Badge in Azure

The metal bridge vibrated violently, people had been defending the Stone Statue Castle from the opposite bank, but they had long escaped. No one wanted to die defending it. There was another metal chain at the south bank of the river that was blocking the chariots and horses though.

The metal chain was strong, but if Saleen were to use his current cutter, it would definitely be chopped apart within half a minute. The Metal Titan was destroying the bridge at the back and he had no idea when the bridge was going to crumble. By then, everyone would fall into the water and only some would survive. This Chishui River was a natural barrier and the currents were rapid. Mages were not afraid of it, but the warriors who fell into it with their metal armor were bound to die.

Besides that, Saleen did not want his magic chariot to end up in the water. If it did, fixing it would be another huge expense. Even though it Would kill Bifano’s soldiers at the same time, it was not worth it.

“Sika, go with Jola to cut the chains.”

Saleen still did not allow Nailisi to do anything, her dragon tooth dagger had a freezing effect and was unusually sharp, cutting the metal chain would not be a problem. Saleen was already determined to kill Bifano and he wanted to conceal Nailisi’s powers, only then could he have an unexpected effect.

Bifano and those around him had not seen through Nailisi’s facade and had only taken her as Saleen’s maidservant.

Sika had found it boring and since reaching the castle, she had wanted to join in the battle, but was stopped by Saleen.

“Alright.” Sika took out her boomerang and jumped out of the chariot, jumping directly onto Jola’s war horse. She pinned her legs onto both sides of the horse’s ass without moving her upper body at all. Jola kicked hard on the stomach of the war horse as it charged forward, Tears was condensing the sword aura again.

Sika squinted as the boomerang in her hands shone with a black color before flying out of her hand.

With a whirring noise, the metal chain was cut into five pieces by Sika’s boomerang, leaving one behind that was barely the size of a finger. Jola’s sword aura flew out and struck accurately at the gap that Sika had caused. He bent his body and grabbed hold of the metal chain that had broken, throwing it off the bridge with all his might.

This series of action was incredibly fluid and the two of them seemed to have practiced this many times. Bifano’s soldiers applauded as they forgot about the huge trouble behind them.

Jola was a little smug, since becoming a white grand swordmaster, his sword aura could attack from a distance. Earlier on, he managed to accurately strike the gap in the metal chain in such a short time, that was an ability outside of his swordsmanship. It was the technique of a grand swordmaster controlling the sword aura with his focus. Such a technique would allow a grand swordmaster to deal with a mage when trained to perfection.

Sika casually grabbed back the returning boomerang and Jola was immediately listless. Sika managed to cut the metal chains just by using her powers and the sharpness of her weapon. She could even calculate the angle which the boomerang would return, this skill was much harder than his technique.

A group of men and horses rushed down the metal bridge, it was already close to crumbling.

“Master Jola, good job!” The soldiers slowed down and showed their respect to Jola. They did not see the difficulty of what Sika had just done, but Jola looked suave with the silver sword aura shooting out. The noise from the explosion reached up to the clouds.

“Continue pushing forward!” Bifano shouted at his soldiers loudly, even though the Metal Titan was attracted by the metal bridge, no one knew when it would go crazy again and chase after his team. His sight was much better than his soldiers and he had seen Sika’s attack clearly, this made him wary. The Cascausus warrior’s weapon was so eerie. With the black light, one could not tell what powers it had.

If that crescent shaped weapon were to attack him, would his armor that had been passed down generations be able to defend against it?

Bifano looked at Sika’s silhouette, suddenly overwhelmed with jealousy. Such a beautiful woman with strong powers, yet she belonged to that dandy mage.

“Hmph, why must I be jealous of him, so long as I master both magic and swordsmanship, what woman can I not get?” Bifano suppressed the desire in his heart. Under the protection of his bodyguards, he sped towards the south.

“How do we come back?” Saleen asked Lex inside the magic chariot. Titan Duchy could hold back against the Tanggulasi Empire mostly because of this Chishui River. It would freeze even in the winter and was a natural barrier. The entire river was over four-thousand miles long with only three places suitable to cross. One was upstream, but close to the Cloudflow Empire. Another was here, a wide metal bridge connecting the south and the north. The last was the place where the Chishui River intersected with the Hantze. Due to the terrain there, the currents were slower and there was an ancient stone bridge there for chariots and horses to pass.

The problem was that it was close to the Cloudflow Empire too and it was not very safe.

“Of course from here, I did bring a ship after all.” Lex shook the Gods Ring that was on her hand.

The space within the gods ring was far greater than the spaces in all of Saleen’s dimension stones. The resources that Lex stored inside were sufficient for her to deal with any form of trouble.

“You want to tame that creature?” Saleen heard the underlying meaning of Lex’s words.

“Of course, with that thing, it would be much easier to deal with the war puppets.” Lex explained to Saleen, “The combat powers of the war puppets and their attacking style are much stronger than the Metal Titan, but their defensive powers aren’t comparable and they aren’t as quick. You saw it for yourself, that Metal Titan can easily destroy the castle walls, unless it is the castle walls of Holy Rock City. After you have finished building Metatrin City would it be able to defend against the attack of the Metal Titan? A normal city to it is no different from a straw house.

“I won’t do it.” Sika immediately shook her head, the power of this creature was not something that she could defend against. All her skills were useless in front of the Metal Titan.

“Me too.” Nailisi followed Sika, thinking in her heart that unless she could summon a demon army, even her speed would not be a match for the Metal Titan. She could not defend against it directly.

“Saleen, what about you?” Lex looked at Saleen, she did not expect that the two of his strongest comrades would reject her.

“Why are we complicating this? Our goal isn’t the Metal Titan.” Saleen slowly said his decision.

“This thing is important. Have you thought about how we could use it? So long as we placed the Metal Titan under the mines, it could help you process steel. Even if we cannot find any workers temporarily, we can still start mining on a large scale.”

“Without a sorcerer, we cannot make this thing submit.” Saleen shook his head, He was naturally very drawn to the Metal Titan, but he knew that it was too strong and it did not have any unique weakness.

“Saleen, if we do not take any action, by the time the people from Tanggulasi arrive, it will be tamed by the Holy See and will be used to attack your city.” Lex said the most worrying consequence and Saleen had nothing to say.

The Tanggulasi Army had long infiltrated the Titan Duchy and to the north of the Chishui River, there was not much land that belonged to Titan Duchy. This Metal Titan would meet with the Tanggulasi Army sooner or later and by that time, it would be a massacre. The Holy See had enough people to deal with this creature and if the Holy See did indeed get their hands on the Metal Titan, he could only pray that the mages from Sregl Island would quickly come to Metatrin City.

Thinking back to how quickly the Metal Titan had demolished the castle walls, Saleen shuddered. No matter how stable Metatrin City was, it needed the cooperation of a sorcerer to become an impregnable pass. The attacking powers of the war puppets were stronger than the Metal Titan and if Holy Rock City were to fall out with them and send an army to attack. It would be an even more troublesome enemy to deal with than the Holy See.

The Holy See was stationed at the west of the Mainland and was too far away from Metatrin City though. Holy Rock City could reach Metatrin City within a week by a land or sea attack.

“What good idea do you have?”

“None, only a stupid one.” Lex admitted, if she were to use the powers of the God Ring, she would be able to make the Metal Titan submit, but the powers of the God Ring could only be used once a year. Unless it was a matter of life and death, she would not use it.

“How stupid?”

“Incredibly, but it isn’t very dangerous, or perhaps even has no danger at all.”

“Say it then.” Saleen could not reject, Sika pouted but listened intently to what Lex had to say.

“This is a young Metal Titan and it has an incredibly low immunity to a Fossilization spell, this is the best magic to deal with it. From today, we will keep making Fossilization spell magic scrolls. A level-3 Fossilization spell can make it fossilized for one point five seconds, that is ninety frames. We have eight grand mages, they can control the Fossilization spell magic scrolls within three frames.

“You are a grade-6 mage, this thing must at least be grade-8, the rate of a forced contract failing is incredibly high.” Saleen reminded Lex.

“So I must create more contract scrolls to forcefully make it submit.”

“Lex, do you know how many scrolls that will waste?” Saleen did not count, but was getting a headache already. A grade-6 mage forcefully using contract magic would have a success rate of less than a thousandth.

“I can prepare ten-thousand Fossilization spell scrolls; our focus will not degenerate on the magic chariot and we can continue releasing such low-grade scrolls. So long as we can make it submit to us, it is worth it.”

“We only have two months.”

“We can hire some mages in Fire Dance City to specially create Fossilization spell scrolls.” Lex said in determination.

Saleen thought for a while, this plan was not without its risks. If all the scrolls were used up, but the Metal Titan was not tamed, all these investments would be for naught. By then, his people would only care about escaping and it would not be possible to tame the Metal Titan.

Lex and her resources were limited now. If they did not succeed, their losses would not just be the materials and gold that they put in.

“Alright, I can probably exchange tens of thousands of gold coins with the things I have on hand.” Saleen said without any choice.

Lex smiled and said, “That won’t be necessary, I have taken most of the low-grade empty scrolls from Holy Rock City, don’t tell anyone.”

“Ah?” Saleen was a little dazed, he knew Emperor Chanake had doted on Lex a lot, but he did not expect him to actually give Lex so many resources. Empty scrolls did not have an expiration date and the most magic resource that a country would store were empty scrolls. Lex managed to bring out most of the low-grade empty scrolls from Holy Rock City. In future battles, she would have more than enough capital.

Emperor Chanake was indeed crazy, it seemed like whatever he did then was a sign that he would die in combat.