Badge in Azure

Hogina’s naivete was not a disguise. Having followed Imposa at a very young age, there was no one to teach her how to get along with others. Hogina’s talents, intellect, and perseverance were all spent on alchemy. Being able to apologize like she did when talking to a skeleton was already an achievement that took her several months in the past to train.

“Hmph…” The winged skeleton only snuffed lightly to express his irritation, before taking out his weapon.

“Mr. Bones?!” Hogina was frightened.

“Enemies ahead.” Hogina caught Saleen’s voice, and he went on to hand several scrolls to her. They were all grade-6 and grade-7 scrolls. Saleen no longer had any use for them, but they would prove useful to Hogina.

Saleen then took out a magic staff and stuffed it into Hogina’s hands. It was something that Saleen had used himself before. Saleen rarely used magic staffs even since the very beginning. That staff stored two grade-7 spells and was meant to for contingencies. With Saleen being a grade-9 sorcerer, so grade-7 spells were a piece of cake to him.

“Soldier, stay your hand and let Hogina try it out for the moment.” Saleen was able to see clearly in the clouds that there was a huge flying magic beast somewhere faraway. There were three people riding on the backs of the beast.

The flying magic beast had huge scales and a wingspan of more than 20 yards. Scales stood up on the beast’s back, and there was a wooden platform on the scales meant for carrying personnel. The platform was barricaded with fences half the height of adults. One of the people sitting inside had an alchemy crossbow in their hand, the other had alchemy binoculars, and yet another one was holding scrolls.

Saleen’s Elemental Eye proved very useful. The scroll seen was a divine spell scroll, and he knew right away that those three were men from the Holy See. The place they were was the mountain regions southeast of Daliang City. What were the Holy See people watching?

Saleen did not recall having anything nearby. When Daliang City was built, the area within several hundred miles was searched. There were definitely no ruins within the mountains, and there was no temple of the goddess to be found either.

The giant beast also looked familiar, looking like the false dragons that Cloudflow people liked using. The false dragons were mutated creatures created by splicing the genetic materials of several magic beasts. They were creatures capable of flight and carrying personnel. They were also capable of attacking from above, like the metal flyers.

Despite the false dragon’s strengths, there was little space on them. Cloudflow people would usually arranged for mages to be on them, to serve as replacements for the magic fire shells used on Saleen’s metal flyers.

That false dragon was one meant to carry three, a standard version used for aerial scouting. Lex had introduced such types of troops to Saleen before. No false dragons were used in the assault of Daliang City prior, but Saleen knew of them, and had watched magic images of them.

False dragons had thick limbs, long bodies, and a head with a hard plate on it instead of horns, serving as a large shield itself. False dragons were apparently incapable of dragon’s breath. Long tusks were grown from their mouths, which could use the equivalent to the force of siege hammer when ramming.

Hogina put away the scrolls Saleen gave her like some precious artifacts, and she did not even use the staff. She took out a weird-looking equipment from her spatial equipment. Saleen took a look and found it to have a structure of a miniaturized magic cannon. It had a long barrel, but way thinner, and it was only a yard long.

The exterior of the equipment was all metal, with six very thin tubes at the front end, and the diameter was not even as thick as a person’s wrist. Hogina held it in her hand and activated the magic array at the rear end. Six stone cones shot out of the six tubes at the front.

The six stone cones were hollowed and filled with metal, forming strange-looking magic arrays.

Hogina’s alchemic equipment caught Saleen’s eye immediately. That equipment’s power was far inferior to the large magic cannon of his, and the speed at which the six stone cones were shot at and the range they were able to achieve, was something that a piece of equipment of such a size would not be able to reach. Hogina had only used a grade-6 magic array to shoot the six stone cones and had them flying at the flying beast five miles away.

She apparently knew what the range of her weapon was capable of. As Saleen cleared out the blockage of the Quickcloud spell, Hogina became capable of seeing what was outside. It was only then that Saleen found that Hogina’s sight abilities were far beyond what her level would have suggested.

“Five miles? Grade-9 sorcerers would be able to see about ten miles when using skills.” Hogina was no sorcerer; she was only a grade-6 grand mage.

Saleen was sweating thinking about what she was capable of. The cannon was simply way more powerful than an alchemy crossbow. Of course, large scale alchemy crossbows would have packed more power, but common ones would hardly have been able to shoot more than a mile.

The false dragon roared furiously, chasing after the Holy See scout that was sent flying by the shots, diving downward. It had probably run amok smelling blood. The false dragon apparently did not have much intelligence to speak of. Instead of going for the enemy, it went after the injured one that it had been carrying.

Hogina stowed her equipment away. A green piece of glass in one eye disappeared in a shimmer, turning back to how it was normally. She did not like modifying her body, but as she had bad sight since youth, she made herself a pair of glasses nonetheless. The pair was one that was able to be put in front of the eyes and stowed away quickly when needed. It required only a bit of mental power to be used.

Saleen was unable to ask Hogina what they were in that moment. He increased their flight speed and made for the false dragon. The false dragon was a grade-4 or grade-5 creature. One made by Cloudflow would have been only grade-6 at most.

If they were actually capable of creating high-level magic beasts, Cloudflow armies on land would not have been as bad as they were known to be. Saleen did not want all three of the Holy See scouts be eaten by the false dragon. There were leads to be found from them after all.

Saleen did not know when the Holy See scouts began appearing there but given that where they were was east of Daliang City, having Holy See people around would undoubtedly be bad news.

Saleen’s speed at covering the five miles had surpassed any kind of flying magic beasts, reaching a terrifying 400 miles per hour. If Saleen did not put up the Water Shield at such a speed. Ramming into anything would have dire consequences such as severe injuries, or instant death.

Saleen was able to catch up to the false dragon with his cloud within little more than a minute. The false dragon caught the three fallen scouts with its claws. There was nothing the scouts could do to resist. While the beast’s level was only grade-4, the defense provided by its scales was easily beyond that of a grade-6 magic beast.

Such beasts were expensive commodities in Cloudflow. If they had been able to keep them in large numbers, at least a squadron of them would have been seen at the battle at Daliang City way back.

Saleen saw the false dragon opening its mouth wide when he reached the sky above them, eating the scout holding an alchemy crossbow. The crossbow was already falling to the ground below. There was a large hole on the scout’s body, as the sturdy armor proved incapable of stopping the stone cones’ impact.

Hogina turned to look at Saleen, and he replied by shaking his head. The winged skeleton flew out of the clouds and went straight for the head of the false dragon. A long, thin, black thorn appeared in their hand, which was stabbed into the skull of the false dragon, going straight for its brain.

The winged skeleton was more powerful than the false dragon. The toughest piece of bone in the body of the false dragon fell short of being able to stop the winged skeleton’s death magic. After the thorn was inserted into the false dragon’s brain, it was turned into black fog, and Soldier began to consume the soul of the false dragon.

The soul of the false dragon was special, and it felt like soul shards, which meant it was unstable. The grade-9 death spell, Soul-steal, crumbled the false dragon’s soul, turning it into soul fire in the matter of seconds.

The body of the false dragon fell to ground quickly. The winged skeleton flipped and dropped down from the top of the creature’s head, taking hold of the scout holding the alchemy binoculars. The winged skeleton did not have any room to spare for the one holding the divine spell scroll however, as that one had half of their body destroyed by the stone cones. While that scout was still alive, they suffered a severed spine and had a big hole in their abdomen. They would not live for long.

The winged skeleton’s current power surpassed the three kings in the beginning. Turning a grade-4 magic beast into a spirit was a piece of cake to them. The huge false dragon dropped onto the mountain below with a loud thump, breaking a myriad of things within it.

Its body continued to roll down the mountain, breaking many trees as it went.

Saleen took Hogina and landed. The winged skeleton dragged the remaining scout in their hand before Saleen. His death magic stopped the scout’s bleeding and allowed them to feel no pain for the time being.

While there were healing spells in death magic, they were useful mostly to spirits. What the winged skeleton did was probably only able to delay the inevitable for the human scout.

The winged skeleton then carved a flat surface out of a green rock with the axe in his hand and put the scout who was about to die on it.

Saleen came to the scout and looked at them. They had a typical Tanggulasian look—deep eyes, tall nose, and blonde hair. The scout wore leather armor with metal plates on it, which would have proven useful against crossbow bolts. Hogina’s equipment however, carved out a hole at the scout’s abdomen regardless.

Saleen thought about how, five miles away and not touching the false dragon at all, her equipment was capable of locking down onto targets. It was pure magic equipment. The equipment was different from alchemy crossbows, which were intricately designed so that common people would be able to use them as well. The crossbows could be used by anyone who had mental powers equivalent to a magic apprentice’s.

“Who are you?” Saleen began interrogating the scout.

The scout’s pupils began to expand. They moaned and said, “Just kill me. Both my parents are in the hands of the tribunal.”

Saleen nodded. The Winged Skull blew out a breath of black smoke, and the toxin within killed the scout instantly.

Saleen knew he would have gotten nothing out of the scout, as they were concerned for their parents, Saleen did not want to use any brutal methods. The root of the problem was not far from where he was and finding answers would not be difficult.

“Soldier, go get that creature,” Saleen said pointing at the false dragon that had rolled down the mountain. The winged skeleton put his axe away and flew in the false dragon’s direction. The beast had become a spirit, which meant it could be easily mended even if every single bone in it was shattered.

Saleen took the alchemy binoculars from the body of the dead scout and looked at the lenses, finding them intact. The scout did not destroy any collected data, which meant that he could use magic to extract the information recorded by the equipment recently. While it was a rather tedious way to do it, it still proved a better choice than searching blindly everywhere. Saleen needed to get to the Golden Plains soon, and he did not have much time to spare.