Badge in Azure

Chapter 591: The art of killing and economics (Part 1)

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

With one hand on the ground as support, Su stood up slowly. He was unusually astounded by the effect of that arrow. Recalling the combat method Saleen had told him and his incredulous order, Su’s eyes brimmed with admiration.

This arrow had indeed traveled at maximum velocity, its offensive power had also reached that of high level magic. The mage was killed in one second, but Su still could not kill a grade-6 mage alone.

That mage did not die wrongfully. Saleen had disguised himself as a white-robed mage and charged over on a skeletal warhorse so that he could attract the black-robed mage’s attention. When Saleen fully revealed his power, the black-robed mage’s perception had been attracted to Saleen. There was no way the mage could have expected Su’s arrow.

That split second of distraction had been calculated by Saleen with unparalleled precision.

That meant that Saleen had calculated the timing when Su’s Sword Aura was the mightiest and when it had to be released. Saleen had almost fully unleashed his own abilities within a thirtieth of a second after Su fired the arrow.

The black-robed mage was only distracted for less than half a second, but in that brief moment, Su’s arrow had penetrated his chest. It might seem like this mage was killed by Su, but without Saleen’s precise calculations, the mage could still have fled despite being injured.

Not only did Saleen have a thorough understanding of himself, he also had clear knowledge about his enemies and subordinates.

That was how a grade-6 mage got tricked by a Silver Grand Swordmaster and another grade-6 mage.

Saleen rode his horse towards the black-robed mage. The clouds had not dispersed yet. Within those clouds, Saleen leaped off the horse and began searching the mage’s body.

He found two rings and one bangle. These three items were now in Saleen’s his.

Even the meekest creature could leave behind something of value, not to mention that the enemy was a grade-6 mage. As long as there was spatial equipment, it would be worth more than one-hundred-thousand gold coins. It did not matter even if there was nothing inside the spatial equipment. Saleen gladly put these three items into his own Ring of Gifts.

The level of his Ring of Gifts was not as high as the original one. Saleen had given the previous Ring of Gifts to Sika already. At the moment, the only advantage of this ring was that spatial equipment could be stored in it, and the stored items would not be ruined.

Collecting the loot, Saleen then mounted the skeletal warhorse. Standing at the entrance of the street, he began preparing a spell. Since the enemy’s strongest mage had been killed, he would not get distracted trying to protect the normal soldiers.

Saleen was preparing the Icicle spell. This complex spell created by him could engulf an area of more than one-hundred yards, while its lethal area was more than fifty yards.

The elemental vibrations in the air were extremely violent, even a grade-1 mage would be able to detect them.

The bandits who arrived afterwards did not witness the scene where the black-robed mage was killed. They only saw a cloud encompassing the center of the street.

Even though the bandits had no strategy, they were very valiant. Seeing a suspicious cloud up ahead, the over two-hundred bandits charged over without hesitation.

While in the cloud, Saleen’s hands cast the spell at the same time, causing the surrounding temperature to drop drastically. When he was still a low grade mage, he had already created a ferocious attack, but he was more adept this time around. Hundreds of icicles took shape instantly, crashing down directly, enveloping all the bandits inside.

Saleen could not direct every icicle at the enemy, but such a dense attack did not only originate from the penetrative power of the icicles. Thunderous rumbles spread throughout Cexing City, Saleen’s Icicle spell had knocked these bandits off their warhorses in an instant. Those bandits who got hit accurately were dead, while those whose armor got grazed by the icicles were frozen by the low temperatures, causing them to fall to the ground.

All these outcomes still had to do with calculations. When Saleen was preparing this spell, he had calculated the attack distance and the bandits’ speed. Only one area spell was used, and none of the targets managed to escape Saleen’s onslaught.

Those bandits lying on the ground could not even moan, then they saw a white-robed mage emerging from the cloud. A calabash was hung around the waist of this young mage. Thereafter, a six yard long green water flow spurted out from the mage’s calabash…

The water flow released from the calabash flew forward, swiftly decapitating the bandits who were not dead yet. No matter how tough the bandits’ armor was, it also could not withstand the wringing of the water flow.

The bandits who arrived in succession came to this junction. When they saw this scene, they were scared out of their wits. In the eyes of these bandits, this mage had no conscience, he was a person determined to kill.

The city remained in turmoil, but Saleen had nothing else to do already. “The biggest problem has been resolved. Su and Cuisi alone can totally suppress those bandits. Sharman still has a grade-5 mage. Since I have removed this grade-6 mage, that grade-5 mage will possess an absolute advantage already.”

That grade-5 mage was at the city’s entrance, standing next to Sharman. He had clearly observed the coordination between Saleen and Su, and his face turned pale.

Sharman actually began clapping, then said, “I knew that Brother Saleen had been lying all along. Fourth Brother, he is a grand mage, you should be convinced by now.”

The mage wanted to rebut, but that mage killed by Saleen could already fly with ease, which was a trademark of a grade-6 mage. The coordination between Saleen and Su had slaughtered a grade-6 mage in one second. No matter how arrogant he was, he would not feel that he was superior to Saleen anymore. Both of them were grand mages, in this abrupt battle, there was nothing to conceal.

If he and Sharman were the ones in the fight, they could only manage to escape in the best scenario.

The battle continued, and Aini’s undead soldiers arrived. The undead soldiers were originally laying an ambush outside the city, as Saleen was worried that there might be some indomitable experts in the enemy. The Berserk Undead Soldiers could stall the enemies for a while while Saleen and company would escape. At the moment, Cuisi had been darting amongst the bandits for several rounds, but he did not release any distress signal. That meant that there were really no experts among the bandits.

If this was a field battle, Saleen would be afraid of sustaining too many casualties. Now, he was in the city, and his team had seized an advantageous position, thus killing over two-thousand enemies in all that chaos. Saleen had no need to worry anymore.

After a short discussion with Aini, Aini began summoning the undead soldiers into the city. Eighty spirit wolves were still lurking outside the city. Saleen had taken into consideration the worst scenario. A spirit wolf’s attack might be weaker than a grade-4 magic beast, but it could move about pretty swiftly. In a short sprint, even a grade-7 sorcerer would not be able to catch up to them.

The undead soldiers hiding outside the city were summoned by Aini’s spell and at the same time, their berserk abilities were stimulated. Hundreds of soldiers stabbed the bandit gang in the back. At the moment, there were only more than one-thousand bandits outside the city. Most of the bandits had been burned to death by the phoenix. The remaining bandits were at a loss of what to do, and the appearance of the undead soldiers from the rear created even more confusion for them.

As Saleen soared in mid-air, he could observe everything, then he sighed in his heart. “The individual offensive powers of these bandits aren’t weak, at the very least, their abilities are similar to the pirates which I recruited in the past. Back then, I was still planning to form a powerful army using those pirates, it was such a joke. Whenever such bandits run into a regular army, the outcome will be total destruction. There were more than ten-thousand bandits, but a third of them were massacred by less than one-thousand of my men. There were many more injured servants in this battle, but none of them died. Including the over one-thousand people who were killed by the phoenix, the bandits have already lost half their manpower.”

This was totally different from the stories told by traveling poets. At this moment, Saleen had gained an understanding. Hooligans were inferior to bandits, bandits were inferior to a normal army, a normal army was inferior to a noble’s private soldiers, and these private soldiers were inferior to the swordsmen from the imperial family.

In those tales narrated by traveling poets, the powerful bandits could single handedly exterminate an entire army!

It was no wonder then that the nobles never restrained the poets’ verbal freedom. Anyway, in the eyes of the nobles, the stories told by a poet were all jokes and were the lousiest of jokes. The largest fortune in this world was grasped tightly in the hands of the mages and nobles, it would be strange to see bandits getting powerful.

If the bandits were organized, disciplined and had more mages, that phoenix could not have possibly killed more than one-thousand of them. This spell might seem mighty, but it was only used against normal humans. Saleen only needed to use a spell of the same grade to destroy it. A phoenix traveled slowly after all.

There was still quite a number of bandits in the city. Over at Saleen’s side, other than the servants who were in charge of firing arrows, the rest of the people were injured. The bandits existed in overwhelming numbers. The team was slowly assembled, the injured personnel were treated with the Restorative Water first, then they were issued steel crossbows. Those servants who were originally shooting arrows now wielded weapons and joined the battle.

The city gates had been thoroughly cleaned. Forces from both merchant convoys were gathered. Under Su’s command, they advanced into the heart of the city.

Cexing City was not huge. The city owner’s residence at the middle of the city had been conquered, but the bandit leader had learned that his men at the rear had been exterminated. This young bandit was actually very decisive. A grade-6 mage had been lost, he did not want to lose all his forces here as well.

This bandit leader ordered the remaining bandits to advance north and receive Saleen’s army, while he himself led a few trusted aides and fled from the southern door.

The enemy did not have a grand mage. Saleen followed behind Su, calmly casting spells with large effective areas, causing the bandits to collapse in groups. This battle had already become meaningless, it was simply a massacre. If this was a war between two nations a mage or holy master would only take on an auxiliary function, they rarely charged at the front. The enemies were bandits, they could be killed without a judgment.

There were no laws nor moral obligations restraining a mage from slaughtering these bandits. When the bandits realized that their leader had escaped, they began dispersing. Cuisi had led twenty cavalrymen on several killing sprees in the city, he was already very satisfied and did not want to kill any more people. He also knew that Saleen was not planning to kill all the bandits, otherwise Saleen would have already laid traps outside each entrance.

One party was giving chase while the other fled. As long as there was a way out, these bandits would not fight. If the city was blockaded, the soldiers would inevitably get hurt too.

Eventually, over two-thousand bandits fled from the city. Sharman joyously led her limited manpower on a hunt for the injured bandits in the city.

Saleen asked Sharman to come back. He said, “Why are you doing that?!”

“Brother Saleen, they are bandits. Look, they all have tattoos.” Sharman picked up a human head and used a short knife to shave off the long hair, revealing tattoos on the scalp. Saleen never expected a young lady like her to be able to carry out such gruesome acts.

Seeing Saleen furrowing his brows, Sharman said, “Each head can fetch one gold coin. Since a few thousand people are dead, that means they are worth a few thousand gold coins!”

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