niya said in her crushing manner.
Anfey could not help shaking his head. Niya’s words revealed her timidity. Even though her face and tone were vicious, it could only fool little kids. If Niya was threatening him with a sword at his neck, Anfey had millions of ways to kill her.
"Miss, what do you want to do? We are just business people! You.. "
Before he could finish his sentence, Anfey had already kicked his face. It didn’t matter if he was interrogating or condemning, everything turned into moaning in pain.
"You have to understand you are our captive! If you dare to challenge my patience, I don’t mind cutting off your hands and feet and then tossing you into the water!" Anfey said flatly. In fact, he was saying this to Niya. She should understand that she was a bandit and should not have said "I do not want to hurt you."
Anfey knew his action did little when he saw Niya’s sympathetic and stunned look. The sound of fighting and the waves of magic surges came out from the cabin. It became quiet in a short while. With a good plan, it was a piece of cake to have a junior mage, a senior mage, and four intermediate mages beat a few normal guards and some businessmen. Moreover, Anfey had checked the ship inside and out beforehand. If, after all this preparation, the plan had still failed, Anfey would have left the group and wandered alone.
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