Badge in Azure

In a dazed state, Sharman said, “Brother Saleen, you are so ridiculous, what will we do now? My bodyguards are here and my sister will kill me.”

Sharman was exaggerating. Saleen simply smiled, then asked, “Sharman, you are only sixteen years old, but you are already a Zun Grand Swordmaster. Have you ever thought of joining an army?”

“Joining an army?”

Saleen pondered for a moment, then said, “The Metatrin family was the imperial clan during the fourth dynasty, and the nobles who were following us do not exist anymore, so my family needs to confer a new batch of nobles. If you are willing, you can follow me.”

“Brother Saleen, if the both of us die here your proposition will mean nothing.” Sharman’s tone was getting more and more depressed. She was currently surrounded by more than five-thousand people, it would be a lie to say that she was not afraid. “So what if I am a Zun Grand Swordmaster? It is already very impressive if I can survive this. What if I abandon my trusted soldiers and mages? Then that will be no different from dying in battle.”

“Sharman, if I can get you and that mage out safely, then will you follow me?” Saleen tossed the bait. Even if Sharman did not agree to follow him, he would still save her. The Rolande family was good in crafting weapons and armor, they also had many high grade smiths. If these smiths were be sent to Metatrin City, then Saleen would not have to sell ores anymore. Crafting weapons from those ores would fetch much more money.

“Follow you? What use am I, you already have a Silver Grand Swordmaster.” Sharman was astounded by Su’s capabilities, she felt that she was insignificant. This made Saleen secretly jubilant.

“Su is my follower, but he still has to learn many things. I cannot let him leave my side. As for you, do you want to be a general?”

“General? You mean an admiral?!”

“Of course, an admiral who will command thousands of soldiers and horses.”

Sharman was really tempted. Her character was bubbly and lively, but she also had the virtue of patience. According to a mage’s principles, it meant that she was slightly unpredictable. A person with such a character could not be a mage, but there was no harm for them to learn swordsmanship. To achieve victory in battle, she could endure extreme conditions, but she could not tolerate loneliness in order to learn magic.

With the same talent, she had picked up swordsmanship while her sister learned magic. It also was not some unacceptable thing for Saleen to make her a general. Since Qin had baronesses, it could also have female generals. When the empire was still in infancy, some duchesses had even appeared before.

“Humph, you better not lie to me, how many people could I command?” Sharman did not realize what was Saleen trying to do, she did not feel that she was very important in the Rolande family. Without her sister around, she would lead a tough life in the family given her character. Her arrogance was built upon swordsmanship. She did not feel that she herself was a qualified general though.

“That depends on your ability,” Saleen replied with a smile. He also knew that Sharman did not possess the makings of a soldier at the moment. Everything could be cultivated. Once Sharman became a qualified soldier, she might have already advanced to a Black Metal Grand Swordmaster.

Even though one’s valiancy was not very important on the battlefield, a general at the standard of a grand swordmaster was a great morale booster too. Without the powers of a grand swordmaster, one could easily be slaughtered the moment they ran into a grand mage.

Even though it was challenging to groom a grand swordmaster into a general, Sharman was still very young, so she would have sufficient room for development. Tricking a grand swordmaster to jump ship was much easier than training a general into a grand swordmaster.

As for the usage of his grand swordmasters, Saleen had his own plans. With Jola having such a character he could only remain in Metatrin City. If he led soldiers out of the city, Saleen would be on tenterhooks. Saleen had high hopes for Su.

“Su has a great character. He also has no one to rely on in the Myers mainland, he only has me. Such a person cannot be forcefully recruited.”

As for Sharman, it would be Saleen’s own mistake if he let her go.

They sat across one another. Just as they were experiencing silence, a thunderous boom came from outside the barrack. That was the ringing noise produced during a magic explosion.

Sharman’s expression changed, but Saleen said, “Don’t worry, the bandits only outnumber us, they do not have any genuine experts.”

Since Saleen had a pretty good idea of the situation, Sharman held back her urges, she did not rush out to kill the enemies. Outside the barracks, torches lit the skies brightly. The battering ram delivered by the bandits had already knocked down the wooden walls and opened up to form a metal arch bridge. More than ninety heavy cavalrymen charged forward, ramming dozens of skeletal soldiers in their path.

The heavy cavalrymen were riding on metal-armored earthworms, they were not even afraid of the death scents emanating from the skeletal soldiers. The bones on the skeletal soldiers also could not withstand the impact from those metal-armored earthworms. The barracks were just up ahead, the heavy cavalrymen dashed up the metal arch bridge and made a beeline for the infantrymen below.

The infantrymen beat a hasty retreat. From both sides of the heavy cavalrymen, more than one-hundred undead soldiers pounced out. Under Aini’s control, these undead soldiers kept going berserk. Exploding with immense might, they fought with the heavy cavalrymen.

The heavy cavalrymen riding on the magic beasts did not rely on their impact to fight. Even if they slowed down, the potential lethality was still massive. It would be very onerous to rely on infantrymen to resist this type of riders. After getting assaulted by the Berserk Undead Soldiers, the heavy infantrymen removed their longswords, then they began hacking about wildly. Behind the heavy cavalrymen, hundreds of bandits in lightweight clothing had already ascended the metal arch bridge.

Cuisi sneered, then said, “Aini, cut off their route of retreat.”

Aini smiled bitterly, “This Cuisi is very rude.” Nevertheless, Cuisi could release a level-7 magic scroll, so he could not complain much either. Such an ability was a notch higher than Aini’s.

Aini hollered, “Up!”

That Floral Death Creature who was hiding underground crawled out swiftly, appearing outside the camp compound. In that instant, it had blocked hundreds of bandits outside the camp. Seeing that the enemy’s vanguards had rushed inside, Cuisi no longer hesitated. Saleen was targeting these over ninety heavy cavalrymen. If Su was left to deal with them alone, it would be very exhausting for him.

These over ninety cavalrymen were swordmasters who rode on grade-4 magic beasts, Saleen would never agree to let Su deal with them alone. Saleen had not forgotten the time when a Silver Grand Swordmaster from the Holy See tried to barge into a camp on his own. Eventually, this man got ambushed. If a grand swordmaster was veiled within the enemy’s heavy cavalrymen, then Su would be in great danger.

“A grand swordmaster is afraid of magic right? Since I can set a trap, there is no need to utilize weapons.”

When Cuisi noticed that the Floral Death Creature had grown to over ten yards in the blink of an eye and its crown had engulfed an area spanning dozens of yards, he knew that it was time to take action. He opened a large quicksand scroll, trapping those over ninety cavalrymen at the same time. Thereafter, he slowly released the black magic scroll Saleen had given to him.

Within a radius of fifty yards, flames measuring more than twenty yards in height sprayed out from the quicksand, these flames had a purple hue. The most incredulous thing was that these flames had consistent thickness from top to bottom, it was as if there were hundreds of water pillars spewing towards the skies. The temperature in these hundreds of flames needed no introduction. The metal-armored earthworms were still covered in a layer of leather armor, but the flames had burnt through it together with the earthworms’ tough scales.

These cavalrymen seemed like they had almost zero resistance. A grand swordmaster hidden in their midst was also struck by this level-7 spell. He leaped off his mount in agony.

A dense net of fire had caused the heavy cavalrymen to have nowhere to escape. They were burned to death together, along with almost one-hundred Berserk Undead Soldiers. Without these Berserk Undead Soldiers obstructing the way, Cuisi’s large Quicksand spell would not have been able to dominate the situation instantly. Even if the secondary level-7 spell was casted using a scroll, a preparation time of a dozen seconds was still required.

Sacrificing some Berserk Undead Soldiers was no big deal, Aini could stomach this loss. These heavy cavalrymen were the elites among the bandits. If the heavy cavalrymen were not extirpated, all the guards combined from both merchant convoys would not be able to triumph. The bandits who traveled across the metal arch bridge crashed headfirst into the fire matrix. These hundreds of bandits, together with the metal arched bridge, were burned out of shape. The other over two-hundred bandits behind began to see smoke emerging from under their feet.

It was only after the remaining over one-hundred Berserk Undead Soldiers charged over did Aini have peace of mind. The enemy had breached the campgrounds, but they did not expect the interior of the camp to be segregated as well. A large Quicksand spell coupled with a level-7 spell had kill these over ninety heavy cavalrymen straightaway. This made the bandits outside negligible already.

“Shoot them!” Seeing that the over two-hundred bandits were putting up a strong resistance, Aini ordered his fifty trusted soldiers to wield their alchemical crossbows and shoot them. The Berserk Undead Soldiers had no weapons and their fingernails were moving too slowly.

Since there was no need to protect the undead soldiers, this barrage of arrows had caused more than thirty bandits to collapse in that instant. Aini was still dissatisfied, “My soldiers are really not cut out to be archers. At such a short distance, a third of the arrows were actually shot off target.”

The flames had already disappeared, the power of this group attack spell was strong, but its effective duration was too brief. Luckily those metal-armored earthworms were dead. The remaining bandits had been badly burned. Aini waved his hand. Then his trusted soldiers laid down their alchemical crossbows, before drawing their longswords and charging forward.

At this moment, Sharman’s soldiers then reacted. They wielded their bows and arrows, then began firing at the bandits who were tussling with the undead soldiers.

Sharman’s aunt and the grade-5 mage were hiding behind the soldiers, observing the entire situation clearly. When over ninety heavy cavalrymen rushed into the camp, both of them thought of escaping. They had the urge to run into the barrack and rescue Sharman. In the end, Cuisi’s two scrolls had incinerated the enemy’s strongest forces.

The grade-5 mage swallowed hard, as he thought to himself, “A level-7 group attack spell scroll is worth a lot of money! If I was the one in that situation, I would never bear to use it unless I was in the face of death.”

Sharman’s aunt also knew the value of a high level magic scroll. She thought to herself, “This Saleen is really wealthy, that woman called Cuisi didn’t even hesitate to use an intermediate level and high level scroll.”

In the barrack, Saleen already sensed that Cuisi had consumed the high level scroll. A level-7 magic scroll might not be powerful, but the heavy cavalrymen had only themselves to blame for barging into the camp complex. If used in narrow terrain, the power of this group attack spell would immediately be increased dozens of times. If used on a road, it could only trap a dozen cavalrymen at most. Once the magic wore off, a few cavalrymen would be able to get away.

The price of a level-7 magic scroll was similar to that of a level-8 one, it started at one-hundred-thousand gold coins. There were hundreds of times more mages who could use a level-7 scroll compared to those who could employ a level-8 scroll. If someone spent hundreds of thousands of gold coins, they could only kill about a dozen more people in a field battle. Unless crazy, no one would ever want to use a scroll to determine the outcome of a battle.

Boom!

The wooden walls on the right side of the camp had been knocked down. A dozen bandits, holding onto a large wooden ram, charged into the complex directly. For pleasure’s sake, Sharman’s aunt kept mum, waiting for Aini to give his orders.

When Aini saw that more people had charged into the compound, he was overjoyed instead of astonished. He was not satisfied with just killing those elites, he wanted to deal a severe blow to the five-thousand bandits who were surrounding the camp. He bellowed, “Su, prepare to lead my men for a retaliation. Cuisi, don’t let anyone enter the barrack!”

Speaking, Aini took out a Green Spirit rock, as he began releasing the spirits he had stored inside it.