Badge in Azure

Aini smiled without saying much. He was still very confident of what he was capable of. The city was named aptly: Lonestar City. The city was indeed a lone city. To other generals or nobles, a city like that would have proved difficult to defend, and troop morale almost posed a great problem. There was only a small fort in the northern mountains, and it was situated about two-hundred miles away, meaning that it was hardly able to help support the city in a battle.

Aini was a death mage who possessed two powerful summoned creatures. The advancement of those two creatures was limited by Aini, and stuck firm at grade-9. Even so, those two spirits were still capable of providing massive death energy to the spirit army. The connection between the two planes enabled Aini to support a spirit army of more than six-hundred-thousand strong.

With the twelve ancient warriors left behind in the city, Aini’s confidence grew even firmer. Even if Lex was to leave the place, he would still have been able to hold the city down. Saleen had always been providing material for the city’s construction, and the construction of the city had always been high on the priority list. That enabled the stockpile of defensive weapons to easily last for years before there was any concern of depletion. Most of the gear wielded by the spirits was brought directly from the spirit plane after all. The use of the likes of bone arrows and death phosphorous fire enabled the stockpile to be easily conserved.

“Aini, I’ll get one big trouble off your back before I leave,” Saleen said as he opened the map and displayed the image of the landscape surrounding Lonestar City, pointing at a river more than three-hundred miles to the south. “The Sikeqinyans went here when they retreated. The army of the Holy See will meet the scattered army here at the southern shore of the river. I will crush them there. You will have to hurry up and get the fortress up north fixed, then have it ready to serve as mutual support between there and Lonestar City.”

“I…” Aini intended to say he wanted in on the action.

Saleen simply smiled and said, “Give me one-hundred-thousand spirits and gather them outside the city. I’ll be off soon.”

Saleen knew that Aini wanted to collect souls still, but if one were to do something like that, they needed to be discreet about it. There was quite a number of death mages serving under him. If all of them went imitating Aini, it would cause mass panic across the mainland.

Nicholas was different. He was a fallen holy master. People held the opinion that fallen holy masters collecting souls was not something that would have instilled terror in the hearts of people.

He had given tacit permission for Aini to collect souls due to the ones being remembered in the battle were his own elemental creatures. What the spirits did in comparison would not have stayed long in people’s memories.

Saleen was careful with things, even when it came to matters like sacking an entire city, they still proved less terrifying than someone running about collecting souls. Wars never ceased on the mainland, and people got used to people getting killed. The collection of souls would bring about terrifying thoughts of black magicians in them.

Where black magicians tread, it would be decades before the place got settled by humans again. Such was the fear black magicians instilled in the minds of people.

Saleen had Aini got one-hundred-thousand spirits ready and lined up outside the city. He himself mobilized a battalion of temple guards and five-thousand light cavalry from the nobles’ backup. The riders brought only two weapons with them—bow and arrows, and reverse-edged sabers.

One-hundred-thousand spirits seemed like a huge number, but Saleen had also taken one-hundred death mages with him, with every one of them in charge of one-hundred-thousand spirits. Even low-level mages were capable of commanding tens of spirits, and the lowest level of the death mages who went to reinforce Lonestar City was grade-4. The ones of the highest level were grade-7 sorcerers.

The warriors riding on the Wings of an Elf returned one after another, bringing pin-point accurate news to Saleen.

At the southern shore of the nameless river, the scattered Sikeqinyans set up two camps which were only about five miles from each other. From the looks of things, they seemed to have no further intention of running. The nameless river was not a wide one, and it was a short one as well. Water levels during that season were high, and even then, the width of the river hardly reached beyond one-hundred yards. Saleen’s magic infantry hardly needed bridges for crossing the river, and to spirits, there simply was no need for bridges to begin with.

Saleen was pleased to find that his decisive action of breaking up the camps outside the city was a correct one. Morale of the scattered army remained low, and the reinforcements from the tribunal had yet to come. If he was to launch yet another attack and had them running again, their morale would be totally ruined and there would be no choice but to make their last stand against his forces at the river.

The notion of making a last stand would break the minds of the Sikeqinyan mages, after what happened during the last battle.

Tens of sorcerers dared not even get near to his charging army, and their camps were literally razed by his elemental creatures. His next course of action would be no different.

Nicholas, Sharman and Lex participated in the attack as well. Five-hundred personal troops stood by Lex’s side, and every one of them was armed with elvish alchemy crossbows crafted by Saleen for them. The crossbows were made specifically to fight mages and magical equipment. The tips of the bolts were lined with a purple-gold solution that was known for its excellent anti-magic effects.

The battalion of temple guards consisted of eight-thousand demons and two-thousand heavy magic infantrymen, as well as ten-thousand auxiliary troops and five-hundred light cavalrymen. For the attack, Saleen brought only about twenty-thousand human units and one-hundred-thousand spirits. The camp he was about to raze consisted of about six-hundred-thousand Sikenqinyan troops.

Saleen sorted out his elemental badges and found eighty-six Blue Ice Maidens, one-hundred and twenty Midnight Fangs, forty-five Vermilion Knights, sixty-one Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers, seventy-seven Tempest Dragon-mights, and one-hundred and one Angels of Brightness intact.

He still had a good number of grade-9 creatures with him, which would have proven adequate for the upcoming battle. Thirty-six ancient warriors were also standing by at Saleen’s side. With him wielding such might, he would have been able to make a clean retreat even if he were to face up with professionals from the tribunal.

“Let’s go.” Saleen gestured to the leaders of the temple guards. The spirit army was divided into two sections, with both sections leading the way from the right and the left respectively. The spirits were quick on their feet. The hum of metal flyers was heard in the sky above them as they climbed, reaching an altitude of more than one-thousand yards high.

Saleen wanted to test the metal flyers’ performance in dropping the magic fire shells. two-hundred Wings of an Elf followed right behind the one-hundred metal flyers. That was the entirety of flying forces Saleen brought with him to Lonestar City.

Sikenqinyan troops were done setting up camp at the southern shores of the nameless river. The commanders and the general gathered within a tent and all remained silent, waiting for the general to speak.

The general was in full dress uniform, yet he was utterly terrified of the Metatrinians in Lonestar City. The general pointed at the shore of the nameless river and said, “Now that we are three-hundred and forty-one miles away from Lonestar City, we cannot afford to retreat anymore. If we retreat any further, our troops would all end up completely scattered, and there would be no way to gather them again.”

The commanders nodded in silence. No one would have expected the Metatrinians to be so ferocious. The tens of hundred yard tall elemental creatures who practically razed their camp were simply monsters out of the nightmares of common soldiers. “How did His Highness sign an agreement with the Holy See? The Metatrinian army is filled with demons and spirits. Now there are elemental creatures added to the mix. There is simply no telling what will show up next. If anymore of those abyssal creatures show up, it would be best for everyone to simply surrender.”

Seeing how morale of even high-ranking officers was at all-time low, the general was simply at wits’ end of what to do. The general himself feared the elemental creatures as much as anyone. How would they be able to command their subordinates to do anything? Sikeqinya was different from other countries. Bandits practically owned the place, and in response, mercenaries were in abundance as well. With two of such peculiar groups of people sharing the same empire, Sikeqinyans were strangers to fights, and they developed ample fighting experience as a result.

All of the high-ranking officers themselves were no rookies. Anyone would have been able to tell that if the Metatrinians were to show up at their doorsteps then, things would take a turn for the worse for them. The problem was however, that they were stuck within Qin territory, and there were no Qin cities to be found nearby. The nearest small city was about two-hundred miles away, and the garrison consisted of several thousand troops. They would have hardly posed a threat.

If they were to run any further, they would need to enter Kroraina, and it would have been ridiculous for them kill their way into the inland areas of the Qin Empire. There was a pass just five-hundred miles away, Beiju City of Qin. The city was of no renown, as it simply acted as a military fort, and was even more militarized than Guderian City. Beiju City was devoid of civilians, and the city was situated at the border of Laiyin Duchy, controlling Kroraina from afar.

There had been no news of the reinforcements of the tribunal. They seemed to be in some faraway place and there was simply no telling when they would arrive. The general felt rather despaired, and said with an exasperated tone, “Alright, have a good look at the defenses I drew out, and don’t let the Metatrinians cross the river.”

“Yes, general,” The commanders replied lethargically. Nobody even bothered doubting the general. Would the Metatrinians actually come for them all the way there?

“Crap! The Metatrinians are here!” troops in charge of patrol yelled from the shore. They did not even have the courage to send scouts across the river. They only became aware of the enemy, when the spirit army of the Metatrinians showed up in their alchemy binoculars.

Even Saleen himself felt peculiar about the turn of events. He carefully had the metal flyers retreated to the rear and let the Wings of an Elf take point, sweeping up any scouts they were able to find. The Sikeqinyans however, practically gave up the northern shore. Not even a single magic trap was found along the way.

“Attack!” Saleen gave the order when they were about five miles away from the two Sikenqinyan camps. Twenty-four ancient warriors leapt into the air and flew among the metal flyers.

The metal flyers were thirty yards long and sported four fixed metal wings, powered by magic power furnaces. The power train driving the huge metal flyers took up very little space. Saleen would not have even thought such a feat to be possible in the past. The metal flyers differed from the Wings of an Elf, as they were unable to slow down and incapable of hovering in mid air. They were supported completely by air currents, which was also the reason why they were capable of flight.

The thirty yard long metal flyers were capable of carrying large amounts of magic fire shells. They made for the eastern camp under the protection of the ancient warriors. Saleen rode a nightmare summoned by death mages and unleashed his elemental creatures and made it to the river before anyone else.

The nameless river was only about one-hundred yards wide. The creatures unleashed were Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers and Blue Ice Maidens. Thirty-six Blue Ice Maidens joined forces and summoned a huge area-of-effect spell—Frozen World.

Thick sheets of ice formed across the one-hundred yard wide river, and thirty-six Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers charged to the other side. Even without the ice, the soldiers would have had no trouble traversing the river; Saleen simply wanted to test the spell out. The spirit army at the rear followed as the Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers charged.

There were some among the spirits sporting huge bodies, yet they feared water. The huge spirits had only charged at the camps seeing how the sheet of ice were still intact despite being stomped on by such heavy creatures.

The eastern camp had begun to burn when the Stone Statue Soldiers were still crossing the river. The amount of fire oil stored within the magic fire shells dropped by the metal flyers weighed tens of pounds. Everything splashed by the oil burned.