Chapter 33: First Patient
As the sun rose on the open snowy field, two armies were stationed facing each other. The kingdom forces numbered over a thousand strong and were positioned with their backs against the fortress 500 meters away, giving enough space to advance and retreat as needed. The orc army faced the human army 1000 meters away, their numbers not lesser than the humans. Even though both armies were a fair distance from each other, one could still feel the pressure each army exuded at each other. Tensions ran high as adventurers, soldiers, and orc warriors alike waited for the signal from their superior.
One orc broke from the army and moved to the middle between the two forces. While it was wearing leather armor and wielded a large hammer on its back, it also had a flag symbolizing it was a messenger. A messenger from the human side ran to meet him in the middle and received a letter, which he then confirmed was nothing dangerous and took it back to the Commander.
Xander on his horse towered over nearby soldiers, making it easy for the messenger to find him and deliver the letter. Upon receiving it, Xander dismissed the messenger and opened the letter.
"Hmm… Usually, they don't bother with letters."
After reading its contents, Xander laughed, making the other soldiers wonder what the contents of the letter were.
"Hahaha. Now you won't hold back? What have you been doing these past forty years, Chieftain Kuruck? Playing pretend?"
He recalled the messenger.
"Send a letter back to them. Tell them they can try whatever they want, and we will push them back every time."
The messenger wrote down the short message and delivered it to the orc army.
Xander waits until the message has been delivered to start ordering his men.
"Tell the vanguard to get ready for their charge. Have earth mages roughen the terrain, make it as hard as possible for the orcs to run at us. We should be wary, they appear desperate."
…
Between a group of large orcs stood another orc who looked as if he was a different race. Towering over his brethren at 10 feet tall stood Chieftain Kuruck. Wearing full metal armor that covered even his face made his expression indiscernible. The surrounding orcs looked at him with respect and dared not to make much noise in his presence, which goes against the normal nature of rowdy orcs. They all waited in silence as their orc messenger brought back the response from the humans.
Receiving the letter, Chieftain read its contents and scoffed.
"I gave them a chance. We are running out of time, so we can't fight with our previous tactics. From today onwards, we are throwing away our pride as orcs for our survival."
The orcs frowned hearing his statement, but as much as they wanted to fight and die like an orc, they needed to think of their children and their future.
Chieftain Kuruck then faced a very short orc who was barely 7 feet tall and gave him his orders.
"Tell them to begin the operation. The rest of you, with me!"
The Chieftain then led the orcs as he charged into battle as all his men roared behind him.
The short orc ran to the back of the army to finish a plan they had started a year ago.
…
Meanwhile, at the medical ward.
Sol laid down on the bed staring at the ceiling. Since the battle hasn't started yet, no wounded have come, leaving him bored.
He then flipped over to Nataly, who was sitting on the bed next to him and asked, "Do you think the battle has started yet?"
She shook her head, "Trust me, you'll know when it starts."
Almost as if on cue, Sol felt the ground slightly tremble along with the battle cries of orcs and humans alike.
"CHAAAARGE!!!"
"RAAAAAH!!!"
Sol sat back up.
"Guess it started."
"Yep, now we just wait to see who is brought in."
The group did not have to wait long as 15 minutes after the battle started someone was already brought in.
"Help! This man took an axe to his leg and the axehead got stuck in his thigh!"
All the healers stood up to attend to the man, but it quickly became a mess.
"Come here, I will tend your wound."
"Place him on the bed first, what are you doing?"
"Oh, rejuvenating light plea-"
"Wait! At least take the axehead out before closing the wound!"
It was absolute chaos as 30 healers scrambled to take care of one wounded person. The soldier who was carrying the wounded man did not know what to do. Eventually, their leader Hilbert spoke up.
"Everyone stop! This isn't getting anything done. One healer per patient, nothing more. I will take care of him for now so place him on the bed."
The healers backed away knowing that stumbling over each other is not going to help anyone, and they let Hilbert take care of him.
Once placed on the bed, Hilbert skillfully removed the axehead from the man's leg and proceeded to cast a healing spell to close the wound.
"Benevolent light, gather and cleanse this wound, [Healing Light]."
A ray of light shined from his hand towards the man's leg, and the wound started to slowly close.
As Hilbert was healing the man, a wounded soldier was brought in.
The healers, having learned from the previous experience, decided to just let one person tend to the soldier.
Time passed as more and more wounded were brought in, and eventually everyone was taking care of someone. Then even more issues arose.
"Hey, watch it!"
"Sorry, I have to get to my other patient."
As the medical ward got more and more wounded, the healers and other personnel kept bumping into each other as they had to move to their patients that were spread out in the different beds. Sol was also having to move around as his two patients were a few beds away. On one of his rounds to check on his other patient he bumped into another healer.
'This is ridiculous; we just keep getting in each other's way. I spend more time moving between people than actually tending to them.'
The medical ward is not even at maximum capacity, but every healer had at least two people they are currently treating, but because they were all taking turns in who treated the next patient, where they were placed was haphazardly all over the place.
'I wish I could just stay by the same two or three beds. It would be so much easier… Wait, that's it!'