The moment the unicorn stopped her attacks, her lethargic body fell to the floor slowly. Her immune system had shut down, but it was not hard to notice the fatal wound on her body. The manticore’s sting could almost be seen from under the unicorn’s skin. Obviously, it had pierced through the unicorn’s body.
"Fight!" Anfey gave the order and led his legion, running out of the magic array. In fact, Suzanna should have led, but she was still meditating. Anfey had no other option but to be the first one to run into battle. This was one of the qualities of leaders. If the leader did not have the courage to risk his life for the cause and just sat around giving orders asking others to risk their lives, the legion would just be a collection of atomized individuals. No one was stupid. Everyone had eyes to see and a brain to think and make their own judgements. Authority can be established and developed, but it also can be destroyed. To be more specific, Anfey was not a leader without courage. He waited for a while because he just wanted to plan well before taking any actions. He was looking for better chances to have the advantage in the battle. Of course, Anfey would not want to risk his life for anyone who always brought trouble to the team.
Everyone in the magic array had fighting skills, while the rest without fighting skills stayed in another cave to avoid unnecessary fatalities. Everyone used the levitation magic at the same time, flying forward in a line after they received Anfey’s order. Only Suzanna, who was still meditating, stayed in the magic array.
The unicorn’s last attack on the manticore before her death was severe. The manticore did not have an immune system to prevent nerve damage. When the unicorn pierced her horn into the manticore, the nerve damage was a lot worse than regular nerve damage created by magic. The damage was especially bad since she was a senior unicorn.
Anfey started to rush toward the manticore after counting to 46. The manticore was still paralyzed and could not lift his head. Anfey thrust his sword right into one of the manticore’s eyes. He had heard that manticores had very tough skin and bones, and would not easily be hurt when they were attacked without combat power. Therefore, Anfey found a weak part on his body and directly attacked there. Even though manticores had tough skin and bones, their eyes would always be fragile. If the eyes were not weak enough to be penetrated, the intestines would be soft enough to pierce, otherwise they would not be able to absorb the nutrition if the intestines were protected by scales and bones.
The sword was a foot into the manticore’s eye and would not go any further, since it seemed that it hit something hard. Anfey’s effort to kill the manticore was fantastic. He twisted the sword hard before he pulled it out, then he thrust his sword back in again. This time he pierced the other eye of the manticore. He killed the manticore without mercy.
Anfey repeated the same procedure with the second eye. He twisted the sword in the other eye and then pulled the sword out. He jumped behind the manticore, thrusting the sword inside the intestines through the anus. He even kicked the shaft of the sword at the end. The whole sword was stuck inside the manticore.
As one of the senior magic beasts, the manticore was one of the most powerful in the magic beast forest. Unluckily for the manticore, it could win the fight against Anfey. With the way Anfey killed the manticore, it had no chance to survive, since is was suffering from nerve damage.
The unicorn still had one breath left, and her cobalt-colored eyes stared at Anfey, a tear coming from the corner of one eye. Her neck relaxed and rested on the floor. She finally stopped moving.
Christian landed first and saw that the unicorn was gradually losing her life. He called to Anfey softly, "Hurry up! Anfey, you have gratitude from the unicorn. Hurry up and eat her tear. That was a Tear of Stars!"
"What?" Anfey was shocked for a second, and then he turned to look at the unicorn. The unicorn’s tear was formed into a drop that shone like a diamond. He wondered whether he had to eat that "diamond"?
"Hurry up!" Christian yelled. He was so excited that he was jumping up and down.
Anfey took the diamond-like tear off her face without a word and put it into his mouth. He reached under the other eye, searching for another tear. He felt it, and then took it and swallowed the other one. Anfey knew team members had to trust each other, so he believed Christian had not lied to him, even though he did not understand what those tears were for.
"Anfey, you are so lucky!" Christian heaved a sigh of relief with a very envious look on his face.
Before Anfey had a chance to ask Christian anything, Zubin landed with extreme excitement on his face and said in a calm voice, "Do not waste it. Do not waste it."
"Hurry up, everybody. Let’s lift up the unicorn and take the unicorn’s blood," Sante yelled.
Others landed one after another. Anfey saw the excitement and happiness on every one of them. They quickly accumulated the elements to lift the unicorn into the air. Some of them took the absorption magic tool from the Space Ring and started to collect the blue blood flowing out of the unicorn’s body.
"Is unicorn’s blood useful?" Anfey asked.
"Invaluable," Christian said firmly. "But nothing compared to the Tears of Stars. Anfey, do you feel anything different now?"
"Me? Nothing different." Anfey shook his head and walked to the front. He took out a knife. "Move. You cannot get much blood this way." Anfey tried to stab at the unicorn to allow more blood come out.
Thoughts suddenly came to Anfey when his knife was in the air half way to the unicorn. He had an illusion that the unicorn in front of him was his sibling, and he had a really close relationship with her. His knife stopped in the air and would not go an inch closer to the unicorn.
Anfey was shocked and quickly shook his head, forcing this ridiculous idea from his head. He put more force on the knife to thrust it forward, but his arm became rigid and would not move forward again.
"Anfey, let me do it." Sante took the knife from Anfey quickly and stabbed a few shallow holes on the unicorn. The unicorn had died, but she still had some defensive ability left. Sante could only create minor wounds, even thought he stabbed her with full force.
"Idiot, use wind blade," Zubin said.
"You are the idiot," Sante said in anger, even though he knew he should not miss this opportunity to collect unicorn’s blood instead of wasting time arguing with Zubin. The unicorn’s blood would coagulate quickly when exposed to the air and lose its value after coagulation.
Zubin’s idea reminded Blavi, Sanchez and Sante to slay the unicorn with wind blade. Sky-blue blood oozed out from the cuts like springs. It even dyed her hair blue.
Anfey walked away from the unicorn and looked at the unicorn in confusion. This was the first time Anfey had felt fear since he came to this world. He neither understood where that weird feeling was from, nor how this feeling had interfered with his determination and stopped him from stabbing the unicorn. As an assassin, he needed to act calmly and with determination. He should not have any emotional attachment to anything or anyone. Hesitation was fatal to an assassin. Anfey could not find a reasonable explanation for what just happened. He should not have been so soft-hearted, especially to the dead body of a unicorn.
"This scene is too bloody." Christian smiled bitterly. He had misunderstood the reason Anfey was not looking good. "Anfey, please be more understanding. Unicorn’s blood is very, very precious. You know, the professor spent several months searching for unicorns just for their blood. They would just simply run away if they did not want to fight. The professor could not catch any unicorns, even with his power. An opportunity like today’s will never happen again."
A group of people with excited and happy looks used absorption magic tools to take all the blood they could get, not missing a drop of it. This scene was really strange and merciless, but what Anfey feared was the feeling he had felt, not the bloody scene.
"Everybody, hurry up! Send all the absorption magic tools to Anfey. He will keep them for everyone. Understood?" Christian said loudly.
"Yes!" Sante and others answered loudly. They all knew the principle of working as a team. Team members had lived together 24/7 and experienced difficulties together, which helped build their relationship. Even though the unicorn’s blood was valuable, it was not invaluable to the point where it was worth them fighting with each other.
Anfey walked slowly to the cave that the unicorn had tried to protect with her life. The silver web at the entrance was long gone. For no reason, Anfey felt a voice calling him back into the cave.
The cave was just as everyone thought it should be. It was shallow, and the back could be seen from the entrance. The cave was dry, since unicorns do not like humidity. She kept her cave cozy. There was a thick layer of silk vanilla grass. This type of grass was rare. It could give out a fresh fragrance over time if it was dried by the sun. In human society, children from royal and wealthy families often had a blanket or pillow made of silk vanilla grass. Anfey had never seen it before, but he had smelled its fragrance when he was in Niya’s room. Niya had a pillow made from silk vanilla grass.
On top of the silk vanilla grass, there was a tiny unicorn babbling. He could not stand up yet, as his eyes were still closed. He could only smell what was in front of him.
The little unicorn had not developed any power yet, and it looked very cute, with a thin layer of light hair. At a glance, the little unicorn looked like a shining gem stone. The little unicorn was lovable, with the light pink skin. It only had a bump on his head instead of a horn. It had a weird patterned print on the bump.
Anfey walked slowly to the little unicorn. He bent over while the little unicorn struggled to lift his head to smell Anfey. Suddenly, he screamed with joy and moved towards Anfey.
Anfey touched his bump with a smile. The little unicorn enjoyed his touch so much that it kicked its legs in the air with his back on the grass. The sounds the little unicorn made seemed happy.
"Anfey, we have finished collecting the blood of the unicorn. We also got a treasure." Zubin walked into the cave with a bloody long horn. "What a pretty little unicorn."
The little unicorn suddenly sat up with its nose wrinkled, smelling something in the air.
"Put away the horn, quickly!" Anfey yelled.
"Ok." Zubin quickly put away the horn in the dimensional ring.
The little unicorn sniffed for a while before he finally relaxed again. He stuck his tongue out, licking Anfey’s palm, and then he bit Anfey’s pinky with his tail wagging. The little unicorn seemed to play with Anfey.
"Anfey, we did well this time!" Christian walked in with a smile across his face just like Zubin’s. His attention was drawn to the little unicorn immediately as well, and he said, "What a beautiful little guy."
"We did it? I guess we did what we wanted to do, but what was it that we ‘did’?" Anfey twitched the corners of his mouth. "We will talk about it later. How is Suzanna now? Where is Riska?"
"Suzanna has been meditating. I haven’t seen Riska yet. Anfey, do you think Riska is in danger?" Christian asked with his eyes opened wide like plates.
"He must have experienced some danger; otherwise Suzanna would not have ended up so wounded. I think Riska is fine though." Anfey thought a while before he spoke again. "Ok, let’s clean up here first. We will talk about it when we go back to the cave."
"Sure." Christian nodded.
Anfey rubbed the little unicorn a bit before he forced himself to pull his fingers away. He stood up and walked outside the cave with such a determination. However, he felt sad when he turned around. He liked this little unicorn without any reason. If it was not because he liked this little guy, he might have already killed it mercilessly to get its blood according to the cruel way Anfey had acted in the past as an assassin, and because he knew the benefits of its blood.
That little unicorn’s crying changed from cheerful to anxious. It struggled to crawl out of the silk vanilla grass nest towards Anfey. His crying turned into screaming, and finally into desperation.
"It cannot be true. I heard unicorns only like girls," Zubin said in surprise, with his eyes wide open.
"It could be the effect of the Tears of Stars. Anfey, this little unicorn has already considered you as its family." Christian smiled.
"Did you say it was the effect of the Tears of Stars?" Anfey asked. Anfey responded quickly to Christian’s words. He realized the Tears of Stars had brought these changes upon him, otherwise the little unicorn would not consider him as a family and he would not feel bad leaving the little unicorn either.
"Yes," Christian answered.
Anfey took a deep breath and glanced at Christian. In fact, he did not want this kind of change. He always had to be calm and cool in dangerous situations. Anfey did not want to blame Christian for it, because he knew the Tears of Stars must be very good for his body. Otherwise Christian would not be so stressed and worried. Christian wanted the best for him. However, he only saw the advantages of taking Tears of Stars without acknowledging the negative side effects of it. In other words, Christian thought the side effects of the Tears of Stars would be good anyway.
The little unicorn had come up to Anfey’s ankles and laid on his feet, as if crying. The crying sounded sad. If unicorns could cry, this would be what it was like.
Anfey sighed again. He bent down and held the little unicorn in his arms. He thought to himself, "You know what, I will just raise the little unicorn as a pet. I am just not sure how much he would eat, since unicorns are senior magic beasts. This little guy’s mom was a top-level unicorn. He could be my helpful assistant when he grows up." Anfey had always paid attention to returns before he did anything. To convince himself to raise the little unicorn as a pet, he had to force himself to pay attention to the potential abilities the little unicorn would have in the future and the benefits and returns of raising the little guy.
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