The Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 242: The Real Soldier

Demilo watched the steel behemoth plunge into the dark green pit, its buzzing roar urging him to give chase. They're trying to use the poison mist to weaken my troops... Shall I go in?

The answer should have been obvious. Charging into an enemy's tactical terrain was reckless. He had no pressing reason to engage these sorcerers, and entering the mist would cost him valuable Soldiers.

Outside of war, the Divine Lord gave no orders, leaving the Heroes free to act as they wished. Even so, they still patrolled territories, transported resources, and carried out missions to earn merit points that could be exchanged for soul fragments. This time, Demilo had set out simply to escort resources back to the capital.

He could have let these arrogant sorcerers be, or simply walked away. He could do whatever he pleased. And yet, he hesitated.

In the past thousand years, he had never faced a moment requiring personal judgment. During wars, the Divine Lord issued orders; in peaceful times, he ran the capital as usual. Facing an enemy legion could only ever end in either victory or retreat. As for ordinary sorcerers, they were nothing more than prey underfoot.

He had faced many sorcerers before. In those encounters, they either crossed his path and were promptly crushed or they fled swiftly. As long as they survived the legion's initial ranged attacks, Demilo had no reason to chase them. A situation where the sorcerers would take the initiative and attack the legion, however, was entirely unprecedented.

These sorcerers, instead of being crushed, had even cost him several troops. They didn't retreat and lingered under his watchful eyes, yet eliminating them was far from easy.

The Resource Point was far too clean to be a coincidence. There was no concrete proof, but Demilo strongly suspected that these sorcerers were behind it.

Profit, loss, fight, retreat...

Countless thoughts clashed in his mind. With no precedent to guide him, the choice fell entirely on his shoulders for the first time, and he would have to follow his own will. For a corpse without a heartbeat, it was a cruel, bitter joke.

Yet as he turned back to stare at the cave once more, instead of leaving, he had already made his choice in silence. Was it anger? Jealousy? Or Curiosity?

Without a soul fragment, Demilo doubted he could truly feel such emotions. Still, the scale within him had tipped.

If there was a cause, it lay in the gaze of that male sorcerer. It carried a weight he could not ignore. The man's appearance differed completely, yet those eyes reminded him of the one who had killed him.

Demilo silently recited a prayer. The sacred constellations bind us together.

Starlight flowed through the ethereal chains into the Knowledge Creatures. The eight remaining Scorpion Dragons, including his mount, turned a deep blue. They yawned lazily, as though waking from a long sleep, their bodies twisting under the glow.

Then, they vanished. In their place stood eight deep-blue warriors. Fully armored with no gaps, their cross-shaped helmets revealed only piercing sapphire eyes. Behind each warrior trailed a scorpion tail, no longer a poisonous stinger, but a blue-hued sword.

"Star Swordsman, Scorpion Dragon Variant!"

Once Demilo chose to fight, he held nothing back. Until now, he had commanded Knowledge Creatures, but they were merely minions, not true soldiers. Creatures were little more than monsters. Even under perfect command, they lacked the precision and coordination of weapon-wielding sorcerers.

The Legion of Heroes existed to change that. It could transform mere minions into true soldiers. Once transformed, they retained their original strength while gaining far greater battlefield prowess. Knowledge Creatures evolved according to their inherent traits. Scorpion Dragons that were once armed with pincers and stingers became dual-sword warriors, capable of delivering three consecutive strikes with each arm in a single motion. Any ordinary sorcerer facing them would instantly be met with six blades.

Star Swordsmen were only level-one troops in the Star Hall, yet with proper deployment, they could overwhelm entire forces. For Heroes like Demilo, minions were expendable. Soldiers were not.

Unlike Knowledge Creatures, which were virtually limitless, soldiers were drawn from reality. For the Star Hall, they were the rarest and most valuable war resource. Minions could die without consequence, but soldiers had to be deployed with care, reserved for battles that truly mattered.

Until now, Demilo had believed that minions alone would be enough. Since it was a time of peace with no active wars, he had logically left his main forces in the capital, bringing only a small contingent for routine transport. Recently, the Star Hall had recruited a new batch of soldiers. As a surprise, the Legion of Heroes had received some of these reinforcements, including him.

Unfortunately, the Thousand-Feathered Birds were gone. Otherwise, he could have turned them into level-two Star Archers and used their feathers to rain arrows upon the steel behemoth.

Forget it. The Scorpion Star Swordsmen will suffice.

Demilo gave a subtle signal. The Star Swordsmen advanced in perfect formation, marching into the poison-filled cave without a hint of fear. The corrosive mist swirled around them, but their armor held firm. In their soldier form, they gained near-impenetrable protection. Unless an attack broke through in a single strike, they would not take damage. Even if an attack struck the armor, its layers absorbed the force rather than transferring it to the warriors themselves. With three layers of armor, the toxic clouds were reduced to little more than an annoyance.

Standing outside the cave, Demilo linked his perception to the Star Swordsmen, locking onto the enemy's position. Then...

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!

The steel behemoth burst forward, charging recklessly at one of the Star Swordsmen.

Defend!

The Star Swordsman raised his dual blades into a cross-shaped guard, bracing against the monster's colossal, momentum-laden blade, which seemed like a natural extension of its body, aimed straight at him.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Layer by layer, the three-layered armor shattered, yet he held his ground, forcing the steel behemoth to confront his resistance head-on.

Clang!

Swords clashed in a deafening symphony as the remaining Star Swordsmen launched a coordinated assault on the sorcerers within the monster. Blade light rained from all directions like a net across the battlefield.

"Eh!?"

"Who... who are they!?"

The poison mist could not muffle the sorcerers' shock. Demilo had anticipated this. Just as he never wasted soldiers on ordinary sorcerers, other Heroes would naturally rely on their minions to handle pests.

No sorcerer had ever glimpsed the Legion's secrets. They had no frame of reference for minions transformed into fully-fledged soldiers. Even the slightest hesitation in their minds counted as a tactical victory for Demilo. One lapse, and their souls could be shredded in an instant.

Vroom!

The steel behemoth roared, smashing into a Star Swordsman, whose armor had been split in two. At the same time, the male sorcerer cast a Miracle, enveloping the car in a warm, yellow barrier. The Star Swordsmen shattered it in the next instant, but the opening it created allowed them to narrowly escape a deadly encirclement.

How many times can such a defensive Miracle be deployed? Demilo thought. Next time, I'll leave two Star Swordsmen behind for follow-up. They'll have no second chance.

He adjusted his strategy instantly, directing the remaining seven Star Swordsmen to continue the assault. One mistake, and death would claim them all.

The steel behemoth circled within the cave. After absorbing multiple strikes, it finally found an opening and crushed another Star Swordsman.

One mistake...

Repeated spins and evasive drifts let the behemoth dodge the Swordsmen's pincer attacks, cleaving two more in the process.

One mistake...

When the last Star Swordsman fell, Demilo, still at the cave entrance, took a small step aside, leaving just enough space for the monster to pass. Seconds later, it burst from the poison mist. Its claws showed no sign of damage despite tearing through the Swordsmen, and its limbs carved deep ruts into the earth.

The man inside remained unscathed. He fixed his gaze on Demilo, as if declaring, "You're next."

Seeing the crimson-coated figure, Demilo realized he had utterly lost in command. There was no excuse he could offer himself. The enemy controlled only a single steel behemoth, but it had still countered Demilo's encirclement tactics despite being outnumbered. The man had systematically dismantled every soldier, a textbook demonstration of defeating many with few.

"Those deep-blue soldiers... which fairy tale did they come out of?" the female sorcerer with black-to-red gradient hair asked, curiosity lacing her voice as if she expected an explanation from Demilo.

He didn't spare her a glance. Inwardly, he whispered. Stars, shine for me.

Boom!

Deep-blue armor materialized on his body. He planted a massive greatbow into the ground with his left hand and drew a dazzling arrow of pure, diamond-like light with his right, aiming at the steel behemoth still polluting the air with its toxic emissions.

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!

As the behemoth charged, Ashe held Sonya and Dia beneath the seats. The Star Shepherd remained calm and poised, releasing a dazzling, massive arrow that split into three mid-flight, crashing like thunder toward the car.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Crack!

The front windshield exploded, and the dazzling arrows skimmed over Ashe and the others, ripping strands of their hair in the process. Meanwhile, the monster's blade, hurtling at over sixty kilometers per hour, seemed poised to cleave Demilo in two.

Thud!

The deadly blade, capable of slicing stone like butter, struck the Star Shepherd's armor but failed to pierce it. The armor absorbed the blow, while the monster spun on the spot as if it had collided with a pillar. Demilo was pushed back only a few steps, his deep-blue armor remaining nearly intact. Calmly, he nocked a second dazzling arrow.

The sorcerers struggled to keep their balance amid the impacts, peering cautiously from their seats. Sonya screamed, "When those guys got hit earlier, their armor's color faded even if it didn't break... How is he completely fine!?"

"His armor is incredibly durable," Dia said.

Her hair had turned a chaotic black-red-white gradient, and her voice split into three distinct tones, as if three people were speaking simultaneously. "That's probably a Hero's privilege. Doesn't matter—if we keep hitting—"

"It matters," Ashe interrupted. "His last attack drained a fifth of the car's remaining health. Four more hits and it'll explode. Without the car, we're no match against him. In any case, that Hero is all that's left that's in our way. Either the car goes first, or he does. The final round begins."