Chaotic Night Battle
"E-Enemy attack! R-ready your stations!"
"What stations, we just arrived!"
"How are the damned Restari already attacking, I thought this was supposed to be a trap laid out for them, not us?!"
"You bastards, what did you do?!"
"I-It wasn't us, really! Otherwise why would we still be here with you?!"
…
Enemy cries of shock, fear and anger could be heard all around as Deon and the other Restari troops charged into the ranks unexpectedly.
Contrary to most of the soldiers' expectations, they were met with very little initial resistance. In fact, they actually broke through the front line defence with little to no difficulty at all!
The enemy had only just arrived, they were yet to settle down and finish setting up their own camp, they were not prepared for this battle!
This feeling of immediately rushing through the enemy ranks and cutting down the opposition like grass was truly too brilliant, they had never fought in such an overwhelmingly victorious battle before!
However, this joy was short lived. It only took 30 seconds for the Fan Kingdom to reorganise themselves, and it quickly became obvious that the number of rebels was much higher than they had expected.
Deon noticed this right away and frowned, but he showed no signs of backing away. He knew that unexpected situations often arose in war. He had already accounted for the possibility of something like this, their chances were still quite good.
CHI!
Deon cut down a Fan Kingdom captain. The head of this peak stage 1-Star shaman was sent flying by a single strike.
Chi chi!
Two blurred slashes of his sword, two more enemies dead. As the blood of his slaughtered foes splashed across Deon's face, the enemies all around stared at him with expressions of shock and horror.
"Wh-who is this kid?!"
"What kid, this is clearly a damned demon!"
"Ah, it's the war child, the 37th Unit Commander!"
Deon's eye twitched slightly.
'War child…so embarrassing, couldn't they come up with something better?' He thought uselessly as another 3 heads dropped to the floor around him.
Deon quickly realised that his recent improvements were even greater than he had initially thought.
He was able to easily kill any 1-Star shaman, he truly possessed the battle power of a 2-Star shaman now!
Part of this was thanks to the ancient demon spirit's continual growth, but the other portion of Deon's improvement came from his usage of the body tempering spirits, as well as the glistening bed bug spirit.
Ignoring the groans, moans and screams of everyone around him, Deon continued to rush ahead as he searched for Shi.
"Just where did she run off too, this is way too deep into enemy territory!"
Deon cursed under his breath. As the enemy presence around him built up further whilst his allies reduced to zero, even he began feeling the pressure. Countless 1-Star spirits were activated and targeted at him, he barely managed to evade in time, constantly using the swift leaf spirit to dodge left and right.
To this day, Deon was yet to find a movement type spirit that he preferred to the swift leaf spirit. It wasn't a particularly amazing movement type spirit, it was just that he had become an expert at using it. That, and his child sized body made this spirit extremely suitable for him.
"There she is!" Deon's eyes lit up as he found Shi in the crowd. He rushed further forwards, ignoring the fact that any path for retreat had close up behind him and he was now completely surrounded on all sides.
Four peak stage 1-Star shamans attacked Deon simultaneously from all sides. Clearly, they had been biding their time, waiting for the opportune moment to strike! Unfortunately for these 4 individuals, Deon's strength was too far beyond their expectations.
His eyes flashed with ruthless light, then with multiple rapidly executed strikes, Deon's sword decapitated the 4 shamans before they could even fully extend their attacks. Arms fell from their bodies, heads were sliced open, then their dismembered corpses hit the floor, soon to be trampled by the chaotic rushing of all those around them.
Bang!
A red-black light burst forth, brutally catapulting the surrounding shamans away from Deon and giving him a path forwards, to where Shi was currently battling against 3 others.
To Deon's shock, she was only evenly matched when battling against these 3 people! If nothing else was done, the balance couldn't be tipped in a short period of time. Even so, nobody in the surroundings dared to approach.
After all, they could feel four 2-Star auras, they were too afraid to approach!
Deon was simply overjoyed.
'Three 2-Star enemies, hahaha, wonderful!' He gleefully licked his lips and without hesitating, he charged ahead. At first, the enemy didn't pay him any attention. His aura wasn't on the same level as a 2-Star elite after all, they just assumed that he was some Fan Kingdom soldier that wanted to help out, but would inevitably be throwing his life away.
The moment Deon summoned the ancient demon spirit and a dark sword appeared in his hands, the expressions on their faces all changed.
"Commander, you're here!" Shi exclaimed with relief. She really hadn't expected this, it was a much higher level of battle strength than they had been informed of!
It didn't take long for Deon to realise the same thing that Shi had realised when she arrived; both the Fan King and the false king lied about the strength of the forces they would be sending!
On the Fan side was a mid stage 2-Star general, whilst on the Restari rebel side, there was actually a lieutenant and a general, both were 2-Star shamans, one initial stage and one early stage.
"Lieutenant Stephen!" Deon's eyes lit up, recognising this lieutenant as the man that Lieutenant Reana despised. He had also unexpectedly reached 2-Star! No, perhaps he had been hiding it for some time now…
No matter, he was a good first target.
"Handle the stronger two." Deon said mildly without addressing Shi by name or status. She was currently hidden by her mask and nondescript robe, it would be for the best if they could keep Shi's identity a secret for now.
"Right!" She immediately became more fierce, putting in some effort to separate the stronger 2 shamans from Lieutenant Stephen.
It took Lieutenant Stephen a moment to make the connection, but when he saw Deon's blade, he naturally recognised the notorious child commander.
"Commander Deon, are you really going to attack a lieutenant?!" He roared out in rage. However, he didn't expect that Deon would completely ignore him!
Deon's answer instead came in the form of a flash of three coloured light as a ring appeared on his right hand.
60 second physique ring spirit!
His greatest gain from his battle against the female Fan Kingdom 2-Star Lieutenant, was of course the 2-Star silver class spirit. He couldn't use that spirit, but he could use his second greatest loot, which was this ring spirit!
He was thoroughly impressed with this spirit when he saw the enhancement it granted the shaman from back then, he knew right away that he could make excellent use of it. This spirit only gave an improvement to his abilities for 60 seconds when activated, then required an entire 23 hours and 59 minutes until it could be activated once again…
But it was well worth it!
Instantly, Deon's strength, his speed, his defence, his stamina and his recovery rate, all shot up by 50%! Basically, all of his base physical attributes rose by 50%, as did his speed!
Whilst his mind hadn't improved, Deon's mind was already extremely fast for a 1-Star shaman. As such, unlike most shamans, he was easily able to keep up with his body's improved speed, making perfect use of this enhanced ability.
The sudden boost to Deon's aura and his speed shook Lieutenant Stephen. He hurriedly activated his movement spirit and instantly shot backwards by a few feet. Deon's sword missed its mark, but the expected sight of him being thrown off balance did not occur…no, in fact, Deon strangely span around in a full circle, then kicked off the ground, continuing to shoot towards the lieutenant!
Lieutenant Stephen was horrified, he'd never seen such bizarre footwork before!
He was a 2-Star shaman, but only just! He didn't even have a 2-Star spirit aside from his core spirit!
But how could the vital physique spirit be of any help in battle? Sure, he was more athletic than any ordinary 1-Star shaman, but Deon was no push-over in this regard either!
'Haha, the body tempering spirits are finally showing their worth! Combined with this ring spirit, the stacking effect is truly amazing!' Seeing the terrified look on Lieutenant Stephen's face as he drew in closer, Deon grinned fiendishly. His eyes turned a deeper shade of black as he raised his sword up high above his head…
CHING!
He sliced down hard, but missed once again, Stephen narrowly stepped to the side, parrying the remainder of the attack with a spear that he barely managed to materialise in time. Deon recognised this as a Fan Kingdom spirit, causing his gaze to turn cold. If Lieutenant Stephen was using Fan Kingdom spirits on top of Restari spirits, this might be slightly more difficult than expected.
Suddenly, Lieutenant Stephen's eyes shot open wide in shock and he coughed out a mouthful of blood.
"Peugh!"
Deon laughed internally as Shi suddenly turned away from her own opponent, pulled a shuriken out from her robe, then threw it directly into Lieutenant Stephen's back. The lieutenant showed a shocked look, which quickly crumpled into pain and fear as he felt the burning sensation shooting through his fractured spine.
"Ahh, it-"
Puchi!
As Lieutenant Stephen quickly span around towards the unknown assailant behind him, Deon didn't hesitate to plunge his ancient demon spirit into the man's chest.
"Turning away in a fight, useless." Deon said coldly, waiting for a couple of seconds as the ancient demon spirit drained away and devoured the lieutenant's dwindling life force. Deon could feel the spirit growing stronger, growing closer to a greater height…
Almost…just another step and he would complete the 2-Star ascension!
Deon turned towards the remaining 2 enemy 2-Star shamans with a look of greed and desire.