Unlike the workers, the militiamen—militiataurs?—came together, keeping a small semi-circle formation so he couldn't get closer to any of them first.
Therefore, instead of advancing, Shen crouched a little for a more stable position and analyzed their movements.
The better vision from the F rank didn't just let him look further away, but also detect smaller movements better. It wasn't to the point he could see the sweat on the minotaurs' unprotected faces—if they even sweated to begin with—but he could get a better idea of how big their steps were and how fast they were approaching. He could also see better how their arms moved while they walked, their spears moving ungracefully, their round wooden shields making noise as they hit the metal plates on their leather armor.
Shen didn't have enough experience to tell exactly what that meant though. They were just walking, after all. It felt like they weren't very skilled, but who knows, they might actually be spear masters who would kill him in a single attack.
The spears would be harder to deal with than the fellers' axes because they had a longer range. Fortunately, he had had enough experience with Uk'Gaar's huge saber. Unfortunately, a saber's attack pattern differed greatly from a spear's.
When they were close enough, they stopped running and lowered their spears to the horizontal, their shields held in front of them protectively. A good formation for a mortal, if not befitting of a cultivator.
They tried to surround him, and that's when he attacked.
He moved as quickly as he could to the right edge of their formation and thrust his spear against the minotaur's head. It rose its shield, and the spear rebounded harmlessly from it. At the same time, it and its two nearest companions thrust their own spears at Shen.
He sidestepped it somewhat easily and used a new footwork technique he had mastered while fighting the final boss, the Backstep. Its name was misleading though. Instead of stepping back, he used the momentum of his sidestep to rotate white move exquisitely until he found himself behind the minotaur he had attacked.
His spearhead entered the Shadow's thick skull from the back and freely went through its brain. He shook the spear slightly to do as much damage as possible, then removed it.
The minotaur fell dead, already turning into motes of light, together with all its equipment.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) | 6,031 -> 6,041 AP
The other minotaurs had done their best to reposition though, and he found himself with no way forward. Still, he did the same as before: he attacked the minotaur at the edge and killed it before focusing on the next one. Rinse and repeat, soon enough, he had won.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) | 6,121 -> 6,131 AP
That was disappointing. The militiamen were little stronger or faster than the fellers. With Shen's experience and improved mastery over his battle techniques—which improved their power output—he could even kill the final boss Incarnations without using qi, as long as they didn't sacrifice their memories. He would need a better challenge than that.
He had killed them with the tactic he knew worked on them, because that's what the books taught: kill your enemies faster, no matter how boring using the same technique repeatedly might be. Never give them a chance just because you're bored.
Yet, he reckoned he might as well use them to get extra experience fighting such enemies. He would let himself get surrounded by three of them and see how he fared.
So he walked toward the fortress. A little later, twenty-five extra militiamen left it and ran his way, five of which were holding crossbows.
The issuing battle was nothing like he had expected. The crossbowmen kept their distance and surrounded him, while at least two minotaurs protected them.
The other ten did their best to attack and distract him at close range, while the crossbowmen kept firing. To test the waters before engaging in training, he killed the first minotaur quickly in the same way he had killed the former ones.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) | 6,131 -> 6,141 AP
But that left him open for a moment and two bolts pierced his back.
> Health: 80 / 100 | -20
> Health: 60 / 100 | -20
The damage they caused was nothing to scoff at.
Shen smiled.
Now, that was an excellent training opportunity; the impending doom should he fail would make him do his best.
He focused harder and let himself get surrounded by the nine remaining close-range fighters, who stupidly stayed far enough that they would need to take two steps forward to reach him. They seemed to just want to let the crossbowmen do the job for them, and indeed, the ranged attackers positioned themselves at the openings left by their companions.
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Shen didn't give them an opportunity to shoot. He got closer to one of the surrounding minotaurs, which messed with the crossbowmen's lines of sight, and thrust against its head.
What followed was a replay of his very first attack against the militiamen; it protected itself with its shield and attacked together with the closest two minotaurs. They were better positioned than before though, one on each side, so Shen couldn't just sidestep the attacks.
Instead, he stepped back while thrusting his spear again, this time lower. His target had raised its shield to its face and couldn't see the incoming attack, and the spear pierced the leather armor, then its belly.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) — 190 / 200 | -10
He frowned as he pulled his spear and moved back, just in time to dodge a bolt from a crossbowman who had repositioned itself. Ten damage was way too little damage, especially when the bolts did double that each. Was it the leather armor? Or something else?
No time to find out now.
Shen used the same attack pattern against another minotaur, and the damage was the same. His attempts at feints also failed because he was slower than the minotaurs unless he used his qi. It was sad how he could kill the stronger final boss much more easily, simply because it had lacked a shield.
When the third suffered the same damage, he found himself convinced that this fight was simply impossible to win.
He didn't have enough stamina.
The previous fight had consumed almost three points of stamina, and now he had used another. Ninety-six points wasn't enough to kill all twenty-five minotaurs unless he killed them in a single strike, but he had stupidly allowed himself to get surrounded without thinking about that.
He had two ways out: killing one minotaur first and retreating away from there, or taking a leap of faith.
Retreat didn't feel right, so he chose the latter.
"Buy F- long spear," he said while dropping his own spear, and a new one materialized in his hand.
> Purchased: Any Weapon (F-) | -2,500 AP
> Remaining AP: 3,641
The G spear had been a simple one, but the F- spear was fancy. It was the same size and weight as his previous one, but the wood was white, the spearhead was silvery, and the red tassel was a crimson color that seemed to pull the eyes much better than a normal tassel.
The weapon felt stronger, the edge felt sharper, and it was clearly an improvement.
"Inspect."
Tutorial Spear (F-)
Enchantments: Anti-Wear (F-), Sharpness (F-)
A spear bought in the 2nd Stage of the Guardian Tutorial.
His leap of faith had been believing an F- weapon would close the gap between him and his enemies, and just looking at it was enough to tell it had paid off. Not only were the materials clearly superior to his previous weapon, it also came with a great enchantment. The system let him know it meant the edges of the spearhead were extra sharp.
Time to test it.
He closed the distance to the first minotaur he had injured and thrust it against its head. The minotaur defended with its shield, and Shen's eyes widened in surprise when the spearhead penetrated the wood, and would've kept going if the shaft was even slightly sharp.
It had caused no damage, but that was enough. He smiled widely and applied a bit of qi to his arms to push the spear deeper in a sudden movement. The shield's wood cracked and broke under his push.
The spearhead pierced the minotaur's face.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) — 133 / 200 | -57
Not enough to kill, but enough that he could win.
He dodged the incoming counter-attacks not by stepping back, but by stepping closer to his target, who roared in pain and only reflexively—and poorly—counter-attacked. The incoming spear only grazed at Shen's body, not even causing any damage, while the attacks from the nearby minotaurs missed completely.
He pulled his spear while stepping closer, swiftly freeing it from the minotaur's face and shield, then crouched low and did the same movement as someone throwing dirt from a shovel. The spear bypassed the shield and found the minotaur's chin. It penetrated much more easily than before and found its brain. Shen spun the spear again for maximum damage and it died.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) | 3,641 -> 3,651 AP
That wouldn've been possible to do with his old spear. It was the pain to the minotaur's face that had caused it to miss its attack so completely. His covered eyes didn't matter without the pain; a simple straight thrust was enough to, together with the surrounding two attacks, stop Shen from moving forth rather than back.
Only twenty-three enemies to go.
Glad with his purchase, he returned to the middle of the formation, making himself surrounded again. No need to run away from his training.
When he attacked the next minotaur, a fresh one this time, he aimed at its forehead while using qi from the beginning. His spear slowed down as it went through the shield, and though it also caused damage, it wasn't enough to kill.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) — 162 / 200 | -38
It was still considerable damage for such a straightforward attack. He pulled back instead of killing the minotaur and thrust against its body while dodging the counter-attacks. The leather armor might as well not be there for all the resistance it provided against the F- weapon.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) — 132 / 200 | -30
That was considerably more damage than before. The new spear was no joke. He was ecstatic at his purchase.
And with the new weapon, what happened next was just sad. The Shadows wielding spear and shield seemed to follow stupid rules that stopped them from attacking him. The only things they did were close the gap when he killed one of them and counter-attack if he attacked first. They had no agency.
He used them mostly to get used to his new weapon and to train hit-and-run tactics in case he ever got attacked from multiple directions and had to keep on the move. Once he was satisfied with his progress, he killed the closed-ranged fighters first, then trained his awareness and dodging with the crossbowmen. They seemed to have unlimited ammo, just like humans.
The training was surprisingly useful. He wasn't hit even once, but it was only because he was cheating by being constantly on the moving and using his footwork every time he heard a shot. That taught him another valuable lesson: use sound cues if there are any. That was something he had read in a book, but hadn't remembered until now.
Once again, he trained to his satisfaction, then killed all but one minotaur. As he expected, the fortress didn't send a new enemy before he killed his current ones. It was a tutorial, after all.
So he waited for his health and stamina to recover, then killed the last minotaur.
> Minotaur Militiaman (F) | 3,871 -> 3,881 AP
It looked like it wouldn't be very hard to either recover the AP he had invested in his new spear or killing the hundred F-rank enemies he needed to kill.
Happy enough to almost whistle, he walked toward the fortress again, and it spat fifty extra enemies. There were twenty crossbowmen and thirty close-range fighters, but something was different.
They didn't walk like the last ones. Rather, they were filled with purpose, and the crossbowmen started shooting from afar. Shen had to use his footwork to dodge the blanket of incoming projectiles, and he ran at the minotaurs himself. The faster he got to the close-range warriors, the faster it would block the crossbowmen's lines of sight.
Soon, he was close to them, and they didn't just mindlessly surround him.
Instead, some attacked while the others did the surrounding.
Shen's smile returned to his face.
Things were getting better and better!