Badge in Azure Chapter 651 - The kings’ mutiny (Part 2)

Chapter 651: The kings’ mutiny (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In a field battle, heavy infantrymen were always used as the main force to deal with heavy cavalrymen. When heavy infantrymen were sent to invade a city, equipment would become a problem. A few nations could organize an army, with soldiers above the standard of a swordmaster, to invade other lands.
When a person cultivated the Sword Aura to a swordmaster’s standard, their Sword Aura could be released from their body and be attached to equipment. Examples included armor, swords, or even feather arrows. Even if a swordmaster donned heavy armor, they could still leap to insane heights.
Usually, a high grade swordmaster who was one grade lower would only possess strength which was slightly higher than that of a normal human and the duration of sustaining this strength would be longer. Unless magic armor was donned, a swordsman with heavy armor only had a sustained duration of between one to six hours, according to their grades.
Currently, heavy infantrymen had begun appearing in the midst of the cannon fodder who were charging towards the city walls. The heavy infantrymen radiated brilliance, they had obviously been forcefully blessed with divine spells, their speed and strength had been boosted by dozens of times.
For the first time, Saleen saw that heavy infantrymen were running as quickly as cavalrymen. Even though the distance was only about a mile, this scene was still pretty horrifying. Saleen’s heavy infantrymen, who were battling at the city entrance, could not travel at such a high speed. This skill of increasing a human’s speed forcefully would deal severe damage to their life.
So what if these soldiers were injured? This time around, the Holy See had spared no effort, it wanted to flatten Metatrin City. They had no qualms sacrificing all the expeditionary troops.
Only holy masters above grade-4 could cause such an effect. The Holy See’s army had begun employing intermediate grade holy masters and they were used in large numbers.
At this point in time, Saleen started to regret that he did not produce high level magic armor in huge quantities. “If my commanders are wearing high level magic armor, then my orders can be relayed to every combat unit immediately.”
Saleen could only order all the battlements to rise up and fire the alchemical arrows at the same time as the fixed battlements. Fortunately for Saleen, he had obtained all the red krill shells during his first hunt, then made them into equipment. Saleen had made the thorns of the red krill into the arrowheads for the alchemical arrows
Even though red krill were a relatively weaker grade-4 magic beast, their strongest attack was the thorn. The material of this part made them worthy of being labeled as grade-4 magic beasts. Even if arrowheads made from these thorns were selling for dozens of gold coins people were still willing to purchase them.
Such materials were more durable than metal. As long as the crafting technique was superior, the arrowhead would possess massive penetrative ability. Red krill relied on this thorn to survive in the ocean. When tens of thousands of red krill used their thorns to attack simultaneously even a grade-9 magic beast would have to go into hiding.
Even Holy Rock City could not be as prodigal as Saleen, each thorn was maximized and it was crafted into three or four arrowheads. Saleen had allocated these over three-hundred-thousand alchemical arrows to the five camps. The city walls over at the western face were given over one-hundred-thousand of these arrows.
That was what Saleen meant by using money to flood the enemy.
When such alchemical arrows were used they could still be recycled and used repeatedly, but they were much cheaper than magic scrolls. Of the battlements at the city entrance, those who could be raised and lowered were utilizing miniature alchemical crossbows. Since the fixed battlements possessed strong defensive power, intermediate and large alchemical crossbows were installed in them.
Since the enemy had intensified their offensive, Saleen displayed his true techniques.
These alchemical crossbows were accurate. At the same time, over one-thousand arrows flew out from the city entrance. Saleen had held back certain techniques in this attack. If the enemy’s holy masters tried to fly, Saleen would have more alchemical crossbows awaiting them.
Before Lex left, the majority of equipment she had crafted for Saleen were alchemical crossbows. Saleen had contributed a huge quantity of magic nuclei because of this. Now was the time to receive rewards. Saleen’s alchemical crossbows were almost fifty percent accurate, these over one-thousand arrows killed more than five-hundred heavy infantrymen simultaneously.
Tanggulasi’s heavy infantrymen donned white steel armor. Their helmets were crafted as a whole, so an ax might not be able to slice it open. Each heavy infantryman held a circular metal shield in their left hand. These heavy infantrymen were agile. Sensing that arrows were approaching, they actually reacted in time. They had used the circular shields to protect their vital organs beforehand.
At this moment, the thorns of the red krill unleashed a massive function; penetration.
It was as though Saleen had tossed tens of thousands of gold coins down the city walls. There was a chain of alluring sounds. The circular metal shields and white steel helmets were as weak as paper in the face of the alchemical arrows.
At this point in time the magic arrays around Saleen became fully activated, he could finally interact with the mages stationed in the battlements. These battlements were extremely crucial. With the battlements around, Saleen would not have to care about the enemy’s offensive. One-thousand years ago, using one’s physical body to resist magic equipment had already been proven to be a very stupid idea.
Even though the sacred knights were very mighty, they were also disintegrated before Holy Rock City. Legend had it that the armor of the sacred knights contained the ability to fly. Long ago Holy See only utilized experts who were above the standard of swordmasters, there were no weaklings within the army. Even so, the walls of Holy Rock City formed a natural moat.
The moment the magic clock sounded, all areas within a radius of one-hundred miles would be inside the attack range, there were no exceptions.
Saleen did not have a magic clock, but he possessed a substantial amount of magic beast materials. He was also willing to use them.
Red krill was a non-toxic magic beast, its thorn was the sole attack method. Its attributes were categorized based on the power of ability, they were penetration, tearing, and healing prohibition. After the enemy’s defenses were breached, the remaining two attributes could then cause a greater effect. The length of a red krill never exceeded one and a half yard. An average adult red krill was only one yard long. The red krill with the longest lifespan could grow to one and a half yards. Some magic beasts in the ocean were easily more than one-hundred yards in length and only larger warships could survive in the Frozen Sea. Without these abilities, it would be impossible for the red krill to reproduce in the Frozen Sea.
The wounded heavy infantrymen were basically crippled. Their wounds were torn more than half a foot open, the radiant holy light could not heal these wounds. Blood gushed out profusely. Over two-hundred soldiers collapsed successively. The injured soldiers who actually continued advancing were only grazed by the alchemical arrows.
Saleen had installed quite a number of battlements, but the loading speed of an alchemical crossbow was lower than that of a normal crossbow. After each shot, reloading such a mighty alchemical crossbow would take up about three minutes. Saleen split the barrage of arrows into waves, but he could only release a wave of arrows every half a minute. He would not be able to set aside alchemical crossbows to deal with enemies who could fly otherwise.
Saleen was very worried that the enemy possessed flying equipment and could transport their soldiers directly to the city walls. That was why he set aside half of the alchemical crossbows to handle such enemies.
Arrows were fired every half a minute. Due to high accuracy the heavy infantrymen collapsed like chopped chives. Cheers came from the city entrance, originating from the brave mercenaries who didn’t retreat. The second camp was more disciplined, it remained silent. The cheers from the mercenaries caused the second camp to be very exhilarated though.
During the first half of the day, enemies who were struck by arrows could still sprint swiftly ahead and scale the walls, exhausting the second camp. This time around, the attack from the city entrance made the injured enemies unable to stand up anymore. The accuracy was horrifying.
“It’s great to be rich!” Saleen sighed. If other people were guarding the city, they would have suffered a nervous breakdown long ago, given the Holy See’s attack frequency. Saleen had simply spent a few thousand gold coins and his soldiers’ morale was lifted.
Each attack cost tens of thousands of gold coins, so the entire battle would consume a few million gold coins. Saleen did not give a hoot though. As long as he achieved the final victory, most of the equipment could be retrieved and repaired for future use.
Saleen was jubilant while Archbishop Nicholas had suffered a tragedy. He wanted to create some opportunities for the main body. Unexpectedly, less than one-thousand heavy infantrymen remained by the time the five-thousand strong team arrived at the foot of the city. Saleen had used more than ten-thousand alchemical arrows to get rid of over four-thousand strong enemies.
The crux laid in the fact that this was a defensive battle. Each alchemical crossbow had long marked hundreds of coordinates across the defensive region beyond the city. The mages simply had to calculate the enemy’s running speed before designating the landing zone of the arrows and the accuracy would be up to about fifty percent.
The massive lethality of the red krill arrows caused the heavily wounded soldiers to die quickly. Consequently, it dealt a tremendous shock to the enemy.
It must be noted that the cost of production of a spirit archer’s bow was only a dozen copper coins. In the aspect of the cost of production, both items had a difference of thousands of times.
Dozens of large rocks flew from the rear, landing in Metatrin City. They had come from Saleen’s trebuchets to deal with the steel monsters who were invading the city and the steel arrow chariots. The expeditionary army had seized a window of free period to deploy dozens of reassembled trebuchets.
These trebuchets were very inaccurate, but they still possessed a certain degree of lethality. The houses in the city were extremely sturdy, but a number of horses and slaves were crushed by those large rocks. Saleen had already instructed the slaves to enter a fortress located outside the city. If the enemy breached the city gates the slaves would hold the fort for a while. If the slaves killed anyone they would receive rewards and if they killed three people they would regain their freedom. Those who survived after killing more than five enemies would be able to join Metatrin City.
The Holy See had cannon fodder, but so did Saleen. Saleen had purchased slaves. The lousier ones were sent to dig mines, while those who remained were people whom Saleen was considering recruiting. The only way out for these people was to fight for Saleen.
After consecutive charges by the expeditionary army someone finally managed to breach the city entrance. It was not because Saleen had given the enemy a chance, but because there were simply too many enemies. The alchemical crossbows were firing too slowly. The bows had low lethality despite a high firing speed, unless every archer was like Jola or Eleanor.
At the city entrance, Banchajanna’s body expanded swiftly, occupying the distance spanning two passes. The Soul Flame in his pupils flickered vigorously, then Judikaka exclaimed, “Banchajanna, don’t go berserk!”
“Mm!” Banchajanna responded gravely. He swung his two arms at the front, striking dozens of heavy infantrymen who had climbed up the city entrance. The short axes wielded by the heavy infantrymen left streaks of flames on Banchajanna’s bones, but did not cause any real damage.
Judikaka felt that something was amiss, Banchajanna seemed like he could not keep his emotions in check. He was going to attack Saleen’s subordinates it seemed.
“This isn’t the right time to attack. The Holy See’s men are invading the city, even if I can be rid of Saleen’s and Aini’s control and the contract doesn’t deliver any backlash, the three of us will fight to our deaths with the Holy See. The Holy See will not care which side we are on. To a believer, death mages have to be burned to death, not to mention genuine spirits.”
Banchajanna controlled the frustration in his heart. As his six arms swung about, they had already mistakenly injured two warriors from the second camp. Everyone stayed away from Banchajanna’s attack range, only the soldiers at the foot of the city did not understand the situation. The soldiers actually concentrated their efforts and launched an offensive against Banchajanna.