Badge in Azure

The anonymous town was situated on a plain where there were no tenable defense positions, it could be invaded from all directions. Usually, the offensive party would seal three of the city gates. They would then feign an attack at two doors and conducting a strong attack on one door.

If the defending party fled, it would be pursued by cavalrymen and sustain massive losses.

This was the standard strategy used to deal with an isolated city, but there were sorcerers in the city, so this method wouldn’t be so plausible anymore. At the moment, the Qin people were only left with around twenty-thousand troops. If the three-thousand cavalrymen were set aside to chase the fleeing enemies, then only eighteen-thousand troops would be left. Split among the three directions, only six-thousand men would be stationed at each gate.

Even if two-thousand troops were transferred from each side to make up ten-thousand soldiers at the frontal, the camp commander would not be confident of conquering this city.

A death sorcerer was like a huge rock weighing on the heart of the Qin’s camp commander.

On the battlefield, a death sorcerer was more useful than an elemental sorcerer. With sufficient high level magic nuclei a death sorcerer could summon an endless stream of spirits to partake in battle. Even though the summoned spirits would be low grade creatures, spirits at grade-2 or grade-3 were still a nightmare for human soldiers.

The most common attacks displayed by a spirit were poison, fear, ageing, corrosion, and illusion.

If there were no mages around to disperse these effects continuously, the soldiers’ offensive power would deteriorate much more severely. The mages were asked to meet with the camp commander, then the commander professed his worries.

This army contained a grade-7 sorcerer, five grade-4 grand mages, and eighteen white-robed mages. As the six white-robed mages in the vanguard group were captured by the winged skeleton, the mages were very vexed.

“We don’t know what the enemy will do with the six white-robed mages. It will be okay if they are used as hostages, but if they are used for death magic experiments, then those six white-robed mages will be doomed.”

This was a standoff between two armies, it was not some personal vendetta. Even if the white-robed mages had a backer they would not be able to regain their pride.

“Send someone to talk to the sorcerer.” Qin’s grade-7 sorcerer said worriedly. He originally thought that this mission would be a walk in the park, so he had agreed to organize a campaign. Had he known that the enemy was a death sorcerer, he would never have participated. One would need to rely on a grade-8 elemental mage to suppress a death sorcerer even if the death sorcerer was at grade-7.

The camp commander laughed bitterly, “How should I discuss this with them? My losses are huge, should I go apologize to the sorcerer before withdrawing the army?”

The mages knew about the worries the camp commander had. A grade-4 mage spoke up, “In that case, we will help you to plead mercy when we return. The enemy is a death sorcerer and we had no idea about that. When the war began, we already lost three-thousand cavalrymen and over two-thousand infantrymen. If the offensive against the city is perpetuated, we will not obtain any benefits at all.”

The camp commander nodded, then said, “Then we should attack it too to gauge the casualty rate. Great Mages, we will feign an attack at the main gates, please use your magic to coordinate with me and minimize the number of casualties. Record the battle and send it back so I can explain my case better.”

The mages did not have any good ideas. It was impossible for them to join the vanguards, their main mission was to bless the soldiers with magic. Since the camp commander had made this request, they could only agree.

A squad emerged from the Qin army, it was a low ranking officer who was leading forty cavalrymen. This squad came before the city and began hollering.

“To the people in the city, two-hundred Tanggulasi people have disguised themselves as Metatrin’s soldiers and infiltrated your town, my general…”

The low ranking officer was cooking up stories and it was impossible for the winged skeleton to listen to his nonsense. A spirit archer fired an arrow and it simply penetrated the commander’s skull. With a thud, his entire skull was shattered, causing white brain matter to spew in all directions.

At this point in time, Mu En spoke up. A gigantic shadow engulfed his back, forming a horrifying human face. As the man’s mouth twitched, Mu En’s voice was amplified dozens of times.

“Get your sorcerer to come over and talk, you are not worth it.”

The forty cavalrymen acted a little slowly. Bone arrows from the city gates were fired downwards. In the blink of an eye more than half of the soldiers were exterminated. The remaining dozens of cavalrymen turned around and escaped.

In the earl’s residence, Saleen released the shackles around the six white-robed mages. He gave each of them a small stool and allowed them to sit across from him.”Do you recognize me? Saleen asked with a wide grin.

The six white-robed mages shook their heads, Saleen’s name was not that renowned yet. Saleen was clad in a magic robe which resembled a piece of light armor, these mages did not even think that Saleen was a grand mage.

Mustering courage, one of the white-robed mages said, “We are Qin mages, no matter who you are, just let us go…”

Piak

Cuisi, who was at the side, wielded a whip and smacked the mage’s face. The thorn on his whip did not pop out, but the whip swiped past the white-robed mage’s face, tearing through the flesh and revealing the face bone.

Saleen simply cast a Chunlin spell to stop the bleeding.

“You cannot torture us, Alchemy City…” Another white-robed mage screamed, as Cuisi’s whip was unleashed once again. The whip immediately split the mage’s mouth, creating a bloody wound on his cheek.

Saleen cast another Chunlin spell, stopping the bleeding. Noticing that the mages were afraid to continue arguing, Saleen then continued, “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Saleen, Saleen Metatrin.”

Even if Cuisi’s whip was not present to pose a threat, the mages would keep their mouths shut due to terror.

There were many rumors circulating among the mages about Saleen. It was said that this gifted mage was not even twenty years old and he was already a grade-6 grand mage. Saleen had also subdued a number of experts using his own abilities and had established a kingdom.

There were more than one-thousand mages in this kingdom who took orders from Saleen. This kingdom even extirpated the Holy See’s expeditionary army which contained more than twenty-thousand soldiers and subdued a grade-9 holy master.

If Saleen was a sorcerer, he would surely have been labeled as a legend.

By now, Metatrin City was implicitly Qin’s third sacred land of magic. The first was Alchemy City, the second was Bitter Water Prefecture, and the third was Metatrin City.

“The guts of you people. I have crossed the borders of the Bitter Water County, yet you still dared send an army to pursue me. Regarding this matter, I will pen a letter to inform His Majesty Ojarvis. As for you all, you only have two choices.”

As Saleen spoke, he gazed at the six white-robed mages insipidly.

The six mages could only nod in agreement, they were dealing with a legendary grand mage, that meant that all threats would be useless. In the eyes of the other party, the white-robed mages were insignificant.

“The first choice; you all can follow me and never return to Qin again. I will ask some questions and you shall answer. In the future, when His Majesty Ojarvis asks about this, you have to give him the same reply.”

Seeing that the six white-robed mages were hesitant, Saleen remained calm, then said, “The second choice; I will hand you over to the death sorcerer so that you will be transformed into death wizards, gifting you more than ten-thousand years of longevity. This is your reward for assaulting me.”

The six mages appeared very panicked, they did not feel that Saleen was threatening them, Saleen was only narrating a fact.

If they fell into the hands of the death sorcerer and turned into death wizards, then they would only take orders and fight blindly in the future. They would no longer have a sense of taste, fatigue, or pain.

This outcome was scarier than death, the white-robed mages would rather die. The problem was that Saleen would not allow them to die, there were two choices and they could only opt for one.

“We will select the first route.” The white-robed mages glanced at one another, as they answered feebly.

“All right, who sent this army?” Saleen did not bother with details, the arrival of this army was definitely somewhat influenced by the nobles in the House of Commons. Saleen could not possibly go after the House of Commons, but the person who executed this had to be punished.

Since the white-robed mages had decided to follow Saleen, they naturally had no more concerns. These people did not have a deep background, they would not have been sent to act as vanguards otherwise.

“Sir, Marquis Antos was the one who deployed this army.”

Seeing Saleen moan, one of the mages added, “Marquis Antos is friends with Duke Andrefus, these two families have been connected by marriage for generations. Duke Andrefus is one of the six powerful dukes in the House of Commons, he wields considerable power.”

“I know.” Saleen laughed, he had memorized the backgrounds of all the powerful nobles in Holy Rock City when Lex asked him to pose as a noble from the fourth dynasty.

“I would like to ask, if I offer a reward for Antos’ head, how much will I need to spend?” Saleen asked a question which made it very difficult for the mages to give an answer.

The six people mumbled among themselves for a while, then one mage told Saleen, “Sir, Marquis Antos owns one-thousand miles of land and he has thousands of private soldiers. He can assemble an army with tens of thousands of soldier, and he still has a grade-8 mage under him. If you want to place a bounty, it might have to be more than one-million gold coins.”

Saleen pondered, then said, “The nobles serving Antos might be able to gather an army with over one-hundred-thousand troops, a bounty of one-million gold coins isn’t too expensive. I will make sure that the lives of people who dare attack me will never be peaceful.”

The white-robed mages looked at one another, “One-million gold coins isn’t expensive? We can purchase so many low level magic nucleiwith a million gold coins!”

“I just don’t know how much the Holy See’s bounty on me is worth at the moment,” Saleen mumbled to himself.

“Sir, it has increased to five-million gold coins already,” Cuisi answered.

“Mm, then disseminate the bounty via the professionals’ union, Cuisi, you shall… forget it, we will talk about this when we reach Daliang City.” Saleen did some mental calculations, “If this bounty of one-million gold coins is successful, I still have to pay a ten percent commission to the professionals’ union. If it doesn’t succeed, I only have to pay some interest. It is not possible to invade Marquis Antos’ land. That would be akin to declaring war on Holy Rock City. Marquis Antos will be helpless against such a bounty, he was the one who provoked me first. In the future, if I kill this fellow myself, I can even save money on the reward. At the moment, I am merely using the professional’s union to release this news. A bounty of one-million gold coins, this is a commission which will make most risk-takers go green with envy!”