Badge in Azure

Chapter 389: Invaders from the east (Part 1)

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

As there were one-thousand people scattered across a defense line which was about three miles long, the defensive power was very low. Fortunately, in the early stages of construction, Saleen had already regarded this place as a military-oriented city. Both sides of the port had towers which were built by piles of white rocks. Inside the towers were magic arrays which maintained a constant temperature. Aach tower had an alchemical crossbow with a range of over eight-hundred meters.

These white towers had two stories, and soldiers could be stationed on the first story. No basements were dug, they could only hold the fort until their last breath. Such buildings were not used for obstructing enemies. This tower could defend against a bombardment by a magic stone artillery. Once the soldiers hid inside, they would not need to worry about the attack from a warship anymore.

Now that more than one-hundred miles of the sea was frozen, the warships had no way of getting close at all. The towers' function was only limited to using the alchemical crossbows to seal off the frozen waters.

There were dozens of such towers, and each tower contained an alchemical crossbow. A temperature-maintaining magic array allowed crossbow-type weapons to be kept in a good condition. Since these towers were almost sealed, there was no corrosion from the moisture of the sea. The alchemical crossbows were maintained in a state of battle readiness.

At this moment, Daniel was hiding in one of the towers, and beside him was an intermediate-sized alchemical crossbow. This weapon was also the heaviest one Saleen could purchase. A large alchemical crossbow had a range of several miles, but Saleen did not have the ability to procure it yet.

Observing through the alchemical binoculars, Daniel saw a blinding shine of light, and on top of it was a dense formation of black dots approaching from a distance. Even without using magic to calculate, Daniel could also estimate that there were at least six-hundred people in this group of invaders.

If there were no grand swordmasters or grand mages in this six-hundred strong crowd, then Daniel would be confident of killing them all. The enemy had twenty ships. Given a fleet of such scale, grand mages were definitely present, not to mention the grand swordmasters.

There were far too many magic beasts at sea. Without a certain degree of power, the strongest of ships would also sink.

At this point in time, Daniel began to miss Saleen. If Saleen was around, Daniel would not have to be under so much pressure. He simply needed to wait for orders. Daniel was never a person who chased after authority. He just wanted to practice magic and become a free and mighty mage.

Currently, Daniel could only analyze the situation cautiously in order not to make any mistakes. The enemy had only deployed a ship's worth of manpower, they did not launch a large-scale invasion. This gave Daniel a choice. He could either kill all of them, or continue to bait the enemy to increase their manpower. If Daniel chose to kill all of them right now, the enemy might choose to retreat, or even flee right away with the two warships. If that was the case, Saleen would suffer huge losses.

Those two warships from Sregl Island were definitely worth more than a million gold coins. If they were to be rebuilt, Saleen would need several years. He did not have trained workers, a dock, or sufficient mages. Manufacturing a large warship was so much more challenging than producing a twenty meter long boat. If any problem occurred in any stage of the production process, the warship could simply disintegrate in water.

Saleen might own the Pan's Turtle alchemical boat at the moment. If it was spotted by the sorcerers, it would lose the element of a surprise attack. In order to solidify one's standing in the northern region, one would still need to own large warships. Since Lex had taken one warship and had yet to return, the two remaining warships formed the backbone of Saleen's foundation at the moment.

If the enemies managed to take off with the two warships, Daniel suspected that Saleen might break his bones and use them to build a new warship. Be that as it may, Daniel had only so much manpower, and he did not have any ships with him. In order to get back the two warships, he had to rely on his wits.

"Diyabannersa, pretend to be a grade-6 spirit. Then, go and capture two men. Take note, do not kill them." When Daniel finished speaking, he wrote down his plan. Then, he sent some swordsmen to return to the temple and report to Kredian.

The swordsmen then left with Daniel's letter. Daniel picked up the alchemical binoculars once again, observing the situation on the ocean.

This six-hundred strong team was extremely close, and they did not have any intention to conceal themselves. When they were about three miles away, Daniel could finally take a good look at their formation.

This was obviously a well-trained army, there were three mages in these six-hundred men. According to the composition of the Qin's army, every brigade would contain a mage. Clearly, the enemies were neither normal mercenaries nor pirates. The three mages were clad in gray magic robes, this meant that they were at least at grade-4 already.

Daniel was upset. A grade-4 mage was very useful in a battle. The enemy only had a six-hundred man team, did they really need to deploy three grand mages?

Daniel might not know anything about the combat strategy of an army, but in a large-scale mercenary battle. The presence of a mage could influence the outcome. If the three mages blessed the swordsmen with some magical ability, this six-hundred man team would be a tough nut to crack.

On the crescent-shaped island, Daniel had positioned more than three-thousand skeleton soldiers for an ambush. There were also another less than two-thousand skeleton soldiers waiting behind him. With the three grand mages, the skeleton soldiers would be rendered totally insignificant.

These five-thousand skeleton soldiers were summoned by the three kings. If any of them got killed, there would not be any replenishment available. This was because Saleen had taken Banchajanna with him, so it would be impossible to summon so many skeleton soldiers again. When each king summoned spirits on their own, they could only summon six-hundred skeletons at most. The three kings would need to coordinate in order to possess huge powers.

Even if the enemies retreated and Daniel secured a victory, the construction of the city would also be delayed as the skeletons were deployed into battle. Daniel got so depressed. As he stared furiously at the three grand mages, he thought, "Where did these people come from?"

These grand mages were obviously not from Alchemy City, because their magic robes looked a little shabby. The dozens of swordsmen protecting the mages were all high-spirited. Had they been swordsmen from Alchemy City, they would surely be very low-profile, and would not put on such expressions.

When this six-hundred man team was only twelve-hundred meters away, they stopped advancing. Instead, they got into a formation. The three grand mages began blessing the swordsmen at the front with the Potence Spell and the grade-2 Windspeed Skill. To the grand mages, these spells only had a wee bit of depletion. After blessing forty swordsmen with the spells, the grand mages then fell back, all the while being protected by those arrogant swordsmen.

At a distance of twelve-hundred meters, it would be hard to strike a target unless a large alchemical crossbow was used. The enemy was clearly well-versed in the workings of military equipment. The mages did not advance recklessly, for fear that they would meet with a sneak attack and consume their magic chords incessantly.

On the sea two-hundred miles out, twenty warships were dragging the two war trophies along, as anchors were dropped just outside the frozen layer. The flagship was four stories tall. A pair of alchemical binoculars over three meters long was installed on its uppermost story. Such huge alchemical binoculars could spot a target from over thirty miles away. Any farther and the target would disappear off the horizon, and the alchemical binoculars would lose sight of the target.

In the captain's cabin, a man clad in an enormous armor was seated in the middle, surrounded by more than forty people. These people wore armor which contained a myriad of colors, and the armor was styled extravagantly. According to the standards of Qin, this aggressive-looking armor was too flashy and impractical. In fact, many components on this armor would affect its defensive ability.

"General, why didn't you send the main body to mount a direct attack from the shore?" a mage could not stand the silence and asked his leader who was seated in the center.

"Mage Youxi Maso, our fleet has met with a storm, causing us to lose four ships. The remaining ships have to go through maintenance in order to regain their speed. If the enemy has more warships, our fleet will be in grave danger if we launch an all-out land attack."

The man who was addressed as "General" gave due respect to the mage who was clad in a black magic robe. A black-robed mage was an honored guest in any country. Even though the general spoke respectfully, he behaved in a condescending manner, unlike any other nobles on the mainland.

"We have twenty-thousand men, sufficient to wreck the Lianyun City's fortress. General, please allow me to go forth using my magic chariot. In at most three days, we will be able to conquer this place."

"It's better to be safe than sorry. This time round, the eighteen countries have merged their soldiers to invade the Myers mainland. It was a bad omen when we ran into that storm. This is obviously a warning from the God of Wind." The general, clad in a colorful piece of armor, spoke domineeringly. His words were full of madness. If the Holy See's people were here, he would be labeled as a heretic. God of Wind? On the plane of the Myers mainland, there were no other gods other than the Lord of Glory.

"General, the spies have reported that Qin is in internal turmoil while Phoenix is in an absolute mess. Since we have been blown to the northern region by the storm, we can consider occupying Phoenix from the north first."

"Of course. We have over twenty-thousand elite warriors among many other magic chariots and magic cannons. It will not be a problem for us to conquer such a small town. I am just worried that there are still remnants of Alchemy City here. Look at those two warships, they are obviously designed like those ships found in Alchemy City. In a real head-on battle, these two warships will give us a headache. Don't be complacent, now that the eighteen state Allied Army is separated, we should not alarm the Qin Empire. When we go ashore this time around, we cannot let a single enemy get away."

"Yes, General!" The rest of the generals got up and bowed, as they responded boisterously. In the eyes of these people, their fleet had the ability to destroy this small town which was located near the shore. Naturally, they should not even let one enemy escape. By using six-hundred people for the first assault, they wanted to frighten the enemy first, so that the flying puppets overhead would be able to locate the enemy's hideout swiftly. If the enemy did not own any other ships, then they would mount a full offensive.

The large alchemical binoculars, the flying puppets, and the magic compass on the flagship were used to scan the nearby waters to prevent other warships from approaching. The armed merchant ships had tossed dozens of metallic pontoons into the sea, as a temporary dock used for mounting the frozen layer was being built.

The edge of the frozen layer was not stable. In order to transport the siege equipment, the frozen layer had to be further reinforced. The eight armed merchant ships were not even carrying any cargo. Each one of them was filled with two-thousand fully-equipped warriors and various kinds of military appliances such as catapults, siege hammers, flying puppets, magic cannons, and war puppets.

These items were gathered from eighteen different coastal states. Hundreds of coastal states had been planning for this day for the past thousand years. The eighteen state Allied Army was just the beginning. The moment war broke out on the Myers mainland, these hundreds of island states located in the eastern waters would come forth and divide the mainland into smaller pieces.