Chapter 2

Later in the day, the 6th Linirean Battalion finally reached Southport just as the rain had ended. The drenched men took a sigh of relief and made camp outside the city. Meanwhile, one of their officers went to address the duo arriving at the scene. One was a well-dressed man in his 20s, the other an older man in his 40s with less-kept beard and moustache wearing a cobbled up armour painted in blue. The officer turned to the well-dressed one and saluted. "General Blackwood, reporting the arrival of the 6th Battalion, Milord!"

General saluted back. "Thank you, Captain. I would wager you had a terrible day under this horrible weather."

"Could have been much worse." They lowered their hands. "At least we are here now. I hope we hadn't missed the rest of the action."

"I am afraid your hope will be fulfilled, though not in the way that would please you. Less than 20 minutes ago we had received a report from the scouts about a second goblinoid force in this area. It seems our earlier opponent was just a vanguard force."

"Understood, Milord. So where do you want us?"

"Well..." General hesitated to answer. "I will let Captain Dowding here explain it. As the militia captain, he is more knowledgeable with the area than I am."

Captain Clancy didn't hesitated at all in giving his explanation. "As soon as their position was spotted, I knew immediately on where we should make our stand. The Kaufmann Swivel next to the homestead."

"Alright, that's- Wait a moment." Captain tilted his head in confusion. "We just passed by it on our way there. We pressed on instead of stopping there just because the city was less than 5 kilometres away."

"I am afraid you will have to march back there tomorrow. At least there won't be rain tomorrow." While the Captain facepalmed, General continued explaining. "You will take the militia company and march up there in the morning. Hopefully, the muddy terrain will delay them until the noon."

Captain saluted, made a sigh of annoyance and then left to inform the battalion. General could spot many annoyed faces on his way back to the city. After all, the map indicated there was a good spot next to that farmstead for a camp. So, in essence, they had no real reason to go all the way to Southport. They could have stopped, rested up, had an earlier dinner and then await the meetup with militia on the location the next day. But no. They were forced to backtrack the next day.

The combined force made their way to the Swivel, named for the strange way the road there was made, being that there were several turns at the place where the straight road seemed the better choice. The farmstead wasn't abandoned with the Kaufmann family refusing to abandon their home and land. In the end the General chose against forcing them away, being confident that the enemy wouldn't even reach them.

It was late morning when, as soon as the force ate and rested up from the march, it was time for deployment. Just before the Swivel there was a small patch of trees where the defence would have been great to base around. Half of the mages took their post there, bombard behind it, the battalion's footmen took the wide space to the left for their battle line while the militia made their position in the gap on the right. With that, the force was prepared to encounter the enemy.

The battle started with the rush of goblins and orcs against the footmen's line. The militia could see the first hand at how the army dealt with the enemy in terms of tactics. Closed up ranks made it impossible for goblins to pass through and made it much easier to deal with the orc's crude armour. Of course, the militia wouldn't miss on a fight. The black wulfs came running not long after and tried to breach the gap. But with captain Clancy's determination and showcase of his abilities, the militia had nothing to fear.

In the end, even after a second wave, the goblinoids stood no chance. The second wave encountered the shell from the bombard and the Rain of Fire spell on their way to the battle, tearing half of them even before engaging the humans and humans, in their high spirits, took the rest of them down easily. And once the smoke had lifted from the battlefield, the difference in the results of the two battles was as night and day. There were no casualties, only wounded and the morale was high.

Afterwards, the army gathered the corpses of the enemy. They recovered 108 goblins, 26 orcs and 22 wulfs. They treated the goblinoids the same as the last time, meanwhile they had something special planned for the wulves. After distributing the recovered gold and putting the wulf corpses onto the carriage, captain Clancy and the General returned to the city. They left the corpses at a conditioned warehouse, allowing the city to profit from these with the fur sales.

The crystals ended up with another use however, as the General would find out. After the captain collected them onto a single pile, he took them and went into the city without explaining why. General only learned about this later and so was forced to catch up with him. He had finally encountered the captain outside of an alchemist's shop that the man was leaving from. "Damn it, captain. I had been looking all over for you."

Captain was just stroking his messy beard. "Well, you found me, Milord. What can I do for you?"

General answered with clear annoyance in his voice. "You can start by explaining what is it that you are doing here. Why did you take all those crystals?"

"I think it will be easier to just show you." Captain took a step back and then opened up the door. "After you."

General kept his look of annoyance as he entered inside. The alchemist's shop was as expected. Plenty of alchemical potions behind the counter, a strange smell that you couldn't identify, the shop itself being a bit dusty while it seemed it was more cleaner in the back. There was no indication as to why exactly they were there as the shopkeeper was in the back, making some noise and moving some stuff.

Captain didn't even need to call for him as the door bell indicated their entry. Shopkeeper's voice was heard. "What is it, Clancy, my boy? Forgot something?"

Captain called him, asking for him to come. Out came a small humanoid male, smiling while carrying a pipe in his hand. It took a moment for the General to identify him properly. His short size, long white beard that was partially braided and mechanical goggles would have implied him being a dwarf. However, his pointy ears gave his race. Gnomes might not have been as common in the kingdom of Linirea, but this wasn't the first one that Thomas met.

"Ah, have you brought me a new customer? Shame, because I am closing this for now.", gnome asked. Captain shook his head. "He is the reason on why are you closing the shop. Felineas, meet the Royal General Thomas Blackwood. He is the one responsible for the today's haul."

"Ah, General. Welcome, welcome. I am Felineas Izunia, owner of this modest shop."

General lowered his head. "Well met, my good sir. But may I know the reason for me being here?"

Felineas: "Of course. It's simple. Clancy here finds me crystals, in exchange for those I make alchemical stuff that benefits him and the militia. In this case, it will benefit the rest of the army too."

General: "I see. Do I have any say in the matter?"

Felineas nodded while stroking his long beard. "Of course, my dear boy. You have it for 15 more minutes."

General was stunned. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Felineas: "Simple. That's how long will it take me to close and start preparing for the trip. Carry on." He then returned to the back, leaving puzzled General behind. He then turned to Clancy. "Mind telling me what is going on here?"

Clancy: "We have here a travelling alchemist that will join us."

General: "And you didn't think about informing me? Or even giving me a vote on this?"

Clancy: "Actually, I was just going to look for you, but you found me first. As for vote part, sure, you get one vote." Then he counted himself and Felineas and with glee on his face exclaimed: "Oh, look. You got outvoted." General wasn't impressed with the joke, but that didn't deter Clancy. "Look, he will be worth it. Trust me on this. Besides, you don't even have to pay him in gold. Crystals will be enough."

"Fine." General took a deep sigh. "You are the one responsible for him."

"Deal." The two men shook their hands. "Now, if you will excuse me. There is something special I need to pick up at the town hall." The two men went their separate ways.

The force made their camp at the Kaufmann farmstead, as the battalion should have. After making the pyres for the corpses, the force awaited for the next orders. But without the current directions, all they could do was wait until the enemy revealed themselves. Captain Clancy took the opportunity to teach.

Another improvised classroom was made behind a barn with the militiamen, mages, dwarves and some footmen observing it. Most people, other than the dwarves, ended up sitting on the ground. Some of the regulars did protest about being present, however General silenced them. "After seeing the last one, I honestly support this idea. I don't care some of you might already know this. I wish to make sure there is a universal level of base knowledge shared among everyone. I shall hear no objections."

One of the footmen commented: "Fine, but what makes the captain here qualified to do this?"

Captain was the one that answered. "I served 10 years in the royal army. It might not have gotten me knighthood, but at least I have a lot of experience. Besides, right now this is more focused on the militia. If we encounter something that I don't know or someone with more experience, I will let them speak. Alright?"

After getting the nods of approval, Captain continued his speech while also pinning a crude drawing on the wall. "Then let's start with the new monster. A wulf. And no, not wolf. A wulf. They might look quite similar, but trust me, the differences between them are quite significant and they might save your lives. Understood?" After a brief pause, he continued.

"Right. Wulves are very fast and vicious creatures raised by evil. A mutation on a common wolf, despite their looks they are quite different in behaviour. A wolf is a cunning beast of nature showing signs of intelligence that can retreat when they sense danger. By contrast, wulves obey the orders of their superiors, show little, if any autonomy and they will basically kill themselves before they even try to retreat. Sadly, that does mean they will stand and fight and with their small frame and speed, they can easily dodge you attacks so be careful."

He took down the drawing. "That also reminds me. As the wulves showed it yesterday, we should understand the enemy tactics as they can be different, depending on who it is. And in order to do so, we should study the basics. So let's go over the highway system."

There was whispers of groaning and confusion. One of the footmen ended up asking directly. "Sir, why do you wish to teach us something so basic?"

"Tell me, do you know they story behind it?"

"Yes, yes. The project was started 100 years ago when the current realms and their borders were established et cetera."

Captain smirked. "In that case, you can share with the rest of the class on why goblins and ogres went for footmen while the wulves charged for the militia."

"Um..." The footman was clearly confused. It was then that the dwarven commander spoke up. "The wulves had easier time on rougher terrain while the humanoid monsters prefer roads for easier movement."

Seeing the commander's confidence, the footman sat down while the captain continued. "Exactly. That's where tactics come into play. Common sense would lead people to think that monsters would prefer the cover of the forests to strike from. However, that would ignore the changes in behaviour in the last 100 years. Like it or not, they had figured it out that it's simply easier to use the roads than trek through the forests. In fact, we have a perfect example from yesterday's battle."

"The kingdom of Linirea has temperate climate which means it often rains. Had the highway system not existed, the 6th Battalion would have had more difficulties marching to Southport due to mud. Large army movements plus the rain would make the terrain muddy, making it more difficult to pass through. That's why it took until the noon for the attack to happen. They waited for the ground to dry up and attack. Again, they charged on the highway, making it easy to intercept them."

"Now, of course not every enemy will do that, as the wulves proved it. Their fast movement and light weight makes it easier for them to pass through. So, expect that most enemies will attack on the highway and do watch out for those that stand out."

After seeing the serious mood, captain decided to lighten it up. "Now, of course we could also discuss on how the roads are laid out, but-" He pointed at the Swivel. "Let us not touch that hornet's nest, shall we?" After the laughter subsided, he continued his lesson.

He ended it with one last thing. "Now, this piece of news is just for the locals." He picked up something from his bag near him. "I have come back from Southport yesterday with this special gift." He unveiled his item to the cheers of the locals. "By authority granted to me by the mayor of Southport, I hereby order the Southport Militia Company to continue their service under his Lordship Royal General Thomas Blackwood!"

Everyone erupted in cheers. The item captain held in his hand was the city flag. The bicolour dark blue-white-dark blue design with a dark blue trident in the middle. While the flag itself was nothing special, the meaning behind certainly was. The Southport Militia Company now stood as an official army unit with official colours. It would now serve as the pride of the unit and would serve as a morale boost.

Unfortunately, the company didn't have much time to enjoy the celebration. Scout report came in just several minutes later, indicating that a large goblinoid force was approaching the township of Pagras. There was no time to dilly-dally so the troops quickly broke their camp and started their march eastward.