Valkyrie's Shadow

Empire in Chains: Act 6, Chapter 12

Empire in Chains: Act 6, Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The outpost’s exercise field was positioned in the clearing along the south side of its palisade. This supposedly meant that the men going through their drills were that many more eyes in a sort of sentry duty; their activities a deterrent to any approaches from the untamed wilderness.

Accompanied by her bodyguard, Lady Zahradnik found a yawning Captain standing near the eastern side of the field just outside of the outpost’s wooden gate. Upon noticing her approach, he straightened and combed his blonde hair back with the fingers of his right hand.

“Lady Zahradnik,” he offered a salute. “Captain Kyle Hawke of the Eleventh Company, Third Division…well, I guess it’s the Third Company of Ray’s Raiders for now.”

“Ray’s Raiders?”

“We’re all sorts of unofficial,” the Captain said, “but we at least wanted something to call ourselves. Raidin’s what we’ve been doing all this time, so can’t say it doesn’t fit.”

Joachim let out a silent sigh at the ‘unofficial name’. Being the ones that defended against raiders all the time, Imperial Knights wouldn’t usually refer to themselves as such.

“I see…” Lady Zahradnik said. “Weren’t you out with your company on yesterday’s sweep, Captain Hawke?”

“Yes, my lady,” the Captain nodded. “The General whistled me up, so here I am.”

“I’m sorry to be a bother,” Lady Zahradnik said. “You should be getting your rest…”

Captain Hawke leaned forward at her apology, hands raised in front of him in an apologetic gesture of his own.

“I-it’s alright, my lady,” he hurriedly said. “I’ll just crawl into my tent later. A nap after lunch is nice once in a while, too.”

Several of the men lined up behind Lady Zahradnik sent the Captain knowing leers, which he did his best to ignore. Joachim hoped that the Baroness wouldn’t turn around right then. Fortunately, she instead turned her attention to the field.

Joachim squinted against the sunlight peeking out from between the peaks, trying to figure out what she was looking at. He wasn’t sure of it, but light conditions didn’t seem to affect the Baroness. There were magic items that compensated for the absence or abundance of light and clear vision was especially important to a Ranger, so, with as many magic items as she carried around, he figured she had something along those lines equipped. Her clothing and accessories appeared to all be masterwork items and it could have been any one of them.

“Is there a Faucet of Spring Water here, Captain Hawke?” She asked.

“The men usually go into the camp if they need a drink, my lady.”

“Then…”

Lady Zahradnik made her way over to a row of large boulders lined up along the southeastern wall. The men stared as she somehow pulled a pick and a shovel out of one of the pouches at her hip.

“Let’s make a pit and get a fire going,” she said, then indicated a group of her men. “You four, get some wood from inside.”

More items came out of her magic bags. A small folding table, stools, a Pouch of Infinite Water and a row of cups. She had the table placed behind the row of boulders facing the field. The various items were laid over the desk; then a stack of blank paper was weighed down by one of her food containers. Lady Zahradnik placed her hand on the tome she had brought with her.

“Are you familiar with this, Captain?”

“That’s one of our manuals?” Captain Hawke replied, “If so, yes. Our Sergeants drill their squads with instructions from out of that monster.”

“The Captains don’t?”

“Well, yeah, they can,” the Captain said. “All of the Captains were Sergeants once – even the Nobles from the Academy. But most of the stuff in there is beyond almost everyone in the Legion. I know it sounds strange for a fighting man, but what’s in there only makes sense to those who are maybe a bit too crazy about fighting and vets with a lot of years in the army. Even then, it only makes some sense.”

To say that the manual made sense or not didn’t do what was going on in the thing any justice. Joachim had read through the manual for useful information about shield and warhammer techniques but he couldn’t understand most of what was contained within its pages.

Each ‘school’ of combat – which not only involved weapons but movement, horsemanship and fighting as anything from squad-sized groups to the ranks of a full army – had a rudimentary ‘layman’ section containing drills described and illustrated in step-by-step details. These layman sections could be understood by anyone and they were referred to by the Sergeants to drill their men.

Even the slightly more advanced sections, however, had Joachim going from understanding what was going on to not understanding at all. Reading was simply not enough to make it work and he was certain that what was written was written just as plainly as the basic parts of the manual. Those sections involved taking what was drilled into the men and transforming those drills into Martial Arts.

It was an absolute threshold; there wasn’t anything gradual about it. Soldiers went from wielding their weapons normally to wielding them with supernatural force and one either could or couldn’t.

Most soldiers who achieved the use of Martial Arts couldn’t even explain what they were doing. They could only attempt to describe it in ‘feelings’ with the accompanying sound effects. The only people who seemed to be able to make any sense out of it were Weapon Masters and they all spoke like they were in their own little world when discussing Martial Arts between themselves.

For Joachim and anyone who wasn’t a warrior, Martial Arts were utterly incomprehensible: a thing where warriors swung their weapons so much that they just spontaneously gained the ability to swing them harder. He supposed they were called a ‘warrior’s magic’ for good reason – Martial Arts was just as esoteric to Joachim as the arcane formulas of Wizards.

“So you just drill the men until it sticks?” Lady Zahradnik asked.

“Pretty much,” the Captain answered with a nod. “Formations, manoeuvres, Martial Arts…we got something for everything – you just have to follow the pictures.”

The way Captain Hawke put it made the discipline of the Imperial Army sound like it stemmed from something stupid. It was said that practice made perfect…why couldn’t he just say that?

“Many members of the Sixth Legion went through a training regimen that differs from a regular imperial army group,” Lady Zahradnik said. “How do they compare to fresh recruits in the other Legions?”

“That’s where the new Sixth Legion stands out, I think,” the Captain replied. “I started out in the Eighth Legion five years ago and the new recruits – including me – were just weak little pukes for the first two or so years. Most of us didn’t start picking up Martial Arts until three or four years in. Here in the Sixth Legion, they trained for half a year non-stop so even the fresh recruits have basic Martial Arts. Those that came in from the Seventh and Eighth Legion toughened up a fair bit too.”

“But the recruits aren’t trained for policing duties,” the Baroness noted, “nor do they have experience working around civilians. I also witnessed some…interesting conduct from off-duty Sixth Legion soldiers.”

“They can run a basic patrol, at best,” Captain Hawke admitted. “As for the rest…the Sixth Legion’s not meant for that. Part of it’s just from being fresh out of basic training, too – I know I strutted around town for the first half-year or so after joining the army.”

Maybe a bit of excitement and pride couldn’t be helped, but the men of the Sixth Legion were on the edge of running wild in the urban areas of the Wyvernmark. They even came around looking to impress village girls, going so far as to treat them as stand-ins for brothel workers. The senior officers of the Legion did their best to keep them reined in, but there was only so much they could do about it.

Lady Zahradnik drew a clipboard from one of her magical containers, pulling a sheet of paper from the desk to attach to it. She then produced the fancy-looking pen Joachim had seen her use on many occasions and continued questioning Captain Hawke.

“Based on what you’ve said, am I correct in assuming that each of the warriors in the Sixth Legion meets the army’s minimum qualifications for basic Martial Arts?”

“Yes, my lady,” the Captain said. “They already got Fortress, Focus Battle Aura and a basic Strike Art for their weapon of choice. A few of the new recruits might have more; those of us that’ve transferred in from elsewhere definitely do. There’s no standard for that, though.”

“That’s still very good,” Lady Zahradnik said. “Assuming they survive, the average Adventurer in the Empire and Re-Estize takes upwards to two years to begin grasping Martial Arts. I feel that standardised, professional training is essential for any institution and I’ve seen many things in the Empire that definitively prove this. How does this training continue past the point of basic Martial Arts, Captain Hawke?”

“…it would depend on the person. Everyone can learn more basic Martial Arts once they pick up their first one, so I guess the best way to put it is that they learn things that help them do whatever they’re doing. Heavy infantry learn Martial Arts that keep enemies stuck to them and help ‘em survive it, the cavalry usually learn ones for mounted combat and Rangers learn, uh, Ranger things. It’s a slow process, though: a new drill for every new Martial Art.”

As Captain Hawke spoke, Lady Zahradnik’s pen flowed over the paper on her clipboard. She appeared to be writing far more than he was saying, however. After several moments, she seemed satisfied with her work, reaching out for a new piece of paper before continuing.

“Is there a rule of thumb for the number of Martial Arts an Imperial Knight learns over their career?”

“Hmm…used to be that it’d be roughly around the number of years of service,” the Captain replied. “Even if they’re using basic Martial Arts, veterans become pretty versatile since they eventually end up with Skills and Martial Arts to use for whatever situation they find themselves in. With the Sixth Legion, though, that number might go up. We’ve been training like crazy and, by the looks of it, we’ll be fightin’ a lot and learnin’ more compared to the other army groups.”

“If considered from that angle,” Lady Zahradnik said, “that sounds plausible. What about advanced Martial Arts?”

“You mean like Dragon Fang Thrust? That’s uh…it’s a gamble, I guess.”

The Baroness looked up from her notes with a furrow on her brow.

“A gamble?”

“Yeah,” Captain Hawke replied. “I don’t know how much of that manual you’ve looked through, but there’s drills for the fancy stuff in there too. Knights that wanna sink their time in it’ll try, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll succeed.”

Lady Zahradnik’s pen resumed its scratching.

“Who usually succeeds in grasping advanced Martial Arts??”

“Most of the martial Nobles do, eventually. Then there are those really talented guys that make everything seem easy. Aside from that, learning Dragon Fang Thrust is rare.”

Lady Zahradnik looked back up from her clipboard again after he finished speaking. The Captain shifted slightly under her gaze as she seemed to examine him intently, tapping her pen lightly against her cheek.

“Are you able to use two Martial Arts at once, Captain? Say, a Strike Art while holding a Boost Art.”

“I can. Figured it out shortly before I made Captain.”

“What weapon do you favour?”

“Just a spear, m’lady.”

“Have you tried learning anything ‘fancy’?”

“No,” the Captain shook his head. “Maybe one day, but I have a lot of simpler things on my list to learn.”

“Well, if you’d like to learn an advanced Strike Art, the one that you’re the closest to learning is Twin Thrust.”

“How do you figure?”

“I’ve assisted with training warriors back in the Sorcerous Kingdom,” the Baroness said. “Determining one’s capacity for Martial Arts is straightforward – the difference tends to lie in methods of training and what it means for how far one is from grasping any given Martial Art. Now, shall we get our exercises underway?”

The men spaced themselves out on the field and Captain Hawke went up and down the two rows as they started to practise. Lady Zahradnik stopped at each soldier, having them demonstrate their ability to perform the Martial Arts that the Sixth Legion’s ‘basic training’ required of them. While one might be able to get away with not knowing Martial Arts for a few years in the army’s traditional role of domestic security, not knowing in the expeditionary army was not an option.

With nothing but a heavy branch used as an improvised club, the average Ogre or Troll could break bones through plate armour, which meant they could also shatter arms through shields. Successful parries still resulted in damage and deflecting powerful attacks required exceptional skill and luck. Dodging was easier said than done and one couldn’t dodge when fighting in formation. Thus, Fortress was required to campaign in a wilderness filled with monstrously strong enemies.

To neutralise their opponents, Humans warriors required the extra power of basic Strike Arts. Trying to outlast their generally stronger enemies extended the risk of sustaining casualties and many races were far tougher than they were. Magic weapons were expensive and the Empire could not afford to equip thousands of men with them, so Focus Battle Aura was necessary to fight enemies that required magical weapons to harm. Without these three Martial Arts, a warrior of the Sixth Legion could not be relied upon to fight effectively.

“How come we’re the only ones out here?”

Joachim’s attention shifted from the men of the bodyguard to Lady Zahradnik.

“I think most feel that it’s more satisfying to sleep in than to turn in early, my lady,” he said. “Recuperating squads usually practise in the afternoons.”

“Oh,” Lady Zahradnik said. “I wasn’t aware of that. With the Second Legion, I worked with the squads on duty and, during the battle of The Blister, the company I was attached to only rested for as long as it took for them to be ready to sortie again. I should have considered how scheduling would work in an extended campaign like this one.”

“Well, they were expecting to ride out with General Ray again, so they were all ready to go anyway.”

Once Lady Zahradnik completed her basic assessment, they moved on to sparring, which was the part where Joachim suspected that he and Redwyn would lose most of their mana. Regular officers were content to see the men through their drills, but martial Nobles pushed their subordinates the hardest. If the Clerics had mana, that meant more opportunities for the men to beat each other silly for their own good.

The two heavy infantry in the squad took the brunt of the punishment, though it may have been because the Baroness appeared to be paying special attention to them.

“I’m not sure if it’s the same as what I’ve seen employed, but is that taunt you two are using effective on any target?”

Frank – the heavy infantryman being questioned – shared a glance with Igvel, the other heavy infantryman in the squad, before answering.

“That’s, uh, I think so, m’lady?”

“What is the strongest opponent you’ve used it on?”

“An Ogre during the time we were poking around on the border,” Frank replied. “The instructors in the training camp told us to learn it after the basic three, saying it’d be handy out here.”

“They sure weren’t wrong,” Igvel added. “I didn’t like that they were still trying to tell us what to do after we just worked our asses off doing what they told us to do, but now I can’t think of anything more useful I might’ve learned. We use it dozens of times a day…well, at least when we get into fights.”

Lady Zahradnik stepped out in front of Frank, whose uncertain gaze wavered as she faced him.

“If you had to draw the attention of an opponent too powerful to defend against, what options do you have at your personal disposal?”

“Aside from taking a stab at ‘em, not much, my lady.”

The Baroness – who seemed to have been looking for a demonstration – frowned in disappointment.

“Did your drill instructors make any recommendations?” She asked.

“Was all most of us could do to learn the basics,” Frank answered. “We deployed right after that.”

“I see,” the Baroness nodded. “In that case, I recommend that you start working on alternatives to vocally-delivered taunts. You will inevitably encounter adversaries that you absolutely do not want taking a swing at you, but it is still your job to keep them from attacking your squadmates. You may also encounter opponents who are resistant to your taunt attempts or entirely immune. Some variant of Called Shot or a binding technique where the condition for success is not overcoming resistance but landing a strike is ideal. Your manual contains the drills required to grasp many of these Martial Arts.”

The two heavy infantry and Captain Hawke nodded in response to Lady Zahradnik’s words. She turned her attention to the rest of the squad.

“It’s unfortunate that you don’t have these Martial Arts yet, but I’d still like to have you conduct a certain exercise. I haven’t seen it conducted anywhere in the Empire so far, so it’s probably one that you’re unfamiliar with.”

“What exercise is that, m’lady?” Captain Hawke asked.

“A game,” Lady Zahradnik smiled in a way that made Joachim frown. “One that I played as a little girl. We’ll be adding some adult flavour to make it more interesting.”