Badge in Azure

The black robed mage replied in a reserved manner, “Your Excellency, it’s inconvenient for us to partake in this discussion, His Majesty would be furious when he hears this.”

The island nations from the east had a different culture when compared to the Myers Mainland. The position of a mage was not especially high and mages could not give commands in the army. Those who took part in battle strategy could only be professional army personnel. Mages were still respected because of their strong fighting power and broad knowledge though. The grand general laughed awkwardly and said, “Mage, we shouldn’t be courteous. According to the observation of the flying puppet, the scale of the city isn’t small, but it looked like it has yet to be completed. Could we enter from other places around the harbor and attack from the land?”

The black robed mage shook his head and said, “Your Excellency, between here and the icebound sea area the nearest land would be about a hundred miles away. If we were to go ashore from another place, we would need to divide up the forces. The distance is too far apart, we would find it difficult to communicate. The people on the Myers Mainland like to build fortress-like towns around their cities to defend all sides.”

“I understand. If I had double our soldiers, dividing the forces would be a wise choice. I’ll wait for the mage group to complete the chariot transformation and attack from the harbor then.” The grand general looked at his underlining who interrupted him just now. It sent shivers down his spine and he lowered his head.

The island nation from the east strictly enforced a hierarchy and the upper class had rights over the lives of the lower class. Although there was hardly anyone that did so, he dared not speak any more.

The black robed mage did not explain further. He did not care if anyone would talk bad about him in front of the King, there was a complete mage group under him. If he were to offend these soldiers, there would be someone from the mage group that would get punished on his behalf. Youxi Maso was not cold blooded. He had always taken good care of his mage group. These people from the island nation of the east were different, they were the envy of the Cloudflow Empire, a.k.a the fourth dynasty.

The feudal official was loyal to the master of the country and the master had to take care of the benefits of the feudal official. It was a perfect era. If allied forces defeated Myers Mainland, they would have enough land to build a humongous city and to build their own mage family.

After the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat entered below the ice sheet, it increased its speed to its maximum. It only took a little over one hour for them to return to the boathouse underneath the harbor. Saleen brought Sika and the rest off the ship, but left the five mages and Nailisi behind to attack the fleet. Saleen could not care less about who was his enemy. They had killed the swordsmen from Sregl Island, it was a fight until the end for them. Even if these people returned his warships, he would not cease.

There was a secret pathway in the boathouse that connected to the ground. Saleen’s alchemical boat entered the boathouse and Kredian at the temple realized they had returned. That was the power Saleen left Kredian with before he left; to take over magic arrays that only he could use normally.

“Mister Saleen has returned. Hurry up, go usher him.” Kredian was delighted. Although they had successfully defeated numerous attacks by the enemy, he knew that the enemy only sent soldiers to probe their ability. The real attack had yet to come.

He did not have many soldiers on hand. Some were assigned to the harbor and some were assigned to the north of the city in order to prevent the enemy from coming ashore from the north. Four-hundred Caucasus Magic Wolf Calvarymen were distributed into two spots and that gave Kredian a headache. If one side was under attack, reallocating soldiers for backup would required time too.

The fighting power of Saleen’s army was not bad, but there was not a proper calvary. Although the skeleton warhorses were useful, they were used for pushing on a journey as Saleen had yet to give them calvary training.

The fighting method of a calvary required special training. It was not like you were considered calvary just because you had a horse. A normal swordsman, without special skill, would most likely hurt themselves first if they attacked with lances. Saleen returned and Kredian immediately found his back bone. With the return of Sika, the Caucasus people would go all out and send all their soldiers. It was much easier to set up a line of defence with the Caucasus people.

Saleen saw Daniel first at the harbor and he looked haggard. There was no pattern for the enemy’s attack. As he was in charge of defence at the harbor, he had yet to sleep well for half a month. The enemy seemed to know when the attack would disturb the work and rest schedule of the defence line. There was no other way. The number of enemies was great, but there were only one-thousand of them at the harbor. They could only be separated into two batches and each batch would need to hold on for twelve hours.

Daniel had no choice but to let the pikoosi go on the battlefield to avoid their soldiers being harmed because of that.

The pikoosi could turn it into a bloodbath, but the mage from the enemy side ran away and he even hurt the pikoosi with magic before he left. Daniel was upset, but he could not let the pikoosi rest.

Looking at Daniel’s blood shot eyes, Saleen patted his shoulders and said, “Thanks for your hard work. Jola, stay back to take Daniel’s place. Daniel, head back with me to discuss how to deal with these enemies.”

Daniel saw Saleen, a mage who was younger than himself. He felt calm and his weariness almost disappeared. Saleen was like the backbone of everyone. When he returned, the warriors at the harbor cheered as though the problem was already solved completely.

Saleen had a lot on his mind. He reckoned he did not have many soldiers, but mostly had pirates and swordsmen from Sregl Island. There were many uncivilized people, but their individual fighting power was strong while group fighting power was weak. The Caucasus people’s quality was better, but when Sika was not around, some of them would not contribute. Saleen had yet to give them a corresponding position and they had no idea what to do.

He brought Sika away, that was a mistake.

“Mister, I am just a swordcraft teacher, not a general. I might not be comparable to the few magic beast swordsmen in leading the army.” Jola looked embarrassed when he told Saleen that. He was not pushing the responsibility, but as the line of defence was extremely important, he was afraid that he might do harm to the soldiers that were strongly entrenched in their position.

“Don’t worry, just continue to guard against the enemy according to Daniel’s arrangement. We will counter attack at night. You don’t need to hold on for long. Aini, Irene, transfer your people to the harbor to guard the line of defence at the back. Sika, return to South Court to contact your warriors. I need a troop of six-hundred heavy infantrymen, bring them along to the hall with you. I shall prepare armor for them.”

When Saleen finished giving commands, there was a low level mage named Sumier that came to welcome him at the harbor. Saleen saw the carriage that they sent to get him, but he did not get on. He instead cast a quick cloud spell and flew into the air. He told Sumier on the ground to return on his own.

Looking at Saleen flying away in the air, Sumier envied him and gulped. He knew that Saleen was only a grade-5 mage, but he had such powerful flying skills when he himself could only move slowly on the ground. He was uncertain if he could even cast an effective windspeed skill.

Aini and Irene returned to the city hall separately. Sika did not look towards Sumier’s carriage and she called a Caucasus Magic Wolf Calvaryman that was patrolling nearby. She asked for his magic wolf to rush back to South Court where all the Caucasus people stayed.

The speed of the magic wolves were faster than warhorses in short distances. Although the speed for long distance was slower, their endurance was higher. A magic wolf was not considered high level among magic beasts, but they could follow their prey for a few days time just to hunt for food. Sika sat on the back of the magic wolf and it started running as though it was flying.

A magic wolf was a loyal creature. If anyone else sat on it, it would flip the person off and break their throat. Sika, the warrior priestess, only needed to whisper softly in its ear for the magic wolf to bring her obediently. The Caucasus warrior looked at Sika’s receding figure with full adoration.

He wished he had a chance to get intimate with the priestess, but the priestess seemed to like the mage. It would be great if it was the death mage as he heard that death mages could not give birth to sons.

The Caucasus warrior shook his head with regret and thought, “Even if the mage couldn’t, it wouldn’t be my turn. There are another two young and strong warriors in the tribe, which are the two most loyal bodyguards of the priestess.”

If Saleen were to know what the Caucasus warrior was thinking about, he would be furious. Because of Sika’s identity, even if she was uglier than a demon, there would still be tons of Caucasus people that would want to have a kid with her. That was the most primitive belief in a culture that was passed down for dozens of thousands of years.

The temple in the city center had various magic arrays and there were dozens of teleportation portals among them. The material that Jason gave to Saleen was precious. The place where Saleen used to stay had quite a few sound transmission magic arrays. It could communicate with a few important locations in the city.

It was unnecessary to be so luxurious normally, but during war, it was an effective way to communicate as the central command could be spread quickly.

Kredian was waiting outside the temple when he saw a thick cloud streak across with lightning speed.

“Master, you finally returned!” Kredian could not suppress his happiness when he welcomed Saleen.

“Mm, let’s talk inside. No one got hurt, right?”  ( Updated by AllNovel)

Kredian’s eyes grew red when he said, “We lost over one-hundred swordsmen.”

“I saw their dead bodies. I want to form a counter attack immediately.” Saleen said as he walked into the temple. At the first floor of the temple, Saleen saw two Caucasus warriors in their beautiful armor leading dozens of young Caucasus people.

“Why are you here?” Saleen asked.

The two Caucasus warriors were Sika’s bodyguards. When they saw Saleen, they were shocked. The two of them were mature, they did not ask Sika, but answered Saleen’s question, “The priestess told us to guard this place until your return.

“Sika has returned. You don’t need to return first but follow me. She will come along.” Saleen said and went to the second floor. The second floor had a model of the whole city’s arrangement, with a sound transmission magic array to communicate in every corner.

Saleen entered his own huge room and let everyone who followed to take a seat. He then activated the magic array on the table and started broadcasting to all the other sound transmission magic arrays.

“I am Saleen Metatrin. I am back. The enemy is on the sea one-hundred miles away. In five hours, all their ships will sink. I want all of you to take revenge for the dead. Anyone who hurt the people in this city will have to pay the price with their life. Kill all of them.”