The First Days Casualty Report.

"Conflict is enviable."

"Since the start of life, species have fought each other for supremacy."

"For resources."

"For power."

"Though it is rarely the powerful who suffer or die in the wars, they start for their own greed."

Ranier Lantier Great General of Nathia and Crestiers Bane.

….

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Sorrell asked, blocking Bardornus from pursuing Lucius, who was riding away and quickly rendezvoused with Leon so he could lead the last of the Chavarians through the Plurian lines and retreat as a horn blasted from behind them, announcing the arrival of Alvar, who ordered his men to pursue the retreating Chavarians and attack them from behind coming from the direction from which the Chavarians originally charged.

"Our general is now safe, our main force is now focusing on retreat, your reinforcements are too far away to help, and I doubt you alone can take on myself and Leon alone. Why don't we leave it here? After all, while we are just a detachment of our army, you hold a significant number of your kingdom's remaining elite troops."

"You have most likely lost at least 2000 knights in this battle, so why don't we just go our separate ways and fight again after the sun has risen."

Sorrell said to Bardornus as he began to ride slowly towards the direction in which the Chavarian force was retreating.

"Haven't you also lost a similar number of men?"

Bardornus said calmly, trying to think if he could take down the man in front of him if nothing else, as it would be one less master that he would have to deal with when their main forces met for battle.

"I doubt it! You were surprised, too, weren't you?"

"At the terrifying power, our general Lucius' leadership can give our forces."

"To be honest, I'm more annoyed that the Minster for War and General Drusus managed to keep his skills and potential under wraps so much while slowly growing the skills of a man who may be able to become a powerful sword for the king to wield in the future."

Sorrell commented coldly in passing, still watching Bardornus as he had no guarantee that the Plurain general would not take the opportunity to quickly cut him down while he was not looking.

"His strategies need a bit more work though huddling a bunch of horse archers together makes them vulnerable just look at the many mini flagpoles that are now stuck to the ground."

"Some young'uns just need a bit more experience."

Bardornus sighed before resting his glaive on his shoulder, turning towards the direction that Alden was approaching, and giving him a hand signal ordering his army to stand down.

"Don't think about it. Not even the gods can stop me if I want to leave."

Sorrell said coldly as he kicked his horse and began to leave the horse, quickly raising its speed to a canter, knowing what was on the Plurian general's mind.

"I'll try to go easy on that man on Lucius' horse just try to stop the good general from assigning him missions that are too dangerous so you can stay out of the fighting id hate to have to put an elder in the grave."

Bardornus said, not backing down and trying to incite division within the Chavarian camp as he wearily rode back towards his men.

'I'm getting too old for all-nighters like this should really be avoided if possible at my age.'

Bardornus thought, heading back to his camp to deal with post-battle reports while getting Alden to find and regroup the light cavalry who were routed.

Seeing Sorrells return, Lucius let out a sigh of relief, knowing that they were no longer going to be pursued by Bardornus as, even now, the fear that Bardornus had instilled had not dissipated as this was the first time that someone had sent such a strong killing intent at him. Just the thought of the man charging through his army with his glaive to cut him in half made him shiver as his heavy breathing finally started to become more steady as he calmed himself down.

'No wonder people can get PTSD from war! The battlefield is truly not a place the average man would want to be.'

Lucius thought, still in slight shock, as a person from a peaceful modern country would need an adjustment period to the blood and gore of the ancient battlefield.

The Chavarins, weary and wet, were silent as they returned to camp, each man exhausted and looking forward to a nice rest. Reports would have to wait until late in the morning as the rain stopped and the sun started to rise just as the first horse entered the camp between 5 and 6 am as both sides finally settled into sleep.

The morning sun rose, ending the blood-filled night as little crowds of cawing crows flying in the shape of circles flew through the sky, feasting on the flesh of the slain soldiers which were scattered across the steppe from the Chavarian raid in the night.

Both sides took time to recover, though, due to having split themselves into two attacking forces with the infantry staying in camp to build it into a mini hill fort led to the Chavarians being up on time while the Plurian Orturian allied army only awoke late into the morning at about 10-11 am to eat before taking down and moving their camp closer to the Chavarian one riding for 3 hours before they decided to properly set one up which was only about 30 and hour to an hours ride from the Chavarian one which by now had turned into a mini hill fort with a palisade wall and wooden gates made from the wood taken from the surrounding area meaning that the allied army had no materials for which to build a fortified encampment.

…..

Chavarian Fortified Encampment.

Lucius woke up from an 8-hour-long slumber with a yawn after getting back in the early hours of the morning, learning from experience that due to the mental strain of playing, the game appears to have its own exhaustion system, which can lead to players feeling tired like you would do in real life after spending hours awake in the game.

This was completely different from most games as to introduce realism, the players are put into a persistent world though thanks to the servers not officially opening, players would find that each of them are in more of an enclosed instance event finding only a few players though few realised one of the enemies that they were facing was a player as the player could be anything from a commanding general to the lowest ranked soldier or even something else entirely.

It all depended on what they chose during character creation; however, when the game is launched, one of the reasons for the 12 set hours of playtime is to allow for the game to be persistent so the server will close down temporarily, saving where people are and allow players to load into the VR world 1 hour earlier waiting for the server to officially come back online, so they can immediately return from where they left off.

Unless in an emergency, the servers will almost always shut off at night when most characters would be sleeping, giving people about 30 minutes to an hour after the servers have opened to get back as long as no one is looking to stage a coup or kill them during the night.

This also means that, unlike most MMOs where the character suddenly spawns in Dynasties Online, the character stays in the game even if the player takes a day off. If this happens, then the game will either make an excuse like illness if it applies in the context or have a basic AI take over; however, in most cases, the judgement of a player will be better than this AI meaning that people not logging on for an extended period of time is not recommended.

This is because usually, if a player leaves for an extended period, it is likely that when they return, what they have built will have been messed up or would have collapsed. Of course, if one is the ruler of a kingdom, he can appoint a regent or use his successor as long as it is still an advanced AI to rule while he is away. Though, of course, the ruler of this kingdom would run the risk of the reagent usurping them if they cannot be trusted or the greed for the throne becomes too much for them.

Either way, this system meant that players would feel the same need to sleep at night as NPCs would and led to Lucius sleeping for 8 hours of in-game time to recover himself mentally and recover his HP and MP used the day before.

After waking up, Lucius immediately called for a meeting as he ate his breakfast in his command tent while waiting for his subordinates to arrive, all of whom were surprised to see their general munch on a piece of bread while greeting them. After finishing the piece of bread in his hand, he immediately got down to business crumbs scattered onto the ground below.

In the tent was the Knight Captain, who even till now refused to give his name, Leon, Lyndon commander of the infantry, and Archtorius, who was weakly standing after being exhausted and dragged unconscious around the battlefield the night before.

After leaving the range of the anti-magic crystal Lucius immediately got someone to magically heal the Knight captain, who, after using the last of his strength ensuring that Lucius was safe, fell unconscious due to blood loss from the nasty gash, he received from Bardornus.

The gash was quickly healed, leaving a nice scar across the man's body behind that could be used to brag about achievements made in battle; however, due to the large amount of blood lost while the wound was open, the captain was unconscious or sleeping, Lucius was not sure which it was as he stayed in the same state for the whole ride back to camp and even did not stir until late morning around the time that Lucius called for a meeting and with a surprising amount of energy quickly devoured his breakfast before running over to take part in the meeting.

"Do we have a report on our casualties from the battles yesterday?"

Lucius asked, wanting to know just how bad the casualties were yesterday. He knew the night battles had taken a huge toil on the Chavarian army.

"Yes, general! When I woke up early this morning, I made sure to make a detailed casualty report for you. It's not looking too good, though; I imagine after hearing some stories from the soldiers who took part in the various battles that took place during the day and night. My prediction is that the enemy must have taken at least double the casualties we have."

Lyndon, the large, muscled, slightly grey-haired man, said to Lucius respectfully.

"Let's hear it then."

Lucius said in a commanding voice.

"Over the many skirmishes fought yesterday and the night raid we conducted last night, we have lost 7,000 horse archers and 3,000 knights for a total of 10,000 men, with many of these casualties being the result of Bardornus and the Plurian armies' efforts."

Lyndon said in a severe tone as Archtorius let out a short whistle after hearing the numbers, and Leon, alongside the knight captain, just stood silently in the tent, unaffected by the news.

"So we have lost 20% of our combat strength?"

Lucius asked, slightly surprised at the number of men he had sent to their deaths.

"That's correct, general. Though I imagine that the enemy has lost at least double, if not more than we have, the orcs have proven to be very vulnerable to our cavalry attacks as they are an infantry-based army fighting on the steppes combine that with their primitive weapons and its fair to say that we have the overwhelming advantage."

"Their short bows and iron arrows can't pierce our knight's plate armour. Only our horse archers are slightly vulnerable, but our composite bows outrange the orc's bows, so we can kite them without sustaining any damage."

"Their armour is also made of lesser metals than our arrows meaning that our arrows should be effective against all of their troops."

"The main problem lies with the Plurian army. Not only is Bardornus a skilled general, but they have elite troops comparable to our own if were not for the General's excellent leadership skills, we would have sustained far more damage than we did."

Lyndon finished giving the casualty report and his analysis of the enemy based on the testimony of the soldiers who had fought at the battle.

"We must also be careful of that oversized orc as he may be able to easily break our infantry formation apart, which would leave our ranged units at the back vulnerable, and they may even be able to break into the camp and destroy our supplies which would put us at a massive disadvantage in this battle especially considering that we have fouled all nearby water sources."

Leon added his input to the conversation.

"Good to know! Archtorius, do we know where the enemy is right now and how close they are to our position?"

"I have not had the chance to scout myself, but according to my men, we appear to have exhausted the Allied army as they will only begin to move their camp around about now."

Archtorius said to Lucius respectfully.

"Seems some good came from the night raid. I suspect that their entire army responded to the attack, so they should be only slightly more awake than our troops who returned last night."

"Leon, have you rested well? You led in both the afternoon skirmishes and the night raid, which concerns me."

Lucius asked Leon in a kind but serious voice showing his concern while at the same time giving Leon a warning for overworking due to him needing him to lead the cavalry in the future.

"Don't worry, milord! I'm fine after a good morning's rest. In fact, I only woke up about the same time you did, so I am ready to be of service again if you need me."

"Good, I'm going to need you to do a final skirmish with the enemy before they get here and try to exhaust them as much as possible we will engage them with all our force before they can set up camp and hopefully gain ourselves another day."

"Lyndon, ill leave you with half of our infantry and archers to be kept in reserve and help to cover our retreat after this attack; we will mainly be on the defensive."

Lucius said, planning fail-safes for the next battle.

"How's the noble with the sore bottom? Will he be ready for duty tomorrow?"

"If you wish it, general, until now, we have been letting him mostly recover naturally to allow the pain to remind him of the pain with some magical healing and another day of rest; he should be right as rain by tonight."

"Good, I can't have Leon commanding the cavalry all the time, and it would be even worse if, for some unlikely reason, he fell in battle and left our cavalry leaderless."

Lucius said, motioning for Leon to set out with the cavalry for the skirmish as soon as possible while he refined the finer details of his plan for the battle afterwards.

While the Chavarians were strategising 2 hours away on his horse, Bardornus was fuming after hearing the report from the last battle.

"You can't be serious! We lost half of our knights in the last battle!"