Spectacular Killing
Deon's vanguard charged out in a sudden wave whilst the soldiers in the forest remained silent and hidden. The men stationed just beyond the forest line were waiting for the battle to progress, whilst the guerrilla soldiers wouldn't act unless an enemy soldier was drawn into the forest, at which point, they would kill silently, hopefully without even giving away their presence in the forest.
The enemy cavalry were now nearly upon the forest edge, so they were startled when 20 foot soldiers suddenly appeared and charged at them fearlessly. They were all elites, but their horses panicked and some raised their front legs in their shock.
Surprisingly, the charging foot soldiers were not at all intimidated by their cavalry opponents!
"Hmph! Foot soldiers against cavalry, since we're both shamans, you-"
Whoosh…
Deon located the leader of the pack. They travelled in the common arrow formation, the front rider was clearly a peak stage captain. Deon dashed forwards using the swift leaf spirit, gliding along the ground like a leaf in the wind, before crouching down and then exploding up into the air.
After the captain recovered from the shock created by a child suddenly hurtling towards him, he looked at Deon mockingly and spoke as he raised his spear.
"Fool! Generating power in midair is simply impossible!" With that, he raised his spear, then activated a spirit which covered the weapon with a golden light. He stabbed ruthlessly towards Deon, who was drifting in the air and seemingly had no way to dodge.
Unflustered by the pole arm thrust towards his neck, Deon kicked back into the horse's head and propelled himself forwards, swiftly dodging the 3 spear strikes sent his way by twisting his body at near-impossible angles.
The swift leaf spirit was a cheap, common and basic spirit, but Deon chose to continue using it as his movement spirit for a simple reason; it was shockingly versatile. No spirit was truly 'better' or 'worse' than another, they simply had different uses. On top of that, the spirit itself had no set strength, it depended on the abilities of the user.
Due to his small stature, Deon could make much better use of the swift leaf spirit than any other shaman in the Kingdom of Restari!
Using the swift leaf spirit, Deon was able to lightly step on the air 2-3 times after leaving the ground. It wasn't the same as stepping on solid ground, it was like trying to use a pillow as a foothold. It was inferior compared to a normal step, but it was sufficient to change the position of his body in midair.
So, when Deon landed on the horse, a much more stable foothold, and used the swift leaf spirit to dive forwards again, the captain was shocked. He barely managed to stab out at the air-bound Deon once more, but this time, Deon had no intention of dodging.
CLANG!
He summoned the ancient demon spirit sword and deflected the spear attack, throwing the caption off balance with his shocking strength. Deon then immediately slashed back in retaliation, lashing diagonally upwards at an awkward angle.
The captain grimaced and raised an arm. He had used the bronze skin spirit in the past, so although this would hurt like hell, since Deon was attacking from such an awkward position where generating power was impossible, he would survi-
CHI CHING!
Thud, thud…
One strike, from an awkward angle and with only average strength applied, was sufficient for Deon to remove the captain's arm and head! The two detached appendages fell down to the ground, leaving the one-armed headless corpse seated atop the now directionless horse.
"Captain Farl!" The soldier besides the dead captain cried out in shock and anguish. His eyes reddened with hatred, he turned towards Deon and ground his teeth together, wanting nothing more than to tear this child apart to his death!
The ancient demon spirit sword was ridiculously sharp, it could cut through a man even with a casual swing. However, that was not all…
Deon grinned, immediately activating his new spirit. He did not know the name of this spirit, but he had deduced its effect after curiously binding it earlier on.
Whenever he encountered a new spirit, he often bound it first. Sometimes, a spirit's effect could be understood very quickly, but other times, more lengthy experimentation was required before its effect could be ascertained.
BANG!
A red-black shockwave burst out from the black sword. The captain's fallen head and arm were sent flying, but this bloody spectacle was only caused by the residual shockwave of the attack.
The main brunt of the attack was aimed towards the late stage 1-Star soldier riding besides the captain. He was enraged on seeing his captain's death and was prepared to stab his sword through Deon's chest, but the black-red shockwave suddenly slammed into his body.
The soldier's hair was ruffled and he was blown off his horse, but somehow, he managed to land standing upright.
The horse panicked, neighing loudly and fleeing, causing the man to curse out loud.
"Damnit!"
He turned to Deon in rage, prepared to continue their battle, but saw that for some reason, this child's hand was placed gently on the deceased captain's chest. As soon as he saw this, Deon removed his hand, causing the body to drop down from the horse, into the mud below.
Naturally, Deon extracted the captain's soul. Of course, he made sure to hide his actions from the eyes of his own men.
After dealing with the leader of the cavalry, Deon summoned a bow with his ancient demon spirit, then shot a second late stage calvary soldier down from his steed. Seeing that he had fallen down but was not fatally wounded, Deon quickly ran towards him, leaping over the captain's decapitated corpse along his way.
The soldier whom Deon knocked down from his horse before was enraged when he realised that Deon was ignoring him. He went to take a step forwards, but for some reason, he fell face down into the mud. He was dazed, but forgot about his own situation when he looked up. He was furious to see that this demon child had plunged that evil looking blade into his comrade's stomach!
'Damnit, he's killing us off one by one!' The soldier clenched his fists tightly until red marks were left on his palms.
He had never in his life hated anyone as much as he hated this damned child right now!
BANG!
Before Deon retracted his blade from the soldier's stomach, a red black explosion spread out from the sword, causing the man's organs to explode outwards in all directions, slamming into a horse and knocking it to the ground. At the same time, Deon extracted this late stage origin soul, feeding yet another origin soul to his soul refinement spirit after again ensuring that his actions were obscured from the view of his own men.
"Hahaha!" Deon laughed happily. Not only was he gaining superior quality origin souls in this chaotic battle, but he had also found that this new spirit of his perfectly complemented the ancient demon sword!
Not to mention that killing in such a spectacular fashion was far too exciting!
This time, the enemy soldier who fell down saw everything. He saw Deon extract the origin soul, he saw that evil looking genie spirit…but most mortifyingly of all, he saw what truly happened to the horse that was struck by the red-black 'shockwave'.
The shockwave was just the periphery effect. The primary effect of Deon's new spirit was to create a secondary, ranged attack, following the first attack dealt by a melee weapon.
The melee weapon was coated in red light, then this red light shot outwards in a weakened but more explosive and ranged attack, following the first attack.
When Deon stabbed through the soldier, the second attack shot forwards, combining the red carrier energy with the destructive power of the terrifically sharp ancient demon sword, stabbing into the horse and creating a shockwave that knocked it over.
Deon finally returned to the Fan soldier who remained lying on the ground.
The soldier, after seeing Deon's mocking gaze, slowly looked down with a feeling of dread. Perhaps it was the shock, but until this moment, he had neither realised nor felt what had happened to him. Now though, the pain and horror hit him in full force.
"Ahhh, my, my legs! Bastard you, you, how did you cut off my legs?!"
Deon didn't reply, but swiftly moved in and stabbed the man in the chest.
He dissipated his sword, but continued to push his palm against the man's chest. Like this, he was able to summon the soul extraction spirit into his palm without anyone being able to see what he was doing.
He didn't know this soldier's name, but neither did he care to know it.
A second later, Deon straightened up and walked away, paying him no more attention as the man slumped to the floor dead, with a shocked, pained and aggrieved expression, forever plastered on his pale face.