Ferocious One-On-One Battle

Whoosh!

Instantly, Lieutenant Cra leapt backwards. When her foot hit the ground, she pushed herself back again. She finally stopped, then activated three 1-Star spirits in rapid succession.

1-Star golden strike spirit! She readied her spear and pointed it Deon's way, covering the spear with a glimmering golden light.

1-Star 60 second physique ring spirit! A 3 coloured ring appeared on her hand, shining with 3 lights; blue, gold and red, pouring into her body and increasing her presence dramatically!

1-Star golden membrane spirit! A golden orb formed around the lieutenant's body. It was similar to the commonly used golden shield bug spirit, but this time, the shield collapsed inwards, becoming a membrane across the surface of her skin.

These were all 1-Star spirits, but she used them more rapidly, more efficiently, more perfectly and more powerfully than any 1-Star shaman could achieve. On top of that, 2 of the spirits were silver class and one was actually gold class!

She was about to use a fourth spirit, but her expression changed as an extremely fast moving projectile shot towards her at a shocking speed. She felt an immediate sense of danger and raised her hand, moving half of the golden membrane around her body, forming a shield to block the incoming spear.

Deon hurtled the ancient demon spirit towards the lieutenant in its spear form. He then immediately ran after it, whilst stretching out his hand and exerting extra force behind its flight.

Even when he formed projectiles with the ancient demon spirit, those projectiles were never truly disconnected from him. The ancient demon spirit was a single spirit after all, whilst part of the spirit was always devoted to forming the walls within his souls space. As such, Deon maintained his connection with the spear and could even exert extra force upon it during its flight.

BANG!

"Ugh…" He paused and groaned slightly, but then immediately began running forwards once again. Looking up, he saw that the spear had managed to shatter only half of the golden shield, but Deon had no change in expression and continued to charge ahead.

"Is that all? Unable to even break through more than half of my 1-Star shield? I might not even need to use my 2-Star spirit this time."

Deon pondered her words for a brief moment.

'Spirit? So she's saying she only has 1…'

Since the lieutenant was openly claiming to have just one 2-Star spirit, it was quite likely that she actually possessed more than one….

Despite his heart lurching on realising that his opponent might possess a 2-Star spirit aside from the core spirit, Deon soon showed a burning gaze.

'If I could actually obtain a 2-Star spirit, whilst it's useless to me right now…the merit, the promotion and the exchange possibilities are all tremendous!' His gaze brightened and he actually didn't hesitate, but instead sped up with an unexpected burst of speed.

Trying to defeat a 2-Star shaman in a battle of endurance would spell his definite and absolute defeat. He needed to go all out if he wanted to obtain victory in this battle!

Deon knew that he would need to utilise every tactic he could think of in order to gain an advantage in this battle. Thinking this, he showed an expression of shock and fear, dropping the lieutenant's guard slightly. When she saw that expression, she started to believe that he really had just underestimated the prowess of a 2-Star shaman!

Deon stumbled forwards. The lieutenant took this opportunity to stab towards him, impaling Deon with her golden clad spear, destroying the bones within his shoulder as the sharp blade cut through his flesh like tofu.

"Ahh!" Deon screamed out.

"Hmph, to dare undere-"

CHI!

After dropping her guard and willingly accepting a serious injury, Deon finally acted. As he slumped down, he suddenly materialised an extra long and sharp ancient demon sword.

Whoosh, chi!

He managed to penetrate through a weakened and ignored section of the golden armour, even stabbing her in the abdomen by an inch, causing the lieutenant to grunt in pain. Just as she pulled back and half the blade was removed from her body, the second wave of attack came through with a black-red shockwave.

BANG!

The shockwave only had half the force of the first strike, but the shockwave actually caused the golden shield to shatter, whilst the blade pierced Lieutenant Cra straight through the stomach.

As the lieutenant was shockingly blasted back, she tried to drag Deon with her. Her spear was still lodged in Deon's shoulder quite thoroughly, so long as she kept a grip on this spear, Deon would be forced to move according to her desire!

Realising the severity of the situation, Deon resolutely grabbed hold of the pole with both hands, destroying his shoulder blade and causing blood to erupt everywhere. He then materialised the ancient demon spirit within his mouth, creating a sharp black dart and spitting it towards her hand. The lieutenant was too preoccupied with trying to hold on and not get blown back, that she didn't notice the projectile in time.

CHI!

"Geh!" She grit her teeth, letting go of the spear and flying back. Deon's mouth was filled with blood due to how he caused the dart to explode forwards. The recoil severely damaged his mouth, but the injury wouldn't hinder his battle prowess.

Deon grit his teeth and tore the spear from his shoulder with a grunt of pain. After throwing the weapon to the side, he rushed forwards, towards the floored lieutenant.

Sensing an extreme life and death crisis, the lieutenant's gaze became cold. She pulled out two long daggers from leather straps on her waist, these were her back-up weapons in case she lost her spear.

Many shamans chose to fight with physical weapons rather than weapon-forming spirits, the lieutenant was one such person.

She activated the golden strike spirit twice in rapid succession to cover both blades, then also resummoned the golden membrane spirit, making Deon smile wryly.

Any 1-Star shaman would have used up all their origin energy with this much spirit usage. She was actually using the 1-Star spirits to their maximum limit every single time, yet she retained plenty of origin energy to spare.

As Lieutenant Cra steadied her footing, she took a deep breath, then narrowed her eyes. Deon was startled and paused, drawn in by the 9 coloured lights swirling through her eyes. The lights also spread out and around her body, creating an illusory 9 coloured vortex of light all around her dazzling figure as she walked. The sight was so mesmerising that the soldiers on both sides became completely entranced, as if they had been brainwashed or hypnotised.

Deon also showed a similar dazed expression as she calmly walked up to him.

"You fought well, but it is simply impossible for a 1-Star shaman to resist the all out illusion of my 2-Star 9 coloured illusion spirit. I can only maintain it for 10 seconds in my current state, but it is more than enough."

She stared forwards with a complicated expression. She had no doubt that this child was an absolute prodigy of a shaman, yet she was going to kill him, here and now. However, on remembering that he was an unrepentant demonic path follower, she steeled her heart and raised both daggers, ready to deliver the final strike.

As the daggers came crashing down, one towards his throat and the other aiming to penetrate his heart, Deon still stared at the 9 coloured lights in a daze.

Now that she was so close, the effect was simply too overwhelming. If even the soldiers surrounding them were entranced, then naturally Deon, someone who was standing right in the midst of it all, would also be hypnotised.

At the last second, just before the 2 daggers impaled him, Deon's knees gave out and he half-stepped and half-fell forward. The daggers were just about to penetrate his vitals, and although they still hit him…

CHII!

The dagger stabbed through his mutilated arm, completely missing his vital organs. The lieutenant was shocked to find that whether it was his skin, flesh, bone, tendons of even the organs she reached after the dagger cut through his arm and stabbed into his liver, all of them were hardened to a ridiculous degree!

She was shocked and lacking energy by now. Although she failed to take his life with that last strike, after seeing Deon in such a pitiful half-dead state, she reduced her defensive golden membrane to a minimum.

PUCHI!

The lieutenant froze. Instantly, the 9 coloured illusion vanished, and the remainder of Deon's partially affected mind finally cleared up.

This strange 2-Star spirit had indeed affected him, making him unable to focus, constantly finding himself being drawn into the illusion of 9m lights. However, Deon's mind was unlike any ordinary 2-Star shaman, otherwise, he would not have managed to take that single step earlier, avoiding the fatal dagger strikes!

The lieutenant dropped the two daggers, mostly on account of Deon's strike just now decapitating both of her hands in a single swing. She stared down at her bloody stumps for arms, the reality of the situation not yet setting in.

Deon was severely wounded, every little movement rocked his body with extreme pain. Even so, he managed to stab upwards into the woman's slim stomach, just as he fell forward onto his knees.

Both parties were in terrible states, but in terms of morbid wounds, Deon was finally doing a bit better than his opponent!

CHII!

His sword stabbed into her abdomen and he used the last of his strength to push through.

When the lieutenant looked down slowly and dumbly, she stared blankly at the evil sword impaled through her stomach.

"N-No…don't…" She barely managed to say this, trying to pull back and remove the sword. This only further aggravated her injuries, causing her to buckle and fall forwards, just as Deon mustered the true last reserves of his origin energy for his killing blow.

BANG!

The shockwave shattered her bones and her stomach exploded outwards, sending organs flying everywhere. Deon collapsed to the ground and gasped for breath, barely managing to grab the canteen on his waste, shakily shoving his hand in and rapidly binding then activating the drop spirits.

Drop spirits were valuable, they were the standard currency used among shamans after all. A single drop spirit could fully recover the origin energy of a newly ascended initial stage 1-Star shaman within its 3-10 seconds before it collapsed and died. As for a peak stage 1-Star powerhouse like Deon, the rate of usage was far faster. He used one drop spirit, then two, three-

CHI!

"Ugh…" He turned back and grimaced, shocked to find that this woman was still alive!

He grit his teeth and yanked out the dagger she haphazardly plunged into his thigh as they both lay there in the dirt. Deon continued to use more drop spirits whilst yanking out the dagger.

With much difficulty, he twisted his body and stabbed into her chest.

"Peugh!"

He didn't stab her heart, but the lung besides it. Deon gasped and gritted his teeth, yanking the dagger out, then stabbed into her sides, before forcefully activating the extra strike spirit to a minimal degree.

Her organs were ruptured, her blood loss reached critical levels. Deon really couldn't move now and could only continue using drop spirits rapidly. Even as she picked up a dagger once again with a shaky hand, all he could do was watch helplessly.

'This damned woman just won't stay down!' He thought to himself tiredly.

CLANG!

'Huh…?'

Deon was vaguely aware that some people had arrived at his side. Someone was definitely treating him and healing his injuries, allowing Deon's mind to clear up somewhat.

Finally, a minute later, Deon just barely managed to sit up.

"De- I mean, vice commander, she, the lieutenant, she still isn't dead…"

Ignoring the source of that familiar sounding voice, Deon actually felt overjoyed to hear this. After confirming that Lieutenant Cra was unconscious and barely breathing, Deon painfully rolled over and pretended to fall on top of her. Everyone was startled as this looked a bit odd, but he had a reason for doing this.

A 2-Star origin soul from an almost dead person, just waiting for his soul refinement spirit to devour!

Deon hid the spirit between their two bodies, squishing it somewhat and seemingly irritating the genie, but whatever. When it found its succulent feast, a full 2-Star initial stage shaman origin soul, it ecstatically dug its ethereal flaming tendrils into the body, reaching the origin soul and devouring it over a period of 10-15 seconds. Deon then quickly retracted the spirit and stood up dazedly with a groan of pain.

"Hey Vice Commander Deon, you should rest, you-"

"She had a 2-Star spirit, multiple silver class 1-Star spirits and a 1-Star gold class spirit. The gold class spirit is mine, its very useful to me…obviously, I want the 2-Star spirit too."

Deon finally looked up, and although his vision was blurry, he could hear the shock in their voices and they immediately understood the extreme value of this haul.

When so much wealth was at stake, it was understandable that Deon was so insistent on sorting this out, despite being on the verge of death.

After taking a deep breath, Deon glanced back at Lieutenant Cra's corpse through his blurred vision.

This was his first defeat of a 2-Star shaman!