Badge in Azure Chapter 676 - Isabella (Part 1)

Chapter 676: Isabella (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tolesi’s specialty lay in mental assault and he possessed the strongest illusion techniques amongst the demons. He was also sharp enough to realize that Saleen’s compassion had been aroused. Giving an additional ten gold coins was purely Tolesi’s idea. This human swordmaster was already extremely poor. Giving him the ten gold coins now would be more effective than rewarding him with ten-thousand gold coins in the future.
As expected, when Londee saw the gold coins that Tolesi placed on the table, tears filled his eyes.
Londee did not take the equipment and gold coins immediately. Instead, he first asked, “May I know who your master is?”
“Of course, it the Lord of the city and the King of Metatrin, Your Majesty, Saleen.”
Londee knelt down on one knee, which was the most solemn gesture a swordmaster could perform. He said, “Please let his Majesty know that Londee will not let him down. For the rest of my life, I will follow him to my death.”
Tolesi smiled. He turned and suddenly vanished.
Londee was shocked. The private room faced the fighting arena. There was a gigantic glass on one side and the door on the other side was unopened. How did that woman get out?!
What a shock!
After some time, Londee finally calmed down. The equipment and gold coins were still on the table and there was also a black metal badge. It was the symbol of Saleen’s sixth battalion. Londee caressed the magic light armor and thought to himself, “The female servant serving the Lord of the city was already so powerful. He clearly does not intend to use these items to win support. I am not worth that kind of effort. That woman could have killed me anytime she wanted.”
Tolesi was not as powerful as he thought. If he was a zun grand swordmaster, Tolesi might not even be his match. Since Tolesi specialized in illusion techniques, which was one of the major weaknesses of swordmasters.
What was even more brilliant about Tolesi was that he made use of the way he vanished in front of Londee to bury the seed of fear in his heart. Should they meet up again in future, Londee would not be able to utilize more than half of his abilities. He would only be able to remove this fear if he advanced to a silver grand swordmaster.
Besides, Tolesi also ensured that Londee would be extremely grateful to Saleen. Tolesi was directly hinting to Londee that there were many talented people around Saleen and he was not considered one of them yet.
If this ploy was used on Saleen, it would have been seen through immediately. Londee fell for it because he never expected demons to be that manipulative.
Tolesi had killed two birds with one stone by ensuring Londee’s gratitude towards Saleen and that Londee would never be a threat to him. A demon’s ability to come up with such ploys could never be underestimated.
This kind of method was known as ‘inception’ in the demon dimension and only demons with Tolesi’s bloodline were able to use it. Similar to Saleen’s computing power, these were proper techniques and not pure luck. This was the most outstanding aspect about Tolesi.
If Tolesi was allowed to lead an army, all his men would die for him willingly. Unfortunately, Tolesi’s grade was still not high enough to control those that were too powerful.
After settling Londee, Tolesi returned to Saleen and discretely reported to him.
This was very smart of Tolesi. If he had not told Saleen and was found out by Nailisi, he could be killed. Only by informing Saleen would save him from Nailisi.
There was no disadvantage in informing Saleen either. It was not like Saleen would tell Londee what Tolesi did.
The break was underway and the small noble families that were seated outside of the elevated platform came to pay their respects to Saleen. Those noble families on the elevated platform also gathered around Saleen to chat.
The rest of the competition would match the competitors against each other. Saleen conducted the ballot and the sixteen Professionals were split up into eight pairs.
One could see the importance of equipment from these sixteen competitors. None of them were poor like Londee and all of them possessed at least two pieces of magic equipment.
After a one-hour break, the final commenced.
Isabella’s strategy left all the other competitors helpless. The moment she entered the arena, she boosted herself with two protective spells followed by showing her competitors a grade-6 magic scroll in her hands. This was so that her competitors would surrender.
The fights without Isabella were exciting. There would be injuries and spilled blood, this greatly entertained the crowd. The moment Isabella appeared in the arena, the entire place would become silent. Her competitors had no option but to surrender.
Ice plate armor and a Stone Skin spell were not a combination that swordmasters could penetrate through easily. Her grade-6 magic scroll could also be fatal.
None of them were afraid of death, but it was not worthwhile to die in the arena.
Isabella lasted all the way to the final round and her opponent for thiat round wielded a magic heavy sword. This heavy sword was enchanted with three spells and was the reason why her opponent had managed to fight all the way to the final round.
The audience had high expectations of the magic swordmaster. Isabella’s matches were simply too boring so far. The moment she appeared, she would try to convince her opponents to surrender and they had all succumbed so far. The audience had become fed up with her.
“Finish her off!” A random member of the audience shouted and the people around him echoed it. Soon after, even those from other sections joined in the shouting. Such incidents happened frequently during polo matches as well. This was an arena filled with fifty-thousand people,when everyone shouted together like this, the outcome was incomparable.
The magic swordmaster was a young man just over twenty years old. Before entering the arena, he had replaced the magic nucleus on his sword. He was willing to expend all the middle-grade magic nuclei that he possessed in order to defeat Isabella. Damn this Tanggulasi woman for not knowing her place! She must be defeated!
Defeating a mage was something to be proud of. Since his opponent was a Tanggulasi person, he would not have to worry about angering a Qin mage either.
Isabella did not allow the anger of fifty-thousand people to bother her. She smiled as she made her way to the arena. After boosting herself with three spells, she took out a black magic scroll.
The magic swordmaster’s face went pale. The opponent was willing to use a high-level magic scroll. Even the cheapest of such scrolls would cost tens of thousands of gold coins. Was the woman crazy enough to sacrifice that just for a prize of one-hundred gold coins?
Isabella smiled and said, “You are not a grand swordmaster. If I unleashed this grade-7 spell, you will die horribly. Why don’t you just surrender?”
Isabella’s voice was magnified by the magic arrays and her annoying tactic of persuading her opponents to surrender was heard by the audience once again.
“Finish her off! Neo, we support you!”
There were all sorts of chaotic noises ringing throughout the arena, but Isabella remained unaffected. She continued to speak to the unlucky magic swordmaster, “I might not be able to control this spell fully, but the possibility of you surviving it will not be more than zero point one percent. The most you can do to me is to pierce a hole in me, but you would never be able to kill me. What is the point?”
Neo wanted to cry, but no tears came. He was certain that Isabella was a grade-5 mage, but some valuable scrolls could be cast by mages with a difference of two grades. The black scroll in Isabella’s hand was real. He had no wish to gamble with his life.
The truth was that after Isabella cast this grade-7 spell, she would have used up all her mental strength and would no longer have any attacking abilities left. There was no way he would be able to defend or hide from this grade-7 spell. Before Isabella lost her abilities to fight, he would be killed. If this was a real fight on the battlefield and he had even just a beginner-level swordsman with him, Isabella would not have dared to employ this tactic.
“I…I admit defeat…” Neo left the arena with his head bowed. The arena was immediately thrown into chaos.
“The magic swordmaster is such a weakling!”
“Is he from Qin? Surely not. He must be concealing his identity!”
“Tanggulasis people have no right participating in this competition!”
Saleen turned on the sound transmission magic array and said, “This is your King. Quiet down.”
Saleen’s words were extremely effective. The entire arena quieted down and everyone looked expectantly in Saleen’s direction and awaited his decision.
“If I disqualify Isabella just because she is from Tanggulasi, not only would that be unfair to her, it would also be unfair to all of you. I am sure everyone knows that betting is involved in these matches. If I go against the rules and erase the results of a competitor, then who will pay for the losses incurred by those who had guessed correctly? I announce that the winner of the first competition ever held at the Metatrin Fighting Arena is Isabella.”
Saleen’s explanation was simple and concise. There was nothing the audience could do even if he left things unexplained. Men would always prioritize profits and gains though. The audience finally came to that conclusion as well after what Saleen said. If the outcome of matches could be changed so easily, what if they had managed to guess correctly? What if someone started to try and fix the matches? This was very common in polo competitions.
After Saleen announced the result of the competition, Daniel took over the rest. Saleen left the elevated platform and entered the hidden room behind it. He brought along the people around him and said to Nailisi, “Bring Isabella over. I want to find out what exactly she wants.”
By right, the last match of the final should have been an exciting one. Unfortunately, Isabella’s appearance foiled Eleanor’s plans. Isabella did not indicate her abilities to be of grade-5 mage during registration.
This was something the organizers overlooked. The rules had been made known long ago and Isabella merely made use of a loophole in the rules. The problem was that she would have made a huge loss if she had encountered an unpredictable opponent that was determined to fight her to the death, especially in the last match. She might have had to use the valuable grade-7 scroll that even grade-5 mages could utilize.
Saleen used to possess an empty scroll of an even higher grade, but it was used up unfortunately. Now, Saleen no longer possessed any items of this sort, so why was Isabella so willing to sacrifice such a valuable scroll? Although Isabella’s scroll was only grade-7, it could easily fetch a price of more than one-hundred-thousand gold coins if it was sold to Alchemy City.
This scroll was so valuable because one would be able to discover more magic knowledge and achieve a breakthrough in studying the structure of a scroll.
Every scroll like this was actually borne out of accident. No mage would dare to take credit for creating such a scroll. The value of such a scroll would greatly increase if it was being studied. If one was able to gather hundreds of such scrolls, there was a possibility that mages would be able to change the nature of this equipment completely. They would be able to ensure that all scrolls could be used even if there was a difference of two grades. This would be a revolutionary change for mages.