Xiao Chen rode on his horse, moving quickly in the night. In front and behind him was a group of riders. Chen Hansheng and Li Tianrui sandwiched him on the left and right, looking at him from time to time, afraid that he would suddenly collapse due to exhaustion. A gust of cold wind blew by, and Chen Hansheng saw Xiao Chen shivering, and asked with concern: "Are you cold? Have you recovered? You looked so miserable yesterday."
Xiao Chen tightened his leather jacket, which he bought in Suero. It was roughly made, but it was windproof. "Much better. I don't want to experience the feeling of mental exhaustion again. It's like... a spoonful of brain matter was scooped out."
Li Tianrui looked at Xiao Chen with a lingering fear and said with a smile: "If you can give me this skill, I will be happy to have a headache as many times as I want. If you don't have that magic, and it falls into the hands of Max, you won't be able to deal with them."
Xiao Chen could see the envy in Li Tianrui's eyes, and maybe even a hint of jealousy, but he smiled calmly and said, "When I find a way to learn magic safely, I will definitely try my best to teach everyone. My situation can only be regarded as a fortuitous encounter, which cannot be replicated."
Guo Qian asked Xiao Chen not to reveal the process of learning magic easily, so Xiao Chen just mentioned it briefly. Li Tianrui nodded and said, "We are waiting with our necks stretched out."
Chen Hansheng then added: "If we weren't in a hurry to save lives, we wouldn't have to rush you on your way with injuries. From what we heard on the road, they may have already started fighting, which makes us feel uneasy."
"As for worry, I'm less worried now." Xiao Chen's answer surprised Chen Hansheng.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Li Tianrui asked first.
"Xiao Li, you have also seen a group of horse thieves. What do you think of their fighting ability?"
Li Tianrui pondered for a while and said, "In terms of individual martial arts, they are indeed good. But their organization is a bit chaotic. They have no formation, no discipline, and they just rush forward. Their morale is not very good either. They were thrown into chaos by our surprise attack. In addition, we have several guns, which gives us a clear advantage."
Xiao Chen nodded in agreement and asked, "What if they are all cold weapons?"
Li Tianrui pondered for a while and said, "If they all use cold weapons, they are still no match for us. The more people there are, the more chaotic they will be, and the greater our advantage will be. If my former company was here, we wouldn't have to worry about facing enemies several times our number."
"What if it's the Guard?"
"Guards..." Li Tianrui hesitated. The guards had two perverts, Ji Yijun and Ye Zi, but the level of the general members was not good enough. "It's hard to say. The guards are much worse than the regular army... If they were really that confident, we wouldn't have to worry about it anymore."
"You said the guards are no match for these horse thieves?" Chen Hansheng asked back.
Li Tianrui remained silent.
Xiao Chen smiled and shook his head: "I'm not that pessimistic. I believe that the school's guards will not lose to them."
"Confidence alone can't win the battle." Li Tianrui said irritably, "I had a nightmare yesterday. I dreamed that when we arrived, they were all dead and the school was looted by bandits."
Speaking of such nightmares, Chen Hansheng also frowned.
"But it's even worse if we don't have confidence." Xiao Chen said seriously, "When we raided the bandits, I saw a lot of things. After I was captured by Mais, I heard a lot from them. I found that our advantage is very obvious."
"Although our team has limited technical and tactical capabilities and has never been on the battlefield, all of them are screws trained in the industrialized society. Everyone has a clear understanding of discipline and knows their role and position in the team. The entire escort team has a clear structure. Even if Wang Jiyuan cannot use his fingers as he pleases, his military orders are smooth. The horse thieves are put together from all over the place. Not to mention having discipline, they have new and old hatreds. This time they were forced together by a big business, so it's good that they don't fight among themselves. They all have the mentality of waiting for others to be cannon fodder first. You should know best how important discipline and combat spirit are to a unit, right?"
"That being said, the guards are not real warriors. I don't believe that if Wang Jiyuan tells them to charge, they will charge under a hail of arrows," Li Tianrui retorted.
"Then we have another advantage. We have no way to retreat. If we lose, we will die or become slaves. They know clearly that they must fight desperately to have a chance to survive. What makes soldiers brave is not ignorance or money, but that they know what they are defending. Danger is our motivation and confidence! Even a desperate dog will jump over the wall, let alone a group of trained people with weapons?"
After hearing this, Li Tianrui glanced at the mercenaries around him and said, "According to what you said, the troops we brought here can only fight a favorable battle."
"After the team I led was defeated by Mais and his two companions, I understood this. If we want to win, we can only rely on ourselves." Xiao Chen said in a low voice.
"I'm afraid that's true. Teams that fight for money are unreliable." Chen Hansheng agreed. He glanced at Kalanda and others who were following closely behind them. "Even if some people are reliable, it's only because a few of them have good character."
"But there are only so many of us. Even if we survive this, what about the future? Are we left to fight on our own? If everyone dies, what can we use to defend ourselves?" Li Tianrui asked.
"Let's talk about the future later! Let's fight this battle first." Chen Hansheng stopped the trend of further discussion and sighed, "We don't know how they will fight when we get to school."
Although Xiao Chen did not answer Li Tianrui's question, he knew that the other party had raised a good question. He had been thinking about this question in the past few days and had some ideas in his mind.
Kalanda and Catalina followed behind them. They couldn't understand what the people in front were arguing about.
However, Catalina's mind was not here. Ever since Adams was killed by Mais, she had been in a bad mood and looked sad. But Kalanda did not show any change, and his expression was as serious and cold as usual.
"Ms. Kalanda, how long will it take us to walk?" Chen Hansheng turned around and asked.
"At our current speed, we can reach Floro before midnight," Karanda rode forward and answered.
"Very good. When we are half an hour away from Floro, we can rest for half an hour and recover our strength." Chen Hansheng said.
"Lord Chen, your idea is right. It's best for us to break in from the weak area behind their encirclement when we have enough horsepower and manpower. In this way, we can work together from inside and outside to inflict a heavy blow to them. While we rest, I will let Katarina lead the scout team to take a good look at their deployment." Kalanda answered in a serious tone.
"Very good! During the rest period, we have to discuss the distribution of the team again. I think we need to concentrate our strength as much as possible and not allow things like what happened on the night attack to happen again. Otherwise, defeat may happen at any time." Chen Hansheng said.
Karanda's expression changed slightly, and he nodded and said, "Yes."
Xiao Chen seemed to sense the change in Kalanda's mood and interrupted, "We sympathize with Adams's experience. You can say that he sacrificed himself to save me. But failure is failure, and we must face it without personal feelings. I hope you can understand."
"I understand." Kalanda said seriously, "Adams is a soldier, he understands this. If we can think this way, he will feel at ease in the embrace of the God of Nature."
Kalanda rode back to Catalina's side and gave instructions for the previous arrangements, asking her scout team to be ready and start the action in two hours.
Two hours, this is a strange time unit used by magicians, but Catalina is now very familiar with it. She looked at a plastic watch on her wrist. This was a gift from Xiao Chen the day before yesterday, saying that it was to thank her for carrying him on her back while riding a horse, but she knew that maybe he just wanted her to let go of the sadness brought by Adams' death and get out of the tears as soon as possible.
Seeing that Katarina was still listless, Kalanda told her what Xiao Chen had said to persuade her.
"Who said that?"
"Don't worry about it." Kalanda said, "Just know this principle."
"It must be Xiao Chen who said that, right?" Catalina asked, "Although it sounds cold, he really understands Adams's thoughts."
Karanda had no choice but to nod.
"He's such a strange man." Catalina said softly to Kalanda, "After being kidnapped by those bastards last time and almost killed, he seems to have become more energetic."
Kalanda looked at her in surprise, then nodded and said, "Maybe he has figured out some things. Magicians always have many strange ideas and can see many things that we cannot see. It is not surprising that we do not understand their minds. After all, they are not the same kind of people as us."
"But he avenged Adams."
"I know that Adams treats you like his own sister." Kalanda's voice became serious, "But you are a mercenary. Remember this rule: mercenaries don't shed tears for the past. We are on the road and can only look forward. Lord Xiao killed Mais to save himself, so you don't owe him anything."
Catalina heard something from Kalanda's words. She covered the watch on her wrist and asked in a low voice: "Are you... warning me?"
"I think you should return the gift he gave you. You took him for a ride, it's just a small thing, not worthy of such a gift, not to mention the possible meaning behind this gift." Kalanda paused here, as if he was struggling to choose the right words, "When getting along with people from different worlds... you should be more careful about the way you deal with them. A powerful magician is like a whirlpool. You may be crushed to pieces if you are not careful. ... Maybe it would be better for you to stay away from him."
The green-haired girl pursed her lips tightly, unable to speak, but her hand was tightly holding the cheap watch, refusing to let go at all.