Badge in Azure

Chapter 587: Amounting to nothing (Part 1)

Chapter 587: Amounting to nothing (Part 1)

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

The eleven swordmasters were flustered, they did not escape on their own but had followed Aini, rushing into the camp compound.

Ever since Su began following Saleen, he had been spending his days in danger. It was only after returning to Metatrin City that he witnessed a regular army from this world. Lex’s army caused Su to be dumbfounded, while the swordsman’s camp in the Bitter Water Prefecture was valiant and ferocious. Even Su himself could not infiltrate them.

Su originally thought that all the armies on Myers mainland were like that, but the bandits’ camp was very lax and normal. The bandits only reacted after Su had barged into their camp and knocked over two tents.

The bandits charging forward towards Su did not even wear armor, they only wielded short knives and swarmed forward. Su wielded two swords, slashing at this left and right as his eyes darted around looking for other pesky enemies.

Su led eleven men and traveled through this small camp twice. After almost destroying the place, he then saw a brigade of cavalrymen rushing out from another camp. Su noticed that there was a white-robed mage traveling with this brigade of soldiers. Mages who dared travel with cavalrymen were usually of outstanding quality.

Su could not care less about the grandeur of a mage. Since this mage followed the bandits, it meant that he deserved to die. Removing the longbow from his back, Su yelled at the soldiers behind him to retreat, then he loaded feather arrows on the bow and fired into the distance.

Su had trained his archery back in the subcontinent plane. After following Saleen, he was lucky to have gotten some tips from Eleanor, thus improving his archery skills. His feather arrows covered a distance of over five-hundred yards in a flash, which had even exceeded the range of a steel crossbow.

That white-robed mage on horseback was enveloped by the bandits, so he was caught off guard by a feather arrow descending from the sky. In a moment of haste, he could only wield an Invisible Shield. A ring on his finger flared brightly, then he opened the Fire Ring of Resistance.

The Invisible Shield obviously could not block a feather arrow containing the Sword Aura, it cracked with a clap. As the feather arrow slanted, the Fire Ring of Resistance had already been lit up. The attack principle of the Fire Ring of Resistance was to burn the arrow, while its physical defense was similar to that of the Invisible Shield.

Su’s feather arrows had been personally crafted by Saleen. Even though they were low level alchemical arrows, one Fire Ring of Resistance was not sufficient to destroy the arrowhead. The body of this arrow grazed past the left side of the mage’s neck, just into the area where his arteries were.

Fresh blood spurted out, causing this mage to be petrified. He immediately cast a Freezing spell onto his own neck, freezing a large block of dark red blood. The mage then turned around and fled, clamping his hands around the warhorse’s neck.

It would be strange for him not to escape. One arrow from the enemy could overcome two of his defensive spells, no matter how stupid this mage was, he could figure out the standard of his enemies.

Seeing that the white-robed mage was fleeing in shock, Su took out another three arrows and launched them. These three arrows landed on three bandits who were clad in exquisite armor. Despite these three bandits wearing beautiful armor, they died quickly.

Although the remaining bandits had elegant equipment, Su already lost the intention to harm them. Su alone could not massacre all the bandits. As the powerful force among the bandits had not emerged yet, he just wanted to bait them to chase him.

Su and Jola were different. Even though he was still young, he handled matters much more calmly than Jola. If Jola was to bait the enemy, he might even go to the enemy’s main camp to massacre them and embarrass those he did not like. Even though Su already possessed the ability of a Silver Grand Swordmaster, he still followed Saleen’s instructions earnestly.

It was very clear that Saleen did not only want him alone. If Su was the only one who could fight while the rest of the subordinates were slack, then Saleen’s plan would be fruitless.

Saleen had allowed Su to come along to ensure the safety of those eleven soldiers.

After killing the three bandits who looked like the headmen, Su fled on horseback. His warhorse might not contain some noble bloodline, but it had been carefully selected. Its endurance and sprinting abilities were all above average. The enemies were more than five-hundred yards away, their bows were helpless against Su. Just like that, Su had abandoned a chaotic camp, escaping with eleven swordmasters.

The bandits at the rear were outraged. If Su had only wrecked one of their camps, they only had to reorganize and arrange their defensive measures, the big picture would not be affected. This person had attacked the men in the camp and burned five trebuchets.

Five trebuchets were destroyed, and it would be very difficult to purchase them again. On the other hand, if the bandits were to build the trebuchets themselves, they would waste a lot of time, and the trebuchets would be inaccurate and would no longer fire magic stone cannons.

Thus these bandits quickly gathered some horses and gave chase.

The soldiers in Cexing City had already given up hope since the enemy outnumbered them and possessed military-grade trebuchets, which could swiftly reopen the cracks in the city walls. These soldiers had already planned to die in battle. Out of the blue, there was a commotion outside the city, and the soldiers immediately discovered that the enemy’s trebuchets had been set ablaze.

Judging by the color and shape of the flames, an experienced soldier would know that the flames were a result of magic fuel, there was no way of salvation. News of this spread, and cheers could be heard coming from the city.

The owner of Cexing City was a third class viscount. He already had the notion of committing suicide, but this abrupt change outside the city energized him instantly. Rations were aplenty in Cexing City, as long as the city walls were not broken, it would not be too difficult to assemble the farmers to act as guards. Someone outside had destroyed the trebuchets, so the bandits would surely allocate some manpower to deal with the threat, lowering the number of attacking forces. He would be able to manage the situation.

As long as he held out for a few days, reinforcements from Huoxing City would arrive. Since the bandits did not have any logistics support, they would naturally retreat by then.

Saleen wished for such an outcome. If the defending soldiers had lost morale, the city could be overtaken very soon. Only five trebuchets were ruined, but to the people in the city, that was akin to a lifebuoy.

Outside Cexing City was a large camp which had extremely strong defenses, and this was where the bandit leader lived. Within a huge tent, a bandit entered to report about the destroyed trebuchets. That bandit leader was considered calm. In a low voice, he asked, “Who did it?”

“We do not know, they have also ruined a camp complex, Black Dragon’s people have gone after them.”

“Gone after them?” This bandit leader appeared youthful, but he was very meticulous. He immediately said, “Get those people back!”

The light cavalrymen from Black Dragon had traveled for a large distance. Since the bandits in camp had no fast horses, it was impossible to recall them. This young bandit leader immediately ordered the diverted bandits to assemble and rebuild a camp around his compound.

The soldiers in Cexing City had been observing the situation outside. When they noticed these measures the older soldiers were filled with regret. If Cexing City had a grand mage, the mage could have set fire to the enemy. The bandits’ camp was too dense, there were no corresponding defensive methods either. A mage could attack it easily.

Fifty miles away, in Saleen’s camp, Sharman was harassing Saleen by talking to him incessantly. Saleen was helpless. This little girl might be clingy, but her character was not detestable. She also spoke respectfully. Saleen could tell that the grade-5 mage serving her was obviously reluctant.

Sharman must have exhorted him repeatedly. Even though the grade-5 mage listened to Saleen’s orders and stopped the enemy, he still looked glum.

Since Sharman was so sensible, Saleen did not get angry. If she behaved like Irene, Saleen might even have the notion of killing her.

Since the mage was not around, Sharman took the opportunity and told Saleen, “Brother Saleen, ignore him. Fourth Brother’s temper is like this, but he listens to my sister.”

“Fourth Brother?” Saleen felt uncomfortable when he heard this nickname. In any other place, a grade-5 mage would be addressed as “Sir”. Since Sharman called him that, it was obvious that she did not treat him as a grand mage.

“Heh, the Rolande family has groomed four grand mages, he is the fourth one. When my sister came to Metatrin City, only he was willing to tag along, the other three are… ha ha.”

Saleen smiled and said, “Got it.” In his heart, he was thinking, “This mage should be fond of Baroness Guya, that’s why he is willing to follow her even though her future is uncertain. Sharman has been wanting to introduce her sister to me, no wonder this mage treated me in a hostile manner. There is no point getting jealous over this, I have Sika, I will not think about Guya.”

“Brother Saleen, are you confident this time around?” I feel that the bandits will gather more manpower to invade the city.” Sharman did not continue harping on the previous topic, she was worried for her subordinates. The one-hundred men who went to set up an ambush were not the fast cavalrymen. If they made an error, they might not be able to run back in time.

“Don’t worry, with Su around, your men will not get into any big trouble,” Saleen consoled Sharman. He was not very concerned about the safety of the servants. One-hundred steel crossbows would execute an ambush shot, and they would escape after using all the arrows. They would not even need to do close combat. If there was a melee fight, those servants would be very much inferior to Sharman’s and Aini’s trusted soldiers given their caliber.

The situation unfolded like what Saleen had predicted. Su, along with the eleven swordmasters, controlled their speed as much as possible. Su had ran more than thirty miles before getting caught by the bandits. Only about two-hundred bandits pursued Su, the rest of the bandits at the rear had lagged behind. These two-hundred over cavalrymen fired arrows, they were hot on Su’s heels.

Phoenix’s roads were wide enough to contain two large chariots traveling side by side. Trees were rarely planted on the sides of the road. As the bandits were chasing feverishly, they did not notice that there was a sparse forest beside the path up ahead. After the first dozen of riders went past, a barrage of arrows flew out from this forest, knocking over forty bandits off the horses.

More of the bandits’ warhorses were shot. They ran for a few steps before getting abandoned.

Even in an elite squad, it was difficult for the cavalrymen to don full armor for a warhorse, it was the same case for these bandits. When the barrage of arrows was fired, its main target were the warhorses. The bandits who got ambushed did not have a chance to swerve around, they only charged forward desperately hoping to get past this forest.

In the blink of an eye, these over one-hundred cavalrymen had went past the area manned by the archers, as they continued pursuing Su’s team. The bandits who fell off their horses were petrified as a second wave of arrows had been launched.

Seeing that over one-hundred cavalrymen were still giving chase, Su decided to turn around and slaughter his way through. “Sharman’s elemental mage had set a trap in front. Even if I lead the enemies over there, it would only result in a waste of scrolls. I thought the enemy will send a huge number of people to chase me, but there are only two-hundred over men.” Su was a little disappointed.

Realizing that Su was coming their way, two bandits charged forward together, each of them wielding two blades in their hands. A blade was useful in infantry battles, but was obviously lousier than a lance while battling on horseback. It was even worse than a cross spear. Those bandits who gave chase definitely do not ride horses frequently, and they did not even have enough time to change their weapons into something suitable for horse battle.

When Su saw the enemies rushing towards himself, he put his two swords in the sheaths, then looked at his enemies and bellowed loudly.

After the two bandits were hollered at by Su, their bodies began trembling vigorously, almost falling off their horses. By then, Su’s warhorse had already went past them, and Su had stolen one of their blades.