Badge in Azure

The element mage knew that those three bandits were false dragon knights and the silver grand swordmaster would definitely be able to deal with them. With the silver grand swordmaster in front of him, he would be able to cast spells with confidence and assurance. At most, he would use the scrolls given to him by the Rolande family and protect the lady.

The mage had already made up his mind to go all out and use the scrolls that he had been unwilling to use until now. If he had known that back then, Saleen and Lex had destroyed more than 10,000 scrolls in order to subdue the metal titan, he would not have been able to bear that thought, and his heart would have bled in pain.

Mages like him that depended on noble families were actually very poor. A middle-grade magic scroll would cost at least 1,000 gold coins, and that was just the price of an empty scroll. If he could create such a scroll on his own and infuse it with spells successfully, his profit would have been 100 gold coins. Vice versa, his expenses would also be 100 gold coins if he failed.

The equipment worth 100,000 gold coins clad all over his body was all given to him by the Rolande family. If he could only depend on himself, he would probably still be stagnating as a grade-two mage.

Aini made 200 corpse soldiers stick against the wooden wall before entering Saleen’s barrack. Su jumped down from the rooftop and blocked Aini’s path.

“Mage Aini, our incoming opponents are beast knights. The element mage will not be able to handle them on his own. Let me help.”

“Your weapon…” Aini looked at Su, meaning that he should look for Saleen for a proper weapon. The weapon that Su held at the moment would not be suitable for dealing with knights.

Su was wearing magic armor with his mask still on. On his back was a long sword, with another half-sword on his waist. The knights of the black dragon bandit gang were all armed with long weapons.

“No worries, I know what to do.” Su waved his hand and pulled Aini back to the front door of the camp. Behind both sides of the wooden walls were corpse soldiers.

In the barrack, Narnia felt uneasy and asked Saleen, “We really don’t have to go out and help?”

“The enemy’s main forces are not here yet. No hurry.”

“Not yet?”

“Yes. Those forces that have been settled by the mage must have been heavy infantrymen. You have been with Lex for a long time. You must know how much a suit of armor of a heavy infantryman costs.”

“Minimally 700 to 800 gold coins. If they are magic armor, 10,000 may not even be enough.” Although Narnia was a lifestyle mage, she was still knowledgeable about weapons.

“It took two rounds of grade-five spells to settle them, so surely each suit of armor must cost about 2,000 gold coins? So 100 soldiers alone would cost 200,000 gold coins. These heavy infantrymen would need at least two horses each and to be served by another two servants. Every ten of them would require a wagon. In total, these 100 men cost 300,000 gold coins. Were they really bandits? If they were, how many caravans do you think they would need to rob to gather so much money?”

“They are actually conventional armies!” Narnia’s voice tightened. The laws dictated that sales of weapons of every empire came with expensive taxes. If the weapons were ordered by the empire’s armies, then the prices would be much lower. Otherwise, the emperor would never be able to afford any armies.

“Not exactly. Over at Laiyin Duchy and even Sikeqinya, it is not uncommon for noblemen to create their own weapons in private. People with connections will be able to buy them at a cheaper price. A basic suit of heavy armor, excluding manpower, only costs about ten gold coins each.”

“That’s so cheap!” It was the first time Narnia was hearing about this.

“Of course, but the mines were always under the control of the royal family so the noble families could only mine a small area in private. Why would merchants from around the country travel to Metatrin to buy ores, otherwise? That’s because the profits are high. Even if the cost was 80 percent of the total revenue, they would still profit.”

“So, what is your plan?”

“To be able to carry out an attack of such a large scale on this road, the mastermind must be someone of significance. If we allow him to continue hiding in the shadows, he will pose a threat to Metatrin sooner or later. After this round of attack, we will leave immediately. I will pass a message to Lex, asking her to find an excuse to occupy Telensu Town and build three castles that will be able to look out for each other and control this trading route for the time being.”

“Three castles will not be enough.” Narnia was knowledgeable. She knew that a castle, even without any inhabitants, could only contain 1,000 soldiers. Three castles meant 3,000 soldiers, which would not be enough to maintain order on this road.

“It has to be small scaled. If we scare these people away, they will not dare to attack anymore.” Saleen smiled. If he built castles here, the enemy would definitely think of ways to get rid of them. What Saleen was most afraid of was that these people would disappear without a trace. He would not be able to deploy people just to track them down.

Rather than let these people continue hiding, he might as well lure them out.

Su came to the front door of the camp and drew his long sword. This sword had been refined for him by Saleen according to his preferences. The sword was black in color and concealed many magic patterns. Without these patterns, it would have just been a normal eight-sided Qin sword.

This long sword had three special traits; it was light, sharp, and durable.

This standard eight-sided Qin sword weighed around the same as a heavy dagger. As for its sharpness, aside from the tip of the sword being crystallized, the magic patterns also added to the sharpness of the blade, infusing magic into it at the same time. Saleen used the water flame to refine this sword. No other ordinary weapon would have been able to withstand the high temperature.

Su once tried to use the sword aura to curl this long sword up. The three-foot sword curled for five rounds before springing open again automatically. It was still a straight line without any trace of curvature.

Su held the long sword in his left hand while his right hand reached for the half-sword at his waist. This half-sword was two times longer than a dagger. It was silver-white in color and there was a hollowed-out pattern in the center of the sword. This pattern was also a magic symbol.

The patterns on the half-sword were simple, but the ones on the tip of the sword were more eye-catching. Su’s only expectation of this weapon was that it must allow for sword aura to be released beyond the tip of the sword without increased effort.

If it was someone else, they would have had a difficult time creating such a weapon for Su. Saleen understood how sword auras worked so he was able to refine this half-sword for Su. Saleen added some branches from the tree of life because without them, he would not have been able to refine such a wonderful weapon.

Su casually twirled the black sword that was as light as feather. On both sides of the silver-white half-sword, sword aura was suddenly released from the tip of the blade and shot out as far as a few yards.

Aini was taken by surprise. If this sword aura were to attack him unexpectedly, he might be badly injured. Nevertheless, he did not step back and continued to stand beside Su.

“Send some skeletal soldiers to follow behind me. If I am injured, let them cover me for a while; if I were to win, let them bring the corpses of those three men back.” With that, Su closed his eyes and adjusted his breathing behind the door, all the while listening intently to the sounds outside.

The men of the black dragon king bandit gang had traveled a long way. They would definitely join up with the other bandits and rest first before attacking. Su had other ideas. As the men of black dragon king bandit gang swaggered past the door, Su jumped out from behind the door while more than ten skeletons crawled out from the ground and followed behind him.

The skeletons were simply unable to catch up with Su. It was almost as if his legs had been fitted with springs. He was already on the road with a few jumps and was charging from the side at the three bandits riding on metal-armored dragons.

What he was using was a skirmish sword technique from the subcontinental plane. With two swords, one long and one short, he would be able to kill men within ten yards with the sword aura from his half-sword while his long sword was light and could pierce armor and block arrows at the same time. Such double-sword techniques could only be used by a silver grand swordmaster. In comparison, the black metal grand swordmaster’s sword aura would not be released far enough from his body. Even if his weapon could help him achieve that effect, it was not sustainable for long.

This was a skirmish sword technique and not a solo fight, so it was essential to have control over the sword aura for a long period of time.

As Su was charging forward and his body was advancing via bounces, he completely stopped the release of sword aura from the half-sword in his right hand. He pounced like a magic leopard.

The three bandits were not weaklings either. When they saw a youth fully clad in armor and charging at them with a long and short sword in each hand, the metal-armored dragons all stopped and turned. The dragon in the middle opened its mouth and spat acid at Su.

It spat in the blink of an eye. Su exerted force in his legs and suddenly jumped six feet high, evading the spit that flew past him. He was already in front of the bandit in the middle. The long sword in his left hand struck the metal-armored dragon’s chin.

The black-colored long sword pierced through the gaps between the metal-armored dragon’s scales without a sound. The chin was the only part of the metal-armored dragon where the gaps between the scales were slightly bigger than the others. With how sharp Su’s long sword was, one strike was all it took to severely injure this grade-five magic beast.

Su withdrew his long sword gracefully and used the momentum to spin his body in half a circle. The three false dragon knights attacked Su at the same time with their lances. The metal-armored dragon in the middle was already severely injured and crashed towards the ground, so its rider’s lance was not in the right position. It accidentally clashed with the lance of the bandit on the right. Su responded with the half-sword in his right hand and swept it towards another bandit who was within ten yards.

This bandit felt a chill on his neck. Su’s sword aura had cut through the soft armor that was protecting his neck. Three layers of beast skin were not enough to protect against Su’s sword aura.

Su had accidentally killed a bandit leader. His body was still spinning and the long sword in his left hand struck downwards with force. The bandit in the middle was leaning forward at the same time as his dragon was crashing down. The long sword struck the bandit’s back directly.

Su had a good feel for his sword. The moment it struck the bandit, he knew that he would not be able to cut through the enemy’s heavy armor in one blow, so he wriggled his wrist. The black long sword suddenly hummed and the ripples appeared from its tip. With a forceful drag, the long sword that had been lodged in the bandit’s back cut a hole two feet wide in the armor.

Su drew back the long sword a little before aiming its tip downwards at the opening in the armor and pierced the sword into the bandit leader’s body.

The last bandit was scared out of his wits to see the other two bandit leaders die instantaneously. His metal-armored dragon seemed to feel the same way as it charged forward and out of Su’s attacking range. The 100 heavy-armored knights followed closely behind. Su took one look and knew that it would take too much work if he wanted to kill them all. Those two bandit leaders that he had killed were still strapped to the metal-armored dragons by their armor and could not be taken away.

Su let out a sigh and gave chase in the bandit’s direction.