I woke up to a fist-sized stone slamming in front of my face, my eyes going cross-eyed for a fraction of a second before I finished waking up and the adrenaline hit.
I was up and moving, trying to figure out the situation, thankful that I’d slept in my full armor with my spear in hand.
I burst out of my tent as more rocks rained down on us. I looked skywards, seeing the harpy mercenaries as tiny dots against the clouds.
Those bastards. I intellectually knew it would happen, but it felt like they were twisting the knife. I’d just gone through their camp and healed them to the best of my abilities last night. Now they were trying to murder me.
I dashed around the camp as quickly as I dared, looking for injuries, for casualties. To my great befuddlement, I only saw one soldier injured. A number of his fellows were carrying him on a stretcher to the medical tents, the man clutching the mangled ruins of his leg as he screamed in agony.
I healed him with a thought. Sure, he’d get excellent care and attention from the Optio and her line, but why wait? We were under attack.
Almost as quickly as it started, the hail of rocks ended. A quick guesstimate on numbers suggested that the harpies had simply run out of mana.
A second guesstimate suggested that the number of casualties was so low because of a person’s top-down profile versus how much room there was. In short, they were just spraying and praying, although the sheer quantity of rocks being dropped suggested they’d get quite a few people before the day was done.
Horns started to blow and drums were beaten. The entire camp boiled alive with people running to their assigned position. A breakfast of preserved rations was handed out by the [Quartermaster] and her minions.
I went to find Katerina at the center of the storm, calmly sitting and analyzing the situation as Leonidus issued command after command. She spotted me and waved me over.
“Bunny.” She stressed the word. “Take command of the 1st Cohort, 4th Century, 8th Line. They’re your [Batteries]. Fall back to the specialist position. I expect you to stay roughly there as we position and the fight engages, but we have eyes. Use your own discretion where you need to be and when, but understand if I ask you to reposition to a specific spot, there is probably a damn good reason for it.”
“Brrrpt! Brpt?” Auri asked.
“Legata. Auri’s position?” I asked.
“Would like to keep her with command.” Katerina instantly replied. “Deploying her at the right time and place could be crucial, and nothing screams ‘pay attention to me’ like a phoenix on your shoulder.”
“Brrrpt brrrpt…” Auri muttered darkly, looking at the harpies circling high above. A few had lit torches in their talons, and I knew Auri had a grudge against most other birds.
Oversized birds trying to kill me and using fire? Frankly, I was shocked that Auri wasn’t already up in the sky, attempting to establish dominance. Given how those fuckers had tried to murder me in my sleep, and were still semi-actively trying to kill us, I had absolutely no qualms about Auri doing what she did best - and could potentially even ask her to do so!
“Stay here then.” I said.
Katerina turned from whatever was distracting her and looked me in the eyes.
“Dawn. Keep my people alive.” The Legata implored me.
I snapped a fast salute and rushed off to my spot.
The Legion was already forming up outside the walls, and I went with the milling crowd as we all fell into formation. I found my line quickly enough, and put myself in the Sentinel mindset.
I was Sentinel Dawn, and this was my calling. My team. I was trained on taking control of small squads, and while I was just one piece in a larger battle, what I was asking of my team was minimal. Stay with me. Provide me with mana.
I recognized Nike as I approached.
“Nike. Bunny taking command.” I winked, completely out of place with the upcoming battle, but when facing the gallows what else could I do?
There were looks of understanding across the line, a mad set of grins as the [Batteries] realized who they were working with.
We got in line at the back of the century, right in the middle of the cohort. The backs of my fellow soldiers were in front of me, giving me only slight glimpses of the field when people aligned perfectly.
I was still in the first cohort, and I recognized my old line getting into formation. Grizzly and Boots, Darts, Blockhead, and the rest of them. I would’ve needed to twist back awkwardly to try and say hi or even have them start to recognize me, but it wasn’t the time or the place. Good to know and see them here.
They’d keep me safe, and I’d keep them alive.
Sounds started to do weird things. First, every noise abruptly cut off. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my own heart beating, along with other internal processes. Then some sound returned, but just the noises of the Legion. The steady rustling of chainmail, the nervous chatter that the [Centurions] didn’t try to stomp down on, the rushing as the slower soldiers made their way into position. The rolling of drums, and the occasional trumpet blare.
There was a whole axis of warfare I was entirely unfamiliar with, that I didn’t fight on in any way, shape or form. An axis that could screw me hard if I ended up being on the wrong side of it.
Information warfare.
Sound classers on our side worked hard to issue orders. The entire command structure to Reed, Reed to the tribunes, the tribunes to the centurions, and the centurions to the soldiers in the line.
At the same time, Sound classers on the other side tried to intercept, prevent, or in the worst cases, change the orders we heard. If Katerina ordered ‘All units charge’ and it was changed to ‘Everyone retreat’, that was a disaster. Similar to being able to intercept plans, and the whole axis of fighting that happened there.
That was just on a single element. Mirages had their own part, although almost nobody fell for ‘simple’ illusions. Acts like my cosmetics where I dressed up entirely to look like something different was the smallest level of the deception. It ranged all the way up to stuffing bags with straw and putting them on donkeys to look like another cavalry regiment.
There were subtle battles alongside any number of elements. Plays and counterplays, all the elements clashing in a thousand ways. Dark clashing with Light, Fire against Water, Wood and Metal wrestled, and Wind sped while Earth tried to stop it.
I trusted my fellow men and women of the Legion to do their job.
They trusted me to do mine.
“... Dawn’s in.” Reed’s voice crackled in my ear. The Standard Bearer’s job was simple on the surface - hold the standard of the Legion high. The reality was he was in charge of all the communication and information warfare on the battle, with Optio Ardenus running a set of specialists to help him out.
“Good. Dawn, we’ve got eyes on you, but if you have to move, let us know to confirm it. Otherwise, be mindful that you’re in the command comms.”
“Understood.” I kept my speech short and to the point. “Any issues with me issuing line commands?”
“Dawn, just talking to you now.” Reed’s voice came in my ear again. “Technically, yes, but I’ll drop you out of the command chat when it happens. Unless I’m dead, at which point there is no command chat anymore, and you’ll be relying on normal signals.”
I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see me. Or… could they? They did say they had eyes on me, but better not to trust that.
“Understood.”
More orders were issued, people and centuries shuffled around, and in a heartbeat, in an eternity, the fateful orders were given.
“Century! Shields! Up!” The [Centurion] roared, the commands echoed by his own standard bearer.
I lifted my shield up, and at the same time, I turned my healing all the way on, measuring rough distances, and checking what the field looked like.
It was surprisingly good.
Six of the eight cohorts were out, the other two in reserve at our fortress, guarding our supplies and our rear. From what I gathered from the command chatter, the harpies were forcing us to commit significantly more forces than usual to protecting our rear, just by their very presence. That, and they could continue to harass us from on high.
Each cohort was in a 3x3 grid of centuries, with the ‘middle’ being a group of artillery mages and other specialists. The cohorts themselves were in a 2x3 grid, the long side facing the enemy. I was in the middle-front cohort, thinking that maybe I should take my line and step back into the specialist group, and look like another set of protected mages.
It was amazing how close together people could get. How small thousands of troops could be when they wanted to. Everyone more than comfortably fit inside my radius.
Everyone would’ve fit inside my radius if I was standing to one side, let alone in the middle.
The command chatter continued in my ear.
“... Wang Jian is unhappy with our formation.” Our liaison was explaining. “Asks what’s the point of feeding us all if we’re going to be packed so damn tightly and only using a fraction of our troops.”
Katerina’s snort was so loud in my ear it made me wince.
“Tell him to fuck off and let us do our jobs. Politely, of course. We’re in this because we’ll fight better like this, and because it neuters Meng Ao’s trump card.”
A few clicks went off in my ear.
“Dawn. How much room does the Legion have to expand?” Katerina asked.
“We could double in footprint and probably be in range of my healing.” I said. “The more people engaged at once, and the further away from me, the harder it is for me to keep them up.”
“Understood.”
A few more clicks went off in my ear, and Katerina was speaking again.
“Henrietta, get your lines to the left and right wings of our formation. Focus on the outliers. Maxlin, distribute potions. Tribunes, buffs free.”
Each cohort had some effect or another appear. The first cohort had a stiff breeze start blowing from behind, and the tribune roared out orders for the centurions to apply their own buffs. Being in the specialist position, in the center of the formation, meant I wasn’t ‘part of’ any century enough for buffs to apply.
“Ironside Brigade! Double! Space!” Katerina said, her order echoed by every tribune, centurion, and line leader. Oddly, nobody stepped in to fill the gaps, and we weren’t covering each other quite in the same way we’d drilled.
Well, almost every line leader.
“Belay double spacing.” I ordered my line. “Circle and apply rods.”
My line circled around me. Each [Battery] had a shield and a long rod of arcanite in their hands, wands and potions at their belt. They weren’t expected to fight, but could in a pinch. Arcanite could get heavy, and bashing someone over the head with a rod was a valid tactic, before the wands had their built-in effect. Wands that, if I was reading the inscriptions properly, we’d have to deny owning if pressured on it. Rods of arcanite were extended out instead of spears, the line all poking me with them.
I mentally ‘hooked up’ to them all, feeling the mana there at my fingertips, brimming with potential. My pool was full, and I couldn’t ‘overstuff’ myself so to speak. Soon enough though, I’d find myself screaming for every drop I could.
Horns blew, drums beat, and the faithful order was given.
“Ironside Brigade! Advance!” Katerina roared, and like a living behemoth, the Sixth began advancing. We were the left wing of the army, Wang Jian’s forces to our right, and they slowly began advancing themselves.
The issued shields were heavy. Given the vast majority of soldiers were physical Classers, with some spellswords mixed in, and how the System multiplied what was already there, the shields were like carrying rocks. Thicker, with more layers of wicker, wood, and metal than a ‘normal’ shield. All the better to protect us. Except my shield was already starting to strain my arm. I had to hold up as high up as possible just to match everyone else’s shield, making it harder on me. Damn being short, and I could absolutely see why taller people were preferred. The [Batteries] weren’t having nearly such a hard time, mostly on account of them being taller. My baseline was radically improved, and if my strength hadn’t tanked, I’d be fine.
The other armies started moving, and our [Mages] fired a set of ranging shots. Brilliance barriers flickered on the other side of the field, intercepting our shots at a cost. We weren’t the only ones firing shots. Stone and metal flew over our heads as Meng Ao’s army clashed, Wang Jian’s forces busted out a catapult, and everyone with long-range skills were seeing what they could do, testing each other’s side for weaknesses. Occasionally some were found, and people died.
Meng Ao’s army had a fucking ballista that was getting set up, and they looked uncomfortably like they were pointing at the densest set of troops on the other side of the field - us.
Being packed in tight was great defensively for covering each other. It was less good when the heavy weapons were selecting targets, and I was not looking forward to finding out if my healing could beat a siege weapon to the chest.
“High level barrier.” Hazel reported. “Recommend standard skill barrier buster.”
“Denied.” Katerina promptly answered. “Let our allies take care of it.”
Nobody was talking about the ballista aiming our way in the room, short of a terse note that it was being built. I guess it wasn’t the Legion’s first rodeo, and they knew what they were doing.
A hail of arrows was loosed, blotting out the sun. Most were sent to the main army, but even a fraction sent our way was too many.
“Once again, we fight in the shade.” Nike half-laughed at her own comment, and the gallows humor cracked a smile from most of us. Exterreri Ash clouds, shields overhead, or arrows raining down on us, didn’t seem to matter.
We fought in the shade; the shadows were our friends.
“Incoming!” A tribune called out, the cry taken up by practically everyone. We all instinctively huddled in a little closer to each other, having our round shields overlap just a bit better.
My arm strained as two arrows thudded into my shield, and three more pierced through.
Stupid skill-empowered shots. I almost wondered why I bothered with a shield, and reminded myself that holding it above my head didn’t cost any mana, and just saved me two arrow’s worth of mana.
Most of the Legion fared better than I did, and I pulled my mana up to keep a close eye on it, while also watching around to see if anything needed adjusting.
Adjusting it did need.
“Check check! Legata!” I barked out, knowing she - and the rest of command - could hear me. Didn’t care what chatter was currently going on, my information took priority. “Send orders out to pull the arrows out of bodies. I can’t fix arrowheads in arms, shoulders, and legs.”
I reached out to Nike who had an arrow in her foot, and making no motions to correct it.
“I got this!” She hissed at me.
I just stared at her, and without breaking eye contact, reached down and snapped the arrow in half with my full speed, not wanting to let the gap in my shield coverage last any longer than needed. She was able to step off it, and didn’t thank me.
The wound did instantly clear up though, and the rest of the Legion was similarly shrugging off the first barrage. We continued to march across the field, jockeying for position against Meng Ao’s army, playing a deadly game of chess before we got to the business of killing each other.
Before everyone else got to the business of killing each other. I didn’t dare think I was the only one here with the goal to save lives - Optio Henrietta’s lines, for example - but I was willing to believe I was the strongest, and the one most able to make an impact.
Shots were traded, and people died. I was under constant low-level pressure right where I was. Keeping the Sixth alive was no easy task, and thousands of nicks and small injuries would quickly escalate to something larger if I left. What duty did I have to others, when the people I had declared as my patients were already under fire?
They were under the aegis of [Cosmic Presence], the skill’s range having grown by leaps and bounds after the last battle I was in. Was it enough?
On its own, no. I had also sworn to apply the best of my abilities to my patients, to hold nothing back.
Usually I could stall as well, say I’d get to the patient later. I wasn’t so sure that was the truth here. There was a very good chance they wouldn’t be alive later.
I had a duty to the Sixth, to every man and woman next to me who’d taken up arms to cover me and mine, and I’d similarly put myself in a position to protect them myself. They came first.
Soon enough, we’d be in the thick of things, and I wouldn’t be able to get to everyone. An injury now didn’t mean certain death, indeed, with how the forces were still jockeying for position there was a great chance they’d be pulled out early, get prompt attention, and live.
I briefly performed quick triage on the individuals I knew of who were already injured. Green, green, green, orange, green, red.
A quick look at his injuries showed that [Cosmic Presence] wouldn’t help stabilize him properly. His guts were trailing under his feet like a snake. I [Imbued] a [Kaleidoscope] butterfly with the bare minimum needed to keep him alive and stable enough until later, cursing at the massive penalty. I sent it off, delighted as my mana returned to full as my [Batteries] kept me topped off, and we continued forward.
Forward to the great beast of war, its teeth made out of spears and its breath rotting flesh.
Wang Jian was clearly present in his army, riding high on his horse, a massive calligraphy brush in one hand. With powerful strokes he drew falcons and pterodactyls in the air in front of him, the ink ‘staining’ in streaks behind him. Then the birds shook their heads as they ‘came to life’ and took to the sky as jet-black blobs of ink, some of them flying up to fight the harpies, and others circling the enemy lines, looking for an opportunity.
Those were the opening moves an ink mage was willing to show. I was dead curious what else he could do, and was reminded with a shiver of Lun’Kat, who made similar constructs out of pyronox.
“Meng Ao! Shields down!” Katerina ordered. “Dawn! We’ve got incoming, full heals!”
“They’re up.” I replied, watching what could only be Meng Ao climbing into the sky on steps of air. He had billowing robes, eschewing additional armor, and only held a single long, thin sword. He pointed it down at his army and began to speak.
[Mage - 920]
That was the strongest mortal I’d ever seen, and the [Mage] tag threatened massive, overwhelming firepower, with a lack of staying power.
“I want to hear this.” Leonidus said in the command chat.
“Agreed. Reed.” Katerina ordered.
There was a faint pop and Meng Ao’s voice was suddenly in my ear as well.
Two lines in Katerina was screaming orders for every single [Mage] to open fire and take him down now.
“One true Dao,
The two, the Taijitu, the yin and the yang.
The four seasons, their eternal embrace cycling through the years.
Eight trigrams, the bagua, life’s circle and the mysteries enthralled.
Sixteen virtues, teaching harmony, wisdom, and life’s true aim.
Thirty two paths, the Dao unfolds more, leading to enlightenment.
Sixty-four hexagrams, wisdom of the ancients.
Bloom, Hēi lián dāo”
At every line of Meng Ao’s poetry my heart grew tighter.
Skills ranged all over the place, from the weak to the strong. The narrower a skill was, the stronger it could be. Skills that had special restrictions on them tended to be flat-out stronger than skills without restrictions, but were less versatile.
It was why [Nova Lance] only came from my fingertips these days. I’d aimed for a narrower, but more powerful skill.
A skill by someone that high level, with the absurd requirement to recite such a long poem before it?
Katerina’s order to kill him now was exactly the right move, no matter that their barrier was still up. The Legion had thrown their best barrier breakers against Meng Ao’s army’s Brilliance barrier, but he was still standing at the end of his skill.
It held before the end of the skill, and Meng Ao dropped his blade, another ritual move empowering an already absurd skill.
As it hit where his feet were ‘standing’ on the air the blade dissolved into thousands upon millions of black lotus petals that fluttered through the air to us, growing and growing into a massive storm of petals.
Then they descended upon us all. A tsunami as black as night, as dark as the void, their petals consuming every mote of light roared up from Meng Ao and crashed over us.
The edges were razor-sharp. They didn’t cut through our armor, but every single exposed piece of flesh, every single joint, every eyeball, they found and cut. Nothing was instantly lethal, but the damage was everywhere, to everyone. A cut eyeball was blinding, and a cut carotid was lethal.
[Cosmic Presence] was stupidly good against the skill though, given the fine, razor-sharp nature of the blades.
I laughed when I realized it. No matter that [Wheel of Sun and Moon] was practically out of commission due to the petals being so thick they briefly blocked out the sun - [Cosmic Presence], in an unexpected twist, was just that good against it. Almost like me running face-first into a Mirror classer.
Weirdly, if the blades hadn’t been so sharp, I would’ve had a much worse time. Tearing injuries were harder for me to passively handle, but shallow, razor-sharp cuts were exactly the type of injury I could handle without thinking about it.
The black storm quickly turned bright red with freshly spilled blood, and while my main focus was on people, on the flesh and blood that made up our bodies, the whirling blades were less discriminate. Exposed leather was torn to shreds, ropes were snapped, and the Sixth Legion’s specialty were potions.
Explosive potions. There was a delicate balance between the toughness of the material used to contain the potion to prevent accidents, and needing them delicate enough to break and shatter on impact, then explode.
Meng Ao’s delicate petals, designed to cut down soldiers like a farmer harvesting wheat, were more than potent enough to break dozens upon dozens of vials, which then did what they did best.
Explode.
Cataclysmically.
The Legion was rocked by cascading explosions ripping through our ranks as the explosions from one set triggered the few potions that hadn’t yet detonated, showering us in the flames, ceramics, and explosives that were the peak of deadliness that we usually tried to apply to everyone else. Small blessing that it was, the bloodied lotus petals swirling around and through us didn’t catch fire, possibly due to a skill from Meng Ao to prevent his trump from simply being burned away.
My mana dropped like a stone in spite of the [Batteries] doing their best.
“Ironside Brigade! Advance!” Katerina ordered, and the cry was taken up by the tribunes and centurions, trying to force us to march forward out of the disaster zone, no matter the flames or petals.
Not everyone made it out. No matter my healing, no matter my abilities, the stars had poorly aligned for seven Legionnaires, whose still bodies remained behind. One of the Optio’s troops quickly grabbed them and hauled them away.
We didn’t leave people behind.
The storm died away, and I could see exactly where the edge of [Cosmic Presence] was, Wang Jian’s army having a perfect half-circle cut through it. One side was screaming and bloody, and the other was untouched.
“Fuck! Dawn, is that you!?” Katerina asked in my ear.
“Yes!” Anyone looking and thinking about what I’d done and my range of influence could see exactly where I was. Strangely, it didn’t scare me. I was right in the middle of the Legion. My Legion. They could try to come and get me if they wanted to.
A stream of curses from everyone attached threatened to overload the command chat briefly before Reed restored order.
“Trump cards are out and used, I’m bringing mine in.” Katerina said.
Katerina had the same trick Artemis had taught me, where she knew how to infuse her voice with her element. I’d been taught it was mostly useless, only good for showboating, but in her case, as head of the Legion, showing off was often a good thing. A way to raise morale, and if she was lucky, and Reed managed to break the enemy’s Sound-proofing, a way to kill their morale.
Katerina’s voice was tinged with encroaching darkness and whispering shadows, of creeping shade and the death of hope. Of the abyssal void that came to claim us all in time.
“Arise.”
Our shadows came to life.
I woke up to a fist-sized stone slamming in front of my face, my eyes going cross-eyed for a fraction of a second before I finished waking up and the adrenaline hit.
I was up and moving, trying to figure out the situation, thankful that I’d slept in my full armor with my spear in hand.
I burst out of my tent as more rocks rained down on us. I looked skywards, seeing the harpy mercenaries as tiny dots against the clouds.
Those bastards. I intellectually knew it would happen, but it felt like they were twisting the knife. I’d just gone through their camp and healed them to the best of my abilities last night. Now they were trying to murder me.
I dashed around the camp as quickly as I dared, looking for injuries, for casualties. To my great befuddlement, I only saw one soldier injured. A number of his fellows were carrying him on a stretcher to the medical tents, the man clutching the mangled ruins of his leg as he screamed in agony.
I healed him with a thought. Sure, he’d get excellent care and attention from the Optio and her line, but why wait? We were under attack.
Almost as quickly as it started, the hail of rocks ended. A quick guesstimate on numbers suggested that the harpies had simply run out of mana.
A second guesstimate suggested that the number of casualties was so low because of a person’s top-down profile versus how much room there was. In short, they were just spraying and praying, although the sheer quantity of rocks being dropped suggested they’d get quite a few people before the day was done.
Horns started to blow and drums were beaten. The entire camp boiled alive with people running to their assigned position. A breakfast of preserved rations was handed out by the [Quartermaster] and her minions.
I went to find Katerina at the center of the storm, calmly sitting and analyzing the situation as Leonidus issued command after command. She spotted me and waved me over.
“Bunny.” She stressed the word. “Take command of the 1st Cohort, 4th Century, 8th Line. They’re your [Batteries]. Fall back to the specialist position. I expect you to stay roughly there as we position and the fight engages, but we have eyes. Use your own discretion where you need to be and when, but understand if I ask you to reposition to a specific spot, there is probably a damn good reason for it.”
“Brrrpt! Brpt?” Auri asked.
“Legata. Auri’s position?” I asked.
“Would like to keep her with command.” Katerina instantly replied. “Deploying her at the right time and place could be crucial, and nothing screams ‘pay attention to me’ like a phoenix on your shoulder.”
“Brrrpt brrrpt…” Auri muttered darkly, looking at the harpies circling high above. A few had lit torches in their talons, and I knew Auri had a grudge against most other birds.
Oversized birds trying to kill me and using fire? Frankly, I was shocked that Auri wasn’t already up in the sky, attempting to establish dominance. Given how those fuckers had tried to murder me in my sleep, and were still semi-actively trying to kill us, I had absolutely no qualms about Auri doing what she did best - and could potentially even ask her to do so!
“Stay here then.” I said.
Katerina turned from whatever was distracting her and looked me in the eyes.
“Dawn. Keep my people alive.” The Legata implored me.
I snapped a fast salute and rushed off to my spot.
The Legion was already forming up outside the walls, and I went with the milling crowd as we all fell into formation. I found my line quickly enough, and put myself in the Sentinel mindset.
I was Sentinel Dawn, and this was my calling. My team. I was trained on taking control of small squads, and while I was just one piece in a larger battle, what I was asking of my team was minimal. Stay with me. Provide me with mana.
I recognized Nike as I approached.
“Nike. Bunny taking command.” I winked, completely out of place with the upcoming battle, but when facing the gallows what else could I do?
There were looks of understanding across the line, a mad set of grins as the [Batteries] realized who they were working with.
We got in line at the back of the century, right in the middle of the cohort. The backs of my fellow soldiers were in front of me, giving me only slight glimpses of the field when people aligned perfectly.
I was still in the first cohort, and I recognized my old line getting into formation. Grizzly and Boots, Darts, Blockhead, and the rest of them. I would’ve needed to twist back awkwardly to try and say hi or even have them start to recognize me, but it wasn’t the time or the place. Good to know and see them here.
They’d keep me safe, and I’d keep them alive.
Sounds started to do weird things. First, every noise abruptly cut off. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my own heart beating, along with other internal processes. Then some sound returned, but just the noises of the Legion. The steady rustling of chainmail, the nervous chatter that the [Centurions] didn’t try to stomp down on, the rushing as the slower soldiers made their way into position. The rolling of drums, and the occasional trumpet blare.
There was a whole axis of warfare I was entirely unfamiliar with, that I didn’t fight on in any way, shape or form. An axis that could screw me hard if I ended up being on the wrong side of it.
Information warfare.
Sound classers on our side worked hard to issue orders. The entire command structure to Reed, Reed to the tribunes, the tribunes to the centurions, and the centurions to the soldiers in the line.
At the same time, Sound classers on the other side tried to intercept, prevent, or in the worst cases, change the orders we heard. If Katerina ordered ‘All units charge’ and it was changed to ‘Everyone retreat’, that was a disaster. Similar to being able to intercept plans, and the whole axis of fighting that happened there.
That was just on a single element. Mirages had their own part, although almost nobody fell for ‘simple’ illusions. Acts like my cosmetics where I dressed up entirely to look like something different was the smallest level of the deception. It ranged all the way up to stuffing bags with straw and putting them on donkeys to look like another cavalry regiment.
There were subtle battles alongside any number of elements. Plays and counterplays, all the elements clashing in a thousand ways. Dark clashing with Light, Fire against Water, Wood and Metal wrestled, and Wind sped while Earth tried to stop it.
I trusted my fellow men and women of the Legion to do their job.
They trusted me to do mine.
“... Dawn’s in.” Reed’s voice crackled in my ear. The Standard Bearer’s job was simple on the surface - hold the standard of the Legion high. The reality was he was in charge of all the communication and information warfare on the battle, with Optio Ardenus running a set of specialists to help him out.
“Good. Dawn, we’ve got eyes on you, but if you have to move, let us know to confirm it. Otherwise, be mindful that you’re in the command comms.”
“Understood.” I kept my speech short and to the point. “Any issues with me issuing line commands?”
“Dawn, just talking to you now.” Reed’s voice came in my ear again. “Technically, yes, but I’ll drop you out of the command chat when it happens. Unless I’m dead, at which point there is no command chat anymore, and you’ll be relying on normal signals.”
I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see me. Or… could they? They did say they had eyes on me, but better not to trust that.
“Understood.”
More orders were issued, people and centuries shuffled around, and in a heartbeat, in an eternity, the fateful orders were given.
“Century! Shields! Up!” The [Centurion] roared, the commands echoed by his own standard bearer.
I lifted my shield up, and at the same time, I turned my healing all the way on, measuring rough distances, and checking what the field looked like.
It was surprisingly good.
Six of the eight cohorts were out, the other two in reserve at our fortress, guarding our supplies and our rear. From what I gathered from the command chatter, the harpies were forcing us to commit significantly more forces than usual to protecting our rear, just by their very presence. That, and they could continue to harass us from on high.
Each cohort was in a 3x3 grid of centuries, with the ‘middle’ being a group of artillery mages and other specialists. The cohorts themselves were in a 2x3 grid, the long side facing the enemy. I was in the middle-front cohort, thinking that maybe I should take my line and step back into the specialist group, and look like another set of protected mages.
It was amazing how close together people could get. How small thousands of troops could be when they wanted to. Everyone more than comfortably fit inside my radius.
Everyone would’ve fit inside my radius if I was standing to one side, let alone in the middle.
The command chatter continued in my ear.
“... Wang Jian is unhappy with our formation.” Our liaison was explaining. “Asks what’s the point of feeding us all if we’re going to be packed so damn tightly and only using a fraction of our troops.”
Katerina’s snort was so loud in my ear it made me wince.
“Tell him to fuck off and let us do our jobs. Politely, of course. We’re in this because we’ll fight better like this, and because it neuters Meng Ao’s trump card.”
A few clicks went off in my ear.
“Dawn. How much room does the Legion have to expand?” Katerina asked.
“We could double in footprint and probably be in range of my healing.” I said. “The more people engaged at once, and the further away from me, the harder it is for me to keep them up.”
“Understood.”
A few more clicks went off in my ear, and Katerina was speaking again.
“Henrietta, get your lines to the left and right wings of our formation. Focus on the outliers. Maxlin, distribute potions. Tribunes, buffs free.”
Each cohort had some effect or another appear. The first cohort had a stiff breeze start blowing from behind, and the tribune roared out orders for the centurions to apply their own buffs. Being in the specialist position, in the center of the formation, meant I wasn’t ‘part of’ any century enough for buffs to apply.
“Ironside Brigade! Double! Space!” Katerina said, her order echoed by every tribune, centurion, and line leader. Oddly, nobody stepped in to fill the gaps, and we weren’t covering each other quite in the same way we’d drilled.
Well, almost every line leader.
“Belay double spacing.” I ordered my line. “Circle and apply rods.”
My line circled around me. Each [Battery] had a shield and a long rod of arcanite in their hands, wands and potions at their belt. They weren’t expected to fight, but could in a pinch. Arcanite could get heavy, and bashing someone over the head with a rod was a valid tactic, before the wands had their built-in effect. Wands that, if I was reading the inscriptions properly, we’d have to deny owning if pressured on it. Rods of arcanite were extended out instead of spears, the line all poking me with them.
I mentally ‘hooked up’ to them all, feeling the mana there at my fingertips, brimming with potential. My pool was full, and I couldn’t ‘overstuff’ myself so to speak. Soon enough though, I’d find myself screaming for every drop I could.
Horns blew, drums beat, and the faithful order was given.
“Ironside Brigade! Advance!” Katerina roared, and like a living behemoth, the Sixth began advancing. We were the left wing of the army, Wang Jian’s forces to our right, and they slowly began advancing themselves.
The issued shields were heavy. Given the vast majority of soldiers were physical Classers, with some spellswords mixed in, and how the System multiplied what was already there, the shields were like carrying rocks. Thicker, with more layers of wicker, wood, and metal than a ‘normal’ shield. All the better to protect us. Except my shield was already starting to strain my arm. I had to hold up as high up as possible just to match everyone else’s shield, making it harder on me. Damn being short, and I could absolutely see why taller people were preferred. The [Batteries] weren’t having nearly such a hard time, mostly on account of them being taller. My baseline was radically improved, and if my strength hadn’t tanked, I’d be fine.
The other armies started moving, and our [Mages] fired a set of ranging shots. Brilliance barriers flickered on the other side of the field, intercepting our shots at a cost. We weren’t the only ones firing shots. Stone and metal flew over our heads as Meng Ao’s army clashed, Wang Jian’s forces busted out a catapult, and everyone with long-range skills were seeing what they could do, testing each other’s side for weaknesses. Occasionally some were found, and people died.
Meng Ao’s army had a fucking ballista that was getting set up, and they looked uncomfortably like they were pointing at the densest set of troops on the other side of the field - us.
Being packed in tight was great defensively for covering each other. It was less good when the heavy weapons were selecting targets, and I was not looking forward to finding out if my healing could beat a siege weapon to the chest.
“High level barrier.” Hazel reported. “Recommend standard skill barrier buster.”
“Denied.” Katerina promptly answered. “Let our allies take care of it.”
Nobody was talking about the ballista aiming our way in the room, short of a terse note that it was being built. I guess it wasn’t the Legion’s first rodeo, and they knew what they were doing.
A hail of arrows was loosed, blotting out the sun. Most were sent to the main army, but even a fraction sent our way was too many.
“Once again, we fight in the shade.” Nike half-laughed at her own comment, and the gallows humor cracked a smile from most of us. Exterreri Ash clouds, shields overhead, or arrows raining down on us, didn’t seem to matter.
We fought in the shade; the shadows were our friends.
“Incoming!” A tribune called out, the cry taken up by practically everyone. We all instinctively huddled in a little closer to each other, having our round shields overlap just a bit better.
My arm strained as two arrows thudded into my shield, and three more pierced through.
Stupid skill-empowered shots. I almost wondered why I bothered with a shield, and reminded myself that holding it above my head didn’t cost any mana, and just saved me two arrow’s worth of mana.
Most of the Legion fared better than I did, and I pulled my mana up to keep a close eye on it, while also watching around to see if anything needed adjusting.
Adjusting it did need.
“Check check! Legata!” I barked out, knowing she - and the rest of command - could hear me. Didn’t care what chatter was currently going on, my information took priority. “Send orders out to pull the arrows out of bodies. I can’t fix arrowheads in arms, shoulders, and legs.”
I reached out to Nike who had an arrow in her foot, and making no motions to correct it.
“I got this!” She hissed at me.
I just stared at her, and without breaking eye contact, reached down and snapped the arrow in half with my full speed, not wanting to let the gap in my shield coverage last any longer than needed. She was able to step off it, and didn’t thank me.
The wound did instantly clear up though, and the rest of the Legion was similarly shrugging off the first barrage. We continued to march across the field, jockeying for position against Meng Ao’s army, playing a deadly game of chess before we got to the business of killing each other.
Before everyone else got to the business of killing each other. I didn’t dare think I was the only one here with the goal to save lives - Optio Henrietta’s lines, for example - but I was willing to believe I was the strongest, and the one most able to make an impact.
Shots were traded, and people died. I was under constant low-level pressure right where I was. Keeping the Sixth alive was no easy task, and thousands of nicks and small injuries would quickly escalate to something larger if I left. What duty did I have to others, when the people I had declared as my patients were already under fire?
They were under the aegis of [Cosmic Presence], the skill’s range having grown by leaps and bounds after the last battle I was in. Was it enough?
On its own, no. I had also sworn to apply the best of my abilities to my patients, to hold nothing back.
Usually I could stall as well, say I’d get to the patient later. I wasn’t so sure that was the truth here. There was a very good chance they wouldn’t be alive later.
I had a duty to the Sixth, to every man and woman next to me who’d taken up arms to cover me and mine, and I’d similarly put myself in a position to protect them myself. They came first.
Soon enough, we’d be in the thick of things, and I wouldn’t be able to get to everyone. An injury now didn’t mean certain death, indeed, with how the forces were still jockeying for position there was a great chance they’d be pulled out early, get prompt attention, and live.
I briefly performed quick triage on the individuals I knew of who were already injured. Green, green, green, orange, green, red.
A quick look at his injuries showed that [Cosmic Presence] wouldn’t help stabilize him properly. His guts were trailing under his feet like a snake. I [Imbued] a [Kaleidoscope] butterfly with the bare minimum needed to keep him alive and stable enough until later, cursing at the massive penalty. I sent it off, delighted as my mana returned to full as my [Batteries] kept me topped off, and we continued forward.
Forward to the great beast of war, its teeth made out of spears and its breath rotting flesh.
Wang Jian was clearly present in his army, riding high on his horse, a massive calligraphy brush in one hand. With powerful strokes he drew falcons and pterodactyls in the air in front of him, the ink ‘staining’ in streaks behind him. Then the birds shook their heads as they ‘came to life’ and took to the sky as jet-black blobs of ink, some of them flying up to fight the harpies, and others circling the enemy lines, looking for an opportunity.
Those were the opening moves an ink mage was willing to show. I was dead curious what else he could do, and was reminded with a shiver of Lun’Kat, who made similar constructs out of pyronox.
“Meng Ao! Shields down!” Katerina ordered. “Dawn! We’ve got incoming, full heals!”
“They’re up.” I replied, watching what could only be Meng Ao climbing into the sky on steps of air. He had billowing robes, eschewing additional armor, and only held a single long, thin sword. He pointed it down at his army and began to speak.
[Mage - 920]
That was the strongest mortal I’d ever seen, and the [Mage] tag threatened massive, overwhelming firepower, with a lack of staying power.
“I want to hear this.” Leonidus said in the command chat.
“Agreed. Reed.” Katerina ordered.
There was a faint pop and Meng Ao’s voice was suddenly in my ear as well.
Two lines in Katerina was screaming orders for every single [Mage] to open fire and take him down now.
“One true Dao,
The two, the Taijitu, the yin and the yang.
The four seasons, their eternal embrace cycling through the years.
Eight trigrams, the bagua, life’s circle and the mysteries enthralled.
Sixteen virtues, teaching harmony, wisdom, and life’s true aim.
Thirty two paths, the Dao unfolds more, leading to enlightenment.
Sixty-four hexagrams, wisdom of the ancients.
Bloom, Hēi lián dāo”
At every line of Meng Ao’s poetry my heart grew tighter.
Skills ranged all over the place, from the weak to the strong. The narrower a skill was, the stronger it could be. Skills that had special restrictions on them tended to be flat-out stronger than skills without restrictions, but were less versatile.
It was why [Nova Lance] only came from my fingertips these days. I’d aimed for a narrower, but more powerful skill.
A skill by someone that high level, with the absurd requirement to recite such a long poem before it?
Katerina’s order to kill him now was exactly the right move, no matter that their barrier was still up. The Legion had thrown their best barrier breakers against Meng Ao’s army’s Brilliance barrier, but he was still standing at the end of his skill.
It held before the end of the skill, and Meng Ao dropped his blade, another ritual move empowering an already absurd skill.
As it hit where his feet were ‘standing’ on the air the blade dissolved into thousands upon millions of black lotus petals that fluttered through the air to us, growing and growing into a massive storm of petals.
Then they descended upon us all. A tsunami as black as night, as dark as the void, their petals consuming every mote of light roared up from Meng Ao and crashed over us.
The edges were razor-sharp. They didn’t cut through our armor, but every single exposed piece of flesh, every single joint, every eyeball, they found and cut. Nothing was instantly lethal, but the damage was everywhere, to everyone. A cut eyeball was blinding, and a cut carotid was lethal.
[Cosmic Presence] was stupidly good against the skill though, given the fine, razor-sharp nature of the blades.
I laughed when I realized it. No matter that [Wheel of Sun and Moon] was practically out of commission due to the petals being so thick they briefly blocked out the sun - [Cosmic Presence], in an unexpected twist, was just that good against it. Almost like me running face-first into a Mirror classer.
Weirdly, if the blades hadn’t been so sharp, I would’ve had a much worse time. Tearing injuries were harder for me to passively handle, but shallow, razor-sharp cuts were exactly the type of injury I could handle without thinking about it.
The black storm quickly turned bright red with freshly spilled blood, and while my main focus was on people, on the flesh and blood that made up our bodies, the whirling blades were less discriminate. Exposed leather was torn to shreds, ropes were snapped, and the Sixth Legion’s specialty were potions.
Explosive potions. There was a delicate balance between the toughness of the material used to contain the potion to prevent accidents, and needing them delicate enough to break and shatter on impact, then explode.
Meng Ao’s delicate petals, designed to cut down soldiers like a farmer harvesting wheat, were more than potent enough to break dozens upon dozens of vials, which then did what they did best.
Explode.
Cataclysmically.
The Legion was rocked by cascading explosions ripping through our ranks as the explosions from one set triggered the few potions that hadn’t yet detonated, showering us in the flames, ceramics, and explosives that were the peak of deadliness that we usually tried to apply to everyone else. Small blessing that it was, the bloodied lotus petals swirling around and through us didn’t catch fire, possibly due to a skill from Meng Ao to prevent his trump from simply being burned away.
My mana dropped like a stone in spite of the [Batteries] doing their best.
“Ironside Brigade! Advance!” Katerina ordered, and the cry was taken up by the tribunes and centurions, trying to force us to march forward out of the disaster zone, no matter the flames or petals.
Not everyone made it out. No matter my healing, no matter my abilities, the stars had poorly aligned for seven Legionnaires, whose still bodies remained behind. One of the Optio’s troops quickly grabbed them and hauled them away.
We didn’t leave people behind.
The storm died away, and I could see exactly where the edge of [Cosmic Presence] was, Wang Jian’s army having a perfect half-circle cut through it. One side was screaming and bloody, and the other was untouched.
“Fuck! Dawn, is that you!?” Katerina asked in my ear.
“Yes!” Anyone looking and thinking about what I’d done and my range of influence could see exactly where I was. Strangely, it didn’t scare me. I was right in the middle of the Legion. My Legion. They could try to come and get me if they wanted to.
A stream of curses from everyone attached threatened to overload the command chat briefly before Reed restored order.
“Trump cards are out and used, I’m bringing mine in.” Katerina said.
Katerina had the same trick Artemis had taught me, where she knew how to infuse her voice with her element. I’d been taught it was mostly useless, only good for showboating, but in her case, as head of the Legion, showing off was often a good thing. A way to raise morale, and if she was lucky, and Reed managed to break the enemy’s Sound-proofing, a way to kill their morale.
Katerina’s voice was tinged with encroaching darkness and whispering shadows, of creeping shade and the death of hope. Of the abyssal void that came to claim us all in time.
“Arise.”
Our shadows came to life.
