1028 Hoginas Value Part 2 (1/2)

Hogina's naivete was not a disguise. Having followed Imposa at a very young age, there was no one to teach her how to get along with others. Hogina's talents, intellect, and perseverance were all spent on alchemy. Being able to apologize like she did when talking to a skeleton was already an achievement that took her several months in the past to train.

”Hmph...” The winged skeleton only snuffed lightly to express his irritation, before taking out his weapon.

”Mr. Bones?!” Hogina was frightened.

”Enemies ahead.” Hogina caught Saleen's voice, and he went on to hand several scrolls to her. They were all grade-6 and grade-7 scrolls. Saleen no longer had any use for them, but they would prove useful to Hogina.

Saleen then took out a magic staff and stuffed it into Hogina's hands. It was something that Saleen had used himself before. Saleen rarely used magic staffs even since the very beginning. That staff stored two grade-7 spells and was meant to for contingencies. With Saleen being a grade-9 sorcerer, so grade-7 spells were a piece of cake to him.

”Soldier, stay your hand and let Hogina try it out for the moment.” Saleen was able to see clearly in the clouds that there was a huge flying magic beast somewhere faraway. There were three people riding on the backs of the beast.

The flying magic beast had huge scales and a wingspan of more than 20 yards. Scales stood up on the beast's back, and there was a wooden platform on the scales meant for carrying personnel. The platform was barricaded with fences half the height of adults. One of the people sitting inside had an alchemy crossbow in their hand, the other had alchemy binoculars, and yet another one was holding scrolls.

Saleen's Elemental Eye proved very useful. The scroll seen was a divine spell scroll, and he knew right away that those three were men from the Holy See. The place they were was the mountain regions southeast of Daliang City. What were the Holy See people watching?

Saleen did not recall having anything nearby. When Daliang City was built, the area within several hundred miles was searched. There were definitely no ruins within the mountains, and there was no temple of the goddess to be found either.

The giant beast also looked familiar, looking like the false dragons that Cloudflow people liked using. The false dragons were mutated creatures created by splicing the genetic materials of several magic beasts. They were creatures capable of flight and carrying personnel. They were also capable of attacking from above, like the metal flyers.

Despite the false dragon's strengths, there was little space on them. Cloudflow people would usually arranged for mages to be on them, to serve as replacements for the magic fire shells used on Saleen's metal flyers.

That false dragon was one meant to carry three, a standard version used for aerial scouting. Lex had introduced such types of troops to Saleen before. No false dragons were used in the assault of Daliang City prior, but Saleen knew of them, and had watched magic images of them.

False dragons had thick limbs, long bodies, and a head with a hard plate on it instead of horns, serving as a large shield itself. False dragons were apparently incapable of dragon's breath. Long tusks were grown from their mouths, which could use the equivalent to the force of siege hammer when ramming.

Hogina put away the scrolls Saleen gave her like some precious artifacts, and she did not even use the staff. She took out a weird-looking equipment from her spatial equipment. Saleen took a look and found it to have a structure of a miniaturized magic cannon. It had a long barrel, but way thinner, and it was only a yard long.

The exterior of the equipment was all metal, with six very thin tubes at the front end, and the diameter was not even as thick as a person's wrist. Hogina held it in her hand and activated the magic array at the rear end. Six stone cones shot out of the six tubes at the front.

The six stone cones were hollowed and filled with metal, forming strange-looking magic arrays.

Hogina's alchemic equipment caught Saleen's eye immediately. That equipment's power was far inferior to the large magic cannon of his, and the speed at which the six stone cones were shot at and the range they were able to achieve, was something that a piece of equipment of such a size would not be able to reach. Hogina had only used a grade-6 magic array to shoot the six stone cones and had them flying at the flying beast five miles away.

She apparently knew what the range of her weapon was capable of. As Saleen cleared out the blockage of the Quickcloud spell, Hogina became capable of seeing what was outside. It was only then that Saleen found that Hogina's sight abilities were far beyond what her level would have suggested.

”Five miles? Grade-9 sorcerers would be able to see about ten miles when using skills.” Hogina was no sorcerer; she was only a grade-6 grand mage.

Saleen was sweating thinking about what she was capable of. The cannon was simply way more powerful than an alchemy crossbow. Of course, large scale alchemy crossbows would have packed more power, but common ones would hardly have been able to shoot more than a mile.

The false dragon roared furiously, chasing after the Holy See scout that was sent flying by the shots, diving downward. It had probably run amok smelling blood. The false dragon apparently did not have much intelligence to speak of. Instead of going for the enemy, it went after the injured one that it had been carrying.

Hogina stowed her equipment away. A green piece of glass in one eye disappeared in a shimmer, turning back to how it was normally. She did not like modifying her body, but as she had bad sight since youth, she made herself a pair of glasses nonetheless. The pair was one that was able to be put in front of the eyes and stowed away quickly when needed. It required only a bit of mental power to be used.

Saleen was unable to ask Hogina what they were in that moment. He increased their flight speed and made for the false dragon. The false dragon was a grade-4 or grade-5 creature. One made by Cloudflow would have been only grade-6 at most.