Badge in Azure

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

Saleen looked at Imposa. He looked very different from the first time Saleen saw him. Other than his chin, the rest of Imposa's face was metal. One of his eyes was made of crystal, while the beard on his chin gathered elemental aura.

Saleen looked up and down at Imposa's entire body and realized that his front legs resembled those of gigantic insects as the distal joints grew thin hair.

Imposa did not stand in the middle of the iron blood warriors. Instead, he stood at the front of the metal disc. More than 100 iron blood warriors split themselves up to protect both flanks. Saleen silently put away his clan badge. He did that purely based a on gut feeling.

Elemental Prison was a massive grade-10 spell which prevented Saleen from flying out of the center of the island. If he tried to leave on foot, he would definitely lose at least some of his elemental creatures. Fortunately, Nicholas managed to escape first, otherwise it would be even more difficult for him to unleash his techniques if there were many other people by his side.

"Your Highness, Saleen." Imposa looked down at Saleen from the higher ground. Both of them were 200 yards apart. Imposa's location was not suitable for attack and he was not concerned about Saleen attacking him either. All spells required a process of preparation. Other than preventing Saleen from flying away, the Elemental Prison would also slow down the speed at which spells could be cast.

"Imposa." Saleen looked at this sorcerer quietly as his hands stopped hitting the War Drum of Fear. Thousands of soldiers were still rolling on the floor and screaming in pain.

A magic array began to spin in Imposa's crystallized eye. He observed Saleen's War Drum of Fear and realized that it was an equipment of a very high grade. What was the war drum made of? It looked like human skin.

Human skin war drums were refined by black magicians and were not something that Saleen would replicate. The effect of the war drum was hundreds of times more powerful than a human skin war drum. Its range of attack could reach up to a few miles. While it only affected ordinary soldiers, that alone was terrifying enough. If Saleen was to use this war drum on a battlefield, it would attract at least tens of sorcerers to him, otherwise the war drum would be able to completely destroy the morale of the enemy.

Magic armies were few and far between. After all, how many soldiers of noble families could afford to have magic arrays on their helmets?

"Your Highness, why have you come here? Why don't you follow me to pay a visit to the Grand Duke?" Imposa was still trying to think of how to deal with Saleen. The elemental creatures around Saleen would not be easy to deal with. The battle in the air has already ended as more than 30 iron blood warriors retreated, while Saleen had lost more than 60 Tempest Dragon-mights.

On average, two elemental creatures had to be sacrificed in order to kill an iron blood warrior, and that was with the aid of Jola. The difference was that even if the elemental creatures were destroyed, they could still be revived in the elemental badge. On the other hand, once iron blood warriors were killed, they could not be revived. After Saleen's Tempest Dragon-mights forced the Wind Dragon to retreat, they, too, formed up behind Saleen.

The Tempest Dragon-mights were the fastest, so they were the most suitable to deal with ordinary soldiers. After they had all retreated, Imposa's plan had failed. He had already prepared a spell that would eliminate all the Tempest Dragon-mights in one go.

Based on what Imposa had observed, the Tempest Dragon-mights seemed to be the only solution to get Saleen out of the Elemental Prison. If the Elemental Prison could be broken by more than 100 wind-element creatures, then there was no way the grade-10 magic array would be able to trap Saleen.

Imposa would be able to get his hands on the war drum once he captured Saleen!

Imposa became more excited. There were many secrets Saleen had that were waiting to be uncovered. The last time they met, Saleen was still an ordinary mage. Now, he was wielding equipment that even Imposa could not completely comprehend. Besides, Saleen was also advancing way too quickly!

Imposa was completely preoccupied with how he could capture Saleen so that he could uncover all the secrets that he wanted to know. Saleen was also thinking the exact same thing, as he stared at the metal disc that Imposa was standing on.

Nevertheless, Saleen was able to suppress his greed very quickly. He already possessed a mechanical core of Sky City, he was confident that he would be able to uncover the secret behind flying equipment one day. He could see the desire in Imposa's eyes and could feel his own murderous intent rise again.

If Saleen killed Imposa, he would be under a lot less pressure. It was clear that Grand Duke Iron Blood alone would not be able to control too many iron blood warriors. Without Imposa's help, the Grand Duke would hardly pose as a threat.

"Imposa, Grand Duke Iron Blood stole my merchant vessels and sank my combat vessels. This enmity has yet to be resolved. Tell him that sooner or later, I will go to his Dragon Island and take over everything that belongs to him. I will make sure that his clan becomes nothing more than an insignificant mark in history." Saleen's tone was jovial, but the message was a pledge of struggle to death.

"Saleen, do you really think that you will be able escape just with your elemental badge alone?" Imposa began to laugh. His laughter resembled something like a Metal Titan would make, or the soundwaves produced from the explosion of a bloodstone in a metal room.

Saleen shook his head. A soundwave attack like that was meaningless. Jola was a golden grand swordmaster whose defense abilities were even more powerful than his own. The elemental creatures could not care less about the soundwave attack. Saleen allowed the demons to escape first precisely because he was afraid that the soundwaves produced from the battle between two powerful opponents would affect them.

Saleen was not afraid of an all-around attack. With the War Drum of Fear, low-level warriors would not be able to get close to him.

Saleen's bone mace struck fiercely on the War Drum of Fear. The War Drum let out the howl of the Angel of Fear. The thousands of soldiers that were already lying injured on the ground suddenly sprang up. Then, they collapsed heavily on the ground. Blood was spilling out from everywhere on their faces and it looked like death was imminent.

Imposa was slightly enraged. So, that was how Saleen would try to antagonize him. It was vicious of Saleen to kill thousands of Imposa's soldiers in front of him. Typically, sorcerers would not resort to that, especially grade-9 sorcerers. They would usually only target the strongest amongst their enemies.

With the strike of the bone mace, not only was Saleen antagonizing Imposa, he was doing the same to Alchemy City as well.

Imposa's two hind legs moved slightly and 120 gears flew out from the edge of the giant metal disc. The gears were two yards in diameter. The iron blood warriors leapt onto the gears and swooped downwards with long lances in their grip. The 120 gears were infused with the power of wind element.

Saleen calmly put away his War Drum of Fear. Grand Duke Iron Blood would no longer dare to send ordinary soldiers after him and that would save Saleen a lot of trouble.

Six types of elemental creatures sprang out from the elemental badge on Saleen's waist, while he put away the Tempest Dragon-mights, until only 36 of them were left. There were 36 creatures of each element, making up a total of 216 elemental creatures. Amongst them were 18 stone statue soldiers that Saleen summoned for his own protection.

Jola had already returned to Saleen's side. He had yet to take any action since Imposa appeared.

All of a sudden, Saleen realized that something was amiss. The 120 iron blood warriors had surrounded him and formed a gigantic magic array. The metal gears underneath them had connected to each other with elemental power to form a triple-layered ring and Saleen was in the middle of it.

Thirty iron blood warriors charged at him from all directions. They made use of the power from the metal gears and the giant magic array had boosted the iron blood warriors with incredible speed.

Before the 30 iron blood warriors could gather their own power, they already possessed enough power to attack. When they reached the elemental creatures, the long lances in their hands were already flashing with blinding red light.

With an explosion, 30 elemental creatures collapsed.

Imposa's laughter became even more hysterical. He was watching the battle from a higher ground. Saleen had already fallen into his trap and could only await death. Of course, Imposa was not going to kill him. He merely wanted to capture him in order to study him thoroughly.

As an alchemist, especially one that specialized in life alchemy like Imposa, he was extremely confident that he would be able to extract all the secrets from Saleen's brain. He would not even need Saleen to cooperate.

"Chi!" Jola was as swift as lightning. When the 30 iron blood warriors took a few steps back, he quickly pounced and pierced his sword through the neck of one of the warriors. A mysterious power seeped into the tainted blood armor from his long sword, Tears. This iron blood warrior's neck was slit open by Tears. His head tilted to one side and he fell off the metal gear.

Jola had used his own unique power of rules on that strike. Golden grand swordmasters usually had a weak grasp of rules, unlike grade-9 sorcerers. Jola was different. Ever since he obtained his long sword, Tears, he had been experiencing the undeniable pain and anguish embedded in Tears.

This heartfelt pain and anguish could only be released through the long sword. Although this rule was not of a high grade, it was unique only to Jola.

Even though Saleen and Jola rarely fought together side by side, they recognized the opportunity that had been presented to them. Saleen personally commanded six Midnight Fangs to conceal themselves in the shadows of the metal gears before suddenly appearing underneath an iron blood warrior. The six Midnight Fangs wielded elemental weapons in the form of daggers. The daggers, which were the products of the congregation of dark elements, slid into the metal gears without a sound.

The magic arrays in the metal gears collapsed instantaneously. The Sword of Dark Element crushed the iron blood warrior's legs. Even the tainted blood armor was useless against that attack.

Once the six Midnight Fangs successfully took down their target, they quickly blended back into the darkness. The attack used up 20 percent of their powers. The way dark-element creatures attacked was the same as other elemental creatures, they had to use up their own energy. The only difference was that dark-element creatures were able to unleash all their energy in one go. Such a powerful attack was equivalent to an assassin's last attack before death.

After two iron blood warriors had fallen, the Quickcloud spell on Saleen's body had finally formed completely. The fog dissipated and 36 Tempest Dragon-mights and 36 Blue Ice Maidens gathered together to provide elemental power for Saleen's Quickcloud spell.

Saleen's Quickcloud spell might have been compromised in the Elemental Prison, but the energy of the elemental creatures could never be taken away.

Saleen used that opportunity to dash towards the gap. The magic array was perfect and, if not for Jola, Saleen would have had to activate grade-10 elemental creatures in order to destroy it. It was a perfect combination of the power of magic and the power of the 120 iron blood warriors.

Imposa's face turned gloomy. He did not expect the golden grand swordmaster beside Saleen to be able to grasp the power of rules. On top of that, the power of the rule was created by Jola himself. How could that be possible?!