Badge in Azure

Chapter 1459: Test (Part 1)

Chapter 1459: Test (Part 1)

The head warden looked at Saleen. He wasn’t planning to kill the mage before leaving the place. He was just thinking that Saleen, at level-13, would then be the most powerful mage on Myers Mainland.

Saleen took a look at the head warden, who had taken the form of a monster yet stood like a human. Clutching a sword, the monster was immersed in thought.

He also appeared to be oblivious to his changed appearance and the power he wielded. The head warden seemed able to command that magic beast, which was heading toward higher ground, crushing everything in his path.

Saleen noticed that the fire element in the lava did not match the flames on the head warden’s body. Those flames were absorbed then converted instead of being used as they were. What a relief. This conversion method might have been a higher-level skill, but it wouldn’t have allowed the head warden to attain higher speeds when acquiring elemental powers in battle.

What Saleen feared most was the head warden being armed with something like his own—the Figure of Fate. If he failed to kill the head warden on the first try, it would be futile to waste a level-18 scroll on a second attempt.

Both parties spent less than 30 seconds checking each other out. That was long enough for Saleen to understand that he wouldn’t be able to properly lock onto the head warden.

“Come up here yourself. It’s too hot down there,” Saleen said as he lifted his left arm. The Thunder Dragon Bangle split up, and 24 thunder dragons shot to the clouds, releasing countless bolts of lightning and triggering a downpour.

The water element became frighteningly dense. Rafel, who was next to Saleen, lifted her Inferno Spear and aimed it at the head warden. She was fearless against a level 14-enemy. Though the power difference between them was wide, she still had a good chance of knocking him off.

The head warden smirked coldly. Do you think you can weaken my fire-elemental powers with that water element? He found the basic move Saleen decided to use disappointing.

His flames were not conjured with common fire element but imbued with powerful rules. If they could be easily overpowered by the water element, there would be no need for him to train so hard or to twist his form into that of a monster. All at once, fireballs lit up under his feet. Stepping on them, he rose into the air to approach Saleen.

Saleen cursed him under his breath. You sly old fox.

The head warden was moving at a snail’s pace, and Saleen was powerless to do anything against him. His power of the soul didn’t target the head warden not only because the head warden had a higher power of the soul but also because he had godly items that deflected attacks.

The best way for Saleen to target him was to move faster. That would allow him to predict his trajectories of movement and calculate where he would be before casting an attack.

That was easy to do. The head warden, however, chose to walk up one step at a time instead, messing up Saleen’s judgment.

Boom!

The rumble of thunder was heard in the sky once again, only this time it was not unleashed by the thunder dragon. Not even level-13 thunder dragons could cast lightning and thunder of such strength. Still, the rumble made the head warden falter.

This faltering would have gone unnoticed by most people, but not Saleen. Armed with the Eye of Souls, he fired seven lightning icicles without hesitating.

By then he was shrouded in a thin mist that grew so thick in a blink of an eye that no one could see him. In response, Saleen cast Quickcloud at full force, engulfing over 100 metal angels.

The head warden twisted his body. The seven lightning icicles missed their target. At the same time, he lost track of Saleen.

Saleen’s Quickcloud, which had risen to level-13, was no longer just a movement skill anymore. He managed to control the water element to intricate levels, causing the mist around him to merge seamlessly with the clouds during the downpour.

Saleen then cast 12-Thunder Phantasms shortly thereafter, a skill poor in killing but effective in ambushing.

It was especially so given how it was used in the clouds. Locating Saleen in them might not have required mental powers or power of the soul but if someone could distinguish illusions from a real body, it would have been impossible without using those powers.

Huffff!

Shhh...

The flames on the head warden’s body suddenly expanded as if his body had expanded. A ten-meter stream of flames was launched. All mists around the head warden were evaporated.

He didn’t even bother locating Saleen’s, saying coldly instead, “Saleen, if you keep running away from me, I’ll just go after your soldiers. Is that what you want?”

“If you kill my troops, I’ll kill your wardens,” Saleen answered, taking control of a Thunder Phantasm.

“Suit yourself. The lives of those wardens belong to me in the first place,” the head warden answered without mercy. Saleen then recalled how the head warden caused the volcano to shake and did nothing to control his powers. Saleen knew that the head warden wasn’t joking or bluffing.

Saleen was still thinking when the head warden burst forth at a high speed, swinging his sword and cutting a Thunder Phantasm in half.

The beast sprayed blood as a flesh-and-blood person would have. Then it plopped to the ground, yelping.

The head warden laughed and said, “Saleen, you think these illusions are of any use?”

Saleen thought for a bit and knew what the head warden meant. Many weapons were capable of attacking souls. The godly item the head warden attacked was one of them. The head warden’s weapon didn’t detect the presence of a soul when it cut down a Thunder Phantasm, so he knew it was a fake.

“Saleen. Where are your angels? Hand some of them over and let me have a go at them. That should be fun,” the head warden continued to provoke Saleen. Those metal angels were scared! They didn’t fear death, yet the head warden issued something like stunning skills in magic.

Despite being only of level-10, the weapons held by those metal angels still posed a threat to the head warden. What he was doing was akin to clipping the wings at Saleen’s side.

He had no intention of taking on 100 combat angels on his own. After all, he didn’t want to end up getting injured for no good reason.

Saleen noticed that despite being able to command far higher powers, the head warden still chose to be cautious in battle. Saleen also knew that if he were not able to use a level-18 scroll, there would be no chance for him to get rid of that head warden down. The Lord of Glory’s double had been so pompous and fearless when he was chasing after Saleen back in the day, without yielding to tricks or defense.

Enemies like the head warden were the toughest to deal with. Saleen took control of another Thunder Phantasm and unraveled a level-12 magic scroll—Gale Dragon.

Thousands of Wind Blades turned into tiny scales and attached themselves to a dragon conjured out of wind element before charging at the head warden.

The head warden swung his greatsword. That level-12 elemental creature was as fragile as a toy before the flaming sword. It immediately crumbled, as thousands of scales of the wind dragon were crushed before the beast had a chance to attack.

Seeing how adamant Saleen was, the head warden backed off his threat to kill Saleen’s soldiers even though they were scattered and hadn’t flown far away. As a level-14 being, he could have easily caught up with them. But did he want to chase small fry? That would have been mind-numbingly boring.

Further, those soldiers had gone off in different directions. Chasing after them would have been too tedious. Saleen wouldn’t have been hindered if hundreds of them had died, but there was no way the head warden could kill them all.

The head warden was now covered in flames. The clouds and mist couldn’t mingle where he was standing. The thunder dragons in the sky kept launching lightning bolts even though the attacks couldn’t punch through the flames.

The thunder dragons’ weaknesses were obvious. They needed more time to prepare their attacks. Attacking at high speeds would have severely diminished the strength of their attacks otherwise. The ball lightning Saleen had mastered was not something the thunder dragons could aim at. Ganging up on the head warden seemed like a great idea at the time. But this was madness: A thunder dragon could easily be taken down with one swing of the head warden’s sword.

Whoooosh. The weapon spirit of the magic amplifier appeared behind the head warden’s back, swinging its blade at him. The head warden threw his sword to block him while swinging his tail up, whacking the weapon spirit’s magic amplifier.

The amplifier was forced to bring its sword down, slicing the head warden’s tail.

He panicked for a bit after seeing that someone had managed to cut into his tail. So–the fiery red crystal didn’t block the golden sword’s attack.

And that’s not all. A deep gash was left on the godly item in his hand by a formless weapon flying at him.

What if he hadn’t had that godly item with him? The ambush would have done severe damage.

That golden dagger revealed itself after attacking and was unable to turn invisible again. That was because the head warden had switched the greatsword to his left hand, while his right hand, which was covered in scales, grabbed onto that weapon crafted by Saleen.

The dagger jumped for a bit before the head warden breathed purple flames onto it, covering the entire blade. The connection between the golden dagger and Saleen was cut off right away.

Saleen’s expression was unchanged. The weapon spirit of the magic amplifier escaped. The injured tail quickly healed with no obvious signs of damage

Sh*t. That thing is just like a fire-elemental creature!

The weapon spirit of the magic amplifier had no idea that the head warden was getting frustrated. The attack that had been able to cut into his tail was worse than the head warden expected. Worse still, the rules imbued within the great sword caused great pain to the head warden’s tail. If it had not been for the intense pain, the head warden would have been able to quickly lift its tail and destroy the weapon spirit on the spot.

Be it the dagger or the golden great sword, the rules imbued within were something that not even Saleen could decipher. Saleen simply wiped the aura of the Heretic God clean, yet the act gave birth to new rules. Such weapons were usually imbued with supplementary rules, yet they caused the head warden, who had a body of fire, to feel intense pain that went into his bones.

Was Saleen upset by this? Not in the least. Nor did he care that the head warden had taken his dagger. If he couldn’t kill the head warden, it would be pointless to keep the dagger around. If he did kill the head warden, he could easily get the dagger back again.

Saleen then aimed his family badge at the head warden and unleashed a thick bolt of lightning.

The attack was launched when the head warden was busy taking out the dagger. He had been greedy enough to give Saleen an opening to do this. But then again, that dagger was capable of cutting up godly items and the head warden just couldn’t resist the temptation.