Badge in Azure

Nash fainted. Safilos sent him because he had a one-track mind and he definitely would not let Lex pass. He was one track minded and so, once he knew that he could not defend Fort Strand, he could not take it.

Fort Strand had five thousand garrisons, according to Nash’s understanding. If Lex wanted to attack, no matter how strong her army was, she must at least have a one to one destruction ratio. Lex would not dare to pay such a price.

Who knew when he gathered a large numbers of troops at the west gate, something would happen to the east gate.

Gurney was eager to contribute and he had implications of risking his life to rush to the city. At that time, the mage that Lex sent to contact Daniel had yet to return.

The white robed mage was killed by Gurney with a spike. No one was able to break the line of the iron shield defence formed by the Barbarians and that provided time for the magic chariots to come forward. When the magic chariots rushed into the city, no one noticed that the enemy had big amounts of mages. They released magic directly and massacred the soldiers.

There were about a thousand people at the east gate and some of them were distributed at the top of the city wall doing patrol. The two magic chariots blocked the sloping path at the city wall and cut through the defences at the east gate. Even if Nash sent backups then, it would be too late. The city door had been destroyed entirely and the skeleton warhorses were rushing into the city.

Death creature that could suddenly increase in speed were more suitable to fight within the city. The last ten vehicles arrived and the pirates started eliminating the remaining soldiers while the Barbarians quickly changed into magic armor.

The city gate battle went on for another five minutes, there were another twelve pirates and twenty Barbarians that died.

Such fruitful war results were because there was no one managing Nash’s soldiers after they were injured. The moment Daniel’s magic chariot arrived, basically all the Barbarians that were injured were healed. Daniel’s party had no more dead once the magic chariots arrived.

Once the east gate was broken, Gurney started a fire with a bunch of pirates. They did not know that the battle on the west had exploded and no one was able to deal with this side. The fire was big and it almost burnt up half of the sky. Phoenix had too many wooden buildings unlike the middle part of the empire that had many stone houses.

The empire’s army in the west could see the fire that was soaring up on the east of the city. Under the influence of Lex’s magic, they lost all fighting will. Nash fainted and the command failed. Everyone was fighting based off instinct at the gate.

Lex’s trebuchet shot a cluster of magic stone bullets and they all showered down on the entire gate. Nash was dragged down by his bodyguard so he was not stoned to death, but he did not wake up either.

Sauron did not leave, but he did not heal Nash. He was afraid that Nash would be crazy when he woke up. Losing the city was not any loss to him. Safilos could not blame it on him as there were too many mages on Lex’s side.

Looking at the trebuchet on the top of the city wall raised to counter attack. Lex immediately figured out that the other party’s command system had a problem. She sent infantrymen to enter the city without hesitation. They pushed a huge roller extension ladder over and put it against the city wall.

Lex did not fly up to fight, she was afraid that there would be a soldier who would shoot her with huge crossbow when they panicked. It was definite that the city would lose defence and Lex did not need take the risk.

The top of the city wall was chaotic and their general had fainted, the war puppet beneath had started to climb upwards via the ladder. The low level officers were discouraged.

The battle had a drastic change all of a sudden. One of the soldiers threw his weapon down and surrendered. It was as though the practice was contagious, more soldiers threw their weapon and ran down from the city wall. They did not run far but gathered and waited for Lex to take them over.

If the enemy was any other country, the soldiers would not do so, but Lex was the princess of the Qin Empire and everyone heard her conversation with Nash. No one felt repulsion towards Lex and they knew that Lex would not kill captives as everyone there were people of the Qin Empire.

Bodyguards that were supervising operations saw such a situation and they drew out their sabres. They wanted to force the soldiers to fight, but there were too many soldiers that surrendered. The bodyguards shared a look and stopped their movement.

Nash did not pledge his life to resist before he fainted. If they were to force the soldiers then, they would ignite repugnance and even catalyzed a mutiny.

At the city wall, Lex sent a big troop made of Giants that were two meters tall who were holding huge shields to protect the mages. The fragmentary feather arrow could not hurt these mages, but these men of unusual strength were trying to let the mages control the war puppets in peace.

The war puppets climbed up the city wall, waving their weapon to chase away the soldiers. Once the puppets got up, the remaining soldiers did not resist. They were all from the north of the empire and this was Phoenix, not their homeland. The one opposite was not the wicked Tanggulasi people, but the princess of their country.

By then, Lex felt at ease.

Even though setting up a huge magic array and trebuchets spent a lot of her money, there were no deceased soldiers and that was Lex’s top priority.

It could not be said it was winning a military victory without shedding blood as the battle at the east part of the city had quite a number of sacrifices. The soldiers that were severely injured had yet to be healed. Daniel could not care less, he was there to break the city and usher Lex.

There were few residents in Fort Strand, the fire that the pirates set did not burn many to death. In actual fact, when they appeared, any courageous resident would have escaped when they saw skeleton warhorses.

Until the west gate opened and Lex’s big troop entered Fort Strand, the war at the east gate had yet to end. The soldiers of the Qin Empire did not know who Daniel and the others were so they fought with their lives.

Lex’s calvary rode through the city with a mage and they used sound amplification magic to announce that Princess Lex had taken over Fort Strand. Then, the battle stopped.

The battle at Daniel’s side was tough. Although no one died later on, everyone was injured. Gurney had no experience. He commanded the pirates to attack the soldiers at the gate tower, but the soldiers of the gate tower defended with their typographical advantage. There was no progress even after multiple attacks because of that.

Lex straightaway took over the duke’s residence and gathered all the surrendered soldiers at the square. They were surrounded by heavy cavalry. What made the surrendered soldiers calm was, Lex’s soldiers did not tell them to strip away their clothing.

Qin Empire’s clothing was made accordingly to their needs and the standard was complicated. The clothing of an army in the north protected against the cold. If they were to have their clothing stripped away, many of the soldiers would have frozen to death. The heavy cavalry, who was looking after the captives, were replaced with long spear soldiers.

The long spear soldiers were not equipped with bows and arrows, the captives felt even more relaxed. Most captives were killed with bows and arrows traditionally. When a captive was killed with arrows, it would be difficult to find out how a soldier died from their corpse. Everyone was even feeling thankful towards Lex. That was not considered as ridiculous, but a common thing that could be seen at the battlefield.

There were two magic chariots that were stopped at the duke’s residence and the Barbarians surrounded them in a circle to protect the war chariots. The mages around Lex were envious when they looked upon the two magic chariots. They thought it would be nice if they were to own them.

The magic chariots magnifying function would not be able to be compared with a magic tower, but they cost more than a magic tower. If one had not reached grade-6, they would not be qualified to build it.

Although Sauron was qualified to build a magic tower, he had no money. That was the sorrow of a mage like him, he followed the army because he had no money. Following Nash, he would not run into any trouble. He ran into Lex and Nash spat blood and fainted directly. That was very awkward for Sauron.

Every year he would received tens of thousands of gold coins from the empire, but he did not help Nash to fight when he needed him.

What other methods were there? A normal soldier dared to slash at Lex because it was a war. Even if he died, Lex would not take revenge at their family. He was different, he was a mage. If he were to attack Lex, he had to deal with the grade-8 sorcerers that backed Lex.

Daniel saw Lex and Lex kept a straight face and did not rage. Daniel killed hundreds of empire soldiers and among the soldiers that were injured, there would be a big batch that would die or be disabled. That was a war, Daniel was there to usher her.

In the hall, there was only one person standing before Lex, that was the grey robed mage, Sauron. The others were all seated and looking at the grade-6 mage.

Lex spoke, “Sauron, be my follower and I will not kill Nash.”

“Me?” Sauron was shocked. He replied immediately, “Your Highness, I am a poor mage, it would difficult for me to improve in this life. You should let me go. Nash did not do you any damage, just let him go.”

“No damage? If it wasn’t for the battle at the east gate, I would at least have lost another two thousand soldiers, just to pass through here. I must have a reason to not kill Nash, otherwise, anyone would dare to block my way in the future.”

Sauron suddenly understood that Lex wanted him to submit to also to give him an out. If Nash was really killed, it would be a troublesome matter. There were another few hundred thousand empire soldiers within Phoenix and if Safilos gave another order, it would possibly crush Lex’s army.

If she were to let Nash go, like Lex had said, the pride of a princess would vanish. There would be no one who respect Lex in the future.

If there were exchange terms, it would be different. If Lex let Nash go because she wanted to take a grade-6 mage under her control, everyone would think that Lex was hungry for talent and would not think that Lex took a loss.

If he himself, surrendered to Lex to save Nash’s life would be considered as the last obligation that he did for Nash.

Sauron then had a high opinion of Lex. Lex was The Great Chanake’s daughter after all. She could resolved difficult situation just like that.

Sauron smiled bitterly. If he rejected Lex’s recruitment, he had to take partial responsibility for Nash’s death. If Lex releasing him and killed Nash, he would have to leave the Qin Empire to live. No one would hire him with even one gold coin otherwise.

If Lex were to shirk responsibilities and shift the blame of Nash’s death, spreading the matter around, he could only continue practicing magic in Tanggulasi Empire.

Such a scheme, such brutal stratagem!

Just when Sauron was overcome with grief and indignation, Lex spoke again, “If you follow me, I would let you promote to a sorcerer before you turn a hundred years old.”