Axseer

Roar!

The monsters clashed against the first line, with Baron Harrods splitting the leading grey-horned bear in two.

'Battle Command: Lieutenant Colonel Rakgu, hold the line. Let the monsters move only through the gaps we dictate,' I commanded, striving to project confidence.

I hoped they didn't sense the doubt stirring in my heart.

The others moved swiftly, with Lieutenant Colonel Maris, Lieutenant Colonel Driga, and the shieldmen falling into position.

They were stopping the monsters before the rest were moving to attack them.

I didn't use any skills to support them or cast any spells.

There are only two skills I am using.

Battle Awareness, which gives me information on the battle as it happens, and Battle Command, which lets me project commands like previously.

I have skills I could use and spells I could cast, but I didn't. The only thing I did was dance.

I could stop the dance, and the spell was complete, but dancing helped me stay focused and more attuned to my magic.

I could feel their eyes on me, weighing me, judging me.

That feeling has been with me ever since I received the promotion and was handed this monumental task.

The promotion itself was sudden and utterly shocking—a leap I hadn't anticipated. It had been three months since the Battle of Panar, where I went from Captain to Lieutenant Colonel overnight.

Since then, I haven't fought a single battle. Aside from a few minor skirmishes along the border, there hasn't been one.

So, one can imagine my shock when I was summoned to General Stone's office and got promoted before receiving this commission.

Something that many were eying.

I heard there was a lot of opposition to my promotion, but it was General Stone's decision, with Lord Silver agreeing to it.

I still don't understand why they gave me this promotion. Compared to the others, I'm just average. I've never led more than two hundred fifty soldiers in battle.

After Panar, they gave me command of a battalion of twelve hundred. Even then, I never had to lead them in a real fight. And now, here I am, leading six thousand.

I wanted to decline the promotion but accepted it for my children and tribe.

We're a small tribe, fewer than two hundred people. A few years ago, things grew desperate, so much so that, to avoid starvation, we turned to banditry.

In the first attack, I lost my husband, the tribe leader. Becoming its leader after many challenges.

The banditry kept us alive. People died, but the tribe didn't starve. Things became better when humans started trading with the merchant state.

We robbed a small merchant.

Things were good until they weren't. We were captured by mercenaries playing merchant. They were too powerful, and they killed anyone who didn't surrender.

They barely gave any of us a chance to surrender. I survived because I was far away and lay down in surrender in time.

The year I was captive was worse, not because of all the starvation and torture but because I was away from my children.

Then came the day of redemption, fight or die. I fought and somehow survived.

Since then, I have fought every battle despite pressure from the bigger tribes to resign. I level up with each battle, finally breaching level 30.

I sensed the first drop of blood bled by my men, and I took it. More bled, and I took their blood while commanding them.

It is hard. There are too many of them.

Soon, the first person died, and guilt flooded me. It's not like he is the first person who died under my command, but I could have saved him.

I had the power to do it.

It shook me; it brought tears into my eyes.

The old human Lt. Colonel in front of me turned. He is from the island.

General Stone had recruited him personally.

"You are a colonel now, not a common captain. Here, single lives didn't matter. What matters is the whole group," advised Lt. Colonel Yard and looked ahead toward the group of monsters.

His words brought me back to reality.

I controlled my emotions and focused on the battle and the dance—this time, not from the captain's perspective but from the colonel's.

I have to think about the whole army instead of a few.

Immediately, the pressure on me lessened, and I began to command with new vigor, but soon, different kinds of pressure began to fall on me.

The spirit of the lioness has started to absorb the blood. The blood that my men are shedding.

It is absorbing that with me as the conduit while turning more and more red.

Because of this pressure, I am not using any spells or more skills. I need my spirit to be as free as possible to bear the pressure from the blood.

It will increase as the monsters spread across my army and fight my men.

Soon, the monsters reached me.

Lt. Colonel Yard and others moved to fight against them.

The monsters are powerful, but they are the old enemy. I do not fear them as I fear the undead.

I know the kind of danger they represent; I have seen what they could do since I was a child.

Hun!

Suddenly, one monster slipped through the circle of men guarding me.

I barely looked at the blue monster. Focusing on commanding the battle and spit.

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Puch!

The stone lance pierced through the snake, killing it.

A mage and one armored warrior are standing beside me while a circle of men protects me from all sides.

Seconds passed, and monsters spread across the whole battlefield.

The blood was coming like a flood, putting me under such pressure that I could barely focus on the battle and dance.

I need to dance—it's the one thing keeping me grounded under this crushing pressure.

If I stop, even for a moment, the weight of it all might overwhelm me, and I fear I'd lose consciousness, if only for a second.

I could see the questions in the men's eyes and feel their confidence in me slipping further with every passing moment.

Only the Lieutenant Colonels know even a fragment of what I'm doing, and they remain unaware of the full details.

More blood spills with each passing second, and every drop is channeled into the spirit through me. The sheer force of it, coming from thousands of people, presses down like a vice, the strain so intense it feels as though my head might split open.

I wanted to scream—desperately. But I couldn't, neither out loud nor within myself, for fear my people might hear.

So I bore it, silent and unyielding, as I commanded the battle.

'Roar!'

Finally, a majestic roar rang through the whole battlefield, and I saw a white spirit turning blood red entirely.

'It's time,' I said, acting immediately and without hesitation.

In the next moment, a massive bolt of blood-red lightning, as large as myself, erupted from the mouth of the lioness spirit.

It streaked across the battlefield with blinding speed, striking the Grade IV Rhino monster bearing down on Captain Kales and his group, who were already locked in a desperate fight against a pack of other monsters.

Bang!

I felt the impact as the lightning struck the massive rhino. A moment later, it collapsed, lifeless.

My original class was shaman before merging with Bandit Class, becoming Bandit Shaman. When I joined the army, I became a Shaman Officer.

After the battle of Panar, when I reach Level 30. It changed once more.

I am now Lv. 32 Spirit Warden: the lioness is my spirit.

I could see the shock in people's eyes, but I didn't have time to soak in their shock.

Instead, I closed my eyes, centering myself on the battlefield. I focused, then, with a sharp breath, sent seven arcs of lightning streaking toward seven different monsters, all at once.

The bolts are smaller than one earlier and weaker, but these beasts are smaller than the rhino earlier.

The pressure is immense, but those seven monsters are doing the most damage to my men, and killing them as soon as possible is the priority.

As I released the arcs, the urge to collapse nearly overtook me. The pressure was unbearable.

But instead of falling, I began to dance with even greater intensity, a frantic rhythm that matched the fury inside me.

My spirit, a sanguine lioness, fed on blood. Not just any blood, but the blood of my allies, spilled by the enemy.

It poured into me like an unrelenting flood, growing with every drop shed by my people in their battle against the monsters. The flow was so intense that I felt like I might drown in it.

It was putting such pressure on me that I began to bleed through my nose and ears, but that didn't stop me.

I sent another bolt and killed Grade IV monsters and another one quickly before I sent a group of bolts at Grade III.

I am sending them where they are needed, not where I want them. If I had followed my instincts, I would have saved lives, but the cost would have been far more significant.

I need to be a colonel, not a captain. I must think about the entire force I am leading and achieve victory.

Minutes passed, and with each one, the pressure on me intensified as more of my people bled. The weight of their sacrifice felt unbearable, yet the blood flow only fueled the relentless force within me.

I wish I could help them. I could use some ritual spell, but doing that would require breaking my concentration on the spirit, which I can't allow.

So, I focused orders on healers and reinforcements, directing attention toward those who needed their help and clearing the way for them.

Slowly but surely, I began to grasp the flow of the battle. It was still overwhelming, but I was learning to focus on commanding and pushing through the chaos.

However, the monsters do everything they can to make it harder.

They seemed to be everywhere, attacking relentlessly, pushing at every weak point, making it nearly impossible to hold the formation. I couldn't afford a moment's hesitation—I had to guide my army every second, each decision critical to maintaining control.

'Battle Command: Platoon Nineteen, pivot south! Intercept and neutralize the monster group advancing from the front.'

I ordered the group and struck the few monsters in that group, reducing their numbers.

Cry!

I had just done that when I heard the loud cries from above and looked up.

From my vantage point, I could see an aerial group of monsters closing in on me—tens of them, with three Grade IV monsters among them.

The monsters weren't idiots. They had noticed me and were coming for me directly.

'Battle Command: Mage Group Three and Archer Group Seven prepare to attack the sky monsters as they descend to two hundred meters. Exclude Grade IV targets,' I commanded, my voice steady despite the rising tension.

I focused on absorbing the blood at a higher speed, feeling the power surge through me as I braced for their descent.

It made the veins in my head pop up, but I bore it.

These monsters aren't easy. They are sky dust eagles, earth element monsters with a high defense.

They also have pointy beaks and sharp wings. That could tear through armor and bone.

I have seen them when I was a child. One had attacked our tribe; it had taken the lives of four people before the elders were able to kill it.

We have to kill them before they reach us.

Two high mages were nearby, but they were occupied with their own tasks. I needed to deal with the Grade IV monsters myself and, if possible, take down a few Grade III as well.

As the monsters reached two hundred meters, the spells and arrows from Mage Group Three and Archer Group Seven shot toward the sky.

At the exact moment, the lioness spirit opened its mouth, unleashing a ring of bloody lightning that shot upward.

The birds—those monstrous sky predators—moved to dodge the spells, but at the speed they were diving and the remaining distance, it gave them little enough space to maneuver.

Still, some can dodge it, while other spells hit them. They injured a few of the monsters and killed some.

Finally, the ring of red lightning reached the monsters and expanded suddenly.

Instantly covering the three large Grade IV monsters and several Grade III, not giving them a chance to dodge the attack.

Cryyyy!

The painful cries rang out through the birds, and the light of life began to disappear from the monsters' eyes.

Grade III died quickly, but Grade IV's resisted.

I didn't attack them again and aimed to strike the last of the Grade III, which had reached close.

Bang Bang Bang!

The birds crashed on the ground so hard that their bones cracked on impact.

The Grade IVs that had been alive until that moment breathed their last, falling from the sky like broken giants.

The soldiers killed the remaining while I turned to the battlefield. Only to see a coalition of cheetahs coming in my direction.

'Who says the monsters couldn't coordinate?'

It is a coalition of around twenty cheetah monsters with metallic scales covering their bodies. They are moving fast and gracefully dodging attacks.

Even those that hit them didn't seem to injure them as seriously as we wanted.

"Be ready, Colonel. Some might slip past us," warned Lt. Colonel Yard.

I nodded and shot the lightning bolt at the leader for the first time. The monster dodged it.

The lightning wasn't elemental; it was the spirit lightning of blood, a force bound to its target. It locked onto the enemy with unyielding precision, making it nearly impossible to dodge. Yet, despite that, this monster managed to evade it.

It was swift, a blur with its cold, grey eyes locked on me.

The monsters reached us in mere seconds, but Lt. Colonel Yard and the others, alongside the mages, quickly moved into position.

The monsters were powerful, but Lt. Colonel Yard was seasoned and experienced. They had managed to stop all of them—except for the leader.

The leader leaped upward toward me, effortlessly dodging every attack that came its way.

I turned my gaze to the steel-grey monster. It was as if it had been crafted from steel itself, its metallic form gleaming as it closed in.

It's not the biggest one, but it's the most dangerous one. Its speed is terrifying.

'Don't attack it. It's mine,' I replied to my bodyguard, who moved in front of me with a shield forward.

Hesitation appeared in his eyes, but he moved away.

Warden's Field.

I activated the skill and felt the increase in pressure. I bore it and looked at the monster, which had become clearer.

Warden Field. A skill that gives me an absolute sensory advantage.

In a field that the skill covers, I could see everything. Sense everything. It might not seem like much, but it is an outstanding skill.

Warriors love them. Even General Stone had told me that it was the skill he wished he had.

As the perception became clearer, I gripped my staff tightly as I danced, and my lioness spirit shrunk until it became the size of an orc's head and appeared on the top of the staff.

Roar!

The monster roared and came at me while I swung my staff toward it, activating the Staff of Shaman.

My enemy almost seemed to smile at seeing it.

Its power is compared to the powerhouses in the middle of Lv. 30, while the swing I took had the control of those at early Lv. 30.

So, there wasn't much fear in its eyes. It's a little cautious of the totem spirit, but I could see the confidence in its eyes.

The steel cheetah came closer and closer until its mouth was next to my staff, and it moved and crunched down.

Bang!

My staff clashed against its teeth, and I could see victory in its eyes, but the very next moment, its eyes widened as blood from the lightning spread around its body.

Thud!

A moment later. The monster fell, dead.

I didn't celebrate and turned to the others before I started attacking them. Soon, all the steel cheetahs in this attack were dead.

Roar!

It relieved me, and I was about to move to the other monsters when I heard the roar that shook me to my soul.