In the backlines, everything was suppressed. The war cries distant, the stench of bodies limited to sweat, the fear of storming the enemies nothing but an anticipation.

Breaking the enemy’s front line was though, being flown through the sky was though, the landing even tougher. Unlike the ranks of the soldiers, where special runes were maintained to break-up incoming large projectiles - such as the occasional 2 stories-sized boulders thrown by the Red Knights - the landing zone didn’t have any runes protecting the area. In his first few runs, Arthur was always furious that the army hadn’t even bothered to install these protections in the landing zone. That was until he witnesses a man catapulted into the backlines, only to be torn apart upon impact of an invisible shield, a spectacle that showers nearby soldiers with gore. Disgusting.

Regaining his bearings, Arthur assesses his condition.

Nothing major, some lacerations. This will heal.

Looking around himself, Arthur found his fellow runners is a more distressed state. The lucky few had escaped the landing zone and gathered around, forming a small circle. Some were groaning, some sat upright staring into the distance, while others lie disturbingly still. Corpses. After each run, it was inevitable that people died, yet those who we were crying and wheezing could still be saved.

Arthur stumbled to the man lying closest to him. It was a runner named Robin; he had an arrow through the leg. The man moaned, holding his thigh. Arthur grabbed him under his arms and pulled him away toward where the lucky few had gathered. The man cursed at the pain, dazed, as Arthur towed him to the center of the circle where Roan and some others were resting.

The runners stared at him with wide eyes.

Arthur didn’t give them any thought and returned to the drop-off zone. He tried to rush to those who would need his help more. He slipped, however, stumbling in his fatigue. He hit the ground hard, grunting.

How can you lead from the back?

He pushed himself to his feet, sweat dripping from his brow, and scrambled back towards the landing zone. The next runner he found, a man name Tist, was dead. Arthur left the body.

Gadir had a deep wound in the side where an arrow had pierced his shield and passed completely through him. His face was covered with blood from a gash on his temple and he’d managed to crawl a short distance from the zone. He looked up with a frenzied black eye. Arthur grabbed him under the arms and towed him away before flying debris hit the place where he’d been lying.

Arthur dragged Gadir to the circle of runners, noting two more dead. He’d been identifying the battlefield and had outlined the runners in thick, bold lines. He grouped the outlines by color; red for dead, yellow for hurting and green for fine. He counted the groups and made a sum. 24 in total. That meant 6 were missing. Arthur stumbled back towards the landing zone.

Next was David, one of the runners. He was curled up, arm twisted at an awkward angle. Meanwhile, the soldiers were in the heat of the battle and debris was flying all around. It would not be long until this place would be mortared. Arthur charged in. David didn’t even notice when Arthur reached him. He was in shock, lips moving soundlessly, eyes dazed. Arthur grabbed him awkwardly, conscious of not causing further harm to his already wounded squad mate.

He dragged David away from the edge of the zone. He kept slipping on blood, falling, abrading his arms in the rock, hitting his face against the stone. He persisted, towing the younger man out from underneath the falling rocks. Finally, he got far enough away that he didn’t have to be too careful anymore. He tried to pick up David. But his muscles were so weak. He strained and slipped, exhausted, falling to the stones.

He lay there, gasping, the pain of his side finally washing over him. So tired…

He stood up shakily, then tried again to grab David. He blinked away tears of frustration, too weak to even pull the man.

“You are absolutely insane” a voice growled.

Arthur turned around as Roan arrived. The mountain of a man grabbed David under the arms, pulling him: “Crazy”, he grumbled to Arthur, but easily lifted the wounded runner and carried him back to the circle.

“three more” Arthur said between gasps: “I’ve highlighted them …”

“Michal and Leyti” Teldin said. The older runner had been near the back this run and hadn’t taken any wounds “And Aldin and Corlvin, they were in the front. “

That’s right Arthur thought, exhausted. How could I forget… “Michal is dead” he said, “the others might live” He tried to stumble to his feet. “Stop” Roan said. “Just stay here. I’m capable enough” He hesitated: “Guess I’m insane too”. He scowled, but went back onto the landing zone. Teldi hesitated, then chased after him.

Arthur breathed in and out, holding his side. He crawled over to the three wounded.

What now? I can’t heal them, I can’t treat them.

Out of options, he summoned his status:

Interface

Name

Arthur

Title

Slave To Baron Dalan

Attunement

Crafstman

Sub-attunement

Magitech Industrialist

Attuned skills

Data Analysis: LVL 2

· Inspect-planet: MAX

· Visualisation-planet: 9

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

·Gaze upon the Universe for it reveals all

Schematics: LVL 1

· Wood-planet: 6

Mana manipulation: LVL 2

· Fledgling-planet: MAX

· Novice-planet: MAX

·Gaze upon the Universe for it reveals all

Notication:

You have touched the edges of the apprentice planet, where the novices learn the extract and insert the mana around them.

Notication:

Synergy enabled: as an industrialist, no opportunity will get wasted. Gaze upon the Universe for it reveals all.

Notication:

More wooden schematics are available.

Arthur looked around and spotted the first available shield:

Input: Battered wooden shield embedded with rubies (3X, charge: 12%)

Output:

* Wooden dowel pin (max output:7)

* Split wooden plank (max output: 2)

* Wooden needle (max output: 14)

* Wooden shaft (max output: 2)

* Wooden wheel (max output: 0)

* Requires 5 wooden planks

* Requires 10 dowel pins

* Wooden disk (max output: 4)

The only way I can help them, is to get them home safe.

Meanwhile, Roan and Teldi managed to secure Aldin and Corlvin. He stared at them while they returned: “And now what?” Roan said: “We’ve gathered them, but it won’t make a difference. Glavin makes us leave behind wounded who cannot walk. It’s the standing order from above.”

“I’ll deal with Galvin” Arthur said, resting his head back against the stone. I’ll create a small carriage so that we can transport our own men. That way we don’t take up any available place for the soldiers. We will need people to both pull and push the cart across the plateau, additionally, someone will need to keep the vitals of the wounded in checked –“

“Galving won’t stand for this,” Roan said.

“How are you going to make a carriage?” Teldi asked skeptically.

Arthur closed his eyes. This will drain so much. He touched the shield and focused on the wooden shafts. His already low mana drained and transformed the shield into two thick wooden shafts. 10 centimeters in diameters, 1 meter long. Long enough to put two men next to each other, albeit it uncomfortably. The rubies dropped beside him.

Input: basic wooden shield embedded with rubies (3X, charge: 8%)

Output:

* Wooden dowel pin (max output:3)

* Split wooden plank (max output: 0)

* Wooden needle (max output: 5)

* Wooden shaft (max output: 0)

* Wooden wheel (max output: 0)

* Requires 5 wooden planks

* Requires 10 dowel pins

* Wooden disk (max output: 1)

This made Arthur stop; at this moment he would just be wasting resources. An entire shield would only produce 3 measly down pins. Where the rest of the wooden material went, he didn’t know. He did however, realize that he needed to get somehow more energy. I can’t just wait and take in the rays as the come down. If this battle finished faster than i can fill my mana, this will be all for naught.

Looking around frantically, for something, anything. His eyes fell on Phae. Phae was always present, he sometimes drifted off, inspecting various mechanisms such as hinges on doors or as right now, inspecting the runes. He hummed around the rubies, bobbing up and down on a beat that was still a mystery for Arthur.

His eyes lingered on the notification: Where the novices learn to extract and insert mana…

This brought Arthur a new idea: just like the mages flying overhead before reeking death and destruction upon the enemies, he also could pull the remaining energy out of these rubies and use that for himself.

He moved closer to the rubies, grabbed it with his right hand and focused. Closing his eyes didn’t mean complete darkness for Arthur, a finding he only discovered recently. If he visualized certain objects before closing his eyes, he could see the imprint they left in his headspace. Before closing his eyes, he visualized the mana flows surrounding the rubies thanks to his fledgling-planet abilities and shut his eyes closed.

Amid the clanking of metals and screams, Arthur found himself alone with a ruby crystal in his hand. The mana pulsed faintly and swished like a liquid in a slightly to large container after moving it around a bit too violently. Inspecting closer, he noted that the energy drifted across a network of roads around 5 hubs. Another constellation.

I’ve seen this somewhere before

However, remember wouldn’t bring him any good and so he continued focusing on how the mana moved. The mana moved erratically along the highways, often leaking energy that drifted off from the roads and dissolving in the air. It was exactly that leak, that Arthur could use. He breathed out fast and the slowly inhaled. With every millisecond of the breath, he felt energy seeping into him. Strengthen his muscles, sharpening his mind, reducing his pains. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and found Phae hovering in front of him:

“What… What did you do, Arthur?” Phae asked with a pain in his voice.

“I took the energy from the ruby”, Arthur said: “What’s wrong?”

“I… I don’t know, but I don’t like that” Phae muttered.

Arhtur closed his eyes again, declining to continue talking. He had access to power. He had access to materials. He would save his men.

After draining, the remaining rubies, he got back to work. With every shield transforming into planks, dowels, and wheels eventually, he had every component ready to build his carriage. It was at this moment that he encountered a fatal flaw in his plan. He didn’t have the tools or materials to connect the different components together.

This was when he turned around and noticed the runners fixated on him. He briefly locked eyes with Roan, which prompted the man to speak.

“Lad, what was that?”

“One of my skills” Arthur responded: “but it’s useless, I can craft the components but I cannot join them together”

“Useless?” Roan scoffed “If you think that’s useless, you are clearly lacking imagination, but” roan continued “please; allow me to help.”

The man picked up a heavy rock and gathered the nails which were an unused byproduct of disassembly of the shields.

“Hold this steady”, Roan said while pointing at the shaft and wooden planks. In no time, he had managed to nail the various wooden components together and form an oversized wheelbarrow. It wasn’t exactly what Arthur had in my mind, but it would suffice.

As the long and grueling battle draws to an end with the retreat of the Knights, a victorious shout rises from the soldiers. Despite his exhaustion and injuries, Arthur forces himself up to find Galvin. It would be a while yet before they could get the meteorite open – but he needed to deal with the runner’s sergeant.

He found Galvin watching from well behind the battle lines. He glanced at Arthur with one eye. “How much of that blood is yours?”

Arthur looked down, realizing for the first time that he was crusted with dark, flaking blood mixed with sawdust. Most of the blood belonged to the man he helped carry away. He didn’t answer the question: “We’re taking the wounded with us.”

Galvin shook his head. “If they can’t walk, they stay behind. Standing orders. Not my choice”

“Were taking them,” Arthur said, no more firm, no more loud.

“Lord Luan won’t stand for it”. Luan was Galvin’s immediate superior.

“You will send Squad One last, to lead the wounded soldiers back to camp. Luan won’t go with that troop; he’ll go ahead with the main body as he won't want to miss the victory feast”

Galving opened his mouth.

“We’ve constructed our own carriage,” Arthur said, interrupting him. “They won’t take in anyone else place or slow them down”. He took the last coin from his pocket and hied it over. “You won’t say anything.”

Galving took the coin, snorting: “You think this will make me take a risk this big?”

“If you don’t” Arthur said, voice calm, “I will kill you and let them execute me.”

Galvin blinked in surprise. “You’d never-“

Arthur took a single step forward. He must have looked a dreadful sight, covered in blood. Galvin paled. Then he cursed: “Why do you even care? What are they to you?”

“They’re my men.”

He left Galvin behind. “I don’t trust him” Phae said, looking over his shoulder “he could just say you threatened him and send men to arrest you.”

“Maybe he will” A rthur said. “I guess I just have to count on him wanting more of my bribes.”

Phae hummed away, clearly lost in thought.

Meanwhile Arthur walked back to Squad One, ready to help them get home.