The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 836  Illusionary Army

That explained why he was trying to hide. If someone from his team hadnʼt informed the army and begged them to come look for survivors of the adventuring team, he likely would have never been caught.

He looked to Karl for help, but Karl just shrugged. ”Sorry, man. Weʼre not law enforcement. If youʼre wanted for desertion, thatʼs a matter between you and the army.”

The leader of the unit came over with handcuffs in one hand, and held them out for the Demon to put on himself. It was a fairly direct threat. Either put them on, or have them put on you, and the second option will not be fun.

While they were occupied, the rest of the squad was spreading out to eliminate the remains of the Pygmy Stone Crushers.

”Was this the whole pack, or did you scoop off a section for yourselves?” The Soldier asked.

Karl shrugged. ”We killed all the ones that were with this group, other than what is here. I donʼt know if there were more, we are just taking a day trip from Drodh to hunt. The ladies recently made Monarch Rank, and the Dungeon in the city wasnʼt giving them the sort of workout that they needed anymore.”

That made the guard laugh, then look over at Opheliaʼs massive bear form with concern.

”That is a person, right? You didnʼt just tame a Monarch Rank Dire Bear with gigantism?” He asked.

Karl shook his head. ”No, she is a Titanic Berserker. One of her skills makes her bigger, another makes her huge, and a third turns her from a Werebear into a Dire Bear. Sheʼs a force of nature in combat, and she gets the item bonuses from her equipped weapons, even when sheʼs in that form.”

The Guard nodded in understanding. She was larger than anyone on his squad, but some of the classes got large size increases now that the System was fully activated again, and many people were gaining access to the Skill Tree.

”It looks like your team is set up to fight nearly anything. But is that a Winged Void Badger?” The soldier asked as he watched Cara flying behind the greatly reduced pack of Stone Crushers to drive them into the military unit.

”Indeed she is. Sheʼs had a big day today, she just made it to Overlord.” Karl agreed.

The soldier made a sign of protection at the mention, then shook his head. ”Well, if you think that you can survive that friendship, more power to you.”

Cara was mildly insulted. Sure, she loved pranks, but she was never malicious. It wasnʼt like she was Sister Rae, who liked to make things explode for fun.

[Did you not just make a hundred boars disintegrate to see if they dropped loot?] Rae countered.

Well, she had a point. But it didnʼt count. They were just boars.

Between Cara and the soldiers, the rest of the boars were quickly being rounded up, but the merchant who had come with the Leg Regiment unit was greatly concerned that there were still more of them out in the wilderness somewhere.

He was hoping to recover the remains of his convoy to at least make an attempt at repairing a wagon enough to get him to his destination with some goods. But if the herd had split up between when he had seen them and now, it might not be safe to continue.

Overhead, the ghostly blue flames of Hawk flared like a second sun in the sky, and when they faded he was visibly larger than before, but otherwise identical.

That made five out of six at the Overlord Rank. Little Butterfly wasnʼt taking part in the battle, but Karl could feel that the creature was intrigued by the scene. Whether it wanted to fight, or if it was just recording everything from its space for a re-enactment later, was a mystery. The thoughts of the Glasswing Illusionary Butterfly were always secretive, and it was hard to tell if it was fully sentient, or simply mimicked what was going on around it most of the time based on instinct.

The choices of plays and the illusionary space suggested that Little Butterfly was sentient, it just seemed to lack a mental voice.

However, one of the demons from the squad that had come to clear the beasts had caught her attention, and Karl could sense the Butterfly trying to learn a skill.

So, he focused on [Skill Master], linking the two of them with a better chance at learning.

Karl couldnʼt see what the Demon was doing, but the viewpoint from inside the space wasnʼt strictly limited by his location. They could see from above his head, or slightly off to one side, giving them a much wider field of view.

As the battle ended, he could sense the butterflyʼs satisfaction with the results, but he didnʼt get any messages about new skills or advancements. Perhaps it was a better understanding of its own skills that was the goal? [Illusionary Domain 2] might have been too much to ask for, as the skill was already incredibly powerful as a distraction and containment skill.

Then three dozen Demon warriors, slender obsession Demons similar to Danaʼs Epic Guard, but wearing Maid dresses and carrying spears instead of the Epic Guardʼs leather armour and a sword, appeared in front of Karl.

It was obvious that they were an illusion, as they were faintly translucent in the light.

They were also waiting for something, but Karl wasnʼt sure what.

No, he knew what they were waiting for. Butterfly didnʼt know any skills but illusions and invisibility. ”Thor, Tessa, we need some spells.” Karl called.

Thor gave the illusions a layer of [Eternal Lightning], while Tessa gave them [Holy Weapon] which made the illusionary spears solid. That many [Eternal Lightning] barriers severely depleted Thorʼs mana pool, but he regenerated quickly, and he didnʼt need to keep it active and sustained like he did for the actual group members.

Karl put [Disintegrate] on the spearheads, and felt an immense mental and magical draw as the illusions moved into combat. That was a single strike skill, and it needed to be refreshed every time that they attacked if he wanted it to remain active.

Fortunately, the skills that Thor and Tessa put on them were enough that the illusions could herd the Stone Crushers, even if they were doing almost no damage to them compared to active attack skills.

Without powerful Overlord Ranked skills, it would take all of them to break through the defensive abilities of the Stone Crushers. But the [Holy Weapon] spell did some damage, and they were solid enough that the illusions could gang up on the monsters if they tried to charge. The soldier beside Karl gave him a strange look. ”Did you just put barriers on illusions and send them to battle?”

Karl nodded. ”Itʼs an odd tactic, I admit. But your team is doing enough damage, and we mostly needed someone to keep the Stone Crushers from running away.”

Keeping that barrier up would be hard on Thor, and Karl was prepared to step up with a stronger version of [Eternal Lightning], but the Cerro was so happy with the arrangement that he didnʼt want to steal his moment of glory.

[Sister Butterfly, we should make them red robe soldiers next time. A Tessa Army.] Thor suggested.

That would be quite thematic, but there was something incredibly amusing about the looks the soldiers were giving the demons in Maid outfits.