Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 175 - 79: Top 10 Teams

Chapter 175: Chapter 79: Top 10 Teams

"The Azure Longsword?"

Andrea hadn’t yet reacted, but from beside her, Herman seemed to recall something and frowned as he asked,

"Is that the mercenary group that got to Fengkexim before you during the hunt for the Temple Knights in Stanimaka, and even made off with his rifle in the process?"

"Oh!" Andrea immediately realized, then a complex and difficult-to-understand expression crossed her face.

Stealing kills was a common occurrence within the large mercenary groups, after all, it was purely a matter of strength, and there was nothing you could do if your punch wasn’t strong enough.

Moreover, with each mission, the size of the fist was related to the number of people attending, and the number of attendees directly related to the manpower cost. Therefore, "how to attend with fewer people" to ultimately "overpower the competitors and complete the mission" was an issue that the headquarters of various large mercenary groups studied year-round.

The headquarters of the Steel Cross Mercenary Group, for instance, even hired professional accountants and actuaries from Venice specifically to assess and calculate the difficulty of various tasks and the corresponding number of attendees required.

Of course, they could only estimate, not predict.

For example, if a mission was estimated to be solvable with about 200 people, but upon arrival at the scene, it turned out that the "Free Wind" mercenary group had brought 300 people, naturally, you couldn’t compete with them for the task.

If you can’t beat them, then all the various expenses incurred by your 200 people attending the mission, since you didn’t get the task reward, became a total loss.

The large mercenary groups had also considered collaboration, like today I bring 300 people, you bring 300, and neither of us has the strength to press down the other, and we don’t want to directly kill each other and end up in a lose-lose situation. Thus, simply collaborating to complete the task and splitting the reward evenly could occasionally happen.

Of course, this was under the condition that no one showed any flaws throughout the process.

If one side suffered heavy casualties during the mission, then sorry, but the agreement had to be changed. Why? Because if your punch isn’t hard enough now, why would I honor our deal with you?

The mission to hunt the Temple Knight Fengkexim had all the makings of a cooperative venture between both sides.

At that time, Matthews from Free Wind brought slightly more mercenaries, while in terms of individual strength, Andrea’s side had the upper hand.

Neither side was certain they could defeat the other; therefore, they could have worked together to kill the mission target and then split the task reward.

Unexpectedly, a small mercenary group called The Azure Longsword intervened, first defeating Fengkexim in a sniper duel, and then shamefully fled before anyone else could react.

By the time the Steel Cross and Free Wind arrived at the scene, Fengkexim was already dead, and his weapons had been taken by them.

A Temple Knight worth 1000 pounds, with half of that prize snatched away, left only 500 pounds for the taking. If it had been just one mercenary group, it might have been fine. But for two groups to split this 500 pounds, the cost-effectiveness of the mission took quite an unsightly turn.

Thus, Andrea and Matthews schemed against each other all the way, calculating moves to trip one another up, resorting to all sorts of tricks like setting traps, poisoning, misleading, and driving a wedge between bodies. Several times they almost broke into full conflict, but they ultimately managed to deliver Fengkexim’s head to the nearest Catholic Diocese.

Then they each collected 250 pounds...

Andrea still felt the pain when she thought about it now, "Damn it, after such trouble, I only earned a measly 250 pounds, and got reprimanded by the headquarters for the sniper’s death, which even affected my year-end performance."

It was all the fault of The Azure Longsword!

Seeing the complex expressions of the two mercenaries, the two kings of Sparta were somewhat surprised. They had initially only planned to drop the name and then follow up with "The Spartans have already collaborated with The Azure Longsword, so there’s no need for you Steel Cross Mercenaries to bother."

But seeing Andrea’s face and her reaction, they seemed to already be familiar with The Azure Longsword and had some unfriendly run-ins.

So, Kapsos quickly gave a knowing look, and Rudashus immediately understood, hurrying out the door to find Aske.

--------------------

On the open ground near the dormitory, Eleanor, Peggy, and Sigrdrifa were practicing against each other, with Aske watching by their side.

Around the edge of the clearing, it was surrounded by a throng of Spartan Scouts. Hood was squeezed in the middle of the Spartan youngsters, gritting his teeth and glaring at Aske.

Dragged off to the Scouts for no good reason, then inexplicably put through a whole day of physical training with things like weighted cross-country, standing at attention, 100-meter obstacle sprints, and javelin throwing.

Although adult Spartan Warriors were specifically looking after him, avoiding any harm, the inevitable sweat and muscle soreness could not be avoided.

This bastard Aske, I thought since I wasn’t formally enlisted with the Mercenary Group, he would have no reason to train me, but I didn’t expect this guy to resort to such sneaky tactics!

I vow to get even or I’m not a man!

"Hey, is that The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps you’re from?" A few Spartan youths asked Hood.

"So awesome! That warrior with the golden hair!" one exclaimed in admiration, "Look at how she wields her Shield, even such overwhelming attacks she can fend off, her experience is definitely no less than our instructors!"

"And that one with the black hair, her movements are so fast! Faster than the strongest 100-meter sprinter in Athens! I can hardly trace her actions!"

They all expressed their envy unanimously. Kids always admire the strong, and along with them, Hood felt a sense of vicarious pride and started to get carried away as well.

"Ah, what’s so great about that, you guys just haven’t seen much," Hood made a scornful expression, "See that man standing on the side of the field? That’s our Squad Leader of The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps, and that’s the true super-strong warrior. The three on the field combined wouldn’t even be a match for him."

"Really?" The Spartan youths’ eyes sparkled.

"Hey, Hood, where would you rank in terms of fighting ability within The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps?" a curious youth asked.

"Cough. I’m not an adult yet, it’s not the same," Hood said awkwardly.

"But that black-haired girl, she’s not an adult either," another youth pointed out.

"Uh..." Hood hesitated, then slapped his chest confidently, "Not to brag, but our Squad Leader and I are very close, he often teaches me some battle skills. Although I’m not fully mature yet and can’t compete physically with adults, my fighting ability would still rank in the top ten within the group."

"Ohhhh." The Spartan youths nodded in amazement, their faces full of admiration.

While Hood continued to boast amidst the youngsters, the battle on the field had come to an end.

Although the "Golden Finger" used to enhance the Stealing Ability had been returned to Quintus after the defense of Olin City concluded, Peggy, with the wealth of combat experience gained during that time, could now stably create an additional illusion.

With a horizontal swing of her Short Sword, she created an illusion and struck at Sigrdrifa from both sides.

Naturally aware of the power of the Undead Illusion Sword, Sigrdrifa hurriedly unleashed a Tornado Slash, forcing both attackers back.

Taking advantage of the moment Sigrdrifa’s back was turned to her, Eleanor made a sudden Shield rush and smashed Sigrdrifa to the ground from behind.

"Fantastic fight!" The Spartan youths clapped and cheered in unison.

However, the scene that unfolded next left them utterly speechless.

With grunts and groans, Sigrdrifa stubbornly stayed down on the ground, refusing to get up.