Badge in Azure

Chapter 1409: Cunning Weapon Spirit (Part 2)

That assassin was someone arranged by the mages in advance and they were the most powerful assassin in Alchemy City. Their equipment was at the highest level of equipment capable of being used by a level 11 assassin.

The assassin did not bother with Safilos, a level ten warrior. Even if both of them were to fight face to face, the assassin was confident that they would have been able to kill Safilos all the same. The mage was the more difficult target, as mages usually carried unpredictable equipment on their person.

That assassin attacked with all their might. The dagger in their hand had a tiny serrated edge which was pitch black, sucking in all light in the room, preventing any light from being reflected.

That was dark poison, a favorite of assassins.

To assassins, darkness was the beginning of all their skills. The way assassins fight was explosive. The strongest attack of an assassin far exceeded limitations in level, yet they were unable to compare to warriors in capacity for drawn out combat.

That kick from Safilos exceeded what that assassin knew about skills of warriors. Safilos was at an awkward position. Attacking the assassin would have required him to get through Saleen.

However, Safilos was able to ignore positioning altogether and kick the assassin’s back. Yellow light flashed on their back. Safilos’ toes felt stung and his ankles twisted for a bit at lightning speed, before reeling back to where the leg was.

That assassin was pinned by the power from Safilos’ first attack where they were, preventing them from evading the second kick.

The second kick came as a stomp. Safilos held his blade in his hand and chopped the head of that assassin off right away.

Black smoke billowed with a puff. Saleen then threw a Cleaning spell without a care. The assassin in the black smoke had an intact head. There was only a piece of black garment left on the ground.

Safilos did not launch a second slash or thrust. He looked at the assassin with condescending eyes and said, “You call yourself a martial artist and you pull such dirty tricks eh...”

That assassin clenched on their neck. A purple gash of blood was on their neck, slowly seeping blood outside.

Their skill did not enable them to evade Safilos’ attack.

They thought their equipment would have stopped Safilos’ kick and that their skill would have enabled them to evade Safilos’ blade.

Safilos did not continue. He found that Saleen did not even bother evading, which meant that he had apparently long discovered that assassin. It was due precisely to the assassin lurking in the dark that the mages on the other side of the wall, did not emerge to do something immediately.

In the eyes of those mages, Saleen was as good as dead.

None of the mages of the Elemental Hand had acquired power of the soul, which prevented them from knowing that when one came to possess such powers, there would have been no secrets capable of being hidden in one’s territory.

Only powerful beings capable of existing in parallel space and at level 16 and above, would have been capable of avoiding detection in a territory.

That was to say even if the Lord of Glory were to show up personally, it would have still have been impossible for him to lurk within Saleen’s territory.

“You have a lot of trust in me.” Safilos felt as if he was being played. Saleen knew that there was an assassin and yet he said nothing, making him sound rather funny.

“I have to get you to do something to show that you’re trustworthy. A common mage would have died by that fellow’s hand. Your reflexes and attacks are not something that assassin would have been able to compare to. If that fellow were to come for you, I would have long ended them.”

“Some confidence indeed. What if I were to just keep my hands to myself?”

“If you were to just keep your hands to yourself, that assassin would have had a hard time locking onto me.”

“Prophecy? No! Astrology?”

“More or less. I would need to determine if you’re going to make a move, before determining if that fellow would have targeted me. I let that fellow lock onto me on purpose. Well, this is all but a show, to let everyone see that we both are allies.”

“Everyone?”

“Indeed. We need to put such opportunities to good use. I have copied the scene of combat earlier, and I would explain your attack to the mages, doing some promotional work along the way. Sikeqinyan methods, you might not like them.”

Safilos did not continue the conversation. He found himself not placing enough importance on Saleen. The mage was no longer that puny mage he used to be. Saleen was then a king of a nation and had possessed something as powerful as the Floating City, capable of driving any city out of livelihood.

Saleen had once been the kind to go with the flow, and he had now learned to take the initiative at all times.

“You could actually be who you have been again. You at the moment, look rather dejected. if it hadn’t been for your place being attacked, I’m afraid you wouldn’t have came with me while bringing so many Qin warriors with you, no?” Saleen took the chance to chat with Safilos, seeing how the room was then a mess and there was no need for him to attack.

“Haha!” Safilos laughed for a bit. A lot of thoughts came across his mind but he did not reply to Saleen. But nonetheless, he felt somewhat grateful.

Saleen saw through Safilos’ problem deep down. It would have been extremely difficult for him to advance his art further if he were to keep behaving like that.

People all over Myers Mainland were advancing. If he were to be unable to get to level 12, he would not be able to help the empire. Lex, sitting on the throne, would have had a hard time if she were to rely on Saleen alone.

His brother was dead and there was nothing he could have done about it. With things being as they were at present, the best course of action he could have taken, was none other than to support Lex.

Saleen was reminding that it was pointless to be caught up in the past.

The Elemental Hand mages joined hands on the other side of the crystal wall, having to defend against the Water Flame while having to retrieve the Book of Gaia. There was only one page of the Book of Gaia placed on the magic array.

If the weapon spirit were to absorb the power of the Book of Gaia while the mages were working together to control, anomalies would have been detected. While they would not have known about the cause, the Elemental Hand would have nonetheless stop using the book.

However, at present, the entire book seemed to have been embedded onto the magic array, making retrieval impossible.

The mages even used daggers to try to pry the Book of Gaia away, and yet the book remained stuck firmly to the magic array. Physical strength of a level 11 mage would have at least been on par with that of silver grand swordmasters, yet there was not even the book did not even budge for even an inch despite being pried.

That drove the mages into panicking.

Someone among the mages finally realized and shouted, “Get out. There is a weapon spirit in this thing, and it has a will of its own!”

All the mages flustered and only the likes of Saleen, who had little idea of how dangerous a weapon spirit would have been in an enclosed space, would have crafted weapon spirits in such an environment.

The mages checked and had confirmed that there were no weapon spirit around, before gradually crafting away at the Baldur’s Gate crude methods. No one would have expected the weapon spirit had simply been hiding itself all these while, and refusing to meet them.

What was happening then was a clear testament of the weapon spirit’s attitude, confirming it to be an enemy!

The nine major mages of the Elemental Hand were not so proud that they turned into idiots, thinking that a weapon spirit had to submit to them. The weapon spirit had made its stance clear by concealing itself all the time.

Worse still, there were powerful enemies attacking them from outside at such a time, resulting in the odds being heavily stacked against them. The most powerful mages in the Elemental Hand were all in that room and yet, they were unable to leave using the teleportation portal.

Saleen was getting in their way right outside the room. While it was possible for them to simply force their out, but leaving in such a manner would have damaged them. Saleen has long had his eyes on them. He would not have bothered to resort to fighting fair and square if he knew that they were all injured.

None of the mages of the Elemental Hand would have thought that they would have been set up by a weapon spirit, and worse still, at such key timing. Who the hell was the one who said that weapon spirits were commonly dumb? This thing here is unbelievably sly!

The mages of the Elemental Hand unraveled one scroll after another—Endless Night, Grey Space, City of Smoke and so on. All of those unleashed spells were meant for blocking line of sight and area of control. Those mages were like Saleen, in that until the very last moment, they would have only used scrolls that would have consumed mental powers, making a point to absolutely not waste magic chords.

Once magic chords were used, the fighting would have been taken to very intense stages.

The skills conjured by Saleen’s Water Flame were quickly extinguished and even the Water Flame was put under control by those level 11 skills, shrinking into an extremely small area. However, the eight Armoring Lightning Beads continued to wreck havoc within the spells’ area of control.

The power unleashed by those precious scrolls was disintegrated by the electrical charge in the beads, countering the spells one after another.

If those had been individual skills, the beads would not have been able to break them so easily right away. Unfortunately, the Elemental Hand mages had great synchronization with each other and cast many spells at the same time.

The elemental balance was broken by the beads, resulting in the elements of those spells interfering with each other.

The loss of elemental balance with the huge room caused unimaginable damage. The mages cast one defensive skill after another. However, they dared not use any scrolls haphazardly under such an environment, for fear to causing magical turbulence that was more violent and intense.

They resorted to using their own magic chords to ensure stability of magic casting.

Saleen found the spells seen being cast right there to quite an eye-opener. The Elemental Hand mages’ variety of magic skills was incredibly diverse, with every single one having unique properties.

The mages that Saleen met before were less than trash when compared to the nine. If it had not been for them being contained inside the room, it would have been impossible for Saleen to destroy them all while emerging unscathed.

Every mage who was able to make it that far would have proven themselves to be either geniuses, or possessing great luck.

Saleen was not the only one who had luck on his side. If one were to advance to the highest level there was, talent alone would not have sufficed.

What caught Saleen’s attention the most was still that peculiar magic array, which looked a crystal platform. It had a piece of old parchment on it and magic script was written on it.

So this is the elemental godly item spoken in legends then? Saleen knew nothing of the Book of Gaia at that moment, but his Elemental Eye was nonetheless able to tell of that thing’s level. The Elemental Hand mages had yet to use even one percent of the power of that elemental godly item.

Saleen felt himself being lucky. If he were to show up later, there would have been no chance for him to beat mages possessing so many godly items.

There was no way Saleen would have assumed that the Elemental Hand had only one godly item in their possession. According to his calculations, that was a godly item of earth element, which meant that there were other five around and all of them belonged to the Baldur’s Gate.

Gosh, I’m getting really lucky!

Saleen never thought he would have failed. That sentiment was different from the unbridled pride of the Elemental Hand, for it was a product resulting from a combination of his self-confidence and astrology.

He was still favored by luck. That weapon spirit no longer saw him, as it was occupied with sucking up the power of that earth elemental godly item in a frenzy.

It was impossible for the godly item itself to be consumed. The reason why the weapon spirit hid itself within the magic array, was due to fear of being absorbed by that earth elemental godly item instead.

It was the weapon spirit of the Baldur’s Gate, but that did not mean that it was guaranteed to be spared by the Book of Gaia. The weapon spirits of all six godly items had been taken away by its master, and all of them were in need of replacement weapon spirits.