Badge in Azure

With Eleanor’s interruption, Saleen had no way of doing what he wanted to do initially. Nevertheless, Eleanor was right on time. Cloudflow liked to rear all sorts of low-level magic beasts. The golden-eyed fire crows were very intelligent. They could even be trained to carry out simple interactions with mages.

If the fire crows were allowed to fly around in the city, few secrets would be safe from them.

The armies on the outside would be able to deploy their troops according to the information obtained by these fire crows and focus their attack on the weakest parts of Daliang City.

It was said that golden-eyed crows could fly as high as five-thousand yards and above, but they were most often seen around one-thousand yards. Ordinary heavy crossbows would not be able to shoot that high.

“Lex, let’s go and take a look.” Saleen knew that ordinary archers would only be able to deal with the fire crows that were resting on lower ground. Those that were flying could only be dealt with by catapults and sniper crossbows. Even those weapons would require some luck and fortune in order to hit the crows. Only spells would guarantee that the golden-eyed fire crows would be killed.

Magic beasts that were grade-2 and grade-3 were not that easy to kill. When a fire crow encountered an ordinary arrow, it would be able to blow it away with a gust of wind.

“Let’s get Nicholas.” Lex had just advanced, so she would not be able to fully utilize the powers of a grade-7 sorcerer. Eleanor had encountered the enemy’s sorcerer outside of the city and Lex did not take any risks.

“I know. Let’s get Cuisi too.”

After some discussions, both of them descended to the sixth storey of the magic tower. They instructed the mages to guard the magic tower and to pay careful attention to its connection with the other magic towers.

The anti-flying zone would not be activated unless an alarm was triggered by the magic towers outside of the city.

Before long, both Cuisi and Nicholas arrived. Lex passed the corpse of the golden-eyed fire crow to them. Both Cuisi and Nicholas laughed and said, “My Lord, this is only a grade-2 magic beast. Leave this to us. Neither of you need go up.”

Nicholas was a fallen holy priest while Cuisi was a supreme demon. Both of them possessed the ability to use soul attacks and area of effect attacks. The fire crows were really swift in the sky, so the best way to hunt them down was for a demon to use skills such as deterrence and intimidation while Nicholas’ fallen glory had an attacking range of one-thousand yards.

Such attacks would be extremely effective against magic beasts of such low levels.

Saleen said, “Lex and I have had very little experience in aerial combat. Both of you will take charge of the outer area and leave the area above the palace to us. We will not leave the city, no matter what.”

Nicholas thought for a while and said, “I think the enemy has released many golden-eyed fire crows intentionally. My Lord, Your Highness, you must be aware of how high and how far you fly. I will instruct the arrow towers on the top of the city wall to prepare their alchemy crossbows. If you encounter any attacks, just fly straight back to the palace.”

Nicholas had already made up his mind to follow Saleen, so he was genuinely worried for Saleen’s safety. Naturally, Cuisi was even more concerned, but that was because he was afraid of what Nailisi might do to him if anything happened to Saleen. Such precaution was absolutely necessary. Saleen only smiled and nodded in agreement. His elemental eyes would allow him to see beyond one-hundred miles. Unless the enemy possessed the ability to travel through dimensions he would not be in any danger as long as he stayed in the city.

An ordinary mage could only see at most as far as ten miles if they used a spell. Even then, the duration of the spell would be short. Saleen’s elemental eye was a permanent skill that only used up mental strength and not magic chords. A technique like that was an instinct, like breathing. It was a technique that Saleen could control, so he barely had to use up any mental strength for it on a daily basis.

Mages that possessed such techniques were few and far between. By right, Saleen’s elemental eye was a technique that sorcerers could utilize, but they would only be able to use it for less than three minutes and they would only be able to see less than ten miles away.

Seeing how determined Saleen was to hunt down the magic beasts personally, Nicholas and Cuisi were left with no choice and flew off. Nicholas’ flying ability was different from mages’. There were no elemental vibrations around him. There was only a layer of faint gray light and he was already more than one-hundred yards in the air instantaneously.

Cuisi summoned his devil armor and his body transformed into that of a demon that was more than eight yards tall. He opened his gigantic wings and flew straight up into the sky. He would not be affected even by the anti-flying zone when he was in such a state.

Both of them bore permanent magic symbols on their bodies, so they would not be shot down by the alchemy crossbows in the arrow towers. The magic alarm was not triggered either. Only the magic array that was monitoring the situation displayed a yellow light. Nicholas and Cuisi flew one round around the palace. All the arrow towers were on alert now as Nicholas instructed all the magic towers to look out for flying magic beasts.

Golden-eyed fire crows were magic beasts that were only responsible for reconnaissance. There were even flying magic beasts on Cloudflow’s combat vessels that could be used to dump burning kerosene on the city. A huge fire could easily be created that way. Coincidentally, spring was the season that was easiest for fires to occur. The buildings in Daliang City were unlike those in Metatrin City. There were still a number of wooden houses in the former so they must be very careful with those.

Saleen looked at Lex. He slowly cast the Quickcloud spell and the fog covered up the both of them and the entire courtyard. Under the power of the water elements, Saleen and Lex flew up together at the same time.

Lex only boosted herself with a floating spell and allowed Saleen to bring her higher and higher into the sky.

Peering out from within the Quickcloud spell, the fog was transparent like a mirror except that light beams were slightly dimmer. Lex was surprised to be able to sense the thick water elements within one-hundred yards.

“Saleen…” She opened her mouth only to realize that, although they were already as high as one-thousand yards, the strong wind did not affect the fog at all.

“My spell isn’t too bad right?” Saleen asked proudly. Even though Lex had advanced, she would never be able to learn the Quickcloud spell because it required the complete understanding of the power of water elements in order to use it.

The spell was also created by Saleen himself. Others might be able to learn it, but they would only be able to grasp the theory. There would still be a big difference in the execution of the spell.

At first, Lex was worried that Saleen might feel down that she had advanced first, but upon hearing how pleased he was with himself, she could not help but feel amused. She had worried too much. Saleen’s heart and mindset had been molded through many tough experiences. Saleen’s spells were vastly different from other mages’. He was basically striking out a new path for himself.

With a single magic chord, Saleen had to put in six times more effort than ordinary mages, but he also received a lot more in return as a result.

Not only was the Quickcloud spell able to attack and defend, its flying speed was also very high. Lex could tell that if Saleen flew at full speed, even a sorcerer like her would not be able to catch up. A stream of water that was more than six yards long was dancing within the fog. That was Saleen’s current cutter. This was no longer a spell. It was a piece of equipment, just like Saleen’s water puppet.

The water currents were hidden within the fog. Anyone who was not a sorcerer that was grade-7 and above were basically dead if they tried to enter the fog and got tangled up. Even sorcerers would have to collapse the water currents in order to be safe. If they only focused on defending themselves, the continuous cutting of the currents would be able to cut anything into two eventually.

Saleen used his elemental eyes to observe what was going on beneath him and did not discover any of the enemy’s magic beasts. The enemy’s magic beasts probably would not be found this deep into the city for fear of being attacked by the magic tower. Although mages rarely had to deal with such low-level magic beasts, the magic tower was still more than ready to deal with them as long as Lex gave the word.

By right, the enemy’s mage should not dare to enter the city. Even the sorcerer that Eleanor encountered was outside the city as well. The sorcerer must at least be grade-8 since he was able to injure Eleanor, otherwise the former should have been the one injured by her arrow.

After ensuring the safety of the city, Saleen used his elemental eyes to look further and discovered at least three-thousand types of birds flying in the skies outside of Daliang City. There were more than three-thousand if the magic beasts were excluded.

It was not easy to tell the difference because birds had settled down in human cities for tens and thousands of years. Humans simply did not kill such birds. Magic beasts with grades, in particular, would even help to prey on pests. In reciprocation, farmers would leave some food behind for these magic beasts during winter when food was rare.

Six-hundred years ago, the Emperor of the Tanggulasi Empire once gave the order to hunt down a type of grade-2 swift to be made into a beautiful overcoat for himself. This overcoat required only a cluster of feathers found between the tails. Tens of thousands of swifts were killed and for the next three consecutive years, the south of Tanggulasi Empire suffered from magic locust swarms as a result.

Billions of magic locusts swarmed all over the south of the empire. Even the countless holy priests sent by the Holy See failed to control the situation completely. Within those three years, millions of people in the Tanggulasi Empire starved to death.

Cloudflow guarded their borders fiercely. They brought over many of their magic beasts and ensured that the magic locust swarms did not cross the border. Cloudflow sacrificed tens of millions of gold coins and prevented the locust swarms from infiltrating their lands.

Since then, no one on the Myers Mainland was willing to hunt magic beasts of such bird-types. It was extremely effective of Cloudflow to use golden-eyed fire crows as weapons of reconnaissance. There were many of such creatures in the south, so it would be difficult to tell if they were wild or reared by humans. These fire crows preyed on field mice, which could be helpful animals, and could occasionally destroy some trees. At the end of the day, humans were willing to put up with it all.

When Saleen was sure that there were no such magic beasts in the city, he spoke to Lex again.

“Lex, shouldn’t your flying technique have evolved?”

“Hmm,” Lex replied. Once she knew that Saleen was trying to familiarize with her techniques, she took out her magic staff. The magic staff was refined for her by Joey and contained three grade-8 spells. Since she had just advanced, it would be difficult for her to control the casting of spells while flying in the air. Using scrolls and magic staff was a mage’s best choices.

The surface of Lex’s body produced an orange-red glow. A layer of fire elements spread over her seven-colored magic robe and a gigantic pair of wings of flame appeared on her back.

Such fire-type flying techniques were rarely seen. A flying technique like this was much faster than the Quickcloud spell and would be on par with the grade-8 Wind Dragon spell.

The person that was taken aback was Lex and not Saleen. When she spread her wings of flame, she immediately sensed the Quickcloud spell transforming. The water elements that had covered her entire body and was controlled by Saleen automatically changed into fire elements. Although this process was not instant, it was still very quick.

If Saleen’s ability to interchange elements was so powerful, would that make him the same as a sorcerer?