Badge in Azure

“All of you come in.” Saleen’s voice came from within the tornado. Sika stepped forward without any hesitation, followed by Nailisi. Eleanor was stunned for a moment. After seeing two people enter the area encompassed by the tornado without coming to any harm, Eleanor gritted her teeth and barged into Saleen’s tornado.

Within the tornado, the elements were abnormally balanced, there were no fluctuations either. Eleanor was astounded to see that Saleen had not stopped working, he was still refining the quiver while segmenting the divine crystal at the same time.

With a slight air of arrogance, Saleen told the few people beside him, “From today onwards, I alone will be equivalent to all the mages serving Lex!”

Eleanor’s eyes were wide open. She had only witnessed such an ability from her uncle. Her uncle was the leader of a community, a true elf who carried the bloodline of the imperial family, and a grade-9 expert. The ability to control all these spells without any interruptions at such a high level of intricacy was shocking.

Without Saleen’s permission, it would be impossible for Eleanor to enter the tornado and go to Saleen.

This spell did not have the ability to differentiate between friend and foe. Eleanor did not get injured by the tornadoes solely because of Saleen’s precise control. Had this been a Water Shield, it would not be a big deal, but the tornado could act as an offensive spell. The speed of the wind element exceeded that of Eleanor’s feather arrows. At such a high frequency of attack, Saleen could still allow the three of them to enter whilst maintaining the basis of magic. This experience had totally subverted Eleanor’s understanding of magic.

When Saleen mentioned that he would be equivalent to all the mages serving Lex, he did not mean that he was more powerful than all those mages combined. He meant to say that he himself could execute the magic coordination done by those mages.

What was Saleen considered to be now? A grade-5 expert? Even if Saleen was thrown into the midst of a ten-thousand strong army, he also could not be killed easily.

“That’s it!” Saleen extinguished the water flames. The moment the water flames disappeared, the tornado also disappeared. Saleen’s tornado was the derived products from the Water Flame Alchemy, personally, he could not cast wind magic. “Here is your quiver.”

An emerald-green quiver levitated in front of Eleanor. There were red elf words on the quiver which were hardly visible. There was a dark green ribbon on the two corners of the quiver, and Eleanor saw them clearly. The ribbons were made from the muscles of a magic beast, they were used to secure the quiver to one’s back. Within the muscle of a magic beast, there was a bewildering energy channel which enabled Eleanor to feel the changes happening in the quiver.

This quiver was an item frequently used by an elf, it could increase their firing speed. Whether it be the number, shape, or type of arrows, Eleanor did not need to do a visual check; she could feel it. Eleanor only needed to raise her hand to draw an arrow.

Once a human expert had undergone training, their archery skills might not be inferior to that of an elf, however, the elves were still more proficient than humans in terms of the ability to craft archery equipment. Humans possessed a variety of novel skills, but the elves were best in bows and arrows. A normal person would not live as long as an elf, so they would never be able to cultivate archery skills as proficient as an elf.

“Thank you…” Even though Eleanor had acknowledged that she was following Saleen, she was still reluctant to address him as Sir. “An elf’s ego”, Eleanor thought to herself.

“I don’t have the time to craft elvish armor for you. We will be ascending the mountain tomorrow, we will discuss this when we return to Metatrin City.” As Saleen spoke, he took out a segment of the divinecherry wood, and began helping Eleanor craft the seventh divinecherry arrow. At the moment, Saleen was consciously helping people around him to arm themselves. Ismail had killed two important figures from the Holy See, so the Holy See would surely not let this matter go. In the future, all their troubles would be hundreds of times more challenging than ever.

Unbeknownst to Saleen, the Lord of Glory was already outraged by Ismail’s actions. The Lord of Glory had already gave the order to his believers on this plane to ignite a holy war and resolve all problems.

As Saleen and Eleanor were not in their barracks, the demons and two Silver Grand Swordmasters stood guard patiently a short distance away. Su was originally very proud, even though he was a little lost after arriving on this plane. He was the youngest Silver Grand Swordmaster in his family, and after following Saleen, he thought that he would be Saleen’s mightiest follower.

Unexpectedly, the rest of Saleen’s followers had their own signature techniques even though some were weaker than him. Su could not decipher Nailisi and Sika, while Jola’s offensive power was at least ten to twenty percent stronger than him.

At this point, Su calmed his emotions. When he witnessed the coordination between Lex’s subordinates, he got even more astounded. When the ten swordmasters, whom Su thought were really weak, put on a high level magic armor and cooperated with the mages, they could actually kill a huge number of magic beasts. None of them got killed.

The most important thing was that those mages did not even use much of their abilities, they only released some support spells cautiously, allowing the ten swordmasters to unleash the power of a Black Metal Grand Swordmaster.

“Protect a mage well! No wonder Father kept telling me this.” If Saleen and Eleanor did not die, Su would be able to sustain his offensive powers as long as a Golden Grand Swordmaster even though he could not attain a Golden Grand Swordmaster’s powers.

Su learned from all those battles the swordmasters participated in. He had learned how to compliment a mage, and how to protect a mage. He knew that when Saleen advanced to a sorcerer, his own offensive powers would be boosted exponentially. Even if he came face to face with a Golden Grand Swordmaster one day, he might not necessarily be killed.

Saleen’s team could kill any magic beast below grade-9. As long as a mage was present, the possibilities were limitless.

In the barracks, Lex was not resting either. To a grade-6 mage, a large portion of a week was used for regaining the mental strength and stamina. Only one day would be used for sleep.

“Viscountess, those people around Saleen are getting more and more cohesive,” Bain said.

“What about it? Isn’t that good?”

“It is good, but he has demons around him,” Bain spoke uneasily. He was extremely guarded against creatures like demons. “I feel that he trusts the demons a lot.”

“No way.” Lex laughed, then said, “Saleen is a orthodox mage, him trusting a demon?”

“Viscountess, when you return, you can request for some demons from him. That Nailisi will surely have a way to make it happen.”

“Why?” Lex was puzzled.

“If that Nailisi is truly loyal to Saleen, she wouldn’t try anything funny. The demons she gives you will be obedient.”

Lex pondered for a moment, and felt that what Bain said made sense. “Saleen trusts Nailisi, but I have to test it out for myself. I am not too assured of Bitter Water Prefecture, even though Teacher is looking after it. If there are a few demons protecting the city, it will be safer in the event of a war.”

A demon still had a certain edge over a mage, because many demons possessed high magic resistance and knew how to cast magic. Once they appeared next to a mage, they could cause immense damage to them, be it using their claws or a demonic monomer magic. Bitter Water Prefecture was a risky region. Without mages around to help invade this city, it would be impossible to breach it using only warriors.

If Bain was in Bitter Water Prefecture, he could assassinate the enemy’s mages. Without Bain, a few demons could also do the trick though.

Another night had passed. Saleen finally segmented a standard size divine crystal for Sika, and Sika immediately mosaicked it into the skull of the magic beast skeleton.

This magic beast skeleton was obtained from Raphael’s magical tower. The last evolution was finally completed. After the divine crystal was mosaicked into the magic array in the skull, it melted instantly, before diffusing into the skeleton. Not only did this divine crystal contain the power to replenish mental strength, it could also double as a magic nucleus. A standard size divine crystal was sufficient to evolve a ten yard long magic beast.

Sika’s magic beast skeleton produced cracking sounds, then it contracted swiftly. Very soon, this skeleton had shrunk to less than four yards in length. The bone wings on both sides became very narrow and long.

The three pairs of bone wings glowed dimly. With a leap, Sika mounted the magic beast skeleton. On the skeleton, black runes flashed vigorously as Sika stood on its back. After the skeleton re-absorbed these black runes into its body, it flew up abruptly without any warning whatsoever.

The body of this magic beast was not long, but its tail was six yards in length. Sika stood on the back of the skeleton, finally feeling the satisfaction of being able to control it at will.

It did not mean that an Nature Priestess only had powers when standing on the ground. It actually meant that they could wield the power of the earth in any environment, so they were known as a Nature Priest. Sika wielded her weapon, and a metal thorn sprang out from her gigantic cudgel. The magic beast skeleton carried her, dashing towards a over one-hundred yard tall rock.

The magic beast skeleton wriggled violently. Sika was parallel to the ground, but her legs were firmly planted into the skeleton’s back. Her cudgel then struck that giant rock horizontally.

There was a dull thud. This giant rock had a diameter of about ten yards, and Sika had bust a cavity in it with one hit. This cavity had a depth of over six yards.

“Ha…” Sika wanted to laugh boisterously, but she suddenly recalled that it might be embarrassing. It did not mean that she thought it was a bad idea to laugh, she was just afraid of embarrassing Saleen. A Caucasus person would not care.

If Sika had become a Naure Priest sooner, she would not have gotten flung away when battling with the supreme demon. With a ferocious weapon and the power of the earth, no one could resist Sika’s attacks in a melee fight, unless the enemy possessed more sophisticated skills than Sika.

Jola and Su were dumbfounded when they saw the cavity caused by Sika’s attack on that giant rock. They knew that Sika was very powerful, but was not that a little too ridiculous?

Sika circled in the air for a moment before landing. She then put away the magic beast skeleton. After all that exhilaration, Sika suddenly felt depressed as she hugged her weapon. It was not for this weapon refined by Faerun, her body would not have been able to withstand the impact even though she possessed the power of the earth.

“It would have been great if Faerun didn’t die!”

“So powerful!”

Lex’s men were already putting away the barracks, and when they witnessed Sika’s performance, even Bain was astounded. Bain could execute such an attack multiple times without feeling any stress, but it was obvious that Sika had tapped into a power which did not belong to her. Sika almost did not sustain any depletion at all. In theory, an attack of such magnitude could be used infinitely.

In a solo battle, Bain could still triumph over Sika based on technique. If Sika was placed on the battlefield, she would be as horrifying as an item like a war puppet though.