Badge in Azure

Saleen was standing behind, so he did not have to witness this scene, otherwise he would have learned another tactic. This grade-8 sorcerer had actually engraved the magic patterns belonging to a fire spell in his mouth and he knew how to draw a mini magic array. He could spit out a fireball instantly, without needing to do any magic preparations.

Mages who were inclined to battle would draw many magic arrays across their bodies, but it was simply too painful to draw a magic array in the mouth. Almost no one was willing to endure this sort of suffering.

The winged skeleton knew the perils of this fireball, but he was reluctant to retreat because it was very onerous for him to get close to this sorcerer. He decided to abandon the giant ax, while the bone wings on his back extended without any warning whatsoever. The winged skeleton went forward, then he used the razor sharp bone thorns at the ends of his wings to stab at the sorcerer’s ribs.

In the face of an oncoming green fireball, the winged skeleton only swung his head backwards.

Mysteriously, the green fireball made a bend and struck the winged skeleton’s face. The fireball was then immediately extinguished, as a crimson fissure appeared on the winged skeleton’s crystal mask.

The crystal mask worn by the winged skeleton was the sturdiest accessory on his body. A spirit would receive massive damage if their Soul Flame was directly wounded, Saleen gave this crystal mask to the winged skeleton. It imitated the devil set. Even if it was hit by an alchemical crossbow, it would not be penetrated.

This was a product Saleen was most proud of, yet it was fissured by a tiny green fireball. The that instant when the fireball struck the crystal mask, a sudden shock occurred. It underwent extreme contraction and expansion. An intermediate level spell should not be able to release this kind of energy.

A magic array tattooed on the body would never be a high level magic array, the human body could not take it.

Horrifyingly, the winged skeleton’s bone wings grew to over eight yards long. The sorcerer tried to back away, but the elvish alchemical crossbows had taken aim at his back. The third barrage was being prepared. The sorcerer took out a scroll helplessly.

This scroll was small and exquisite, it was only one-fifth the size of a normal scroll. It was obsidian in color and was bound using gold strands. Before the sorcerer could open his scroll, the winged skeleton felt a sharp pain in his bone wings. A cutlass had flown across the sky and penetrated the weakest portion of his bone wings, stabbing the sorcerer’s wrist.

The Crystal Reflection did not have much of an effect, the cutlass had fractured the elemental protection as the Sword Aura within possessed unparalleled might. Blood gushed out of the sorcerer’s wrist as the scroll fell to the ground.

The sorcerer was startled, at this point in time, he recalled something his teacher had told him when he was still a low grade mage.

“Even if you advance to a sorcerer in the future, try not to let a grand swordmaster attack you at close range.”

The cultivation of the Sword Aura was more complicated than that of magic, it was fraught with many secret skills too. The abilities of some Sword Auras could greatly counter magic. If it was not for their short attack range, the status of a swordsman would not be so lowly.

This flashback only appeared for a brief moment in his mind as another hundred arrows were fired at the sorcerer’s back. The Crystal Reflection was dotted with holes like a beehive, then another two alchemical arrows pierced the sorcerer’s body.

The sorcerer’s ribs were penetrated by the winged skeleton’s bone wings too and he bled profusely.

After getting wounded several times, the sorcerer could still maintain a calm demeanor while casting spells. One of the rings on his hand suddenly exploded and his body became clad in a layer of stone armor. The bone wings which penetrated his body had also fossilized. Two cracks sounded, as the thorn on the winged skeleton’s bone wings fractured. The sorcerer had broken free from the winged skeleton’s restraint.

He had finally straightened his thoughts, it was impossible for him to deal with the prowess of the enemy. Before leaving, he wanted to injure one of the vital fighters in the enemy’s army.

Taking out a magic staff from his ring, the sorcerer tapped it gently. A puppet formed from silver mist appeared before the winged skeleton. The winged skeleton’s giant ax then fell to the ground.

A shadow flitted under the winged skeleton’s ribs, it bent down and picked up the giant ax. This shadow swiped at the silver puppet. This person turned out to be Su, he was much shorter than Saleen, but he could wield the winged skeleton’s four yard long giant ax effortlessly.

In one swipe the silver puppet reverted to mist, then it began converging in the air once again.

The sorcerer wanted to bend down and pick up the black scroll, but he noticed that the young grand swordmaster was pouting and glaring at him ferociously. His heart shuddered, then a second ring in his hand exploded.

The giant ax shimmered with brilliance as the sorcerer’s silhouette disappeared. Su’s attack with the giant ax had created a cavity dozens of yards deep in the ground.

Some attacks could not be prevented by the Nihility skill. Su’s attack with the giant ax was one such, the Sword Aura contained in the ax already possessed the power of rules. Under the planar rules, it was impossible to be immune to any kind of skill.

Saleen’s palms were kind of sweaty, “This grade-8 sorcerer is too powerful, he only suffered minor injuries despite being besieged.” Eleanor stood right beside Saleen. Since Saleen did not give the order, she would not use her Space Arrow, since her skill would deplete quite a substantial amount of energy. As the mightier sorcerers from the enemy’s camp had not appeared, Eleanor had to maintain her offensive power.

Her elvish archery coupled with Saleen’s Crystal Finger would be their last attack method. If they had used this skill to kill the grade-8 sorcerer, Saleen would not be able to release such a fearsome attack again any time soon.

The sorcerer had shattered two rings. The second ring contained a rare space spell which caused his body to be teleported away in an instant. He then appeared two-hundred yards away at the right flank of Saleen’s team.

The sorcerer broke out in cold sweat, “That young grand swordmaster is too terrifying. If I wasn’t alert enough, that ax would have smashed me into pulp and not into two pieces.” The crater, which measured over thirty yards long and ten yards in depth, was a result of that ax’s attack.

It was easy to create a hole with a depth of half a yard in hard ground, but a cavity with a depth of ten yards had already exceeded the offensive limits of Sword Aura.

The sorcerer still tried to take out a group attack level-8 scroll in hopes of killing a few people before fleeing, but then he noticed a young grand swordmaster rushing over with a gigantic ax in hand. This caused the sorcerer to cower, would he still possess any strength after receiving such an attack?

A wind dragon was released instantly. The sorcerer leaped onto the wind dragon’s back, then fled north. He had finally lost the courage to deal with Su, he did not even think of using magic to obstruct Su’s pursuit. He would have to come to a halt if he wanted to release a high level spell in mid-air.

The wind dragon could not ascend to too high an altitude, otherwise the elvish alchemical crossbows could take aim at him easily. The sorcerer was clueless about the range of elvish alchemical crossbows, but legend had it that these crossbows had a range of one-thousand yards.

The winged skeleton extended his wings and soared into the air, trailing Su. He did not want to slaughter the sorcerer. He was afraid that the sorcerer might have some tricks to injure Su the moment Su was alone.

Su’s offensive power was higher than what the winged skeleton could imagine. If Su got into any trouble, then it was not worth the loss.

On horseback, Isabella charged towards the deep cavity. Leaping off the horse nimbly, she picked up the black scroll left behind by the sorcerer, She jumped out of the hole and up onto the skeletal warhorse. She then went back to Saleen.

Receiving the black scroll, Saleen used the Elemental Eye to study it. He noticed that all the elemental power contained in this scroll had been restrained by the gold strands, none of it was leaking out. He did not know what kind of magic scroll it was, but it was surely not lower than level-9.

“Perhaps Lex or Narnia might recognize this scroll.” Saleen put the scroll away into the devil ring.

Saleen’s guess was right, this was a level-10 scroll and it was one which could be released despite the user being at a lower grade than the scroll. The Cloudflow mage knew that Saleen was of utmost importance, as everyone was secretly protecting him. That was why the sorcerer took out his prized possession to massacre the pesky enemies. Unexpectedly, his actions had been predicted by Su and Su’s flying sword caused him to lose the scroll.

A level-10 scroll was very valuable, but it was definitely worth it if it could wipe out a person who was defended by two-hundred elvish alchemical crossbows. Those two-hundred elvish alchemical crossbows cost a ton, even a grade-8 sorcerer would be wounded by them. If a mage below grade-7 fell into the attack zone of these soldiers, death would be certain.

Saleen was very composed, he released a magic alarm, causing a shrill sound to fill the air. Su had to come to a halt. Wielding the gigantic ax, he bellowed, “Cloudflow coward, if I ever see you again, you will not be so lucky again!”

The grade-8 sorcerer was greatly enraged by the word ‘coward’, but he suppressed his anger. Urging the wind dragon, he flew on desperately. “Just go ahead and scold me, I am not some useless mage from Qin. I will dodge your attack this time and I shall brandish better equipment the next time. I have to slaughter that grand swordmaster who insulted me!”

The winged skeleton caught up to Su and took the ax. Helping Su onto his back, the both of them then flew towards Saleen. Saleen did not stop working, he commanded the soldiers to start retreating. “This location is still one-hundred miles from the Bone Castle. If I don’t get back, I might not be able to hold the fort if another two or three powerful enemies appear. It won’t be good if an ambush turns into a head-on fight.”

At the rear, the spirits were trailing from afar. Saleen turned around and saw that Cuisi, who was in the midst of the spirit army, had stored the grade-7 sorcerer’s body in his earring. Saleen thought to himself, “Do all demons have the hobby of collecting corpses?”

Saleen’s army had retreated in time. By the time the main camp organized its cavalrymen, Saleen had already traveled for more than twenty miles. That grade-8 sorcerer made a huge detour back to the port because he was deeply frightened. When the sorcerer onboard the warship learned of the battle outcome, it was already too late to pursue Saleen.

The Cloudflow people were aghast, the place where their main forces were stationed at had been ambushed. The first level was destroyed, and more than ten-thousand soldiers were killed. Even though this loss was nothing for a sixty-thousand man army, around forty-thousand soldiers had died in the lake. After coming onshore, they immediately received a second assault. The Cloudflow people no longer dared underestimate the Bitter Water County.

Saleen tallied his losses and profits. Despite losing around two-hundred soldiers and having about one-thousand of them wounded, the consumption of the battle was larger than expected. The more Saleen calculated, the more dissatisfied he was with this battle. “That grade-8 sorcerer didn’t get killed, yet I have used six-hundred alchemical arrows, The winged skeleton and demons also got injured. Seems like the battle with the Cloudflow people is going to be a long and difficult one.”