Luphen could see that he wasn't going to be able to fool Larwood, and the smile on his face faded as he put on a serious expression. "Alright, then how about thith? I'll give you 10,000 Loonieth. In exthchange, all you have to do ith exthit thith battle and let uth go. What do you think of that?"

"I don't think that's a very sincere offer, either. Why would I accept only 10,000 Loonies from you now when we can just take everything you have after we wipe out your entire mercenary legion?" Larwood said in a cold voice.

"I'd advithe you not to push me any further than thith! You're only a tiny merthenary legion of a few hundred people, there'th no guarantee that you'll be able to take all of uth down," Luphen spat through gritted teeth.

"Alright, if you don't want to negotiate any further, then let's not waste any more time here. We'll let our blades decide the outcome rather than our words," Larwood said in a decisive voice as he flicked Luphen's whip aside with a sweep of his sword before retreating a few steps.

Luphen was furious, but he had no choice but to conform. He knew that he was at a disadvantage here, so there was nothing he could do in this situation aside from to try and appease Larwood. With that in mind, he asked in a resentful voice,...