The troops were amassed and ready to cross the no mans land of the trenches and into the enemy's territory, but it was grueling. Micky was looking at the reports and at the and when they were finally ready to make the charge it was a gruesome affair. And yet there were more casualties to come.

The orders cam through, charge or treason. Micky did not want to make these orders but there was no other choice. He ordered the soldiers to charge at all costs. And it was as foolhardy as it sounded. The charge was bloody. His side was bleeding at a 1 to 1 rate, and all of this was for an inch of land.

However, the charge did win and pushed the frontlines back. It did not happen once or twice. But there was another problem. Siege spells were not easy to simply pick up and go. They required regents and or a large prep time. Yet, here they were charging forward into the masses and pushing the frontlines back. Micky had changed his spell structure to add range to the spells but still they weren’t able to keep up with the frontline. This was also true in a lesser sense for his enemies.

Then the enemy siege engines started firing. And it was a crushing blow. However, it did not stop there. Luckily, if it could be called as such, the enemy line broke and reformed the line plenty deep into the siege engines territory. Now they would be forced to fight out a siege with the giant ballista and catapult and trebuchets. But it was enough for now. The day was ‘won’ and that was all that mattered.

Micky looked through the reports. He had an amazing 1 in 3 casualties, the most he’d ever had. Worse yet was that he knew he was on the better side of things. All of this, he was ordering men, women, and children to their deaths. It hadn’t really hit him till this moment. 1 in 3, for every man, woman, and child, one of them would be [Dead]. It hadn’t hit him until that moment. And as if to mock him, that was the moment that his commanding moved up from basic, to [Simple Command].

Simple Command: A commander that has surpassed his training but is still not very high up. Allows the use of simple [Maneuver]s to be used.

Micky didn’t know how many he could have saved with a maneuver. Nor did he care. He simply wallowed in the misery that is to know, to know and to care. These were the people he ordered to their deaths, the people, he ordered to die so that he could live. The knowledge that they would have [Dead] anyways did not help him.

He was invited to the ‘victory’ celebrations by the legate, attendance mandatory. So Micky packed what he needed and took his honor guard over to the command tent.

Pagebreak

2 in 5, 4 in 10, these were the average casualty reports. It was worse on the rankers lists. There were several valuable assets that could not be replaced, that simply died to that charge. And the buffoon was celebrating his victory. Yes, he won the field, taking more of it Even now the armies were posturing on their respective sides. Micky’s posturing just outside of the siege engines range, not that it stopped them from firing off rounds in an attempt to get a lucky shot in.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

There were worse divisions out their, but it didn’t help Micky feel any better. The only thing that helped him at all was the dissolution of no less than 30 of the buffoon’s divisions. There were more dissolutions that day, the army was terribly smaller then it once was. There were still more divisions coming in behind to replace them though. These ones with more actually trained soldiers now that they had the ‘time’ to train them. It was not going to help though. The enemies casualties were 1 to 1 on their side to Micky’s. That meant they ‘only’ lost 1,200,000. But that only meant 1 in 5 to them or 2 in 10.

Micky received new recruits, fresh faced, and fresh from the baron. He also received several from the viscount as well. Now that there were commanders here, as long as they weren’t dissolved they would be replaced into one of the active divisions instead of starting their own. Micky didn’t like it. These fresh faced commanders had more sense than the veterans. But there was nothing that he could do about it, he was not the legate.

But the day was not done. There was more to do in an ever moving army. And luckily for Micky the legate did not care that 2/3rds of his gloating party left after it was reasonable to make an excuse to do so. Micky certainly did not want to stick around the insufferable man.

That was when he received a letter, it was from Maymay and was carried by a trusted [Shieldmaiden], one of her few direct and loyal subordinates. It stated that she had been invited to an after party by the other members of the lesser nobility faction and that she looked forward to seeing him there. But Micky did not receive an invite…

Well that was cruel, but this was not the first time that Micky was bullied so Micky let it roll off him. He had things to do anyways. He made it back to camp and refortified the structures. The men had come back early after ‘winning’ the objective. Micky decided that he would also give the men a rotating RR and also allow them to rest up for longer. However he would not stop the night patrols like some commanders, but simply set up a much longer watch rotation. The men would play hard and go to bed early. Anyone not returning on time would receive punishment akin to desertion. There was only one punishment, [Dead].

Micky sat in his tent as he watched the wee hours slip away and the sun glimmer over the horizon. It was astoundingly bright for the last light.

“Attack! Attack! Defend yourselves!” Screamed a sentry.

Micky jumped up and grabbed his staff. Well this was pleasant. The enemy army had returned the favor. Micky decided to climb a tower to see what was happening and better [Simple Command] the situation. He could put his new maneuvers through their paces and make a [Defensive Formation] at least.

Micky climbed up the tower and looked over the situation. Both of the other commanders were out. Maymay still not back from her little excursion with the faction. The one that he did not know existed.

Luckily that didn’t matter at the moment. The three divisions formed up ready for Micky’s every command. These were men and women that had bled for every inch of this battlefield. Micky made his orders. This was a quick skirmish to test the defenses and cause as much havoc as they could. It was nothing to worry about, if it wasn’t already worrying with their casualties. Micky called up Prin, glad that she had been on the last rotation of RR unlike the rest of her cavalry. They were to charge out and run down the enemy.

Of course, the skirmishers realised that they were trying to crack a turtle and moved on to choiceir targets. No need to assault the prepared camp. Just two rows down was another of the baffoon’s commanders. The enemy figured they might as well take that one out. It seemed that few had been as prepared for the inevitable as Micky’s little squad. But it was not time for and ‘I told you so’.

Micky gave his orders, there was no way they were going to break into camp with the way things were, it wasn’t an all out assault. There was the addition of the siege scorpions and bows being launched. They did not see much action on the field but here? In their own camp? They ran the enemy through like a bolt from the gods.

Micky spotted Prin escorting Maymay back to the unified camp. He was glad to see his friend and fellow were alive, well, and what looked like pissed. Both of the other commanders he shared his little camp with were incredibly angry. But that wasn’t Micky’s problem… probably...