Chapter 65 - Retaliation
Gerian immediately went out with excitement when he heard about the legendary mage’s visit, but halfway through, he stopped as doubt came over him. “Grimm Burnside never had any dealings with the Guild of Magic, why would he suddenly come calling?”
The mage who had passed on the message swallowed his saliva and replied with seemingly much difficulty, “Said… said he came to see Mage Felic.”
“…” Gerian stared at Lin Li with jealousy. “How did you know Grimm Burnside?”
“He attended the banquet at the Castellan Mansion a few days ago.”
“Damn! Kid, your luck is extraordinary. There are only two legendary mages in Jarrosus and you know them both…”
Gerian grunted as he walked out of the Emerald Tower. He saw Grimm Burnside standing below the stairs in his gray mage robe and quickly put on a warm smile on his face. “Welcome, welcome. The Jarrosus Guild of Magic is deeply honored by Mage Grimm’s visit to the Emerald Tower.”
“You’re too polite, President Gerian.” Old Grimm still had the gentle smile on his face. He then directed his smile at Lin Li. “Long time no see, Mage Felic.”
The three men exchanged greetings below the stairs, and Gerian solemnly escorted Old Grimm into the guild hall. For the Guild of Magic, Grimm Burnside’s visit was truly a sensational event. Even Gerian, who was usually arrogant, dared not show a slight negligence; the reception was of the highest class, enough to make the leaders of all the forces in Jarrosus red-eyed with envy.
In order to receive Grimm Burnside, Gerian had summoned all the mages in the guild; even those stationed far away in the Demon Fall Valley were to pass on their welcome message through the crystal ball in the hall. The scene was spectacular and lively, and even Grimm Burnside, who had lived for over a hundred years and regarded all things lightly, couldn’t help but like Gerian a little more.
Looking at Gerian beaming away, Lin Li was worried for the leaders of the various forces in Jarrosus in spite of himself. Gerian had deliberately made it sensational so that news of this day’s event could spread as far as possible. When the leaders of the 17 forces knew that the legendary mage had visited them, who knew how terrified they’d be…
After the impressive welcoming ceremony, Old Grimm and Lin Li went into the potion lab to continue the unfinished discussion they had had on the day of the banquet.
This time, Gerian, who always liked to be involved, did not follow them in.
He was in the guild hall, delivering a speech to all the mages.
The speech took a long time, but the content circled around a single topic—the Merlin Family and the Shadow’s Nest had joined hands!
Such were Gerian’s words: “You bunch of fellows are going to rot staying in the Emerald Tower for the whole day. From today onwards, everyone must hang around Jarrosus City. What you want to do is up to you; as long as it makes the Merlin Family uncomfortable, I will support it all. Whoever has the ability to do away with the bastard, Matthew, I will reward him with a year’s worth of profits from the Demon Fall Valley!”
The Guild of Magic had put up with Gerian as long as the number of years he had been the president. Among the mages present, who had never experienced the contemptuous looks from others? Each and every one of the 17 forces in Jarrosus City had dared to throw their weight around the Guild of Magic. And among them, the Merlin Family had demanded from the guild time and again; even someone like Cromwell had dared to come up and demand that Gerian kick Lin Li out of the guild.
No matter how wise or how calm a mage was, it was inevitable to be antagonized in face of such reality.
After so many years of tolerance, the anger accumulated in their hearts was enough to ignite the entire Emerald Tower. And with the rise of the Guild of Magic, the fury in their hearts grew day by day. When the Shadow’s Nest launched that surprise attack on the Demon Fall Valley, that fury was pushed to the peak. The Guild of Magic had been silent for these two days, but everyone knew that this was just the calm before the storm.
And now, Gerian’s words had completely ignited the Guild of Magic.
There were 36 Magic Shooters and 113 mages in the Emerald Tower, in addition to the people who were stationed in the Demon Fall Valley. The mage apprentices below level-five were numerous, and by the afternoon, nearly half of them were driven out to the city by Gerian.
A terrible chaos was caused with such a force swarming into the city of Jarrosus.
Just this afternoon, the Merlin Family’s businesses in Jarrosus City had suffered huge losses.
First, a fire was started in several industries located in the city center. Then, a few mysterious mages appeared in the casinos the Merlins ran with the Blood Brotherhood. It was obvious that the mages had come to make trouble, because they were utterly arrogant.
“Who is in charge of this casino?” The few mages demanded to see the casino’s in-charge as soon as they entered. The men from the Blood Brotherhood went out to have a look, just to see they were people from the Guild of Magic. Who in Jarrosus City would dare to provoke them now? So they fled through the backdoor, leaving behind a few men from the Merlin Family who had no choice but to face them.
“Damn it, when are you going to return us the money you borrowed?”
“What… what money?”
The man from the Merlin Family only hesitated slightly and the few fellows who were at least the level of a Magic Shooter suddenly turned hostile. This was simply worse than a beast, totally not giving the other party a chance to admit they were wrong before smashing the casino with their magic powers, then finishing it off by igniting a fire before they left to look for another target…
The most immoral of them all was undoubtedly the gang consisting of more than a dozen mages.
This bunch of fellows turned around the city but couldn’t find a place to start, so they went out of Jarrosus City, straight to the Mariana Canal. When they saw the Merlin Family’s merchant ship in the middle of the canal, their eyes flashed like a hungry beast’s seeing its prey.
Each of them downed a bottle of Sobriety Potion and a wave of spell recitation resounded.
Before people on the merchant ship could react, a monstrous blaze rose to the skies. That dozen of mages joined hands to unleash a level-eight Flaming Storm. To the people from the Merlin Family, it was like the end of the world. Countless fire dragons raged and roared, and the blazing flames devoured the huge merchant ship in a single instant.
The people on board were lucky enough to escape with a few small sampans. But the goods that were worth millions of gold coins on the merchant ship were burned to ashes by the fire…