Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 660 Starfire Warrior
Starfire City is a secret training base located in a corner of the royal capital's military camp.

"Baller! What are you doing? Watch your balance when you're moving at such a height! Every dent you made on the playground today, you'll have to fill in yourself tonight!"

"Santas! Why aren't you moving? Are you waiting to get beaten up? Or are you pretending to be an oversized tin can?"

"Damn it! Gregor! Look at your own performance! Even a deep-rock snail can react faster than you!"

"Sek! Uh... okay!"

The instructor paused, his rapid-fire shouting abruptly stopped. He squinted, nodded slightly, and shifted his gaze away from Sai Ke, turning his attention back to the other three.

Sek took a deep breath, raised his hand and pressed the buckle on the helmet, opening the crystal mask covering his eyes. Looking at the training alchemical beast lying in front of him, he curled up the corners of his mouth and revealed a satisfied smile.

Since being equipped with the enchanted armor, His Majesty personally came to inspect this special operations squad of less than a hundred people, praising and encouraging these new recruits without reservation, and finally officially naming them "Starfire Warriors"... sharing the same name as the royal capital, Starfire City, it goes without saying how glorious that is.

Inspired by this, the soldiers became even more determined and trained relentlessly every day. They passed the test for the implementation of the magical armor with all members meeting the required standards, and each of them now possessed their own unique magical armor!
The four, led by Saike, were the first to pass the assessment. Their daily training performance was also among the best. Therefore, after the magic armor was put into use, their progress far exceeded that of their teammates. They were fortunate enough to be selected by the instructor to be promoted to squad leaders of their respective squads.

Today's training on the parade ground involved the four of them each battling a massive training alchemical beast, allowing the other soldiers to observe and learn close-combat techniques after the magic armor was implemented.

Unfortunately, the performance of the four squad leaders was somewhat unsatisfactory. Apart from Seke, whose soul was fused with the Bloodclaw Bear with a berserk bloodline, and who was able to suppress the alchemical beast's attack head-on by using the significant physical enhancement brought by his innate bloodline when fully activating his magic armor, the other three were all caught in a tough battle.

His already rusty close-combat skills, coupled with his incomplete mastery of the armored vehicle, prevented him from fully unleashing the fused demonic beast bloodline, and his innate magic was unreliable. He could only hold out for a few rounds before being knocked away by the alchemical beast's charge.

It's really unlucky that Gregor fused with the beast soul of the Wasteland Wolf... a typical magical beast with weak individual combat strength but extremely strong group attack and hunting ability. It was already unfair for him to fight alone, so it was quite common for him to fail.

The Fire Source Beast fused with Baler is adept at unleashing scorching fire magic to attack enemies from mid- to long-range. Once it gets close and you can't create distance, forcibly casting spells will only blast both yourself and your opponent away. The craters blasted out of the playground by fireballs are proof of this.

The worst off was Santas. The Serpent Griffin was a huge flying magical beast, but the soul fusion did not give him the ability to fly in a real sense. The griffin's sonic spells were wide-range attacks, and he dared not use them to avoid accidentally hurting his comrades... He had no choice but to act as the "iron can" that the instructor talked about and take the beating.

After struggling for a while longer, the three of them managed to hold out until the alchemical beast's magic power was exhausted, thanks to the powerful defensive capabilities of their demonic armor. Only then did they finally end this utterly humiliating combat training session.

Looking at the instructor's chillingly cold face, the four of them tensed up immediately, and a bad feeling welled up in their hearts.

Sure enough, the instructor skillfully pulled out a belt from his waist, and four fist-sized stones were launched in succession, accurately striking the helmets of the four recruits. Although the heavy force only left a shallow white mark on the steel helmet, the heads inside were buzzing from the intense resonance of the metal, and the recruits were so dizzy that they almost vomited. This unique method of "corporal punishment" was said to have been invented by General Pierce, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and a General of the Ministry of Defense... which later inspired many instructors responsible for training new recruits to follow suit. The throwing of stones tested both the mastery of strength and the precision of aim, ensuring that the punished recruits were "dazed but not mentally damaged."

"Your performance has truly opened my eyes..." The instructor put away his belt, speaking without any mercy, "I can't even imagine what a miserable state you would be in when you actually get to the battlefield and fight against the overwhelming swarms of demon lizardmen."

“Only Cyk successfully knocked down the target.” Before Cyk could show a smug expression, the instructor changed the subject and poured cold water on him, “Of course, if he hadn’t accidentally shattered the alchemical beast’s energy core shield with a punch, Cyk would have also failed.”

The failure of the combat training mission meant that what awaited the four of them was that after the training, when their respective team members could take off their heavy magical armor and go to their private dining room for a meal, they would have to stay in the equipment room to clean and maintain all the magical armor. This was a hard job that would keep them busy until the early hours of the morning.

Fortunately, the instructors did not intend to let the other recruits off the hook. "Next, it's the ordinary soldiers' turn. They will be divided into pairs for close combat. The winner is the one who knocks down or suppresses the opponent three times. The loser... will go with their respective squad leaders to the equipment room to clean and maintain all the magic armor."

A chorus of wails suddenly erupted across the playground.

They were close comrades who had lived and worked together for several months. Although they were now many times stronger than before when equipped with magic armor, they were still unfamiliar with the armor and had extremely poor combat skills. Their "chicken-on-chicken" style of two-on-one battles was the most painful torture.

Of course, no one wanted to follow their squad leader, hungry, to wash the magic armor. After quickly completing the group assignments, they faced their brothers and comrades. Instead, at the instructor's command, they launched a merciless attack.

Instantly, the entire playground was filled with billowing dust, the loud bangs of metal colliding with machinery, the dull thud of iron fists slamming into steel plates, and the sudden, extinguishing spells released from the palms... In order to defeat their opponents, they used every trick in the book.

While the instructor kept a close eye on the situation, Baler moved closer to Sek and whispered, "It's not difficult to activate the Bloodclaw Bear's berserk talent, but how do you manage to maintain the talent's enhancement throughout the battle? Why does my Demonfire Source Beast Soul always disobey my commands, preventing me from activating the Scorching Fireball at crucial moments?"

After thinking for a while, Sek said with a smirk, "I can't describe that feeling to you, after all, the magical beasts we fuse with are different... But, once I enter the magical armor and complete the fusion with the Bloodclaw Bear, I will force myself to completely forget the difference between me and it, and imagine the two of us as a whole."

The difference between humans and monsters... can we imagine them as a single entity?
Baler found it hard to understand. Humans are humans, and monsters are monsters... how could they forget the difference and truly become one?

Seeing Santas and Gregor join them, Sek sincerely shared without any reservations, "Think about why His Majesty chose us recruits as candidates for Starfire Warriors... Isn't it because our soul energy and mental strength are comparable to the souls of the magical beasts in the dream illusion?"

"Therefore, the key to completely controlling the soul of a monster should be acceptance and integration, rather than manipulation and control."

Warcraft is me, and I am Warcraft...

(End of this chapter)