1044 Intense Poison Part 2 (1/2)

”Seems to me that we need to settle this my way!” Saleen laughed. Jalin was able to sense a strange feeling when he fought her before from his laugh alone.

”Soldier, how many spirits will you be able to summon?”

”A little more than 100,000,” the winged skeleton answered plainly.

Jalin had only begun to seriously gauge the strange skeleton then. The pile of bones was obviously a bonded creature to Saleen. Instead of being stored inside some contracted space or equipment, the peculiar being was hanging around Saleen all the time. Saleen and the creature both rode nightmares, which were spirit creatures higher than grade-6.

Having heard the winged skeleton was capable of summoning more than 100,000 spirits, Jalin began to calculate. ”Is that skeleton a grade-10 creature? That can't be possible. Saleen is a grade-9 sorcerer. How is it possible for him to own a grade-10 creature?”

”No need for such numbers. How many flying creatures capable of spewing poison like the false dragon spirit do you have?”

The winged skeleton pondered for a bit before answering, ”Less than 2,000.”

”Well then, go prepare toxins for those spirits. When you're done, we shall launch an assault.”

”Launch an assault?” Jalin doubted her ears. Even with her and Saleen considered, there were only five grade-9 sorcerers in their band. There were eight grade-7 sorcerers, and the ten remaining mages were grade-6 grand mages.

According to Grukos intelligence, there were more than 30 professionals among the ranks of the army surrounding Guderian City. Even if they were to be split between two forces stationed in the south and north, Saleen would still need to contend with about 15 professionals.

The bulk of the army in front of them was an elephant in the room. The enemy had more than 500,000 units standing in their way, while they commanded a force of a little more than 1,000 strong.

While Saleen's War Drum of Fear was indeed a powerful equipment, the pests unleashed from within were incapable of going against grade-7 professionals. The number of said pests was limited. It was impossible for Saleen to crush a 500,000 strong army with just one single piece of equipment.

Saleen knew that well himself. Within the environment of the Imperial City of the Abyss, the pests were able to resurrect indefinitely. On land however, the restorative abilities of the pests were far inferior to the elemental creatures'.

Then again, Saleen had no intention of killing every single soldier in the army before him. It was no Ironwall City; the camp was arranged in a very sparse manner. He also lacked support provided by his metal flyers.

The winged skeleton nodded in agreement and went on to open the spirit space, unleashing the spirits he brought with him. The winged skeleton had learned of such methods from Nailisi. Since the winged skeleton came to know that Nailisi brought more than 100,000 demons with her all the time, the winged skeleton also began selecting spirits to be sent into spirit space.

The jade skeletons under the winged skeleton's command also possessed some measure of intelligence. The winged skeleton had every six jade skeletons control a death magic array, which was kept operational for summoning spirits. Any spirits whom they found that failed their standards were sent back. Only the ones deemed fit for entering the spirit space were left behind.

Many frail spirits were incapable of entering the spirit space, as doing so would have torn them apart. Only spirits with a certain measure of abilities were deemed fit to be taken alongside the winged skeleton.

”Jalin, I need help from your men.”

”Please speak.” Jalin was secretly gleeful that Saleen asked her for help.

”When the battle begins, please have your men protect Hogina.”

Jalin felt very dejected at the request. She saw Hogina to be little more than a child and was puzzled as to why Saleen was concerned about that little girl so much. There was no lack of grade-6 grand mages in the Golden Plains after all.

It was still a personal request from him nonetheless, and Saleen had never made any during their trip. Most battles were even fought by Saleen using little more than just his War Drum of Fear.

The winged skeleton went about selecting spirits carefully. While he possessed large number of spirits capable of flight, the toxins that Saleen crafted required spirits of certain levels. Such spirits needed to be at least above grade-4. They had their bodies reinforced and were capable of executing simple commands.

Hogina stared at the row of spirits that the winged skeleton summoned from afar and felt nothing but envy, especially because there were so many of them capable of flight. The huge false dragon spirit was even capable of circling slowly in the air.

”Jalin, here is how I would go about it. When the winged skeleton is done with preparations, I would summon some elemental creatures on the ground to fight alongside the guards while we take to the air with the spirits. We will use them to fight off the enemies coming for the spirits. The spirits will take the lead, spewing large amount of toxins. There would hardly be anyone capable of surviving such an attack. All of our troops will require magical buffs to prevent them from getting poisoned.”

”So, we'll just go in hard and fast like that?” Jalin asked out of concern. Her teacher was about 200 miles away. If they were caught in a pinch Arbola would not be able to make it in time to save them.

”We will only be fighting our way into the city instead of trying to make a last stand. Theisio is nowhere in sight. Real trouble comes when he does show up.” Saleen had been observing from afar all that time. They were standing on a meandering slope, while the plains were right before them. Saleen was able to see more than 100 miles away, which was where the rear of the enemy forces laid.

Judging from the logistics at the camp, the enemy had yet to prepare themselves to launch an attack. That meant that Theisio was nowhere near them. While that all seemed odd, Saleen did not bother to find out why. There were simply too many unexpected matters to be dealt with. If Saleen had encountered such accidents, it was only natural for that to also happen with Theisio.

”Alright, I'll leave you in charge,” Jalin answered gently. Saleen felt like he was covered with goosebumps all over, but he was unable to bring himself to tell her that she was being creepy.