Chapter 976: Grand Training

After the tribal chieftain died, the Demonkin could no longer organize any resistance.

Even though the tribe still had a few legendary Demonkin and five or six hundred living Abyss Knights, under the Duke's guard's powerful ranged firepower the tribe's combat Willpower completely collapsed, and over ten thousand Demonkin fled toward the rear of the tribe.

The Duke's guard flattened the tribe in half an hour, then bypassed the burning ruins and continued to pursue the fleeing enemies.

The battle ended after a little more than an hour.

Of the over twenty thousand Demonkin, fewer than one tenth escaped, while the Duke's guard suffered almost no casualties. During the fight, a dozen or so Infernal mages teleported into the formation to launch a surprise attack, desperately hurling area spells and even self‑detonating to try to die together with the enemy.

The Duke's guard had long prepared for this in training; their formation was deliberately dispersed, giving the Infernal mages no chance to inflict massive casualties.

Nevertheless, dozens of soldiers were hit by spells, but none were fatal.

The armor they wore appeared ordinary, but it was actually Lei En's years‑long research result: a magical alloy combining the advantages of mythril and refined gold, possessing extremely high magical elasticity while being lightweight and hard, mixed in fixed proportions with various common metals to create a brand‑new formula.

If one compares any single performance, this magical alloy certainly cannot match high‑purity mythril or refined gold, and it is even inferior to titan‑blue iron.

However, its overall performance is excellent and its applicability is extremely broad.

Most importantly, it is cheap!

The cost of smelting this magical alloy is only about one‑fifth that of high‑purity mythril, and because its color is a silvery‑gray leaning toward white, Lei En named it "Besska alloy".

Using Besska alloy as the primary material, Lei En custom‑made standard armor for the Duke's guard, consisting of seven parts: helmet, chestplate, shoulder guards, gloves, belt, greaves and combat boots, each bearing different enchantments.

The helmet is the most functional and most expensive component of the whole set.

It not only provides four‑ring mental protection, its shell can filter toxic gas, the black visor also has light‑filtering capability to prevent blindness from "Flash Spell"‑type magic or explosive glare, and it contains a transceiver for instant communication with teammates and receipt of superior orders.

The chestplate is enchanted with two spells: the four‑ring "Arcane Armor" and the five‑ring "Teleportation".

Arcane Armor automatically activates when struck by magical attacks, reducing energy damage; even if this magical layer is pierced, the chestplate's own defense remains extremely sturdy, enough to withstand one or two full‑force blows from a legendary transcendent.

Teleportation is used when a soldier must retreat in a desperate situation or has been gravely wounded and lost combat capability, sending the soldier back to an armored warship.

If the armored warship is also destroyed, it automatically teleports back to the Star Destroyer's hangar.

Teleportation is the Duke's guard's last life‑saving measure, because it has reached five‑ring level and can only be triggered once every three days.

The shoulder guards are enchanted with three‑ring Giant Strength, usable three times per day.

The gloves bear Flame Torrent, two charges per hand, which, when activated, burn nearby enemies.

The tactical belt not only includes "Repair Spell" to quickly mend lightly damaged armor, but is also designed with multiple functions: it can mount various firearm magazines, ammunition and grenades, and store three kinds of magical pills for restoring stamina, soul energy, and healing wounds.

The greaves are enchanted with Flash, granting three uses per day to create distance from enemies at crucial moments or to dodge lethal attacks.

The combat boots have two enchantments: Levitation to avoid fall damage from heights, and Acceleration to boost running speed when needed, allowing the troops to sprint forward.

The quality of this magical armor reaches epic level!

Lei En named it "Storm Armor".

Although Storm Armor's enchantments are not high‑ring, the whole set's functions are both practical and powerful, combining defense, magical resistance and life‑saving capability; its design is simple and beautiful, it is very lightweight to wear, and on the market it would be worth at least twenty‑thousand Gold Shields.

Those transcendent professions that cannot cast spells, even if they are legendary, would scramble for it.

In fact, subtracting the manpower cost of the Thundercast Celestial Soldier and counting only the alloy and enchantment materials, a set of Storm Armor costs about one‑thousand‑five‑hundred Gold Shields.

This is the result of Lei En intentionally controlling costs.

He could make Storm Armor even stronger, enchanting it with seven‑ring or eight‑ring spells, but the cost would skyrocket by dozens of times, making mass deployment impossible.

A cost of one‑thousand‑five‑hundred Gold Shields is perfectly acceptable, with a very high cost‑performance ratio.

In the past year, the Thundercast Celestial Soldier produced fifty thousand sets of Storm Armor, enough to equip the Duke's guard in three barracks, with an extra twenty thousand sets stored as reserves.

The Duke's guard wearing Storm Armor, even though they are only second‑ or third‑tier transcendants, are actually not that easy to kill.

Most of the Infernal mages' suicide spells were blocked by Storm Armor, causing no damage.

Some soldiers activated Flash and dodged directly.

Only a few dozen were injured, eight of them severely wounded and near death, all caused by a seven‑ring spell cast by a legendary Infernal mage; but he was quickly killed by a Thundercast Celestial Soldier, and the gravely wounded soldiers were promptly teleported to the armored warship for treatment, saving their lives.

There were no further complications.

The Duke's guard's first battle achieved a perfect victory: the first division, first regiment, with two thousand troops eliminated ten times the number of enemies, completely destroying this powerful Demonkin tribe.

The armored warship landed, everyone quickly boarded the cabin, and took off to return to the Star Destroyer.

Soon, the armored warship flew into the hangar.

Only then did the officer allow everyone to remove their helmets to breathe.

The soldiers looked at each other and found everyone's expression was intense—some were delighted, some excited, and some could not believe it.

A year ago they were merely weak ordinary people, and a year later they could already kill so many terrifying Demonkin!

Everything is a gift from the Duke!

Weapons, armor, magical pills, soul essences—without the Duke's generous contributions, the instructors' selfless teaching, round‑the‑clock supervision and training, learning tactics, they would never have possessed such great power.

The soldiers whispered, unable to suppress the desire to talk with comrades.

The voices grew louder, becoming somewhat chaotic.

This violated the Duke's guard's strict discipline; the instructors demanded that under any circumstance the troops maintain calm composure and never be noisy or chaotic, but this time no officer ordered a ban, allowing the soldiers free communication.

Gradually, the soldiers' voices unified, and someone stood up shouting, "Long live the Duke!"

"Long live the Duke!"

Cheering cries echoed through the Star Destroyer's hangar, and the soul sight of the Thundercast Celestial Soldier, the whole unit's morale surged like never before, and loyalty reached its peak.

"Alright."

The commander's voice rang across the five armored warships, "The Duke already knows your intentions; sit down and stay quiet." The soldiers' shouts ceased quickly, they returned to their seats and continued to heed the commander's admonition.

"After returning to the barracks, tonight each squad must hold an internal discussion, everyone must speak, and together summarize today's combat experience—what was done well, what was lacking, any suggestions can be raised, and the squad leader will write a written report to submit to the senior company commander for review."

"Company and battalion commanders at all levels must also convene discussion meetings within their units and submit written reports."

"Finally I will summarize the battle results and broadcast them to the entire unit for collective learning."

"Understood." The officers replied in unison.

This is the Duke's guard's routine discussion meeting; the soldiers listened attentively, many nodded repeatedly, already having many thoughts ready to voice in the post‑war discussion. Everyone knows this is a chance to showcase their abilities; some officers who already hold deputy positions stood out during such meetings, which is why they were promoted.

In the magic laboratory on the top deck of the Star Destroyer, Lei En stood on the operating table, creating one Thundercast Celestial Soldier after another.

Today's eliminated Netifu Demons had their souls converted into more than ten thousand units of energy.

Lei En used it all to create Thundercast Celestial Soldiers.

When the Star Destroyer returned to the field of Hamilton Base, the energy in the soul pool had been nearly exhausted, and the number of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers had increased by over two hundred. He deployed the Duke Guard's First Division, First Regiment, and Lei En gave a brief triumphant speech before the soldiers, offered encouragement and reward, and again harvested a wave of their loyalty.

Then the Star Destroyer lifted off, departed, and teleported to the Dragon Ridge Fortress of the Augustus Duchy.

At the edge of the Great Dragon Forest, a camp of similar layout and scale was built; it trains the Duke Guard's Second Division, which also has over two thousand soldiers forming a combat force, organized as the Second Division's First Regiment, standing by on the field.

Lei En took over this regiment, and the Star Destroyer headed straight for the New Continent.

After a little more than an hour.

In Kurgos's territory, another Demonkin tribe was destroyed, eliminating nearly twenty thousand Demonkin and harvesting their souls into energy.

The number of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers increased by another two hundred.

Next came the Duke Guard's Third Division, First Regiment from the Kalanos camp, which likewise destroyed a Demonkin tribe of over ten thousand, harvesting energy for Lei En.

In one day, three larger Demonkin tribes were destroyed.

For the next half‑month, Lei En dispatched the Duke Guard to the battlefield each day, sending one regiment at a time, attacking only one Demonkin tribe per sortie.

Lei En and the Extreme Warrior never intervened, leaving the Duke Guard to fight alone; their combat experience grew rapidly, tactics improved, fully exploiting the advantages of their weapons and gear, and eliminating a Demonkin tribe of over ten thousand took only a few tens of minutes.

More than twenty tribes were destroyed in succession, hundreds of thousands of Demonkin died, and panic broke out across Kurgos's territory.

Kurgos tried to counterattack but could not locate the enemy.

Each time the Chosen Champion arrived with a Demonkin army at the battlefield, the Duke Guard had already left, leaving only the burning ruins of the tribe.

He also repeatedly tried to ambush within the tribe, waiting for the Duke Guard to bite, but never succeeded.

This trick was useless before Lei En, who saw through it at a glance. If Lei En were not temporarily unwilling to kill Kurgos and unwilling to expose the Star Destroyer, a single main‑cannon barrage could launch the Chosen Champion and the entire tribe into the sky.

Killing too many Demonkin in an instant yields excess souls that cannot be absorbed, a waste.

It is better to let the Demonkin die slowly, allowing a steady consumption of energy while giving the Duke Guard time to train and gain combat experience.

Many Demonkin tribes fled en masse to the south of the territory, only to find it useless; the Duke Guard's appearances were completely irregular—yesterday they fought on the coastal zone, today they slaughtered a tribe in the west.

Even during the flight, if the numbers were too great, they would be attacked.

This blunt‑blade‑cutting method drove Kurgos nearly mad, yet he could do nothing but watch helplessly as his subjects dwindled day by day.

After a little more than a month.

The population in Kurgos's territory fell by seventy percent, leaving fewer than five hundred thousand.

It corresponds to a vast area of two Empire provinces; no tribe larger than five thousand could be found. Of the over four hundred thousand Demonkin, half gathered in the lands personally ruled by Kurgos, namely the former 'Roli City' of the Elf Empire.

The Star Destroyer hovered high in the sky.

Lei En sat on the bridge, looking down at the Demonkin tribe below.

Houses built of rock and timber stretched for more than ten li, and beyond the tribe lay an endless plain; dozens of li to the east rose a low hill range covered in dense forest, and after crossing the forest and traveling another hundred li lay the New Continent's eastern coast.

This tribe is Roli City.

During the Elf Empire era, Roli City had little distinction and little fame.

Its only advantage was its location, right at the midpoint of the New Continent's east, a necessary junction connecting north‑south routes.

Kurgos's tribe had a high wall on its outer perimeter; though crude and only a dozen meters tall, appearing recently erected, it was very thick and sturdy, and a ground assault by the Duke Guard would require considerable effort to breach.

Inside the tribe, multiple defensive lines were built, all stacked from rock and compacted earth, and treated for fire resistance.

On the ground outside the wall, many deep, long, winding trenches were dug, with iron barricades and tall fences erected.

These arrangements could not stop the Duke Guard's advance, but could consume ammunition.

At the same time, squads of Abyss Knights were deployed up to ten li away, patrolling and scouting day and night; the entire tribe was on high alert, each Demonkin's face filled with tension and fear, their mental defenses on the brink of breaking.

Lei En looked at these fortifications and troop deployments and couldn't help but smile.

War truly is the greatest driver of technological progress!

In just a month, Demonkin evolved from primitive knight‑charge tactics to a rudimentary understanding of fortifications, barely reaching the nineteenth‑century war level of Diqiu. Such defenses combined with the Demonkin's strong individual power would be impossible to overcome on a World War I battlefield without more than ten times the troops.

Yet against the Duke Guard's assault, these chaotic, unsystematic fortifications were negligible.

Lei En again confirmed there were no ambushes within the tribe or its surroundings.

Then he issued the order:

"Attack!"

The Star Destroyer's four hangar doors opened fully, fifteen armored warships launched, and all three regiments of the Duke Guard deployed!

(End of Chapter)