Badge in Azure

Chapter 302: Worried (Part 1)

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

The holy text on the black bishop’s robe began vibrating vigorously, and in a few seconds, it had expanded, thus hurling Saleen away.

“Hmph!” Saleen heaved a sigh. His mental power was no longer in so much chaos and his magic chords could be deployed now. Immediately, an ice plate armor and water shield condensed onto the surface of his body.

This was the double magic shield, a skill which Saleen had cultivated after a great deal of effort. Very few mages did something like this because magic could regenerate on its own. In the case of some magic shields, they would not be completely destroyed so long as the magic chords were not fully depleted yet.

Saleen’s sense of danger was very acute. Thus, he was obsessed with magic shields. When he was still a grade-3 mage, he had already been trying to combine these two magic shields together.

Saleen rolled on the ground and crashed into a large tree. The ice plate armor displayed its effect this time by protecting Saleen. The ice plate armor had absorbed all of the impact from that impactful crash, so Saleen was not hurt at all.

The black bishop got onto his feet, bruises all over his face. Those bruises had been caused by Saleen’s punches. After regaining the ability to cast divine spells, the first spell he cast was on himself, to repair all the injuries on his face. The black bishop had also heard his subordinates drawing close, and even though those footsteps were still a long distance away, he was afraid of letting his subordinates see his destitute appearance.

The sense of hierarchy within the inquisition was extremely strict. If the black bishop presented himself to his subordinates looking like this, his subordinates would begin to despise him.

At this point in time, Nailisi had arrived at the edge of the forest, and she saw this scene. She had also realized that the swordsmen from the inquisition were fast approaching. At best, they were only two miles away. Those footsteps were a skill in themselves, as they would strike fear into the hearts of the enemy. Such fear was useless against Nailisi. She had even withstood the intimidation from a dragon, not to mention a bunch of swordsmen.

Even so, Nailisi was no longer the person who had just been rescued from the goddess’ temple by Saleen. She knew that if these two hundred weak humans teamed up, they would still be able to release an immense amount of power.

Those swordsmen from Sregl Island were also like this. If they were separated, Nailisi was confident she could kill one of them within a second. However, if there were more than ten of them, she would have to take ten times as long in order to secure victory. And, if there were at least one hundred swordsmen, Nailisi would have to rely on equipment such as the fully constructed puppets to gain an advantage.

Furthermore, the aforementioned situation would only be possible if the actions of the swordsmen were not coordinated. If Nailisi fought with the swordsmen who worked under Lex, their offensive ability would be ten times more than that of an untrained swordsman.

Nailisi’s tail might have been impenetrable by a blade, but her body could still be injured by premium weapons. If the weapon was an alchemical one, she would not even dare to put up head-on resistance.

Kill this old man in the black robe!

Saleen did not call out to Nailisi, but this thought had already appeared in Nailisi’s mind. This chemistry with Saleen was becoming increasingly stronger, and the accuracy of the mental message was very high as well.

Before the enemies arrive, the black bishop must be killed!

There were no other thoughts in Saleen’s mind. He cast the Quickcloud spell once more and charged towards the black bishop. If he did not kill the black bishop now, he would die at his hands one day.

The icicle, ice arrow, and ice blade were levitating within the cloud. Once the cloud enveloped the black bishop, Saleen would then instantaneously detonate them with extreme lethality. This time around, Saleen did not use any other transformed spells. The freezing type attacks by water magic only consisted of one element, and they had the speed of the wind element and the power of the earth element.

When Saleen had just acquired his magic chords, he had already been able to use the level-1 Icicle spell to penetrate a rock. Now that his Icicle spell had been transformed, this spell depleted his magic chords like level-2 magic, but its offensive power was already that of level-3 magic.

Divine light which protected the human body had the highest resistance towards fire type attacks, and had the lowest resistance towards earth type magic. However, freezing type magic possessed the strength of earth type magic. Thus, Saleen had already seized the crux of the battle. If he wasted his magic chords on a spell like Poisonous Fog, the divine light would be able to negate it naturally.

Saleen did not have much combat experience, but he was gifted in combat. During life-and-death situations, he would always manage to find a solution.

The black bishop detected danger, and this danger did not originate from Saleen. It came from the forest behind him. There was a person who was approaching slowly. That woman? A negative notion appeared in the bishop’s mind. My two subordinates have gone through countless battles and wield unique alchemical weapons. Could they still have failed to deal with that woman? This woman has not cultivated any sword aura so she should be similar to that barbarian who fought solely with his physical strength, but my two grand swordmasters have failed to capture her?

I cannot get into a head-on fight! Anyway, reinforcements are on the way. Once my swordsmen arrive, these two people and the barbarian will easily be captured. When the black bishop thought of this, he immediately flew up into the air.

Saleen’s speed was inadequate. Even if he followed suit, he would not be able to catch up to the black bishop. Saleen grew anxious, then he raised his head to the sky and shouted, “You are going to retreat in the face of the heretic who killed your son? I am doubting your religion! Why don’t you just believe in another god?”

For a believer, it was still possible that they would still forgive a person even if this person had killed their entire family. However, if one went so far as to insult their religion, the believer would definitely retaliate with their life. Saleen’s words caused the black bishop to explode in fury. He could not maintain his composure and landed back on the ground.

“Heretic, you will pay the price!” The black bishop’s voice had become more upset and sharp. He took out a three-meter-long scepter and held it in his hand. Then, fifty meters away from Saleen, the black bishop began saying a prayer.

“God says, there is judgment wherever there is darkness.”

It was a succinct and short prayer once again. As far as Saleen knew, the black bishop’s divine spells were high-level skills which could be cast in the shortest amount of time. The average divine spells were mostly similar to magic, and there was no need to chant any prayers unless the holy master was at a very low grade. At the black bishop’s grade, he would only need to chant prayers for divine spells which were at least at level-6. For spells which required a prayer, their offensive abilities were close to that of magic already.

Saleen could not possibly release a series of level-6 spells. Naturally, he would not be able to receive level-6 divine spells either.

The cloud released by the Quickcloud spell expanded once again, and Saleen opened a level-5 magic scroll – Prism Refraction. This spell was a confusion spell, and it would cause double the confusion. Not only would this spell produce three phantoms, but it would also make the three phantoms extremely real, such that one’s perception would not even be able to differentiate between reality and the illusions.

This spell had a flaw though. The mage would expose himself if he moved after casting the spell.

However, Saleen did not plan to move either way. Since the black bishop had been provoked, the black bishop would naturally charge towards him. These two people might have held a huge difference in their grades, but the distance between them was small. Since the holy master’s divine spells could hurt Saleen, Saleen would also be in range to counterattack.

After the black bishop finished chanting his prayer, the scepter in his hand began to transform gradually. The dark yellow wood of the scepter became increasingly dark as divine light flowed throughout the scepter, the holy text glinting. This three-meter-long scepter gradually transformed into a gigantic sickle.

The blade of this sickle was two meters long and black in color. Whimpers could be heard as the sickle was swung about.

Hell’s Trial!

The black bishop had been so agitated by Saleen that he had cast a spell which could only be cast once every month. The black bishop might have chased after fame and fortune, but he was still a fanatic believer at the end of the day. After Saleen had questioned the black bishop’s religion right in front of him and had also insulted him using his dead son, the black bishop seemed to have lost some of his rationality.

As the sickle was swiped downwards, Saleen realized that the three illusions he had made were all within the range of the attack. Even though it might have been hard to overcome the prism refraction, a single attack by the black bishop could already deal with four targets at once. The black shadow produced by that massive sickle had engulfed everything within Saleen’s cloud. As the magical prism was slashed by the shadow of the sickle, all three illusions disappeared. Furthermore, when Saleen’s water shield was hit by the sickle, it simply evaporated with a hiss.

In that instant, a huge crack appeared in the ice plate armor, and Saleen’s magic chords began repairing the ice plate armor. If the sickle’s attack had not been illusory but had been an actual strike, the ice plate armor might have just exploded in that instant.

Saleen’s water shield was produced again, and he opened a defensive scroll out of desperation. Various types of defensive spells appeared within the perimeter of the cloud. The black shadow formed by hell’s trial seemed like lightning strikes on a rainy day. Strike after strike rained down with no pauses in between.

As Nailisi came from the depths of the forest to the edge, she immediately witnessed this scene.

“Master!” Nailisi hollered. With the dragon’s tooth dagger in hand, she charged towards the black bishop.

Saleen’s life was hanging by a thin thread. The speed at which he opened the magic scrolls was slower than that of the black bishop’s attacks. Furthermore, his scrolls were not limitless and they were mostly attack scrolls. Saleen rarely brought along defensive magic scrolls, as he had placed too much faith in his water shield.

The transformed water shield’s defensive power was close to that of the ice plate armor, and its depletion was only that of level-3 magic. Such a spell could be considered the strongest transformed spell among all mages.

This was because level-3 and level-4 magic were only different in terms of their nature. Furthermore, the ice plate armor was labeled the strongest mid-level defense spell, as a mage could utilize this spell from grade-4 to grade-6. Saleen’s water shield was nearly as tough as the ice plate armor, and furthermore, he had invented this transformed skill himself. Hence, from this point alone, Saleen could already be considered a partial genius.

The black bishop stared coldly at Nailisi, who was lunging at him. This woman’s fingernails are still dipped in fresh blood. My subordinates must have been killed already.

Hell’s trial could only be cast once a month, but the duration it lasted was fairly long. If used in consecutive attacks, it could last for at least an hour. Seeing that Nailisi was coming at him, the black bishop could not be concerned with only attacking Saleen. He was a little frightened seeing a warrior coming so close to him. The black bishop could fly into the air, but he would need to stabilize himself before casting a divine spell. In this way, a holy master was the same as a mage.

If he chanted a prayer while on the move, it would be disrespectful to his god.

“Then, you shall die first!” The black bishop seemed to have forgotten that he wanted Nailisi to bear another son for him as he pointed the scepter at Nailisi. That black shadow, which was several meters long, then changed its direction of attack and went to strike Nailisi.

Nailisi did not alter her route. In fact, no matter how fast she travelled, she would not be as quick as that black shadow. Nailisi raised her hand to use the dragon’s tooth dagger to block the attack. With a clang, the illusory black shadow seemed to be tangible as it slashed onto Nailisi’s dagger. At the same time, cracks appeared on the dragon’s tooth dagger.