Badge in Azure

Saleen looked at the generals seated at the table and pondered for a moment before saying, “In July, Lex came to Metatrin City and we signed a treaty. This treaty concerns both countries, Bitter Water Prefecture and Metatrin Kingdom.” Saleen spoke very seriously and the generals all paid careful attention. Saleen continued, “Nevertheless, even without that treaty, I would still be here today. This is because a few years ago, when I was still a small grade-2 mage, Lex helped me. I am from Sikeqinya so many people may think that Sikeqinyans only care about money.”

Saleen’s tone became relaxed and the generals could not help but laugh. This King and grand mage did not put on any airs.

“Indeed, I am someone who is especially fond of gold coins, but I can never forget what Lex has given me. Today, I am here not because of the treaty between our two countries. It is because my men and I will defend every inch of land in Bitter Water Prefecture along with your Lord. Regardless if the enemy is from the Holy See or from the huge Cloudflow Empire, I, Saleen Metatrin, will never back down. This is not the oath of a King but the promise of a mage.”

At this point, everyone became very stern. A mage’s promise could never be broken.

“I have brought along a fleet. In order to give everyone sufficient assurance to continue doing what needs to be done later on, Mu En, give an introduction of this fleet.” Saleen gestured to Mu En as he spoke.

There was a strange smile on Lex’s face. She knew that Saleen would never give up on her Prefecture and that Saleen valued their relationship very much. What she was smiling about was that Saleen was using a person from Bitter Water Prefecture disguised as a death sorcerer.

Mu En was an inconspicuous person. Although he was a high-level swordmaster, he had never appeared in anyone’s sight before. Mu En was Earl Besta’s bodyguard, but was also newly selected to be sent to the small town at the border. His family had always followed Earl Besta and everyone in Bitter Water Prefecture knew that.

Mu En swallowed; is entire body was burning. The winged skeleton’s voice rang in his head. He had no choice but to follow the winged skeleton’s instructions so he said, “This time around, His Highness has brought along a spirit fleet.”

Mu En waved his hand as he spoke and the winged skeleton immediately came to the front to set up a magic image array on the table.

“There are six skeletal warships. Each of them is twenty yards long and can carry two-hundred human soldiers and eight-hundred spirits of the dead. Each warship is equipped with high-level magic compass, a spirit gaze magic array, and its main weapon is big magic stone artillery with a range of more than ten miles. Its secondary weapon includes twelve medium magic stone artilleries with a range of five miles. The warships are driven by death magic and do not require sails. There are twenty-four catapults for targets within five miles. Close combat equipment include sixty alchemy crossbows and twelve sets of fire-breathing dragons.”

The winged skeleton did not allow Mu En to talk about the full nature of the skeletal warships except for their main weapons. Upon hearing about it, the generals of Bitter Water Prefecture became more optimistic.

Mu En continued to introduce the other small-scale warships and Saleen was relieved. He could see that all the generals had regained their confidence and every single one of them was paying full attention to what Mu En was saying.

Saleen was confident in destroying the enemy’s main warships, but could not guarantee that he could stop the Cloudflow forces from reaching the shore. The Cloudflow’s troop carriers were powerful magic warships in their own right. If they were unable to sink these warships, the Cloudflow soldiers would come ashore and attack Daliang City.

What Saleen needed to do was simple. He needed to bring up the morale of everyone and clinch a decisive victory on land. Cloudflow had been dominating the seas for thousands of years. He had to be prepared. No matter how good his own warships were, it would be a hard-fought battle.

The best result he could hope for was for both sides to suffer heavy losses. The only difference was that Cloudflow would be losing their navy soldiers while Saleen was merely losing spirits of the dead. The horrifying thing about death troops was that if there was enough time and magic nuclei, Saleen could summon them without stopping, constantly replenishing his troops.

Mu En spoke for more than an hour before completing the introductions of Saleen’s warships. This was when Saleen continued to speak to the generals, “Cloudflow fleets may be invincible on the seas, but I am confident that my death troops will be able to destroy their catapults, magic stone artilleries, and large-scale alchemy crossbows. I just need everyone to hold this place.”

Saleen stood up even as he spoke. He stretched out his hand and pointed at the magic map. The location he was pointing at was the east side of the shore, which was the rocky terrain near Qin.

“I will build a spirit castle here in ten days’ to force the Cloudflow armies that have come ashore to go by the flanks. The small town cannot be expanded at the moment and a ten-thousand strong army will not be able to hold the town.”

“The Cloudflows will come ashore?” A general asked.

“If there are one-million of them, I can guarantee that less than six-hundred-thousand will come ashore,” Saleen replied with a smile.

The reason behind Saleen’s confidence was that he had yet to introduce the diving combat vessel and the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The diving combat vessel was not a large equipment, but the threat it posed to troop carriers surpassed any main warships. It had undergone tests and was found to be able to dive to a depth of one-hundred yards. It would never be discovered unless any grand sorcerers paid special attention to it.

Once such diving combat vessels got close enough to troop carriers, the latter would be dead meat.

The Cloudflow army declared that they would send a one-million strong army to shore, but it was not possible. Could one troop carrier carry ten-thousand men each? Probably five-thousand was the maximum.

One-hundred troop carriers could only carry five-hundred-thousand men and that was excluding the soldiers’ equipment and logistics. There were less than two-hundred Cloudflow ships that were medium-sized or larger on the Separation Sea.

Mu En finally relaxed after successfully completing his act in front of everyone. Lex knew who he was, but he was an unknown to everyone else.

After settling Lex’s subordinates and once the generals had departed, Saleen told Lex the exact numbers of all the equipment that he had brought along. After assembling all the components, there would be a total of six large warships, thirty medium warships and one-hundred and twenty small warships. In actual fact, these already surpassed the numbers in a proper fleet.

The large and medium warships were equipped with magic stone artilleries that were newly built. The small warships did not have the chance to change their equipment so they were still stuck with bone catapults.

Every warship would have spirit pools so they would still be able to use bone spirits to carry bloodstones and use them as a form of ranged attack.

The six jade skeletons would lead a skeletal warship each and each of them would be accompanied by five medium warships and twenty small warships. Each section of the fleet would be given two diving combat vessels. These two diving combat vessels would not join in the battle. Their only objective was to seek out the troop carriers.

As for the pan’s turtle alchemical boat, it would be controlled by the winged skeleton personally.

The Cloudflow army would not wait for too long. Once they had sufficient warships, they would launch an attack immediately. According to reports the Cloudflow fleets would reach the north shore of Separation Sea and would be ready to attack Daliang City by mid November.

Lex had stationed a three-hundred-thousand strong army on the west side to stand against the armies of the Tanggulasi Empire. There were less than two-hundred-thousand men in Daliang City and one-hundred-thousand of them were Lex’s main battalion. Another ten-thousand were Saleen’s first battalion. Although Saleen’s sixth battalion had improved their fighting abilities tremendously, they were still not as formidable as the first battalion.

Once Saleen reached Daliang City, the first battalion was returned back to him. By the time Saleen left, he would bring the first battalion along. He would then send another two battalions there to help Lex in her fight. After a few rounds of such arrangements, Saleen’s main battalions would all greatly improve their fighting abilities.

Although Daliang City was a newly expanded city, it was not small in scale. Lex had built this city with the intention of it being able to house more than one-million people. The original infrastructure was insufficient so she turned it into an inner city. Three layers of city walls were then built according to the geographical terrains to form an unorthodox-looking city.

When Lex first came arrived, she only concentrated on building up the city. This Daliang City had once stopped the attack of a three-hundred-thousand strong army from Tanggulasi. Saleen walked one round with Lex on the top of the city wall and did not find any areas that needed his help. Lex’s equipment for defending the city was sufficient and was comparable to his own. Saleen managed to learn many techniques of defending the city from Lex.

“Lex, I can rest assured about Daliang City. I will now go to Separation Sea to build the bone castle. I will station fifty-thousand soldiers there. When we fight them on Separation Sea, I will try to destroy their troop carriers so that not many of them will make it to the shore. If we can eliminate the one-million strong army, no one else on the Myers Mainland will dare to attack us anymore.” Saleen felt confident as he looked into the distance while standing on top of the city wall.

If Cloudflow had sent forth a one-million strong army to attack on land, Saleen would be helpless. On the west side of Separation Sea was the mountainous regions of Titan Duchy. Not only would it be difficult to pass through that region, they would also have to cut through lands controlled by Tanggulasi. Cloudflow thought that their fleets were invincible and wanted to enter Bitter Water Prefecture through the Separation Sea by attacking Daliang City. It would be a good opportunity for Saleen and Lex to make a name for themselves.

An army of twenty-thousand against one-million soldiers. This battle would go down in the historical records.

Lex looked into the distance as well and said to Saleen, “If not for the treaty between our two countries, would you really have come?”

“Of course. The Emperor of Cloudflow has insulted you and that is equivalent to insulting me too. Besides, we are going to destroy his empire sooner or later…”

“Humph, I killed the Cloudflow envoy because I listened to you. You are obliged to help me.” There was rage in Lex’s words. She seemed dissatisfied with Saleen’s answer.

“Lex…”

“Let’s not talk anymore. I will go and rest. The days when you were not around, I was so tired.” Lex interrupted Saleen and led his black metal grand swordmasters down the city wall.

Saleen was confused. He turned around and asked Isabella and Eleanor, “Did I say something wrong?”

“My Lord, precisely because you didn’t say anything wrong, that’s why the Princess was upset.” Eleanor smiled and Isabella shook her head too. It was obvious that Lex had hoped to hear another reply from Saleen.

As a Lord and the main heiress to the Grukos royal family, Lex could not possibly be too proactive in expressing her feelings to Saleen. This time around, Saleen traveled so many miles to give aid to her. Lex was already very touched. If only Saleen would be more proactive. It was just that Saleen’s mind was mostly occupied with how to deal with the Cloudflow fleets and a small part of him was still thinking about Metatrin City and Sika. There was no way he could possibly remember anything about proposing a marriage to Lex.

Two countries united through marriage would become a single resilient entity compared to a mere alliance.