Badge in Azure

Chapter 1444: Getting into Trouble (Part 2)

The plain golden dragon went into the sea but shot out of the water’s surface less than a minute later, full of injuries.

Its power had also been sealed at level-12, but being injured so quickly made the grand duke wonder, what kind of monster was being hatched here?!

After summoning Nicholas and the others, Saleen called the grand duke. They were getting ready to dive into the sea to get a closer look. The grand duke said instead, “Your Highness Saleen, help me deal with this and I’ll give you half of whatever is here!”

Astonished, Saleen did a rough calculation and said, “Duke, I’m getting the short end of the stick here.”

“I know. I’ll make it up to you.” There was nothing the grand duke could offer now that would compensate Saleen adequately.

Though he had initially wanted coordinates of the dragon plane, Saleen wisely suppressed that thought. After all, the grand duke had never actually tried to make up with him before. Both men had been trading on an equal footing until now, but things were different at the moment—the grand duke was asking for his assistance. He was desperate.

“Alright, you owe me one then. Sigh...” Saleen dropped the power beneath his feet before diving into the water.

A body of water element was still surprisingly nimble in the sea. Saleen discovered another benefit: After his power of the soul had fully matured, moving in water was no longer within the range of magic; he was gradually getting used to the rules of water element.

Saleen was hugely relieved to know that his speed wouldn’t decrease in water. This meant that if a powerful being ever pursued him in the future, he could make a fast getaway by jumping into a body of water.

Though he was swift, the ones around him weren’t exactly slow. The grand duke was able to keep with them somehow since his seven-colored dragon was fully elemental and suffered few restrictions in the water.

Oh, what they saw on the seabed! Piles of crumbling rocks and a gaping 10-meter-wide hole with a pitch-black creature loitering outside.

Saleen scanned it with his Eye of Souls. The thing howled and screeched with terrifying sound waves in the water.

Fortunately, Saleen had long put up Water Shields, or he would have suffered bodily damage.

Some skill indeed! Vibrations of its sound wave alone were more than enough to endanger a level-13 being. Saleen’s restricted bodily resilience was not much different from a level-10 true might. Moreover, the growth of magic chords had modified his body. If he were to grip a sword, there was no guarantee he would lose it even if fighting a golden grand swordmaster head-on.

That creepy creature seen outside the hole was about 16 meters long and resembled a centipede with all its legs. Instead of scales, it had lots of coarse, spiky hair. Its head was triangular with small fangs, which were probably due to having just been hatched.

It was unable to retaliate against the scan from Saleen’s Eye of Souls, so it paddled in his direction, still remembered who was observing it.

Seeing the full appearance of that thing made Saleen supremely happy. That creature was just another magic beast which, despite its strength, had little intelligence to speak of at the moment. Not even human newborns were very clever after being born.

Magic beasts devoid of intelligence were easy to deal with, regardless of their power potential.

Saleen unleashed his territory and shrouded the monster’s body. It erupted in anger from this unintentional move. The four eyes on its head glittered with silver light as its body extended more than over 30 meters. The hair on its body stood on end, and a round, black bead shot out of its mouth at Saleen.

A chill ran up and down Saleen’s spine. That monster’s power spike was more than double the power of the Lord of Glory’s double. That ball coalesced from a dark element, something this level-13 Water Shield wouldn’t be able to withstand.

The monster provoked a reaction from the rules of Myers Mainland after casting that attack. Creepy sounds of cracking bones discharged from its body. Blood spewed from the orifices on its head faster than ice arrows cast by mages.

That thing might not have much of a brain, but it was fearsome as hell! One attack exceeded the limits of rules of the plane. Its body suffered severe damage and its powers dropped to level-12.

That black ball had a two-meter diameter. If it had hit Saleen, nothing would have been left of his bones. A level-13 Frozen World was cast from Saleen’s magic robe that blocked the black ball for less than a second. Nailisi, who was at his side, opened up the purgatory of the fallen: 24 chains of the Shackles of the Fallen shot out, trapping the black ball within.

If the Lord of Glory had cast something similar, Nailisi wouldn’t have been able to maintain control. Since that monster had little intelligence and zero combat experience, relying solely on brute strength, it could never break through the chains.

That black ball’s energy was limitless. Nailisi dragged it into the purgatory of the fallen and was getting ready to digest it. If they had clashed head-on, Saleen and his people would have perished. But if they had used equipment, they would have been bullies.

That creature continued raging on despite its injuries. It twisted and flailed about and kept pouncing on Saleen. When it opened its large mouth to swallow him, Saleen saw a vortex-like black hole at its throat.

Darkness Devouring!

He wanted to subjugate that thing—but who knew how many eggs were still hatching? With no time to spare, he fired lightning icicles down the beast’s throat, albeit with great reluctance.

The grand duke was dazed. That monster was so powerful he could be defeated by one or two dragons, and that’s when he went berserk. After that, the grand duke’s speed wouldn’t be able to save him from an attack.

That monster continued trembling after being afflicted by the lightning icicles. The electrical shocks coiled around its hide, paralyzing it. That’s when Rafel seized the moment: She went up to the beast and shattered its skull with a single blow.

The blow created a hole about the size of a bucket’s diameter. As its brains oozed out of the hole, Rafel kept attacking its legs, all ten of them. She zipped around as the monster struggled before sinking helplessly to the seabed.

Saleen fired another seven-lightning icicle that punched through the monster’s heart. Then he let Rafel retrieve its corpse.

The island continued to quake and shake. Monsters were bursting from the eggshells time and again, attacking anything nearby. Saleen fired the lightning icicles again, so long as high-level magic nuclei were embedded.

Those monsters, which embodied peculiar properties, came in all varieties; there were spirits among them, too.

Saleen had no idea what kind of creatures these beasts sprang from and wondered how they were able to procreate and mutate so fast.

The thing about those monsters was they were dim-witted and unable to control their powers. What they could do was suppress their power at level-12, based on native instinct. Once provoked by Saleen, they would attack with all their might. Their full powers were somewhere between level-14 and level-16.

Fortunately, their attacks were one-dimensional and Saleen had enough equipment to defend himself.

The crack at the center of the island grew increasingly large after killing over a dozen of these horrible creatures. More than two eggs were hatching...as the beings inside scurried out. Saleen found that so long as he kept his distance, they would not attack proactively even if they sensed someone’s presence.

How cute...

But that thought was snuffed out as soon as it entered Saleen’s mind. The island that had a palace on top of it. Someone walked out. Who was that someone standing atop that huge metal disk? It was Imposa.

Imposa’s powers had risen to the pinnacle of level-11. Seeing Saleen, he rushed toward him followed by an aggressive, silver fish monster.

That silver fish had a flat body and a gigantic mouth. Imposa’s metal tail stabbed the fish’s back.

Saleen knew that the tail was a decisive weapon of Imposa’s. If Saleen were hit, his Figure of Fate would be destroyed; there was no telling how long repairs would take.

Damn it, Imposa is baiting that monster my way!

While it was obvious that Saleen wanted to grab more of the monsters’ bodies, the one coming at him was apparently an intelligent one. And it wasn’t headed for him! It dived for another monster that had just emerged from its shell, bisecting it with a single bite. Crunching noises from the bite caused intense sound tremors.

Those monsters did not dare run away either. That’s when Saleen realized that among the mass of huge eggs, the silver, aggressive fish he saw earlier was the only target Imposa was after. All the other eggs were just food for that fish.

What a harrowing scene! Imposa’s tail began to fall off bit by bit from the monster fish’s back, suggesting that the attack hadn’t done much damage. The fish’s level, or species, was definitely more terrifying than those monsters.

None of those monsters were intelligent, just that fish.

What Imposa did was akin to getting Saleen killed. What an outrage! In retaliation, Saleen fired a lightning icicle straight at him. His calculative abilities were such that he wouldn’t have killed Imposa but kept him from turning around.

Now Imposa was the one who was scared. The metal disk beneath his feet disintegrated before he shot black water jets behind. He didn’t care one whit if that monster was immune to poison, as that was the only way he could accelerate.

The silver fish monster took one look at Imposa’s back before turning around to charge at yet another newly hatched monster before crunching loudly again.

Saleen told everyone around him to go up to the surface. Only he, Rafel, Nailisi and the Winged Skeleton stayed behind.

The Winged Skull’s Reaper Scythe landed hard on a monster’s body. In a second, all that monster’s essences were sucked dry. The silver fish that had been munching on the monster noticed that the taste was becoming bland and erected scales all over it before bursting with light like those from ice crystals, hitting the Winged Skull.

The armor on the Winged Skull shattered and its bones cracked: It had been hit by the magic attack and shattered.

Nailisi then unleashed the Shackles of the Fallen, tying up the silver fish. Its skin unleashed layers of ice crystals, causing the chains to slide—a rare sight in itself—before the fish burst out of it and chomped on one of Imposa’s legs.

That leg of his was a mechanical prosthetic, so who cared it was bitten off?! Undaunted, Imposa waved and cast a magic spell. Faint purple mist dissolved in the water and was sucked into the silver fish’s gills.

Saleen was infuriated at what Imposa had done! And what exactly did he do? He cast a Berserk Potion!