Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 180 - 84: Group Combat

Chapter 180: Chapter 84: Group Combat

After a fierce battle, the Steel Cross Mercenary Group had finally dealt with the Snow Monsters.

Most of the Snow Monsters were eradicated, while a few had escaped.

Andrea was quite thrilled about it. On the one hand, the Azure Longsword had not made any moves until the end.

On the other hand, it also meant a significant influx of Spiritual Material, promising a great team performance for the year.

Herman, however, had some concerns because the Snow Monsters were social animals organized into family units. If you attacked the child, you had to kill the parent too; otherwise, the parent would gather the whole village of Snow Monsters to retaliate.

Andrea dismissed the concern, even optimistically suggesting that it would save them the trouble of having to hunt them down one by one.

If they really had to search one by one, it would be a battle of eyesight, meticulousness, and luck. Matters involving luck were unpredictable; what if the Azure Longsword got incredibly lucky and found a whole bunch of Snow Monsters? Wouldn’t that mean they would snatch all the Spiritual Material?

Herman felt Andrea’s thinking was a bit off. Frankly, the Snow Monsters in these mountains were unclaimed, and according to prior rules, whoever killed them first would claim them. How come Andrea had already reserved all the mountain’s Snow Monsters for himself, not planning to leave any for the Azure Longsword?

Do they think that just because the other party killed one, the Spiritual Material was stolen from them? Such a thought seemed rather inappropriate.

However, he and Andrea were childhood friends and well-acquainted, so he roughly guessed that Andrea had been tricked harshly by the Azure Longsword in the past and didn’t persuade further.

Letting him vent his grievances seemed acceptable.

But would that Aske really let Andrea get his way so easily?

Herman narrowed his eyes, watching the seemingly nonchalant group of the Azure Longsword, his expression growing darker.

After pondering for a moment, he decided to go and probe.

"Lord Aske?" Herman approached and asked lightly.

Aske was using the hilt of his sword to knock on Sigrdrifa’s head, not turning around as he responded, "Hmm?"

"What are you doing here?" Herman tried to keep his tone gentle.

"We’re training," Aske replied.

"Training what?" Herman couldn’t imagine what kind of training mainly involved knocking on someone’s head, "Uh... training the hardness of skulls?"

The girls around them snickered, and Aske laughed, explaining:

"No, it’s about rhythmically tapping the head to speed up the digestion of Extraordinary Power and the transformation of Spiritual Power."

So this could promote the digestion of Extraordinary Power? Herman was surprised and couldn’t help but start observing the positions and techniques used by Aske.

"Does this really work?" he asked, feeling impressed, thinking that although the squad leader was unremarkable in appearance, he surprisingly knew quite a bit.

"Highly unlikely." Aske stood up, "It’s just an esoteric method, not to be taken seriously."

Herman: ...

"Hey!" Sigrdrifa clamored dissatisfied, "If this method is useless, why did you keep knocking on my head for so long?"

"A thick skull needs more knocking," Aske replied, "maybe it will enlighten you one day."

"I want to knock back!" Sigrdrifa grabbed Aske and started pounding on his head.

The girl was big and tall, and Aske, caught off-guard, was pulled into her embrace. The girls were stunned for a moment before they hurriedly scrambled to intervene.

"Sigrdrifa, you can’t do that!" Nora scolded her embarrassingly, "You are supposed to be a lady! How can a lady be so forward with a man?!"

"Ah, can’t I?" Sigrdrifa tilted her head.

"Of course not!" Nora exclaimed.

Herman watched them speechlessly, feeling as if his IQ had dropped down a notch.

Is this the legendary debilitation attack? Herman decided not to probe further to avoid a more intense negative impact.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Herman suddenly noticed Eleanor, his gaze lingering on her face.

"Have we met somewhere before?" he asked, quite puzzled.

Eleanor looked at him in surprise, momentarily taken aback.

Herman? She recognized the man in front of her as the eldest son of Earl Bernard of Saxony from the Divine Luo Empire, with whom she had had an encounter before.

"That pickup line is a bit cliché," Eleanor said with a laugh, trying to cover up.

Herman shook his head, shifting his attention away from her face to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.

Eleanor secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After dealing with the Snow Monster, the Steel Cross Mercenaries began collecting Spiritual Material—the Snow Monster’s belly fat—and then continued their journey up the mountain.

Along the way, their formation had clearly changed from before. Some Transcendent mercenaries intentionally lagged behind, distancing the people of The Azure Longsword and Andrea, who personally carried the materials.

Their wariness was plainly evident.

"What’s with this?" Mia started to mutter, "Why are they treating us like thieves?"

The other girls also showed signs of indignation.

As for Aske, he didn’t mind and leisurely followed the group.

Seeing that he was unconcerned, the girls, who were initially quite furious, gradually calmed down.

Herman walked on the very edge of the group, discreetly keeping an eye on The Azure Longsword behind him.

Thus, all changes in the girls’ expressions did not escape his attention.

Is enduring cold hostility and exclusion acceptable as long as the Squad Leader does not speak out?

It seemed that this Squad Leader Aske held a very high prestige within the team.

He was contemplating various thoughts when he suddenly heard a mercenary up ahead loudly signaling:

"200 meters ahead! A large group of Snow Monsters has appeared!"

Here we go? Herman drew his Longsword and Battle Axe, readying himself for battle, sighing inwardly.

Sure enough, the few Snow Monsters they had let escape had brought back more enemies.

However, looking on the bright side, these Snow Monsters were probably all the nearby enemies. If they could eliminate this batch, advancing further would be much easier.

"Fire at will!" Andrea’s command rang out.

In fact, facing the fifty or more Snow Monsters charging towards them, it would be chaotic on the battlefield, and even if the gunmen were to focus fire on a specific Snow Monster, they might not accurately understand the instructions.

It was better to let them kill freely.

Intense gunshots erupted, accompanied by the Snow Monsters at the forefront who kept retreating, their roar from wide mouths growing more furious.

Though most bullets just embedded in their muscles unable to cause deeper damage, the induced stiffness ultimately interrupted their charge.

Transcendent mercenaries took advantage of this, using weapons enhanced with Arcane like Flames and Thunder, strong, agile strikes, along with impenetrable superior Sword Skills, they unleashed a storm of blood and carnage among the Snow Monsters.

Aske even spotted a few mercenaries who clearly appeared to be young, around their twenties, yet swung their weapons like veteran warriors who had been in the craft for decades, expertly dodging or parrying the Snow Monsters’ attacks, and accurately smashing their blades and Warhammers into the enemies’ vital points.

However, this situation of stalemate only lasted for a moment before it gradually shifted subtly towards the mercenaries being at a disadvantage.

The reason was simple: the Snow Monsters had too much health, and the mercenaries were already starting to falter from exhaustion.