Badge in Azure

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

Sharman's guards helped pave the way for the merchant convoy, they were all light cavalrymen. Each person in the convoy had a horse. Even though the servants were not riding on warhorses their speed was not any slower too.

When the bandits, who were observing from afar, realized that their target had charged out instead of guarding the town, they were in a dilemma.

The person who hired the bandits had asked them to entrap the merchant convoy in Telensu Town, but before the bandits could recruit sufficient manpower their target had left the town instead of defending it as thought. The bandits had no choice but to mount an offensive.

Bandits hiding in the eastern and western sides of the town gathered, over one-hundred cavalrymen gathered, then they tailed the convoy. They did not dare oppose the convoy as they had insufficient manpower. There were more than three-hundred troops in the convoy wearing metal armor. The bandits were in contrast mostly clad in cloth armor, they did not even have many pieces of leather armor.

Out of the over one-hundred bandit cavalrymen there were five holding onto alchemical crossbows. These weapons had been given to them by their employer and the bodies of the alchemical crossbows still contained an ordnance number which originated from the Qin Empire.

These five bandits who wielded alchemical crossbows chased after the convoy. When they reached a distance of three-hundred yards they still had not taken aim. Even though an alchemical crossbow had a range of five-hundred yards the bandits' power was too low. An alchemical crossbow had to have an aim and these five bandits did not possess such powerful vision.

Fifty of Aini's trusted guards turned around uniformly, then fifty alchemical crossbows fired simultaneously. At a distance of three-hundred yards an arrow from an alchemical crossbow could pierce armor. As the five bandits were clad in leather armor more than ten cavities were busted in their bodies. Even though Aini's trusted guards did not possess high accuracy one-third of the fifty arrows still hit their targets.

"Alchemical crossbows!" The bandits behind got flustered, as they bellowed frantically, "Stop the horses!"

These bandits never expected their target to possess alchemical crossbows. If people were traveling as a regular merchant convoy they would face serious lawsuits if their use of alchemical crossbows was reported to the authorities. When the bandits came to a halt hundreds of undead soldiers rushed out from the forests on both sides of the road. They lunged at the bandits on the horses.

Aini's calculations were extremely precise, he had placed the undead soldiers outside the city the night before. The bandits had come from east and west of the city, they did not even discover this trap. The undead soldiers did not need to breathe, they simply allowed the mosquitoes to feed on them not even moving an inch. Hiding in piles of decomposed leaves, the bandits had no way of discovering them at all.

The eyes of the usually slow-moving undead soldiers turned purple at this point in time and their moving speed increased dozens of times. They pounced onto the bandits at lightning speed, then used their fingers to scratch at the bandits.

The strength of a Berserk Undead Soldier was higher than that of a swordmaster. The bandits were totally caught off-guard, they were just thinking of how to flee, they did not even think of retaliating.

Battling with a group of undead creatures was unwise. The problem was a Berserk Undead Soldier could catch up to a warhorse on foot. The bandits were captured one by one, getting dragged off their horses. On average, three undead soldiers were attacking one bandit. Shortly after these bandits had been torn to shreds.

As the undead soldiers were too far from Aini, they could not be commanded anymore, they were simply relying on their instincts during the battle. After finishing off those bandits who were riding on horses the undead soldiers charged in the direction of Telensu Town approaching the bandits who were pursuing on foot.

The bandits who were at the rear were suffering more as they were traveling on foot. At this moment, they came face to face with the Berserk Undead Soldiers and thus got trampled on.

A Berserk Undead Soldier had many weaknesses. They did not wear any armor, and the sturdiness of an undead soldier's body was inferior to that of a human swordmaster. They also could only fight using their instincts when they were not commanded by a death mage. The fighting techniques they possessed when they were alive were not preserved, so they fought in a very crude manner.

The undead soldiers were very hideous, their bodies were drenched in blood looking utterly abominable. The only weapon derived from an undead soldier was their long fingernails. These nails were razor sharp. They could cut through leather armor easily, but were not so effective against metal armor.

The undead soldiers could fight with a regular army only if they were clad in armor and were under the control of a death mage. Fortunately, the enemy were disorganized bandits. The moment the bandits saw these horrifying undead soldiers they panicked.

Some courageous bandits wielded their blades and sliced downwards. The undead soldiers did not bother dodging, they allowed the bandits to chop their faces into two and then they used their claws to scratch the bandits' faces.

The fingernails and fluids of the undead soldiers contained complex toxins. When launched, several other bandits collapsed in agony simultaneously.

If there was a death mage in the vicinity. The death mage could still make the undead soldiers explode causing everyone within a radius of a dozen yards to be stained with the poisonous fluid. If a grade-5 holy master was not present, these victims would not be able to survive. Unless they had worn fully sealed heavy armor, but any other measures would be futile.

A death mage still possessed many other similar offensive methods to inflict excruciating pain to the enemy on the battlefield.

The cost of production of fully sealed armor was very high, average people could not afford it. The bandits were living in extreme poverty, they could not be as generous as Lex. The trademark of a low class baron in Qin was having a high grade swordsman as a bodyguard. This swordsman would wear a set of fully sealed metal armor.

Those bandits who had no horses were obliterated by the Berserk Undead Soldiers, none of them managed to escape. The Berserk Undead Soldiers were also getting exhausted causing their speed to become increasingly slower. Before they could return to Telensu Town, they had already collapsed to the ground as their insides crumbled, then they turned back into a pile of minced meat.

Aini had ordered them to slaughter their way back to Telensu Town. Unfortunately, undead soldiers who were created in haste had weaker bodies. After the intense massacre their bodies could not be sustained anymore.

Telensu Town still contained over three-hundred bandits who stayed behind. When they saw the undead soldiers collapsing to the ground, their faces turned pale as sheets. Some of them even began vomiting.

Onboard Saleen's chariot Aini was holding a giant crystal ball in his hands. The black dots of light within the crystal ball were disappearing one by one. Aini put it away, then said, "We are safe for now."

"Brother Aini, you are awesome!" Sharman stared at him with eyes wide open, but Aini did not respond.

Saleen laughed, "They were stupid for trying to outnumber a death mage."

Cuisi looked on in slight disagreement, "Those undead soldiers are useless against a demon. A demon isn't afraid of those toxins. A few hundred imps will be able to kill more than ten-thousand undead soldiers."

Su also did not really favor such a spirit. If the duration of battle was short, those toxins could be dispersed using the Sword Aura. When a Silver Grand Swordmaster was in battle they could even resist magic, not to mention some venom which did not possess any offensive power.

Aini got a little smug, then said, "I thought that there would be interception up ahead. Judging by the looks of it the bandits should have been organized in haste. Without three to five thousand people I will be able to handle such an offensive."

Saleen said, "Now that you have done this, the mastermind might not emerge already."

Aini thought to himself, "It was all your idea. With Sharman around, we cannot execute any risky actions. Let's terrorize the enemy first. Once we return and deploy more manpower to occupy Telensu town, the rest of the issues can be settled easily."

"Eh?" Sharman's ears perked up suddenly. Her small ears could move about freely, as though they had picked up something.

"It is a powerful figure. Sir…"

Su had also picked up the clatter of horses' hooves. He and Sharman were grand swordmasters, so they could roughly fathom the ability of the enemy just by hearing their horse's hooves. There was a total of three horses traveling at insane speed, these horses were fast approaching the rear of the convoy.

Sharman's mouth twitched, but she did not summon the mages at the front of the team. The other grand mage she had brought along was not with her at the moment. Since the grand mage Narnia was also in the chariot Sharman thought that Saleen would order Narnia and Su to deal with those three presumably powerful people.

"No worries, they are but three Zun Grand Swordmasters." Saleen waved his hand, then Su relaxed and leaned against the soft cushion behind him.

Indeed, after several seconds, the clatter of the horses' hooves stopped. After all fifty of Aini's trusted guards launched their arrows, the experts among the bandits got frightened away.

"Fifty alchemical crossbows are no joke. The attack range of a Zun Grand Swordmaster isn't increased, they have to launch an attack within ten yards so as to be stable. The other party has so many alchemical crossbows, it means that they must have an accurate aim."

The three leaders of the bandits looked at one another. They had rushed all the way up to find bodies strewn across the ground. They were outraged. They did not give a hoot about a death mage, it was still easy for three Zun Grand Swordmasters to defeat a death mage.

Who would have expected their enemy to have so many alchemical crossbows? From a distance of fifty yards, the Sword Aura alone would not be able to resist an attack from an alchemical crossbow.

"Damn it! Who gave us this intelligence?!" one of the bandits' leaders berated. "The enemy doesn't only have a mighty death mage, they still had so many alchemical crossbows. How are we going to triumph? Unless there a regular army is present, my ill-trained subordinates will have no way of defeating the enemy." The three leaders charged over hurriedly, they did not even don armor or shields, they were still clad in leather armor. "Even with shields, I cannot protect the horses, and I still won't be able to catch up to the enemy."

Above the heads of the three bandits' leaders a silver-beaked raven took off at a leisure pace. A few minutes later this raven arrived at Saleen's chariot and landed.

Aini opened the windows, allowing the silver-beaked raven to hop in. It hopped onto his palm, then began crowing.

Aini listened to it for a moment, then said, "Someone is indeed behind this. A pity that a spirit can only narrate, it cannot identify their accents." Speaking, Aini regurgitated the information obtained from the silver-beaked raven.

"We will go around the next town and set up camp in the wilderness," Saleen said with a smile. Their speed had exceeded the expectations of the enemy, so the enemy could not organize an effective assault or even gather sufficient manpower.

Traveling another fifty miles would cause the enemy to lose their judgment ability. If the next town was also controlled by the enemy it would be better for Saleen and company to set up camp in the wilderness. At the very least, the enemy would expose themselves.

Since the entanglement and harassment was ineffective, the bandits decided to retreat after they could not catch up to the merchant convoy. The convoy increased its speed. The roads there were the regular roads of Qin. The creatures pulling the chariots were now skeletal warhorses. By noon, the convoy had arrived at the next town.

No soldiers were stationed in this town, but there were tax officials from Phoenix standing at the gates. When they saw the skeletal soldiers traveling amongst the convoy, these officials pretended not to notice this convoy of a few hundred men, allowing it to pass through. The convoy cut through this town and continued rushing without any breaks. When the sky fell dark it had already covered another one-hundred miles.

The team stopped and set up camp. As Saleen observed the servants from both families he felt very envious. The quality of these servants were better than those pirates Saleen first recruited. If a battle erupted the servants would become qualified soldiers the moment they donned armor.