Badge in Azure

Chapter 590: Taking the City (Part 2)

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

The battle formation most commonly used by the bandits was concave-shaped. Since the caravan’s bows and arrows were weak, this formation was optimal in pressuring the caravan guards and reducing damage caused by the archers.

On the interior of Cexing City’s gate was a moderate-sized plaza that was supposed to provide a strategic location for city guards to counterattack. The two-hundred bandits quickly got into their usual formation and prepared to launch an attack on the caravan from both sides.

Their opponents were not the caravan guards, but were bodyguards that have been trained by the four big families. Saleen’s one-hundred and twenty soldiers armed themselves with alchemy handheld crossbows and calmly shot a round of arrows when the two-hundred bandits charged at them.

Both sides were only about fifty yards apart. The alchemy crossbow had high penetrability and the bandits’ metal armor was useless against them. The first round of arrows alone already caused half of the bandits to fall off their warhorses.

The one-hundred and twenty soldiers calmly kept their alchemy crossbows and took up their cross spears. The blade on the spear was only a foot long and was extremely sharp at the tip while two other blades extended outwards from the sides. The cross spear functioned like a delta dagger when attacking heavy armors. The two blades on the sides prevented the entire weapon from penetrating too deep while the middle blade was long enough to pierce through the gaps of the armors and kill, yet could also be pulled out easily.

If the bandits were wearing light armor, the blades were so sharp that they could even be cut in half.

Saleen’s troops held the upper hand in the battle on the north side and exterminated the two-hundred bandits. With the help of the servants, the one-hundred and twenty soldiers finished off the remaining one-hundred bandits.

Saleen’s mages had yet to be deployed, but at this point, the situation at the north gate had finally gotten the attention of the bandits’ leader. In total, more than one-thousand bandits had been killed by the enemy that had appeared at the north gate. More than one-tenth of their men had been killed. The bandits’ main forces had already reached the House of the Lord, but now that a mysterious army has appeared behind them, the bandits’ leader began to feel nervous.

The leader was just about to lead his troops into an attack on the House of the Lord when he received news that two-hundred of their elite forces had perished. That was when he realized that something was amiss.

He might be a bandit, but he had once studied at Holy Rock City before, so he possessed knowledge that a normal bandit would not have. He knew that even though there were ten-thousand of them, they would be no match for two flag regiments from Qin.

“Ask Jumar to take some men and finish off those reinforcement troops.” The leader stroked his beard with a cruel expression on his youthful face. “Kill everyone and I will reward him fifty-thousand gold coins!”

“Yes!” His most trusted aide immediately left to look for the mage. The mage did not follow the main troops in attacking the House of the Lord. He was not a part of the bandit gang; he was hired by the people behind this bandit gang to help out in this attack. His main duty was to protect the bandits from any spells cast by the enemy’s mages. There were clearly no mages in the House of the Lord so Jumar was taking a break.

There were no signs of any mages at the north gate either. The bandit leader did not have the right to command the mage around so he could only resort to using gold coins as a reward.

Saleen instructed his soldiers and servants to take up advantageous positions and they were able to continue killing the bandits as they entered the city.

Sharman led her mage and the bodyguards given to her by Saleen to a small barbican at the north gate. They positioned themselves at the highest point and observed from there. Any bandit that tried to leave the city would be killed by her and her men.

At the north gate, one could only enter, but not get out.

Since no bandits managed to escape successfully, the bandits that were still rushing into the city had no idea that the north gate was a trap.

Saleen had less than one-thousand men in total and only two-hundred of them could be considered as strong fighters. The difference in equipment and weapons between the two groups was too stark. Saleen’s men knew that they had a few grand mages on their side along with a silver grand swordmaster. Their morale could not be higher.

The size of the plaza was not big enough to contain too many people. Su alone was enough to stabilize the situation there. Su has yet to unleash his full power as he continued to wait patiently for the grade-6 mage’s appearance.

As the sky began to darken, Saleen asked Narnia to cast a few Illumination spells in the plaza. The bandits that had yet to enter the city mistook the Illumination spells as spells cast by their own mage and all of them rushed towards it like moths flying towards a fire.

“Narnia, it’s all yours.” Saleen saw that more and more bandits were entering the city and ordered his soldiers to retreat to the streets, leaving behind a small space on the plaza where they had been occupying previously.

The plaza was fifty yards wide and one-hundred yards long and could contain up to one-thousand people easily.

Narnia smiled. Killing ordinary humans was considered boring to mages and most of them would not be willing to do it. In this case, the enemy were bandits so Narnia had no qualms doing so.

She began to prepare for her spell by chanting a complicated mantra. By the time more than six-hundred bandits had gathered in the plaza, that was when Narnia cast her first spell.

It was the Phoenix spell.

This phoenix was not like any other that Saleen had seen before. There was a period of time when Lex and Saleen shared with each other about the offenses and defences of spells so Saleen’s understanding of the phoenix spell was about the same as Lex. Nevertheless, he was still taken aback by Narnia’s spell.

The phoenix was huge, with a wingspan of sixteen yards. It was not made from restorative magic, but from advanced magic that was unique to Narnia.

A standalone grade-4 spell that was created solely by Narnia.

The phoenix’s feathers were clear and natural as if they belonged to a real creature and were not arranged according to the elements. The gigantic phoenix rose into the air and swooped down.

“How dare you!” A voice shouted in rage from the sky in the south. Saleen turned back and saw a black-robed mage flying over. This mage was very powerful, definitely more powerful than Narnia. Saleen smiled. He had been waiting for this mage to appear. If not for him, Saleen would have instructed his men to go ahead and kill all the bandits. It was not for no reason that they were all gathered together in one place.

If he had been separated from his men and they encountered this mage, all of them would have been massacred.

Only mages that were at least at the level of a sorcerer would be able to cast spells while flying. Those that were below grade-7 would have difficulty even using their scrolls if they were flying in a hurry. For Saleen, he would only be able to cast spells while airborne if he could stabilize his body. He would not have been able to do so under suboptimal conditions.

Mages could still use their scrolls if they flew at a slower speed. Even though the speed at which they could use the scrolls was also much slower, it was better than nothing. As the black-robed mage flew towards the plaza, he could see a female mage unleashing a huge phoenix that swooped towards the ground. It behaved like a real creature as it flapped its wings and the bandits that were close to them died instantly.

A grade-4 magic could be sustained more than ten times longer than a low-level spell. The phoenix’s killing spree left no survivors in the plaza yet it did not vanish. It instead flew out of the city under Narnia’s command. This was Narnia’s specialty. Although her spells exhausted twice as many magic chords, their sustainability and manoeuvrability had already reached the standard of high-level spells.

This was the level of destruction that element magic possessed, along with its ability to manipulate its summoning spell. It was as if the phoenix was a creature summoned from another dimension by Narnia. It flapped its wings and turned everything it touched into ashes.

Bandits that were still conscious enough to try to flee were immediately killed by the fireball unleashed by the phoenix.

Saleen calculated. Excluding the adjustments she had to make before he gave the order, Narnia took almost fifty seconds just to chant the mantra for this spell. This spell would not be useful in a one-to-one battle between two mages. In this case where the enemy consisted of more than one-thousand men, the effectiveness of this spell definitely surpassed Saleen’s badge.

Although the badge could destroy a grade-9 creature effortlessly, it functioned by shooting out a straight line and would disappear after that. On the other hand, the phoenix could fly and attack on its own.

The grade-6 mage that was still airborne was furious. The spell cast by the female mage had already flown out of the city gates. The phoenix was not showing any signs of losing the balance of elements, which meant that it could still sustain for tens of seconds. With that amount of time, this gigantic fire-element spell would be able to kill thousands easily.

Beside the female mage was a white-robed mage. How dare these two junior mages ignore his presence?!

The mage descended quickly, while the rest of his men were still a few streets away. He decided that he could do this alone anyway.

Su drew an arrow from the quiver on his back. This arrow was given to him by Saleen and could be infused with his strongest sword aura. Taking in a deep breath, Su turned back and realized that Saleen was no longer there.

Su did not think too much. He drew his long bow and instantaneously locked on to the grade-6 mage’s aura. Due to the difference in their grades, the mage did not realize that he had been targeted.

Saleen suddenly appeared out of nowhere on a small street. He was riding on a skeletal warhorse and was charging towards the black-robed mage.

The black-robed mage had only just descended and was taken aback. Had the white-robed mage gone insane? Even if the white-robed mage cast a spell in close proximity, the low-level spells would never be able to hurt him.

“Ha…”

The black-robed mage stopped midway through his laughter. He had originally thought that the white-robed mage wanted to get closer to him so that he would have a chance of landing his spell. The black-robed mage did not expect that the elements surrounding the white-robed mage would start to vibrate and a thick fog appeared suddenly.

No, this was not fog, but was water element that was abnormally solid. This was no low level mage. Based on the rate at which the water elements were gathered, this was at least a grade-6 mage!

There was no time for hesitation on the battlefield. The black-robed mage was only stunned for a moment, but it was enough for an arrow to fly through the sky and penetrate through his ice plate armor to result in a footlong hole in his body.

Su’s body shook while the warhorse underneath him collapsed. There was nothing fanciful about this shot. It was like when he first learned archery; every action was kept to the most simple and straightforward. This shot also gathered the strongest sword aura from the silver grand swordmaster.

The black-robed mage immediately collapsed and died from this shot.

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