Chapter I (Part 2) – Debate on sacred sacrifices vs magicians
“They are still very powerful.” Liu Zhenhan still felt intimidated.
“Human magicians are also very rare, especially when compared to the era before the Battle of Mount Hyjal took place. Now, their number has greatly dropped. Although we have less Beamon sacrifices as well, the number of human magicians is even lesser. In fact, there are only a few dozen skilled magicians in the human country and not more than fifty magic apprentices. This is the reason why human magicians are mostly employed by the palace or by the aristocracy who can provide riches and influence to them. Considering the wealth of human beings, it is very easy for them to meet the requirements of magicians; the nuclei of magical beasts are one such requirement. However, I must say that magic is a marvelous thing – if used improperly, it can backfire and the magician may lose his life as a result. Although the power of magic is more formidable than our song power, it is more deadly and dangerous whereas our battle songs never cause backlashes for making mistakes.” Hailun explained with a hint of pride on her face.
“But unlike human magicians, your sacred sacrifices act as auxiliary forces in the Beamon army.” Liu Zhenhan was a bit discouraged, “But it seems those magicians are part of the main attack forces. Can you give me a brief idea on the direct ratio between their attack power and ours?”
“War-G.o.d is always fair, given that he did not grant us a powerful means of utilizing magical power but he gave us much stronger and robust bodies than the human soldiers! Although our population is far lesser than humans, each Beamon soldier is capable of knocking down five human soldiers or even more.” Hailun said: “War-G.o.d is also fair in treating the mankind – human magic division is very strict including ‘air, fire, water, earth’ four magic styles. Generally, a human magician can only learn one of these styles, however, even the most talented magician can only learn more than one magic styles that are not conflicting in nature. Therefore, our nuclei exports to them, in fact, do not really do any harm to us, instead, the trade is very useful for us to compensate the shortage of cloth, iron, and steel.”
“If your beastman soldiers are so fierce and formidable, why do not you take revenge? Have you forgotten the hatred from a thousand years ago?” Liu Zhenhan secretly cursed the Beamon king for being a coward.
“Li Cha! The great strength of humanity is not something you and I can imagine! Their soldiers, although, are nowhere near the strength of beastman fighters but they receive better training and are versed in following more tactical command system. Moreover, they have better weaponry and all these advantages are enough to narrow the gap between us and them.” Hailun said: “Another point I must admit that mankind is so intelligent, they are better than us in whatever they do and achieve well, whether arts and culture. Although our soldiers are naturally much stronger, there are some outstanding and brave human warriors as well and their martial arts are also superior to ours. We have often seen our soldiers lacking the strength to fight back while dealing with those outstanding human warriors. Even the bravest and strongest of beastman soldiers do not have the audacity to challenge the strongest human warriors, the famous Dragon knights. The archery skills of spirit race are very good indeed, but it has been seen that humanity has nurtured the best archers in the course of history. Human archers are fiercer, more skillful and they can even use magical blessings on their bows and arrows, making them more deadly and frightening.”
“What about the sacred sacrifices?” Liu Zhenhan was most concerned about this.
“If beastman soldiers are like wild horses, the War sacrifices must act as their bridles and reins. That is our main responsibility which is basically to bestow the glory and blessings of war-G.o.d Campas upon the beastman race. We are not born into this world with the objective to confront human magicians. There is no way you can compare a magician and a sacrifice. The two have very different duties and roles to play” Hailun said.
“That is very unfortunate.” Liu Zhenhan wailed: “It seems like I will have to stop wasting time on meditation and keep practicing Kungfu.”
“I was just joking with you.” Hailun blinked toward Liu Zhenhan: “Although we cannot directly be part of the attack forces, our magic pets can. Human magicians have a major disadvantage of taking far too long to chant spells while our magic pets can use instant magic, however, there will always be powerful military protectors to protect a powerful magician. Therefore, there is not really a way to compare sacred sacrifices and human magicians. However, whether the magical beast partner of a sacrifice is powerful or not can determine victory or defeat.”
“You wanna rely on this silly bird?” Liu Zhenhan said while pointing at the osprey bird that was sitting on top of a bamboo tree and combing its feather. The scene was timed so perfectly that it made him laugh uncontrollably.
“Wasn’t that you who made me summon an osprey?!” Hailun got angry.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, relax!” Liu Zhenhan hastened to apologize: “Hey, you have recently comprehended the song of natural evolution, a blessings battle song, right? So now if you go back home, you can go to the temple and become a War sacrifice, correct? When that happens, you can learn more profound and stronger battle songs which will increase your status considerably.”
(TL Note: Read Context at the bottom of this chapter to understand the difference between various sacrificial ranks.)
“You are pretty smart.” Hailun smiled: “I was just worried about you too much, and suddenly, a strange yet miraculous power rushed through my body and I was able to comprehend ‘Blessings battle song’. The miracles of war-G.o.d Campas is not something we can understand.”
Obviously, this miracle happened for my sake, right Boss Campas? Liu Zhenhan curled his lips.
“Li Cha, did you know that a full-time War sacrifice can use auxiliary musical instruments. If I use one then it can double the output of my song power~~ You tell me, what instrument should I use? Wait, I forgot to tell you that song power and magic are based on the same elemental energy. So the nuclei of magical beasts can also store our song power. We just need to embed nuclei into a musical instrument to increase the output of our song power. Alright, tell me now! Should I use a harp or a zither? I really like both~~!!” Hailun had a daydreaming face as she spread herself in Liu Zhenhan’s arms.
“Well, um.” Liu Zhenhan was estimating and weighing these two instruments against each other, however, based on the surface area available to mount nuclei. After thinking for a while, he turned his face toward her and said in a serious voice: “Use a big drum! It’s a magnificent instrument and produces imposing music. Not to mention, it will have a large storage s.p.a.ce to mount a lot of nuclei to store song power.”
“Big drum, you say?” Hailun’s beautiful blue pupils dilated to the extreme as if she would faint any time now.
Context (given by the author in the original raw chapter):
The hierarchy of various sacrificial ranks in Beamon world (followed by Beastman race):
1: Wind language sacrifice can use only the first half of psychic battle song to please the spirits of the dead.
2: Soul sacrifice, like Hailun, are capable of fully using the psychic battle song, in addition to knowing the battle song of tranquility that can soothe the heart and soul of the soldiers who get injured in battle. Not to mention, they can also summon magic pets.
3: War sacrifice, can use a majority of battle songs skillfully, for example ‘Battle song of stone skin’ or ‘Berserk battle song’ and so on. These battle songs are used to grant temporary blessings to beastman warriors. The War sacrifices are mostly employed in the Beamon army.
4: Scepter sacrifices can use high-level battle songs such as ‘Battle song of the soul chain’ etc. They usually serve in the temple and are scarce in quant.i.ty.
5: Vian great shaman is usually a powerful sacred sacrifice with enough authority to govern a big city temple.
6: The 12 deacons who act as imperial envoy in the temple and are responsible for inspection and maintaining law and order under the command of the Beamon King.
7: The mysterious Red Priest, whose human equivalent would be the human Pope.
Since a sacred sacrifice’s body is always vulnerable in a battlefield so they are not treated as part of the attack forces. They are treated as auxiliary forces and their main task is to keep on giving blessings to the beastman soldiers with their battle songs, by inducing a variety of additional magical effects. Since sacred sacrifices are quite rare in the Beamon Kingdom, therefore they always receive greater or lesser n.o.ble t.i.tles depending upon their talent and ability. Also, they enjoy having outstanding martial followers to serve them.