Badge in Azure

The allied army from the island states of the eastern sea was a regular force. When the death toll reached close to two-thousand people, a group of three brigades of soldiers had been convened. Each of them held onto a shield as they charged towards the Caucasus warriors. They knew that it was impossible for them to catch the guys on the magic wolves using their legs. They just needed to chase them out of the effective range.

The low ranking commander formed his own team and gathered them towards the high ranking commander. Even though there was quite a huge number of casualties, he still had about ten-thousand men with him. As long as they could charge up the shore, the situation could be reversed.

As the Caucasus warriors noticed the six-hundred man team approaching them, their expressions remained serene as the metallic arrows were ejected. The archery skills of the Caucasus people were astounding. From a distance of eight-hundred meters, their accuracy was about thirty percent. With every ten metallic arrows fired, at least one person would be killed. If the other injured enemies were not treated, they would also quickly bleed to death.

The Caucasus people were forced by their circumstances to hone their archery skills. The production of metals in the Caucasus region was low, so the moment a Caucasus person learnt archery, they would be extremely meticulous and calculative. Now that Saleen had prepared their favorite metallic arrows and told them to fire at will, the Caucasus people were no longer burdened.

“Sir Saleen is so rich. These metallic arrows could be considered to be beginner alchemical arrows already, and yet they were fired like they were gravel. The Caucasus people were feeling the pinch.”

The shield-holding infantrymen were holding onto large wooden shields which could stop the metallic arrows effectively. The Caucasus people did not even give a hoot about them. In order to maintain their formation, the infantrymen advanced slowly. They would need to walk for quite some time to cover a distance of eight-hundred meters. All this while, the four magic beast swordsmen did not take any action. At this point in time, they then grabbed the alchemical crossbows which were suspended at the sides of their skeletal warhorses. After fitting the alchemical crossbows with magic nucleii, they took aim at the approaching infantrymen and fired an arrow.

The four magic beast swordsmen were wielding authentic alchemical crossbows. Usually, these devices were installed onto a frame or positioned in a fortress, in order to obstruct the enemy’s charging iron cavaliers. As the infantrymen were holding onto wooden shields, these shields simply broke under the impact by the alchemical arrows. Three of the soldiers at the rear died. The only soldier who did not die was actually more unfortunate. His right arm was penetrated by the alchemical arrow, causing his shoulder bone to be smashed into smithereens.

In such a setting, no one would care about him. In fact, he would have to die a more painful way, and that was to wait for death.

That being said, the allied army could not be blamed. It’s not that they could not afford metal shields. They were journeying a long way, the number of soldiers aboard the ships had to be maximized, so not much heavy equipment was brought along. Originally, this army contained a huge number of mages too. Even though the mages were not at a high grade, there were many magic chariots available for use. Under the protection by a magic chariot, the infantrymen would be able to resist a barrage of arrows more easily. Once the enemy launched an arrow, the mage situated on the magic chariot would cast the Wild Wind Spell to blow the arrow away.

When the four magic beast swordsmen noticed that their alchemical crossbows were effective, they chuckled in response. They put away their alchemical crossbows. When the shield-holding infantrymen were only one-hundred meters away, the magic beast swordsmen then said to the Caucasus warriors, “Let’s fall back.”

The Caucasus warriors heard the message and put away their longbows. Then, they turned their rides around and retreated slowly. When the infantrymen saw that their enemy who was riding on magic wolves had retreated, they heaved a sigh of relief. All of them came to a halt, placing their wooden shields in position. They had no intention of giving chase, because they could not. The three brigades of infantrymen then prepared their bows and arrows. The range of their arrows were extremely short, and they did not have the ability to destroy armor. There was no choice though, the premium bows and arrows were sealed in the crates, and they had sunk with the ship.

The premium bows and arrows were vulnerable to corrosion by the moisture of the sea. They would not be distributed to the soldiers before arrival. The soldiers were still using the commonly seen soft bows, which had a short range and cheap manufacturing costs. Be that as it may, these soft bows were only gathered after much effort. In all that chaos, it was already very onerous to obtain so many soft bows.

After retreating for over two-hundred meters, the magic wolf cavalrymen stopped abruptly.

“Brethren, let’s change our weapons,” the Caucasus leader ordered. The four magic beast swordsmen were simply keeping the team in formation, they were not the leaders. Saleen did not want to make the Caucasus people feel uncomfortable. Their function was to kill any grand swordmaster who might be present in the enemy’s army, so that the Caucasus people would not die unnecessarily.

Every single Caucasus person urged their magic wolves and charged towards the shield formation held together by the soldiers. By this time, the soldiers from the Eastern Sea Allied Army had already held up their lances behind the wooden shields. Seeing that the enemy was charging over, the commander of the infantrymen was jubilant.

A cavalryman might be more ferocious than an infantryman, but the fighting technique had to be taken into consideration as well. If the cavalrymen were charging into a strict formation formed by the infantrymen, the cavalrymen would suffer huge losses too. This was especially if the infantrymen were wielding lances which were over four meters long. By charging recklessly, the cavalrymen would be seriously injured even if they were clad in heavy armor.

The Caucasus people hollered. Over a distance of one-hundred meters, the magic wolves could attain maximum velocity. The Caucasus people executed a uniformed action, they grabbed a small axe which hung by the side of their magic wolves and tossed it.

Every adult Caucasus person had an ax. Their flying axes were a favorite among mercenaries, because they contained immense offensive power and were cheap to deploy compared to a mage. Borrowing momentum from the charging of the wolves, the flying axes gave off a horrifying whiz and destroyed the wooden shields. Endless screams of excruciation filled the air, as the front row of soldiers got slaughtered. After the second round of flying axes were tossed, the soldiers simply broke down. They ignored their comrades and fled towards the sea, abandoning over three-hundred bodies.

The commander got lucky, he did not get struck by any of the flying axes. He was dumbfounded as he stared at the scene before him. A wooden shield might not be as sturdy as a metal shield, yet a tiny ax could smash it into shreds and even slice the head of the soldier behind it. “Where did these people come from? Why are they so strong?”

It must be noted that once a wooden shield was wrapped in beast skin, it could withstand a hit from a heavy weapon, even though it remained vulnerable against an alchemical crossbow. Those flying axes were not even heavy weapons. They weighed only a few catties, almost as heavy as a normal war blade. It was still these exact flying axes, which after two rounds of barrage, had caused his soldiers to collapse.

Saleen got pretty lucky. The allied army’s ships had carried quite a sizeable quantity of heavy equipment, sufficient to form genuine heavy infantrymen already. Due to the rapid assault from the alchemical boat, these things had sunk with the warships even before they could be unpacked.

Items such as the magic chariots, heavy crossbows, various war puppets, and the large flying puppets had sunk together with the warships. Each of these items could easily solve the problems the soldiers were facing. They did not have the time to salvage all this equipment though.

If only the black-robed mage was present. The black-robed mage, together with four grade-6 grand mages from the mage’s platoon, had been lured away by the three kings.

Without the black-robed mage, the mage’s platoon still contained forty people. Four grade-6 mages, eight grade-5 mages, twelve grade-4 mages and sixteen grade-3 mages.

This platoon could adequately deal with a team of only twenty-thousand people. On the other hand, the other mages who were below grade-3 could steer the magic chariots. That way, every brigade would enjoy the assistance of a mage.

The allied army should have come ashore long ago, but the climate on the frozen layer was too terrible. The magic chariots could not be assembled yet, they could only stay in the cabin. If the alchemical boat did not launch that attack, then the soldiers would have an additional day to assemble all the magic chariots.

A magic chariot was not some rare toy. This thing was like a portable magic tower, it could provide a stable elemental environment for mages. It also boosted their magic power. A magic chariot also carried an unspecified number of magic arrays. Once a few magic chariots were merged, a large-scale spell could be cast.

The Qin Empire had a number of magic chariots. It was tough assembling these machines, however, and it was very challenging to deploy them in a field battle. After assembly, a magic chariot was very prone to wear-and-tear, its consumption was also immense. As a result, a magic chariot would only make its appearance in the event of a decisive battle or a siege.

In some sense, the function of a magic chariot was similar to that of a portable battlement, though it was extremely difficult to transport them around. With that being said, their prices were poles apart.

In order to ensure the capabilities of a magic chariot, it would be sealed in a special crate, and only be unpacked upon arrival at the destination. The cost of protecting the magic chariots would bring many headaches to the commanders, otherwise.

The retreated allied soldiers witnessed a scene which sent chills down their spine. Those wolf-riding people had walked to their original position and picked up the axes calmly. Their magic wolves chewed at the necks of those soldiers who were not dead yet.

At this moment, the allied army still had dozens of grand mages on their team. They actually had twenty grand mages. Four had left with the black-robed mage, while there were two unlucky ones who were trapped in the bottom cabin and did not manage to escape. Their cabin was directly hit, causing large amounts of seawater to gush in in that instant.

The Caucasus people picked up their axes and wiped off the blood, then they hung them back at the side of their magic wolves. Even though this short ax was only a few catties heavy, it was impossible to bring too many along. On this trip, Saleen only allowed each person to bring two axes.

After putting away the axes, the Caucasus people took out their longbows once more. They then fired the remaining arrows in their quivers.

Saleen’s warring technique was very palatable to the Caucasus people. It was no wonder then that the great priestess was full of praises for this mage. A simple warring technique had caused the enemy to suffer huge losses.

Had it been a head-on battle, the Caucasus people were confident of killing over two-hundred enemies. They would definitely suffer casualties in the process. On the battlefield, even the weakest enemy would have a chance of killing a person unless one was a high grade grand swordmaster. It was also impossible for a grand swordmaster to remain unharmed in a large-scale war. In a situation whereby the enemies were in the surrounding, the function of swordsmanship would be limited. When tens of thousands of people clashed with one another, a soldier required some luck, other than his skills which were honed daily.

The four-hundred Caucasus people emptied their quivers. Thereafter, they rode on their magic wolves and patrolled the grounds a few times in a provocative manner before turning to leave. By this time, the surviving soldiers from the warships had gathered. The commanders had also converged in front of the general to receive further orders.

In front of more than a thousand bodies and many more injured soldiers, the general was beyond distressed. He did not expect his expedition to wind up like this. All of the warships in his possession had sunk, while there were two other seized warships floating on the sea. Those ships were operated differently from his, so it was impossible for him to use them to escape.