I sat in the war room, waiting for my teachers with Rune and Vive, trying to explain the concept of strategy games to them to pass the time. It wasn't until all the commanders walked in that I started to second-guess bringing them along. 'It occurs to me… That somewhere along the way… I just kind of started doing whatever I wanted without asking anyone first… And no one really seems to care either…'
For the practical, I would be given temporary command of 200 soldiers of my choosing. I would then face Commander Tabernath in a mock battle in which we each started at opposite ends of the arena, which had been rearranged to facilitate large-scale combat.
As for the units I chose. I used my eyes to hand-pick the best 50 from each squad, excluding Tabernath's for obvious reasons, and Elianaras. They were… A bit too rowdy to merge well with the others… Not to mention, I wasn't confident they'd actually follow my orders…
I also excluded two people just for fun, so I could take Rune and Vive with me. Among other reasons… I'd be lying if I said I didn't like having a manna battery nearby. And they seemed to really want to come with me, so I figured, why not? Of course, it was dangerous, but the deciding factor was that, despite their age, a half-demon and a child with manna as abundant as a young dragon would be valuable in combat IF they could handle it. 'Better to test this here than on a real battlefield… If Rune freezes up and Vive turns into a demon again, they won't be that helpful in war, and I'll just keep treating them like normal kids.'
With Commander Phily lighting a beacon in the distance, the mock battle had begun.
"So… Siya, does that mean it's starting?"
I folded my arms as I stepped out onto the castle balcony next to Rune and overlooked the plain between us. "That's right… It's begun…" 'It's actually kind of awe-inspiring how all this fits inside the first level of the tower… How did they build this thing without magic?'
As dramatic as I sounded, when I told her it started… Nothing really happened. Had I been facing Elianara, he likely would have just charged… But from my time spent with Tabernath, it became clear that he was about as close as it got to a real strategist, at least in Skorveyati.
'Each commander handles training differently, and so each guild I have currently specializes more or less in one thing… Keeping that in mind, this shouldn't be hard. Even if Tabernath does have extremely disciplined soldiers, they aren't necessarily just better in every way. And none of them are mounted…' I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes, imagining everything playing out in my head, then, as if doing it intentionally, my frame of view drastically shifted to cover the entire battlefield from the air. 'Oh… I do like this… Although… Admittedly, I'm not sure it helps much in this instance… It's starting to feel like a game… Though that's a bit frightening in its own way.'
"The enemy remains stagnant. What are your orders, commander?"
I raised a hand, staring down at the battlefield from above. "Tabernath isn't reckless or impatient… He knows trying to charge into us would be pointless. It's not that no movement is happening, it's just very slow…" I took another deep breath. 'This will be almost too easy, won't it? No matter how good his soldiers are…'
'Let's see. Black snake from Bhaltair's army as an anvil… And the Nuhushtan guild from Philly's cavalry as the hammer. Honestly… With these bows, we might as well throw in what is essentially an artillery barrage. The archers I got from Commander Al are especially strong, and I practice shooting first thing in the morning every day. And among them, the broken feather guild is by far the strongest with the heaviest bows… Even if they aren't the most accurate. And finally, the last group of soldiers gathered under my guild, the undead Kraken… 50 handpicked students who are admittedly outclassed, aside from a few freaks like Airsidh.
I brought my focus back to my body and opened my eyes. "Black snakes will take the lead, no one is harder to take down than them." I turned to the leader. "Have your men stand 30 paces back and wait for the signal of my roar to engage." As he took off, I stepped forward and turned to the leader of Nehushtan… Not bothering to even try to say the name. "Take the cavalry all the way around the outside wall of the arena. When I change the flag above this camp to ours, that means a charge, so keep your eyes peeled until then. Just focus on getting behind them."
I wasn't sure if I had to explain anything further, but she seemed to understand just fine and mounted up right away, quickly gathering her troops. "Broken feather, I want you to split into two groups of 40, Airsidh and 30 of his men will make up the difference. Each one of you draw a V shape as your two groups leave from here, then I want you to start shooting the moment you are in the range of confidence. I'll leave that up to you, just make sure you don't hit our guys. When you hear me roar, draw your swords and join the fight from the sides rather than from behind the black snake. Make sense?"
The leader of the broken feather saluted before quickly leaving… My brother, on the other hand, was much slower, grinning wider than I had ever seen him before… It… It was kind of frightening, actually…
'This only leaves 20 men at our main camp… But… They don't have cavalry, so by the time anyone reaches us, we will have basically won. If they do break into a charge, they'd be exhausted after sprinting the couple of hundred yards between us, and probably make for easy targets even from students. Of course, if they don't get picked off on the way here.'
I took another deep breath, steadying my hand as it started to shake.
"Are you nervous?" Mo asked.
"More like… Excited?" 'a high-stakes competition where all I have to do is watch as my plan unfolds.'
Dust kicked up in the air as the horses stampede out of our camp, and Black Snake began to march out onto the field, only getting more fired up that 50 of them were marching into 200 enemies by themselves… Not exactly ideal… But with how sturdy they were, and the 80 soldiers close behind them, I wasn't too worried.
"Siya, aren't you going to fight?" Vive asked, somewhat confused. Unlike Rune, who I almost had to stop from explaining it for me, having nerded out to her more than once…
"A commander can and does sometimes fight on the front lines… But you see, their most important job is to command the troops." I took my sword off my back, leaving it in its scabbard, while I used it to draw in the dirt the rough formations. "They all need someone to tie it all together. Otherwise, the soldiers here might march right in and get taken out by our own archers, or even worse, our cavalry might charge right into our own barrage. If the soldiers here waited too long to engage, it wouldn't be nearly as effective, and if the cavalry charged before the enemy was weakened, they'd get massacred. It's my job to make sure none of that happens, and instead, the enemy gets destroyed in their entirety."
"Ok… But couldn't someone else do that while you fight?"
'I mean… I guess… I could have just explained it to Mo… "To be honest, this is more fun than fighting to me… But it's also important that I'm able to give orders in case something goes wrong, and it's hard to do that if I'm in the thick of a battle."
She slowly stared out at the massive number of troops. "Ok… I guess that kinda makes sense."
"Believe it or not… The commanding officer isn't the one who leads the charge in most armies… Well… Then again, the man that came up with this particular strategy was the type that did…"
Vive started rubbing the sides of her head. "What are you even talking about…" She whined. "What strategy is this? You just gave a bunch of random orders, and now no one is moving…"
I looked over to Rune to see her tail wagging as she patiently kept quiet, making me smile, finally conceding and giving her the opportunity to show off what she remembered. "Rune, do you know what this strategy is called?"
Her tail started wagging faster as she opened her mouth, but then stopped still as she suddenly tensed up and closed it again. "I-it's… One force holding in place… And a cavalry charge from behind… So… Hammer and anvil… Right?"
'I'm literally on a battlefield… And the only thing I want to do is give her a hug…' "That's Right." I sighed, turning my gaze back to the field to try and keep myself from relaxing too much. 'She's so unconfident, I really worry about how she would fare in real combat, even after learning more advanced spells.'
Everyone finished settling into position, and a few arrows started to fire at my front line. Causing Vive to fold her arms and lift her brow. "And you knew the guy that came up with this plan… Where you just let the enemy shoot at you while you're standing still…"
'Wel… He lived a few thousand years before me… But pretty much everyone knew of him…' "Something like that…"
"What was his name?"
I couldn't help but smile as my own archers began a relentless barrage, 80 ballista-sized arrows flying off cooldown… Or I guess… at will? Either way, it was fun to watch. Even though they were practice arrows, they dented armor and leveled soldiers that didn't manage to block. 'Well, I guess no one here would recognise his name, would they…' "They called him Alexander."