City of Desire [Kingdom Building] - Chapter 870: Sanguine Bellstaff

Proofread by Thomas F

General Axseer

“Attack!”

Lord Silver roared with his beautiful blade in hand and charged forward, with us following behind him.

I could feel his powerful skill. It filled my body with strength and spirit, which seemed to make the roars of monsters fade away.

“It’s a really powerful charging skill.” Commented Colonel Yard.

He doesn’t compliment unless it’s something that truly impressed him, and it’s hard to impress the man who has seen everything.

I nodded, looking ahead at Lord Silver, who was charging ahead toward the monsters. Leaving the army behind, not even the other commanders dared to do that.

Soon, he reached the monsters, and I prepared myself to see the cyan blades. Remembering what I saw him use against a necromancer.

Instead, I saw bronze lightning envelop his sword; it was the same lightning that shrouded the monster he was riding.

He swung that blade, and bronze lightning whipped forward. Striking every monster.

I looked for a moment before focusing on my task. Warden’s Field is active and Spirit Strength. I had already covered fifteen thousands of my men, and I have to connect with five thousand more.

I had done it many times, but never succeeded in such a stressful environment.

We are charging toward the enemy, while aerial monsters are attacking and descending on us. My people kept me protected, but I need to take over soon.

So, I pushed myself, covering more and more people.

It’s hard, and I am feeling like my head would split open, but I didn’t stop. I focused on it entirely, forgetting everything, the monsters, attacks, and even the lack of a staff in my hand.

The staff helps focus, but I can’t have it in my hand right now. I have to do it completely on my own.

So, I did spread my power over more and more people, despite being focused. I know, we are getting closer to monsters, and soon the first lines of my division will clash against them.

The pressure is immense that I begin to bleed through my ears.

I barely glanced at it and continued, until finally, I covered my whole division in my power.

“Staff,” I said and looked ahead, only to be barely fifty meters away from clashing against the monsters.

At my words, Colonel Yard handed me my staff, and many looked shocked to see it. Aside from the higher-ups and a few of my senior officers, nobody knows about it.

Sanguine Bellstaff

It is my artifact, given to me half a year ago.

I remember the day I asked to be transferred from Panar, where I was stationed, to Greltheaven. It was a few weeks after we conquered Gailhorn.

When I entered the office, I saw three Generals, Lord Silver, and a large box on the desk.

I was fearing the worst, seeing them all together.

They didn’t say anything. General Stone looked at me before opening the box and revealing the staff. He had said, “It is yours.”

It was the most significant shock of my life.

My hands gripped its grained surface, and its vast power met with mine.

This staff is not something someone called beautiful. Sarad and Lodi had said that it had given them nightmares. They said even calling it “ugly” would be insulting to the ugly.

It is omniums.

It is a staff made of twisted, cracked, blackened wood, with faint veins of dim blood-red light pulsing through the grain.

Heavy, rusted iron rivets pierce the wood along its length, and each one hangs bone bells, shaped irregularly, chiming in a deep, resonant tone.

The staff’s crown blooms into a crystalline bone flower, delicate, yet sharp- with deep sanguine flame burning at its heart.

So, yes, it looks ominous, and when one reads about the pieces of work that have held it before, one would shudder in fear. They were true nightmares.

Blood magic is always touchy for people, even among orcs.

My tribe had been ostracized for it, but it is the magic of our bloodline, passed through the generations.

My power connected to it, and immediately, the bells chimed sonorously, and every one of my people heard it as the connection between them and me strengthened.

At that exact moment, the tiny blood lioness spirit disappeared from in front of me and bloomed through the sanguine fire of the staff.

The lioness roared, and it did. I felt her growing stronger.

It begins to absorb the blood, not only the one that men shed fighting the aerial monsters, but the faintest one released from them as they charge toward the enemies.

My magic is of blood; it absorbs the blood my men shed fighting the enemies.

Now, it also includes the blood in their veins, which they lose through friction as they charge toward the enemy.

One person releases a tiny amount, I couldn’t even notice it, but twenty thousand is a lot.

That blood flooded my staff, along with the blood the avians made them bleed.

It is now all coming into me, and I didn’t stop or release the attack. Earlier, I needed to do so because I was not able to hold much, but now I can with the staff.

My understanding of my magic had also increased my capacity and made my magic stronger.

I may have advanced in a small way since the battle of Gailhorn, but I made tremendous progress in the magic. I pushed myself hard for it.

So, I would be worthy of the trust they have given me.

I am the most junior among all to receive the artifact. They could have given it to General Cardin, Mr. Jon, or any of the Governors, but they gave it to me.

I want to be worthy of that.

Finally, my men reached the monsters, and I released seven bolts of blood lightning. The blood lightning is powerful, but now its power is further enhanced by the artifact.

It has its flaws, but it has its strengths as well.

It does not provide spirit enhancement when I cover more people with me, as many artifacts of this type do, but it strengthens that connection once it forms and enhances every attack that is cast through it.

Not to mention absorption, enhancement, and storage.

This is not a staff of battle shaman, but a ritual shaman. Still, it is incredible in battle as long as I finish the first leg, with my own power.

‘Battle Command: Colonel Kales, move your battalion to flank the monsters that Colonel Viros is fighting,’ I ordered and threw a few more orders before sending nine bolts at Grade IV monsters.

Of them, eight died instantly, while the ninth is no threat anymore.

More and more of my men begin to fight with the monsters by the end of a single minute. Everyone is fighting them, sending a massive amount of blood toward me.

I absorbed it all and attacked, but didn’t use as much as I could. I kept storing.

I have an essential job, and I will need as much power as possible for it. Still, I have a duty to my men as well, and I help them whenever they get overwhelmed.

‘Major General, Strike,’ The order finally came from Lord Commander Harrods. ‘Affirmed!’ I replied, and an aura burst out of me, which I pushed into the staff.

Aura may not directly help with my magic, but it helps a lot with the staff. I am focusing on aura control as much as I am on my magic, and I am making good progress on it.

A moment later, a lightning bolt came out of the lioness’s mouth, which turned massive.

It shot through the sky, tearing through any monsters that came in its way, before striking the Blaze Elephant, which roared in anger.

I felt its eyes turned to me, and I met it as I danced, while before sending seventeen small bolts to help my men.

My job is to support the two colonels in their fight against the leader monsters.

“That tiger is a terror,” said Colonel Yard as he finished the monster and appeared near me. “It is,” I replied, shuddering.

Lord Blackwell is shooting arrow after arrow at the Voltwing tiger, and Lord Silver joined in the battle while still fighting with a bear, but they are struggling against it.

‘Strike, General,’

Another command rang out in my mind—this time, from Lord Commander August. I sent the big lightning bolt, enhanced by the power of the artifact and aura.

It reached the Torrent Ape, who punched it.

It roared loudly after, clearly in pain. My lightning bolts aren’t something it could easily destroy. Its hands are scaled and covered with thick water energy, but it still hurts it.

Though not enough to affect it heavily.

They have immense vitality that heals any physical and magical injuries quickly, even shamanic ones.

That doesn’t mean my attacks didn’t help. They help a lot.

Suddenly, the Volwing Tiger roared loudly, and a moment later, the three responded with a roar. After that, the monsters’ strategy changed.

The arial ones become aggressive, while on land, they begin to form concentrated groups.

‘It seemed like one group is coming for you, general,‘ said Colonel Yard, and I nodded, with my expression. It’s a group of over a hundred monsters, all powerful.

‘Battle Command: Don’t Engage with the monsters,‘ I ordered.

They are powerful, so even my most capable will have a hard time against them, and the monsters already bog them down.

So, the army separated, and Colonel Yard moved away with my guards, while I closed my eyes for a moment.

When I opened, Lioness opened its mouth and began to shoot lightning. It started to hit the monsters one by one; they tried to dodge and defend, but most of them failed.

So, they roared and increased their speed further, and finally, they reached me.

Though their numbers have significantly diminished by now, from over a hundred, barely a dozen and a half remained.

The leader, a black horn rhino, roared and came toward me with its group. Colonel Yard didn’t stop them and let them go before following behind.

Seeing that, they became even more excited and came at me at even greater speed.

Soon, there was barely two meters of distance between them and me, when a bloody sphere appeared around me, and these monsters clashed against it.

This is not shamanic ability but the staff’s ability.

It’s a ritual shaman staff. Most of such artifacts have such defensive abilities as our magic isn’t like mages’, we can’t simply cast a shield spell to defend ourselves.

I could hear the bones breaking as they clashed. They were coming at it really fast and struck hard against the shield.

I moved toward them when I reached them a moment later, the sphere disappeared, and I swung my staff, activating Warden’s Swing, while pushing the aura into it.

The loud sound rang out as my staff crushed the skull of the Rhino, killing it immediately.

The other monsters came to their senses and roared as they came at me, but the lightning shot out of my staff, hitting them one after another.

While this war was happening, Colonel Yard and others arrived and took over.

I looked at the dead bodies of the monster and sighed before turning to the battlefield and releasing group lightning to help my men, when I heard a massive roar that shook my heart.

I turned and saw Voltwing Tiger, taking off into the air with large lightning wings.

Seeing that a bad feeling couldn’t help but rise in my heart.

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