Chapter 21

“Hello there.” Lilith said in her best Obi-Wan impersonation, while letting go of her friend’s arm.

Everyone except Sir Tanel turned to face them with a bit of a start. Some lowering their hands to their blades. Lilith put on a big toothy grin. But waited to be addressed.

The guard from earlier jogged the last 30 feet and reported to Sir Tanel. “Regent I have returned with Ms. Lilith as ordered.”

“Sharl you had better check our young private. Make sure he has all of his fingers and toes. You never know with these demons around.”

“Yes sir I will get right on that.” He said not a bit convinced that any action was necessary. Instead he backed up and moved a little to his side expanding the circle to include the two new arrivals. A few of the other men moved to do the same.

Lilith didn’t appreciate the jab from Sir Tanel so she shot him a look that might have scared a lesser man. Sir Tanel just put on a smile walked right up and hugged Lilith and patted her on the shoulders. Lilith thought this was very out of character for Tany. He was friendly yes but not a hugger. ‘maybe he was trying to show that she was nothing to be afraid of in front of the men.’ When he released her Lilith reached forward to shake his hand. “So what kind of show have you prepared? I saw the spears.” Lilith asked.

“Well the gents in green are the orcs today and you can probably see the militia. We are going to have them line up in formation three deep and the orcs are going to charge and do combat at three quarters speed.” Sharl said while gesturing at the two very different looking groups of men.

Lilith noticed the pretend orcs had wooden axes and wooden war hammers. She then saw the 15’ spears had counterweights on the bottom as well. ‘so they really did follow my design’ Lilith thought to herself before saying. “I see, but how did you get the spears ready so fast?”

“The shipbuilder had them in stock. It seems they use them to push boats along the river. They matched your drawing perfectly we just had to cut 5’ off the ends and add the metal parts but you already gave us the weights to use.” Sir Tanel explained while still grinning at Lilith. He was obviously very interested in this test.

“Well Tany you want me to get the teams started with the scenario we discussed.” Sharl asked while clasping his hands.

“Yes go ahead” Sir Tanel said with a shooing motion.

With that Sharl left the group, turning to head to the Drill Field, walking towards the two groups of men with long confident strides.

“Lilith we wanted you here so you could see the trial for yourself and correct us if we weren’t doing this right. So if you see anything off in either the formation, the tactics, or the weapons let us know I want your idea to get a fair shot.” he assured her as his eyes now scanned the two groups of men lining up as their drill instructor approached.

“Sounds good, I am pretty confident it will work though.” Lilith said as she too turned to face the field. The Militia had 15 men equipped with armor and spears who were set up five wide and three deep. They were standing with their spears held vertical but with the ends resting on the ground. The orc group on the other hand had three times as many men. Most of them had probably competed in the sword tournament in the past as they were all wearing quilted armor made for that kind of combat. They had green cloth tied around their arms and waist to make them look like a unified force though as the suits they were wearing were obviously of the personal variety. Every suit having a slightly different color. The 45 ‘orcs’ were receiving directions from Sharl resulting in them lining up into a long column. It was four wide and eleven deep with one lonely orc at the back on a row by himself.

Sharl then backed up and raised his sword and called out a final order. “Orc Battle charge stay in your lane three quarters speed. Charge!” he said as he dropped his sword.

The men in green let out a war cry and began running at a brisk jog towards the line of heavy infantry. With what seemed like practiced precision the spears dropped from vertical and pointed directly at their charging targets. The first line of spears was 11’ in front of the front line the second 7’ and the third 3’-6”. So the first 4 orcs would have to make it by all 15 spears to land attacks.

As the groups met some orcs were hit in the chest others in the side. A few got to the second line and took hits. The men were really giving it their all collapsing in a heap if injured in the chest or grabbing the spear if it was taken in the shoulder. The third line hadn’t contacted any of the orcs yet but a few orcs were stepping over their allies to make an approach. Now within range, the orcs started making attacks on the front line and men began dropping their spears. With only 3’-6” of reach the third line didn’t seem to have much of an effect. With the front line broken it spiraled out of control from there. The Militia was killed with 15 orcs still standing.

After saying few words to the men, Sharl began walking back over to the observers. As he walked, he bobbed his head side to side signaling that he had seen both good and bad in the mock battle. When he got closer he said “That wasn’t too bad, they got about half of them before they could even land a blow. It just didn’t go so well once they got past the outer two lines of spears.”

“Ya I see some promise in this. It will be a lot different once we have the shields made.” Sir Tanel replied.

“That's right, heavy infantry usually have shields” Lilith explained “They were on drawing SH-1”

“Oh. I may have forgotten to account for that. Lets give the front line 4 hits before they drop and I will direct the orcs not to advance past the front line until a militia man is down. Does that sound good Tany?” Sharl bent his head down and looked at Sir Tanel for approval.

“Yes that sounds fair.”

Lilith stepped forward holding her hand out to Sharl. “Take it” she said

Sharl had already turned to face the field but looked back over his shoulder seeing Lilith’s hand. He took a half step to turn towards her and asked “Whats this do?” With his last word Lilith teleported them back to the middle of the Drill Field. “Well that's no joke….you didn’t have to do that though Lils. I normally walk back real slow to give the guys time to recover and reset between each charge.”

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Lilith took a look at the men in front of them. Some were still getting up as some of then had fallen in a pile. Others were still retrieving weapons and dusting themselves off with the exception of the 15 orcs that still looked fresh as daisies. Lilith let go of his hand and rubbed the back of her neck imitating something she had seen him do before saying. “Sorry I guess I was showing off…. Do you do drills like this very often?”

“Well we did some yesterday afternoon with our standard gear to get a baseline”

“That was smart.” Lilith struggled to find something to say so she decided to talk about her friend instead. “I bet Celeste is upset you aren’t fighting on the field today.”

“Ya my biggest fan, that little girl.” He said in a slightly dismissive tone.

“She is actually a woman now and soon a very capable wizard. Also she likes you a lot it seems.” She said while looking directly at his eyes for emphasis.

“And you don’t?” he asked in a softer tone while looking right back at her.

“I can’t” She said.

“I don’t think anything could stop you if you wanted it.” He said as he shook his head slightly.

“I’m not so sure. I think it would destroy you and I both completely and utterly.”

“That bad huh?”

Lilith nodded in response “Yes, I’m afraid. That doesn’t mean you are unwanted company, there are just limits.”

“One sec. It looks like they are ready.” Sharl began barking orders at both groups. He explained the shield rule and reiterated that the green squad had to stay in the lane of attack. “Sorry. Ahh, about what you were saying?”

“Well I wanted to show you something tangible that demonstrated that I wasn’t human so that's why I teleported us out here. But then again, nothing seems to scare you.”

“They don’t pay me to be scared.”

“But just think of all the money if they did.” They both had a bit of a laugh. “Besides if I got too close to you, Celeste would be devastated.”

“Ya we can’t have that… She’s my biggest fan.”

“You know I still want those sword fighting lessons.” Lilith said as she bumped her shoulder against his.

Sharl realized he had totally misread their first conversation so he tried to cover for it as best as he could. “Oh… you bet.” He was actually going to need two wooden greatswords after all it seemed.

Satisfied with his assurance, Lilith turned around took a step forward and jumped back to the observers. She appeared next to Celeste where she again was surrounded in a gray cloud of mist. “I think they’re set.”

The observers looked on as the two formations stacked up signaling to Sharl that they were ready. Once again he dropped his sword causing the ‘Orcs’ to charg again. Lilith suddenly noticed that Celeste was standing next to her watching on with excitement as well. With a convincing warcry the first orc met spear as the front 4 of the charging group all went down. The rest hopped over their fallen comrades still yelling at the top of their lungs. ‘They sure are going for realism’ Lilith thought to herself as yet more orcs met their simulated demise.

The column of orcs finally reached the front line half their number spent and began hacking at the invisible shields. Each man tried to make 3 false swings and then connect on the fourth. But they seldom lasted that long. With some time, the spears could be withdrawn pointed at the remaining orcs and thrust again. Two of the third line spears dropped low and the orcs stepped on them with only 3 attackers remaining. 4 of the militia drew their wooden swords and stabbed the last orcs to death from the sides.

The militia men cheered and began picking up their downed men. It looked like 10 out of the 15 had made it. “Well that was an improvement” Sir Tanel said while looking at Lilith.

Lilith turned his way with a frown before saying “No its still not performing like in our history. Something is still off.”

She tried to think back if she had missed anything. ‘The third row of spears just wasn’t doing what it was supposed to.’ she thought. “I need to talk to the men and see what happened on the third row.”

Sir Tanel gave her a nod as Celeste clapped for the militiamen who were all back on their feet and holding their weapons high. Lilith jumped forward 70’ landing a bit behind Sharl who was walking up to some of the downed orcs in order to help them back to their feet. “Hey Sharl, can I speak to a few of your men? Particularly, the five who were on the 3rd row.”

“Ya sure I want to talk to them too.” he assured her before ordering the men to step forward. At his word, five members raised their hands and began walking towards Lilith handing their spears off to one of the others as they came. Sharl then walked over as well, standing next to Lilith as the five men formed a rough line in front of both their town’s champions. They seem excited at the victory but also a bit winded and sweaty, some wiping their brows and patting each other on the back in celebration.

Lilith looked to Sharl for permission to address his men. He waved his hand in her direction, palm up, to indicate she had the floor shortly before she began. “Great job out there I could really tell that each of you gave it your all. Also let me say I am not implying any of you are weak but instead I want your honest opinion. Towards the end of the battle several of your spears dropped low and two were stepped on by the orcs. Luckily they didn’t break but can you explain why that happened this round and not the round before?” Lilith asked before pointing at the left most militiaman who seemed to be ready to speak.

He stepped forward half a pace and addressed her with only a little bit of hesitation. “After the first run we were told to try and shift the spears forward more to get them into the fight at a better range.” The mans look shifted between Sharl and Lilith. “It worked for a bit but then the orcs just pushed our weapons down with almost no effort.”

“And you. Did you experience the same thing?” Lilith asked as she pointed at the next militiaman.

The second militiaman stepped forward and began to explain. “I don’t know for sure I might have dropped the spear low because it was getting heavy. Or it may have been deflected down as I thrust.”

“Was that after you changed your grip to gain more range?”

“Yes definitely. We put more of the spear forward and it just felt like it weighed 500 lbs.”

“Very well thank you for your time.” She said to the men and then turned to speak to Sharl “It is definitely the weapons. I think I got the length wrong. They need 15’ of reach but they still need 3’ of length behind the soldier to hold the counterweight back so it can do its job. We just need to make them longer.”

“Crap does that mean we are done for the day? We already bought the whole supply of boat poles from the shop. So there aren’t any more on hand.” Sharl lamented.

“Perhaps… I don’t know. Maybe if Celeste helps it might be possible to add the needed length back onto each spear. We just need the pieces of wood that you cut off of them this morning.”

In a practiced motion Sharl raised his hand to his mouth letting out a resounding whistle before he yelled in an equally loud voice “RUNNER!”. The private from earlier trotted over to where they were standing. Sharl told him the situation and he set out for the Boatyard at a brisk jog. Seeing that Sharl turned to her and said “Well lets go talk to Tany while we wait.” Sharl issued orders to the men to stack their weapons and head to the barracks to get out of the sun until they are needed again. Then they both walked over to the group of observers which included a very curious Sir Tanel and Celeste.

“So what was it. What was the runner for?” Sir Tanel asked.

“Its pretty simple, I just got the length wrong. The spears need to be 3’ longer. I think we will see a big improvement once we do.” Lilith said with confidence in her voice.

“And the runner?”

“He’s going to get the cut lengths of pole that were removed this morning.” Lilith said while stepping closer to Sir Tanel.

Sharl began to strike up a conversation with Celeste. He seemed to be telling her about the rules for the drill they had run today. But Lilith couldn’t focus on that, the regent was talking to her.

“And you are going to add them back to the poles with magic?”

He sounded slightly skeptical which offended her a bit. “Hey I knew there was a reason they put you in charge.” Lilith said with a smirk.

“Please tell me its not the special kind of magic.” Sir Tanel couldn’t sound more disappointed if he tried.

Lilith just gave him a big smile and a nod. While she could do it with Fabricate, she was feeling pretty low on spell energy for the day so pact magic would have to do.

“Come on we talked about this.” Sir Tanel put on a pained face and made a flapping motion with two of his hands. Lilith still had no idea what faction he was referring too but she could tell it was something bad.

“I know. We just have to have everyone stay out of ear shot and it will look like normal magic. No one will be the wiser. Otherwise we have to wait till tomorrow.”

“Fine. I am just glad this drill has turned out as well as it has. We need another week before the shields are done and maybe another week to get all the spears made. Just imagine if we had made all 100 of them 3’ too short.”

“Ya That would have been a disaster. Speaking of disasters Tany what has you so spooked? Why do you think the orcs are going to come back so soon?” Lilith asked while wagging a finger at him.

“Well you killed their champion. He is kinda the muscle for the Warchief. So when he dies the Warchief usually doesn’t last very long either. Unless they have another champion already waiting.”

“So you think a new Warchief would just bring the army right back here.”

“Why not? All they saw of our forces was our champion. A human barbarian with red hair. If they are hungry or if the new chief promises them our riches and women then the orcs are sure to….” Sir Tanel was then interrupted by his other champion.

“Oh there’s the runner” Sharl said as he directed him to the pile of spears in the middle of the Drill Field. The private was riding on the front of a one horse cart being driven by what must have been an employee of the shipyard.

Lilith turned to face her friend. “I guess that means we’re up Celeste.” she said in a cheery voice.