Badge in Azure

Chapter 439: The Price to Stay Alive (Part 1)

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

Saleen pursued one of the warships alone. He took heed from the previous example, four grade-6 mages were framed by Sika and Nailisi. If there was anything strange about the enemy’s warship, he would not be able to withstand. When Saleen caught up to the warship, he did not land but opted to attack with a magic scroll at the rear deck that had no alchemy crossbow.

On the escaping warship, the soldiers and the sailing crews were terrified to see the cloud of mist in the sky that descended to a dozen meters above the rear deck. Among the cloud of mist, there was constantly low and intermediate magic cast out. The rear deck was broken in a flash and it revealed the cabin at the bottom.

The most terrifying thing was, the first among those spells cast had destroyed the rudder. Without a rudder, the warship was like a fly without a head, its body was shaking vigorously.

A magic warship and a normal sailing ship were different. In order to get speed, the stability was not as good. If there was no damage or no high speed travelling, there would not be any problem. Now that the warship had increased its speed to its highest and it had suddenly lost its rudder they were in trouble. Relying on the streamline of the hull, it would not be able to resist the water current.

After Saleen took care of the rear deck and made sure that there was no target that could threaten him, he then released the water current from his calabash and let the water current split the warship.

Saleen was extremely skilful in doing so as when he was building Metatrin city, he used the water current to cut stones. For a few months time, his mental strength was trained to be tenacious and pure.

He learned that way from Lex. At Bitter Water Prefecture, the mages would use all kinds of methods to practice magic, a lifestyle mage was one of the examples. Even when they prepare and cook a meal, or cleaned up the compound, they would incorporate magic practice into their task.

The method of practice was very beneficial for mental strength and it could let the mage’s body react naturally. At any point in time the mage would be able to steady their status quickly, assemble elements, and make use of magic chords.

“Magic is everywhere”, that was the slogan for mages in Bitter Water Prefecture.

Right in the middle of the warship, an amplification magic array projected the voices of people begging for mercy. The metal armor of the warship was split open by the current cutter and they dropped into the sea bit by bit. The warship looked like it was going to disintegrate from the back.

The low level mages could not fly and could only surrender.

Saleen laughed coldly, “The hundred of swordsmen that I have on the warship surrendered once, but you left their dead bodies on an abandoned island. Eastern Sea Allied Army, once I see you, I will not let any one of you go.

He had dealt with the people from the Island Nations of the Eastern Sea before. Saleen had a very straightforward understanding of the people. They were treacherous and cunning, not one that was sincere. Once you believe in them, you would receive retribution very soon.

These people had no sense of honor. After they surrendered to you, they would betray you again. Things that they promised you, they would not take to heart. People from the eastern sea only looked upon the benefits before their eyes. They only believed in those that they could lay their hands on.

Saleen could not care less about them begging for mercy on the sea surface, but quickly opened another magic scroll and poured another spell.

Mages who would bombard magic were not any good mages, but Saleen’s aim was simple. He wanted to sink the warship before his eye with the safest method.

The speed of releasing a magic scroll was slow and the gold coins spent were a lot, but it would not expend any of Saleen’s magic chords. No matter what kind of accident, he would flee from the battlefield with his battle power maintained at his highest.

He could kill three grade-6 mages that landed on the dragon skeleton warship, the opposite party had never seen such case before.

As long as he did not leave the protection range of the cloud of mist they could not do anything to him, unless they had a sorcerer of course. There would be hardly any sorcerers that would go out to the sea with the ships. Even if there was a sorcerer in the eastern sea allied army, they would be thinking about issues on land regarding how to attack the middle of the Qin Empire instead of coming to the sea to look for a lost fleet.

The warship on the sea surface lost its rudder and it could not turn around. The formation of clustered alchemy crossbows on the front deck could not threaten Saleen at all. Even if the warship could turn around, it was impossible to be any faster than Saleen’s flying speed. Saleen was chasing after the rear of the warship for attack, he was not willing to expose his body under the attack of crossbows.

Any alchemy crossbows that were able to threaten a grade-5 grand mage would be really heavy and required fixed support. For a warship on the sea, weapons like crossbow were two extremes. They were either delicate and could be used for close attacks by the soldiers or were the huge kind that could shoot fire arrows to set the enemy’s ships on fire.

What an alchemy crossbow lacked the most against a mage was when the enemy’s mage appeared, one’s own mage would fight against them. The grade-6 mages on the warships were already dead and there was no mage that could ensure the warship’s safety.

Saleen felt overjoyed, the hundred of the swordmen’s dead bodies on the abandoned island had became a shadow that suppressed his heart and remained there. Even if he sunk the all enemy’s ships and killed tens of thousands of their men, Saleen would still feel sorry towards the swordsmen.

He was a mage that climbed from the bottom after all, he never had the attitude that looked upon commoners as nonentity. He was responsible for the deaths of those swordsmen. If he were to maintain one of the two warships running, it would not happen. He told them to surrender as he was afraid that the swordsmen would resist unnecessarily.

Saleen was not angry at all, but sad. Those people that followed him died meaninglessly. If he did not make his enemy pay back ten-thousand fold, he did not know how to face himself.

The safety feature at the rear deck was destroyed entirely, Saleen then released a few mutated fireballs calmly to set the warship on fire.

Without the metal shell or the protection of a magic array, the warship that was built with large amount of wood quickly turned into a sea of fire. A few low level mages tried to extinguish the fire with magic, but whenever the fire got weaker, Saleen would throw another fireball.

The people on the ship were finally hopeless and there were people that jumped off into the sea. The environment was different from island nations in eastern sea, the sea water was cold to the bone. Sailing crews who were familiar with water would still freeze to death within a minute. Even swordmasters that had sword aura could not resist for too long.

Saleen did not go after people that jumped off into the sea. It was a few hundred miles away from the land. Even if they wanted to swim back, that would require half a day’s time. His body was a body of water element magic and sea water would not damage him at all. Those people were just people that would die in a matter of time.

A shadow flew up from the sea of fire in a wobbly fashion. It was a grade-4 gray robed mage. The mage was burnt all over and half of his hair and beard were gone.

“A grade-4 mage that can fly?” Even though he flew with the aid of magic staff, the mage’s understanding towards the wind element certainly had reached the level of a grade-6 mage.

“That’s a pretty decent genius,” Saleen looked at the mage coldly.

The gray robed mage did not run towards the land, he knew that among the cloud of mist on the sky, there was a hidden mage that would not let him leave. The distance that he could fly was very short, he would most likely drop into the sea before reaching the land.

The mage came before Saleen’s cloud of mist and looked up miserably. He shouted, “You! Why didn’t you give us a way out?!”

Saleen suddenly laughed. The mage used all his strength to maintain his flying, he could not even use his mental strength to open a magic scroll. The cloud of mist before Saleen went suddenly transparent to reveal his face to the gray robed mage.

The voice of the gray robed mage stopped when he saw Saleen’s extremely young features. Such a strong mage that did not even look any older than twenty. No wonder he could not control his emotion and was filled with a murderous anger, even more brutal compared to the other assassins.

“If he was young, any stronger would be easy to deal with.” The grade-4 mage steadied his mind and changed his tone, “My dearest mage, we had surrendered. Please allow a few of my fellow comrades onto a lifeboat. There were another four mages and dozens of magic apprentices. Our King would be willing to buy us back with money.”

The grade-4 mage said this carefully and complemented Saleen once more.

“In your eyes, we might not be anybody. Why not exchange us with gold coins or rare magic material?”

“At first, I didn’t even want to talk to you.” Saleen paused and continued, “There is something that you don’t understand. I’m not killing you because I wish to, I wished that I had never seen you. It was all of you that came here from tens of thousands of sea routes away. If you are here, it was fate. Either you die or I die. Regarding money, do you know how many magic scrolls I just cast?” Saleen replied in a satirical tone.

The gray robed mage’s face suddenly grew embarrassed. The magic scrolls that Saleen threw down were at least eighty if not a hundred. That was not including intermediate magic scrolls. Saleen had spent tens of thousands of gold coins and it did not seem to wring his heart.

“To bribe me, you have to at least be more wealthy than I am.” Saleen took out a Silver Magic Book casually and held in his hands, “Look at this, how much does it cost?”

The gray robed mage was at a loss for words. A Silver Magic Book, even it was in the legendary Alchemy City, it was not something that could be bought with gold coins. With the Silver Magic Book, a grand mage had the chance to release an extra eighteen intermediate spells without expending of any magic chords.

Saleen left the Silver Magic Book, but used one-timed items to attack the warship. He obviously did not mind about expending it before his eyes.

He did not know, not that Saleen did not care. The concept that he upheld was to act according to safety first. If he had a choice, he would never resort to using a magic book and magic chords. To be able to finish the battle with grade-1 magic, he would never use grade-2.

After Lex left, even when Saleen was in the temple under strong protection, he would keep his guard up.

Saleen suddenly changed his tone and said, “If you want to leave, it’s not like there’s no way to.”

The gray robed mage was delighted, “This young mage had his weakness. It’d be great to stay alive. In the future, if I have the chance, I will find a way to take revenge.”

“I want the sea map and constellation map from eastern sea to the Myers Mainland.” Saleen smiled faintly.

The gray robed mage’s heart was suddenly in his stomach again. He did not have those things. The sea map from eastern sea to the Myers Mainland would only be in the sorcerer’s hands or with a family that was stronger.

“I want to drive my warship to the eastern sea for a trip. If you can’t give me what I want, then you can only die.”