Badge in Azure

No matter how good Saleen was with his predictions, he could not understand these meaningless sacrifices. Why were these soldiers and that red-robed man doing this?

To sacrifice so many lives on the battlefield, is that what religion was all about?

To mages, every sacrifice deserved an equivalent reward. This world should exist in a balance. These disciples only knew how to carry out orders; their so-called God’s order.

God said let there be light and so there was.

Suddenly, Saleen understood why so many mages in the world were against the Holy See’s rule. If the Holy See controlled the world, then the mages’ heritages were destined to end.

Mages were sceptical of everything, including Gods.

“Before night comes, let the mercenary soldiers take over the defense so that the second battalion can return,” Saleen gave the order somewhat wearily then said, “Uncle Fellet, please stay here. Tonight, that fellow may launch an attack. Our men will not be able to handle it.”

“Don’t worry,” the Fellets smiled and replied. Although they felt very uneasy, Saleen had already given them six grade-9 magic scrolls, there was no harm in trying it out. If they could use it to kill a gold grand swordmaster, it would be immensely useful to their training in future.

It was not difficult to advance as a sorcerer from grade-8 to grade-9 but a lot of time would need to be spent. The Fellets were still unaware of the Six Elements’ Space, naturally they would not want to give up such a good opportunity.

Within the expedition’s range of attack, the second battalion retreated to be replaced by the mercenary soldiers that were recruited most recently. As the walls of Metatrin City were simply too wide, the second battalion did not come back down from the top of the city wall. They only went into the buildings on the city wall to remove their armor and start resting.

Until the enemy deployed its main forces, Saleen was not going to allow his main forces to waste their energy guarding either.

Night fell and the flames beneath the city wall lit up the sky. The attack was still ongoing, but even the mercenary soldiers could see that the way they were attacking was meaningless.

The mercenary soldiers were not without their share of casualties. The enemy’s iron arrow vehicles still managed to cause some damage and the mercenary soldiers’ equipment was not as good as those of Saleen’s second battalion. Even if the heavy-armored soldiers of the second battalion were struck by huge lobbed arrows, they would still be protected by their heavy armor most of the time. Even their helmets could shield them from alchemy crossbow arrows.

The big arrows that struck the heavy-armored soldiers would only cause them light injuries as long as they did not penetrate the armor. These injured soldiers would be sent back to be healed by magic and would recover within a week.

The mercenary soldiers’ armor was only passable in shielding against normal arrows. Only the iron arrow vehicles could utilize the lobbed arrow shots five-hundred yards away, but there was minimal accuracy.

The proportion of casualties on both sides was one to ten. Enemy soldiers that sustained injuries but were in the city would not be able to receive healing from the holy priests. Saleen did not wish to capture any prisoners. Just like that, the mercenary soldiers’ morale was stabilized.

One death on his side was equivalent to at least ten deaths on the enemy’s side. Mercenary soldiers could still accept battles like this. Usually, mercenary soldiers were used to outnumbering their enemies, especially if the latter was strong. A one to one death ratio was already morale-boosting.

After a few hours of battle, less than five-hundred mercenary soldiers were killed, but more than three-thousand were injured. The injured soldiers were sent back down the city wall.

After so many injuries and rotating more than ten small mercenary groups, the mercenary soldiers were very excited.

The noble families in the city saw that the one-hundred-thousand strong army had been stopped by the city wall and the Lord of the city was dealing with things well. They felt more at ease. Over at the town hall, more than one-hundred noble families went to see Daniel. They wanted to send their own bodyguards to join in the battle.

As many laws and regulations had yet to be set in Saleen’s city, things were rather difficult for Daniel. These noble families resorted to writing a bond on the spot, promising that they would give up everything in order to help Metatrin City overcome this obstacle.

Coincidentally, Saleen was also at the frontline of the battle and this gave the noble families even more confidence and trust.

In Qin, by doing so meant that the Lord of the city was prepared to live and die with the city and definitely not flee. The noble families also had their own pride. They must have a certain amount of courage to not bow down to the Holy See or Holy Rock City. Since Saleen was not going to flee, they were more than willing to give him a helping hand.

Saleen was waiting on top of the city wall. He knew that the enemy’s main forces would start attacking late into the night.

At ten pm, the magic clock on Saleen’s bedside rang. He opened his eyes and saw Sika on alert by his side.

“Why didn’t you sleep?” Saleen looked at Sika and felt assured and relaxed.

“It will not be a long-drawn battle. I used alchemy binoculars to observe the enemy’s camp. There were a few hundred people watching over the place where they stored grain. They have already run out of food. The battle will end in another two to three more days,” Sika spoke very rationally and was totally different from her usual self.

“Oh? You know how to fight wars?”

“Of course. I am an Earth Priestess. In the past, an Earth Priestess could lead up to one-hundred-thousand Caucasus people. An Earth Priestess was much more powerful than all the officers below you,” Sika said smugly.

“Sika, even if I can kill the gold grand swordmaster, the other two fellows beside him are also extremely powerful. You will not be able to handle them alone…”

“Saleen, stop trying to convince me. I have brought two-hundred Caucasus people to watch over you. If those two mages dare to come near, I will fly over and kill them.”

“Sika, a normal mage will indeed be killed if they come near you, but mages of this grade may possess powerful equipment. Look, my clan badge can kill that gold grand swordmaster. If they have a similar equipment then you will be in danger,” Saleen said nervously.

Sika touched the bone necklace on her neck and said, “The one I am afraid of is that gold grand swordmaster. If you can kill him, I will not need to fear the two mages.”

“No matter what, don’t take any risks and stay on the city wall. Stay near Nailisi and the rest. Even a grade-8 mage will not be able to kill all of us instantaneously.”

“Saleen, why don’t you summon Eleanor?” Sika knew that it would be much easier to kill the gold grand swordmaster if they had Eleanor’s archery.

“This… forget about it. Eleanor has another task at hand.”

“Master, you are awake!” Nailisi barged into the room. Behind were two other demons, but they were not Luola and Aiwa.

“Didn’t I ask you to protect the Fellets?!” Saleen scolded Nailisi. The Fellets would be the key to killing that gold grand swordmaster. Besides those two, no one else in the city would be able to cast grade-9 magic scrolls.

“Aini is here. He has set up death magic and has also summoned some creatures. The Fellets are safe. Master, I was worried about Sister Sika following you alone and that she might be in danger. Sika smiled. She knew that Nailisi did not care about the Fellets at all. She was only concerned about Saleen. Nailisi was also unwilling to go against Saleen’s order directly so she used Sika as an excuse so Saleen would not be angry.

“Ha…,” Saleen laughed a little. He knew what Nailisi was thinking.

“How is the attack under the city?” Sika focused on the important issue at hand. There were more things on her mind than Nailisi could imagine.

“The second battalion has taken over. The number of deaths and injuries have fallen.”

“How many have died so far?”

“Less than one-thousand, but more than ten-thousand enemies have been killed or injured. We have also taken some of them as prisoners,” Nailisi explained patiently.

“Why would we need prisoners?!” Saleen said furiously. These were disciples of the Lord of Glory and would have to be exterminated sooner or later.

“Judikaka wanted to study them and see if there is any way to remove the divine spells in their body.”

“Judikaka…,” Saleen’s heart jerked. Whatever Judikaka was studying was most definitely not what he claimed. Saleen guessed that there must be some similarities between how divine spells controlled these disciples and how his own bond controlled the Three Kings. Judikaka must be trying to find out how to escape from being controlled. Saleen must be more alert.

He would not be able to do it himself or he would be going against the bond. It would be the same if he ordered the two grade-9 mages to take action. Only Nailisi would be able to do something about this.

“Master, I understand. There are not a lot of prisoners. I brought the two of them here to destroy the souls of these prisoners.” The two demons behind Nailisi smiled politely at Saleen.

Saleen was pleased. Nailisi had finally matured. The way she thought was now more careful and she was no longer the imp that could be easily deceived. Even someone as cunning as Judikaka did not manage to take Nailisi by surprise.

“Let them go. Nailisi, you and me will go and observe the battle.” Saleen did not bother to wash his face and only cast a cleaning spell on himself. He then led Sika and Nailisi out of the room.

The room was different from military camps. It was constructed according to the guidelines of Dante’s Sequence. There were only two levels in total. Underneath the two levels was the city wall. The top of the city wall and the foundation were fifty and sixty yards thick respectively. Such a thick city wall could no longer be considered as a normal wall. Every few hundred yards within the wall were empty warehouses.

Even if the troops defending the top of the city wall were not rotated, they did not need to go down the city wall in order to find supplies and replenishments.

There was only one window in the room where Saleen was observing the battle. His elemental eye allowed him to clearly see the movements in the enemy’s camp, including the deployments of the holy priests. Returning back to this room again, Saleen’s heart was filled with regret. If the magic towers had been built he would be able to command everything from his temple and would not need to face the threat of the gold grand swordmaster directly.

With thirty-six magic towers, even Joey or Fycro would not have been able to break through, much less the gold grand swordmaster.

In the enemy’s camp far away, flames were everywhere. Saleen saw that the expedition’s main forces had yet to gather and knew that he did not wake up too late. The second battalion had taken over the defense again and the third battalion was also nearby. They were ready to provide reinforcements at any time.

Approximately two-thousand barbarian archers and three-thousand Caucasus warriors equipped with flying axes and bows took up their defense positions. Everything was in place to face the enemy’s strongest attack.

Why were the three powerful men of the black-armored army unwilling to join in the attack? Saleen could not figure out why. He could not have imagined the seriousness of the internal conflict within the Holy See.

After a few hours of attack, the expedition had already lost more than ten-thousand men, but the people of the supreme court chose to ignore this. If the battle continued at this slow pace, Saleen would lose at most twenty-thousand men while the entire expedition would be finished.

“It’s coming. Ask the third battalion to be prepared as well. All mages, begin to boost the officers with magic!” Just as Saleen thought, the main forces in the expedition’s camp began to move. The soldiers began to put on their armor and the holy priests were boosting the warriors with divine spells. Many medium to small-sized equipment was being brought out. It looked like the enemy’s main force was finally about to attack.