City of Sin

War Of Attrition(3)

Nyris’ throat moved up and down as he swallowed with difficulty, watching everything in disbelief, “It’s over?”

“Yes.” Agamemnon was as curt as usual.

“But… What did I just see? Was… was that magic?” Nyris gazed towards Lina. While the dragon mage was already swaying, ready to collapse, that did nothing to damage her dazzling image in his mind. Faced with her shower of flames, even a saint would instantly turn to ash if they were slow to escape.

“A spell from Flowsand.” Agamemnon was clearly the more discerning of the two.

It was only then that Nyris glanced towards Flowsand, completely stupefied. He suddenly remembered something and couldn’t help but shout, “Daybreak?!”

Agamemnon slowly nodded.

“A priestess… As expected, they’re all…” He didn’t complete the sentence. Even a prince could not say anything as he wished.

“Richard’s the real lunatic!” Agamemnon asserted, unwittingly finishing the other’s sentence. Nobody would dare to say that the priestesses of the Eternal Dragon were all crazy, even though it was something they agreed on.

When the Dragon Mage crashed down from the sky, the war finally returned to the normal battle between soldiers. With their commander dead, the rebel army finally broke down and started escaping in all directions.

The Archerons advanced methodically under Richard’s command, purging the defeated enemies along the way as they captured Emerald City once more. It was only a matter of time before the battle came to an end.

The third tower had surrendered. The mages inside shut down its domain, walking out in single file to be captured. In contrast, the second had been the site of a terrible battle. The hundred Archeron knights had fought head-on against the mages within, clearing out floor after floor. They gave up their lives to open a path to the top, with only forty left standing by the time they were done.

This was the one part of Richard’s plans where the casualties would be immense.

Kaloh hadn’t used too much strength on the magic tower. It flew up high into the sky, occasionally pouncing towards the ground and ripping apart the rebels with its sharp teeth and claws. Only when the summoning ended did it roar unwillingly, disappearing into the void.

With the war concluded, Richard relinquished command and left the officers to clear the battlefield. He got off his horse and walked towards Lina; the Dragon Mage had fallen unconscious and plummeted from the sky. Careful examination revealed that she had depleted far too much of her mana, but that only served to relieve him.

‘Still, how could Lina not control her magic? She was a grand mage!’ he looked up towards Flowsand, and the cleric stuck her tongue out, mouthing words soundlessly. He read her lips and understood what she had said, ‘I just punished that old hag a little!’

Many things could be inferred from these words. Richard could only shake his head helplessly.

……

When Lina woke up once more, she found herself lying in the master residence of Emerald City. Richard, sat by her bed, smiled charmingly, “Looks like I was lucky. I didn’t need six days.”

Lina didn’t say a word, merely staring at the youth in astonishment. He found this strange and touched his face, but there was nothing on it, “What’s wrong?”

The Dragon Mage’s interest suddenly waned, “I suddenly felt like… No, no it’s nothing. Since this is taken care of, you can return. I’ll stay.”

Richard didn’t understand why Lina’s mood had worsened all of a sudden, and he had no clue of how to comfort her. However, powerhouses like her knew to control themselves. He merely remained seated for a while, leaving the room after he realised she had no intentions of explaining further.

It was time to return to Norland.

That afternoon, Richard brought Flowsand and the two young masters who had gained no achievements out of the Forest Plane. They naturally took along the specialty of the plane when they left, which was a sort of wood that was exceedingly tough. It was a great material for making longbows in Norland, with a value of tens of thousands in gold. However, it would only be worth 10,000 at best in Faelor. The great part about it was that it had no inherent mana, so there was basically no extra cost to transporting it if it was placed in spatial equipment.

Richard and Flowsand entered the portal first. Nyris stopped Agamemnon before they left as well, “Is it really over just like that?”

“What else do you want?”

“Shouldn’t we be the main characters of a moving battle?” the prince asked, unresigned to the outcome.

Even Agamemnon had no answers for this question. The only purpose of the two being here ended up being to help Richard lug a few tons of wood back to Norland.

……

The goods from the royal family had arrived by the time Richard returned to Norland. He immediately rushed to the castle’s warehouse, now under heavy guard by both Gaton’s personal guard and a squadron from the royal family.

Inside were ten large magic sealing boxes, each half the size of the average human. The guard captain opened them up one by one, handing over a list of what was inside.

Six of the boxes contained dozens of neatly placed swords, all glimmering with a magic lustre and radiating a cold aura: they were enchanted with enhanced sharpness and a cold effect. The swords were all made of lafite steel, a material that was an entire grade above normal high-carbon steel in terms of durability. Each box held fifty unsheathed swords, the blades smeared with thick layers of cold whale oil to protect the blades and prevent mana drain. That made for 300 magic swords in total.

One of the four remaining boxes had twenty small, elaborate crossbows enchanted with precision and increased range. The weapons were clearly better than the average magic crossbow, the primary material being ice fir. This was the same kind of wood Richard had just brought back from the Forest Plane; with the special treatment of the royal bowyers, the weapons were clearly a step above those of the Schumpeters be it in durability or power. Another box held a total of two thousand bolts. A third were enchanted with poison, another third with armour penetration, and the last third with increased range.

The last two boxes contained gauntlets and scale mail inner armour. The armour, despite only having a single enchantment, could be added onto an existing set to greatly increase one’s defence. On the other hand, the gauntlet pairs all had two enchantments on them.