Badge in Azure

The remaining holy masters were not enough to cast large scale divine spells, and the icicles continued to rain on them. They were able to do nothing but hold on, hoping the icicle attacks would stop soon.

Saleen knew that the holy masters were waiting for reinforcements, but he had nothing to be afraid of. Arbola, who was at his rear, would catch up soon enough. Pope Theisio had yet to show up, and killing just even a few more holy masters would worked well in the favor of the mages.

Jalin looked at the unique icicles that Saleen cast and felt relieved for having yielded when she was fighting Saleen. Saleen’s spell had been a level one spell, which he had upgraded to level seven and possessed offensive capacity close to level nine.

While the rule usually said that a level nine sorcerer was incapable of being killed by powers below level eight, a sorcerer would actually fall from a level one attack if they were unprotected. Saleen’s Icicle spell had covered all the powerful tricks capable of being brought about by magic: double casting, level two casting, preparations of prolonged attacks, stacking spells, upgradable magic, and magic transmutation.

All the holy masters who were shot dead by the icicles froze within while they burned on the outside. That enabled the damage potential of the spell to be brought to even greater heights. Furthermore, the spell seemed to have formed the basic structures of rules.

The holy masters were unable to do anything but resist. If Saleen had finished his attack back when he was fighting Jalin, she would have needed to cast away another mask before she was able to retaliate. Cold and hot states mixed with one another within the entire area of the attack. The icicle’s pure physical impact brought the holy masters down to the ground, scattering the formations below. The white ring of light around the holy masters had dispersed.

That was the true power of a level nine sorcerer: exploiting whatever openings there were and take full control of things from there. The remaining holy masters were not even able to leave the area where the icicles rained on them. They were able to do nothing but watch Saleen prepare one volley after another. Another thousand appeared right above the holy masters.

Jalin knew that she lost again, putting away her huge magic staff glumly.

She was not dumb and was already able to tell that Saleen’s actions were all interconnected. He let the Winged Skull summon spirits just to hit the rear of the enemy camp hard. When the enemy was surprised, they would not be able to build up truly powerful retaliations. Saleen would then use that opportunity to destroy all holy masters who came as reinforcements.

She went on to have a match against him. If it had not been for the spells that she cast being too powerful, the holy masters would not have gathered around to get tortured by Saleen’s icicles.

The area-of-effect style of casting Icicle was indeed powerful. It did not matter to Saleen if he was dealing with one enemy or a hundred enemies, but he needed to have the holy masters gathering up willingly before he was able to do so.

The most unlucky thing for the holy masters was that they lost a level nine holy master from the get go, which led to how things were. The Winged Skull acted just as Saleen had predicted, and the skeleton had probably attained powers of a spirit king.

Saleen’s ways were brutal, as he had learned one thing after fighting holy masters: just letting the holy masters extend their hands would prove disastrous to him. The black butler was capable of attacks comparable to sorcerers. The fellows who come from the Tribunal won’t be any weaker than sorcerers if their gear proves to be powerful enough.

Why are dragons so powerful? Because a dragon would breathe its most powerful breath to even kill a rabbit.

It was a joke among mages, yet the joke held true. The group of level seven holy masters were inferior in terms of powers compared to Saleen and Jalin, yet if they were to be allowed to cast a large scale divine spell and some prophecy or curse, they would succeed, and there was no way Saleen would have been able to guarantee that he could stay safe.

Even a mage as powerful as Imposa ended up falling under an ambush by Nicholas using lesser prophecy spells, and Imposa almost died at Saleen’s hands because of it. As such, it was best to keep them from being able to cast such spells.

Divine Protection was the most powerful defensive divine spells there was. The level seven holy masters kept their divine shields up painstakingly, only to find that they simply held through the first round of Saleen’s attacks. Six of them were killed and the faces of the ones remaining became pale, utterly incapable of casting offensive spells to retaliate.

Jalin stayed at the sidelines and watched. If any of them dared to try anything funny, the female sorcerer would seize the chance and kill them.

Saleen kept the holy masters pinned with two large scale Icicle spell before taking out a magic staff and casted a level nine spell: Green Blade.

It was a spell upgraded from Wind Blade, but it did not have had the effect as the Dimensional Blade’s effects and would simply evolved into Elemental Cutting if the direction of upgrades were not done right.

Saleen’s magic chords were pure water type chords. Much upgradable magic was unable to progress along the usual lines due to that. Furthermore, all magic spells stored within that magic staff were spells that he developed on his own.

Joey had given Saleen many of magic staffs, all of them crafted from god’s mulberry and ghost oak. Saleen, in turn, gave many of them to the mages of Sreeger Island, leaving very few by his side. There were no level nine sorcerers to help him out to replenish the spells, so he had to do everything on his own if the spells within the staff ran out.

The surface of the Green Blade consisted of incredibly furious wind element. The wind element vibrated and enabled the speed of the Green Blade to reach frightening speeds. Worse still, the spell was completely silent. All of the heat produced from cutting air was recycled by the spell.

An attack like that impressed Jalin. That was the pinnacle of level nine magic. Before rules were completed and manifested, the power of such attacks were incapable to brought to further heights.

The over three meter-long Green Blade swept and the divine spell known to be the most resilient was cut away. The holy masters were incapable of moving and they had no ways of casting other divine spells; all they were able to do was see themselves being bisected.

The Green Blade only dimmed after cutting up all the six remaining holy masters, no longer capable of holding its form and bursting with a violent sonic boom.

The strongest of common wind blades were capable of producing sonic booms, yet the Green Blade had even absorbed the sound of its own sonic boom, returning to the strength of common wind blades after its energy had dissipated.

Saleen’s continuous attacks were pulled off splendidly and smoothly. Complex magic felt like child’s play in his hands.

The accumulated powers in Saleen’s body were brought to bear on his enemies. His enemies back in the day had been so irresistibly powerful that he had to rely on equipment to live. His stand-off with the holy masters was, in contrast, like a tiger walking into a herd of sheep.

Saleen realized something that Jason had imparted to him that was incredibly precious.

A mage’s bearing, confidence, courage, and pride were all passed down from one generation to another. He had survived multiple dangers and ordeals, torturing himself using his family badge every day just so that he was able to scrub away the weakness in his soul. At that moment, Saleen felt that he had taken the reigns of his fate, and that he came to know himself better.

At that very moment, the Star Gathering Needle in Saleen’s Devil Ring let out a slight ding, as if it was resonating with Saleen’s thoughts.

The Star Gathering Needle had been an astrologer’s weapon and was also a special equipment that the astrologers used for training. The astrologers were people who attempted to take control of their own fates, which from a certain perspective, made them mages as well.

The level 19 Star Gathering Needle resonated with Saleen as he realized something about fate. Saleen himself did not know that his proficiency at astrology had jumped two levels, reaching the proficiency of level four.

Of course, the combat capacity of a level four astrologer was far below that of a level four mage. However, astrologers possessed a variety of powers that mages lacked, such as premonition.

Saleen did not know about the changes within him. All he knew was that he felt very refreshed. He unleashed yet another Green Blade from the staff in his hand. This time, it ended up killing the other eight holy masters. There was a white figure flying in his direction far away in the air, and quickly turned tail and ran when they saw what he just did.

Jalin might have appeared weak, but her desire to prevail over others was stronger than most. She immediately went after the holy master who had fled. Saleen was unable to call her back in time, and had no choice but to put the staff away and take out his golden magic book, chasing after her.

Saleen realized one thing: the ring in his hand was capable of providing mental powers to him. He surprisingly did not exhaust much of his mental powers despite having repeatedly cast complex magic.

The ring that he had traded the mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake for with Arbola was something that he had no idea of how to use. Arbola did not bother telling him either. Saleen knew there was a seal on the ring and yet he did not attempt to undo it using the Star Gathering Needle. The seal was something that Arbola put it on herself. If he were to undo it, he might as well tell Arbola and would have earned the ire of all mages.

Arbola’s seal was something that would have unravel in time, so long as he fulfilled his role as bait. That was part of the deal, and Saleen had no intentions of breaking it. But still, the ring with a seal on it managed to surprise Saleen.

He had many skills, but he dared not use them often due precisely to not having adequate mental powers.

For example, the Eye of Lightning. It would not have cost him much in magic chords, but it came with hefty mental power requirements. If Saleen was to attack using lightning attacks in full power, it would be something that would have exceeded even a level ten sorcerer’s tolerance, and he would have been rendered a cripple after doing so, requiring him to recuperate for a long time. The ring, despite not having been unsealed yet, had already been able to provide enormous help in mental powers. I wonder what would happen if the seal on it gets undone.

Saleen returned his mind to the task at hand. He was afraid of Jalin going too far after the holy master. He cranked up to his maximum flight speed with the help of two Tempest Dragonmights, catching up to Jalin in mere moments.

The holy master who was running away flew farther and farther away. Saleen was surprised to find that while Jalin’s way and speed of moving on the ground had been very terrifying, she was considerably slower in the air.

Jalin dropped to the ground glumly as if she knew what Saleen was thinking. She accelerated forward when she was less than a hundred meters from the ground, as if she was able to spring hundreds of meters forward simply by taking one step on the ground.

Saleen had his Elemental Eye fully opened and seemed to be able to understand what she did. Jalin was using the power of the earth itself.

There were acceleration skills in magic of all six major elements, but it was the first Saleen saw someone using the power of earth element when they were in flight. There seemed to be some limitations to Jalin’s skill, but if she was able to advance to level ten, the process would probably be much easier.

Every mage has something they were deemed a genius in after all!

Saleen recalled a saying. No one had been able to found such a technique for the past 10,000 years. Regardless if it was Jalin or Arbola who had researched and developed the skill, Saleen was impressed.

Jalin did not know that her leap had just opened up Saleen’s mind, giving way to even more terrifying magic, a flying skill that had never been seen before.