Badge in Azure

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

Saleen experimented a few times and discovered that there were no reactions to the bond between the Three Kings and him. He knew that the constraints of this bond were beginning to loosen. If the Three Kings colluded with others against him, he would not be able to sense it. Saleen was finally determined to eliminate the Three Kings.

It was not easy to take advantage of the rules, they could only use those that were already in their grasp. After being controlled by himself and Aini for such a long time, it was about time the Three Kings would try to break free. They were so strong that if Saleen had been in the death dimension, he would have been killed by Three Kings easily.

The battle was also something Saleen needed to worry about. Many buildings were being constructed east of the temple. These buildings would be used temporarily for Saleen to create equipment.

Although Lex took away many mages, she also left behind many magic apprentices and grade-1 mages because they would not be able to survive on the battlefield. They could still be used to control the magic array and help to refine armors.

Based on power and strength, Saleen's soldiers would lose to the Holy See army so they would have to depend on their equipment. The devil armor could not be worn by humans, but Lex had given Saleen some diagrams which he would have to modify a little before mass producing them.

The objective that Saleen had set for Broken Blade Pass was to hold it for three days. Based on the pass' geographical location, by right it should not be vulnerable to being surrounded from the front and back. Nevertheless, Saleen still deployed his only troop of heavy-armored knights to defend the east of Broken Blade Pass.

Broken Blade Pass was built on a fault that was traveling from south to north in the mountain and almost reached the most northern part of Metatrin City. It was at least more than one-thousand miles away from Metatrin City. If the Holy See army wanted to bypass Broken Blade Pass, they would have to travel for an additional three-thousand miles. Even if they only deployed knights, they would still need more than half a month to travel.

Saleen was only worried about the Holy See's light-armored infantry soldiers cutting through the mountainous terrains and blocking off the route behind Broken Blade Pass. Saleen did not wish to take this risk even though it would be extremely difficult to cut through a few thousand yards of mountainous terrains. The fault was less than fifty miles wide at this area.

A mountainous route of fifty miles could still be overcome if the holy priests boosted the soldiers with divine spells. At most, they would sacrifice some soldiers which was something that the Holy See would not care for. Even if only one-thousand out of three-thousand men survived the terrains and managed to block off the route behind Broken Blade Pass, the operation would still be a success.

For this reason, Saleen sent Cuisi over along with a newly advanced grade-4 mage. A total of two-hundred heavy-armored knights, four-hundred light-armored knights, and four-hundred Caucasus people would also patrol behind Broken Blade Pass. If any enemies were discovered, the light-armored knights would engage while the heavy-armored knights would charge.

The Broken Blade Pass was one-hundred and eighty miles away from western town. As long as there were enough wagons, reinforcements in the form of infantry soldiers would reach in less than half a day. Even if all the wagons had been destroyed and there were no warhorses, soldiers would still be able to retreat fully in a day as long as they would not be disrupted by enemies along the way. The first thing that Saleen's soldiers was trained in was fast marching.

Retreat if there was no chance of winning; that has always been how Saleen managed to conserve his forces.

Saleen's move was ineffective. The battle taking place in front of Broken Blade Pass was fierce. The Holy See's army never planned to cut through the mountains to block off the retreat route. They had always thought that it was only a matter of time before a one-hundred-thousand strong army broke through the city gates.

Saleen's second battalion occupied the most strategic location while the Caucasus people patrolled the mountains on both sides. There were no enemies in sight. The Holy See army focused their forces only through the front gate.

The way the Holy See's army attacked, it was clear that they did not care about how many casualties they would incur. The stepped wagons would not be able to suppress the arrows from the city's watchtowers. The soldiers on the city walls could even shoot down at the stepped wagons easily.

The siege engines had been moved to the city gates many times, but countless soldiers from the city were willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy these engines. Soldiers also pushed big boulders off from the city walls to cause great damage to the siege engines. Both sides suffered major losses.

Broken Blade Pass possessed a more strategic location so they only incurred more than two-thousand casualties while the Holy See's army lost more than five-thousand men. All of them died within a fighting area less than five-hundred yards.

Including mercenary groups, Broken Blade Pass only had about twenty-thousand men. Now that they had lost two-thousand men, they no longer dared to be reckless and charge out of the city to attack. They would now block off the city gates. The Holy See's army responded by using ladders. They city had no other choices. The few times they charged out to attack, they were quickly eliminated by the enemy's heavy-armored knights. If they did not change strategy to focus on blocking off the city gates, they would continue to suffer more losses.

As such, the battle focused on the city walls. Broken Blade Pass had two sets of city walls. The second wall was taller than the first by five yards and they were eighty yards apart. This was within the range of a normal archer. The first set of city wall had to be given up after a day and the army retreated back to the second wall.

The space between the two walls had been sealed off. The Broken Blade Pass army waited until twenty-thousand Holy See men entered this space before releasing the reservoirs on both sides of the mountain, flooding this space that was eighty yards wide and two miles long.

Thousands amongst the twenty-thousand Holy See soldiers drowned. These soldiers died as they were clad in heavy armor and could not float. The other soldiers managed to survive only because they had received protection by the holy priests. The Holy See's army quickly removed all the objects that were blocking up the city gate on the first wall and the water supply subsided so much that it could no longer pose as a form of attack.

The warriors of the second battalion finally understood why Saleen wanted to build such huge reservoirs in such a militarized pass.

When the news reached Metatrin City, Saleen was not happy at all. The Holy See's army only lost less than ten-thousand soldiers before overcoming the first city wall. Just as Broken Blade Pass did not have enough time to build big-scale defense facilities, the Holy See's army did not have time to bring along too much equipment either. Besides, the Holy See's army had already traveled more than twenty-thousand miles. By right, they should not have much energy abilities left.

If the Holy See had not diverted most of their forces into attacking Qin and deployed even more armies there, they would be trying to break through Metatrin City by now.

It was a miracle that the Qin armies were able to resist Holy See attacks at the borders.

Left without a choice, Saleen began to send out wagons in preparation for retreat. The second city wall should be able to hold the attacks for another two days. If they did not retreat by then, the second battalion was history.

The fighting over the next two days was crueler than Saleen expected. Once they had overcome the first wall, although the Holy See army were unable to utilize the watchtower to shoot arrows at the second city wall, the holy priests were able to stay on high ground and boost the troops below with divine spells.

The Holy See's army kept charging non-stop and the morale within Broken Blade Pass was low. A few small-scale mercenary groups have already lost more than half of their forces and could already retreat, according to their bonds. The main force of the second battalion was still more or less intact but many of their auxiliary soldiers were already dead. As such, the main forces had to split themselves up and some had to become purely archers.

There were two magic cannons that had been placed on both sides of the mountain on the east side of Broken Blade Pass, but the second battalion had to retreat in one and a half days. The Holy See army gave chase maniacally, but the two magic cannons kept firing at them and forced them to stay on the west side.

A large number of holy priests came forth with heavy-armored soldiers to take over the magic cannons. The soldiers and magic apprentices saw that their side was already retreating and decided to blow up the magic cannons as well before fleeing.

Without the magic cannons, the heavy-armored soldiers were able to push through to the east gate very quickly.

From the moment the vanguard reached Broken Blade Pass until the Pass was broken through, all these only took three and a half days. The Holy See army did not have to cut through the mountains. They just single-mindedly attacked head-on until Broken Blade Pass was broken through.

After breaking through Broken Blade Pass, the east city wall only lasted for slightly more than two hours. Most of the soldiers in the pass were already dead. The Holy See sent three-thousand knights to give chase, but was ambushed by a regiment of the third battalion and had to return back to Broken Blade Pass.

There was little chance of success for three-thousand men to chase a ten-thousand strong army. Besides, the Holy See armies had been fighting continuously for a few days and even though the soldiers have been boosted by the holy priests all these while, it was time to rest and recover.

Saleen was very disappointed by his army's fighting capabilities. If Lex was the one holding Broken Blade Pass, she would have been able to hold it for half a month. During the battle at the city wall, the ratio of deaths on both sides was one-to-one. Every Tanggulasi soldier that managed to reach the city wall was able to drag a soldier from the Pass down with him.

By right, both sides' fighting capabilities should be around the same. The soldiers that Saleen recruited had already been trained in swordsmanship while the Holy See army could not be considered as a conventional army. Twenty-five-thousand of their army did not participate in the battle at all. They only utilized the new recruits and the result still turned out to be like this. Saleen finally realized that he had underestimated the three empires.

Sika explained to Saleen, "Your soldiers signed up only to make a living. They do not know what they are fighting for. The Holy See's army are fighting for a chance to go to heaven and this is where the difference lies. If you build your kingdom and give these soldiers a home, they will also be willing to fight to the death in order to protect their homes."

Saleen knew that Sika was right. Metatrin City was a business city and the peasants that dwelled on the outskirts were only beginning to grow their crops and had yet to treat this place as home. The soldiers joined the army only for money.

As for the Holy See, their ability to manipulate the hearts and minds of people was not something that Saleen could outdo.

Fortunately, there was no way to retreat from Metatrin City. Those in the city were facing the threat of life or death. Metatrin City would definitely be able to repel the Holy See army's attack.

There were two grade-9 sorcerers in western town so the enemy would have to split their troops up and send at least thirty-thousand soldiers to stop west town from sending reinforcements to Metatrin City. In that case, the army attacking Metatrin City would only consist of fifty-thousand soldiers.

It was time to activate the Three Kings. Before finishing them off, Saleen still wanted to fully utilize them first.

"Send Aini over, hmm, and Guya and the rest." Saleen decided that before he withdrew his defences, he would teach the Holy See army a lesson. His five battalions could no longer be moved around. He would ask the noble families to use their soldiers, along with the Three Kings, to carry out a real ambush.