Badge in Azure

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

It was expected for a battalion commander to be hesitant when facing up against a death sorcerer. There was no excuse for a twenty-thousand strong army to retreat after they had managed to advance within ten miles of the city though. The commander had also lost three-thousand of his knights. There was no way he would be able to justify it to his superiors.

The Qin army from the south was mainly comprised of the armies of noble families from the House of Commons and House of Lords. There were no royal swordsmen battalion nor the station troops from the four towns in Holy Rock City. As such, the army that the battalion commander was leading was gathered together rather hastily.

The noble families would have no complaints if they had lost all their armies in battles with the Tanggulasis. The problem was that this was a secret order so they would have to bear responsibility for the outcome.

After returning to the city, the winged skeleton retrieved his death knights and skeletal warhorses. He smiled and patted Mu En's shoulder. He asked, "Mu En, did you have a good time killing just now?"

Mu En smiled bitterly and said, "Your Excellency, I imitated a death sorcerer. That could have been a fatal mistake…"

The silver-colored soul flame in the winged skeleton's eyes flickered as he giggled and asked, "Are you scared?"

"Of course. No matter how brave I am, I would never dare to upset mages," Mu En said truthfully. He was a high-level swordmaster, but even if he reached the standard of a zun grand swordmaster, he would have no chance of survival against a death sorcerer.

"As long as you continue to follow me, no one will be able to expose you." The winged skeleton's mouth cracked open. It was a frightening sight behind his crystal mask.

"How can I leave Earl Besta? He doesn't have enough people around him already," Mu En protested gloomily.

"Don't worry. After what happened, Princess Lex will deploy Earl Besta elsewhere and send a young general here instead. The old Earl… he will return to Bitter Water Prefecture. Your Highness will not let him continue risking his life here. You will follow me and continue to imitate."

"Your Excellency, why…"

"Hey, you don't even have to ask. The Earl will surely agree to it." The winged skeleton interrupted Mu En. He was a spirit of the dead that possessed intelligence, which was very rare and barely any death mages would be able to summon such spirits of the dead.

He had his reasons for disguising himself as a creature summoned by Mu En. By concealing his true abilities, he would be able to take his enemies by surprise in the future.

Outsiders would think that he was the most powerful creature that Mu En could summon, so they would target Mu En. If the winged skeleton did not possess intelligence, then such a strategy would not work. Unfortunately, the winged skeleton was more intelligent than most humans. Such a strategy would be fatal for the enemies.

"In the future, you will be called Grand Sorcerer Mu En." After speaking, the winged skeleton led the six jade skeletons to the top of the city wall. The battle had only just begun and he had already defeated the enemy's heavy-armored knights. The enemy was left with no choice but to continue battling on.

Mu En felt fearful yet pleased to be following behind the winged skeleton.

What he feared was that he would not end up well if he were to be exposed by a death sorcerers. On the other hand, he was pleased because he knew that his future would be an exciting one by following the winged skeleton.

Mu En knew that the winged skeleton was a powerful and intelligent spirit of the dead that was Saleen's bodyguard. His future would be bright by following the winged skeleton.

People that trained in swordsmanship were very different from those that trained in magic, but they shared a common aspiration of being successful in what they did. Mages could spend their entire lives training until they died in a magic tower while those that trained in swordsmanship would likely die on the battlefield depending on how powerful they became.

It was every ordinary person's dream to achieve a rank of nobility and lands. Mages were the only exception.

When the winged skeleton returned to the top of the city wall, he saw that Earl Besta was still there. He was using alchemy binoculars to observe the enemy and saw that a few scouts were spread out across a mile observing his town too.

When he saw the winged skeleton, Earl Besta said, "Soldier…"

"Earl, the enemy still has about twenty-thousand men, but we will definitely be able to defend this town. What I don't know is what the Princess intends to do with this town after we defeat the enemy." The winged skeleton was not concerned about whether or not they would be able to defend the town successfully. The town would be lost if he was not around, but since he was, not even thirty-thousand or fifty-thousand men would be able to succeed in taking out the town.

"Her Highness will not give up on this town. If the army from the south wants to go into battle with Her Highness, she will retaliate by sending soldiers to attack the Qin army from behind," Earl Besta answered with certainty.

"That's good. I will carry on with what I intend to do then."

The winged skeleton waved at the six jade skeletons even as he spoke. The jade skeletons nodded and went down the city wall. They began to retrieve resources and components from their spatial equipment and began to build catapults.

There were only slightly more than ten catapults in the town, which would be insufficient to deal with such a huge army. The winged skeleton had so many catapults that they could arm a few fleets.

After Eleanor created a more advanced type of magic cannon, the catapults that had been built on combat vessels were all dismantled and kept by the winged skeleton.

There were some swordsmen in the town that were previously magic apprentices. They were all summoned over to help the jade skeletons in constructing the catapults. The catapults that were built on the combat vessels were small, but possessed a long attacking range. Naval warfare usually ranged between five to ten miles. One mile was the attacking range of alchemy crossbows.

The winged skeleton began to set up a summoning magic array on top of the city wall. The town's city wall was only ten yards tall, but was thicker than those of typical medium-sized cities. The top of the city wall was as thick as eight yards. The summoning magic array's diameter was six yards and after the winged skeleton mounted magic nuclei on it, he began to summon skeleton soldiers.

The winged skeleton had no hidden agendas. The skeleton soldiers he summoned were unlike those summoned by the Three Kings to make up the numbers. There were no cracks on any of these skeleton soldiers. They specialized in different things and were of different grades.

Grade-2 and three skeleton soldiers were a common sight as troop after troop of them appeared out of the array. The top of the city wall was surrounded by black fog as the huge spirit gaze rose tens of yards high and observed the areas far away.

The winged skeleton could summon up to one-thousand low-level spirits of the dead and control them directly. If he summoned too many, he would only be able to give general orders.

"Earl, you can bring your bodyguards to be with my Master. Leave the defense of the top of the city wall to me." The Earl frowned at the winged skeleton's words. Nevertheless, he knew that the few hundred bodyguards under him would not be able to defend even one side of the city wall. Right now, the defense of the top of the city wall counted on two-thousand new recruits. They lacked military forces and powerful equipment to defend the city.

This small town was never a military base. It was only a symbol of peace for both sides.

"In that case, I will leave it to Your Excellency." The Earl was in a hurry to see Saleen so he quickly left the top of the city head with his bodyguards.

The top of the city wall was now left with spirits of the dead, Mu En, Aiwa, and forty of Saleen's bodyguards.

"Aiwa, you can leave too." The winged skeleton began to send people away. Aiwa smiled with a look of respect as he bowed to the winged skeleton before leaving with Saleen's bodyguards. The winged skeleton released ten grade-4 death archers from green spirit and deployed them to the alchemy crossbows, ready to shoot down the officers near the city wall.

Aiwai led Saleen's bodyguards down the city wall. As he looked back at the spirits of the dead on top of the city wall, he almost wanted to spit at them, but did not dare to do so. He thought to himself, "I better not do so. I must keep this to myself. If I offend this fellow, Saleen will never support me."

Nailisi could afford to go against the winged skeleton, but Aiwa did not have the guts. No matter what, Nailisi would have Saleen's support, but Aiwa was merely a creature bonded to Nailisi. Saleen would be able to deal with him as he wished. After demon city has been built, Nailisi would be able to summon even more demons. Aiwa was afraid that he might lose his position.

On this expedition, all four demons were determined to perform well and impress Saleen.

The Earl brought his bodyguards back to his own mansion. Saleen and the rest had made use of the power of restorative water and had completely recovered from their fatigue. When the two met, the Earl was concerned and said, "Your Highness, a twenty-thousand strong Qin army is approaching. Maybe you should leave first."

"Besta, you don't have to worry, I am heading to Daliang City to help Lex. If we are not able to stop Cloudflow's fleet, I will put up a final resistance in Daliang City. Cloudflow has an army of one-million, but I am not worried at all. Let Soldier get used to this type of battle first." Saleen seemed unconcerned.

"A one-million-strong army!" Besta was not aware of the magnitude of the problem that Daliang City faced. He was horrified after hearing what Saleen said.

"Don't worry. Daliang City will not fall as long as Lex is prepared. The only thing to worry about is that Cloudflow may form an alliance with Tanggulasi Empire because of this. If so, Bitter Water Prefecture will be under pressure from Holy Rock City. My purpose for coming over is to eliminate the Cloudflow fleets."

Besta finally understood. The people of Cloudflow had always been proud of their fleets. If Saleen was able to defeat the Cloudflow fleets, Holy Rock City would have to reconsider Metatrin's naval abilities. It would be easy to defeat Cloudflow on land, but it was a totally different matter battling them on the seas.

More than two-hundred skeletons had gathered on top of the city wall before the winged skeleton stopped summoning spirits. The magic array stopped functioning and the six high-level magic nuclei mounted on it became dim.

Of the two-thousand skeletons, only five-hundred remained in the center while the rest split into both sides of the city walls. These skeletons were mixed with the other soldiers. The soldiers of Bitter Water Prefecture were nervous yet curious.

It had been many years since death mages and humans fought side by side in battle. The soldiers did not fear these spirits of the dead. Their death aura was not too powerful and were similar to that of a human swordmaster of beginner level, which was the level that some of the soldiers were at.

"Mu En, I will command the rest of the battle through you. Take this." the winged skeleton took out another magic staff in exchange for the one in Mu En's hands.

The winged skeleton's magic staffs were given to him by Saleen. All of them stored three death spells each.

The Qin army advanced within five miles from the town before stopping. The Qin general was cautious. Based on the information that he had received, the town should only contain twelve catapults. His army could easily attack the city while incurring minimal losses. Now that there was a death sorcerer in the city, anything was possible.

The Qin battalion commander summoned all his mages and began to discuss strategies.