Badge in Azure Chapter 294

Chapter 294: Tribunal Hunting (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen’s movements were quick and they left as just as he said. He was not able to bring two people with him while he was flying, hence he had to stay at the front as they walked. After walking south for less than ten miles, they heard a siren from afar.
“Damn it, we have been spotted!” Saleen heard the siren and knew things were bad. He grabbed Conan and lifted the leather clothes that he was wearing. On his back, there was some holy text.
It was an ancient trick that was incredibly effective. This barbarian had long ago been caught by the hunting team from the Holy See. He had just been unaware of it. The hunting team had been chasing after Conan, and once he gathered with the other people from his group, they could capture them all at once.
“Bad luck again,” Saleen said as the holy text on Conan’s back shone like a magic lamp in the dark night for the hunting team from the Holy See. The best way to avoid the people from the Holy See was for him to leave Conan behind and fly away with Nailisi.
A mage leaving behind their follower was not only embarrassing, but morally wrong.
The hunting team from the Holy See would not have high-grade holy masters from the pivotal council or a church. They must have been sent from the tribunal and could have people who were the same grade as a black deacon. The people from the tribunal were crazy and dangerous, and were incredibly complicated too. Some of them were thieves that had been manipulated by the tribunals, and they would take care of anything evil.
In the name of god, these people had become even more fearless and were even more brutal than they had been before joining the tribunal.
Saleen took off the glove on his left hand. It had almost recovered fully, but if he were to release another divine spell now, Saleen was afraid that it would take on the look of death again. A mage’s hands were incredibly important, and when learning a new magic, gestures were important. Saleen’s hand had the leaf of the Tree of Life within it, and each time he released a divine spell of the goddess, it would need to draw its powers from this life.
It felt good to use these spells, but the recovery time was incredibly slow and it would take months for his hand to return to normal. In the past few months, it had already been incredibly taxing for Saleen to learn new magic.
If he were to use a divine spell now, he could easily erase the holy text on Conan’s back that the people from the Holy See had left. Without this mark, Saleen would be able to bring Conan and Nailisi to hide within the mountains.
“Mage, what do I have on my back?” Conan asked, horrified.
“A small mark. So long as we kill the person who left it there, it will vanish.” Saleen released his clothes, not attempting to use the powers of the goddess. Running away was not an option. They were more than three hundred miles away from the camp, and a magic alarm would never make it back. However, if a battle were to take place here, the three kings would quickly sense something.
“Nailisi, prepare the scrolls.” Saleen sighed as he took one out and released it. A shining white light shot up and exploded high in the sky, producing an explosive sound.
I’ll call for help for now. With a distance of more than two hundred miles, if the three kings were to rush here, they will take less than an hour, Saleen calculated in his heart. He increased his speed and brought Nailisi and Conan into the forest.
The trees in the north had all lost their leaves in the winter season. However, these were trees that had not been logged for thousands of years, and each one of them were over a meter in diameter. The thickest one had a diameter over three meters, and even if one were to hide horizontally, it would not be a problem.
Saleen released a Quickcloud spell for himself and went to the top of a thirty-meter-tall tree. Nailisi and Conan were on two other trees, and Nailisi and Saleen had hidden Conan between them.
The whistling sound from afar approached steadily and suddenly stopped when it was about five hundred meters away.
Saleen gave a cold laugh. These people were cautious indeed. It was a pity he had decided to use everything he could and not let a single person from the Holy See go. He had plenty of level-5 scrolls and Nailisi still had some low-level scrolls with her. If they were to use all of them on this team, creating explosions everywhere, he did not believe they would not be able to take down this group of people.
The wind swept up the snow as the forest was barren. Saleen spread out his senses, and through the snowflakes, they formed a giant web. The snowflakes hit the tree branches as they blew through the gaps between the trees, swirling around the dirt mounds. Saleen’s senses were becoming clearer, and he had already discovered two intruders.
Mid-grade swordmasters? If they were near him, their explosive attacks could be very dangerous. It was a pity he was on the tree. Unless one was a grand swordmaster, they would have no choice but to face the fate of death.
Saleen was not anxious about dealing with these two people. They were too far away and using his focus to attack them would only leave a scratch on them. Moreover, the ones in charge of this hunt could not have been these two mid-grade swordmasters. The hierarchy within the Holy See was incredibly strict and the person leading the team needed to at least be a black-clothed high priest.
If he did not take down the high priest, the injuries of the other members of the hunting team could quickly be restored. This was something troublesome about the people from the Holy See. So long as a high priest was there, anyone injured could quickly restore their combat power.
Conan was lying flat on a tree crown, looking down nervously. He knew Saleen was using him as bait. This was fair as he had caused the trouble, and he could not expect Saleen to be the bait himself. However, these people from the Holy See were incredibly evil and had captured the other barbarians and brought them hundreds and thousands of miles away, toying with them all the while.
Conan was nervous. He held his stone axe in his hand, not drawing his long bow.
The archery skills of a barbarian were normal and were enough to deal with a magic beast, but not the hunting team from the Holy See. If he did not aim correctly, these people would regain their strength quickly and use even crueller means to deal with the other barbarians.
The two mid-grade swordmasters finally showed themselves, and behind them there were at least thirty other warriors.
They were all decked in black cotton armor and were wearing helmets which revealed only their eyes. Over their noses and mouths, thick white frost had appeared.
There were more people outside the forest waiting to take over. Saleen used his senses and found out that this hunting team had more than one hundred people.
One hundred people to deal with the three of us. Is there a need for this?
Saleen did not know that all the barbarians around here had been hunted down and all the hunting teams had gathered together to look for the remaining few survivors.
Conan’s group of barbarians lived nearby, but had not been found by the hunting team. This time, they had felt some magic vibrations from Conan, and a few teams had immediately gathered to capture him.
No matter who it was that Conan had interacted with, the hunting team was not going to let this matter spread.
The hunting actions from the tribunal were not supported by any pivotal council. With the Holy See in internal turmoil, these people did not want to cause any more trouble for the three heads of the tribunal.
The two mid-grade swordmasters each had a curved knife in their hand. They stopped and allowed the rest to proceed ahead, slowly drawing close, as they walked towards the tree that Conan was hiding in. The tribunal warrior dressed in black cotton armor could not hide the evil smile under his mask. He had not caught a barbarian in a long time and if he did not reach his target, he would need to spend the rest of the harsh winter in this place.
After catching this fellow, he would need to force a confession from him. Even though he did not have the torture equipment that was found in the Tanggulasi headquarters, the people from the tribunal had a knack for these techniques and could easily think of torture methods. Following this barbarian back to his gathering spot, once they gathered twenty of them together, they could deal with them all at once and return to Tanggulasi.
Saleen saw these hunters splitting up into smaller groups to approach and felt that they would be hard to deal with. Just as he was thinking about what means he should use to deal with the people of the tribunal, from the tree that Nailisi was hiding in, two three-meter-tall fully constructed puppets jumped down, giving off explosive sounds.
The fully constructed puppets’ bodies were made from metal and were incredibly heavy. They caused snowflakes to swirl up into the air, forming two large holes in the ground. The fully constructed puppets waved their weapons as they charged towards the warriors from the tribunal.
The warriors had changed into cotton armor in this weather and not a single one of them was wearing metal armor. Of these two metal puppets, one was holding an axe while the other held onto a sword blade. The puppet holding onto the sword blade threw its weapon out as easily as if it were a spear.
The sword blade whizzed through the air and one warrior from the tribunal did not have time to dodge, the sword blade piercing through his stomach.
A normal sword blade was at least two meters long. The weapon that this fully constructed puppet used had been specially made for it, and the sword blade was over four meters long. At the front, it was as wide as the palm of a behemoth of a man. It easily ripped apart the cotton armor, and the armor underneath his clothes was sliced through too. The wide sword blade passed through the warrior’s stomach cleanly, cutting through his spine from the back. It was a strike which no living creature could withstand, and hard to heal even with a divine spell.
The two mid-grade swordmasters immediately shouted in the Tanggulasi language. They had not expected that their enemies would be puppets. There must have been a mage around, and even if the mage was not spotted, the combat abilities of these two puppets could be at their peak.
If the mage was not attacked, they would be more easily able to control these puppets.
These people were still more than one hundred meters away and Saleen’s current cutter could not reach them. If he used his scrolls, it would be hard to control the spells from such a distance. Saleen saw that many of them had metal bows on their backs and did not dare make an unannounced appearance. If those people from the tribunal used their special bows, they would pose a threat to his magic shields as well.
The two fully constructed puppet chased after them as Nailisi’s shadow swished among the trees, jumping from one to another. The control range of the fully constructed puppets was not very far and Nailisi had no choice but to advance with them. However, she did not need to drop down from the trees to battle. Leaving everything to the puppets, she only needed to command them from the treetops.
The black armored warriors immediately noticed Nailisi as six warriors moved closer to the fully constructed puppets and another six went around them and took the metal bows from their backs, preparing to shoot. They immediately saw the shadow among the trees. It seemed to be flying, darting around between the trees.
This patch of forest was not considered lush and the distance between two trees was at least ten meters. The black armored warriors knew even if they were to climb up, they would not be able to chase this person down and could only use their crossbows to attack.
Saleen calmed down. He started locating the holy masters, as a black clothed holy master was harder to deal with than a white clothed one. If there was a black deacon at the back of the team, he did not want to be wiped out by the divine spell from him.
There were three different types of deacons in the Holy See – the red deacon from the pivotal council, the white deacon under the seat of the oracle, and the black deacon from the tribunal. Among them, the powers of the black deacon were the most complicated, and at least a few mages would be with them. The black deacon that had gone after Daniel had almost defeated Saleen and Lex alone. Back then, Sika had been severely injured and Nailisi had been in danger too. Saleen had a deep understanding of the horror of the black deacon. The previous time, it had been fortunate for him that his divine spell had controlled the book of hell. It did not mean that he was able to deal with a black deacon.