Clair POV:
The next day I was standing in the town's square. I conjured a platform from which I'll be able to overlook the growing crowd of people. Rick had informed the people and a lot came to see what was going on. Most people were looking nervous and afraid. They surely think about the army that is currently marching in their direction.
“So I'm able to witness a second speech of you?” Arthur asked with a laugh.
“Don't remind me, no one told me I had to give a speech. You know how I felt? I wasn't used to speak to so many people. And I had to come up with something on the spot,” I said and looked over the crowd. There were easily more than a few thousand people.
“It was a good speech. You excel in everything you've done during your stay in my academy. And I'm still a little grumpy that you've taken some of my teachers to your academy,” he said, but his face didn't look like he was grumpy.
“What do I say? They deemed my job offer better than yours,” I said and snickered.
“No one can hold against the job offers of your academy. Aeron is one of the richest countries in the world. And your academy provides extensive support in experiments for its teachers and students. It's clear that the other academies can't compete with yours. We do get funds from our respected country, just not so much. That and the students have a better foundation. I heard every child learns [Mana Manipulation] or [Body Enhancement] during their stay in school and that school is mandatory. A good concept, but it goes against the beliefs of most other countries. The citizen will become intelligent and will be able to think for themselves. This doesn't work well with nobles, who have to keep their citizen stupid,” he elaborated.
“Yes. I think true advancement in each society is only possible if it comes from its folk and mustn't be forced on them. They'll try to make things better by themselves,” Me
“True, well I think you can start with your speech. There are enough people to spread your word throughout the city,” he said and gestured to the now fully filled town square.
“Okay,” I said and stepped on the platform.
It was noisy and the people were chatting with each other. Against most people, who would cough or shout to get the attention of his or her audience, I stayed silent and watched the crowd.
I simply waited for them to quiet down n their own. I think this shows confidence in oneself and that you're cool-headed. Kinda gives you a larger impact.
A minute or two passed but the people quieted down and are now watching me. I looked over them once again and then began with my speech, in hope that my skill will boost the effect.
“Good afternoon, I'm sure many of you know me already. For those who don't, my name is Clair. I am a representative from Aeron and have heard about your situation. I once lived here in Turonis and visited the magic academy. And came the moment I heard of your problems. The forces of Raska and Kirk are marching at this moment, marching in our directions, with the intention to suppress you and enslave you to the nobles they follow.
You my fellow free citizen, who simply want to vote for themselves and don't want to pledge to someone, who wouldn't lift a finger if you starve or are hurt, are meant to be free.
I came here, in order to help you with your beliefs and in hope to create a connection to my country Aeron, which thinks like you. We, you and I, don't want to life in servitude to some noble. WE want to life for our family, our friends and our own beliefs. WE don't want to be left uneducated like they want us to be.
This is the reason for me being here. There is an army of 300.000 coming to us,” the crowd began to whisper. I quickly raised my voice,” BUT we're not going to fall. An army of Aeron will come to aid us. However, I'm sad to say that they'll reach us a day after the enemy will. Yet we will not waver and will hold out. I'm here to help you with that, we will enhance the defence and fight for our beliefs. And when it ends you're able to say that you've protected what you life for and you're one of the fist cities who'll accomplish this.
I'll stay with you and promise that we will emerge as victors. Will you help me? Help to protect your family from the nobles who see you as nothing? Help to protect your home? Help to protect your freedom?” I finished and waited. Soon after the people began to clap and shout in agreement.
I looked to the side and Rick stepped forward. He's more familiar with the defence of the city and will organise the people. I just have to wait for him to finish.
Similar to me he waited a few moments, but the clapping and cheering didn't calm down, so he began to cough. And a minute later he was finally able to speak.
“Ahem, okay. Thank you for these honest words Miss Clair. My name is Rick, I'm charged with the organisation of our defence. Miss Clair will soon enhance our walls and I ask you to group together in three different groups.
The first group will consist out of people who want to fight. Not at the front, on the walls. So those who are able to fire a bow or wield some magic, please form a group. Those who are knowledgeable in fighting with close combat weapons are also accepted.
The second group will consist of forgers and craftsmen who will help with our gear and the building of defensive lines.
And the third group will consist out of helpers who will help where they can. May it be cooking or sewing. Each helping hand is welcome. These three people will task you with specific orders,” he said and motioned to three people.
“Let me thank you beforehand for your help in protecting this fine town,” he finished and then bowed.
We had to wait for a few more minutes before the people began to get into groups.
We stepped down from the platform and walked into a house, which will be the headquarter for the organisations. It was already bustling with activity and man and woman alike were running in and out. Rick led me, Arthur and Walt into a room with a table in the middle. A map of Turonis was spread over it.
“Miss Clair, may I know how reliable your information about the helping army is?” He then asked.
“The army will come in 7 days and will consist out of 50.000 cavalry units, 50.000 bowman, 100.0000 infantrymen. 50.000 mages and 75.000 heavy infantrymen. There'll be an additional troop of 1.000 special units, whom are equal to a S-Rank adventurer. All in all the coming army of Aeron will be 325.000 units large and I think it'll be equal or a little stronger than the average soldier,” I said and Rick breathed out in relieve.
“Rick do you know of the hierarchy in the normal army? I mean is the army led by one commander or does each noble has his own troops and there's only a minor strategy?
“There's normally a general who commands every soldier under him, but each troop under a higher noble is allowed to move according to the judgement of the noble. So both would be the case,” Rick.
“But our forces are higher in number than those of them? What does it matter who's leading them?” Walt asked hopefully.
“A united army under one commander can execute grander strategic moves, while an army under many commanders stays more flexible. However, the enemy has no cavalry and as such will be hard pressed against our cavalry and the speed that comes with such a force. We just have to take out their first line of defence and our cavalry will be able to crash through their ranks. The infantry and heavy infantry will do the rest, while our mages take out the enemy mages,” Me.
“That's good to hear. So we only have to hold out for a day. Do they have many mages?” Rick asked.
“Yes, a lot in fact. I think they want to use them for a magic inhibitor barrier and then take me out. That is, in my opinion, also the only reason for such a large army,”Me
“So we have to protect our walls from their spells and possible siege weapons,” Rick said and looked over the map.
“They don't have siege weapons yet, I think they plan to build them here with the local wood from forests. And they won't be able to make one in a day. Which lefts only the mages for their use against the walls. That and ladders,” Me
“We can stop ladders with pitfalls and hot oil. The mages will be a problem. Their earth spells can destroy a normal wall easily and our walls aren't made to protect against a good mage. They are more against monster and bandits, not an army,” Walt said.
“I'll make the pitfalls and are also able to strengthen the walls. They'll be able to overcome the pitfalls eventually. So it comes down to our own defence force. How many trained bowmen do you have?” Me
“Not enough,” Rick said with a sigh.
“I have a few hundred crossbows in my dimensional ring, those will help a little. Crossbows are easy to use and a group of two can switch between reloading and firing,” I said.
“They'll help, but I don't know if it'll be enough,” Rick.
“I'm also able to equip our walls with spikes, they'll block ladders and the mages have to overcome them before any ladder can be placed,” Me
“A good suggestion, we can also equip the pitfalls with spikes,” Arthur said.
“Yes, then what about supplies?” I asked.
“We have enough food to hold out for a month. But we lack in the arrow department. I think we won't have enough. Maybe for a day or two. We're dead if your army doesn't come in time,” Rick said and looked at me in worry.
“I have a few thousand,” I said after a moment. It's good that I'm a hamster if it comes to things I might need. My inventory is full with things I normally don't need. I just think that I might need it later and then often put it into my inventory.
“I hope we don't have to use them,” Walt then said.
“Better save than sorry, thank you, Miss Clair,” Arthur.
“Then let's go out and help where we can. Miss Clair, could you enhance the walls, while Arthur makes pitfalls? I'll organise the troops and Walt will organise the supplies;” Rick said and each of us began to work.
My work was simple. I just had to make the walls denser and create spikes at the top and bottom. I also had to repair broken parts or enhance the gates. But all in all it only took me a few hours to finish with the whole town. I then helped Arthur with the pitfalls and gave Rick the crossbows and arrows.
We finished at the end of the day and I used the next five days to train the bowman a little. The new ones are far from being good. But they're able to knock an arrow and shoot it up to 50 metre. Not a precise shot, but still a shot. Precise shots aren't even needed if there are enough targets to hit. Each arrow that hits and wounds someone is a good arrow and mostly enough to take someone out of further fights.
The days passed and, correct to my prognosis, the enemy forces arrived seven days after my arrival in Turonis.
They stopped two kilometres away from the city and set camp. The camp itself was large, bigger than the city, which only has around a two hundred thousand inhabitants. A few hours later a man in a decorated armour rode to the gate and spoke in a loud voice.
“I've come as an envoy for the proud general Frank van Chilbur. We demand our city back and the surrender of your leaders, as well as the self proclaimed goddess named Clair. You have three hours to do so. If you don't full fill our demands we will raid and destroy this city.”
“We won't hand them over go back to your filthy noble master and leave. Our goddess will protect us from the likes of you,” Someone shouted and a few more agreed.
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I smiled as I heard that. It's nice to be liked so much, such fanaticism is truly something cool. People would say I'm a hypocrite and I would agree. I do say that fanaticism is bad and it is, however, everything is Gray. There is no good or bad and all things can be used for either. Fanaticism is the same, it can be used for something good, like equality in case of The Church of Carring or something bad like the eradication of all non-human sentient beings.
“So be it, heed my word. Each of you will die or be enslaved for rebellion against his highness king Ludwig Braling the Third. Those of you who want to surrender do it now and you'll only receive a mild punishment,” he further said but no one moved.
“It will be a joy to burn this city down,” he then said and rode back to his camp.
“Well that went like we expected,” Rick said. He's standing next to me and is, like me, looking at the enemy camp.
“When do you think they will attack?” Walt asked. He stood at the other side of me.
“I think they'll test the waters with a few smaller troops,” Rick said and it turned out as he said. Just not exactly like we thought. They didn't send their troops to attack, they sent slaves with the order to attack. Those slaves looked staved and shouldn't be a problem, they wouldn't even be able to overcome the pitfalls. But they were a problem for me, I mean the people expect from me to help slaves.
“What do you want to do?” Arthur asked me as they came running to us.
“I will help them, what else?” I said.
“And how? These are easily 2 thousand slaves,” Arthur.
“I'll knock them out with mana pressure and then carry them over the wall with a wind spell,” I said and did as I said. Each of them got hit by my mana pressure. Just enough to hit then unconscious but not enough to truly hurt them. They fell like domino stones and then laid still.
“Impressive!” Arthur.
“Yes, I'll remove their slave runes,” I said and used wind magic to carry them over the wall to a park. Where I then began to remove their slave runes. It took me a few hours and the enemy used this time to attack with his own troops. Each attack was forced back, but they managed to destroy a few pitfalls with the usage of earth spells.
They also attacked with bows and a few spells and a some the man on the wall were hit. They also tried to set the city on fire with fireballs but intercepted them before they could hit anything.
I don't think that they know about the coming army, which isn't really coming. They are in my inventory and ready to come out on my command. Anyway, they didn't attack with enough force to create trouble and were only testing our defence. Which must've been good enough because they didn't attack for the rest of the day and started to cut trees in a nearby forest.
I finished with the slave runes at evening and made food for the now freed slaves, who are eager to help us.
They didn't try anything in the night, which was normal. There were seldom any fights during night in medieval wars. The sight is simply too bad.
They attacked inthe morning of the next day. A few thousand troops. They managed to breach another pitfall and are now almost within reach of the wall. So I changed places with a clone and waited inside a forest for the next attack. This attack will bring them close to the wall and make my entrance good enough. I don't want to risk a possible breach of the walls.
The attack came two hours later and I took my troops out, only a kilometre away from their camp.
They clearly panicked as they saw what suddenly was behind them. I mean a force that is as strong as them plops suddenly into existence? Surely something to be afraid of.
Their commander was good, at least good enough to organise a line of defence. But I didn't want to run into their camp. The tents would split my cavalry and that would be deadly for me. So I ordered my bowmen to let hell lose on them and the sun turned dark. Countless arrows flew at the enemy camp and they were forced to come to me. That or they would slowly die under all the arrows. The arrows are generated by magic, so the supply is nearly infinite.
It took them 30 minutes to create a barrier that blocked every incoming arrow. It was a wind barrier and it was also large enough to encase most of their troop camp. I didn't attack the camp of their followers.
They then started to move out and came nearer and nearer. And their barrier was then attacked from my mages as they came near enough. Simple fireballs were shot at the barrier. And the wind barrier turned into a barrier of fire as the wind enhanced the fireballs. A few fireballs near the ground took their sight and my cavalry began to ride at them. Directly followed by the dwarfen army and then the normal infantry.
The next thing must've been horror to their mages. Because I simply sucked the mana out of their barrier and it vanished. A few fireballs fell into their ranks and the arrows hit and wounded again. But almost at the same time came 50.000 cavalry soldiers. I didn't use heavy cavalry or the bowman cavalry, just simple cavalry. But they were enough to cut a line into their ranks. They weren't able to resist and the horses were quickly in deep in their formation. Followed by dwarfen heavy infantry. And it was a bloodbath, the surprised and already mostly wounded or frightened soldiers had now to fight against small and bulky dwarfen who wore all the same armour. The unity of my soldiers makes them fearful. At some point in the fight you simply think that you're fighting against the same guy. Over and over again. Which would turn out to be something bad for me if they notice that these golems have no diversity in their attacks. Each of them would move the same against an enemy. They wouldn't adapt if they see a comrade “die”. They would simply attack like their comrade.
But I don't care. I'll simply work with quantity against adaptivity.
Back to the fight, the heavy infantry followed after the cavalry and further enlarged the split in the enemy forces. The following normal infantry killed those who were at the side and hindered the enemy to close the hole. Mages on both sides tried to kill the food soldiers but I quickly ordered my bowmen to attack the enemy mages. Who then had to defend against the incoming arrows.
The fight lasted for three hours before the enemy began to retread. They started to run and fled from my golems. Who weren't pursuing them. They simply stayed behind and killed the wounded. The followers of the enemy camp fled an hour before the soldiers. Most likely to give them some time.
I led a few clones count the dead on the enemy side and took the remaining golems back into my inventory. Where I noticed that I lost 25.000 cavalries, 23.000 heavy infantry, 20.000 infantry and 300 leader golems. No mages and no bowman were broken. I then activated the regeneration rune and put the, now again “living”, troops also in my inventory.
The enemy lost almost 150.000 of their troops. And another 25.000 in their camp. So 65.000 on my side against 175.000 on their side. A good trade if you take count of my zero loses, thanks to the regeneration rune. This war is so unfair for them.
I just finished with killing the survivors as Rick, Walt and Arthur came to me. They looked over the battlefield and then at the vanishing golems before they looked at me.
“That was... quick,” Rick said in awe.
“Yes, what are these? Golems?” Arthur asked.
“H..how many did you get?” Walt asked.
“Around 175.000 lost on their side. Many of them will tell their friends about my golems. And I don't think they'll attack again, not with such a high lost. But to be sure, here is a communication rune. Just infuse it with mana and you'll be able to speak with me. I'll then come and help,” I said and put the last golems in my inventory. After that I gave Arthur the rune and looked at them.
“What?” Rick asked after a pause.
“What do you want to do with their camp? You can plunder it for weapons, food and money. I don't need it. And do you want me to bury the fallen?” I asked.
“It would help us to not have to bury the dead,” Walt said and looked over the battlefield. Corpses were laying everywhere.
“Okay,” I said and the earth began to suck each and every corpse in. not five minutes later and the whole field, that was moments before filled with dead bodies, was now a brown patch of dirt.
“Woah,” Rick said with an open mouth and Arthur looked at me with squinted eyes.
“Well then, let's get back to the town. We have to help the ex-slaves,” I said and we walked back.
“Miss Clair, why didn't you attack the enemy by yourselve? Your spell that buried the dead should have been strong enough to also kill most of them,” Arthur asked me as we came back. He waited long enough for us to be alone before he asked. Which was good.
“Because it wouldn't have been as much fun,” I said truthfully and he looked down at me.
“Please don't harm innocents with your way of doing things. I know I'm not strong enough to stop you, but I hope you will act according to the things your followers believe you do,” he said after a pause and then walked away before I could say anything.
“We'll see,” I muttered and then continued to help the slaves. Most of them want to go to Aeron, so we used the wagons and supplies of the now deserted camp for their travel.
“Miss Clair, I could I speak with you about the future of Turonis?” Walt asked as I got ready to go to my mansion.
“Sure,” I said and beaconed him to follow me to my mansion.
“Thanks,” he said and followed me to my kitchen, where I gave him something to drink.
“You see Miss Clair, we, Turonis, isn't strong enough to protect itself. So we have to ally with someone else. I want to ask you if it's possible for Aeron to include Turonis and its surroundings into its boundaries,” he said and bowed deeply.
“I can't make a wall before the war ended, but I'm able to give you a thousand of Aerons guards. They can't be used as an offence force, but should be strong enough to fight anything. They will only act as a defence and will work as part of the guards when the war finishes. Until then they will guard the walls and the surroundings of Turonis. Is that okay with you?” I asked.
“That is more than we can ask for. Turonis planned from the start to go to Aeron, in hope for protection and the things Aeron provides its citizen. Our magic academy will also be part of Aeron in the future,” Walt said and bowed again.
“Good, I'll send an envoy, who'll stay in my mansion. He'll bring the guards. He'll be here in about a week, but I have to go before he does. In fact, I'll go tomorrow morning,” I said.
“Thank you, Miss Clair. I don't want to trouble you any longer and will go back to the headquarter. Have a nice rest,” Walt said and left with a third bow.
Tomorrow I'll go back to Nahar and hear what the envoys from Tragon and Solo have to say.
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First, fight in an army. I didn't want to make it longer than necessary. I mean who wouldn't use the longbow tactic from Age of Empire if he can?