Badge in Azure

The purple-gold dragon’s weakness lay with its weak magic defense. However, due to it being a level 12 creature, it would be extremely difficult for level ten magic spells to harm it.

Saleen turned around and shot out of the water, looking westward where Alchemy City lied. The city knew that Devil’s Horn was under attack and they probably knew how the battle ended.

It was not a good thing for them. His own territory had secretly been isolating the area nearby, yet news spread.

The dragon shot out from the water as well and the Grand Duke threw the skin, bones, and magic nucleus of the crystal sea snake to Saleen, which the mage put away quickly.

The crystal sea snake was indeed a rare breed. Its transparent skin had frightening defensive properties. If he had been using spells instead of lightning icicles, not even level ten ones would be able to break through its defenses.

The assassin died mostly because the crystal sea snake died before being able to serve its intended use.

“What’s wrong?” Grand Duke Iron Blood let the dragon hover beside Saleen instead, looking in Alchemy City’s direction.

“I see the flying warship. Alchemy City sure is quick to respond.”

With the Devil’s Horn annexed by the Elemental Hand, the flying warship became theirs. With the flying warship around, it was considerably more troublesome for the Ancient to destroy the port. The Devil’s Horn would not let their land to be easily taken by Cloudflow.

If their forces were unable to make it to shore, they would have to rely on the level ten professionals to fight. Saleen estimated that he and the Grand Duke would be forced to stay on the island for days, if that were the case.

Almost 100 large puppets carried magic cannons and tore the island apart with the Iron Blood Warriors.

“They are late!” The Grand Duke flicked his dragon spear and intended to charge. He had no fear of any flying vessel with the purple-gold dragon around.

“We’ll head back for now. The flying warship is able to contact Alchemy City any time. It’s best to keep them from knowing you have a dragon,” Saleen cast a mist and shrouded the dragon.

The Grand Duke found that reasonable. The results would be very different if he summoned his dragon after getting into Alchemy City.

He sent the dragon back to the summoning space and flew back to the island with Saleen. The island’s defenses were kept intact by three ten-floor magic towers struggling to do their job. While resistance continued, none of them were able to pose any threats to the Grand Duke’s army anymore.

The magic arrays laid on the island were bombarded by the large puppets using magic cannons, and most of them were destroyed. The low level mages were unable to do much without help from magic arrays. Only sorcerers level seven and above could remain fighting.

The Grand Duke’s army was terrifying. The Iron Blood Warriors were second only to golden grand swordmasters.

The Dragon Remains Combat Vessel was summoned and the Winged Skull put the Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship away after hearing Saleen’s call, heading back as quick as possible. The wings of the Dragon Remains Combat Vessel spread and met the flying warship from the Alchemy City head on.

Powerful magic spells were cast and the enchanters on the Dragon Remains Combat Vessel cast 600 Wind Shields in order, blocking the incoming spells.

The Dragon Remains Combat Vessel had a magic net laid out, which was very useful. The Grand Duke was envious of the magic net, but he lacked enchanters, unless he became able to summon demons.

The Grand Duke being envious of Saleen’s magic net was like Saleen being envious of him being able to summon a dragon. Saleen was able to keep most of his mages back in Metatrin, putting the mages to work in the alchemy factories and letting them practice magic.

Battles were mainly taken care of by the enchanters, while mages were assigned from Metatrin City in rotation. It ensured that the alchemy factories were able to run smoothly and allowed Saleen to keep his combat capacity up.

An enchanter’s combat capacity was not much weaker than a mage’s when working under a magic net. They were even more powerful at times.

The magic net was able to formulate counter spells before battles of special properties broke out, and the enchanters only needed to sharpen their skills at the last minute to affect battle considerably.

For instance, Wind Shield was weak but capable of traveling quickly. When 600 enchanters learned Wind Shield under the magic net, the Wind Shield’s defensive properties would be enhanced by several hundred times over.

The flying warship’s attacks were ferocious, but they were blocked by such spells, forcing them to slow down.

The flying warship was inferior to the Dragon Remains Combat Vessel. It had no magic net, and there was no way to carry 600 mages onboard. They suffered a disadvantage in terms of numbers and were unable to rely on the ship’s performance.

The mages were not idiots. When the Dragon Remains Combat Vessel appeared, they knew immediately that trouble had come knocking at their doors.

The Winged Skull was in charge in the Dragon Remains Combat Vessel. The vessels traded blows from three miles away from each other, so neither was able to do much to the other.

Over a dozen figures took off from the flying warship, all golden and silver grand swordmasters. There was a red-robed mage in their midst who looked young.

Large pieces of magical equipment emerged from the bow and the flanks of the Dragon Remains Combat Vessel. They were Hogina’s Guns.

Hogina’s Guns were delicate and expensive, as they needed hundreds of components fit within a narrow space. The large Hogina’s Gun was actually weaker than magic cannons, but more powerful than alchemy crossbows.

Hogina’s Gun maintained its rate of fire despite being scaled up and needed very little maintenance in comparison to their smaller counterparts. It was all about speed. Even a rock was lethal when shot at such speeds.

Among the 18 enemies, ten of them were silver grand swordmasters. They wore full sets of magic armor and borrowed flight capabilities from it. Their combat capacity neared conventional level nine warriors.

However, the flight achievable by magic armor was inadequate in battle. Four out of the 12 huge icicles hit the silver grandmasters hard, turning the armor and person into meat pies.

Blood splattered from the crevices in the armor. The remaining 14 were horrified. The golden grand swordmasters only evaded using their senses. None of them were able to guarantee that they would be safe if they relied on sight to track the icicles’ trajectories.

Advancing did not necessarily mean that one’s combat capacity would become unbeatable. For instance, even if Sul became a true might, there was no way he would be able to fight Jola.

There were processes people needed to go through to familiarize themselves with abilities offered by one’s level. Such processes might take a little or a lot of time. Some people spent over a dozen years before they mastered their skills as golden grand swordmasters.

Jola, on the other hand, spent little more than a year to stabilize his level.

Multiple target spells were cast from the Dragon Remains Combat Vessel. Tens of thousands of Wind Blades targeted the silver grandmasters. Every enchanter cast tens of thousands Wind Blades. While the Wind Blades were not very powerful, they were still quite lethal.

Icicles and level 10 Ice Crystals were capable of penetrating metal. So long as the target was unable to defend themself, spells of any level would be able to kill them.

The Wind Blades were level seven and capable of maintaining their form for a very long time.

The red-robed mage cast territorial powers immediately. A layer of ice crystals formed around their robe, protecting them from all angles.

However, the warriors were caught in a ditch. Things were better for the golden grand swordmasters, as their speed allowed them to dispel the Wind Blades using their swords. The silver grand swordmasters were not as lucky.

The remaining six were quickly cut to pieces by the Wind Blades. There were too many Wind Blades, and their abundant elemental powers quickly dispersed the blood, casting a thin red mist.

The Wind Blades dispersed quickly in the red-robed mage’s territory. Any that managed to maintain their shape shattered when they hit the mage’s blue ice crystal armor.

Eighteen was reduced to eight in mere moments: four golden grand swordmasters, five level nine sorcerers and one red-robed mage. The red-robed mage was shocked. They knew that the attacks on the Devil’s Horn were anything but ordinary, and they were about to be wiped out.

If the mage simply pressed forth, they would probably be killed.

The red-robed mage shouted. The sorcerers and golden grand swordmasters flew backwards with him. The Dragon Remains Combat Vessel pursued them relentlessly. The Winged Skull had no fear of all of them. They had acquired very powerful life-force.

Gaine’s modifications differed from that illustrated by Saleen. The Winged Skull’s body remained that of a skeleton, yet its insides circulated with the same types of energies found in humans.

The golden heart provided power for all of that, making the Winged Skull something that seemed to be existing between spirits and humans. They became capable of training sword aura and even training to gain true might skills like a human.

They were capable of using death magic, manipulating sword aura at true might level and even craft sword spirits.

The Hogina’s Guns continued to fire, pinning the remaining eight in a certain area. Six hundred enchanters launched another round of attacks, in the form of all-engulfing Fire Balls.

They were true level nine magic spells and there were 600 of them. Thousands of magic nuclei were consumed. While all of them were mid-level, only Saleen was generous enough to spend them like that.

The magic net consumed magic nuclei at breakneck speeds in the battle. Most people were not even able to spend enough to construct magic nets to begin with.

In comparison, the fuel consumption of Hogina’s Guns and the Thunder Dragon Blaster was considerably smaller. However, both had too high of a requirement for their wielders and were prohibitively expensive to craft.

The magic net, on the other hand, enabled anyone with strong mental powers to become enchanters. The consumption all came from magic power furnaces and mid-level magic nuclei would suffice to fulfill all needs.

Boom!

Boom, boom…boom…

The sounds of the Fire Balls exploding were deafening. The entire flying warship was caught in the Fire Balls’ attack range. The warship spread its wings and took flight. Powerful elemental vibrations burst from the ship’s body. A huge shadow appeared before the flying warship, which looked like a metal angel.

Bombardment from 600 magic spells rendered the area unbearably hot for humans. Steam whipped up at the sea’s surface. The vapor disintegrated and burned for half a second before exploding.

The flying warship was thrown up by the currents. The Dragon Remains Combat Vessel accelerated and pounced, lining up with the flying warship in a bid to fight it. It actually to twist the ship around and even extended its claws to cling onto the belly of the flying warship.