Badge in Azure

Saleen played some tricks and killed two powerful holy masters, but he would never dare send out metal flyers anymore. The enemy definitely had ways of dealing with the metal flyers.

The constructs were expensive to make, it was not worth the price even if one downed flyer ended up killing more than a thousand enemy soldiers.

Saleen was reminded of Imposa all of a sudden. It was fortunate that Grand Duke Iron Blood refused to work with the Holy See, or the enemy would be equipped with something like that as well. Imposa’s metal flyers were capable of flying in such environments as well after all.

The metal flyers were dangerous to be around as they carried magic fire shells. Any violent collision would end up blowing the flyers up midair, killing everyone onboard.

All the remaining metal flyers no longer carried magic fire shells. They were only sent to perform patrols. Not only would doing so increase the speed the flyers could fly, but there was also no fear of violent movement causing the shells to explode onboard.

Even holy masters would have trouble catching up with the metal flyers.

Saleen was rather relieved not to see any powerful equipment around. He turned around and headed for east side of Daliang City.

There was intel coming in as soon as he reached the east side, saying that two metal flyers were shot down while one escaped. Enemies showed up at the south side of the city, and were heading for the east side.

Saleen checked the images of the alchemy binoculars at the tower and saw the image of the metal flyers crashing. There were thousands of cavalry units tagging behind huge monsters. One of the monsters shot a metal spike over a meter long from their body, shooting two metal flyers down.

The images recorded by the alchemy binoculars were rather murky. Saleen felt something was off. He called his followers and dared not use the Magical Element Tower, for both of his children were still inside the tower.

Metals flyers always flew at an altitude of about a thousand meters on scouting missions, with alchemy binoculars onboard used for observing the ground.

The spike from that monster punched a hole with a diameter of about half a meter with just one shot. The extreme limit of its range was probably five times that, which meant it had a maximum range of about 5000 meters.

The Holy See had finally fielded powerful equipment. Saleen hurried and ordered to reinforce the defenses of the turrets and magic towers.

There were actually several small forts set around the turrets, and all of the forts were equipped with magic cannons. Saleen brought two golden grand swordmasters and Sika to the ground, leaving the defense of the city to Lex.

The Winged Skull and Gusion followed Saleen down as well. Nicholas, on the other hand, remained inside the Magical Element Tower, protecting the children together with Eleanor.

At the east side of Daliang City, about a thousand demons were getting equipped within the small circle of defenses, ready to go out and fight.

Nailisi dropped by the city twice, leaving more than 10,000 demons behind, before going back to Ceylon City to handle things back there. All of those demons were specifically selected for being easy to command.

Saleen had, of course, no intentions of sitting around and waiting for enemies to come. He had the Winged Skull summon Nightmares, before taking 500 demons to sneak up on the enemy from their flank.

He had chosen not to fly, as flying in such an environment would be wasting magic chords. His speed when riding a Nightmare exceeded a grand mage after all.

The one who commanded the demons was Gusion and he was also given a Nightmare. The spirit-type creature was powerful, capable of withstanding of residual energies emanating from a golden grand swordmaster when they burst with golden sword aura.

Gusion had the war flag on his shoulder and felt very excited. He never thought he would have a chance at living life like that.

Gusion had actually felt his vigor being depleted at Daliang City, but everything changed when Saleen returned. He had 500 powerful demons behind him and two golden grand swordmasters by his side.

His power had a steady increase. If things kept going the same, it was only a matter of time before he broke into level ten!

Sika did not want one of the Winged Skull’s Nightmares, summoning a cute, black unicorn instead.

Sika’s explanation to Saleen was that Nightmares were unable to handle her power. If she needed to fight while riding, the Nightmare would fall apart.

Sika had no concerns for an ambush, as being in such an environment meant her powers were amplified many times. The pesky holy masters had no way of casting powerful divine spells.

“Saleen, relax. The cemetery might be a good place, but it’s not going to bring you anything. Do you even dare go inside? If things end up not going our way, we can just ride my soul beast and fly out of here. Not even Arbola can catch up.”

“What did you say?” Saleen doubted his ears.

“I said my soul beast can fly to very high places that even sorcerers don’t dare go to.” Sika chuckled, feeling smug.

The very reason mages like Saleen crafted equipment painstakingly using hides of thunder dragons was so that there was a lower chance of being affected by lightning when flying.

Sika’s soul beast was practically immune to lightning. When the soul beast took to the air, even lightning would circle around them.

Furthermore, the height that could be reached by the soul beast was about 10,000 meters. The air was so thin that they were unable to breathe. The peculiar energies in the air at such heights were very harmful to people.

Even a level 10 sorcerer would not be able to do much at such heights. The energies that were available to nature priests, on the other hand, were more than a hundred times more than usual.

The golden grand swordmasters felt rather embarrassed hearing Sika’s words. Having been following Saleen for a considerable amount of time, they knew how insanely powerful Sika’s strength was. The golden sword aura that they painstakingly trained to acquire might not be capable of withstanding even one hit from Sika’s staff.

What her words meant to Saleen were entirely different. He had been worried for the safety of his children, and what she told him had put him at ease. So long as the environment she found herself in was not like the cave, Sika would be able to run with her children at any time.

Those capable of catching up to Sika might not have what it took to fight her, and those capable of fighting might not have what it took to catch up to her. Saleen never knew Sika’s soul beast possessed such special abilities. He decided to look into it when he had the time.

Saleen waved his hand. “Five miles front, right in the face of the enemy, follow me.”

Saleen steered the Nightmare right. The distance between both sides got closer. Everyone felt the ground shaking even if Saleen said nothing. While the enemy forces were only 40 thousand-strong, they were all cavalry.

Saleen had shown them the image of the monster, and they felt it was a headache.

Jola and Sul were at the forefront as they did not want Saleen, a sorcerer, to risk himself. If it had not been for the fact that Saleen possessed a large number of scrolls, they would have locked him inside the city instead having him ride with them.

Smoke billowed in front of them. Saleen’s group was small enough to enable them to reach the right wing of the Tribunal forces by just turning a corner.

There was little technique to talk about when fighting a large force with a small one. Saleen evaded the punishers at the forefront and charged at the side of the cavalry.

Sul and Jola switched to their polearms: halberds that the Kingdom of Metatrin made specifically for grand swordmasters. Golden sword aura burst and the two were like a hot knife through butter, as they crashed into the right wing of the cavalry.

Saleen was reluctant to field his ancient figures just yet. He took scrolls in his hand, ready to back up his grand swordmasters. The 500 demons caught up quickly. Due to the demons being capable of moving in large steps, they were even faster than horses.

The demons were used to running whole days in the demon plane to pursue their prey. Running was not a burden to demons; it was merely warm up to get their blood boiling.

The 40 thousand-strong cavalry was packed tightly. The textbook tactic employed by the army of punishers was to charge at enemy territory using the punishers, before having the cavalry pick off the scattered enemies.

With the 40 punishers charging at the same time, there was hardly any kind of army capable of withstanding the impact. In open-field battles, the punishers’ abilities easily eclipsed the grand swordmasters’.

However, Saleen’s small force chose to instead intercept them in the middle. The holy masters tasked with alerting the other units in the ranks of the Tribunal cavalry units were unable to sense them coming. Saleen cut up the Tribunal forces of about a mile wide.

Demons were taller than the cavalry units even without being on horseback. They swung their halberd around wherever they went, sending flesh and blood scattering.

There was no way to stop charging cavalry. When the cavalry units spread out and prepared to charge again, Saleen had already dealt a crippling blow at them. The 500-strong demon army killed almost 1000 of their enemies.

Saleen saw the cavalry units spread out far away, having monsters at the forefront turn around instead of charging. By then, he knew his plan had failed. His enemies did not choose to surround them, and had instead let the monsters take the lead so to wear his forces out.

While the demons were powerful, but they were not able to content with monsters’ spike-shooting abilities. The demons’ armor was mass-produced. It was impossible to arm them with the armor Jola wore, which was specifically tailored and crafted personally by sorcerers.

Saleen had no choice but to use his scrolls, unleashing level nine earth magic spell: Crystal City.

Shiny walls over 20 meters wide and three meters tall rose from the ground. Saleen sighed. In a normal environment, that scroll, which was crafted by a level ten mage, would have been several times more powerful.

500 demons set up a line of defense at the rear, preventing the cavalry units from charging. Saleen summoned six Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers and armed them six magic cannons, having them shoot at the monsters faraway.

The punishers’ huge claws stomped on the ground. The rumble of their footsteps got near. Three of the magic cannons hit the first three punishers charging at them.

Saleen was surprised to find that the targets hit by the cannons burst with divine light. They continued to charge after staggering for a bit.

The spot hit by the magic cannons were practically charred, yet the monsters felt no pain at all. They got more than 300 meters closer in the blink of an eye.

Three cannons fired at the same time again. The punishers took the shots head on as they kept charging. Saleen was incredibly frustrated. He ordered the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers to fire three cannons at one target instead.

The distance between both sides was less than 500 meters away. At such a distance, there was only enough time for the magic cannons fire another round. Even if the shots ended up killing the monsters, it would not change much.

The Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers were fearless. The elemental powers consumed in such an environment could not be replenished. However, the Stone Statue Soldiers continued to hold still against the incoming punishers, firing three shots at a single target.

The other three Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers turned their cannons at the Tribunal cavalry on the flanks instead.

Even if they failed to kill the monsters, they would at least kill the cavalry units. Saleen intended to bail soon, but he deemed it necessary to rack up more kills before he left.