Badge in Azure Chapter 720 - The wrath of spirits (Part 2)

Chapter 720: The wrath of spirits (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A spirit was originally a type of conversion form, it was the most stable. The emotions experienced by a human could hardly affect a spirit. The winged skeleton was not a spirit which could be provoked easily. During the journey, he discovered many people who tried to intercept Saleen.
Using the spirits released which could conduct reconnaissance silently from a great distance away, the winged skeleton managed to avoid all dangers. Saleen was not in his own city, he might not be able to flee if he got besieged by an army in the wilderness. The moment a grade-9 expert appeared, Saleen’s current Crystal Finger could only be used once.
At the moment, Saleen had already entered the Bitter Water County and the enemy had grasped accurate information about him. The Qin people immediately deployed an army to stop Saleen.
Indeed, the Qin people did not know that the leader of this team was Saleen. They would not have deployed regular troops so easily otherwise. They thought that the two-hundred man squad had brought along a number of spatial equipments to help Lex transport resources, so they thought of intercepting this squad.
Killing Saleen would result in more losses than gains.
Even though it was a misjudgment, the winged skeleton was still outraged, he decided to teach the Qin people a lesson. “People who try to harm Master will have to pay with their lives.”
A dozen cavalrymen were dragging the white-robed mages along, as they traveled north. From either side, cavalrymen from Qin kept charging out, trying to obstruct the winged skeleton’s path. This towering spirit had given them a huge shock. After brandishing a gigantic axe, a one yard long blinding blade was unleashed, no one could withstand these weapons.
The winged skeleton controlled his rhythm carefully, “If I capture the white-robed mages, the cavalrymen will lose all hope and they will stop swarming me.” The winged skeleton was only controlling the spirits from a dozen miles away. If this distance was exceeded, the death knights would battle using their instincts and they might not triumph over the Qin cavalrymen.
A death knight was merely a grade-3 creature, while the Qin cavalrymen were not short of swordmasters. Without the winged skeleton’s directions, these death knights could not have put up such a strong fight despite being outnumbered.
The white-robed mages were led into the direction of Qin’s main forces, while the cavalrymen blocking the winged skeleton had noticed a problem, but they could not leave the mages alone. If they fled now, they would be tried using military laws. If they focused on retreating, their speed might not be faster than the spirits.
At the rear, where the infantrymen’s formation had been ravaged, the undead soldiers and fallen death knights were behaving bestially. They used undead poison to create even more undead soldiers. Without a death mage controlling them, these new undead soldiers were weaker than grade-1. Their speed and offensive power were very low, the only horrifying thing about them was that they could explode and spew undead fluid all over the place. Anyone below the standard of a swordmaster would quickly turn into a corpse after being contaminated by this fluid.
An undead explosion had a diameter of around four to five yards. Arrows had to be used to shatter the skulls of the undead soldiers.
After the death knights went past the one-thousand and three-hundred Qin cavalrymen, a path in the middle had been slashed into shreds by the winged skeleton and the jade skeletons, while the cavalrymen at the flanks were wounded. Hundreds of undead soldiers then charged forward, and turned the wounded Qin infantrymen into grade-1 undead soldiers.
A grade-2 undead soldier did not possess much intelligence, but its movements were agile. They led the newly transformed grade-1 undead soldiers and followed behind the brigade of death knights advancing north. Above the city entrance, Earl Besta was dumbfounded as he witnessed the scene before him.
Over one thousand spirits had effortlessly quashed a formation put up by two-thousand Qin cavalrymen and one-thousand and three-hundred infantrymen. As they massacred their way through, their speed was not even reduced much.
At the side, one trusted soldier whispered to the earl, “Sir, should we inform His Highness?”
This trusted soldier was pretty smart, he could guess that Qin’s main forces were not very far away. If the spirits failed, then it would be better to send Saleen away since the enemy was still a great distance away. Even though the town was filled with new soldiers, they could still buy some time for Saleen if they fought to their last breaths.
“Go inform His Highness.” Earl Besta was also worried that Saleen might get into trouble. If Saleen got trapped in this small town, the nearest elites from the Bitter Water County were five-hundred miles away. The nearby towns did not contain many troops. Lex did not deploy troops at this section of the border because she did not want Holy Rock City to do the same too.
“That won’t be necessary.” A very mellow voice sounded behind the earl, causing the soldiers to be startled. It was unknown when Tolesi appeared at the city entrance.
“His Highness already knows about this, Earl, please let Lord Soldier do it.” Speaking, Tolesi commanded the forty soldiers he brought along to begin assembling an alchemical crossbow.
This alchemical crossbow was obviously a prohibited item, but since Saleen had already made his kingdom independent, he had the right to create any kind of alchemical crossbows. Below the four yard wide alchemical crossbow was a silver triangular rack. There was a pair of simplified binoculars installed atop the crossbow.
This sort of sniper crossbow could pose a huge threat to the nobles, from a mile away this alchemical crossbow could still penetrate a double-layered defense consisting of one low level magic shield and heavy armor. If a special arrowhead was used, its lethality would be even more horrifying.
Unless a grand mage was present to use magic and alter the shooting angle of the arrow, this alchemical crossbow could kill many people that did not take precautions, from a mile away.
Naturally, the shooting speed of such an alchemical crossbow was a problem, it could only fire one arrow per minute. Unless hundreds of them were fired at the same time, one alchemical crossbow could only be used to snipe the enemy’s commander. Alchemical crossbows with a higher firing speed were actually installed in the large appliances inside the battlements where there were mages operating them.
Tolesi only brought one alchemical crossbow, he was trying to see if he could locate the highest ranking noble in the enemy’s army. He could help Saleen’s army save a lot of effort by killing that noble with one arrow.
What about asking Tolesi to go out of the city to kill the enemy? He would not do that. Tolesi was not a demon with a mighty offensive power, his forte was in mental magic. In the defense of a city, one Mental Storm could cause all enemy soldiers within an area one-hundred yards wide to become dull-witted. If an illusion was created, the enemy would not even be able to locate their targets. That would allow his soldiers to massacre the enemy.
Only the winged skeleton would do something like charging into the middle of the enemy.
Saleen had woken up. Despite meditating, his body was still exhausted, so he decided to create a pail filled with Restorative Water and soak himself in it to allow his body to recover faster. Saleen was already used to such extravagant activities, he had thousands of mages and disciples working for him. The daily production volume of Restorative Water was huge.
Eleanor and Isabella were enjoying this benifit at the same time. They were next door, also soaking themselves in a wooden tub. As the Restorative Water moisturized their bodies, they felt an unexplainable comfort. Isabella thought that it was a little overboard that the two of them were in a room doing this. Looking at Eleanor’s nonchalant expression, Isabella could not bring herself to broach this topic though.
Eleanor noticed Isabella’s expression and knew what she was thinking about. Eleanor said, “Sir is never stingy on magic equipment, medicines or items. Do you feel that we are being prodigal by soaking in the Restorative Water?”
“When I was in the Tanggulasi Empire, I always used the Restorative Water with much prudence. Even though it is created using a level-1 spell, its volume is less than the volume of magic liquid created. If it is going to expire soon, I will drink it. No matter what I would never use it in this manner.”
“Are you worried that Sir is being too wasteful?” Eleanor probed.
“Yes, since I have decided to follow Sir, I hope that he can accomplish great things, so that I will have a bright future. Unlike you, my teacher is only a grade-6 grand mage. Without anyone to guide me I can only be a grade-7 sorcerer at most. It will be very onerous for me to progress anymore. I have to work much harder, I don’t wish to gamble anymore.”
“You have followed Sir for too short a period, you don’t understand his character.” Eleanor smiled and said, “He only has a dozen or so followers, and he is only willing to spend money on these people. He is extremely calculative towards others.”
“What about the maidservants?”
“They are demons, but Nailisi transformed them into the appearance of maids. They are all male demons, don’t let them take advantage of you.”
“Ah!” Isabella stared at the door with anxiety.
Eleanor cackled, “Isabella might appear valiant and courageous, but in actual fact, she is the one of the more naïve characters beside Saleen. Even that youth called Su is wiser than her.”
“Relax, with me around, the demons will not get close to you.” Eleanor consoled Isabella.
Cuisi and company had no intention to be voyeurs, the three of them remained in Saleen’s room earnestly protecting Saleen. The four demons were clad in magic armor, they could revert to their original forms anytime and engage in intense battles.
Nailisi had made it very clear, if Saleen came to harm, she would not kill the four demons. She would turn them into genuine females before throwing them to the monsters in the demonic city.
Cuisi was the most annoyed. After advancing to a supreme demon, he still could not alter his fate. Nailisi oppressed them greatly, they could not see any hope at all.
Leading the spirits, Mu En had already traveled for over ten miles. The main forces from Qin were in the far distance ahead. At the front were dozens of war chariots with large crossbows installed atop, while an emblem group of heavy cavalrymen formed up behind the war chariots.
When Mu En saw the alchemical war chariots, his heart shuddered, “They can fire dozens of large arrows simultaneously. There are twelve war chariots ahead, that means that over one-hundred arrows will be launched. I will not be able to withstand any of those arrows. Luckily the cavalrymen who are carrying the white-robed mages are in front of me. The crossbows on the chariots cannot immediately fire yet.”
Under the winged skeleton’s orders, Mu En burst out in boisterous laughter, as he pointed with the magic staff. At about five-hundred yards away, several gray rays volleyed downwards. They struck the war chariots at the front. At the same time, a gigantic gray hand condensed out of thin air. With a scoop, it had captured the few white-robed mages.
The armor of the crossbowmen on the war chariots emitted a magical radiance, but there were simply too many gray rays. The magic armor of the crossbowmen could withstand the attack, but the war chariots corroded at a speed visible to the naked eye.
As the horses galloped, the war chariots produced rumbles. They were going to be disintegrated very soon. A few of the horses pulling the chariots were unfortunately struck by the rays. Their hair began falling off and their muscles shrunk as they fell to the ground with cramped bodies.
The warriors steering the chariots quickly pulled on the reins, but it was too late. The war chariots had already disintegrated before the speed could be reduced by half. The alchemical crossbows atop were flung out. The crossbowmen jumped out of the chariots and rolled across the ground.
“Kill!” Mu En’s throat produced hoarse bellows. The spirits behind him swarmed forward. They were like a black cloud furling forward across the ground. Standing in the way of the spirits was the emblem group of heavy cavalrymen from Qin. These soldiers were the true elites of the army.