Badge in Azure

Wild Bear walked up to Saleen’s side. He did not have much reverence for mages, so he sat down very close to Saleen.

“I know you.” Wild Bear laughed lightly.

“I know you too.” Saleen laughed too. Wild Bear looked very approachable. Such a huge body, besides his terrifying muscles, he was a nice person to talk to. As long as you did not compete your strength with him.

“Your female bodyguard, I feel like competing with her again.” Wild Bear said solemnly.

“Oh? There’s no need to. You improved a lot, but you are still not her match.” Saleen did not beat around the bush, Sika was rewarded some powers of a warrior priestess. To a mage, it might not be powerful, but mental attacks might not be weaker to a mage. Even with the purest strength, Sika would be able to suppress Wild Bear.

If the two of them competed in fighting, with Sika’s one mental attack, she could flip the strong man with ease even without a weapon.

“Huh?” Wild Bear was a little disappointed. He never felt that Saleen was lying to him. The Viscountess told him the mage Saleen was someone trustworthy.

“Let’s not compare among ourselves. There will be a surprise attack tonight. If you want to compete, see who wipes out more people.”

“You think so too? I feel uneasy, I think that there will be danger.” What Wild Bear said shocked Saleen. This person who only trained his sword aura for a few years had developed telepathy like a swordsmaster had.

That was an extremely sensitive intuition towards danger, Wild Bear could not analyze and judge. He could predict that there would be something happening that night though.

To people that has such power, judgement could be wrong sometimes, but intuition would not be wrong. It was said that when one reached the level of Golden Grand Swordmaster, even during battle, one could avoid vital danger.

It was equal to a mage using the Figaro formula to calculate, but a thousand times that in speed. Such ability was what mages were envious of too.

Saleen absorbed the power from the Goddess Necklace and he could calculate many types of danger, but it was definitely much slower than intuition. During battle, he could only calculate by aiming at subjects.

Such calculation expensed quite a lot of mental power. A normal grand mage would need to meditate for a while before he could recover after one calculation.

Wild Bear’s mental power must be very special. If he did not learn sword craft, but practiced magic, he definitely would have great achievements. Fate was something strange. No matter how great a person’s talent was, without any opportunity, they would just lived their life and did not achieve anything. If he did not run into Lex and the group, Wild Bear would still be in Holy Rock City as a graceless chef.

He was still a chef, but his rank was different. With Lex backing him up and hiring a teacher to teach him sword craft.

“Mister Saleen, hold on.” Wild Bear suddenly stood and turned to the carriage to get his other weapon. He left it on the floor and sat down next to Saleen again.

It was an extremely long longsword. The blade itself was about three meters long. Even a person who was two meters tall like Wild Bear holding it in his hand looked awkward.

“Single edged cut horse sword!” Saleen saw the long black sword and recognized the weapon.

The Fourth Dynasty once had an army of a hundred soldiers and everyone of them held a single edged cut horse sword. These hundred soldiers were specialized in breaking a strong cavalry’s assault. No matter how strong the cavalry was, a hundred brawny warriors holding a single edged cut horse sword standing there could easily block and shatter the cavalry’s attack.

Saleen was surprised because the single edged cut horse sword was an ancient item and it was definitely left behind by the Fourth Dynasty.

The weapon weighed about five-hundred pounds and a common person could not even hold it up, let alone wave it around to kill enemies. That was a weapon made of Fallenstar. It was made with secret silver in order to lower the weight.

Wild Bear brought along the weapons and put it by his side, even Saleen felt his mind at rest. No matter what kind of metal or magic shield the enemy was using, before the single edged cut horse sword, they were all joke. A single edged cut horse sword only had one natural attribute, which was to tear. Wild Bear had yet to become a swords master, but he was born with a special power. With such a strong weapon, Saleen reckoned, any magic shield below sorcerer level could be splittered with one charge.

Lex was the luxurious one. If Saleen were to get such a weapon, he would definitely melt it and remake it into other weapons. Fallenstar melted together with any kind of siderite could be made into weapons with the same effects.

He did not know how many weapons Lex had. If she had all hundred of them, it would be a great trick to fight against the cavalry.

The Qin Empire had the heavy blade of a long spear, a heavy infantryman weapons used for attacking cavalry. The heavy blade was only made of steel. There was no magic effect. The value was vastly weaker than single edged cut horse sword.

“Mister Saleen, your skeleton horses, can you give one to me?” Wild Bear chuckled in embarrassment. To ask for this was something embarrassing.

“You mean the skeleton warhorses? Those are the spirits of the dead. You are not a death mage, and you are also not a mage. Even if I give one to you, the skeleton war horse would lose its life very quickly.”

Wild Bear sighed sadly and said, ” You don’t know, the sword is even heavier than my hammer. If I were to hold it, I could only walk on my feet, the warhorses would be squashed.”

Among the troop, only Wild Bear was riding on a magic beast. His batter hammer was about a hundred pounds, which was a big burden to a warhorse. A normal warhorse could carry a four-hundred pound load. It could be a considered as a kind of magic beast, its bloodline had a strong power. If it was an inferior horse, it could never bear the cavalry’s power.

Wild Bear’s singled edge cut horse sword itself was about five-hundred pounds and he was about three-hundred pounds. This was under the circumstance of him not wearing armor. If Wild Bear were to be fully armed, he could possibly weigh a thousand pounds. Even if it was a skeleton warhorse, carrying him would be tough too.

“Wild Bear, wait until we return to Metatrin City, I will figure out a way for you. I have no death mage with me now.”

Wild Bear could only sigh. He had not been to Metatrin City for long, but he knew Daniel. He saw Daniel riding on a grade-8 death creature and he was envious of him.

He did not know that a grade-8 death creature would not let him ride on it. If he dared to touch the pikoosi, the pikoosi would burn his soul.

Not everyone could sign a contract with a spirit of the dead. Wild Bear’s mental strength was strong, but he did not have finesse at all when using it. He was definitely not a match for a high level spirit of the dead.

Saleen was not tired, so he sat at the entrance of the campsite and chatted with Wild Bear. Lex did not appoint anyone as sentry. It was quiet in the wild, as thought there were only two of them. Under the starlight, the earth seemed a little pale.

Saleen finally understood what took Lex so long when she returned. She moved all her resources, bought large amounts of food, and expanded her army. Bitter Water Prefecture incorporated twelve cities in its surrounding and expanded its domain by dozens fold. Relying on her twenty thousand swordsmen, Lex brought the nobles around under control very quickly and incorporated their soldiers.

Now that Bitter Water Prefecture had increase the size of her swordsmen’s camp to six, the one camp that she brought along was the oldest one. They were all swordsmen that had been following her for many years.

Before the Great Chanake died, he already confirmed the scale of Bitter Water Prefecture. Although Lex used military force, it was permitted by law. What made Safilos pissed was, the Great Chanake allowed Lex to expand her army to ten swordsman camps and join the war in Kroraina.

There was a secret pathway from Bitter Water Prefecture to Kroraina, they were all mountain roads. A big army would not be able to pass through the small road, but Lex could send a troop of two-hundred people to penetrate and train her troops repetitively.

Winning over the nearby nobles, the people under Lex’s management were more than a few million. The scale of a prefecture was taking shape. She expropriated the manors of the nobles that she won against and redistributed them accompanied with new titles of nobility.

The millions of people definitely could not feed an army of ten thousand people. Then, the nation would collapse. Luckily the newly formed four swordsmen’s camps would not be considered elite and their expenses would be much less. Lex moved one of the elite swordsmen’s camps to Metatrin city, to share the burden.

Saleen had to fork out money to support them too.

“If so, Lex had no money?”

“It’s not like she had no money. I heard it’s called malfunction of capital turnover. The county king could still sell off her asset for money.”

“Oh I see.” Saleen finally understood Lex was in a predicament. The expandsion of her army was so fast. No matter how little she invest in it, it would be a very big pressure. Every month’s pay and provisions were at least one gold coin for each soldier, that was not inclusive of investments in equipment. Now that Lex had six swordsmen’s camps, every month’s pay and provisions for the army would exceed ten-thousand gold coins, the officers’ pay was higher after all.

Lex plundered a batch of weapons and armor in Wolf Fang Town. It helped with the problem of lacking of equipment, but the soldiers had to eat. Their pay and daily consumption of food was not something replaceable by other items.

No wonder Lex wanted to produce alcohol. Regardless of the type of alcohol, once there was business, they had to pay heavy taxes.

“Here they come!” Wild Bear pointed at the end of the horizon. Even if he did not speak, Saleen could hear the uncovered clatter of horses’ hoofs.

“Heavy cavalry? The robber was linked up with nobles as expected.”

“Humph!”

Saleen snorted and looked upon the sky. There was a black dot floating in the air, that was the flying puppet. It was flying too high up and he had not noticed it. Such height was the limit of a flying puppet. If the weather was slightly worse, the flying puppet would be destroyed.

It was a pity that he did not have a crossbow, Saleen’s magic would not be able to reach a thousand meters.

At first, Saleen thought there would be people that seized the night to launch a surprise attack. He never thought that the other party wanted to meet force with force. It seemed that the robbers were very confident in their ability!

They were really a bunch of silly people. Facing eight grand mages, they deployed a heavy cavalry for attack. What was the difference between that and asking for death?

Heavy cavalry was an occupation that burns money. Lex only had two regiments of heavy cavalry.

Wild Bear stood up and shouted behind his back, “Wake up and fight! Those bastards are coming!”