Heizen's encampment, Plateaus of Haui, Peacius, 5th Day 1st Phase 1457th Set
Drunken soldiers with flushed faces were slowly stumbling back to their own tents with some support from their sober tent mates. Some were mumbling inaudible stuff while others were screaming and shouting as if they were cheering for the arrival of their Emperor. Gradually, the canteen was left with the group sitting at the small table and Teiga's tent mates. The group was still enjoying their meal, Tailun was chomping down of the lavish dinner, Devius was savouring the layered pork meat with his eyes closed, Yiun was just scanning the table for the next thing to eat while the mage was just sipping red wine from a silver grail.
"Shouldn't we go already, guys?" questioned Teiga nervously.
"Whaaaa? *HIC* De nait ish sill yung *HIC*" replied Hanco drunkenly while he swayed his head around like it was desperately trying to balance itself on the neck.
"Yes, I believe it is time for us to go if Hanco is already drunk," supported Baverus while he deftly attempts to carry the now-sleeping guy who kept saying "damn". "Teiga, go and guide Hanco back to our tent."
"Right."
Baverus made his move first out of the canteen as if he was trying hard to escape from something while Teiga struggled to get a hold of Hanco and stabilise him. Just when he managed to stabilise the drunken mass of muscles and turned to the exit of the canteen. A deep and sharp gaze shot into the backs of the last two soldiers in the canteen. Hanco was immediately sobered up and pushed the rooted Teiga along out of the canteen, it was as if their roles were switched. As he was being gently pushed out of the canteen, the young soldier subtly turned his head back to find out where did the gaze come from. He only turned his head enough such that the person who shot the gaze will not notice Teiga turning his head and enough for his eyes to look at the culprit using his peripheral vision. The eyes of the curious soldier met with the fully opened eyes of Tailun who usually only have small eyes such that it looks like his eyes were closed the whole time.
"Look forward to the next day, Teiga!" shouted Tailun as he lifted up his golden grail to sip some red wine.
The young soldier quickly turned back his head and walked briskly out of the canteen with Hanco to avoid another fight with Tailun.
The two soldiers sluggishly walked back to their tent. The flames of the torch lamps were flickering with orange cinders jumping out of the lamps. As they walked past tents, they could hear loud snoring, people whispering, praying or just soldiers gambling. Teiga raised his head to look forward and realised that the path from the canteen to his tent leads straight out of the camp. At the end of the path, the black silhouette of distant hills bit into the starry sky. The moon was absent that night, making the environment darker than usual.
"Hanco, what is the name of the guy who keeps saying damn?" asked Teiga out of the blue.
"His name is Deirus Karvun. Don't know why he keeps saying damn though. Maybe he has some story behind it?"
Again, awkwardness befalls both of them as Hanco tried to stay sober while Teiga was contemplating whether his tent mate needs any form of support while walking. Arriving at their tent salvaged the situation as both of them quickly entered to see both Deirus and Baverus already asleep before going into deep slumber themselves.
***
Heizen's encampment, Plateaus of Haui, Peacius, 5th Day 1st Phase 1457th Set.
The deep orange morning sun quietly levitated up beyond the hills with little to no sound of wildlife interrupting the serenity of Haui. Even the usual sound of crickets couldn't be heard in the night. Everything was as quiet as a burial ground. At the middle of the encampment, a fully armoured soldier climbed up a wooden watchtower with a large battle horn the size of a tent sitting at the top. Along with the horn were neatly arranged hand-held flag poles with different coloured flags. There were fully black, red, blue, green flags... The soldier made a robotic step forward towards the battle horn, took a deep breath and blew into the horn. A sharp and loud sound that lasted for exactly 10 seconds reverberated through the encampment. Next, the soldier took a green flag and unrolled it before placing it into a flag holder by the side of the horn. Soon, soldiers wearing light armour ran out of their tents towards the arena where the watchtower stands. Teiga was among the stampede of soldiers rushing towards the arena, the sound of armours hitting each other was almost as loud as the horn. The once deserted path that Teiga and Hanco took from the canteen back to their tent was now filled with soldiers marching uniformly towards the arena. Soldiers also consistently marched out of their tents to blend into the marching soldiers. It was as though the march had a fixed sequence of soldiers joining the march from their own tents.
"Wow, this is amazing..." mumbled Teiga to himself as he marched together with the battalion.
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"This is what you can expect to do whenever there's an assembly. Next time, I won't be guiding you on what to do like this morning," said Hanco upon hearing what Teiga said.
"Right."
At the end of the path, the marching battalion split up into their respective companies and started to form up. Teiga just cluelessly followed his tent mates into their positions while he constantly looked around the arena, wondering if he was in the wrong position. His heart beating faster and harder, becoming nervous. At the front of the arena was the watchtower that stood at the height of 20 metres. The clueless young man could not see what or who was at the bottom of the structure as Hanco stood in front of him, the muscular man unintentionally allowed him to see only the upper-half of the watchtower. The fully armoured soldier soon climbed down the watchtower. From Teiga's view, it seems as though the soldier was climbing down onto Hanco's broad shoulders. After the soldier disappeared from view for a few seconds, a black-caped man leapt up onto the tower while a cloaked figure and a scrawny man levitated up to the top of the watchtower. Teiga squinted his eyes and attempted to use mana to empower his vision. He realised that the black-caped man was Tailun, the cloaked figure was the female mage and the scrawny man was Yiun. The Veteran General stood up after landing in a squatting position while the two levitating aides just stepped onto the temporary wooden tower.
The female mage pulled back her cloak and chanted some muffled magic chants.Finishing the chant, every soldier in the arena perked up. Teiga could hear everything in high definition. Even the flapping of the Verserien flags at the entrance of the encampment could be heard. "Irisia must have cast some sort of enhancement spell on the whole battalion..." thought the intrigued young soldier.
"Welcome to the Battalion of Heizen, new enlistees. My name is Tailun Maverus, Veteran General of this battalion. Head of the Maverus family. This woman on my left is Irisia Aureas, the finest mage of Verserius. This man on my right is Yiun, a leading strategist, admin and logistics head of Heizen," said Tailun with the volume of someone speaking directly into Teiga's ears. "Enlistees, I will keep my opening speech short. Never be afraid of the battlefields. For your homeland needs your courage. If you ever feel like you are in the dark, seek the light in your heart, not others. My instincts are telling me that you all have potential that Heizen needs in order win this war. Nothing in this world can stop us from our goals! Nothing in this world can be the tripping stone for us! For the superiority of Heizen!"
With the last sentence, the whole arena broke out in a war cry with Verserien soldiers clenching their right hand and slamming it into the middle of their chest plate. Proudly showing their tattoos to the front. The new enlistees, including Teiga, went along with the soldiers but did it in an unsure manner. With everyone placing their right hands on their chest, Tailun shouted "WU-AH!" and the battalion echoed after him. The whole arena rattled with the motivated shout and the morale of the troops immediately shot up.
However, Teiga's mind was not with the battalion throughout the short speech. He was thinking about becoming Irisia's apprentice in magic training after hearing that she was the best mage of Verserius. The more he thinks about it, the more Teiga smiled brightly. "Now that I am away from my mother. I have to find someone new to train me in magic. Irisia is the perfect master for me!" thought Teiga optimistically. As if she sensed what Teiga was thinking, Irisia shot him a death stare from the depths of her brown eyes. Giving a clear rejection of his idea. The optimistic smile quickly turned into a nervous smile as a gust of wind blew over the arena. Letting the silver hair of Irisia's fly around chaotically. The scene was as though Teiga was under complete control of the mage. The superior being looking down on the inferior one. Trying to get his mind off his recently shot-down magic training plans, he turned his envied gaze to Yiun who looks much smarter than he was at the feast. The scrawny man was now wearing a grey robe with a golden belt around his waist. Unlike the plain attire he was wearing last night. A circular framed spectacle now rests in front of his eyes. Quickly noticing that someone was looking at him, Yiun turned his eyes to look at Teiga. The young soldier who wanted to get his mind of the rejection now faces a judgemental stare from the strategist. The skinny man then lifted his right hand up and adjusted his glasses, as if to show off his intellectual level. Meanwhile, Tailun just smiles tactfully as if he planned for the exchange of looks.
"Now, for another purpose of this assembly. Our sister battalion of Vaex has informed us that the Empire of Noct is going to launch an attack today on our empire's ally, the Empire of Alantieus. It is evident that Heizen will soon go into battle as soon as in a few days. The attacking battalion is just 3 days march away from here. I am expecting that we will be mobilised soon to defend Peacius at its border with the Empire of Noct. The Battalion of Vaex will be together with us as we face our first victim, the Battalion of Xenis." informed Tailun with a confident look on his face. The rising sun behind him compliments the situation extremely well. The silhouette of the three was awe-inspiring. Further raising the morale of the soldiers. It would seem as though what Tailun said was true from the soldiers, that this battalion is invincible.
"Let's start the main event for today, shall we? The Vanguard companies will train at the northern outskirt of the camp. The artillery and archer companies will train at the eastern outskirt of the camp. The magician companies will train at the western outskirt of the camp. The cavalry companies will train at the southern outskirt of the camp. Rear Generals, get going now!" ordered Tailun as his two aides took their leave to attend to their respective roles. Irisia will be joining the magician company while Tailun and Yiun will be in the main tent planning for the battalion's offensive. Hearing the Veteran General's order clearly, the Rear Generals of each company stomped their right leg simultaneously and signalled their own company to proceed to the training grounds.
The arena broke into 4 parts that left for their separate training grounds. From a bird's eye, it would look as though a cube container filled with water had 1 hole at each compass direction side leaked out water from the holes at a uniform rate. It was extremely satisfying to observe the companies leaving the arena in a synchronised manner.
But a question lies unanswered, will a disciplined battalion truly be able to stand against all odds? Or will it fall? Only the first battle can answer the question...