The Battle Ends

When Deon's vision finally returned to normal, he was startled to find that he was surrounded entirely by familiar faces.

"Captain Dan, Miss Remi, Soldier Nikoni, ah, and thank you Medic Soldier Dondoro." After his mind cleared up and he finished recovering his overused origin energy by using drop spirits one after the other, Deon was finally well enough to watch over what everyone was doing and to make sure they weren't robbing him.

"Don't worry, vice commander. I didn't see everything, but I witnessed at least half of your battle against the enemy lieutenant. The spoils of this battle absolutely belong to you, I don't think anybody will dispute that…not since you managed to win this battle and take such an incredible tactical location for yourself, all whilst sustaining less than 10 losses…" Captain Dan spoke whilst looking at Deon with a complex expression.



"Won the war?" Deon asked doubtfully after drinking a whole pint of foul thick sludge. He had to admit that combined with the medic shaman's methods; this foul sludge really did speed up his recovery by an impressive degree. It would still be a few more days until he returned to his peak condition, but for now, he could just about stand and his life was no longer in imminent danger.

"After you defeated Lieutenant Cra, the Fan cowards lost all their bravery, they turned tail and ran! Luckily, you actually placed such amazing guerrilla warfare fighters throughout the forest, so anyone who tried retreat that way lost their lives without much of a struggle. There's only one other way onto this flatland, and that's by climbing up that jagged 100 foot tall cliff face. Naturally, very few actually managed to escape." Captain Dan continued to explain.

Captain Dan recounted everything that occurred following Deon's battle against the lieutenant. It seemed that the Fan Kingdom troops really did fall into disarray, running in all different directions as soon as Deon's men charged forwards immediately after his victory. Deon was brought back to his recently built camp, whilst the Fan were massacred brutally.

After listening to these details, Deon glanced up at Remi with a peculiar gaze.

Why was she here again?!

Oh right, she was assigned to Captain Dan's group after Deon gained his own unit. Since she knew him better than most, it made sense that she had volunteered to join the reinforcements that Deon requested before the battle began.

Secretly, Remi still felt like she owed him for carrying her unconscious body off of that dangerous battleground. That still made her heart tremble whenever she thought about it, that instance was the closest she had ever come to losing her life!

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

"We should thoroughly scour the area for any traces of the Fan. If we could hunt down the escapees, that would be best. Also, we absolutely need to expand the uphill camp to encompass the entire flat land, whilst placing traps facing every cliff to make this a certified fortress. Connecting the uphill camp to the camp below is also a mu- a must- *cough cough!*" As Deon tried to stand up, he stumbled slightly and coughed out a lungful of blood. Everyone looked at him with a mixture of worry and doubt.

However, after recovering his breath, Deon continued.

"If we can also build defences across the connecting hill forest with frequent relaying of information between here and there, after fully reinforcing these camps…these camps could become one of the greatest fortresses in the upper region! *Cough!* Ugh…anyway, we-"

"Vice commander, how about you take some much deserved rest?" Captain Dan worriedly placed a hand on his shoulder, but Deon shook his head.

"I'm injured, but will sitting around doing nothing even help? The medics and healers can heal me as I work anyway, and now that my origin energy is mostly replenished, I'm in no morbid danger. Don't worry, I won't do anything strenuous, I know my limits. Working myself into a coma wouldn't be productive at all. And besides…" Deon couldn't help but turn his gaze towards the collected spirits.

After requesting intel, they quickly identified all of the spirits obtained from the lieutenant. It was common that following any large-scale battle between elite shamans, there would be tens if not hundreds of spirits left behind. If left unbound, their care methods all differed. Some would die within seconds without some form of assistance, others were more hardy and could go on for days, weeks, sometimes, in rare cases, months!

But most would need to be fed within a day, or the spirit would begin to deteriorate. So, the military was excellent at identifying and quickly assigning appropriate care to the relevant spirits.

"Where is the 2-Star spirit?" Deon suddenly asked sharply. Nobody blamed him, a 2-Star spirit was simply too valuable. For a 1-Star shaman, depending on the 2-Star spirit, selling it could potentially make them filthy rich overnight!

Deon didn't lack money, but 2-Star spirits were too rare in this kingdom, so they wouldn't be sold for mere money. But, this also meant that if he traded such a rare spirit, he should be able to attain more or less anything he needed within reason.

"Don't worry, Commander Reana is personally guarding it in her temporary tent within this camp." Captain Dan informed him.

Deon nodded slowly. If it was the commander, then she certainly had the ability to hold onto it, and he didn't believe that she would ruin their relationship by screwing him over for a single spirit. A 2-Star spirit was valuable, but an 11 year peak stage 1-Star shaman who was able to defeat a 2-Star shaman in one on one combat was endlessly more valuable in her eyes, and in the eyes of the kingdom.

"Then…perhaps I should rest."

"You definitely should!" The medic exclaimed helplessly. "I've healed the worst of your injuries, but you're still in bad enough a state that you'll slowly deteriorate again and die if you don't get proper medical attention quickly!"



"Eh, that sound's a bit dramatic." Deon blinked.

"A bit dramatic? Your wounds are dramatic, vice commander! Currently, 7 of your ribs are broken, a total of 11 breaks, along with another 13 fractures! All of your organs, heart and brain included, are badly wounded. You also-"

"Alright, alright, I'll rest…" Deon sighed, finally getting the medic to stop talking. "Remember that Lieutenant Cra's spirits are now mine, look after them properly until I have recovered."

With that, Deon lay back down. Everyone aside from the medic was dismissed from the medical tent before another 4 different 1-Star shaman doctors entered.

Deon let himself drift off into sleep, as scenes of that thrilling yet messy and gruelling battle replayed themselves through his mind.

A smile was on his face for the following two days he slept.

"Ugh…" When Deon awoke, he could instantly tell that he was still injured as he was assaulted by pain throughout his body the moment he opened his eyes. Still, after sighing and giving his body a closer inspection, he found that his previously dire injuries were now far more tame.

The damage to his organs was all but fully recovered. His cuts, dismembered blood vessels and stab wounds were all completely healed over, compliments of the 4 healing masters who devoted their time to ensuring his rapid and perfect recovery.

"Here, drink this…it's foul-tasting, but-"

Deon silently grabbed the foul-smelling liquid he recognised as a more concentrated, yet also higher quality version of the medicine he had previously taken. The doctor felt a bit stunned after seeing Deon chug the disgusting sludge without so much as a change to his expression. He knew just how gross this stuff was.

There was nothing that could be done though, this was by far the best 'elixir' that could help shamans to recover from all sorts of injuries. When combined with a shaman doctor's specialised spirits, this medicine allowed a person to recover from the brink of death back to perfect health within a few days.

And so, Deon spent the remainder of the day chugging pint after pint of this disgusting fluid, stunning the medics with his ability to keep it all down.

During this time, Deon examined his core spirit. As he expected, the ancient demon spirit had grown stronger once again! He was still far away from becoming a peak stage 2-Star shaman, but he was certainly making good progress towards this stage.

Nobody noticed at the time, but Deon made sure to reap the full benefits from his battle against the 2-Star lieutenant. Not only did he let the soul refinement spirit devour her origin soul, but he also plunged a small inconspicuous knife, a knife formed by the ancient demon spirit, into her chest the moment before her death!

And so, he actually managed to feed the complete 2-Star initial stage original soul to the soul refinement spirit, whilst simultaneously catapulting the ancient demon spirit's advancement to a new height. Prior to that battle, at which point he had killed countless 1-Star shamans with the ancient demon spirit, including many peak stage 1-Star shamans, Deon estimated that he had made 7-8% progress towards the rank of 2-Star. Now, his progress had advanced to 17-20%!

Taking away those 1-Star shaman kills, he determined that killing an initial stage 2-Star shaman should have improved the ancient demon spirit's evolution to 2-Star, by as much as 10%!

Still, Deon smiled wryly. Considering that he nearly died just to achieve that much improvement, was it really any better than massacring 1-Star shamans en mass?

Slaughtering 2-Star shamans would only become viable if he improved his battle strength.

Deon realised that although his combat ability was far superior to other 1-Star shamans, his normal spirits were somewhat lacking. For this reason, he held great hope towards the rewards he would receive for his achievements in the recent battle.

The following day, after resting well and recovering to near-prime condition, Deon met with Commander Reana.

"Vice Commander Deon, your exploits this time were truly commendable, even I myself cannot help but feel admiration. You took such a risk to lessen your men's losses in this war. Usually, I would have reprimanded such a crazy idea, however…you won. That said, I do hope that you will learn from this experience and perhaps consider more carefully before almost throwing your life away in future."

Commander Reana casually lectured him, but really, she was feeling quite enthusiastic, offering more praise than usual. Since Deon was her subordinate, and since she had intervened in this matter to ensure that the aftermath was handled appropriately, she had been rewarded heavily by upper command.

Deon smiled and accepted the praise modestly.

"Commander, I merely saw that despite having the terrain advantage, our side was definitely weaker than the opponent. This was certainly the best course of action, though, I'll admit that I was curious to see how I would fare against a weaker 2-Star shaman."

Before, Commander Reana would have called such a musing ridiculous, but now, Deon had proved his ability.

Somehow.

Shockingly.

No, this was beyond shocking! A 1-Star shaman defeating a 2-Star shaman in a one-on-one battle…such a thing had never happened before in the history of the kingdom!