Chapter 37 | Jeromy 7

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The Maquis was a human slave rebellion started by Jeromy ten years ago and was still going long after Jeromy left for Seutaria. Officially, the Maquis was part of the Phoenix as a militia against the Guardians but Annabelle always did things her own way. Although they had a plan to get the slaves they freed out of the Elven Forest and cross the Sohao River, it led to years of waiting, and many lost faith in the Phoenix’s ability to deliver their promise.

After years of liberating slaves one by one, the Maquis numbered in the tens of thousands. Many former slaves were trained as mages by Annabelle herself. This made the Maquis the perfect force to combat the Guardians in the field and one of the strongest on Theia. However, they had to get everyone safe first. Neither Jeromy or Annabelle could ask them to fight without the assurance of their safety.

After King Walter denied them entry to Vultian land and kept the former slaves behind enemy territory, Annabelle named them the Maquis after French and Spanish resistance fighters from a war on Earth. The Phoenix has continued its search for a solution and a place to resettle the Maquis ever since.

The reunion wasn’t exactly what they imagined it would be. They were on opposite sides of two armies pointing their weapons at each other. In the middle of the Elven Forest with monsters crawling everywhere, if a fight between the two forces broke out, it would draw the dangerous monsters towards them. Annabelle Everhart, the current leader of this slave rebellion ambushed a caravan thinking it belonged to the elves. To her, flying the Association flag didn’t matter if they were collaborating with the elves.

“How’ve you been doing?” Jeromy asked, facing each other after a few years of silence.

“I have been doing great for myself, as you can see,” Annabelle answered elegantly but a bit snobby, worthy of a high noble. Her words were said in a tone as if each word carried great purpose and intention. She raised her arms to show the numbers she had.

“I must ask. Why are you here? Nolan must have informed you of my mission here.”

Jeromy’s question wasn’t well receipted, she giggled courtly with a hand raised to her mouth. “Nolan hasn’t told me much of anything for a while. Although I sense that will change soon with everything that has occurred.”

Hearing that, Jeromy couldn’t believe it and tried to get some clarity, “He must’ve known that you would react this way. Working with elves was always something you were against.”

Annabelle laughed and continued sadly, “For good reason. And although you have more reason to despise the elves, you find yourself working with them, regardless…”

“What is it you want?” Jeromy couldn’t have his men stand in these tense moments for long. So, he decided to ask straightforwardly. Seemingly agreeing, Annabelle went along with him.

“I suppose I can give you a discount if it is you, Jeromy. You can keep your supplies but we will take all your gold, sound fair?” Annabelle said smugly.

“You are robbing us, that’s the fairness you speak of,” he retorted.

“I meant fair considering your circumstances,” she said with a chuckle and arms folded. “But I must say, your caravan might as well have had a ‘please rob me’ sign on it. You must be transporting something good.”

Jeromy ordered two soldiers to get the chests from the royal stagecoach. Nerea would naturally make sure that nothing linking them to the Elven royalty was there. Annabelle stood beside Jeromy confidently as she changed the topic as they waited, “How have you been?” She asked, returning the question.

“I’m not sure. It’s been five years, a lot happened,” Jeromy answered, knowing she wanted more but he wasn’t willing to tell. Annabelle noticed this and got upset. A former slave was working with the elves? She shook her head slightly in disappointment.

“But your sense of adventure hadn’t dulled, that is why you joined the Association, was it not?” She guessed correctly and he nodded simply.

She knew him well, so she would know how this conversation would look to his men. Having seemingly idle conservation while their two armies were one trigger-pull away from disaster wasn’t the best motivator and it reflected on him as a leader. And so, Jeromy tried his best not to react to her chatter while acknowledging her.

Annabelle didn’t have this problem because of her well-known eccentric attitude and Jeromy’s familiar face. As Jeromy looked at the opposing army, he recognized a few faces and they exchanged some apologetic looks. They both knew there was no escaping this. Unless they talked their way out, it would pain Jeromy greatly to see his friends kill each other.

Thankfully, his soldiers were finally here with the coin chests. They weren’t very large, but they were heavy.

“Ah! Now, what do you have for me?” Annabelle said while rubbing her hands together. She opened the two chests and found it brimming with Elven, Imperial, and Association coins. All of it stuffed into two decorative chests. “Yes, this is satisfactory. But it’s still missing something.”

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“What’s missing?” Jeromy asked nervously.

“My men didn’t risk their lives today to break even. How about you give me some of your blood too?” Annabelle said seductively as she leaned further into Jeromy, towards his neck. He pulled her off with little resistance.

“Your breath, it smells like blood,” Jeromy said while still holding on her shoulders. Looking over at Selina who had her bow drawn was almost seen adjusting her aim towards him after witnessing their display.

“Of course, there is no easy ability to obtain Rose Milk here so I had to consume human blood occasionally, and quite ironically, I might add,” Annabelle said with a heavy heart and then went straight back to being suggestive. She grasped his arm firmly as she drew closer. “I’ve always liked the taste of your blood the most. You’ve heard about a vampire’s desires.”

It has been rumored that a vampire’s blood of choice would be their fated lover’s.

“Annabelle, I…” Jeromy was cut off by one of Annabelle’s men searching the chests.

“Mistress! You need to take a look at this.” He was holding a coin with the Quin family crest on it. Crap. This was a theft prevention measure, or as he was told by a noble or two. They hid several coins with their family crest which looked almost indistinguishable to the actual coins, at least on one face. Anyone who sold the coins as a set would know from whom the coins came from.

Even if most of the family crest coins were taken out, discovering even one would be enough for suspicion. Did Selina and Nerea not take this into account, or did they missed a coin or two when inspecting it? It didn’t matter. With this revelation, Annabelle and the others realized who they were transporting. Annabelle went wide-eyed as she too realized what had to happen.

“FIRE~!” Through telepathy, Jeromy shouted for his men to fire as he himself unsheathed his sword and forcibly pushed those around him away with magic. Annabelle, however, stood her ground against Jeromy’s attack as she was pushed back. Her men tumbled to the ground.

The ‘rank and file’ mages and warriors of Grethenia and the Association finally relieved the long tension and stalemate by all firing near simultaneously.

The magic bullets hit the barrier of the enemy as they returned fire into their barrier. Spells of all elements were casted. Spells of crystallization, explosions, and fire rained onto the defenses of the two forces with an occasional hit of holy magic. The sound of the exchange overwhelmed everyone’s voice and eardrums.

Materialized mana and debris rained on the forces as their protective barriers gave out after a few seconds into the exchange. Everyone retreated to cover, still firing. The smell of blood was in the air with meat from the dead bodies blasted everywhere.

“How is it going?!” Jeromy said to Selina and Patrick and asked for a report on the evacuation of the civilians. Jeromy casted his shield spell which absorbed a lot of hits he was taking while deflecting more damaging bullets. As he was communicating, he was also using his sword for protection for blocking all he could. In a battle between casters, the one with mana at the end was the winner.

Those who he pushed quickly got up and started to shoot at him. Jeromy casted body reinforcement then which made him stronger and agiler. He leaped side to side to avoid their attacks and dug his sword into their bodies.

Jeromy quickly dispatched those in his immediate area before Annabelle clashed swords with him, pushing him back. The slight artificial incline towards the highway stopped him before knocking him to his back.

“Just a few more seconds until we clear!” Patrick yelled.

Annabelle was stronger than he was. Jeromy could tell as she pushed him away without any body-reinforcement. She was a vampire, after all. Exchanging a glance, Jeromy knew she wasn’t after his life. Her eyes were saying for him to go.

He could only give her an apologetic look as she gave him a hateful one. Jeromy and Annabelle ran back to their respective cover as the firefight was still ongoing. Nearly a minute in, the nature around them was being reduced to ruin.

The wagons in Jeromy’s caravan were being stripped bare as each blast tore through the remaining magical barriers and shielding they had. Annabelle’s forces too, the trees—as wide as they were—were being knocked down by the magic blasts. The ground and soil were nearly unrecognizable as if been hit by meteorites, the ground was lifted and shifted. All animal and plant life seemed dead and in place of nature, a war zone appeared.

Patrick gave Jeromy some cover as he ran back. He jumped out into the open and deflected projectiles with his sword as Jeromy turned his back and ran back across the wagons. They were back behind the firing line as the last of the surviving civilians were evacuated.

“Fall back!” Jeromy ordered everyone. “Go!” He shouted for Selina and Patrick to go ahead of him to give the civilians more cover as the line fired their final shots. His army finally broke formation and ran into the forest. Back on the other side, Annabelle was planning her next move.

“Mistress! They’re retreating, should we pursue?” One of her lieutenants asked. Many of their friends died today but considering Jeromy’s protective nature, he probably went easy on them. She made her decision as she saw the flesh and limbs sprayed on her side and Jeromy’s.

“No, tell the guys to stay here and gather what’s left from the caravan and tell the artillery to fire,” Annabelle said coldly. She didn’t know if Jeromy would survive the volley, but if he did she would consider them even. As she was thinking that, explosions from the highway were heard. The decimated wagons exploded one by one and created an extra obstacle for their escape.

The sound resonated further into the forest and reminded her that they needed to evacuate too before the monsters surround them. With all the dead, in the end, all they got were two chests of coins. She held back wanting to rain another volley at them.

A dozen cannons fired into the air at a high ascent. The airstream it created showed Jeromy’s forces what was coming as the rounds lost their upward velocity and began their descent. They then separated into dozens of tinier bombs, fanning out and threatened to light their whole area on fire.

“Everyone! Shoot down those bombs!” Jeromy ordered his men, this included the elves. All the soldiers aimed their rifles upwards and fired as the civilians fell to the ground for cover under their protectors.

Their magic bullets had spells that had a wide effect area. They were able to detonate a large number of bombs in midair. But they realized that not all of the bombs were going to be triggered in time. Round after round, they soon needed to reload. Selina tried her best with her arrows but there were too many.

Jeromy was catching up to them when he saw Patrick put down his empty rifle and drew his sword. Patrick casted a spell as he drew his sword and launched a projectile at the bomb in front of him. He tried to shield himself but it was too late. The bomb exploded just above him, covering Patrick and the people on the ground ablaze.