Ashley, Wen, and Kairu directly went into the center of the camp. They killed whoever was in their path and looked for the leader of the mercenary. It did not take that long for the leader of the mercenary to show up after such a commotion.

“Which group dares to mess with us?” The leader of the mercenary thought it was another group of mercenaries attacking them. Even though the mercenaries were hired by the same employer, they were from a different group. The Federation of Allurion gave the Polar Guild not the best of mercenaries.

Three men came out of the biggest camp, shirtless. One with a battle ax, one with a big saber, and the third one with dual-wielding spears.

“They are all Primordial Rank,” Ashley was the first one to identify the three men, “One for each of us.”

Wen flew toward the one with the battle ax. The mercenary did not expect that his enemy was a beastmen and was swept by Wen, bringing the mercenary to a different spot. Kairu made a big leap toward the one with the dual wield. A single punch of him, sent the man flying backward. The Flaming Lion immediately gave chase to the flying figure, leaving Ashley and the leading mercenary with the battle ax.

“You are from the Tang Empire!” The mercenary with the battle ax brightened, “It’s time to cash out.” He took the initiative and rushed toward Ashley, swinging his battle ax downward.

Ashley’s class was also a knight, but different from Zhang Mengyao. She only used a two-handed sword with no shield. Instead of avoiding the incoming battle ax, she swung her sword upward.

Clang!

She easily pushed the mercenary away with a single clash, proving her superiority in Strength attributes. While the mercenary was still in the air, Ashley leaped toward the flying figure. Her sword burst out in fire as she brought it up. Then she brought her sword down toward the mercenary.

The latter reacted by bringing an amulet from his inventory. He broke the amulet, creating the green barrier to resist the incoming attack. The barrier and the sword met.

BOOM!

The strike sent the mercenary down to the ground, leaving a trail of fire behind. Then the fire exploded once more, engulfing the barrier. Ashley did not stop there as she pointed her sword toward where the mercenary landed. She thrust the burning sword at where he landed.

From the ground, the ground cracked and split up in one direction. Then fire burst out from the crack, catching some mercenaries who tried to help.

A figure in flame dashed from the explosion. He was the leading figure of the mercenary. He no longer looked the same with the transformation. His height was a little over three meters, his skin turned green, and with two pairs of tusks grew on his mouth. Not just his frame, but the battle ax also grew longer and bigger, adjusting to the size of his transformation.

Roar!

The mercenary let out a roar as the fire on his body was extinguished. His eyes turned red while his nose released smoke, and his chest heaved up and down, looking at the blazing fire.

A figure walked out of the blazing fire, unscathed. The fire did nothing to her, and there was no mark on her armor. Ashley was holding the sword on her right, walking out of the fire with a calm expression. She remained unfazed in front of the mercenary’s transformation.

The mercenary leader was about to charge at Ashley once more, but a scream rang from the outer camp. Following the scream, fire blazed up to the sky, creating a firewall. The fire surrounded the camp, cutting their escape routes.

Ashley looked at the firewall with a frown, but she glanced at the fire she created behind her. Liang Suyin was not supposed to fight right now because she might alert the remaining two camps, but then she realized that she was the reason why Liang Suyin joined the fight. The remaining two camps might have noticed her fire already, so Liang Suyin joined the fight to end the fight faster.

“There’s no need to hold back anymore then,” She muttered by herself before yelling for Kairu and Wen, “Finish your fight fast!”

Ashley lowered her stance, holding her sword with both hands and put the sword at the head’s level. She pulled her sword slightly backward. The mercenary leader noticed Ashley’s new stance, and he roared once more. Following the roar, his aura got stronger. That was one of the skills that increased his attributes. And then he raised his battle ax. The blade was glowing blue, making static flat noise at the same time.

Ashley kicked the ground, leaving her deep footprint behind while her body lurched forward. She put the blazing sword forward, and the fire engulfed her. The fire spread out and formed the shape of a big sword. Seven meters seven-meter-long fire sword formed with her body as the center.

The mercenary leader anticipated the attack and swung his battle ax downward, meeting at the tip of seven-meter fire swords. The fierce wind broke out at the clash. The wind tried to sweep the fire away, but the fire was just too strong. Instead, the fire engulfed the win, creating a firestorm in the middle of the camp. The firestorm burned the unprepared, catching the other mercenaries off guard.

Ashley was at the center of the firestorm, surprised that the mercenary leader was still alive. She thought that should be enough to kill him, but she realized she was still lacking to kill someone of the same rank with one strike.

The mercenary leader was on his knee with his right hand on the chest, holding the burning chest. He could feel the raging fire inside his body, heating up his organs and blood. His green skin started to turn red, “I surrender!” The mercenary looked up at Ashley, throwing his battle ax away.

“Surrender? Do you want me to kill you?” She raised her right eyebrow.

“No! I surrender, give up. You can take me as your prisoner!” The mercenary leader raised his voice, but that just made his condition worse.

“Then what? You have no use for us but resources for us to level up. We don’t accept prisoners!”

“You are violating the war principle! You can’t kill someone who surrendered!” The mercenary panicked and shouted with his eyes widened. His expression said that he was in pain.

“War principle? What’s that?” Ashley let out a chuckle, “You are the one who attacked the Tang Empire’s territory first, and you are whining about war principle? This is quite funny,” After saying that, Ashley’s smile disappeared. Her expression turned solemn, “I don’t have time to waste on useless talk with you.” Her figure disappeared and appeared again next to the mercenary leader. She cut his head without hesitation. The head flew up as the blood spurted out. However, the blood evaporated before it could get to Ashley’s white armor.

The wind stopped with the mercenary leader’s death, and she pulled off the fire. The firestorm disappeared the following second after the mercenary’s leader’s death. She looked around and noticed that her knights were hunting the mercenary who was still alive. She looked at the dead body in front of her for a moment before storing the body in her inventory. That was one of Zhang Mengyao’s commands for them, collect the body if it was Ancient Rank and above. Only a few understood the command, and she was one of the few people who understood the command. The dead bodies were resources for Tang Shaoyang.

Ashley waited for another minute for the clean-up. Wen and Kairu returned exactly a minute after her fight ended. She glanced at the duo and asked, “What took you so long?”

“We are fighting a stronger opponent than yours. Of course, it took more time to finish him,” Kairu was the only one who did not want to lose out while Wen just shook his head. Ashley just smirked at the Flaming Lion, but said nothing to the remark, “What about the bodies? Don’t forget to get the body!” 𝚘𝓥𝑙xt.𝒸𝚘𝓜

“Ah, I forgot about that,” Kairu dashed away to where he killed his opponent while Wen nodded at Ashley. Not long after Kairu left, Li Na, Liang Suyin, and Delia came to the center of the camp. Delia walked between the corpses with a frown and an unpleasant expression. The youngest was not used to the scene as this was the first time she was involved in a fight.

“The remaining two camps must notice that they are under attack. There’s a chance they will regroup together,” Ashley glanced at Li Na, “Can you check their location again? Are they moving out together or are they still in the same location?”

The fight between her and one of the mercenary leaders made too much of a commotion. Even though the distance between one camp to another was quite far, it was too big to be ignored.

“They are joining as a group right now, and it will be hard for us to ambush them,” Li Na saw one of the camps was empty. They gathered in one camp, arming themselves up. They were prepared for the attack.

“I guess it will take us more time to take them down,” Ashley was confident that Abaka’s data was correct that the highest rank was Primordial Rank. And they also had the numerical advantage with just two remaining camps. Both camps combined were still less than four hundred people, “But we can eliminate them at the same time.”