Badge in Azure

Chapter 210: Ambush (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Master, we have found a giant sea serpent,” the captain that had been sitting quietly by the magic compass suddenly said, interrupting the conversation between Lex and Juno.

“Spray magic medicine #14 to chase it away. Do not attack it,” Juno answered calmly. The giant sea serpent was a grade lower than the finless whale, but its assaultive powers were incredible. Unless the mission was already over, it would be best not to deal with this monster. There was once a hunting ship that had been knocked over by a giant sea serpent, and four mages and over a dozen swordsmen had died in the tragedy.

The mages in this hunt were of a higher grade and would be able to attack it, but Juno’s mind was not on hunting right now. Hence, he merely ordered them to chase away the sea serpent.

The magic beasts at sea were different from those on land. When magic beasts at sea were not hungry, they did not attack. If one came across them by chance, so long as they were dealt with objectively, danger could be avoided. For example, giant sea serpents hated sweet things, so as long as one released a large amount of sweet magic medicine, the sea serpent would stay away.

Similarly, using the various characteristics of different magic beasts, magic medicine could be used to lure in prey.

“Master, it is a four-eyed sea serpent!” The captain’s voice was a little hurried. Upon hearing this, Juno raised his head and asked, “Really?”

“What is a four-eyed sea serpent?” Saleen saw Juno losing his cool and interrupted.

“Have the left flank send a flying puppet to confirm the target.” Juno was a little excited and replied to Saleen’s question at the same time. “A four-eyed sea serpent is a grade-8 magic beast, and those that move around in shallow water are not adults yet. If we catch it, it will be worth a hundred times more than a finless whale.”

“Master, what about us?” Seeing Juno excited, the captain became agitated too. The value of a four-eyed sea serpent would be enough for him to never have to lead such a dangerous life ever again.

“Call the other boats. Draw close to the left flank.”

“Yes.” The captain immediately opened the magic sound array on the magic compass and communicated with the remaining two ships. The boat that Saleen was on started turning and accelerating.

Wu…

The bugle blared. Juno furrowed his brows and said, “Guys, we have encountered some trouble. Come with me up top. Let’s let the captain do his job here.”

Saleen did not know what trouble they were in, but from Juno’s voice, it seemed that danger was imminent. The few of them followed Juno to the third floor. His room was almost as big as the cabin down below containing the magic compass. At the front of the room was a giant crystal porthole, and to the back was a magic array. The two grade-6 sorcerers stared at the magic images, and upon seeing Juno return, they said, “Master, it is a human shaped sea demon.”

Juno looked back and said to the swordsmen that had followed Saleen and the others, “Go to the deck and be careful of the sea demon boarding the ship. For each sea demon killed by all of you, you will get twenty percent of the profits.”

“Yes!” The six swordsmen left to carry out their orders.

Saleen did not ask what a human shaped sea demon was. He went to the porthole and could already see that something strange was happening on the surface of the sea.

On the surface of the sea that had once been calm, a wave nearly five meters tall had appeared. Within the waves was a green human shaped creature that was stepping on the wave and coming straight towards the hunting ship. This magic beast did indeed look like a human. It was around three meters tall and had long, slender limbs on its front which possessed sharp claws. The top half of its body was above the water and was covered in blue scales.

Juno glanced at Nailisi and Sika who were beside Saleen, not saying anything. Saleen and Andrew had gotten into an argument only because of the warriors by his side. Juno had seen many things like that, and if it had not been for Lex’s special status, he would not have gone down to mediate.

The number of human-shaped sea demons increased more and more. At least four hundred of them surrounded the hunting ship that Saleen was on. Their faces looked human, or rather, like golden-eyed baboons with long mouths. After surrounding the hunting ship, they gave out shrill cries and started pouncing on the sides of the ship.

Saleen breathed in deeply. The lower-halves of the sea demons were not fish tails, but rather, similar to the back limbs of an animal. Their sharp claws hooked onto the sides of the ship and they climbed rapidly up onto the deck. It took them hardly two steps to get onboard the ship.

The mages’ cabins were at the front of the ship with one end facing the sea and the other facing the door to the deck. The sea demons climbed onto the deck and the swordsmen from the mages’ cabin rushed out, defending the entrance.

The cabin door on the first floor burst open and dozens of combat puppets rushed out, followed by the sailors onboard the ship.

At the end of the ship, the portholes on an independent cabin opened, revealing an archery nook. A small crossbow was fixed upon it and it began shooting at the sea demons behind.

At the front of the mages’ cabin facing the sea, dozens of fireballs flew out and attacked the sea demons on the sea. The sea demons on the deck had all four of their limbs on the ground as they started pouncing onto the sailors and swordsmen.

There was no rhythm to this fight as it became an intense bloodbath all too quickly. The sea demons perked their noses and started sniffing for their prey. Paying no mind to the combat puppets, they went straight for the swordsmen and sailors. Their long claws swung about and were their deadliest weapons. A gentle scratch against the swordsmen left wounds appearing everywhere.

The weapons that the swordsmen on the ship were using were wide knives and they had pretty decent killing power when swung, but were not good for stabbing. The sailors used fish spears which each had a hook at the tip of the spear. Under the protection of the combat puppets, three to five sailors stabbed their spears into a sea demon at the same time. They did not bother pulling out the weapons and released them, taking more from the cabin.

One of the swordsmen lost his balance and stepped onto intestines from one of the sea demon, falling backwards onto the deck. Immediately, two sea demons pounced onto him, one of them pulling on his leg while the other one opened its jaws wide and broke the swordsman’s neck into two halves.

Seeing that a death had occurred, the two grade-6 mages could not sit around doing nothing and said to Juno, “Master, let us go down.”

“Don’t rush. These sea demon have come at a strange time. This must be some form of a trap.”

“Master, pirates don’t have the ability to do this, and they would not enter this region of the sea either way.”

“All of you, wait outside for now. If more than half of the sea demons die but they still do not retreat, all of you take action. There are still more than ten mages below deck. They will not be a problem for now.”

Juno calmly watched the fight on the deck. There were no islands around here, so why were there so many sea demons? If someone claimed that they were raised by pirates, he would not believe it at all.

All pirates within a thousand miles had been exterminated, and the navy from the Cloudflow Empire would not come here.

The magic array at the front of the deck began lighting up. With their legs planted firmly on the deck, the combat puppets formed a circle and started swinging the axes in their hands. The swordsmen began to hide behind the combat puppets and the sailors on board switched to crossbows, not engaging in close combat with the sea demons.

The combat puppets from Alchemy City were evidently not as good as the ones that Lex had created. These puppets were bulky and clumsy, and were very easily destroyed by human weapons on the battlefield. However, they were the best things available when it came to dealing with magic beasts.

The swordsmen held their formation and held back the sea demons on the deck. Meanwhile, the door to the mages’ cabin was sealed, and from a small opening on the door, magic began to spew out.

There were fifteen foreign mages on this ship. Three of them had followed Juno to watch the show while the other twelve were below deck. Among them, there were four grade-3 mages while the others were grade-4.

Despite the fact that among them, only Andrew and Keegan had joined a hunt before, these mages quickly found a suitable spell to deal with these sea demons.

Ice Arrow spell – a level-2 water-type spell. It had penetrating strength greater than an icicle and had freezing and slowing effects.

The scales on the sea demon were fire proof, and even though a Fireball spell used up less focus, the damage to a sea demon was but a small wound. An Ice Arrow spell was different, as any small wound on the sea demon would cause it to slow down significantly. When the sea demons were slowed, it was easy even for the combat puppets to deal with them.

Psh…

One of the sea demons that had been hurt by an ice arrow was smashed into two halves by the axe of a combat puppet. The two hundred kilogram axe split open the sea demon’s brains as brown brain juice splattered everywhere. Some sea demons tried to attack the mages’ cabin, but since the door had been made from steel, the sea demons’ claws drew deep lines on it but they could not force their way in, eventually being fatally shot by some ice arrows from the mages.

Saleen analyzed things carefully. The combat abilities of these sea demons were all roughly the same. The stronger ones could take on two human swordsmen, and the normal ones were as strong as the sailors wielding the fish spears. The sailors seemed very familiar with the sea demons and left the stronger ones alone. The sailors grouped together, some of them holding shields while the rest held spears. None of them were injured or dead yet.

These sea demons looked incredibly similar to humans but possessed low intelligence. Saleen estimated that a level-2 Ice Arrow spell would be able to destroy all of them on the deck. However, he was afraid that he would destroy the deck too if he used it. Similarly, any level-7 magic that Juno released would be able to annihilate these demons, but he could not ensure that the ship would not be damaged.

A normal fishing ship would have been done for if it had encountered magic beasts like these. The hunting ship from Alchemy City had too many warriors and mages. The space on the deck was not big either, and with a group of combat puppets encircling the swordsman, the sea demons had no room to manuever about.

Suddenly, more than ten small boats appeared in the distant sea. They had been sent to help after receiving a warning from the armored naval vessel trailing behind. These boats had completely sealed cabins with only four sailors each controlling them from inside. There was a fixed puppet on the deck of these boats controlling a crossbow, shooting at the sea demons on the surface of the sea.

These boats were less than ten meters long. If they had not been following the larger ships, they would not have been able to survive in the sea, but now, they were incredibly useful. The crossbows shot in a straight line under the control of the puppets and easily passed through the demons’ bodies, spilling purplish-red blood all over the sea.

The sea demons noticed these boats and tried to attack them. The boats were incredibly quick and stayed out of range. Whenever the sea demons chased after them, they would go even further away. After a minute, the boats had killed over a hundred of the sea demons.

The boats either ran out of arrows or had expended their magic nuclei, but after shooting for a while, they abandoned the ship that Saleen was on and sped back. The magic arrays on these small boats were inlaid and needed larger ships to change their magic nuclei. It was more complicated to use a magic array at sea, for the elements were not as stable as they were on land. Once the magic nuclei were expended, they needed to return to a larger ship to change them out.

When the second batch of boats arrived, the sea demons had already dispersed, and the sea demons on the ship had died one by one under the attacks from the mages. Saleen heaved a sigh of relief. They were magic beasts, after all, and if one could not defeat them, escape was still an option. He had been calculating the magic chords of the twelve mages on the front deck. If those sea demons had not left, the mages would have quickly lost their combat powers and would have needed at least three hours to restore them.

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