Chapter 203: 83: Not One Step Back – Part 2

Yunia is the only one of us that trained in how to manage an army, Alissa is the one who has the most experience with commanding troops, and Hana is the one who's the most used to being a grunt. Yunia has no confidence in herself, asking to be only an advisor and giving me command; Alissa absolutely hates being a commander, so she also wants a position like Yunia's; Hana accepts leading a small squad, but she'd be out of her depth with anything larger than that; Ciel's job is to keep the harem safe, so I don't want to add any more to her workload; Lina, Roxanne, and Aoi are complete newbies at this, so they wouldn't be reliable leaders.

"I could try to lead. They aren't alive, so it's no problem if they die, hm?" Aoi volunteers.

"The numbers of our troops are limited; I don't want to risk losing them unless necessary," I reply.

"Okay," she casually agrees with a nod. She wants to protect others, but she's still a bit too young for that responsibility.

"There are some elves here that seem like nobility, so they might be our best choice for leaders," Yunia suggests.

"We'll have to test their intelligence and their skills if we intend to give them positions of power," Alissa says.

Yunia nods and continues, "We'll have to understand if and what they eat, if they need rest, the limits of their stamina, their individual needs and wants, and anything else that might be relevant."

I turn towards Hana and say, "You'll need to spar with them."

Her eyebrows knit in concern. Even she is starting to become tired. "Every single one?" She asks, worriedly.

"Just a few, then we'll have them spar with the others to see how they do," I answer.

"Ah, exponential growth," Lina says and nods in understanding.

I smile at her, but I don't pat her head since she's wearing her helmet. "Exactly. We'll need to organize them, though."

She nods energetically, "Alright, I'll do it."

We begin inspecting the troops while Hana starts the sparring with them.

Ciel walks up to one of the commoners carrying the head of a dead soldier and asks, "Why are you carrying that?"

She snaps her head towards Ciel and answers in a monotone, "Failure."

Hana snorts loudly. Arreira is not subtle.

Ciel frowns and asks softly, "Where are you taking it?"

"Everywhere."

"Why?"

"This is a part of me."

"So… you won't drop it?"

"No."

"Never?"

"Never."

Ciel goes quiet, and the elven woman immediately snaps her head forward again.

It's like the glowing elves are in some low CPU-usage mode where their speech capabilities were limited to allow the dungeon to run all of them in parallel.

We question them some more and learn that they behave exactly like the elementals or the golems. They're completely obedient, except when we ask them to drop the pieces of their dead kin or to retreat. They can walk back a certain distance, but they have a limit of about one hundred meters.

As we make a tally of our army, I curiously watch a glowing elf carrying a long pike and an oval shield getting pummeled by Hana. I notice that he isn't carrying a sword comparable to ours, only a short, gladius-like one made for stabbing. Although he knows how to hide behind a shield and stab better than a commoner, he sucks at using his sword.

Yunia stands beside me and observes the sparring match. "Hm… elves excel at teamwork and coordination. I think that sparring with them individually isn't going to tell us much," she remarks.

"It's still a good idea to learn who are the veterans and who are the new guys," Hana points out through me.

She quickly realizes that aside from the Generals and some nobles trained in the sword, all of the elves here suck at individual combat. They weren't trained for it because they're all low level, so they barely have – or had, I don't know if they're "dead" – any melee skills.

They're all from the age when the God-Rulers existed, who enforced a near monopoly of Experience through Rings of the Servant. That allowed those Rulers to gain hundreds upon hundreds of levels and become demigods, but it also lowered the average level of everyone else.

Once the elves were incorporated into the empire, their army was reformed, so neither Yunia nor Lina knows all the details about their organization. We continue questioning them and learn that they have some technical knowledge, but no actual memories. Fortunately, this means that it's simple to reform their hierarchy because we just have to ask them about how they were trained to fight, then we assign them according to their respective roles.

The two main units of the elves are the pike and archer companies, composed of around eighty men in each company. As auxiliary units, there are the Skirmishers, who are harassment troops that use [Vine Weapon] to conjure either arrows or javelins, and the Gatun riders, but there aren't any riders or Gatuns in this army. The elven mages don't have imperial [Ritualism] to link their mana pools together, which would've allowed them to cast huge spells, so they're spread out across the army, filling a variety of support roles. The only dedicated mage squadrons are the Engineers, who specialize in manipulating terrain, and the Elementalists, who cast low-level system magic spells from range, but they aren't reliable damage dealers.

The pikemen carry large oval shields which are almost as tall as themselves, and they fight in a phalanx-like formation. They're almost exclusively a defensive unit, forming a porcupine-like barrier reinforced by [Nature Magic] and nearly impossible to break through. They also use [Weaverism] to connect the minds of the soldiers together and allow them all to fight in perfect sync with each other.

The archers are the main damage dealers, wielding a variety of enchanted bows with different uses which they switch between depending on the situation. There aren't enough enchanted bows for every soldier to have one, so they rotate them among the archers to keep a steady stream of magic arrows falling on the enemy.

We have four companies of Lonlanzas, the pikemen; three of Arquirandos, the archers wielding enchanted bows; two hundred Skirmishers; twenty Engineers; fifty Elementalists; twenty healers; twenty archer nobles; forty pike-and-sword nobles; and thirty Generals who can use [Precognition] and wield greatswords.

There's still the option of using the hundreds of civilians as a levy, but they'd only be cannon-fodder since the enemies we're facing are actually organized and trained.

The nobles serve as elite troops, so we'll spread them among the companies and assign them the leadership of their squads. These nobles are all magic warriors like us, but they don't have any sort of enchanted equipment. Before Aremut started producing enough enchanting gems for the entirety of the empire, enchanted equipment was rare, so the archetype more commonly chosen by nobility was magic warriors instead of spellswords.

The Generals all have enchanted equipment along with being partial magic swordsmen. Their armor may have hundreds of little decorations, creating plenty of nooks and crannies for a spear to get caught on, but they all break apart when even just a little bit of force is applied, so they don't get in the way, and they also regrow after being removed. Quite nifty.

The troops don't need to eat, but they do need rest and sleep. Their stamina is also limited, so we set up a rotation of the active troops to conserve their energy. There are non-soldier nobles among the civilians, so we use them to form an administration hierarchy because they seem to be a bit smarter than the others.

Setting all of this up is tiring and boring work, requiring a lot of discussion among ourselves, but we mostly just follow Yunia's advice. At least there's no need for a complex line of communication since our army is small enough that we can personally respond to any problems.

We just watch as the enemy line approaches ours. The monsters don't have mages to interrupt our mages, so the Engineers disrupt the ground under the monsters, and their line instantly collapses.

The Arquirandos let loose their flaming arrows, and the Elementalists cast their own [Fire Arrow]s, together lighting a large number of the enemies on fire while they're so exposed.

The ogres enrage and charge forward, quickly getting stopped by the Lonlanzas. Their long pikes are anchored against the ground, and their shafts are reinforced with magic. Yunia says that there's a lot of debate about whether or not Ronti riders would win against the Lonlanzas, but now we have evidence that heavily-armored Ogres don't, so we can extrapolate on that.

The Skirmishers pour out from the flanks of the Lonlanzas and surround the collapsed line, then they quickly finish them off.

"Oh, level up," Hana comments.

The numbers of enemies are too small to pose a threat to us, so we end the day without any problems.

Hana's tired, but she also demands to be fucked, so we tie up her arms and legs, then I go ham on both of her holes. After I'm done, we let her hang over the edge of the bath, like a filthy, used rag.

With the dragon satisfied, I have all the time in the world to savor my cute fox slave.

The sudden death cries of goblins grate on my ears, tainting the experience of making love to my woman. I fuck her harder to make her moans even louder to drown out the wails of the dying monsters.

The other girls use [Bind] to open the floodgates of pleasure, savoring the Fucking of the Fox to escape the depressing atmosphere outside of our ship.

Yunia can't join in with that, so after Alissa and I recharge from our obsession with each other, Roxanne and I give Yunia some attention to cheer her up. She seems to have become more introspective today and isn't smiling as much, so she might really need some love right now.

Lina quickly recovered from her dark mood after talking with Yunia, so getting molested by Ciel is all she needs for tonight.

"Remember to talk to us; we'll always be here to support you," Roxanne says as she pulls Yunia's head towards her modest chest.

"Is that you or Wolfy talking?" Yunia casually asks.

"That's all of us," she answers, then kisses her forehead.

Yunia blinks blankly, then looks down in embarrassment.

"Actually, it was mostly Ciel, but we all contributed… a bit," Roxanne adds with a wry smile, making Yunia snort.

Due to our tiredness, dinner is simple but hearty. We eat a lot of meat and fat to give us plenty of energy for tomorrow.

We take off our armor and try to get the comfiest sleep we can. At least tonight, the troops will manage without us. What's coming likely won't let us sleep so calmly again for quite a while.

Today is the 25th.

Aoi wakes me up since she feels like having an extra breakfast today.

"I need the mana," she says, then returns to pumping me.

"Sure…" I reply with a wry smile and pat her head.

I learned [Polearm Use] with 1 point. My MP increased by 25, and my "Magic Power" increased by 15 (now 1,735 and 725). Roxanne says that the ratio of MP to "Magic Power" should stay between 2:1 to 3:1, if it isn't, then the mage's training is unbalanced.

If the ratio is higher, then the mage isn't truly learning their magic skills, reducing the performance of their higher-level spells. If the ratio is lower, then their low-level spells will be more unstable and inefficient mana-wise. This problem can be compensated for with skills like [Mana Efficiency] or [Mana Control]. These concerns don't fully apply to spellswords since they use enchantments to make up for their lack of magical training and naturally achieve higher ratios of MP to "Magic Power."

Alissa's MP increased by 35, and her "Magic Power" increased by 20 (now 1060 and 520). She's doing well with balancing them, but she's not the most magically talented person, so her growth is slow.

Roxanne's MP increased by 60, and her "Magic Power" increased by 30 (now 2,770 and 1,160). She has a higher ratio due to focusing on [Alchemy] for a while, which increased her MP without truly learning more about magic in general.

Hana has leveled up to 42. Her [Sword Use] and [Block] increased by 1 (now 24 and 10). Her new two extra points will be put in [Reduced Mana Cost] so that she can use magic to support herself more often. Her MP increased by 50, and her "Magic Power" increased by 25 (now 910 and 430). Hana's the same as Alissa regarding magic, though she has even less magical talent, so our secret mana training was incredibly useful for her.

Ciel's MP increased by 40, and her "Magic Power" increased by 30 (now 1,280 and 780). Ciel's high "Piety" allows more godly power to pass through her when she uses [Light Magic], giving her a boost in "Magic Power."

Lina's MP increased by 45, and her "Magic Power" increased by 15 (now 1,205 and 530). Lina's focus on enchanting gives her more MP than "Magic Power," just like Roxanne.

Yunia's MP increased by 20, and her "Magic Power" increased by 10 (now 1,050 and 520). Yunia is a well-trained hybrid, and even though she also uses a lot of enchantments, she has a lot of magical talent to compensate.

Aoi's MP increased by 20, and her "Magic Power" increased by 5 (now 1,165 and 205). Aoi may have good magical talent, but she's young, so her "Magic Power" will lag behind for a while.

This is how our skills are:

We observe the soldiers while we eat breakfast. The phalanx of Lonlanzas that fought during the night switches with a fresh phalanx. They all move in perfect order like robots, but we notice that the tired personnel seem to have a sway to their gait, giving off a faint impression of a zombie walk.

A single company of Lonlanzas is enough to cover the entire width of the corridor, but the Holly scouting far ahead has noticed that the tunnel is getting wider, so our advantage will fade as we progress. The Lonlanzas have terrible turning capabilities, so getting flanked is a great concern of ours.

A General comes to give us the night's report. Three Skirmishers died by being too slow to react, and one unlucky Lonlanza died from a javelin that passed through a small hole in their phalanx. These are simply the expected casualties from attrition.

Then the General goes down to our hold to refill the mana of our ship. It feels weird to use them like this, but they have huge mana pools, so they'll save us a lot of effort this way.

Yunia's mood is much better today, but once we finish our meal, she becomes more serious than I've ever seen her.

"I don't want to treat them like they're just pieces on a board," she firmly states.

Alissa's tail sways lazily as she says, "I agree. A test of our leadership capabilities should involve our 'Charisma,' and treating the soldiers like disposable tools would give us negative 'Charisma.'"

"So, should I give a speech, or something?" I ask.

Yunia smiles subtly and answers, "No, no need for that, but you need to show yourself more to the army. They need to see you lead and fight. Being present along the defensive line will give them a boost in morale, and hearing your voice will set them at ease."

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Alissa reluctantly adds, "Each of us is more powerful than ten of these soldiers combined. We didn't gain all these skills and levels to just sit back and watch them fight, that's the job of the generals, the imperial generals, I mean."

Lina's Trivia: imperial generals are employed by Lords, and they're trained exclusively in [Battlefield Perception] to become strategists.

"The Lord is the most powerful unit in the Civil War game, but if you lose it, you lose the game," Lina remarks.

"He needs a mount, though. Little Wolfy won't stand out among the tall, glowing elves by himself," Hana says with a teasing smile.

"Maybe I should make you my mount. Tie a seat to your back and ride you naked," I reply.

"I'd love that," she immediately agrees and laughs out loud.

"You can ride me, but I need your seed to give me strength," Aoi volunteers with a toothy grin.

"Don't think that you'll be able to monopolize him," Alissa warns the greedy dragon, and the girls send her their own warnings, too, though some of them weren't sent deliberately.

I draw my sword as Aoi rears up and point it high into the air along with my three tentacle-wielded weapons. "ANOTHER DAY STARTS, AND THE BATTLE CONTINUES! I STAND WITH YOU, MEN!" I bellow while I add just a hint of [Godly Language] to my words.

The elves all creepily turn their heads towards me, then they silently raise their weapons in a cheer and then immediately face forward again. Their reaction was mild, but at least they reacted at all, which is evidence that they have some sort of morale, too.

Aoi spreads her wings and flaps them strongly, gaining a bit of height, then she glides past the company of Lonlanzas, flying low enough to almost touch their pikes, and lands in the middle of the Skirmishers.

The line of enemies approaches, and they have mages this time, who interrupt our Engineers from collapsing the ground under them.

"SPLIT!" I yell out an order, and the Skirmishers obey.

Aoi charges to the left side of their line while fox-Alissa dashes to the right.

The Skirmishers and Alissa fire their projectiles, making the shields of the enemy become unwieldy to actually use them anymore. We run past the forward enemy line and get behind them, and five orcs break off from it to face me.

"We've been underestimated, so let's not waste this chance," I comment.

"Can I eat the mages?" Aoi casually asks. Her mature and deep double voice mismatches with her childish tone.

"Only after they're all dead."

"Okay."

She charges forward, causing the ground to tremble. With her full armor set, she must weigh nearly one tonne, making her comparable to the heaviest cavalry units in the empire. Not only is she heavy, but she can fly, and these monsters didn't anticipate that.

She flaps her wings, and the gust of sand blinds the orcs temporarily, making it easy to fly over them and land in the middle of the Hobgoblin mages.

Three of them are immediately squashed by Aoi; one is decapitated by my halberd; another is skewered by my spear; a third gets its head caved in by my mace; and the last one we kill gets its chest caved in by Aoi's ball of water slamming into it.

I cast [Discharge] at the backs of the orcs in the front line, then Aoi tramples through them, and the Arquirandos let loose.

An Orc Striker bursts out of the collapsed line, charging at a sluggish Skirmisher like an Olympic sprinter. I reflexively cast [Thunder Bolt] at the monster, causing it to collapse and eat red sand.

Alissa finishes it off before it can get up, and I nod towards the Skirmisher, who nods back at me.

I see. They're actually somewhat intelligent.

We let the Lonlanzas break out of their formation to surround the broken enemies, and they slaughter them to the last monster.

I raise my bloodied weapons in triumph, and the soldiers mirror my gesture.

We discover that we can wield the glowing weapons of the elves, and Hana has enough skill to enter the Phalanx, so she acts like one of the nobles and gets a squad for herself. There are a few female elves in the Lonlanzas, so she makes her own women-only squad because why not.

Hana doesn't know [Grow], so she can't reinforce these weapons or the phalanx with her spells, but she's a fair bit stronger than most of the elves around her, allowing her to compensate with pure "Strength" and "Endurance."

An elven mage approaches her and holds out a bowl while lowering his head in subservience. She draws a dagger and opens a wound on her wrist, then lets a few drops of her blood fall into the bowl.

The other elves do the same, and glowing blood mixes with her own. Once the entire company has added their share to it, the elven mage starts whispering a spell. A completely new "flavor" of mana leaves the mage, and it reminds me of Eia. The mage finishes the spell and throws the glowing mixture up into the air, then a sparkly rain of blood falls upon the entire company.

Hana immediately feels the effect of the spell as the emotions of the soldiers around her start affecting her. She feels their will to fight in her very skin as if she were exposed to the heat of a large bonfire. Her nearly uncontrollable dragon rage is chained to her heart as the spell helps her control herself. This spell is surprisingly similar to [Mask].

"GROUP!" The company commander gives the order, and Hana's women surround her instinctively.

"LINE!" Another order comes, and the squads orderly form up into a line without even bumping against each other.

Even before the commander yells, the squads instinctively huddle up together. "BRACE!" The order comes a second later.

"PIKE!" They lower their weapons, anchoring them against the floor and the sides of their feet.

"LOCK!" The large oval shields are turned horizontal, overlapping their tops and bottoms together to make up a solid line of shields. Two lines of shields like this are positioned on top of it, forming a curved shield wall. Vines burst out of the ground and wrap around both the shields and the pikes, locking them in place.

The orcs charge forward, only to impale themselves on the pikes. Some of the monsters manage to break a few of the needles of the porcupine formation, but Hana yells an order, and new pikes are brought up from the rear, which are promptly used to skewer the surviving monsters.

"ATTENTION!" Another order comes. The men breathe in and brace themselves. Hana receives her enchanted elven spear from an elf behind her.

"RELEASE!" The oval shields are turned vertical again.

"BREEEEAK!"

The elves roar in a monotone chorus, but Hana's roar drowns them all out, "RAAAAAAAAAGH!" She dashes through her women, then the oval shields are turned sideways, and she bursts out of the line.

As Aoi retreats from the broken enemy line, Hana and other elves descend upon them, starting a massacre.

"BACK!" The order comes just as the orcs start to recover, so Hana retreats into the phalanx.

An orc dashes after her, but a vine wraps around its ankle, making it trip, then multiple pikes stab into its exposed back.

"URAAAAAAA!" She yells to her women, and they brace around her again.

"URAAAAA!" They copy her in a monotone yell.

"Alright, they're learning," Hana comments through [Bind].

Things are going well, but I know that'll end soon… the enemy has Grim Giants.

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