The Power of Leadership

"Lucius Aurellions leadership skills shocked me that rainy night. How he made each of his men fight like lions to the death is something I will remember until the day I die."

"While his personal combat skills were no better than an elite knight on the best of days at the Battle of Brunag, he avoided all forms of confrontation; together, it was like he had" suddenly lost his combat skills.

"But what I learned that day was that it was not his personal skill at arms I should be worried about but instead was his outstanding leadership skills and cunning strategies, which were so convoluted I still find them strangely genius, weird and stupid at the same time."

Bardornus Asharm, General of the Kingdom of Plurus and commander in chief of the Plurain forces at the Battle of Brunag.

…..

Faint traces of silver moonlight break through the clouded night sky, shining over two shadowed masses which edged closer and closer to each other, the whinnying of horses and thunder of horse hooves being the only indication of their presence.

Both sides decided against using torches; the fiery light emitted would only reveal themselves to their enemies and prevent their men, whose eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, to be blinded by the light having to rely on their hearing and other senses to be able to accurately attack their enemies with missile weapons.

Leon used his experience and excellent hearing, which is just below archtorius', to estimate the range of his shadowy enemies, his face expressionless, cold, and concentrated as he heard something odd in the movements of the horse hooves in front of him as instead of coming from one direction some instead seemed to come from the left side, his mind hardened by over a decade of war made the large man confused for a bit wondering what his enemies had in mind before his eyes widened and began giving orders.

"Fire to the left! 65° angle."

Leon called out his authoritative voice booming out over the steppe ordering the Chavarian mounted archers at the front of the formation to fire on the Plurian light calvary that was slowly forming a semi-circle around the Chavarians diamond formation.

At his command, the disciplined Chavarian horse archers fired shaft after shaft of their deadly steel arrows in the direction ordered, the steel tips finding and punching through the light leather armour of the Plurian light cavalry; their arrowed-filled bodies like so many before them thumped onto the muddy ground. Cries of pain resounded through the steppe while some horses being bigger targets, found tens of arrows shot into them as they collapsed in pain; the riders quick reaction speeds prevented them from breaking their necks as they clattered to the ground with a groan.

'I may not be as good as Archtorius at finding out the enemy's positions, but I can still manage this much.

Leon thought, predicting accurately how far the enemies were from him and what direction they were taking as at his command, for the next 10-20 seconds, the Chavarian horse archers reaped life after life, like a scythe harvesting the autumn harvest. When his accurate predictions and senses detected that the Plurian knights got too close, at Leon's command, a horn blew, and like machines following a preset procedure, the Chavarians executed a change of formation almost seamlessly. The knights, armoured head to toe in steel, waiting in the second line, came to the front as the Chavarian horse archers, like two little red armoured streams, flowed to both sides of the formation, trying to get to the back where it was slightly safer.

Halfway through the formation change, however, a small cloud of javelins streamed silently through the air; only a slight glint of silvery moonlight reflecting off their steel tips gave any indication of their existence as they crashed into the dense Chavarian formation.

The Chavarian knights who were expecting such an attack clutched their steel-lined shields close to their chests, the javelins crashing into the wood, splintering the shield slightly while those which hit their horses merely glanced off the heavy horse armour worn by their mounts.

The horse archers, however, were less lucky, being less armoured than the knights and armed with only a small shield attached to their horse for use if they ever needed to go into melee; giving any protection against the javelins led to many falling javelins sticking out of their bodies the armour shredded through like it was paper. Others had horses fall, their bodies becoming like porcupines, with the riders mostly dead those lucky enough to dodge or hold up their small shields to defend themselves were thrown from their horses only to be trampled by their comrades behind them or thrown to the side to cut down at a later date.

Due to the tight formation where soldiers are as close as penguins huddling together to protect themselves from the bitter cold of the artic the cloud of javelins smashed into the Chavarian flank bodies being pinned down by their steel tips into the muddied ground below.

After the first volley hit the veteran and disciplined Chavarian horse archers by instinct, grabbed the small shield attached to the side of their saddle and created a screen of shields to protect themselves from incoming enemy projectiles; however, due to the small area covered by these shields, there were gaps which lucky javelins got through and continued causing massive damage and confusion within the Chavarian ranks whose soldiers felt isolated in the darkness, hearing the screams of their comrades dying around them started to feel fear seep into their hearts.

Seeing the formation change and sensing the change in heart amongst his soldiers and the rising panic amongst his ranks, Lucius knew that the best chance of his men surviving was for them to stay together and in formation as in less than a minute, the knights on both sides would clash and breaking through the formation with as many soldiers remaining was paramount and to dissipate any confusion which had appeared due to the unexpected attack from the side with javelins.

Lucius assumed the Plurians would just charge and try to use their overwhelming numbers in melee, so he set up the diamond formation to break through the Plurian lines while allowing his men to stay relatively safe and together. However, he forgot that such a dense formation which is not entirely comprised of heavy cavalry who would have the armour and large shields to resist such an attack easily, his formation, made with a mix of horse archers and knights, would instead be very vulnerable to such a ranged attack as unlike the plate-armoured Chavarian knights the horse archers wear lighter armour and only have a small shield to protect themselves.

This led to a large wave of casualties and panic to ripple through the Chavarian ranks; Lucius knowing the need to stay together, finally made his first move, directly intervening in the battle as, up until now, it had been Leon leading the show accurately directing the fire of the horse archers to deal massive damage to the Plurain light cavalry.

"Light the torches! Stay together! The enemy wants to use their javelins to split us up and kill us one by one! We must not let this happen! Once we break through their thin lines, this dense formation will help us to survive."

"Don't panic! Remember our goal to unite the three kingdoms and create a new prosperous era for us all!"

"An era of peace!"

"One where without war ravaging all our lands as kingdoms manoeuvre to outdo each other creating chaos throughout the land decimating our families and loved ones."

"This is the ideal of our king, a new strong country to dominate the Alendel Steppe capable of protecting all of its citizens from the raging fires of war, and we are the harbingers responsible for bringing about this new golden age."

"Shields's out! Protect yourselves! Each one of you is crucial in bringing about a bright future for us all!"

"Onwards towards the light of a new age!"

"Charge through these bastards!"

Lucius' calm voice resounded throughout the battlefield, with each sentence slowly changing his voice, making it more and more passionate until, like a lion, he roared the last sentence stabilising his men who were plunged into the darkness of despair, restoring their morale to levels higher than when they started this battle.

The man's eyes, once worried and unsure, became determined and filled with fire as the Chavarins got roused by Lucius' speech; even the usually cold royal Chavarian knights, who are seemingly devoid of humanity, nothing more than a sword for the king of Chavaria to wield against his enemies felt a slight spark of passion ignite in their artic cold hearts.

[Inspiring Rallying Call skill activated]

[For King and Country skill activated]

[Rousing Speech skill activated]

[Units under your command will fight one rank better than their original skill level up to the level of expert; only those expert-level fighters who are close to becoming masters will temporarily be able to fight at that level]

[Fighting prowess of all units who heard you have increased by 25% for 5 minutes]

[Damage of all units who heard you increased by 25% for 1 hour]

[Defense of all units that hared you lowered by 10% for 1 hour)

From the sky, a small fiery orange coloured diamond seemed to appear out of nowhere like a lightbulb that was suddenly switched on as Chavarian soldiers lit torches illuminating their surroundings just in time for the glint of steel clan men on horses to appear in front of them only a few seconds away from colliding with them.

The lines of knights clashed, sword and lance, piercing and cutting through mail and flesh, Leon spear in hand, killed knight after knight in front of him, bathing in blood like a god of war, his bloodstained armour and weapon a testament to the amount of death that he wrought as he quickly broke through the Plurian lines creating a small hole for the Chavarians to rush through the then turned back to make the hole bigger and bigger.

The rallied Chavarian knights fought at a level higher than normal, each who originally are all at the adept or expert level; the high combat power coming from their training and years of constant battle suddenly all went to the expert level leading to them performing at a much higher standard even if slightly tired when compared to the Plurian force leading the front of the diamond which acts as a wedge and spearpoint to easily smash through the Plurian lines thinned by their manoeuvring charging through them and then come back around to help those who are struggling to break through the Plurian half encirclement.

'What a troublesome opponent! Not only is he intelligent, but he can also inspire his men like this!'

Bardornus thought to himself, knowing that it was the leadership skill of Luicius that led to such a drastic change in his men.

'Even those Royal Chavarian knights known for being cold and emotionless got caught up in it! Up until now, only Drusus has been able to do something like this….'

'Lucius Aurellion, a man like you is too dangerous to let live!'

Thinking this, the grip on Bardornus' glaive tightened his toned muscles showing the great strength within his body as he motioned for the elite Plurian knights around him who acted as his personal guard, to form up each one an expert-level fighter and, with a swing of his curved glaive, he cut two approaching Chavarian knights in half and began charging towards Lucius planning to cut off the head of the snake while he had the chance.

Bardornus was well known to be at the level of a master; however, only those closest to the general knew that he was close to becoming a Grandmaster, an existence able to take on hundreds of elite soldiers alone. There has been no record of any country having more than 10 Grandmasters at any one time; even the great empires to the North have only had eight alive at one time, a testimony to how rare and strong these existences are when out of tens of millions of people that make up these vast empires and strong kingdoms no more than ten have been alive at one time.

Like a bullet fired from a gun, Bardornus charged through the Chavarian ranks; the knights behind him were able to screen him from the interference of too many Chavarian knights who were mostly trying to break through the Plurian lines and had little time to worry about the middle-aged general as he sped towards Lucius.

Leon saw an unusual cloud of dust speeding towards the centre of the diamond crushing through anything that stood in its way like a knife through butter. Fear seeped into his bones as he crazily rode towards Lucius, the blooded spear in his hands circling around him like a whirlwind, slaying any man who would stand in the way between him and lord no matter whose side they were on.

The great skill of the man whose glaive was like an extension of his arm as the ordinarily relaxed and jovial Bardornus seemed to have become a god of death, the curved blade mercilessly slicing and dicing his way through the Chavarian ranks, even the 200 elite Chavarian knights who acted as Lucius bodyguard was no match for Bardonus lasting only a few seconds longer than the trail of bodies which followed the middle-aged wherever he went even with the boost from Lucius leadership skills.

Due to the large gap between an expert-level fighter and a master-level fighter, only the knight captain, who was close to becoming a master himself, managed to become a master-level fighter. In contrast, the others were still expert-level fighters; unfortunately, to a near grandmaster-level fighter like Bardonus, an expert-level fighter is the same as an adept-level fighter. Only 500-1000 men would be able to take down a grandmaster-level fighter depending on their level, as 500 experts working well together can probably do it, though with only 10% of the men surviving. It is because of this that no matter how strong someone is alone when faced with an army of thousands, death is certain that armies and the strength of the state became more important than having a few grandmaster-level fighters in a kingdom or empire.

One by one, the Plurian knights around him who were helping to break through and fend off the knights who tried to rescue their general, seeing the danger that he was potentially in, fell their bravery, allowing Bardornus to cut his way to Lucius though only 50 were left however suddenly, Bardornus stopped as his eyes fell on the last plate clad man standing between him and Lucius' head as he sensed the danger from the man who looked like every other knight he had seen except for an increased killing intent which he radiated.

Standing like a wall in front of Lucius was the knight captain, a sword calmly held in his hand as his deep voice comforted Lucius, who felt fear seeing the many dead left by the man who wanted his head.

"So, his leadership even led to a troublesome master like you temporarily appearing, eh."

Bardonus said coldly with a hint of admiration and resignation as he stared coldly at the man in front of him, wanting to kill Lucius even more.

'At this rate, a second Drusus will be born! One is already problematic without a second one coming in and causing even more problems.'

Bardonus thought to himself as fear washed over him at the thought of a second general on the level of Drusus appearing in Chavaria, which would all but seal the fate of his country.

"Stand aside, Captain!"