Badge in Azure

Chapter 1303: Fear Me (Part 1)

It was not until Saleen said all that that Imposa developed a liking for Saleen. He disliked Saleen quite a lot before that, and that stemmed from disagreeable personalities between both of them.

Saleen lacked firmness, but he was unnervingly meticulous. The way Imposa saw it, Saleen was like a venomous snake waiting to strike, and few people liked venomous snakes.

Imposa did not mind that in the past. The contract between him and Saleen was temporary. As soon as he was no longer in service to the Grand Duke, he would not have to keep such promises any longer.

However, Imposa began to change his mind. Saleen was someone destined for great achievements in the upcoming calamity that was about to hit Myers Mainland, and he saw him as a friend worth making.

He believed that Saleen would stand by the side of Myers Mainland and would not rely on forces of any other planes.

Abomination plane, so what? The mindless brutes actually dare to call themselves intelligent beings?

When they reached the second floor, Imposa was dumbfounded. All of his passion before was gone. There was no fragments of bodies of gods around.

The warehouse was unusually cold and huge blocks of ice were everywhere. The blocks of ice were conjured using elemental magic.

Apes were seen sealed within the blocks of ice. The apes all had red, flaming wings and looked rare. What does Imposa want with these monkeys with wings?

Saleen was however, elated when he saw the red monkeys. He learned about the monkeys by chance. While they were gods in terms of ethnicity, they were not considered gods. To mages however, they were precious treasures.

The monkeys could be mistaken for flying apes. While the flying apes were powerful, but they possessed no form of writing. Like the behemoths, they were not considered intelligent life by humans.

The fiery red monkeys were god species from the Divine Kingdom of the Sun.

The Sun God was seen in many planes, but the firewing monkeys were only seen in divine kingdoms of level 17 and above. The firewing monkeys had been very powerful when they were alive.

Their capacity to control fire element was on par with fire type element spirits. They were born as oracles of gods, and they liked the sun.

His teacher’s Ring of Water and Fire lacked such sealed beings the most. The fire type element spirit that they captured before had been weak. If I gave all of these firewing monkeys to him, his magic amplifier should be able to last him until level 18 eh?

When the lightning puppets were unleashed, Imposa said dejectedly, “Saleen...”

“You can take one-fifth of these. Hurry up. These are very useful.” Saleen had no intentions of deceiving Imposa. He was able to tell that Imposa had been so anxious to attack Alchemy City not only because he needed to take revenge, but also because he needed to enhance his powers.

That desperation stemmed from the calamity that was about to hit Myers Mainland.

“These aren’t things that I should be getting my hands on, Saleen. One needs to pay the price equivalent to what one desires.”

“I’ll have you pay for them, Imposa!” Saleen used Thunder Shock on him. Imposa shuddered but quickly regained his composure. He began to stuff the sealing ice into his own space equipment.

Both of them upped their pace. Within the space of several hundred square meters, there were over 200 firewing monkeys. Saleen was incredibly quick. By the time Imposa taken one-fifth of them, Saleen was done taking all the others.

It was not due only to Saleen having helpers that he was able to achieve such speeds, but also because his mental powers were greater than Imposa’s.

Imposa did not bother with any of that. What he cared about was what the things were and why Saleen was so interested in them.

Saleen passed through the two floors of the warehouse and came to the surface. He expanded his territory and found their men stuck where they were. The guardians at Grand Duke Iron Blood’s side had long been summoned back, struggling to resist Alchemy City’s attacks.

If it had not been for the 200 most powerful Bug Angel Warriors, that spot would have long been overrun. If the exit had been blocked, both Saleen and Imposa would have needed to pay a hefty price to leave.

The Grand Duke held the line at the exit. The three magic towers were not destroyed and were able to contact the core magic tower of the city. The strength of all of their magic was enhanced exponentially.

Even the purple-gold dragon had no way of retaliating. It roared and roared, but it was not able to do anything against the city’s territory. The city had not been able to do anything to overpower the dragon when their magic amplifier was not working. However, it was only able to keep the Grand Duke from being killed in one shot.

Saleen’s senses allowed him to see more. The Bug Angel army had already been carved up by the city’s territory. Every single section had only several hundred warriors, which were being attacked by towers. The Bug Angel Warriors were unable to even contact the Grand Duke.

Over 10,000 of Saleen’s managed to break out and flee the city, but 6,000 were still trapped within, and carved into over a dozen sections, struggling to resist the magic towers’ attacks.

The archangel brought the metal angels and struggled as well. The function of the magic amplifier expanded the city’s territory and raised its level. The Floating City continued to climb in altitude, reaching over 20,000 meters.

Saleen wondered if he should give up on the Bug Angel Warriors. Over 12,000 of his soldiers made it outside the city, and that loss seemed tolerable.

The dragon roared and cast Dragonhowl. It was dragon magic. The Grand Duke roared as well, bringing up his dragon spear and headed straight for the level ten magic tower right before him.

Saleen was out. They could kill their way out of their barricade!

“Where are your warriors?” The Grand Duke asked Saleen before he forced his way out. Saleen had never dealt with people like the Grand Duke. When one had someone like the Grand Duke as a friend, he was truly worth keeping.

So this is friendship among nobles then?

Saleen recalled an idiom of the common folk—underneath the pretentious mask and ostentatious soul lies some virtue worth dying for.

Everyone has a side to them that is worth loving.

It was quite rare for Saleen to feel touched by an outsider. He swung his magic staff and buffed the Grand Duke with status magic—Ice Crystal Armor. It was not a pure physical defense spell like Crystal Fortitude, but compound magic capable of healing its wearer.

Saleen had stored the spell in his magic staff as a means to deepen his friendship with the Grand Duke.

He was in no mood for calculations at present. The Grand Duke did not forget about Saleen’s army when he was retreating. He was, at the very least, truly an ally worth making. While they might not remain friends forever, the Grand Duke was definitely worthy of respect.

Clad in Ice Crystal Armor, the Grand Duke shrugged off a level ten magic attack and golden light burst from his dragon spear, cutting off the connection between that tower before him with the other two. His level had yet to allow him to break the foundations of magic arrays, as he was unable to see them.

However, his mask was made out of dragon crystals. The dragon he rode bestowed him with unique sight abilities. Whatever weaknesses the dragon saw, he was able to see.

Saleen was able to just get out himself, flying straight into the air and to the Floating City. However, since the Grand Duke was so much of a friend that he thought of rescuing Saleen’s army first when breaking out of the barricade, Saleen gave in. Saleen was compelled to reward the other man with what he gave.

Saleen cast a ball of lightning again. It was incapable of attacking any quick-moving targets, but Saleen was able to calculate the movement of any target 100 times faster than he used to be able to when the target was in his territory. Furthermore, magic towers were not moving targets, so it was easy for Saleen to hit his target.

The black ball of lightning seeped into the magic tower. The tower’s defenses were completely ignored. The ball lightning seemed harmless as it floated and rolled around the tower.

Saleen switched to his magic staff and cast a level 11 Stone Statue army.

Six 100-meter stone statues rushed at the magic tower. Every one of them held elemental warhammers. It was a staff that Saleen prepared specifically for that purpose. The magic staff was created using bone crystals of the giant.

The Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers actually showed hints of intelligence. They were magical constructs and not considered living beings. They were little more than temporary items and owed their intelligence to the bone crystals of the giant.

The warhammers pounded on the level ten magic tower, and a corner of it shattered. The defense barrier of the magic tower was crushed by six Stone Statue Soldiers.

The reasoning was very simple. When the magic tower was caught inside Saleen’s territory, enhancements from the magic amplifier and the city territory were unable to act. The mages within the tower did not evade the ball lightning due to curiosity and attempted to block it using magic shields. Tragedy ensued shortly after.

They were not the first mages to die due to curiosity, but they were probably the first to do so on a battlefield in the past millennium. The mage died an unceremonious death. The tower’s defense barrier was unmanned after he died, making it difficult for the tower to resist six level 11 magic weapons.

The other two level ten magic towers’ reinforcements were quickly broken by the Grand Duke’s spear. They synchronized very intricately in their attacks.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Saleen used Thundering Explosion, sending his voice to the surrounding magic towers participating in the attack.

The Grand Duke hurried the dragon and shot towards the west side of the city. Saleen pointed his finger there. He decided to take the Grand Duke’s favor. The two giant statues in the west were no longer there, as they had gone to the other end of the city.

The Ancient was still pressing with its attacks over there. Enormous puppets continued to attack with magic cannons with an explicit goal of emptying the energy stored within the weapons.

Imposa broke out his metal cog and looked at Saleen. “Get on!”

Saleen smiled and leapt onto the weird flying device and took out his War Drum of Fear.

“Imposa, hold it steady, and hear this thing clearly,” Saleen held the bone hammer high, beating the face on the drum.