Badge in Azure Chapter 650 - The kings’ mutiny (Part 1)

Chapter 650: The kings’ mutiny (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The three kings had arrived at the city entrance, they had assembled at the main gate of the western face. The three powerful spirits were studying the corpses of the Tanggulasi people.
More than one-hundred bodies were placed in the kings’ room, decomposing.
The Soul Flame in Judikaka’s eyes flickered violently, he proclaimed with much hatred, “The souls of these people were already very frail to begin with, but some person has destroyed all their souls! We will never find out how the pope controls them!”
“Let’s ignore the Holy See’s people and return to the death plane.” Banchajanna’s voice was unfeeling.
“What nonsense, that contract…” Diyabannersa was outraged. Even though the contract had loosened, they would still face a backlash if they returned to the death plane. The outcome would be the same if Saleen was killed and Aini was kept alive. If Saleen got into trouble in front of him, he could not turn a blind eye to it.
“Judikaka, you are the smartest one, tell us, how long more do we have to put up with this?!” Banchajanna’s current mood was even more explosive than Diyabannersa’s. Even Banchajanna himself could not control the fluctuations in his mood.
“My calculation abilities are restrained on this plane, I cannot decipher the future. Banchajanna, if we do not take into account the time difference between both planes, we can regain our freedom in at most ten years.”
“Ten years is too long!” Banchajanna said with much frustration.
“It is too long, but if Saleen dies by accident before this, we will no longer receive any punishment. We will be fine as long as we do not witness his death,” Judikaka said in a low voice.
“That’s easy, we will initiate an offensive, so it won’t be regarded as avoiding the battle.”
“No, given Saleen’s intellect, he would have deployed people to go forward if this method is effective. Don’t you know anything? That woman called Cuisi is actually a supreme demon.”
“Supreme demon?!” Diyabannersa shrieked. If they were back in the death plane, they would notbe intimidated by a supreme demon. On Myers mainland their powers were suppressed while a supreme demon could unleash all their might. In a solo battle, a supreme demon had the highest probability of destroying the power of a soul.
“That demon must have destroyed these souls!” Banchajanna bellowed.
“So, that means Saleen wants to kill us. Humph, the two of you should get ready to take action anytime. The moment the contract shows any signs of loosening, we will kill Saleen first, then kill Aini!” Judikaka’s Soul Flame stabilized, his voice was abnormally serene.
Banchajanna was having none of that, “Why must Saleen be killed first and not Aini? Are you afraid of the contractual backlash, so you want us to be the guinea pigs?!” he asked angrily.
“Guinea pigs? The three of us are guinea pigs. Humph, Aini and Saleen are almost the same in terms of offensive power, but Saleen’s subordinates have begun congregating. If we kill Aini first Saleen will be on guard and we won’t stand a chance anymore!”
“If only Master was here.” Diyabannersa said a sentence of despair. Neither Judikaka nor Banchajanna rebutted him. If Shanglan was present, he could obliterate Saleen and company with just a finger. He would never have allowed the three of them to be treated so badly.
For the past year, the three kings had been acting as coolies. Without the three kings aiding the development of the city, a huge city like this would require at least ten years to be constructed. What was more annoying was that the foundation of some buildings required huge rocks weighing tens of thousands of pounds to be piled up and the three kings could only move these rocks after reverting to their original forms.
Being the best experts from the death plane, the three kings had no choice but to build their own houses and they were acting as the lowest-skilled coolies. They had long hated Saleen and company to the core.
At the same time, the three kings had begun eyeing Metatrin City. If they seized this city and summoned huge numbers of high grade spirits over, then they could totally settle down in the Myers mainland. They could even open a gigantic channel to obtain an endless stream of soul power, allowing their powers to be upped by a notch and negating the suppression brought about the planar rules.
The expeditionary army did not deploy the main forces, but the frequency of attacks had increased. The attack strategy had also changed.
The steel arrow chariots had changed their arrows into lighter arrows. The arrow chariots fired in a scattered manner, putting pressure on the infantrymen at the city entrance. More low grade holy masters were woven into the formation of soldiers, approaching the city walls and extinguishing the fire at the lower portion of the walls. The invading soldiers had also equipped themselves with shields to protect the holy masters. At the moment they no longer concealed the positions of the holy masters.
The retaliation from the city entrance immediately became sharper as Saleen gave his orders without hesitation. One-sixth of the trebuchets facing the frontal were employed, their mission was to destroy at least half of the steel arrow chariots. The steel arrow chariots were only five-hundred yards away, they could cause substantial damage to the city entrance.
More than one-hundred burning magic stone cannons descended from above. The mages at the city entrance calculated the landing points as the disciples who were controlling the trebuchets swiftly adjusted the firing angle and the amount of power to be drawn from the magic nuclei.
The range of a magic trebuchet was up to five miles, but Saleen did not allow the trebuchets to attack enemies who were farther away. By tossing the magic stone cannons from such a short distance, it would be difficult for the enemy to deduce the position of the magic trebuchets. The moment this order was given, the trebuchets began unleashing their capability. Humongous rocks flew across the sky, landing on the enemy’s formation of crossbows.
No matter how tough steel was it also had a limit. After dozens of rounds of barrage, one-fourth of the steel arrow chariots had been smashed. The expeditionary army could not allow the chariots to assemble at the empty spaces though because the soldiers in the city had calibrated their angles and were guarding the main entrance tightly.
The scatter shots by the steel arrow chariots lost their might in that instant, they could only suppress two sides. Saleen’s city walls were different from others though. The ten yard wide passageway at the front was easily broken, but the structures at the back were basically impermeable to any arrows. The deployment of manpower at the city entrance could take place within the ramp.
Within a Tanggulasi legion, one group consisted of five-thousand men and five groups formed a legion. That meant that there were twenty-five-thousand people. The main forces gathered at the rear, deploying sieging equipment. Each wave of cannon fodder was made up of five-thousand men advancing towards the city walls.
At this point in time, Saleen could not slacken. The trebuchets at the western face were split into five phases. Each phase could launch hundreds of scattered cannons. On average, an attack took place every five minutes.
A magic stone cannon was not considered to be heavy, but it had a high lethality because each stone cannon had been refined by a mage. This defensive method employed by Saleen required a huge quantity of stone cannons, so its depletion was high. The reserves in the city could not defeat all the enemies.
In the assault by five-thousand troops, the magic trebuchets only killed about one-thousand people. If these one-thousand people were rescued, they could still return to the battlefield after being treated by divine spells, unless their limbs were totally broken.
Thousands of people scaled the city entrance, it was impossible to stop their progress just by relying on the spirit archers. The archers within the mercenaries were deployed, they planted themselves within the spirits and fired arrows downwards.
Many Tanggulasi soldiers were pierced by feather arrows, then they retaliated against the city entrance. Their crossbows could only fire one arrow, so the soldiers would toss them aside after usage. The mercenaries did not have the time or bravery to take proper aim, they simply fired blindly.
At the western city walls, there was a small gate at every one-mile interval. The gates on both sides suddenly burst open. A team of cavalrymen, enveloped by war puppets, charged towards the infantrymen at the foot of the city. This team of cavalrymen ignored the consumption by the puppets, it weaved through the infantrymen. Wherever their horse-killing swords went, limbs would fly about haphazardly.
Saleen’s calculations were right, the enemy did not deploy any cavalrymen, there were not any light cavalrymen either. The two teams of cavalrymen passed by each other, tearing the enemy’s infantrymen apart. They did not turn around, they simply rushed back to the city gates.
The enemy immediately fortified their defenses. Heavy infantrymen flanked either side. If the city gates opened again, these heavy infantrymen would charge towards the gates. Even if they could not breach the gates, they could prevent the cavalrymen from fleeing and the cavalrymen would die outside the city.
This round of assault by Saleen exterminated more than one-thousand enemies. The moment the heavy infantrymen appeared, he immediately got the trebuchets to adjust their firing angle, executing a blanket-type assault against the heavy infantrymen.
The expeditionary army would conduct the decisive battle tonight, it would be meaningless to conserve the magic stone cannons. By attacking in this fashion, Saleen could at most hold out for two days before all the stone cannons in the city were fully depleted.
Saleen even deployed Truman’s magic cannon to fend off the assault at the western gates. This magic cannon attacked the enemy’s main forces, if they were that red-robed old man might even be killed.
Saleen did not want to reveal the presence of this magic cannon though, “The next time the enemy conducts a campaign, they would surely attack from both sides. When warships appear at sea, it will then be the time for the magic cannon to unleash its power.”
It was easy for this magic cannon to kill holy masters, but difficult for it to handle a Golden Grand Swordmaster. If it was revealed the losses would outweigh the gains. The real enemy was the Golden Grand Swordmaster within the black-armored army and the two sorcerers.
At the stroke of midnight, the Holy See’s army suddenly increased its attack frequency. Soldiers swarmed forward, there was zero concern for the casualties. Saleen’s trebuchets could not keep up with this frequency. An attack every five minutes was too slow since there was only a three-mile distance.
The soldiers who had been blessed with divine spells charged forward crazily. Arriving at the foot of the walls, they climbed up in a berserk manner. Under the radiance of the fire, tens of thousands of people were smashed into pulp by the magic stone cannons. Feather arrows had penetrated their bodies and then they were set ablaze by the oil which had been poured down the city entrance.
Behind all these cannon fodder soldiers, the main forces of the Tanggulasi Empire began moving. More than one-hundred steel war chariots were pulled by gigantic puppets protecting the soldiers as they charged towards the city walls. These steel chariots were not battering rams, there were no metal horns at the front to break down doors. These chariots were five yards tall, they could protect the hundreds of soldiers traveling inside.
Pulled by the gigantic puppets, these chariots transported the heavy infantrymen of the main body to the foot of the city walls. The magic stone cannons descending from the sky could not destroy these steel war chariots.
Seeing this scene, Saleen felt regretful, “If only Lex’s Metal Titan had recovered. If the Metal Titan was released outside the city, it could flatten all the war chariots and the people inside wouldn’t survive.”
Firing holes in the fixed battlements on the city entrance were opened immediately. Dozens of large alchemical arrows were fired, striking a few puppets accurately. These few puppets, who were dozens of yards tall, wavered. They did not collapse though, they continued trudging forward.
“Damn it. Mages, prepare your scrolls and get the barbarians and Caucasus people to prepare their axes. The enemy’s heavy infantrymen are approaching!”
Saleen did not think that the heavy infantrymen could not scale the city walls because these people had been blessed with divine spells. They were just like his own heavy infantrymen who could run as fast as cavalrymen and cause massive impact.
“Where’s Judikaka? Get them to assist in the defense of the main gate!” Saleen knew that the normal troops of the second camp would not be able to resist the attack by the enemy’s regular soldiers this time around. “The real battle has just begun! I have forced the expeditionary army into a corner. They must accomplish their objective at one go. This battle would thus decide the outcome of the war.”