Chapter 20 - Fan Kingdom Soldiers

"We will split into 5 teams of ten men. I have already decided on the organisation and destinations of the teams."

'Captain Dan really is always prepared.' Deon thought mildly.

The morning after their arrival at the camp, the 37th unit began working rapidly. They needed to spread out and quickly search the surrounding area. There were multiple reasons for doing this.

Firstly and most importantly, they were scouting for enemies. If they discovered any soldiers from the Fan Kingdom in the vicinity, they would immediately report back to camp and go from there.

Secondly, the main purpose of this war was to battle for the right to become the final occupant of Jing Mountain, so they naturally needed to expand their area of influence by growing the camp to encompass a larger area.

Lastly, they were looking for spirits. The naturally formed spirits that already existed on Jing Mountain were sure to be found soon. Headquarters estimated that 90% of the naturally formed spirits on the mountain would be taken within just six months. It should be known that these spirits had taken years, even decades to accumulate, the mountain was currently a certifiable treasure chest that nobody wanted to give up.

A group was sent North, South, East and West, each led by a captain, leaving two captains, the commander and 100 soldiers, all remaining at base camp to build up their defences.

The group that was sent North felt like they had drawn the short straw as they were forced to climb further up the mountain, but Deon was certain that his group, the Eastern venturing group, were the truly unlucky ones.

The Fan Kingdom would be climbing the mountain from the East, so weren't they way more likely to encounter enemies than anyone else?

Well, Deon was not afraid of conflict though, it was actually what he wanted to see! By killing enemy men, he could earn merit. Not only that, but he might even get the chance to loot some spirits from the fallen soldiers.

When a shaman died, their origin soul would quickly disperse and the bound spirits would escape into the wild, allowing other shamans to capture them for themselves.

That is, aside from the core spirit. The core spirit was heavily intertwined with the shaman's origin soul and body, it would live and die along with them.

Anyway, Captain Dan split his group into five teams of ten. There was one late stage 1-Star shaman in each team, as well as a veteran that he assigned as a temporary team leader.

The leader in Deon's group was actually someone he knew, Benji. Vash and Vanna were also in his group, as well as a couple of others whom Deon was somewhat familiar with. It was clear that Captain Dan had taken everyone's relationships into account when forming these groups. This action wasn't just Captain Dan being kind, it was a tactical move. They would be able to work together more effectively if they were more familiar with one another.

The group slowly made their way along the mountain side, everyone was staying silent and keeping a lookout. The usually talkative and carefree Benji became unexpectedly serious and was quite dependable as a leader. He also seemed to understand that them being sent East put them in danger.

However, he didn't complain, nor did anyone else who realised their predicament. They were all soldiers after all, they had signed up to become the swords of the kingdom, to earn glory and respect in battle. If they were sent into a perilous situation, then so be it, this was simply to be expected from the life of a soldier.

Half an hour passed by and they discovered very little. The entire journey took them along a single narrow rocky path. This sort of small pathway was certainly a point of interest that they would map out, but it wasn't suitable for establishing another camp.

Eventually though, the path came to a dead end. They could see that straight ahead, the path stopped. They could not yet see it properly from this position, but it was likely that beyond the end of the path, there would be a sharp cliff face leading downwards. However, at this moment, everyone became extremely alert and ducked down, hiding behind a jagged rock that struck out into the path.

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They had all seen it just now; a figure walked out from the inside of the mountain face!

From his uniform, it was clear that he was a soldier from the Fan Kingdom, and it seemed like they had discovered a large cave within the mountainside! The Fan Kingdom soldiers wore similar colours to the Kingdom of Restari, but they also donned black hats and wore very thick shoulder pads, making their frames look a bit different.

Two more soldiers walked out and looked around, before they started talking to one another, but nobody could hear what they were saying.

One new recruit was too curious and attempted to peer past the rock, pointing his ear in the direction of the enemy soldiers, but he inadvertently ended up tripping and falling on his face.

Everyone paled upon seeing this. They quickly looked up as adrenaline rushed through their veins.

"Enemy soldiers!"

"Quickly, alert the captain!"

"There can't be many of them, let's rush them quickly!"

…

"S-sorry everyone, I-"

"Damnit!" Benji cursed out loud, interrupting the pale faced new recruit who caused this calamity to befall them. The enemy soldiers were now pouring out from the cave and running straight towards them. There were already more than ten enemies, putting them at a disadvantage right from the get go.

Benji sighed, closed his eyes and calmed himself, then opened his eyes with a vicious and determined glare.

"Prepare to engage! There may be more of them than us, but the difference is minimised along this pathway! Quickly, we need to move forwards so that the path behind us is straight, otherwise if we are pushed back, we will fall to our deaths!"

His reaction was admirable, as expected of a veteran soldier. The recruit who caused all of this looked horrified by his mistake, but nobody had the time to pay him any attention right now.

Following Benji, the group rushed out to meet with their attackers. The path allowed them to stand with two people side by side. Benji turned back, intending to yell at somebody to take the position besides him at the front, but paused as he saw that Deon had already taken this position.

Without looking up, Deon explained.

"We need to move further forwards. We don't know how many of them there are and we might end up getting pushed back towards the bend. If the path behind us is curved like that, the battle will become extremely dangerous."

Benji pondered his words and then nodded. Basically, Deon was saying that he would be able to push back the enemy lines. Coming from any other child this would sound ridiculous, but Benji knew that Deon was actually quite formidable. Seeing that he was also calm even in this situation, he couldn't help but praise him internally.

'Such bravery for a kid…'

'He must really love his country!'

'What a loyal soldier.'

The others were thinking things like this. Truthfully though, Deon was just being practical.

Six of the people in their group were carrying rifles, meaning that they would be better fighting from a distance. He happened to remember that the other two also preferred to fight with long ranged spirits, leaving only himself and Benji as the close combat fighters. If he were to hang back and hide, the group would probably get massacred, leaving himself completely outnumbered and spelling his inevitable death.

The two front enemy soldiers realised that their opponents were nearly upon them and hastily raised their weapons. Unfortunately for them, Deon's group was a step faster.

"Duck!"

Hearing this, Deon and Benji both hit the floor.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four musket shots rang out as their comrades shot their rifles at the enemy from behind, then both Deon and Benji leapt up and continued to rush forwards. One of the soldiers was killed on the spot whilst the other was injured.

"Damnit, I'll definitely take one of you with me!" The injured soldier yelled out through gritted teeth, then fired a shot directly at Deon.

Bang!

Deon's ability to analyse a combat situation shouldn't be underestimated. Years of battle in the underworld allowed him to react the moment the soldier pointed his gun this way.

Deon dropped and rolled before the trigger was even released. The bullet shot above his body and he heard someone cry out from behind him, but he had no time to care that someone else was injured due to his own quick reaction…that was their problem, not his.

He quickly leapt to his feet and summoned the ancient demon spirit into his hands. The soldier looked on in terror at this sword, but it was the last thing that he would ever see.

CHI!

Deon stabbed straight forwards and carved a large hole into the soldier's chest. He was wearing a thin armour, but his body was un-strengthened and the ancient demon spirit could even decapitate a horse, no matter a thinly armoured human.

Deon had no time to congratulate himself for succeeding in this first strike. More and more enemies were pouring out from the cave, until there were easily twenty men standing along the path! Who knew if there were even more in the cave…

Puchi!

Benji slit the throat of the third stunned looking enemy, creating a break between these first three and the coming soldiers. There was a faint white glow across the blade of his sword as he struck. Deon knew that this was the 1-Star sharp metal spirit, a spirit that could enhance the sharpness of any metal blade or point.

Deon and Benji shared a glance, then both dropped to the floor once again. They flattened their bodies as much as possible, then covered their heads with their hands. Deon also held the ancient demon spirit sword in front of them with the flat of the blade towards the enemy. The sword enlarged and became wider, creating a sort of makeshift shield.

The ancient demon spirit was a spirit that could morph into a form of Deon's choosing. He usually just used it as a sword, since its power seemed to be most impressive as a close combat weapon.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Both sides shot a volley of bullets at one another.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Some bullets slammed into the ancient demon spirit sword. If Deon hadn't thought to hold it there as a shield, then he most likely would have been shot in the head.