Badge in Azure

Chapter 1305: Calm Before the Storm (Part 1)

The purple-gold dragon was very frustrated because its powers were suppressed at level 12, there the city territory was diminishing its powers further, and it had to worry about Grand Duke Iron Blood dying at any given moment.

It resulted in a powerful, mighty being having to run for its life like a rat, and there were still pursuers coming at them.

It had had enough!

It shot a stream of dragon’s breath as soon as it dove. Dragon’s breath at such levels meant that it could shoot as much as it liked. That was the benefit of having one’s level suppressed to far lower levels—conservation was easy.

When humans spit, there was a possibility that their mouths and throats would feel dry. When dragons blew, the stream never came out in short supply.

The purple-gold dragon’s dragon breath felt like extremely tiny Wind Blades that packed a lot of heat. Even mages capable of withstanding extreme heat were not able to resist getting cut by particles finer than dust.

There was no way Imposa would simply let the Grand Duke have all the fun. He knew that the Grand Duke wanted to kill people because he was enraged at losing so many Bug Angel Warriors. If it had not been for Imposa’s insistence, they would have been able to leave with the smallest cost incurred.

About 50,000 Bug Angel Warriors left Alchemy City; 16,000 were Saleen’s men. That meant that among the 200,000 Bug Angel Warriors that the Grand Duke brought with him, only 30,000 to 40,000 of them survived.

All of them had been elite soldiers, so the fact that he had lost over 100,000 would definitely not sit well.

The Grand Duke had picked a time when Alchemy City was at its weakest. It was a conclusion that they had come to after analyzing intel that spies within Alchemy City had gathered for years. That much effort was made before the Grand Duke made up his mind to attack.

The Grand Duke had invested in over 200,000 suits of armor, each set cost as much as building a small team of elite cavalry units in any of the empires.

There was a corresponding investment in the form of magic nuclei and scrolls, as well as magic cannons that were thoroughly broken after that battle, large puppets, and so on.

The Grand Duke had suffered sizeable losses at the docks. Over 1,000 Iron Blood Warriors had to die fighting just to attract the city’s attention and allow the rest of them to get to shore. Alchemy suffered losses in the form of magic towers, while the Grand Duke’s losses were in the form of level nine warriors.

The Grand Duke was only capable of overwhelming victory during the naval battles, but it cost him a considerable amount of magic nuclei and magic metal shells.

Such huge investments came with considerably fewer returns due to Imposa’s last minute need. The most losses that the Grand Duke suffered were Iron Blood Warriors. They were the base of his family’s power after all.

Imposa felt guilty. Finding the fragments of the gods’ bodies would have allowed him to make up for the losses, but he was only able to get a bunch of frozen monkeys.

Imposa was unsure if they were of any worth. If the monkeys turned out to be worthless, then he would have let the Grand Duke down.

He had claimed without doubt that he knew what was in the warehouse. Nothing should have gone wrong. When the fragments were transported back, Imposa had been watching and knew that the supplies had been stored in three separate places.

All who entered the warehouse were not allowed to carry any space equipment. No one was allowed to take any of the materials for their own use. Imposa would not have gotten so hyped otherwise.

The warehouses were meant for long term storage, and he had not left Alchemy City for long. He had also placed spies in the city. The tasks of the agents included watching the three warehouses.

The small cogs seemed to shoot out of Imposa’s metal cog endlessly, tens shot at any given moment. The mages retaliated as they put up their shields.

They were unable to hold their defense up. The small metal cogs were as lethal as level nine magic spells. As the mages left the enhancements of the towers behind, their defense was more than halved. A mage needed to at least be level eight to defend against level nine spells.

All three of them charged, with hundreds of warriors behind them. Things became very dire for the mages all of a sudden. The level ten mage who took the lead was thoroughly shaken, wondering why their mages were so vulnerable.

It was less the fault of the mages and more because Saleen’s territory had become formless. There were no crackling electricity, and his territory was invisible.

Saleen used Quickcloud and his speed was on par with Imposa. He used Thundering Explosion in the mist and stunned all mages below level seven.

“Mages of Alchemy City. You have ambushed my fleet at sea and now, I shall take my revenge!” Saleen used Thundering Shock as soon as he was done with Thundering Explosion. The skills shared many commonalities, and since Saleen was not fighting one-on-one, he did not need the specific, targeted traits of his skills to work.

The defeat of the mages was proof that the Elemental Hand had been too careless. While it was true that Saleen and the others had retreated like rats, it did not mean that they could be easily taken out by a group of 1000 mages.

The Grand Duke was pissed and turned around, causing the group of mages to meet their doom.

Grand Duke Iron Blood headed straight for the lead level ten mage. The mage was not one of the ones whose level was enhanced using secret arts; they were a true mage trainer.

The Grand Duke brought his dragon spear up and energy waves glimmered below the mage trainer’s foot. The mage flickered behind the group, decisive enough to tell that they were not a match for the Dragon Knight.

Regardless of the magic spells used, they would all get shot down by that dragon. They could not defend against a dragon spear.

They were quick on their feet, but Saleen was quicker. A layer of Ice Crystal Armor appeared on Saleen body. The friction between his body and the air around was so great when he moved that the armor actually burned.

Saleen appeared right before that mage and pointed a finger at the mage’s head.

The mage’s head exploded, but no flesh and blood sprayed. The mage’s head was turned to dust under Crystal Finger’s attack.

That one shot cost Saleen half of his magic chords, and lethality had been the gist of it. If the level ten mage had seen his attack before, they would not have been so easily targeted.

Saleen had too little training with Crystal Finger, as one use drained half of his magic chords. There were simply too many skills that Saleen needed to train, making him unable to use Crystal Finger for combat training.

However, it was sufficient to take on any mage who had never seen the Crystal Finger before. The level ten mage had enough time to cast a Dark Barrier when they saw Saleen’s finger, but the spell was quickly shot through by Crystal Finger. The mage did not even have any chance for regret before their head was blown up.

Saleen put the mage’s body away in his Starline Ring as soon as he killed him. There were many valuables on a level ten mage’s person. In Alchemy City, public items were only allowed to be stored in warehouses, and individuals had to carry all personal items on them. No one else found the idea of letting others help with keeping their items reassuring.

That mage had labored for hundreds of years only for Saleen to rob them blind. No one ever expected a spell capable of piercing a shield cast by a mage of similar level and killing them in one shot. Raphael had yet to create the skill when he was in his prime.

Imposa knew that Saleen possessed such a skill. He felt shivers down his spine. If Imposa did not possess the skill to split his soul, that finger would no doubt doom him if he happened to be the target.

When it came to speed, Saleen’s speed was almost beyond the human body’s tolerance. His skill of his might have only been second to Rainbow.

Things did not end after Saleen used half of his magic chords to kill a level ten mage. He unraveled a level ten scroll and cast Dark Sky, sucking mages around him into it, preventing them from moving. He followed up with Icicle.

The mages had already been robbed of half of their attributes in the Dark Sky and were unable to see Saleen attacking. Many mages had their heads blown up at the same time, dropping to the ground shortly after.

Saleen was a formidable level ten mage trainer. After the group lost their level ten mage, level nine ones posed little threat to him. He began attacking without restraint. Even when he only had half of his magic chords left, his combat capacity was hardly different from other level ten mage trainers. He had twice as many magic chords as conventional mages to begin with.

Nailisi dared not let her guard down even after seeing Saleen kill his way through the group of mages. She put away the 12 Notes of First Purgatory and did not care if the Bug Angel Warriors would be able to withstand the huge pressure. She took her devil form and took out Grey Memory, jumping into the fray.

When dealing with low level mages, all four of them were unbelievably lethal. The level ten mages serving the Grand Duke did not even fight, and his true might subordinates simply watched from the sides.

The group of mages continued to crumble. The walls were about four miles away and they were unable to provide backup. The mages serving the Grand Duke were all on guard against any fearsome beings instead.

They all saw the statues of giants. If it had not been for them being slower creatures, the mages would have forced the Grand Duke to leave. No mage would fight something they had no way of winning against.

The Grand Duke no longer had any interests killing the group that was getting increasingly scattered. He had no intention of offending all mages in the world; he only wanted to teach the mages a lesson.

“Let’s go.” Seeing the Grand Duke put away his spear and switch to his bow to chase away the mages who insisted on fighting, Saleen proposed that they leave.

That archangel that was fighting hard in the city saw the Floating City in the sky and seemed to recall something.

A Sky City? How can mages on Myers Mainland be so weak if something like that exists? If it had not been for the magic towers and the magic amplifier, the archangel would have been confident enough to raze the city tens of times over.

The huge magic array split north of Alchemy City. A terrifying purple aura formed in the midst of the green, looking like congealed blood or gas spewing from organs.

The elders of the Elemental Hand paid close attention to the summoning array. The nine elders were frustrated seeing that array split.

“We failed again?”

“We failed again. It seems that the stability between planes is no longer reliable. We won’t be able to use such powerful summoning spells in the future.”

“Indeed. We have no idea what we would summon.”

“It seems like the time for us all to leave Alchemy City. It is no longer defensible!”

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