Micky was woken up by a woman knocking on a tent pole and walking into his tent when he didn’t give an immediate response. That did make him jump however, as Kux gasped behind him. He didn’t usually sleep naked, but this time he felt he would be able too. He felt wrong, but feelings rarely had a complex grasp of social interactions and future concepts. Putting on his underclothes, something he normally wouldn’t have bothered with but for their quick access. He usually wouldn’t bother with these either, as it was either full armor, under armor, or nothing at all these days. Ah, listen to his inner monologue, these days being his short time in the military, it had only been how long? Didn’t matter, not very, though he wouldn’t be here for not very either…
Kux finally got her worshipful jaw back to a serviceable position before stating the obvious, the army was breaking up. More obvious, it was splitting up into two, one following the legate which did not have a strong following, but was the largest as he burned straight through the middle, ready to take advantage of the momentum. The other was splitting into smaller groups to chase down small pockets of the enemy… to take advantage of the momentum Amelia bought them. Consequently Amelia was the nominal leader of that group. And finally the most obvious that the legate had given him orders, as well as the rest of the army.
Micky practically tossed those orders into a fire. He did not, but now as a senior centurion he did not need to follow the legate into [Dead] for once, and it felt amazing. Course, he needed to pick an army commander to follow, but that was hardly a choice either. It seemed that the vast majority of the army felt the same way, as the split was significantly leaning towards the temporary ‘commander’ of the army.
Micky shook his head, but was again very glad he could nearly just burn these orders. They were basically demanding he form up and march alongside the legate in not very pretty words. Almost stating that he would be courtmarshaled should he not. Micky was a senior centurion now, and while he should have an obligation to the legate for his promotion, the legate himself ruined that by making him the sacrifice. He no longer needed to or had any ties to the legate’s faction. It didn’t help that the legate was only a junior legate and couldn’t order the senior centurions around.
This meant that Micky was now in Amelia's however, at least loosely. He was almost tempted to go back to sleep but instead ordered Kux out. The bird girl was quick to oblige, if unhappy and regretful about it. Micky just shook his head, he was still the scrawny little kid he was, even if he had gained some muscle tone in the military.
He soon got dressed and went out to find his commanders. He found Prin drilling her soldiers in formation. She had recently gone all the way up to 1000 rank with all the battle and the benefits from being a commander.
“Remember to keep a proper grip on your weapon at all times.” She said before suddenly smacking the outstretched sword of a soldier. The soldier then held up the sword against her. Only for her to smack it again and again until it flew out of his grip and across the field.
“See, this is why you do not have a white knuckle grip on your weapon at all times. You have a strong hold on your weapon, but a white knuckle grip is only going to sap your stamina until you lose your grip on your weapon.” Said Prin. Another soldier down the line laughed at white knuckle. Prin instantly launched herself over to them and smacked the blade out of his hands. Micky never knew she was so good with a sword, but then again, he never really knew what she was good with and what not. She probably had a general coverage of a large range as a skirmisher and used the spear/javelin for its versatility.
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“And you have a grip like a wet noodle. This is why you keep a strong hold on the weapon at all times. The pomal will keep it from sliding you, physically. But only grip the weapon strongly when you need to use the weapon for leverage. Alright, now get to duals.” Prin yelled. Wet noodle and white knuckle glared at each other and paired up instantly in spite of other closer candidates.
Micky thought white knuckle looked familiar but he couldn’t place the effeminate man.
“And grab wooden practice swords! Your job is to train together as comrades and help each other, not do the enemies for them!” Prin yelled as she saw several get ready to attack each other with their standard issue.
Micky shook his head. “Ahh, youth, they are too young.” He stated. Prin shot him a death glare and kicked at his behind. A kick which he dodged. “Hey, that’s assaulting a superior officer.” He said.
It apparently did not do the trick as she did it again and he dodged away further. “And that’s insubordination… Ok stop seriously!” yelled Micky at the end giggling.
“What insubordination? I’m only training one of the soldiers that came to my practice field.” Prin stated flatly. But she did not continue to attack Micky and simply followed him to the meeting.
Inside the tent all his commanders sat around a military issue map. This was the closest survayal of the land that they could get. It had several areas with statistical numbers stating hight and elevation. Moving gradients, cliffs and where especially dense areas or light areas of forest as well as other types of terrain… Like the magical deserts that the legate kept leaving in his wake… It also had a lot of areas that were simply, ‘eh, fuck it I think it’s this’ on there. But at least the map was precise enough to state that and didn’t act pretentious and say otherwise. That could cause military disasters if they were wrong. Better to go in blindly then to go in with bad intel and expect a road only to find a cliff. The loss of faith alone would be catastrophic and at least if they were actively pathfinding they could have countermeasures.
Micky looked around the table and said “So now we are making our own way. Amelia hasn’t shown much interest in giving orders, at all, and I am keen to take advantage. So are we going to move back or move forward?” Micky asked the room.
While it seemed simple enough it wasn’t really. The first thought would be the military one, move forward. But that wasn’t very safe or defensible. Then one would think of self preservation, which would mean moving to the back of the lines and away from combat. This would leave them out of merits however, which was basically a currency at the higher ranks, in and of itself. This left them with no other option then to move forward, but cautiously. They had already seen a lot of unnecessary bloodshed and weren’t too keen on stupidly moving forward and glory seeking.
Micky agreed. They would move around in the forest where Maymay held the advantage. It seemed that public understanding was that Amelia would be moving around the groups to help where she could. This actually meant two things, one that Amelia would likely be found at the largest battles in a kind of rapid deployment to get the most out of them. Two, she would be amongst any of the groups, and therefore all of the groups had a chance of having her. This prevented any of the turncoats traitors and spies from telling the enemy where she was exactly, since she would be moving around so much. Not really for her own safety, mostly just so that the enemy didn’t know which centuri to avoid. Which was looking to be all of them. Micky wasn’t expecting the enemy to be very aggressive any more and from what the scouts were bringing back he was right too. The enemy was nearly in full retreat, attempting to get as far from Amelia as possible. It didn’t help that every time they grouped up, another group felt that the group was too large and thus a target. They would then split up again, only to group up somewhere else, and then continue to retreat. It seemed that Amelia had them rightfully spooked.