Badge in Azure Chapter 425 - An involuntary battle (Part 1)

Chapter 425: An involuntary battle (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Fifty miles, forty miles, thirty miles…
Both parties were getting increasingly close. A magic book was placed next to Kanuka, he was obviously doing some last minute preparations. It was a book introducing the death language.
Fortunately, the skeletons had evolved to possess intelligence. After Kanuka gave the order, the dragon skeleton warship began increasing its speed. The posture of the bow was also adjusted. It was now pointed ramrod straight, the pair of razor-sharp horns now resembled a rider’s lance.
When both parties were at a distance of ten miles, the Eye of the Dead finally captured some crystal clear images. There were six metal-armored warships, without any markings of the Qin Empire. They were also not from the Alchemy City.
Kanuka heaved a sigh of relief. If the other party were warships from the Alchemy City, he would have been at a loss of what to do. Even though Sregl Island and Alchemy City did not have a subordinate-superior relationship, such a huge power would inevitably be offended if a battle was ignited. Kanuka would not wish for such an outcome.
The six metal-armored warships were in a bronze color. At a distance of ten miles, they suddenly separated and slowed down. That indicated that they were preparing the magic trebuchets. The rock flung by a magic trebuchet was itself a magic item too, some might even weigh thousands of catties. No matter how tough the dragon skeleton warship was, it could also get damaged in a frantic bombardment.
The Shadow Sail was withdrawn. Thirty-six skeletons stood within the magic array, activating the core power of the dragon skeleton warship. After a gentle twiddle, its speed increased abruptly, from seventy miles an hour to more than one-hundred miles an hour in that instant.
The Eye of the Dead had captured the flag language shared between the six warships. When Kanuka discovered the enemy’s flagship, he gave the attack order without any hesitation. The target was the flagship. The flagship contained the highest ranking commander. Once it was sunk, the enemy would lose their commander.
The dense air vibrations sounded unusually piercing in the wind as dozens of magic stone cannons flew into the air simultaneously, descending in the direction of the dragon skeleton warship. The enemy was actually launching while on the move, they must be experienced and elite soldiers.
The magic stone cannons were stuck together in an abnormally dense formation, and their landing points were not scattered. The enemy’s accuracy had exceeded Kanuka’s expectations. Since the dragon skeleton warship had increased its speed out of the blue, the enemy misjudged. Dozens of magic stone cannons landed behind the dragon skeleton warship. A magic stone cannon was not a spell after all. It traveled slowly and could not pursue the target. Its power was slightly weaker than the bloodstone which was carried by a bone spirit.
The dragon skeleton warship was unharmed, but Kanuka’s face was gloomy. He then said to Saleen, “Sir, the enemy is able to employ the magic trebuchets while at high speeds. They must have grand mages on all six ships.”
“Six grand mages?” Saleen furrowed his brows, then said, “Don’t deploy the swordsmen. We will crash into them directly, to sink their ships. So what if they have the grand mages?”
In his heart, Saleen was mumbling, “These six ships will never be the main force no matter where they go, so why are there so many grand mages? The news of me sinking those warships must have been leaked. Damn it, I have attracted the attention of the eastern sea allied army. These six warships must be the vanguards, there might be more trouble to follow.”
On this note, Saleen decided all the more he could not let any enemy escape.
“Nailisi, if the enemy mages can fly, you and Sika must take action. Kill all of them, I don’t want any prisoners.”
“Yes Master,” Nailisi answered with a wide grin. She was fond of things like killing people. Saleen did not like it, so she usually got restricted. Now that Saleen was allowing her to kill everyone, Nailisi was pretty glad.
Saleen was not pedantic at all. The enemy might have more than six grand mages. If he did not surprise the enemy by killing a few of them, the consequences would be dire if he got besieged. Why did he not bring the three kings along this time around?
Saleen did not bring the three kings because the city was left with too little defensive power already. After bringing along the last two grade-4 mages, the city was only left with the Caucasus people and a few low grade mages. If the three kings did not stay behind, and the city got invaded, then Saleen’s abode would be reduced to nothing.
The size of Saleen’s city was not small at all, and he had little manpower. Every day, a few hundred people would ride on magic wolves or skeletal warhorses to patrol the outskirts. It was impossible to monitor every direction.
The best solution would be to emulate Holy Rock City, by constructing a small military town ten miles east and west of the Metatrin City. The best scenario was to build a magic tower in each town, otherwise, a lone city could hardly detect any approaching enemies. At this moment, Saleen could not even gather enough soldiers to guard the city walls, not to mention a small town. He could only concentrate his forces in the middle of the city, allowing the three kings to take command. As long as the enemy was not a grade-9 sorcerer, the three kings would have their ways to deal with them.
Warships on both sides had reached a speed of one-hundred and fifty miles an hour. A distance of several miles would be covered in the blink of an eye. Before the six warships could even react, Saleen’s dragon skeleton warship had already collided with the flagship.
The flagship carried less magic trebuchets, it only had three of them. With this strike, the grand mage standing in the middle of the three magic trebuchets had fallen to the ground due to the impact. The magic puppets responsible for carrying the rocks were flung away by the impact also, causing dozens of soldiers nearby to be hit.
An earth-shattering sound spread across the ocean. After getting hit by the dragon skeleton warship, the bow of the metal-armored warship which had armor more than two centimeters thick was totally smashed. The keel of the warship was made of wood. Even though it could absorb the shock, the impact from this collision had exceeded the limit of this warship. In less than ten seconds, popping sounds could be heard coming from the interior of the warship.
The grand mage on the deck got back to his feet, feeling appalled as he stared at the dragon skeleton warship which had crashed into his ship. The massive dragon horns had torn into the warship’s metal armor. The bow had disappeared, with fragments spewing in all directions.
The warship opposite did not continue attacking the flagship. It quickly turned around and lunged at another warship instead. This time around, the dragon skeleton warship knocked on to the side of the warship. The second warship did not even put up a struggle. A gaping cavity had been bust open the middle of it.
The dragon skeleton warship did not need to continue the assault. Under the influence of the seawater, the metal armor in the middle was quickly broken. The warship sunk to the seabed in less than ten minutes.
All the warships were less than two miles from one another. The remaining four warships had witnessed this scene. Their actions were slightly slowed. Only after the second warship had been destroyed did they continue tossing the magic stone cannons.
The dragon skeleton warship swiftly dodged the descending stone cannons. While in the cabin, everyone was trying their best to stabilize their bodies. Even though the collision did not cause too much vibration in the cabins, the quick dodging actions had caused everyone to be swung around haphazardly. Only the more than seventy skeletons were not affected. They continued controlling the warship steadily.
Nailisi’s eyes blazed with exhilaration, as she said, “Master, this is too exciting!”
Since Saleen did not know how to cast the Gravitation Spell, he could only hold on to Nailisi as he grimaced bitterly. The warship was so sturdy, it far exceeded his expectations. When the magic stone cannons struck it, only a small portion of the deck was ruined. The hull remained unaffected. As long as no one stood on the deck, such an attack would not cause any trouble for the dragon skeleton warship.
When this warship swerved about sharply, Saleen wished he could tie himself to the ground, unless he flew into the air.
As long as this warship was not trapped, it would not get hurt if there were less than twelve similarly-sized warships. The dragon skeleton warship was traveling too quickly, and it could speed up and slow down abruptly. It was challenging for the magic trebuchets to accurately determine a good landing spot. In the enemy’s second barrage, only one-fifth of the stone cannons landed near the warship.
What made Saleen feel the pinch was the warship’s dodging method. It had immediately amplified the speed of depletion by five times. Just a short action like that had caused tens of thousands of gold coins worth of magic nuclei to be consumed.
“Sir, they are coming!”
Saleen did not need a reminder, he could already see it from the images transmitted by the Eye of the Dead. Four mages were soaring in the air towards the dragon skeleton warship. Of the four, two were mustering a great deal of effort. Saleen determined that these two were grade-5 mages who had just grasped the flying skill. The other two were not sorcerers either. Their speed was almost the same as Saleen’s, it was in fact slightly slower than Saleen’s Quickcloud Spell.
Theoretically, if the dragon skeleton warship ignored all operating costs and took off, these mages would not be able to catch up. There were three more warships which had not been sunk yet. If Saleen were to flee now, these three warships would be salvaged.
“Nailisi, you will team up with Aini to kill one person. Sika and I will deal with another one,” Saleen commanded calmly.
“What about us?” Kanuka and Pasatilo asked. These two grade-4 mages were very aggressive too. If the duration of battle was not protracted, they could barely kill a grade-5 mage together.
“Use the scrolls, just hold down the fort for two minutes.” Saleen licked his lips. It had been a long time since he participated in a fight personally. He could feel his heart raging with passion, as though he was looking forward to the upcoming battle.
The remaining three warships ceased their bombardment of magic stone cannons. Since the grand mages had left, they could no longer control the landing zone of the stone cannons precisely. In the worst case, they might even hit their comrades in the sky.
“Ha.” Seeing that the warship had stopped swerving about wildly, Sika let go of Saleen and took out her enourmous cudgel from the Ring of Gifts. Sika was not feeling stressed for the upcoming battle as her weapon could counter magic easily. As long as she got close to the target, any magic shield below the standard of a sorcerer would not be able to withstand her cudgel. Even though Saleen’s Water Shield was superior to the Ice Plate Armor in terms of strength and toughness, Sika could still penetrate dozens of layers of it.
The only problem was that she could not fly. If the mages tried to escape, Sika could do nothing to stop them. The enemy was here to fight. If they tried to flee, the dragon skeleton warship could simply give chase and destroy their ships. Without their ships, the mages might not be able to survive at sea.
Located in an intermediate size city in southwest Phoenix was Fort Strand. The city gates were shut. Situated fifty miles from the city was a continuous stretch of tents. The snow in the vicinity of the camp compound was not cleared, indicating that this was just a makeshift complex. Outside the huge tents, riders clad in metal armor did their patrols. These riders looked solemn, with a high standard of discipline. On the torso region of their armor was a dark vermilion marking – a six-winged flying snake.
That was the symbol of the Grukos family. Other than the Qin imperial family, no one else could wear it.