Chapter 267: Heroic Duel
The gleam of sunset gradually dissipated, and the curtain of night gradually covered Snow Bird Harbor.
At the docks, on the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ flagship, the Love Triangle, the survivors secretly gathered together to discuss their future projects and plans.
“That is roughly what the situation is.” Zi Di had just explained the conflict between them and Bing Xiao, giving a detailed account of it.
Everyone was silent.
Zong Ge put his hands on the intelligence reports.
These intelligence reports had been purchased from the Thieves Guild at a hefty price.
This intelligence report had detailed information on the Bayonet Gang.
The old elf Bing Xiao had come from the army.
He was once a gold level, but after being wounded on the battlefield, he was reduced to silver level.
After being discharged, he returned to his hometown, in other words, Snow Bird Harbor.
A year later, he joined the Bayonet Gang.
After living in the gang for some time, he had successfully nurtured a gold level giant slave.
With it, he had become the Bayonet Gang’s leader.
Three years later, another veteran returned to Snow Bird Harbor and decided to join the Bayonet Gang.
When he was promoted to become part of the core backbone of the gang, he challenged Bing Xiao to a heroic duel.
This veteran was the current leader of the Bayonet Gang – Teng Dong Lang.
From this, the outcome of said heroic duel was self-evident, Teng Dong Lang was the winner.
Bing Xiao had lost and so lost the position of leadership.
He then simply retired with his lovers.
Bing Xiao’s gold level slave was called Tie Tou Tong, and because it had participated in too many of the gang’s fights, their body was gravely injured and its military strength greatly declined.
Anyways, in recent years, Bing Xiao had been cultivating new giant slaves.
He had some results in the current times.
He wanting to purchase a giant-type intelligence potion should be him striving to cultivate new giants.
Apart from Bing Xiao, the information on the Bayonet Gang gave a clear understanding of the rest of it.
This gang had almost a thousand people in it, and its current leader, Teng Dong Lang, was a genuine gold level fighter with rich battle experience.
He had more than twenty silver level subordinates, the vast majority of which were snow elves.
Elves had greater transcendent gifts compared to the humans and beastmen.
However, elves were always a sparse people, as they couldn’t reproduce as much as humans and beastmen.
Beastmen were better at reproducing, but of the three races, their transcendent gifts were the lowest.
Humans were the median of the three. Their reproduction and transcendent gifts were not the strongest, but with them, humanity’s total strength became the greatest over time.
The Sheng Ming Empire was a superpower on the Main Plane, and the greatest race of modern times was humanity, for the empire had the most territory of the Main Plane and the strongest transcendents.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was a small force, and the survivors didn’t even have a gold level.
Whether one had a gold level determined how large a force was determined to be.
Without a gold level, even if one had many silver levels, they would be merely a small power.
Zong Ge’s growth potential could be easily seen, and his battle qi already had a gold sheen, but so long as he wasn’t a gold level yet, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps would remain a small sized force.
It was clear that the Bayonet Gang was a true medium sized power.
Zong Ge held the intelligence report in his hand and analyzed, “The Bayonet Gang’s strength far exceeds ours, but we have advantages they do not possess.”
“Such as in naval battles, we have a distinct dominance in that, for they don’t seem to have many ships.”
“In large scale battles, we also might hold a certain superiority. Gang members are better at fighting in cities in either groups of three to four, or alone.”
“What’s concerning is that the Bayonet Gang’s prior and current leader are from the army, we don’t know what things they brought into the gang from there.”
If they did what Zong Ge did to the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, then the Bayonet Gang would have tight military supervision and training, that would add another level to the Bayonet Gang as a whole.
The dragonman youngster thought on it, “The intelligence report doesn’t mention any army drills.”
“If the Bayonet Gang did military administration, would Snow Bird Harbor’s officials sleep soundly at night?”
Zong Ge nodded, “That is indeed so.”
“However, we cannot launch a naval battle or wide scale warfare.”
“This is the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, Snow Bird Harbor is one of its eight harbors. The coast is lined with cannons, there is a magician tower, and everyone would see it.”
“The magician tower monitors the entire harbor at all times, if we assemble on a large scale, there would be no need to use the cannons, one or two of the magician tower’s large scale spells would inflict disastrous damage on us and even wipe out our organizational structure.”
Zong Ge’s intent was very explicit, forcing things was out of the question.
Zong Ge had finished speaking, and sitting at his side, Tripleblade spoke next, “On the face of it, the Bayonet Gang is very strong, however, the true strength they can muster is far less than what is on paper.”
Tripleblade was once a mercenary commander. He had dealt with merchant alliances, gangs, and all sorts of walks of life, thus, he had quite an understanding of gangs.
“Say for example.” Tripleblade continued to analyze, “The Bayonet Gang has twenty silver levels. But most of the silver level members cannot be directly dispatched, for many of them are figureheads in the gang.”
“The truly capable people depend on their specific status and position in the gang.”
“In my opinion, the genuine backbone only has 6 people, the 6 that the neighborhood gang leader controls.”
“Interesting, of the 6 silver levels under this gang leader only has two snow elves, the rest are a human, a bear-man, a treeman, and even a demon-human hybrid, quite the mixed group.”
This was actually similar to the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.
A gang was like this, where dragons and snakes mingled, and as long as one was strong, they could usually rise to the top.
The backbone had many races, something actually quite common in gangs.
Especially in a harbor like Snow Bird Harbor, where there were many people of all sorts of races traveling through, making it even more necessary to designate some strong gang leaders for specific races.
Such leaders could gain their corresponding race’s respect, increasing the understanding in the hierarchy and greatly reducing supervision costs.
Tripleblade stopped analyzing and looked at the dragonman youngster, “Alas, we really didn’t need to clash with Bing Xiao, although the giant-type intelligence potion really suits the big guy, there was no need to make a rush for it.”
“If we preordered the potion, we could have gotten it within half a month.”
It was very clear that Tripleblade did not approve of the dragonman youngster’s and Zi Di’s decision at the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance store.
To him it seemed irrational.
Zi Di and the dragonman youngster were silent and indifferent.
The bloodline testing results were only known by Zi Di, the dragonman youngster, and Cang Xu.
If Tripleblade knew what the big guy’s bloodline was, he wouldn’t be thinking what he did now.
But the bloodline testing results was something the dragonman youngster wouldn’t speak rashly about.
The dragonman youngster looked at Tripleblade and asked, “Based on what you see, what should we do, what is the best response to our current situation?”
Tripleblade shook his head, “Although we have considerable strength, we can still be easily eaten up by a gang.”
“The reason is simple; we lack elite stealth units. That is to say, thieves and assassins.”
“In Snow Bird Harbor, large scale warfare is impossible.”
“The Bayonet Gang can’t do it either. Their most likely operations will be dispatching stealth units to spy on us, steal from us, and attack us.”
“It is also possible that they will kidnap and blackmail people we dispatch.”
“From this evening onwards, we will be fully vigilant to prevent enemy infiltration, theft, and damage.”
“For the next several days, we will restrict our people as much as possible, keep them on the ships. But this can only be done for so long.”
“In the long term, the sailors will grow agitated and displeased. Sooner or later, we will have to let them out.”
“Also, only by letting them out will we be able to take the most mercenary missions to develop and expand the entire Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.”
Apart from the Thieves Guild in a city, gangs were the force with the most thieves and assassins.
The survivors really lacked such talents.
The closest to that was Tripleblade. But his battle skills weren’t able to hide his traces, and his fighting style was through agility and rapid movement within a small distance to directly grapple with the enemy and seize any gaps to throw the enemy formation into confusion.
In short, Tripleblade’s fighting style made him a competent mercenary good at conventional warfare.
Expanding this criterion to the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, the best of them in sneaking was Xu Ma.
Xu Ma cultivated the Dark Spider technique, and cultivated compatible battle skills for stealth and eavesdropping, along with being able to fight. But Xu Ma’s bloodline was not outstanding, and he was an iron level nowadays, the limit of his aptitude.
Tripleblade continued, “If our luck is good, we can recruit one or two silver level infiltrators that can alleviate the current situation.”
“In fact, we need such talents for investigative work. Although we have many alchemy puppets, in many situations, alchemy puppets are no substitute for people, such as making intelligence reports.”
Tripleblade’s words were reasonable, and the dragonman youngster nodded repeatedly at them.
At the same time, the dragonman youngster’s thinking was growing, nonchalantly looking at Qiao Shan.
He thought of Qiao Shan’s bloodline.
Qiao Shan had a dark elf (Drow) bloodline, and the dark elf race could be said to have the most amount of rogues on the Main Plane.
“However, cultivating Qiao Shan takes too much time. Distant water cannot quench thirst now.” The dragonman youngster thought.
Zi Di then opened her mouth, “We don’t need antagonism, perhaps we can offer amends and apologize? Since the Bayonet Gang is Snow Bird Harbor’s local bully, building a good relationship with them can be beneficial to us and will help our future business activities.”
From Zi Di’s point of view, since they had taken the giant-type intelligence potion and used it on the big guy, then it was fine to bow their heads to the Bayonet Gang for the time being.
Even if they had to pay some compensation, it was a drop in the ocean for the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ 60,000 gold coins of assets.
If both sides could reach a settlement, with the Bayonet Gang’s protection and contact network, Zi Di’s business would go smoothly here.
Looking at the long term, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ hefty investment would earn much more in the future!
However, everyone met her proposal with silence.
Even the dragonman youngster declined to comment.
The dragonman youngster looked at the rest, “Anyone can speak, what is your opinion?”
Lan Zao answered first, “My Lord, you are our commander, your decision is how we will operate!”
Lan Zao was a powerful supporter of the dragonman youngster, and since he started following the dragonman youngster, his position never wavered from the latter’s.
Fei She said, “On Mystifying Mon, Monster Island. If it wasn’t for the big guy’s protect, protecting our ship, everyone would have died un, under the beast tide. Before the old boatswain died, he ga, gave the big guy to the commander, the big guy treated the com, commander as his new father. And a father buying his son a potion is completely within reason, a mat, matter of course.”
Fei She’s words were more tactful and pleasant to listen to than Lan Zao’s.
He also explicitly expressed his support for the dragonman youngster.
Mu Ban scowled, “I am more worried about other things.”
“Since the Bayonet Gang has entrenched itself here for many years, they must have many hidden connections with the local government of Snow Bird Harbor, such as public officials and the city guard.”
“If they borrow the city guard’s hand to deal with us, then that will be more troublesome. If it isn’t dealt with well, we will antagonize the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s government, that will be exceedingly detrimental to us.”
Qiao Shan said, “If nothing else can be done, at worst we can leave Snow Bird Harbor for good. This harbor is only one of eight in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom. The Ice Sculpture Kingdom is vast; we don’t need to be entangled in one place. We are free and our situation is very strained, the longer time drags on, the worse it will get for us.”
Everyone had said their piece, except Bai Ya.
The dragonman youngster looked at Bai Ya, “Do you have an opinion, Bai Ya?”
Bai Ya was somewhat nervous, “I, should I really speak? I don’t really have anything to say.”
The dragonman youngster smiled at him, “Have the courage to speak, mistakes don’t matter, we are all the same here.”
Bai Ya muttered to himself, then decide to change the subject, “Everyone knows that I am a hunter.”
“When I was old enough to shoot arrows and hunt rabbits, my father took me into the forest mountain to hunt.”
“One winter, when the first snow fell, my father and I were preparing to hunt.”
“Just as we entered the forest mountain, we saw a mess in the woodland, discovering that a ferocious beast had left blood traces, talon marks across trees, and footprints in the snow from its fight.”
“My father called off the hunt on the spot.”
“I felt very puzzled and asked my father why he did that.”
“My father said to me that this forest mountain only had one fierce tiger. The marks at the scene, however, showed that two fierce tigers had fought there.”
“It was very clear that one of the tigers was an outsider. It had intruded in and clashed with the master of the forest, so we had to wait for the fight to finish, for them to determine the outcome of the battle.”
“We would wait until the forest mountain grew tranquil again, and after it stabilized, we would go hunting again.”
“My father warned me: we are ordinary people, and even fully armed, we couldn’t fight a magic beast. Don’t even think of taking advantage of another’s misfortune to pick up a steal. A wounded and hungry magic beast is far more dreadful than it is normally! Transcendents are different, and we will never be their match.”
“We merely live on this forest mountain, killing only the prey we need to eat.”
“Don’t take risks, hunting in of itself is already a great risk. What is the difference between taking a risk and seeking death? We are men, and if we die, what will happen to our family?”
When Bai Ya said that he came back to the topic at hand, declaring his opinion, “I believe that our Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps is a ferocious foreign beast. We need to have a true battle so the ferocious beasts in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom acknowledge us, that we are qualified to truly have a footing here.”
“Snow Bird Harbor isn’t our only option.”
“But everywhere else is the same.”
“Don’t tell me the other harbors don’t have gangs? Like that forest mountain, there will always be magic beasts entrenched there that divide up their respective territories.”
“This time, we provoked the Bayonet Gang, actually, if we didn’t provoke them, wouldn’t they provoke us instead?”
“Even if there wasn’t such a conflict, there will always be another, other powers that will make things difficult for us and shove us aside.”
When Bai Ya finished, the people around him looked at him we newfound respect.
The dragonman youngster pumped up his fist and loudly encouraged, “Well spoken, correctly spoken, Bai Ya!”
Bai Ya scratched his head in bemusement; the praise made his face somewhat red.
The dragonman youngster looked around and raised his voice, “Just as Bai Ya said, that is the situation we are in.”
“The Ice Sculpture Kingdom is different from Snake Rat and Two Eyes Island. It has been developed for a very long time. It is full of all kinds of people of all sorts of professions. This is not vacant land. And to obtain sufficient space to survive, we will inevitably tussle with the natives here.”
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps needs an adversary so we can prove our power to others.”
“The Bayonet Gang is very strong, but it is not insurmountable.”
“If we defeat them, the fruits of victory we will reap are sure to be far more ample than the ones from a puny enemy!”
“Furthermore, this is not the naval battles of Two Eyes Island and Weeping Pine Island, nor is it surviving on Mystifying Monster Island. The only contradiction between us and the Bayonet Gang is a gold level potion.”
“This battle doesn’t need to determine life and death, but it does need an outcome.”
“As long as we display our true strength, the Bayonet Gang will inevitably fear us, and if that happens, we can vie for ground to make a footing on.”
Zong Ge looked pensive, observing the dragonman youngster, “In that case, what is the plan?”
The dragonman youngster faintly smiled, “Early tomorrow, I will move to publicly challenge the Bayonet Gang’s leader to a heroic duel!”
Those words caused a variety of expressions to appear on the others.
Zi Di couldn’t sit still, “Lord Commander, you want to fight Teng Dong Lang? He is a veteran gold level.”
The dragonman youngster’s smile grew, flowing with battle intent, “Gold level...it’s quite exciting to fight against such an opponent.”
The dragonman youngster had fought Er Gua Zi at the Battle of Two Eyes Island.
But the fight ended too soon and didn’t satisfy his craving.
The dragonman youngster was exuberantly interested at this chance.
Tripleblade approved, “A good method. Even if you lose commander, it’s not that bad. You’re a silver level after all. But as long as your fight is majestic and enough for people to sit up and take notice, we can display our Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ strength, so others won’t dare have contempt for us from then on.”
Zong Ge once again gazed at the intelligence report, “This battle can be fought.”
“Teng Dong Lang does not fight like Hun Tong, he is from the army, his moves are terse and clear, and his battle style should be frontal and direct. A most suitable opponent for you, Commander.”
The dragonman youngster nodded, “That’s right, I think so too.”
Unconsciously, he reached out and rubbed the Grand Arena Medal he wore.