Badge in Azure

Sufonso was in his prime, developing some ambition after advancing into the ranks of golden grand swordmaster. Warriors were unlike mages, but after becoming a golden grand swordmaster, they would be able to live two to three hundred years. He deemed it to be a waste of his capabilities if he was unable to do anything grand with the extra two hundred years that he had earned.

The Sikeqinyan cavalry moved like floodwaters, gushing at the demon army’s turf. The cavalry battalion suffered few casualties. The warhorse, rode by over 100,000 cavalry units, was of magic beast levels, and was also the true elite force of Sikeqinya.

Common cavalries were only capable of building up speed when charging from behind; the warhorses needed meticulous care when not used in war.

Yet, the battalion of Sikeqinyan cavalry was capable of high speed pursuit after charging in and the warhorses suffered next to no reduction in speed. The triangular formation quickly turned into a flat one. The riders fired their crossbows and killed quite a number of demons.

Sufonso charged outside Yaoyang City with his troops because he did not see any problem with the demon army’s defeat, deciding to attack Ceylon City right then and there.

He was familiar enough with Ceylon City to know that there were few to no natural hazards in the city’s terrain getting in his way.

The demon army retreated very quickly to the mountains. The regular Sikeqinyan army was unable to control the massive groups of mercenaries, and had no choice but to dispatch two of the most elite groups to pursue them in the mountains, but did not order them to duke it out with the demon army. The mercenaries’ main objective was to blockade the way out of the mountain, preventing the demons from attacking Yaoyang City after they recuperated.

The Sikeqinyan commander was very careful, having 20,000 starting construction work outside the mountains, while being supported by Yaoyang City, to prevent the demons from retaliating. The longer it took to get the construction done, the more comprehensive the installation of large scale equipment became. Even if the demon army was to be a force to be reckoned with, it would be impossible to simply assault them.

The 140,000 remaining charged into Ceylon City-controlled territories through the narrow mountain pass, encountering the new recruits that Saleen dispatched.

The camp of the new recruits consisted only of about 5,000 units and were the force nearest to Yaoyang City. The general leading the force saw the huge Sikeqinyan army before them was made up of veterans from Daliang City. He knew right away that taking such a huge force head on was not an option. They were not able to pretend that they were trying to resist the enemy.

The over 5,000-strong army retreated. A fort sat about 30 miles behind their camp.

Saleen’s arrangements were intricate, all of which hinged on the rate the demon army was defeated. If they were defeated too slowly, the 5,000 new recruits would have escaped too early and the Sikeqinyans would not have been able to find them. The Sikeqinyan heavy cavalry ditched their armor and maintained only the most basic gear for their warhorses in order to maintain combat capacity.

The force taking the lead was a mercenary group consisting of over a thousand light cavalry units. The light cavalry units were not very fast, as they all rode horses with emphasis on long distance endurance, enabling them to march for over a hundred miles.

Light cavalries often had meager damage potential and their greatest use was simply to tail scattered enemies or to injure infantry units with bows and arrows from the flanks. However, Saleen’s 5,000 new recruits simply ran without fighting, thus enabling the light cavalry to pursue them easily, shooting arrows from behind.

The 5,000 new recruits packed simple gear and their rear was all carts and carriages. When they turned and ran, the Sikeqinyan main forces had yet to arrive. More than half of the troops got into the carriages and prepped the crossbows, while most of the remaining half got onto horses and retreated to the fort along lesser-known paths.

There were fewer than 1,000 troops who ran with their own legs. When the light cavalry was within sight, the new recruits were yelled at by their superiors and retaliated haphazardly with the crossbows on the carriages. The resulting battle looked rather funny.

The Sikeqinyan light cavalry did not have formidable combat capacity and their arrows flew around without actual targets. Saleen’s new recruits all wore paper armor. While the armor seemed to be useless, it actually excelled in protection against arrows, even though it was extremely weak against attacks from heavy weapons, such as battle axes and spears.

The light cavalry pursued from behind and killed fewer than 100 recruits, while they suffered around 200 casualties from bolts being fired from the carriages. The weapons Saleen issued the new recruits were very common, the only ones capable of dealing great damage being the crossbow bolts. Saleen never expected that despite the shabby gear he gave the new recruits, they still proved superior to the ones used by the low level Sikeqinyan mercenaries.

A cavalry force pursued infantry units and ended up suffering greater losses. That would be quite a joke in Cloudflow.

The generals from the Principality of Bitterwater, who led the new recruits, instead thought the situation was a grim one. If things were to continue, the Sikeqinyans might have been frightened and it would have screwed up the plan. Their master had ordered them to bait the enemy deep into their territory! That could not have been done if the group of good-for-nothing infantry units actually managed to repel attacks from the enemy cavalry.

The generals from the Principality of Bitterwater shouted orders to their subordinates to have the new recruits attack more sluggishly and began dropping caltrops along the way. Massive numbers of caltrops quickly filled up the path. The caltrops, which should have been made from iron, were all made of copper.

The Sikeqinyan light cavalry’s horses were not even wearing horseshoes. The pursuing cavalry had no choice but to slow down or to move alongside the path. The large forces behind waited for the troops at the front to clear up the obstacle while two squads of mercenaries went around the wide path and pursued the new recruits riding inferior horses. Those two squads were able to catch up with the new recruits and the resulting battle ended up killing over 200 of the new recruits. The surviving ones hurried their horses and ran for the fort.

The fort that Saleen had constructed around the area was very sturdy, capable of holding over 10,000 people. The 5,000 new recruits slowly retreated back and with 3,000 garrisoned there, the total number of people almost reached the fort’s capacity.

Having seen blood and lost comrades, the new recruits calmed considerably.

The generals from the Principality of Bitterwater only felt secure then. It was vexing for them to lead such weak units, as they were incapable of bringing their full capabilities to bear. It was fortunate that the enemy had very shabby gear and moved very slowly. The 10,000-strong heavy cavalry treasured their own combat capacity and simply waited to do battle out in the open outside Ceylon City, which meant that they slacked in their pursuit. As such, almost all of the new recruits were able to return.

Saleen planned to have the recruits all in one place before preparing them to retreat further. The location he chose to have the fort had its rear facing the mountain and its front facing the road, which was already blocked off with huge boulders. Catapults were installed right behind the boulders.

Saleen did not dispatch any mages to that battlefield; he used a large number of catapults crafted by demons instead. The Sikeqinyans did not like using wood much and as such, Saleen’s people were able to cut down great trees in the mountains to their hearts’ content and used materials right where they were doing construction. The supreme demons were capable of using simple demon magic to dry the logs and build catapults quickly.

Saleen received intel from the frontline in the city’s magic tower and asked for Nailisi to begin deploying her demon army. The enemy was rather massive, but there were reinforcements arriving from Royal Harbor soon. Nailisi’s demon army could be used in guerilla warfare, but more importantly, most of Saleen’s Vermillion Knights have been restored to their fighting form.

There were few problems getting in the way. The demon army that Nailisi lay down outside Ceylon City was about 60,000 strong, while she led about 30,000 demons and headed for Yaoyang City. The 60,000 demons at Saleen’s side were more than enough for defense. The new recruits continued retreating, the 40,000-strong forces having gotten used to how the army worked. The ones who were fighting out in the open were a bunch of good-for-nothings. While the new recruits were capable of holding the line in cities, helping with transportation of weapons and killing injured and scattered units, their combat capacity was hardly any better than auxiliary troops.

Nailisi took her devil form and shot for the skies, heading straight for Yaoyang City. Saleen was concerned enough for her safety to dispatch two ancient warriors to serve as her escort. The flight speed of the ancient warriors was close to hers. The three of them flew close to the ground and saw what a mess the battlefield below them was. Scattered units were everywhere and the Sikeqinyan light cavalry continued moving forward quickly, able to catch up with Saleen’s new recruits.

Danny’s offer was so enticing that the mercenaries cared little about possible dangers and fought the best they could. When ample compensation was offered, a rabbit could easily turn into a ferocious wolf.

Nailisi paid no heed to what was happening. She could not have cared less even if all the new recruits ended up dead. She sped up and took a detour around the Sikeqinyan main forces. There were too many level nine mages, and it was impossible for her to take them on alone.

Nailisi arrived at Yaoyang City when the skies turned dark. There were about 10,000 troops standing guard at Yaoyang City. Nailisi landed right inside the city itself. There were no magic towers or sorcerers to be found inside the city. The lone magic tower outside the city had been filled with her own demonic spirits.

Nailisi’s devil form dropped in from above and caused mass panic within the city. She opened a magic scroll and threw a level nine Storm Territory.

She had acquired a map of Yaoyang City, and the place she landed on was none other than Earl Sufonso’s residence. The level nine spell was a control spell, putting the entire residence within the spell.

Nailisi paid no heed to Saleen’s orders and decided to leave no survivors in the earl’s residence. The pretentious promise being nobles was utterly meaningless to a demon.

“You trash my cemetery and I kill your entire family” were Nailisi’s beliefs and she found nothing wrong about it. She thought her master’s show of mercy to be laughable instead.

Any professional below level three within the Storm Territory was immediately turned to minced meat, and even the ones below level six could not hold for more than 10 minutes. Only those above level six were able to survive the storm. To a level nine professional, Storm Territory was but a level seven spell.

The area controlled by the spell was wide and had little damage potential. It was a large scale spell and incapable of being cast instantly. It took Nailisi half a minute just to open up the scroll. If she had been targeting a specific person, the spell would have been of little use.

All the buildings surrounding the center of the residence were torn apart by the huge Storm Territory. The raging wind element was totally out of control and no one was capable of surviving its onslaught. If the spell had been used on the battlefield, its slow casting speed would have made evasion easy. A storm that moved fewer than two meters per second was deemed too slow for infantries.

However, the spell was terrifying when used in the midst of buildings. Almost everyone inside the earl’s residence had little to no concept of magic. The personal guards were away and everyone left was a relative. Some of the family members were students, and there were hardly any professionals worth mentioning.

The Storm Territory razed the earl’s residence and turned it into rubble swooping around in the air. Everyone touched by the flying debris was instantly crushed, their remains continuing to fly in the storm.

Nailisi was surrounded by a bloody and gory mess.

Nailisi laughed. This is what revenge should look like, master. You’re just too soft. Seeing the spell completely cast, she took to the air with the two ancient warriors and looked for an open space. She released her demons within the city.