Badge in Azure

Chapter 1445: Making Friends (Part 1)

Imposa apparently knew that the level of those monsters was too high. If they had gone on a rampage, they would have soon faced repercussions from Myers Mainland.

However, that silver fish was of a very high level—and it was highly intelligent to boot. Even if the berserk potion actually worked, it probably wouldn’t have been punished by the rules right away, which meant that anyone who got in the way of its lethal attack would have been out of luck.

By charging at Saleen’s face, Imposa was definitely up to no good.

The grand duke was livid about this! That was no way to treat an ally. Imposa was working for the grand duke, and his nefarious actions could have put him at odds with Saleen.

Consider the facts. Saleen had his teacher, who was a terrifying mage, for support. He also had Lex, empress of the Qin Empire. There were only two reasons why Lex hadn’t yet attacked Grand Duke Iron Blood’s territory. First, she lacked the strength to do so at the moment, since she had to divert her attention to solving internal conflicts. Second, she knew that the grand duke had to give up those territories sooner or later.

He would have been opening up farms instead of building fortresses otherwise.

That meant the grand duke would be in a position to state his conditions in exchange for benefits, using the Qin territory he already held in his hand as a bargaining chip. Even if he decided to leave, he would still have been able to maintain a good relationship with Qin. As to whether he would be able to use what he’d set up on those lands as foundations to retaliate, that would have depended entirely on how things worked out in the future.

The foregoing allowed him to get in or out without putting himself at risk.

If Imposa’s actions created major misunderstandings with Saleen or made him feel resentful toward the grand duke, all the grand duke’s efforts thus far would have been for naught. It wouldn’t have mattered if Saleen had died. None of those people around him were easy to take on. The grand duke was a Dragon Knight after all, and he wouldn’t have been able to deal with them on an equal footing unless they were fighting at the dragon plane.

A sword was held in the grand duke’s hand at that thought.

That was a longsword, and it exceeded what its name implied: its blade was as long as a soldier’s spear. It was a dark golden color throughout. Imposa’s face turned grim when he saw that thing. He never expected the grand duke to sacrifice him for Saleen’s sake.

The longsword had its history, so there was no need to elaborate on that. Suffice to say, Imposa knew perfectly well why the grand duke had chosen to brandish that particular weapon instead of a dragon spear: he intended to kill him.

All attachments and sentiments were cast aside once the longsword was brandished. It was too late in the game to reverse the course of action. Grand Duke Iron Blood hadn’t gained his moniker for nothing! Even though Imposa had always worked well with him in the past, this wasn’t the first time he’d made his own decisions without first seeking the grand duke’s approval.

To be sure, what Imposa had pulled off that time was within the limits of the grand duke’s tolerance, but there was no telling what could have gone wrong—or if there would even be a next time.

Imposa was to be killed with extreme prejudice!

Not expecting Imposa’s reaction, Saleen gritted his teeth and pulled out all the stops. He saw how the grand duke had made his stance clear: to continue working with him to the point of eliminating that maverick Imposa.

Snap! Pop! His Thunder Dragon Bangle burst open. The Thunder Dragon Blaster inside his magic amplifier fired seven lightning icicles and four-ball lightning. ZZZ. ZZZ. ZZZ.

The Thunder Dragon Bangle was formed with 24 thunder dragons coiled around one another. For the past thousand years, those dragons had only been able to advance to level-12, lower than Saleen’s level. There was nothing he could have done about it, for advancements of magic beasts were usually slower than for humans. Though the thunder dragons were considered odd in that respect, they still paled in comparison to humans.

The 24 level-12 thunder dragons were, however, the highest beings found on that plane. After they reverted to their usual forms, they surrounded the big silver fish and sparkled with electrical charges. Then they fired lightning bolts from their mouths at the fish. Oh, how It writhed and twisted in pain! The electrical discharges were too weak to cause total paralysis. But the pain they inflicted was excruciating.

Saleen’s lightning icicles kept firing at the scales of the silver fish. ZZZ. ZZZ. ZZZ.

All seven lightning icicles broke. It was the first time Saleen saw natural scales of a living being stopping the lightning icicles’ penetration. Those scales would have been equal to godly items in terms of material quality.

Nevertheless, the four-ball lightning had all seeped through the scales. The only reason they were able to withstand those lightning icicles was that they were mainly physical attacks. The ball lightning, on the other hand, was capable of phasing through anything. Defense depended solely on the one defending and the proficiency in warding off lightning attacks.

But then again, there was virtually no one on the plane who had learned how to defend against lightning attacks. Even if there were people who learned to do this, they had no one else to test their knowledge on. In other words, they had no way of testing the effectiveness of those newly acquired skills.

They might have gotten themselves into the clouds during thunderstorms, but failure would have resulted if they had been struck to death by lightning, their souls broken to nothing.

When Saleen’s four-ball lightning hit the big fish, 24 thunder dragons all charged at once. They were much bigger than the fish and clad in lightning. The fish couldn’t even get a bite on them.

The fish was getting really frustrated. Its power, offense, and defense capabilities were the most formidable among magic beasts. But could it deal with the thunder dragons? Absolutely not!

The thunder dragons tangled with the fish and lightning magic patterns on the thunder dragons kept changing, charging up to unleash a lethal attack.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the fighting between Grand Duke Iron Blood and Imposa reached a critical point. Rafel disabled Imposa’s metal flying device with one thrust of her spear. She waited on the side, spear in hand, poised to charge as soon as the grand duke was at a disadvantage.

Imposa’s mind slumped when he saw the wings on Rafel’s back. He realized they weren’t equipment. They flapped about in water unaffected: Those were the wings of angels.

He realized she was an angel who was even more powerful than he was. Why did I ever get on Saleen’s bad side? Imposa wondered out loud. He originally thought his powers were superior to Saleen’s and that there was no need for him feign politeness and compliance around him. How wrong he was. He never suspected that Saleen had advanced by leaps and bounds. To make matters worse, the king mage had a terrifying bodyguard.

Imposa was only able to manipulate the puppets and equipment he had with him to fight the grand duke. Any magic spells cast would have all been nullified by the seven-colored dragon. The dragon was a jinx to mages. Except for lightning magic, it was adept in the magic of all six major elements.

Such proficiency more than compensated for the seven-colored dragon’s shortcomings in close quarters, physical combat. There was little use to Imposa regretting all of that. The only thing he was able to do at the moment was to escape using his soul-splitting skill.

The big silver fish, however, was intelligent enough to realize that if it dragged out the fight, it was only a matter of time before it would be killed by those people. It quickly absorbed the purple potion injected into its bloodstream earlier.

The berserk potion worked and the fish’s intelligence became clouded. The mystical power protecting it ceased working too. Its level burst to unknown levels in an instant.

The fish knew this tactic would never work in the long run. It wasn’t hoping to kill all its enemies, just enough so that it could escape.

The more intelligent a creature was, the more it feared death.

The fish’s scales were all opened, cutting up energy currents around it to shreds. The thunder dragons retreated at once. They too were intelligent beings: Having been around Saleen for so long, they had adapted over the years and become even more clever than humans.

Seeing how the big fish’s power rose, those creatures knew they were no longer able to keep that enemy trapped. The thunder dragons surrounding it scattered while the ones prepping the attacks behind were all primed for action. They fired huge bolts of lightning at the same time, which made them look ferocious.

The electrical discharge seen when Saleen was being attacked by a level-10 thunder dragon was already terrifying. Those from level-12 thunder dragons might have been of the same rules, but the magnitude of the energy unleashed would have been hundreds to a thousand times greater.

By now, the scales on that big fish had almost peeled entirely, revealing the bloodied skin underneath. The beast boomed in the water with a whoosh before opening a vacuum tunnel at the bottom of the ocean and disappearing right in front of everyone’s eyes.

All lightning attacks hit the peeled scales instead. Those scales simply glittered and remained almost unscathed. The thunder dragons received Saleen’s orders from the depths of their souls. All 24 of them charged and gobbled up the peeled fish scales.

There was no way the thunder dragons would have digested the scales. Saleen needed them to craft armors for his followers. He needed to fight gods in the future. If they were armed with armors of levels lower than those of the scales, any one of his followers would have easily ended up dead while fighting a god.

Grand Duke Iron Blood said to divide the loot equally; however, if it hadn’t been for his thunder dragons surrounding that big fish, the grand duke’s people would have never been able to capture that fish. Or, rather, they would have considered themselves lucky for even being able to escape.

The island continued to shake and crack. More monsters emerged, but none sported the terrifying level and intelligence of that big fish. Saleen never did figure out what that weird creature was. He only knew that it decided to absorb the berserk potion on its own, yet still had control over its actions. The escaping fish zipped past the grand duke and Imposa, who was caught in the path of the vacuum tunnel and blew up his body along the way.

At the core of the explosion, Saleen saw a soul flying out of Imposa’s body.

He pondered the image for a bit and decided not to pursue it.

Imposa might have been important, and killing him could have put an end to many potential troubles in the future. At present, though, the bottom of the ocean was crawling with high-level monsters: Each one killed was equivalent to acquiring high-level materials, enough to make tens of pieces of equipment. Despite having enough gear for his own use, Saleen still had a bunch of followers to look after.

Grand Duke Iron Blood was calm. He pointed at the surface as if to ask Saleen if he wanted to leave the battlefield.

Saleen shook his head and cast a Water Shield on the grand duke. He then said, “Imposa ran, but who cares. We’d just kill monsters here. Let’s split the loot in half as promised.”

The grand duke let out a bitter smirk, thinking Saleen did know how to work his way around things. But then again, that had been the grand duke’s decision, to begin with, becoming friends with Saleen. While that might have been a gamble, it wasn’t beyond the pale. Saleen was a mage after all, and a mage had no interest in fighting over the mainland with him. That mage would have been even less interested in becoming emperor.

“Saleen, my blade has the power of rules left over by its creators years ago. It won’t be hard finding Imposa.”

“Ahh, just leave him alone for now. Our main target now is the Holy See. Spit out any Qin lands you hold, and you can have whichever spot you want of the Tanggulasi Empire,” Saleen said in a very straightforward manner.

The grand duke replied, “Very well. I’ll need to discuss this with Lex. I know of her conflict with Golden Plains. She might be able to get the capital she sought through this.”

Saleen nodded approvingly. Yes, the grand duke was indeed clever. Given the outcome, it was no longer a trade but an exchange of favors built on relations. Such cooperation would have made him a friend of Lex as long as Lex still sat on the throne. He no longer had to worry about relations with the Qin empire. When Lex was no longer empress, he could have whatever he pleased, and both Saleen and Lex couldn’t have cared less.

Mages were indeed mages. They knew exactly what they wanted.

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