Setting Out For Battle

At 1730 hours, a large number of messenger birds flew out from the 37th camp.

This was the main method of delivering messages to and from the mountain. In other wars, it was often easier to send a soldier on horseback, but horses were unable to travel this high up the mountain. Sending a messenger bird was also quite easy to hide, which was a key point for these spies.

Actually, before the spies sent out their birds after being forced by Deon and the others to write messages, Lieutenant Shi also sent her own message directly to her current employer, the new king. Before Deon brought up the matter of his soul extraction spirit, she never would have considered risking her payment for her job, but now, everything had changed.

Like Deon, Shi was heavily motivated by the allure of benefits, and the potential for trading origin souls with Deon's spirit was a massive benefit!

Even if she had to give up on the platinum ladder spirit entirely, she still would have made this choice.

Her message 'informed' the new king that Deon's previous plan was an attempt to mislead any potential spies, and that the real plan was to assist General Li in resisting the rebels. She also stated that she would capture Deon and Remi, and kill Lieutenant Reana, whenever it was convenient to do so.

Nobody aside from Deon and Shi knew about this of course, since nobody else knew that Shi was actually a hired assassin. Anyway, this first message was just to ensure that the new king would believe the reports he would receive later on, the reports sent in by the threatened spies in Deon's camp.

"Commander Deon, I'm afraid that even with this much, the difficulty in this battle will be extremely high." Lieutenant Reana sighed.

"Hmm…I don't think that will be the case Lieutenant." Deon answered mysteriously. Before she could question him, Deon's eyes lit up and he laughed out loud.

"Haha, it looks like he finally made it! Perfect timing general!"

"General?!" Not only Reana, but everyone else besides Shi was filled with shock. They quickly turned their heads towards the direction Deon was facing, quickly raising their guards as a robed and veiled figure made his way into the camp.

"Commander Deon, I must thank you for informing me of all this so quickly, I'm ashamed to admit that I was actually deceived through and through!"

"General Senlin!" Lieutenant Reana gasped aloud when the robed figure removed his hood and revealed his face.

"Indeed, I am here to provide my support." General Senlin nodded.

"I'm glad, we were almost forced to leave before you arrived general, haha." Deon laughed, but this was the truth. If the general hadn't arrived when he did, they would have gone on ahead and only joined up with him later on.

"I apologise for the delay Commander Deon, but sneaking out from my post in the South East wasn't simple. And then I had to travel all the way North to the mountain, then climb up the mountain to this height. Sigh, it's been quite the day…"

Deon could hear the tiredness in the general's tone.

"Commander…when exactly did you…?" Lieutenant Reana tried to remain calm, but she was stunned once again.

"I sent a messenger bird to request General Senlin's assistance immediately after Remi returned to camp and explained everything that had happened. I wasn't 100% sure about the situation at that point, but it was obvious that General Senlin had been sent away to remove him from the situation, so I thought he would be useful to bring back either way."

"Indeed, it was a wise and quick-witted decision Commander Deon!" General Senlin turned to Deon with unhidden admiration. "Although I could only come alone, my early stage 2-Star strength should be a useful boost to defending your camp."

"About that General…" Deon scratched his head awkwardly, then quickly explained that in his message to the general, he lied about defending the camp, incase the message was intercepted.

"Commander…are there anymore changes that you intend to make to your plans, anything else you're keeping to yourself as an extra layer of precaution?" Lieutenant Reana asked weakly.

"Well if I revealed that, then it wouldn't be much of a hidden precaution, would it?" Deon replied without thinking too much. Seeing everyone's stiff expressions in response, he smiled wryly and quickly cleared up the misunderstanding.

"But no, I really don't intend to change anything else. We'll head out to the lieutenant's camps and liberate all 9 from the rebels in quick succession. With the general's presence, this should be much more smooth. So long as we gain control over each of these camps, resisting the assault in the coming battle will be a breeze."

"I don't know about it being a breeze, but it's certainly more hopeful than I had thought it would be." General Senlin nodded seriously, but hesitated as he looked around.

"But Commander Deon, what of this camp? In a sense, this camp is even more crucial than the other 9 combined…if it fails, then this war as a whole…"

"Oh, no need to worry, I set up some…precautions. Just in case."

"The gunpowder…" Lieutenant Reana muttered as she looked around.

"Right." Deon nodded. "The barrels of gunpowder set up all around camp really have come in useful. I was able to hide the 50 golden membrane spirits throughout these barrels, and now I can blow the entire camp sky high incase any enemies decide to stroll inside! Maybe we'll even get lucky and injure the false king…I doubt it though."

"Wait, gunpowder?" General Senlin turned back to Deon in confusion.

"Let's talk along the way general, we should really get going now."

"Ah, of course."

Everyone was on guard as they travelled West, cautiously keeping an eye out for any potential enemies. They had sent their ambushers, who should be stationed somewhere along this route, a messenger bird, but since the recipients' exact location was uncertain, it was unknown whether or not they would receive the letter.

If they received the misleading letter which stated that Deon, Remi and Reana were all travelling towards General Li's camp, they would have immediately changed their course in a hurry. If they didn't receive the letter, the 2 groups were certain to run into one another.

Unfortunately, they ran into one another. Whilst this group was now no match for them, it delayed their journey and multiple men from Deon's unit lost their lives.

Actually Deon was hoping that they would run into this ambush, since it allowed him to rush into the battle and begin killing. As for why he wanted this, wasn't it obvious?

He was nearing in on 2-Star!

Deon displayed his prowess once again. After Shi noticed the enemy before anyone else and secretly informed him, he yelled out to alert the others before rushing forth and engaging in battle.

The second Deon reached their ranks, heads rolled and blood coated the area. Screams of pain and shock resounded through the thin forest region, before those screams became muffled as those people were slaughtered by Deon mercilessly.

Deon's side numbered at around 400 whilst the enemy were an ambush group, just 100 strong. This was large for an ambush, especially when considering that they were expecting only ten or so people. Even so, they didn't dare to underestimate Deon, who held the battle record of slaying a 2-Star shaman in a fair one on one fight!

When the rebel ambushers saw that Deon's strength had increased yet again, their hearts lurched. When they realised that he had actually brought along so many soldiers, and even a 2-Star shaman general, their morale instantly fell to rock bottom.

On top of that, there was Lieutenant Shi…

Part of Deon and Shi's deal involved her assisting Deon in killing high ranking shamans. Deon had already expected that a 2-Star shaman would be included in this ambush, since they knew that he possessed the battle strength of a 2-Star shaman himself. That 2-Star shaman was immediately wary of Deon, but even more anxious when he noticed General Senlin, an early stage 2-Star shaman general!

Because of this, the opponent was completely caught off guard by Lieutenant Shi's surprise attack from behind.

She snuck past the crowd like a photon, before sliding her dagger into the 2-Star shaman's back seven times. The shaman's eyes widened in shock, but by the time he span around and frantically looked behind him, Lieutenant Shi was already nowhere to be seen.

By the time General Senlin caught up, he was shocked to find Deon standing there with his sword through the 2-Star shaman's chest!

In truth, this person was the weakest sort of 2-Star shaman, he possessed no 2-Star spirits. Since this was an ambush, this originally should have been more than enough, especially considering that the other 99 rebels were all late or peak stage 1-Star elites.

Despite killing their leader, Deon's unit still lost 17 men. They all sighed, but this result was already better than expected.

After seeing him kill yet another 2-Star shaman, the group's assessment of Deon once again increased.

Nobody, not even General Senlin, even noticed that Lieutenant Shi had left the unit's formation.

'An assassin indeed, I'm not her match at all, not even close.' Deon assessed as he threw the lieutenant a side glance. She happened to match his gaze, before the pair quickly turned back ahead, moving forwards once again.

Deon did not explain to Shi why he wanted to kill 2-Star shamans. It was part of their agreement, and he didn't pressure her into helping him kill if it would be inconvenient or reveal her identity. For now, having her true power kept a secret was a big advantage that neither were willing to give up.

The group moved on, making their way past the bloodied rebel corpses and towards Lieutenant Reana's camps, where the climactic battle would soon be taking place.