From far away, the commanders of the joint forces, Weiss Porter and Guillermo, had shadows cast across their faces.
“Trump card?”
Weiss Porter looked at Guillermo. Snickering, he said, “Lord Cardinal Guillermo, I think that these exhausted soldiers of the prefectural city of Cod would be easily defeated once the Sacred Legion of the Radiant Church attacks. There’s no need for my side to join in.”
The trump card of the Radiant Church – the Sacred Legion!
The Sacred Legion!
In this area of the Anarchic Lands, the Radiant Church had spent a tremendous amount of effort and materials to cultivate this mighty legion.
The Sacred Legion only had a total of thirty thousand people.
Five thousand of the soldiers in this legion were warriors of the seventh rank, while the other twenty five thousand were at least of the fifth rank in power. In the other legions, a warrior of the fifth rank might be considered an elite soldier, but in this legion, they would only be the weakest of soldiers.
It must be understood that the jumping abilities of warriors of the seventh rank alone would allow them to flip past those thirty-meter-tall city walls.
Such a trump card of a legion, upon entering battle, would definitely be an unbalancing force. However, cultivating such a legion was simply too difficult. The cost of training them was far larger than that of training even the million-man army.
“If Linley’s Saints break our agreement and eradicated our Sacred Legion, that would be terrible.” Guillermo secretly mused. He and Weiss Porter were thinking the same thing. They were both afraid that the Saints would betray the agreement and take part in the battle.
For example, those Saint-level dragons. For example, Linley and the other Supreme Warriors.
If a few hundred thousand ordinary soldiers were killed, the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows could easily recruit a few hundred thousand more. All they needed was a year or two of training. But the Sacred Legion… every single soldier represented years worth of training and expenditures. Each lost soldier wouldn’t easily be replenished by money alone.
“Weiss Porter, are you joking?” Guillermo’s face sank.
Weiss Porter immediately laughed, “Guillermo, don’t be angry. The Shadow Legion of the Cult of Shadows will attack at the same time.”
The Shadow Legion was built up by the Cult of Shadows for the express purpose of countering the Sacred Legion. Their power was on par.
These were two terrifyingly strong legions.
Although each had only thirty thousand soldiers, and combined they only numbered sixty thousand, to the two sides, the worth of these trump card legions wasn’t any less than that of a million-man army.
Atop the city walls, Linley and Barker were watching the battle as though it had nothing to do with them.
The city guards in the area had been dismissed.
“There’s nobody there.” The enemy soldiers clearly saw an area where only two people were standing.
“Quick, attack over there.”
The battle was so frantic that none of the soldiers were thinking clearly. Seeing an ‘opening’ in the walls, they immediately charged over. But just as they ran up the escalade ladders and charged at Linley and Barker with their weapons raised…
“Slash.”
Instantly, countless knives of wind formed a wall. The three warriors who had been the first to charge over were instantly turned into meat paste, and even some of the warriors close to the top of the escalade ladders were chopped into ground meat. This scene… replayed itself over and over throughout the battle. Nobody was able to draw near to these two.
“I’m feeling really motherfucking stifled,” Barker cursed softly.
Barker looked at Linley. Linley didn’t seem to feel anything at all. Barker couldn’t help but say, “Lord Linley, how can you just keep watching?”
“Why can’t I?” Linley stared below.
“Oh?” Barker looked at Linley questioningly.
Linley laughed calmly. “I now somewhat understand how the War God feels. Let worldly matters develop naturally. People will always die in wars. If I hadn’t founded the Baruch Kingdom, perhaps even more people would have died in those endless, chaotic wars.”
Linley looked down below. “The mortal world has its rules. And we, we have our rules as well!”
“I will hold to our agreement. Even if they break through to the magicite mines and seize them, I won’t interfere,” Linley said calmly.
Barker grew frantic. “But what about that pocket dimension room we discovered?”
“What are you afraid of?”
Linley laughed calmly. “It is impossible for non-Saints to enter that secret room. But which Saints would dare trespass on my territory?” Linley was already viewing this battle with a transcendent gaze and mind. It didn’t really matter if they won or they lost…
And in addition, the pocket dimension was immovable.
“You speak truth, Lord.” Barker began to understand.
Upon reaching the Saint level, they possessed an eternal lifespan. They had transcended past ordinary humans. In truth, worldly battles and affairs no longer belonged to them, and Saints no longer belonged in them either. But although they understood this in their heart, both Barker and Linley had a hint of anticipation…
The anticipation that their side would prove victorious.
“Not good.” Barker’s face suddenly changed.
Beneath the city, a large number of elite warriors charged towards the walls at high speed. They were thickly clustered and definitely numbered in the tens of thousands. This large group of elite warriors ran at an astonishing pace, and with each flicker of their bodies, they moved twenty or thirty meters. In less than a minute, they would arrive at the city walls.
“Fire!”
The magicite cannons from the east gate had been shifted over as well. More than twenty magicite cannons fired simultaneously, blasting down balls of light at the soldiers below.
“Swish!” “Swish!”
Many elite soldiers immediately dodged at high speed, but the magicite cannon attacks were simply too fast. Despite many of the elite soldiers being able to dodge the center of the blasts, a few unlucky soldiers would still die, while the others at the boundaries of the blasts would be injured as well.
But there was only time for one blast!
The magicite cannons only had enough time to fire once before the elite soldiers reached the city walls.
“There’s so many people. Tens of thousands. Where did all these powerful warriors come from? There’s so many warriors of the seventh rank.” Barker felt a hint of amazement.
Linley noticed the large number of elite soldiers that had appeared out of nowhere as well. Given Linley and Barker’s current levels of power, they were instantly able to judge the power of these soldiers. “So many are of the seventh rank? They are just like the ace regiments of the Knights of the Radiant Church that I saw back in the Holy Union.”
“This must be an elite force built up by the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows, akin to the Eight Ace Regiments. This is their true elite force, here in the Anarchic Lands,” Linley guessed.
And that was indeed the case.
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”
A large number of warriors reached the city walls, and with a sudden leap, they easily cleared the thirty foot walls. The thickly clustered warriors all arrived atop the walls, and all of them possessed the power of the seventh rank.
“Bang!” Swords and sabers flashed everywhere, and battle-qi exploded throughout the area.
Immediately, almost ten or twenty thousand garrison guards died. The garrison troops were only of the second or third ranks in power. The warriors of the fifth rank would be considered elites amongst them. But these warriors who had jumped onto the walls were all of the seventh rank, and there were nearly ten thousand of them.
A slaughter!
They could
n’t fight back at all! And at the same time…
A huge number of warriors of ‘only’ the fifth and sixth ranks began to climb up the escalade ladders at high speed.
Although there were hundreds of thousand soldiers on the south walls, only twenty or thirty thousand troops could fight against the warriors of the seventh rank at any given time. And when the fifty thousand warriors of the fifth and sixth ranks charged up…
“We lose.”
Barker sighed.
After the sixty thousand elite troops of the Sacred Legion and the Shadow Legion swept upwards, hundreds of thousands of normal troops followed behind them in escalade ladders. The entire length of the south city walls was occupied with countless enemies, who swarmed forward like an endless stream of ants, attacking the inner city of Cod.
But where Linley and Barker stood, no matter how many warriors charged over, they were all transformed into mincemeat by those countless wind blades.
“Let’s leave.” Linley immediately flew out of the walls.
“Can’t let them have those magicite cannons,” Barker said. Barker’s body flashed by the city walls, and one magicite cannon after another was stored into his interspatial ring. How could those enemy soldiers possibly block the Saint-level expert, Barker?
“Jeeze, Barker…” Linley shook his head and chuckled.
“All done.” Barker flew back to Linley’s side.
Barker and Linley flew into the air above the prefectural city of Cod. They could clearly see what was happening throughout the prefectural city. Watts clearly had been prepared for this breach, as a large number of troops were currently retreating through the west gate and the north gates.
At the same time, many soldiers remained within the prefectural city of Cod, preparing to do battle and prevent the enemy forces from chasing.
A large number of troops were fleeing towards the north of the prefectural city of Cod.
Watts stared at the distant prefectural city of Cod and let out a low sigh. In the end, he had still lost. When those two terrifying enemy legions had appeared, Watts knew that there was no way they could block them. The Radiant Church and the Cult of the Shadows, combined, had sixty thousand elite soldiers, ten thousand of whom were of the seventh rank.
To warriors of the seventh rank, walls might as well not exist.
How could one possibly defend against such a monstrously powerful legion?
“Watts, what are you sad about?” Gates was next to him. “If we lose, we lose. When I was in the Eighteen Northern Duchies, losing battles was a commonplace event. But of course… I still felt pretty pissed.”
Gates was resigned as well.
When those sixty thousand elite soldiers attacked, how many of them could he, Gates, kill by himself? After all, they wouldn’t just run up to him and wait for him to kill them.
“If I was a Grand Magus Saint, that would be wonderful. I’d just cast a forbidden spell and wipe them all out,” Gates secretly mumbled to himself.
Right at this time, Linley and Barker flew over. They had seen Gates, Boone, Ankh, and Hazer, and thus they flew down. As they did, Linley asked Watts, “Watts, how many people have you assigned to fight the rearguard action to hold off the enemy?”
“A hundred thousand.”
Watts replied. “We have a total of a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers in full retreat, none of them wounded. As for the remaining hundred thousand, half of them are injured, while the other half are at full strength. By relying on the traps and secret tunnels we dug early on, they should be able to stop the enemy forces for an hour.”
“An hour?” Linley asked.
“Right. An hour. After an hour, my men will send a signal arrow, and all the soldiers will immediately surrender.” Watts sighed. “There’s nothing for it. If they fight to the end, they will all die.”
Linley nodded with understanding.
In the Anarchic Lands, for the defeated soldiers to surrender was quite normal.
“One hour will be more than enough for us to pull away from them,” Watts said.
There were two hundred thousand soldiers stationed at the magicite mines, and the defenses had been prepared long ago. Watts and his men had fled in the early morning, while in the afternoon, the hundred and fifty thousand survivors arrived at the magicite mines. As soon as they arrived, they were immediately sent to the administrative areas to rest and eat.
Nightfall. Within a tent.
Linley, Barker, and the others were seated together, eating dinner. At this time, someone arrived. The person who had arrived was Delia, and her arrival instantly caused everyone to stop eating. Even Barker, Gates, and Boone all immediately came over to greet her.
“Linley, how can you keep eating?” Delia was somewhat frantic.
“What is it?” Linley looked at Delia.
Delia said, “The forces of the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows have almost arrived. What are we going to do?”
“What are we going to do? What can we do?” Linley shook his head helplessly. “Delia, right now, a large number of people are mining as fast as they can. We’ve already finished mining over a quarter of the total number of gems here.” This was one method as well.
Mine as much as possible.
But suddenly…
“Boss.” Bebe suddenly appeared atop the dinner table. He stared at Linley with his beady little eyes. “The enemies have sent so many people over. Boss, I’ve already brought Zassler over. Let Zassler cast a single forbidden-level spell, ‘Undead Calamity’ and summon an army of millions of undead in a single spell. Exterminate them!”
At this moment, the tent flap opened.
An old man wearing a black robe walked in. He was as thin as a skeleton. It was the Grand Magus Necromancer, Zassler.
“Lord Linley, I am ready to obey your commands at any moment. If you give the order, none of those million soldiers outside will survive.” Zassler’s eyes flashed with a cold green light. Zassler’s army of undead didn’t just include ordinary undead. They even included undead of the ninth rank, and even quite a few of the Saint-rank.
To exterminate that million-man army was as easy as raising his hand!
92
An Utter Catastrophe
Everyone in the tent couldn’t help but look towards Linley. Without question, Linley was the leader of these Saints.
“Boss!” Bebe called out frantically.
Linley shook his head slightly. “Once we break the agreement, then according to the original text, Desri, the Radiant Church, and the Cult of Shadows will join forces in dealing with us.”
“Why are you afraid of them?” Bebe wrinkled his little nose, and said viciously, “If those Saints come, I’ll eat them alive. What’s more, Boss, Desri probably won’t act against you. He clearly was on our side.”
Desri was indeed on Linley’s side.
“Zassler’s usage of a forbidden spell to summon an army of millions of undead would, without question, result in victory. Desri might not come attack us as a result of us violating the agreement. However, if we act in such a way, we would essentially be destroying Desri’s reputation.”
Desri had given him face. He couldn’t make Desri look bad like that.
“Goddamnit. What a pain in the ass.” Bebe was somewhat frantic. “Boss, Zassler can just summon undead that aren’t Saints. As long as non-Saint undead do the attacking, then that wouldn’t be considered a violation, right?”
Bebe’s words made Delia immediately begin to laugh.
Linley swatted Bebe on the head. “Bebe, you are equivocating. How is the ultimate summoning spell, ‘Undead Calamity’, different from other forbidden spells? In fact, in terms of power, the Undead Calamity spell is even stronger. It can even summon Saint-level undead.”
“But then we’re going to lose!” Bebe said hurriedly.
Linley sighed. “If we lose, we lose. At worst, that just means the enemy will take away the majority of the gems in the magicite mines. Fortunately, we’
ve already mined away all of those gems that were on par with magicite cores of beasts of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks. Bebe, you’ve finished with those, right?”
After discovering the secret door, Linley immediately mentally reached out to Bebe and had Bebe bring Haeru and the three Saint-level dragons to go to the core area and begin mining.
Although those magicite gems probably were only numerous enough to fill up a house, in terms of price, they were roughly on par with two thirds of the rest of the mine. After all, these gems held enough energy that they were on par with the magicite cores of magical beasts of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks.
“We’ve mined them all,” Bebe said hurriedly. “But, we’ve only mined out twenty or 30% of those ordinary magicite gems.”
The 20 to 30% of ordinary magicite gems, combined with the core gems that they had mined, were worth perhaps only 50% of the total value of the magicite mines.
“Rumble…”
The thickly clustered soldiers quickly formed up into two lines. The enormous, million-man-army seemed like a behemoth as it swept towards the defenses of the magicite mines.
Within the army, Weiss Porter and Guillermo both had smiles on their faces.
“We win.” Guillermo laughed as he looked at the distant magicite mines.
Weiss Porter chuckled. “Don’t celebrate just yet. Nothing is certain until the last moment!”
“I don’t care about Linley’s soldiers. What I’m afraid of is Linley personally interfering! Or, those Saint-level magic beasts attacking. Our army would probably totally collapse.”
“True.” Guillermo sighed as well.
How effective was their previous agreement in binding Linley?
“First let our army rest. They fought all night, then marched for an entire day. The soldiers haven’t had a chance to rest at all,” Weiss Porter said. “It’s already night. Wait for dawn. Let them rest one night, and then attack again at dawn.”
Right now, the advantage was all on their side. Although their common soldiers were exhausted, those sixty thousand elite soldiers weren’t tired at all.
Baruch Rising_Book 3 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 71