Badge in Azure

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

Saleen's bad luck might be running out. On the journey rushing back, the ship had not had much trouble aside from one magic beast encounter.

Irene was more virtuous, she might have accepted Jola's advice or maybe she heard Sika's divination. She had been learning sword craft from Jola everyday and started working hard.

As for the winged skeleton, besides driving the alchemical boat everyday, he got familiar with attacking while traveling high speed. That required high demand on his mental power, if he was not promoted, it might not be possible for him to control the spirit pool to attack accurately with their travel speed. The bone spirits had various attack patterns, but the most powerful one would be to perish bombing the enemy using bloodstone.

A bloodstone explosion in the current dimension was equal to a strong spell. No one could withstand the explosion close up, even an armored warship could not.

As Saleen shortened the hunting trip, the whole crew finally got home at the end of March.

The alchemical boat did not submerge into the boathouse at the city base as Saleen planned to take a look at the swordsmen on the two warships. These swordsmen from Sregl Island were loyal, but they had been living for centuries under the protection of mages, so they never needed to deal with any trouble other than fighting. If they had outstanding talent the future generation of swordsmen would be taken into the circle of the mages. If it was not for the environment on Sregl Island, they would never have had a chance to change their fate that way.

Not many of them were like Saleen, who ran into such fortune. The number of humans on the mainland was counted in the billions and that one accidental encounter had turned Saleen into Jason's apprentice. Based on the law of probability, the possibility was close to zero, but it happened anyway.

It was about a four-hundred mile sea route away from the city base, but Saleen felt odd when the ship was nearing the islands. The winged skeleton did not notice the two warship and there was no sign of life on the island.

It was a typical uninhabited island with little plants. There were some sea creatures that came up to shore occasionally. There were not many magic beasts on the island itself. The island was small to the point that Saleen could it probe easily with his perception.

Due to the odd feeling, Saleen made the five low level mages stay in the ship. Then, they buoyed up the ship to the water's surface. Saleen and the rest stood on the ship's bow to observe using the alchemy telescope.

Saleen took a look and he went into a great rage. He saw a pile of dead bodies thrown on the shore casually. Even without looking carefully, he could tell that those were the swordsmen he brought from Sregl Island.

"The warship was attacked. Let's return to the city." Saleen kept his alchemy telescope instead of observing further as there was not much left to see. There were some wooden houses on the island originally, but they were all burnt down.

Aini was worried about the underlinings that stayed in the city, but he reminded Saleen to take a look on the island.

Saleen said, "There's no need to. I have counted roughly. Almost everyone on the ship is there. Only twenty of them fled at most. There is nothing left on the dead bodies, I want to go back." Saleen clenched his teeth. He did not expect his lair to be wiped out while he took a trip out.

He was confident the people who were kept in the city were safe. After all, there were the two Kings, five grand mages, a death mage, and the Caucasus people that recently joined. They could fight against the enemy even if there were three to five-thousand of them. Such absurd weather would increase the Caucasus peoples' fighting power.

There was a magic cannon on the White Rock Mountain and if the enemy was to attack from the harbor, it would fall within the shooting range of the magic cannon. No matter how strong their siege machinery was, they could not move it to the shore. It would be difficult to rely on an individual force to conquer the harbor. There was a fortress specially built to set an alchemy crossbow. As there was no obstruction on the frozen sea surface, there was almost no blind angles for shooting.

If they failed to defend with all the topographic advantages, the people that he kept were good-for-nothing.

Irene did not look well as the swordsmen and mages that she brought along to Saleen's city were all her mother's trusted men. It could be said that these men listened to her instead of being devoted to the Williams family. According to the contract she signed with Saleen, if there was any danger, the swordsmen had to coordinate for defence. It would be okay if Saleen's city was built completely, but the three city walls in the city had only few meters tall foundation and there was no proper building above. If there was an attack by the big army, the city walls would not help much in defending.

Irene did not understand why Saleen started building his city from the center instead of from the city walls. It was not the time to question that though, she was more worried about the number of men she had lost.

Saleen brought everyone back onto the ship and the ship submerge quietly. The winged skeleton used the spirit pool to drive the ship forward and he released the bone spirits that were in charge of spying to swim along the water surface. Even if they were seen, they would be thought of as fish that swam to the surface.

The alchemical boat was going forward quickly and when it got close to the shore, it slowed down entirely and approached slowly. In the eye of the dead, Saleen and the others saw the fleet that was lying at anchor near the border of the ice sheet There were fourteen ships in total and two of them were Saleen's warships.

"Soldier, I want to see the situation of the two warships"

The winged skeleton heard Saleen's order and immediately sent the bone spirits to cruise around the two warships from Sregl Island. The two huge warships had no sign of battle, but the enemy did not activate the magic equipment on the warship. Instead, they only pulled the two ships along with a metal chain.

"Master, there were many people on the ship. At least twenty to thirty-thousand of them." The winged skeleton communicated with Saleen in their minds.

"So many of them?"

"These ships look like they're from an island nation from the east!" The winged skeleton saw a warship from the east island nation before, the fighting power of Frederick's ship seemed to be good. The scale of the ships before their eyes seemed even bigger and they were obviously regular warships.

"No matter who they are, they killed my people and none of them should leave. Soldier, are you confident enough to knock down all these ships?"

"Master, these ships will have strong mages. I don't know whether we would be counter attacked. If you want to attack and sink them, it will be difficult. Even if the enemy's warships are attacked, they won't sink immediately and the people on the ship could flee onto the ice sheet." The winged skeleton explained the situation to Saleen carefully. Saleen had never been through a regular sea battle, but he knew that even if there was a big leak, it would take at least an hour or two for a big boat to sink.

If the enemy found out that the warship was damaged beyond repair, they would order everyone to abandon the ship. If there was a mage on the ship, they could make the ship sink slower until all the people on the ship escaped onto the ice sheet.

Saleen laughed coldly and stared at the image of the sea surface and said, "Soldier, send me back first. Nailisi, you stay back. If Soldier's attack is not sufficient to sink these ships, activate the attack magic array at the front. Use all the bone spirits and magic nuclei, leave no ship afloat."

"What about our ships?"

Saleen looked at the two warships that the enemy had captured and said," They wouldn't use that kind of ship. Break the metal chain and save it. Soldier, attack during the night. I will head back to make some arrangements. I'll wait for them on the ice sheet."

Saleen was raging within, but his mind was clear. Sinking those ships would not be the end, the enemy would walk to the shore along the ice sheet. He had to return to make arrangements himself. Just like the winged skeleton said, there were tens of thousands of soldiers. The sudden attack would bring damage to his own city.

"The actual action time?" the winged skeleton asked Saleen carefully.

"Twenty two o'clock, you take action. If the ships are to leave before this time, you do not need to wait for my arrangement. Seize the time before they keep the anchor and release the bone spirits to attack." Saleen was making arrangements and he was glad that the enemy was far too careless to have all the ships lie at anchor at one spot without a patrolling boat nearby.

It would be a definite success for the Pan's Turtle alchemical boat to make a surprise attack under such circumstances. The attack of the alchemical boat would sink the enemy, but not much damage would be done to the soldiers.

Saleen hated that he was not a grade-9 sorcerer. If he was he could release a curse to fall like meteor rain and eliminate all the ships entirely without sparing anyone on the ships.

Looking at Aini and Irene who were tensed up, Saleen grew calm and smiled, "The two of you shouldn't be too worried, Kredian is a steady man. He wouldn't let your men take the risk first. These people have yet to attack and there were only some minor battles at the harbor.

"I know that, but it was difficult to gather those people." Aini smiled. Saleen knew what they were thinking, but there was nothing to avoid. The swordsmen and mages that he brought were his trusted men too. If he were to lose them, he would feel resentful.

The alchemical boat submerged to two hundred meters deep and drove towards the harbor. On the sea surface, high ranking officers were gathered on the flagship and the atmosphere was solemn. The grand general that served as the leader was talking to the black robed mage politely, "Mage Youxi Maso, you said that there were high level spirits of the dead among our enemies. What should we do? To have our soldiers fight against the spirits of the death hand-on-hand, would be futile even if our soldiers are strong."

"Your Excellency, not that I'm not willing to help, but I tried my best to rush through the equipment needed. Our luck was bad, the ship that carried the solar chariot sunk during the storm. We could dash in right now otherwise."

"We have twelve Magic Chariots now. Can't we fight against a high level spirit of the dead with those?" A general could not help but interrupted, but Youxi Maso did not answer him.

"Your Excellency, my mage group is working day and night . By tomorrow morning the latest, they can transform a chariot that can fight against the spirits of the dead."

The grand general in colorful armor paid attention to the mage then. "The defence of the enemy is strong. During the few times of exploratory attack, we were counter attacked by their strong bows. There was only one close combat and we took the most damage then. The enemy did not only guard at the shore, but sent a troop out on the ice sheet to fight against our warriors too. That time, there were less than a hundred that returned from the three big groups as they had a ferocious death creature."

"Then, what is the presumption of the situation by the the mage group?" the grand general asked for advice modestly. All the country's mage groups were wise and knowledgeable. A lot of mages were not any less competent than professional army when it came to battle strategy.