Badge in Azure

The Kind William was only relative to his other five comrades. When being cruel to others, he preferred using methods other than violence to solve problems. When he had to use violence, he would be Black William, the butcher’s knife of the inquisition. He rarely acted alone, but this mission had an urgent timeframe. With the head inquisitor away in the capital, the people around him did not have the ability contain a mage like Lex, so he had no choice but to act alone.

He was a little overjoyed that Lex had rejected his terms. The team in front of him was like a hedgehog, it was challenging to take action. The worst thing was that Lex was traveling too quickly. He had deployed an emblem group of blood knights, but they were unexpectedly terminated by Lex’s war puppets. Even though Lex also suffered substantial losses, he had lost all the pawns available to obtain Lex.

The heavy infantrymen could definitely pester Lex’s subordinates, but the horses and chariots for transportation could not be provided. Huge losses were sustained in the war with Titan Duchy, so the heavy infantrymen could only rely on inferior horses clad in armor for transport. They had to select a battlefield which the enemy could not escape from.

Given the speed of the infantrymen, it was basically impossible for them to catch up to such a swift team.

The riders from the Tanggulasi Empire were greatly disadvantaged by heavy infantrymen during the war in Loulan. Other than the imperial army, Qin had to procure most of their warhorses from Cloudflow. The local warhorses were either of an inferior species, or they were in insufficient quantities. As a result, Qin’s infantrymen were all along the strongest out of the four big empires.

If William’s heavy infantrymen were like that of Qin’s, then he would not be in such a dilemma. The heavy infantrymen from Qin could march at a speed slightly slower than light cavalry. With the help from mages, they could cover more than two-hundred miles in a day, and equip two pieces of heavy armor in half an hour.

At the moment, Black William could only harass Lex’s team on his own. Once the head inquisitor could free himself from the chaos in the capital, it would just be a matter of days for him to rush over.

The Tanggulasi Empire might not have a teleportation portal like the one in Qin, but they could still teleport a person to the borders. Once the head inquisitor reached the border, he would be able to get there swiftly given his speed.

Black William consoled himself, “It is not my fault that I cannot solve the problem independently.” He had learned from history when the whole upper management of the Holy See was greatly damaged in the assassination of Emperor Chanake. Since Lex was Emperor Chanake’s biological daughter, Black William was afraid that his plans would go awry. The Grukos family was not to be trifled with, Black William did not even want to partake in this task personally.

This time around, Lex decided to construct a wooden house for her soldiers to live in. The mages did not even disembark from the magic war chariots. By remaining onboard a magic war chariot, these mages, who were two to three grades lowers than Black William, would pose a threat to him. All of the protection duties were fulfilled by the fully constructed puppets, while the swordmasters went to rest.

If the army from the Tanggulasi Empire got there, Lex could easily abandon the wooden house anytime and flee.

Black William admired her as he observed such an arrangement. His plan to exhaust Lex’s men by making them travel endlessly had failed. Lex did not even give a hoot about his surveillance. As long as there was no huge manpower present, Lex would continue doing whatever she was doing.

Lex had the same exact thoughts too. Before killing Black William, she had to wait for information from Metatrin City no matter what.

Eleanor gave the equipment drawing to Saleen, it was drawn intricately. Lex noticed this drawing, she did not demand another one, but she paid attention to it. This magic shortbow was more complicated than a usual large magic appliance. If it was not produced using a skill like the Water Flame Alchemy, but in a normal laboratory, then the size of this laboratory would have to be unusually huge. Instead, Saleen simply threw all the materials into the water flames and used his mental strength to control the details within the bow, it did not seem taxing for him at all.

Lex also had her own refinement methods, but they were inferior to the legacy from Sregl Island. She was not envious of Saleen though, as long as she could return to Raphael’s magical tower, she could utilize the laboratory in the tower to create any type of magic equipment.

Nailisi slept, Sika trained, and Saleen refined the short bow while Eleanor continued the recovery of her injuries. The team had halted just like that. Only some magic arrays were positioned to guard against a sneak attack. Every day, two mages would man a special magic array, listening for any vibrations in the earth. If a huge group of people were approaching, the team would retreat immediately, they would not try to respond anymore.

If the flying puppets were released at this juncture, they would definitely be destroyed by Black William. Lex had straightened her thoughts, she would allow Black William to observe all he wanted. There were no secrets in the camp compound anyway.

The nights were abnormally frosty. Black William waited for three days and two nights, but Lex made no movements. He was even toying with the idea of summoning the army already. He knew that the moment an army got close, Lex would start running again. Unless these twenty people could be surrounded, any other efforts would just be in vain.

Just as Black William was feeling depressed, the dead camp suddenly emanated a thunderous explosion noise as black plumes of smoke rose dozens of meters into the sky. A slender shadow rushed out from the campgrounds, making a beeline for the south.

Black William put up a lens in front of his eyes. Through the lens, he saw that the person frantically running was a lady. Her build was exquisite, and there was a noticeable air flow encircling the surface of her body.

This woman donned a cotton coat, Titan styled. It was simple but the hem was short. She was a mage, but she was not wearing a magic robe.

Following that, two more people rushed out from the camp. One of them had a vague cloud-shaped air flow on the surface of their body, he was using an unknown speed-enhancing spell. The other guy was a warrior clad in sealed armor. This warrior was almost the same build as the mage, but he could run as fast as the mage who was blessed with magic.

Several more swordmasters ran out of the camp too, but were immediately recalled. A warrior clad in magic armor decided to jump atop a chariot, and used the alchemical binoculars to look to Black William’s direction.

That warrior’s alchemical binoculars could obviously spot Black William’s position, then he made an insulting hand gesture out of the blue.

Black William was outraged. He stood up, wanting to go over to Lex’s camp to teach that fellow a lesson, but he immediately dismissed this notion.

“Could it be a trap? Heh, Lex has powerful equipment with her, I will not be able to get close easily. That legendary expert might be hiding in the camp. If Lex had set a trap, she will not make it so obvious. I really do not dare enter her camp though. The problem is, that mage who gave chase is at grade-5. Judging by their speeds, that mage who escaped is not lower than grade-5 either. Lex sent a grade-5 mage and a warrior to pursue another grade-5 mage, which means that she doesn’t dare deploy more manpower. I do not dare face Lex directly, but would I be afraid of facing an average grade-5 mage?”

As Black William thought of this point, he immediately leaped off the mountain. While in mid-air, he had already morphed into his flying posture. A black book had appeared in his hands.

“The warrior on the chariot must be baiting me by making such a gesture at me. I might not dare enter your camp, but will I be afraid of chasing a lone mage?”

Black William’s speed increased abruptly, drawing a black line across the night sky as he trailed behind Saleen.

The guy making that offensive hand gesture was Jola, he was a little worried, and he had thought of that gesture at the last minute. If that holy master assaulted Lex’s camp, then Saleen would not need to take the risk.

Jola was not afraid of this holy master at all. He was already a Silver Grand Swordmaster, he would not be inferior to a grade-7 professional. If Black William did not travel so quickly, Jola would have conducted a sudden attack from a distance of one-hundred meters. If a Silver Grand Swordmaster wanted to fly, they could reach an altitude of one-hundred meters with effort, their speed would be much higher than that of a grade-6 mage.

Unexpectedly, Black William was extremely vigilant, he still chose to pursue Saleen.

Black William’s speed was more than double Saleen’s speed, and the distance between both parties was not that huge either. In less than two minutes, he was just behind Saleen. Saleen had also caught up to Eleanor. A green water flow appeared in his hands, and went to encircle Eleanor’s body immediately. The flames on the surface of Eleanor’s body appeared with a flash, but they got destroyed by the green water flow.

Eleanor flipped over and crashed to the ground. When Black William noticed the despair in Eleanor’s eyes, a ravaging urge welled up in his heart.

“The three of them must not get away!”

Saleen turned around sharply, putting up a crystal clear shield in front of his body. While floating in mid-air, he swiftly took out a silver magic book, wielding it in his hands.

Black William was jubilant. Even though he was not a mage, he knew the value of the silver magic book. As long as this mage was killed, the book would be his, which could be exchanged for high level equipment or even holy equipment in the Holy See.

The temperature of the air dropped even further. Black mist rose up from the silver magic book, and in the blink of an eye, it had covered the land ahead of Saleen. The book in Black William’s hand had opened up too. When he landed on the ground, a golden holy prose from the black book levitated in mid-air. In the center of this golden holy prose, there were black lines which twisted and intertwined about one another.

“Shackles!”

With just one word, a humongous golden shackle descended from the sky, engulfing an area dozens of meters around Saleen.

A page was flipped, causing more golden holy texts to levitate in mid-air. Then, Black William spat another word, “Disperse!”

Suddenly, hundreds of golden light rays emerged from within the black mist, causing the mist to be reverted to water droplets that crashed to the ground.

As Black William was about to flip to the third page, he saw that the mist had dispersed, and the female mage who had fell down was now wielding a one-meter long short bow. A transparent arrow was loaded onto the bow, it was actually crafted using expensive crystals!

He was tricked.

Black William felt a vigorous vibration in the air, and that transparent crystal arrow entered his lower abdomen.

“The other party didn’t aim for a vital point!” Black William got even more anxious. He felt as if a giant block of ice had been forced into his lower abdomen. There was no pain at all, but the sensation was so numbing that it obstructed his breathing.

“Have I really fallen for such an inferior plot?” Black William’s organs contorted, causing his usually mild face to appear very hideous in that instant.