Badge in Azure

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

At the moment, they were only about 100 miles from Daliang City. The spirit army was not only preventing the enemy from returning to the camp, but they were also stopping any reinforcements from coming from Daliang City.

Saleen no longer concealed himself, deciding to simply unleash some elemental creatures. His badge had been repaired by Gaine, and the injured elemental creatures had all regained their combat capacities as well. However, Saleen still refrained from unleashing the level ten elemental creature leaders.

The battlefield in the mountains had been narrow the entire way. While there were no tall mountains near Daliang City, the short cliffs were still very steep. Moreover, the mountain paths were completely destroyed by the mages from the Principality of Bitterwater, and they now required a huge number of mages to repair them.

The Holy See and Cloudflow did not have near as many mages as the Qin Empire. Thus, the powers afforded by the holy masters and their believers only enabled them to fill up some large holes.

When the ancient figures charged forward, the Holy See had no way of gathering their forces. This forced them to scatter, while separating into units of about a thousand each in order to fight off any incoming threats.

Saleen crashed through eight camps before the holy masters and the mages at the front showed up. As soldiers tried to run away, they were intercepted and killed by the spirit army. As such, no one was able to flee and return to the camp outside Daliang City.

"Lex, do you see that? Those are the three." Saleen pointed to somewhere faraway, where two mages and a holy master were on a hilltop.

The two mages wore black robes, and Saleen was barely able to see that they had three magic markings on them. The poor Cloudflow mages were responsible for digging mountains after they joined the Holy See army.

The holy master wore a black robe as well. He was empty-handed and had a shiny, bald head.

The trio was surrounded by a group of mages and holy masters. There were also over a dozen warriors there, all of whom looked to be at the black metal grand swordmaster level.

While black metal grand swordmasters were only comparable to level seven sorcerers regarding capability, their prowess in close quarters was extra terrifying. In fact, Lex was only able to stay alive on her way to Holy Rock City in the past because she had four black metal grand swordmasters with her.

"There are 38 of them. How do we go about this, Lex?" Saleen asked as he looked at the holy masters and mages in the distance. He felt the urge to meet them in battle.

"Well… It doesn't look like a trap, and no one would have known that we would come out here personally. Hmm… Don't let any one of them escape, Saleen. I'll take care of the two mages. You take out the holy master," Lex replied.

"Will do." Saleen waved at the sky above, signaling for Eleanor keep an eye out for injured enemies.

Then, Saleen's surroundings began to mist as he slowly took to the air, taking Lex with him. Quickcloud was Saleen's unique skill, and even mages of levels comparable to theirs would have had a hard time telling where they were inside the cloudy mist.

Saleen's flight speed was incredibly quick, so they soon arrived more than a mile away within just a minute. At that time, he took out the golden magic book, which contained six level nine spells, six level eight spells, and six level seven spells.

The golden magic book was far more useful than a magic staff, with the exception of the staff that belonged to Jalin. Lex took out her magic staff and followed Saleen closely, while preparing her magic.

Mages usually had initial spells that they were used to casting, but that was not to say that they would always simply stick to one spell stubbornly.

Saleen did not have many initial spells with him. In fact, he had only a little more than a dozen. Lex had far more.

Soon, the pair quickly came within 500 meters from the enemy. The trio on the hilltop naturally knew that these two enemies were in the cloud, as they had sent a huge huge beast flying into the air and four mages, all of whom had just risen up, in order to take them on.

The best range for an offensive attack for the mages was anything within a hundred meters. Even though a level nine sorcerer would have been able to manage a range of attack reaching 1,000 or 2,000 meters, they were nonetheless more comfortable and used to casting one at this more familiar range.

The way both of them approached their enemies slowly from a distance put a lot of stress on their enemies as well. Saleen simply flew straight, without any regard for the dozen or so grand swordmasters on the ground.

Most mages would have usually kept their distance from grand swordmasters, while staying outside the 100 meter-range from them. Yet, Saleen was going right up to the enemies, forcing them to act first!

Even though over a dozen magic spells and five divine spells were cast, none of them were able to lock onto the two targets within the cloud. Suddenly, a level eight Wind Dragon shot into the cloud and split into 12 level seven Wild Winds, intending to disperse Saleen's cloud.

However, Saleen had already set huge amounts of tornadoes within it. So, when the wind spells from both sides clashed, it only darkened the color of the cloud instead.

The clash with the level seven magic allowed Saleen to release a greater amount of mist, making the cloud even more massive. It now covered over a mile! The cloud quickly covered the peak and encased all 38 of their enemies within it.

Saleen then cast Endless Night, which was not from his Starline Armament. Saleen had not yet been able to fix magic spells onto the Starline Armament, as the original six spells were wiped out.

The Endless Night spell was cast from the golden magic book, and four of the enemies were quickly enveloped within ot. All four of them had yet to reach level nine, and as such, Endless Night was a complete nightmare to them.

The four who were enveloped by the spell were quickly corroded by the dark element within it, as they had no way of resisting its effects. Saleen flipped the pages of the book, then quickly cast the second spell on the holy master.

The level nine sorcerer was able to tell where Saleen was after being encased by the cloud. At that time, the bald holy master pointed in Saleen's direction and called out, "Truth!"

Saleen then lifted his hand, causing the Star Gathering Needle to entwine with the Starline Ring, which flashed with a beam of starlight. The holy spell of the holy master was completely negated!

However, Saleen's spell blasted squarely on the holy master. At that moment, a white holy light flashed and Saleen's Lifeless Totem was blasted into pieces.

The rare earth magic was probably the only one capable of being cast in the air. Among earth magic, the Meteorite was one that was backed by fire and wind-type magic, while the Lifeless Totem was simply used to ram at the enemy with a huge stone statue, which happened to break the Divine Protection as well.

It took Saleen a lot of time to research all of this before he was able to find one spell that was capable of dealing with the Divine Protection. After all, the Divine Protection was too resilient, which caused many mages of comparable levels to feel completely dejected when dealing with it.

Lifeless Totem, on the other hand, was probably the strongest level nine magic in terms of its damage potential. The magic spell was so powerful that it required one to be at level ten before being able to learn it.

But, the power it unleashed was still that of a level nine. As such, the magic was deemed suitable to be placed in the golden magic book.

When the Holy See went to call upon the oracles, there were quite a number of people who advanced to level ten across the entire mainland, including Jason. Otherwise, Saleen would not have rested easy while taking so many powerful ones away from Metatrin City.

It was worth noting that Sika was probably the strongest level nine warrior. As such, Saleen had always been able to rest easy knowing that Sika was in charge of Metatrin City in his absence. Now, Sika could finally be relieved of her duties there.

The holy master was unfettered, despite his holy spell failing and his Divine Protection broken. He took one step forward and pointed at the ground, while shouting, "Enchantment!"

At that moment, the mist around Saleen disappeared in an instant and huge holes appeared. Then, the elemental powers within the hole thinned, leaving only a pure light remaining.

Saleen was encased within this light as well, and he cursed silently. The power of the bald holy master had clearly reached the pinnacle of level nine. As such, this enchantment would soon become a Realm of Light if it was upgraded.

Any other mages trapped in such an environment would have despaired. This was because if elemental magic was cast using magic chords, their powers would have been severely diminished, making them hard to control.

While thinking of this, Saleen made a snap decision and unleashed nine ancient figures and two Blue Ice Maidens. The nine ancient figures surrounded the holy master, while the Blue Ice Maidens stood behind Saleen, providing him with water element power.

Saleen had found that elemental creatures were very useful under such environments. This was because the elements within the Blue Ice Maidens were capable of providing power to Saleen continuously.

It was only at this moment that the holy master realized what he had gotten himself into. He peered behind Saleen and saw ten more elemental creatures appearing, one after another, all of them providing external aid to Saleen's magic book.

The spells stored within magic books were just like spells that were cast by the mages themselves. All of them were cast by manipulating elements that were already in the surroundings. These spells, when cast without such manipulation, were unable to do much.

The nine ancient figures held halberds in their hands as they went straight for the holy master. The holy master mumbled exasperatedly, "Time, reverse!"

The power of divine arts within the light enchantment grew at that moment. However, since the nine ancient figures had been crafted by Gaine, they possessed the ability to resist the manipulation of fate!

Prophecy spells were skills that triggered fate, so, at that moment, just as the nine ancient figures' halberts landed on his body as he was finishing casting his divine spell, blood sprayed everywhere! The holy master's astounded expression froze in place at the moment of his death.

Meanwhile, Lex managed to take out her enemies as well. A sword aura of the grand swordmasters that was around two level nine sorcerers crumbled with just a shout from her!

That secret art of hers was meant specifically for dealing with grand swordmasters, and the suppression that they experienced, due to their being of superior levels, rendered the swordmasters surrounding the sorcerers totally defenseless. This less than one second window enabled Lex to cast 14 fireballs!

As these fireballs crashed onto the grand swordmasters, they burned huge holes into every single one of them. Lex then cast two level nine spells from her staff, the City Inferno and the Shower of Flames.

Immediately, flames blasted out from above and below her. Then, Lex pointed her finger and cast a fire totem.

The two level nine sorcerers unfolded their scrolls at the same time. One cast a huge Icy Enchantment, but as soon as it appeared, it was melted by the City Inferno. The other one caste the Space Petrification, but it was decimated by the Shower of Flames from above.

The two sorcerers were quickly backed away as the whirlwind around their bodies stopped the fire totem for a few moments. When Lex saw the sorcerers unfolding the scrolls at her flank, the God's Ring in her finger flashed and she became encased in a multi-colored ball of light.

Over a dozen spells rained down on the ball of light, but it remained totally unscathed, simply dispersing the spells as it came into contact with them.

Lex soon closed the distance between her and her enemies, and when she was only 80 meters away from them, she cast her third spell. A white fireball that was the size of a fist wobbled its way forward, flying so slowly that it looked like a lantern that was floating on the water. There were over a hundred faces on the white fireball, each one of them about the size of a fingernail.

Upon seeing this, the level nine sorcerers' faces were ashen. They had not expected such a legendary spell to appear before them.

Now that the white fireball had targeted them, they knew that if they ran, there would be no way to shake it off. This was because the minute that they even moved an inch, the fireball would be provided with even more power, which only hasten its speed!