Assuredness backing general, manipulated soft figure to protect king (6,2,5)
I believe the answer is:
nerves of steel
'assuredness backing general manipulated' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'soft figure to protect king' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'soft' is 'ofst' which is within the answer.
'figure' could be 'see' (synonyms) and 'see' is present in the remaining letters.
'king' could be 'er' (abbreviation for Edward Rex, various English kings) and 'er' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for nerves of steel that I've seen is " They show calmness under pressure".)