True "Soldiers"

Trying to use the cave's toxic mist to whittle down my minions, are you...? Demilo watched the iron monster plunge into the dark-green cesspool, its droning roar seeming to urge him to hurry in after it. Should he go in? It seemed a no-brainer—voluntarily entering tactical terrain laid out by an enemy was foolish. Furthermore, he had no compelling reason to fight these sorcerers. On top of that, if he truly entered the toxic mist to do battle, he would have to deploy some of his precious "soldiers." The god had given the Heroic Spirits no instructions. In fact, unless it was wartime, the Heroic Spirits were entirely free. But to amass enough merits to exchange for soul fragments, even during periods of peaceful development, they would still take the initiative to patrol territory and transport supplies. Demilo, for instance, had deployed this turn specifically to haul resources from the surrounding areas back to the main city. Therefore, Demilo could let these arrogant sorcerers go, or he could simply turn and leave. He could do whatever he pleased. That was why he felt a little at a loss. Over the past thousand years, he had never faced a moment that required him to make a decision. Wartime went without saying, for there were always the god's decrees; during peacetime, he methodically managed the main city. Whenever he ran into a hostile legion, he weighed the chances of victory before deciding whether to fight or flee, and when encountering ordinary sorcerers, he simply trampled right over them. He had run into quite a few sorcerers before. Either they happened to stumble across his march and were crushed along the way by the Star Shepherd, or they fled at top speed—as long as they survived the legion's opening volley of ranged attacks, Demilo never went out of his way to chase them down. The current situation, however, was unprecedented. He had encountered sorcerers, but far from crushing them, he had actually lost quite a few minions to them. Not only had the sorcerers not fled, but they were also roaming right under his nose, yet he couldn't easily squash them. Though he had no proof, Demilo figured that since the cave's resource point was stripped so clean, this bunch of sorcerers was almost certainly responsible. Benefits, losses, fighting, leaving... All sorts of thoughts surged one after another, but without any precedents to consult, the decision ultimately rested on Demilo. He had to follow his own heart's desire. For a corpse without a heartbeat, that truly was a cruel, dark joke. Yet the moment Demilo looked back at the cave and didn't immediately choose to leave, he had already made up his mind. Anger? Jealousy? Curiosity? Lacking even a single soul fragment, Demilo did not believe he possessed the capacity for such emotions, but the scales of his thoughts had unmistakably tipped toward those sorcerers. If he had to give a reason, it was probably the male sorcerer's gaze just now, placing a decisive weight upon the balanced scale. Though their appearances were completely different, his eyes looked very much like those of the person who had killed Demilo. "The sacred stars connect us." Demilo silently chanted a prayer in his heart. The power of the stars poured along invisible chains into the knowledge creatures. The eight surviving snake-scorpion dragons instantly turned deep blue, including Demilo's remaining mount. They let out lazy yawns as though just waking from sleep, their bodies covered in warped blue light. A second later, the snake-scorpion dragons had completely vanished, leaving behind in their place eight deep-blue dual-swordsmen. Encased in seamless full armor, the slits of their cross helmets revealed only azure pupils. Behind them trailed scorpion tails, but tipped not with stingers, but with blue-glowing thrust swords. "Star Swordsman: Snake-Scorpion Dragon Specialization"! Having decided to fight, Demilo naturally no longer held back his "soldiers." Though he had been commanding knowledge creatures this entire time, knowledge creatures could not be considered soldiers; they were merely minions. At the end of the day, knowledge creatures were just monsters, incomparable to tool-using sorcerers. Even if a commander could direct them as smoothly as his own limbs, as tactical executors, knowledge creatures lagged far behind humans. The true might of the Heroic Spirit Legion lay in a commander's ability to reforge minions into even more powerful "unit classes," preserving the knowledge creatures' innate combat prowess while bestowing upon them vastly superior combat skills. When minions transformed into soldiers, they mutated differently based on their physical traits. For example, because the snake-scorpion dragons possessed dual pincers and scorpion tails, they mutated into dual-swordsmen equipped with a tail sword, capable of delivering three attacks simultaneously. An ordinary sorcerer would be punctured three times over the instant they crossed blades. Although the Star Swordsman was merely a Tier 1 unit of the Star Hall, as long as it was bestowed upon the right knowledge creature, it could assemble formidable combat strength. Therefore, to Heroic Spirits like Demilo, minions like knowledge creatures didn't matter; what mattered were the "soldiers" they carried. Knowledge creatures in the Void Realm were endless, but "soldiers" were not born of the Void Realm—they originated from reality. For the Star Hall, soldiers were the most vital and precious of wartime resources. It didn't matter how many minions perished, but every single unit of soldiers had to be used with utmost caution, saved as much as possible for city and national warfare. Until just moments ago, Demilo had believed he could slay the three sorcerers purely by expending minions, naturally unwilling to spend his soldiers. In truth, he didn't carry many soldiers with him to begin with. After all, he had only come to the hinterlands to transport resources, and during peacetime, they theoretically shouldn't encounter any enemies at all. Under such circumstances, the vast majority of soldiers had to remain in the main city, placed under the castellan's custody and deployment. However, a few days earlier, the Star Hall had recruited a batch of soldiers in reality. Because it was an unexpected windfall, each of the Heroic Spirits had been allocated a few spares, and Demilo was no exception. What a pity that the thousand-feather bird-dragons were all gone. Otherwise, had Demilo bestowed upon them the Tier 2 unit "Star Archer," paired with their innate thousand-feather mutation, they could have riddled that iron monster into a sieve in an instant. Still, the snake-scorpion Star Swordsmen alone were enough. The Star Shepherd pointed gently, and the Star Swordsmen surged into the toxic cavern in disciplined strides, utterly fearless of the mist's corrosion. Once granted a unit class, Star Swordsmen acquired a barrier-like "armor." Unless a single instance of damage could pierce through the armor, it wouldn't inflict any harm on the Star Swordsman at all. Even if damage pierced the armor, it would only deplete the armor's energy without truly hurting the Star Swordsman's body. Star Swordsmen possessed three layers of armor. Before the toxic mist could eat through all three layers, the potent fumes—capable of dissolving bones and destroying souls—were nothing more than vision-obscuring flatulence to these snake-scorpion Star Swordsmen. Standing outside the cave, Demilo tapped into the Star Swordsmen's senses to track the enemy's direction, and then— *Vroom, vroom, vroom!* The iron monster charged recklessly at one of the Star Swordsmen, falling right into the Star Shepherd's trap. *Defend!* Facing the monster's charge, the Star Swordsman crossed its twin blades into an X-guard, taking a defensive stance to head-on block the wicked edge carrying immense momentum! *Crack! Crack! Crack!* All three layers of armor shattered one after another, yet the Star Swordsman remained rooted to the spot, forcefully stopping the iron monster in its tracks! *Clang—!* Countless sword hums rang out at once as the remaining Star Swordsmen instantly unleashed their assault on the sorcerers inside the monster, the sword light from all directions descending like an inescapable net! "Huh?!" "Why... who are they?!" The toxic mist could not stifle the sorcerers' shocked cries, which was well within Demilo's expectations. Just as he wouldn't expend soldiers when crushing sorcerers, other Heroic Spirits would certainly only deploy minions to drive away such pests. Just as no sorcerer knew the secrets of the Heroic Spirits, no sorcerer had ever witnessed these monster soldiers endowed with unit classes. As long as that shock occupied their minds, it was a tactical victory. If they hesitated for even a fraction of a second, their souls would be torn to shreds in the next... However— *Roar!* The iron monster roared once more, its fangs and blades snapping the armor-shattered Star Swordsman in two! At the same time, the male sorcerer seemed to cast a miracle, enveloping the entire vehicle in a warm-yellow barrier. Though it was shredded to pieces by the Star Swordsmen's sword net the very next second, it managed to carve out an opening, successfully escaping the lethal encirclement! *How many more times can you cast that kind of defensive miracle? Next time, I will hold back two Star Swordsmen to cut off your retreat—you won't get a second chance...* Demilo rapidly adjusted his battle plan in his mind, directing the remaining seven Star Swordsmen to press the attack. As long as the enemy made a single mistake, death would bite down and never let go. The iron beast circled within the cavern. After racking up multiple hits, it finally seized an opportunity to crush another Star Swordsman to death. *As long as they make a single mistake.* The iron beast drifted and spun continuously, evading a pincer attack from the Star Swordsmen while slicing down two of them in the process. *As long as...* When the final Star Swordsman was rammed to death by the iron beast, Demilo, waiting at the cave entrance, slightly shifted aside. A few seconds later, the iron beast roared as it burst back out of the toxic cavern once more. The claws and fangs that had shredded the Star Swordsmen showed not the slightest wear, and its rounded wheel-limbs tore harsh, teeth-gritting gouges into the earth! The man was entirely unscathed. The moment he emerged, his gaze locked tightly onto Demilo, as if saying: *You're next.* Looking at the man in the crimson trench coat, Demilo knew he had lost in command. A thorough, utterly indisputable defeat. Although the opponent had only a single iron beast unit, commanding one unit was still command. He had calmly coped with Demilo's encirclement tactics, forcefully torn open an opening, and whittled away all of the Star Shepherd's soldiers through guerrilla warfare. It was practically a textbook example of defeating a superior force with fewer numbers. "Which fairy tale did those deep-blue soldiers just jump out of?" the female sorcerer with red-to-black gradient hair asked curiously, as though anticipating an answer from Demilo. Demilo didn't pay the slightest attention to the female sorcerers. In his heart, he softly chanted, *"Stars, please shine for me."* *Boom!* Deep-blue armor materialized across his body. In his left hand, he planted a menacing greatbow firmly against the ground; with his right, he drew from his quiver a glittering great arrow that looked as though it were carved from diamond, aiming it straight at the iron monster still constantly farting out environmental pollution. *Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!* Just as the iron monster accelerated into a charge, Yaxiu sensed the danger and immediately grabbed Sonia and Diya, diving beneath the seats with them! In stark contrast, the Star Shepherd neither moved nor fled, casually releasing the bowstring. The glittering great arrow split into three the moment it left the bow, crashing toward the sports car like thunderbolts! *Boom, boom, boom!* *Crash!* The windshield shattered instantly. The glittering great arrows zipped right over the heads of Yaxiu and the others, shearing away strands of hair. At the same time, the sports car's terrifying blade slashed savagely into Demilo with the momentum of over sixty kilometers per hour, intent on slicing him in two! *Thud!* The wicked blade, capable of slicing stone like butter, not only failed to cut the Star Shepherd down, but actually sent the car spinning in place as if striking an immovable pillar! Demilo was only knocked back a few paces. The deep-blue armor on his body showed almost no change as he leisurely reached for a second glittering great arrow. Enduring the dizziness from the collision and spinning, the sorcerers poked their heads out one by one to assess the situation. Sonia practically shrieked, "When we hit those weirdos earlier, even if their armor didn't break, the color at least faded a bit... How does he look completely fine?!" "His armor is very high." Diya's hair had turned chaotic by now—a gradient of black, red, and white; the black was unpure, the red a bit muddy, the white somewhat dull. Her voice had also become a trio: "This should be a privilege of Heroic Spirits. But it doesn't matter. As long as we keep ramming him, we can definitely—" "It does matter," Yaxiu said. "His attack just now took off a fifth of the car's remaining HP." "Four more times, and the car blows up. Without this car, we're definitely no match for him. But on the other hand, the only one left on their side is the Heroic Spirit commander himself." "Either the car blows up first, or he dies first." "The final round begins."