Soul of the Warrior

Chapter 109: The Basics

"What does it mean to be an officer?" Major Dobrik asked, addressing the Candidates who had passed the initial evaluations.

The schedule was much more relaxed after having been through two weeks of intense physical training. The higher-ups had seen the grit and guts of the Candidates, and now they were to learn how to actually be officers. It wasn't just the pomp and circumstance classes that were cut, though, as they still had to mount an imminent rescue operation. The typical six-month-long course had to be truncated even more severely than the mental evaluation.

They would cover most of the information, but it wouldn't be as detailed. They didn't feel the need to train the new officers with a foundation for becoming battalion commanders. They just needed quick and dirty leaders for what was possibly a short conflict. If it was going to be a multiple-county large conflict, the kingdom would get involved, and the responsibilities would be with others. They would have the bare minimum to transition into kingdom-commissioned officers if that was the case, but that wasn't the current goal.

One of the Candidates raised his hand and waited for the Major to call upon him. When Major Dobrik motioned for him to give his answer, he stood at attention before addressing the senior officer.

"The officers devise the strategy and direct the soldiers to follow it," the man said. He sat back down in his seat after giving the answer.

"Close, but not exactly," Major Dobrik shook his head. "Anyone else?"

Several of the Candidates shared looks with each other before several others raised their hands. Major Dobrik nodded his head to one sitting in the front row. The man stood at attention.

"They are the spiritual leaders of the troops. They set the example."

"A good answer, but not quite what I'm looking for."

Several of the Candidates offered up other answers, all along the lines of being the strategist or example for the troops, just worded in different ways. Major Dobrik acknowledged that these were good answers, but not the right answer.

Reivyn had raised his hand from the very beginning, but the Major was calling on the Candidates in a semi-random order starting from the front of the room. The Candidates had naturally arranged themselves in the classroom according to where they had sat at the initial briefing when they signed up, so he was in the back. He was finally called upon, and he stood at attention to give his answer.

"They are the enforcers," Reivyn said. "They enforce good order and discipline. It's not just that they lead by example or come up with strategies. They make sure the mission is accomplished."

"Yes, the most important thing is mission accomplishment," Major Dobrik nodded his head. "As I said, everyone here has a pretty good grasp of what it means to be an officer, but Candidate Reivyn added that little bit that was missing.

"You're not friends with the enlisted troops. You're not their mommy or daddy, either. You are the arbiter of military discipline, which is one of the lynchpins to success. Leading by example, coming up with the right strategies and tactics, and enforcing good military order are all directed at mission accomplishment.

"In the next two weeks, we will equip you with the necessary tools to accomplish the missions assigned to you. You've all displayed your ability to function under extreme stress, and you'll need to combine that capability with the proper methodology to translate to victory on the battlefield.

"Your first class will be on Map Reading. Everyone will have to unlock the Skill and Level it up to at least five in the next two weeks. Five might not seem like a lot, and it isn't, but it's just a minimum standard that will continue to improve as you perform your duties, anyway."

Major Dobrik stepped off the raised podium to allow the instructor, one of the company commanders that the provisional lieutenants would be serving under, to take his place and begin the class. He didn't waste everyone's time with ceremonial speeches about how proud he was of their performance, or about how he was looking forward to what they would accomplish in the future. He simply got everyone in the right mindset of learning how to be an officer while introducing the classroom instruction, and then he let it begin.

Reivyn had his Map Making Skill at Level 23. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to translate that skill into Map Reading. He didn't know how his own Skill would affect his ability to read a map created by someone else, or if it would affect the way he could read different kinds of maps. He was used to making smaller, local maps, on paper and in his mind, and they weren't as detailed as a topographical map could be. He did have vague recollections of lines on paper indicating elevation and other things.

"The first lesson is recognizing what you're looking at on a map," the captain said. "I'll have a copy of two different types of maps of the local area passed around to everyone. One is a physical map, showing the terrain in a colored representation, and one is a topographical map, showing the terrain through lines. The topographical maps are easier to mass produce and can show more accurate descriptions, so that's what we'll mainly be learning. The physical maps provided of the local area are a tool used to help you visualize what the lines on a topographical map represent."

The maps were passed around, and everyone focused on the lesson by the captain on how to read the topographical map. Reivyn's memories from his dreams helped him immensely, and that, coupled with his Map Making Skill, allowed him to unlock the new Skill in about fifteen minutes.

New Skill Unlocked!

Tier 1:

Map Reading (0 ->1)

Several of the other Candidates already had the Map Reading Skill, so this was nothing new to them, and several others had other Skills that helped to facilitate gaining the new one, as well. There were only a couple of people who didn't unlock the Skill after an hour of instruction and examples.

"Even though some of you haven't unlocked the Skill, you're still able to read and understand the maps generally by this point. The next part of Map Reading is determining where you are on it. The essential method of finding out where you are is taking an azimuth.

"In simple terms, taking an azimuth involves recognizing two or more landmarks, finding them on the map, orienting yourself with a Mana compass, and using that to draw a straight line at the angle of the compass through the landmarks located on the map. The point on the map where the lines intersect will be your location.

"Since this is a truncated lesson, I won't go into all the nitty, gritty details of how the Mana compasses work. Just know that they do work, and they're universal to the Realm. The Map Reading Skill will improve the speed and accuracy you can orient yourself with a compass, not just how easily you can read a map."

The students took notes of the important points of the lesson, and the captain went into the practical application after the brief introduction. It wasn't important for the Candidates to learn every little thing there was to know. They just needed to know how to make it work.

The class had large pictures drawn out of notable landmarks with the compass shown on the picture. They were instructed on how to calculate the angle and draw the lines through repetitive examples of the local area matched to the topographical maps provided. Reivyn's Skill Level ticked up quickly with the synergy between his memories and other map Skill.

Skill Leveled Up!

Tier 1:

Map Reading (1 ->3)

"Next week we'll be heading to the field for real-world application, and everyone should have the minimum Level 5 in Map Reading by the time we return to the city, among the other training exercises we'll engage in."

The lesson on Map Reading, using a Mana compass, and taking an azimuth took up the majority of the morning hours. It was clear to see that they took the subject seriously.

The first week of classroom instruction went by much slower than the physical training had. While they were engaged in the suffering work of the mental evaluation, every second seemed to stretch on for minutes or hours, and yet, once it was over, it seemed like it was just a flash.

The classroom instruction, however, didn't have a fluctuating appearance to the time investment. It just dragged. All of the Candidates, Reivyn included, despite having spent a year as a student at the Magic Academy, were used to getting out and doing things. Even the classes at the Magic Academy were structured in a way to allow the students to have ample time between lessons to get out and do things. The lessons for the Candidates were from breakfast to dinner, straight, with a short break only for lunch.

They had lessons on various platoon tactics. They weren't restricted to just infantry tactics, either. They would be working with the Mage Corps, and cavalry was an important part of Martial combat, so they received instruction on how to coordinate between them.

Reivyn was left disappointed at the tactics involved, as they appeared to be quite rigid. The Mage Corps would bombard an enemy unit until they were too close, and the cavalry was used as a brute force to charge enemy lines. His dreams involved unit tactics that involved much more coordination and combination between different functions of combat, and he was disheartened to find that the military tactics didn't get as involved.

"A portion of the Mage Corps will expend their Mana in order to throw up a defensive barrier to surround the troops to protect you from the enemy's own Mages. The lines of combat, though, are often long and wide, and they can only do so much to protect you and your men.

"It is essential to train the troops to develop a group-shield Skill. Not everyone has access to Mana, but enough troops will have access to a minimum amount, or are hybrid classes, that will allow them to combine their Mana pools together and spread a shield across the line."

Reivyn raised his hand. The tactic of having the troops form a group-Mana Shield was a solid one, but there could be so much more. The instructor paused in his lecture and indicated for Reivyn to pose whatever question he had.

"Sir, what about using our Mage Corps to suppress their Mage Corps? And the cavalry, the fastest unit on the field, could be used to harass the flanks and pressure the enemy Mages. Horses won't charge a wall of spears, anyway. And what's the effective range of the Spells from the Mage Corps? If we can..."

"Let me stop you there, Candidate," the captain held his hand up, and Reivyn stopped talking mid-sentence. "These are the tried and true tactics of warfare, so these are the tactics that you are going to learn. While it's good to keep an open mind and use everything to your advantage in combat, don't fill your head with nonsense and abandon the basics."

Abandon the basics? Reivyn thought, stunned. I'm talking about the basics!

Reivyn sat in silence for a moment, the two men staring at each other. This guy's not going to change his mind Reivyn realized. He's stuck in his ways, and he's determined to teach these methods to everyone. I'll have to convince Jek, Furok, and Derik to train our men in more than just brute force fighting, at least a little, and I can probably convince Fira to do the same with a few of the Mage Corps officers. If we can get that much, it might be doable to put some better tactics together in the short amount of time that we have.

"Yes, sir," Reivyn conceded while silently planning to spread his ideas.

"Good," the captain continued his lecture. Reivyn shared a meaningful look with Jek and the other two as the lesson continued.

The majority of the classroom instruction was spent on map reading and tactics. They were only taught a cursory lesson on overall strategy, as that mission was the purview of the higher-ups, and they wouldn't have much say in the matter. It was always good for people to be able to grasp the intent of the commanders and understand the overall goals, though, so they did get some instruction on the matter from the point of view of a platoon leader.

Reivyn was pleased to see that the captains also included lessons on military bearing and appearances. They didn't go into the ceremony side of things, and they didn't receive any dress uniforms or anything, but Reivyn was vindicated further by the inclusion of the lessons. Jek, Furok, and Derik nodded their heads when the instructor launched into the lesson, and several of the other Candidates who had heard Reivyn's advice but chose to ignore it snuck glances back at him.

Most of the Candidates were already leaders in some capacity or another, and the military instruction they received expounded on what most of them already knew and translated it to a military setting.

They received lessons on military law, and they were taught how to judge infractions and mete out proper punishments to ensure military order and discipline. They were only going to be provisional lieutenants, though, and most of the proper actions to take that were taught were to send it up the chain to their own company commander. They were expected to handle less serious infractions, however, and they spent ample time memorizing the military code of conduct.

Overall, I would grade them as pretty good on the leadership side of things, but woefully lacking in the strategy and tactics department, Reivyn summarized at the end of the first week. They only gave us an overview of what the strategies and how they would be determined are like, but from what I saw, it was a whole lot of: find the enemy, engage them, win with superior strength. Not a whole lot of nuance or room for maneuver in that mindset.

"We'll have to band together to practice some better tactics," Reivyn addressed his mates and Fira at dinner. It wasn't until the end of the week that the timing between the Mage Corps' free time and the Martial Unit's free time coincided.

Reivyn had been busy brushing up on remembering the things he had read in the compendium for junior officers Knight-Lieutenant Brand had given him, as well as the lessons they had been taught in class, to seek out Fira and spend time with her. This was the first time they had spent any meaningful time together, and Reivyn was more concerned with securing safety and victory in the future than he was with developing further rapport.

Fira had been visibly disappointed at the direction of conversation Reivyn had continued to steer them in, but after listening to his thoughts and concerns, she had also gotten on board with the idea.

"I've made a few friends that I think I can convince to spend some time training their people to coordinate," she said. "We only have a week with the troops before we set out, though. Even though it seems like we're taking our time to mount a rescue operation, it couldn't have been done any sooner with the numbers involved unless the City Lord was willing to leave the city defenseless."

"That's a whole other conversation," Reivyn commented. "Like, why weren't any scouting units sent out? And if they were, why didn't we encounter them? Where did they go, and what were they looking for? They should have at least sent people to verify the claims instead of hoping and waiting for us to show up."

"Wait, what?" Jek asked, pausing with his fork halfway to his mouth. "You guys are the ones who sent the information?"

"Well, yeah," Reivyn said. "You didn't know that?"

"Of course not!" Jek said. "We never talked about it, and you didn't mention it on your own."

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal," Reivyn shrugged. "The City Lord and counsel know about the problem, and they're handling it."

"Not a big deal?" Jek rolled his eyes. "The way you put it, yeah, it's not that big of a deal; but!" He held a finger up to emphasize his point. "You've known the truth behind the rumors this whole time, and you could have alleviated our minds on the matter. We've been under the assumption that this could all be blown way out of proportion, and we might not see any real action anyway.

"Some of the other Candidates think this is a witch hunt and just a way to scam some contribution points and achievements without having to do any real work."

Furok and Derik shared a look and nodded their heads.

"I can tell you directly, that is not the case," Reivyn explicitly denied. "The population of Kirlon is gone, and there are tracks of well over 40 to 50 thousand enemy troops." Reivyn waved his arms to preempt any further questions on the matter. "That's all we know. We only stuck around to find out that information and send it ahead of ourselves, and I'm only volunteering for this mess because a couple of my companions had family in Kirlon and they asked me to help.

"I don't know why, I don't know where, I don't know if, and, or but. All I know is, there's going to be a fight, and we need to take this seriously."

"Well, that puts a whole other perspective on why you're so adamant about adding your tactics to our repertoire," Jek said, placing his fork down. He seemed to have temporarily lost his appetite. "So what do we have to do?"

"As I said, the only thing we can do is independently learn the tactics I have in mind and convince some of the Mage Corps officers to practice with us," Reivyn answered. "We only have a week, and two of those days are going to be spent on field exercises directed by the company commanders and one day for rest before deploying. That means we have four days to polish our troops on what the captains expect of us and the tactics we can introduce."

"So what are these tactics, and how can we learn enough to teach those under us?" Fira asked. Sera watched silently from the side, but Reivyn could sense a different emotion emanating from her usual over-protection. He could sense that she was not only intrigued by any ideas he might give but that she was also impressed that he was taking everything so seriously.

"The best way I can demonstrate to think of it in a short time is like this: We have short, medium, and long-range units. We have stationary and mobile units, and we have fast and slow units. We have light, medium, and heavy weapons.

"The bulk of the volunteers are going to be short and medium range. In this context, we can view archers as medium range. We won't need to come up with anything fancy in order to properly deploy the archers. The Mage Corps are generally going to be stationary, and they can be considered medium and long range. The infantry is slow, mobile, and the cavalry is fast, mobile.

"Skirmishers and archers are light weapons, infantry is medium, and the Mages can be considered Heavy. Cavalry can be all three, depending on how they're used, but I think it would be more effective to label them as light, and use them to assault flanks and pressure the enemy heavy weapons, i.e. their Mages.

"The tactics the instructors have laid out for us are generally to have the archers launch several salvos, have the cavalry charge the enemy lines, and follow it up with the infantry. Meanwhile, the Mage Corps will be hitting the enemy formation with medium-range, heavy-duty Spells. That's pretty much all they've laid out for us, and all of the other instruction has been on how to maneuver the troops to line them up to do so.

"That's going to get a lot of people killed, and for no good reason.

"If this is a universal tactic, then we'll be marching into a meat grinder, and the cavalry will just charge each other. What's the point of that?

"We can combine all of these different elements together to more effectively utilize them. Our Mage Corps, instead of trying to shield a portion of our troops from the enemy Mages, can instead focus on bombarding the enemy Mages directly. We should suppress their heavy weapons with our heavy weapons. Add on harassing hit-and-run tactics from the fast cavalry units, and they won't be able to bombard our infantry.

"If we rout their Mages, or take them out of the fight, then our Mages can switch to focusing on bombarding the enemy units with impunity."

"What do we do about the enemy cavalry that will be charging us?" Furok asked with a frown.

"Horses won't charge into a wall of spears, and if they do, they'll be ineffective," Reivyn pointed out. "We just make sure everyone, no matter what type of weapon they usually use, has a spear. They don't need the Skill to use it for the purpose we have designed. They just need to plant it in the ground and angle it up. The enemy cavalry will do all of the work for us when they charge into the spears.

"A lot of the enemy cavalry will perish from that alone, but the ones that don't will be easy pickings for the infantry. That's nothing revolutionary, and I thought it was pretty common. It seems like the commanders are assuming the enemy won't be able to mount a proper spear-wall defense because of the magic bombardment, and there are a lot of assumptions being made about the enemy's use of cavalry, as well."

Jek, Furok, and Derik nodded their heads. Fira still had a contemplative look on her face.

"You mentioned that the Mage Corps could be considered medium and long range, but you only mentioned medium range," she said. "I get that we can fling our Spells pretty far, but how far are you thinking?"

"Out of line-of-sight," Reivyn replied. "We spend all this time on navigation and pinpointing where we are on a map, but they haven't taught us to extrapolate that training into pinpointing the enemy location on the map. If we can find them, place them on the map, and communicate their accurate position to a Mage Corps unit far away, they can launch a Spell without ever having to see them for themselves, depending on how far you all can launch your Spells.

"The other important aspect of combining our units together involves movement under fire." Jek looked at the other two and mouthed the words with a questioning look. "Basically, we'll need to evaluate the terrain and move through it properly so the Mage Corps can freely cast their Spells over our heads while we maneuver.

"The way they have the tactics set out right now, they have the Mage Corps standing off to the side so there's no obstruction. That puts them in a precarious position, vulnerable to assault."

"We've been learning how to direct Mages to combine their Mana to create larger effects," Fira said. "We can alter that slightly by either changing one of the Mages to add velocity instead of power or adding more Mages to the Spell matrix.

"If your idea is feasible, it won't just allow us to launch Spells at far away enemies, it will also allow us to lob Spells over obstacles, like mountains, sand dunes, or any of the smaller forests around rivers and such." Reivyn smiled at Fira as she applied the thinking to further problems. The benefit of working with smart people.

"You'll have to work with your Mages to figure out exactly how fast and far you can launch your Spells, and you'll have to teach the other Mage Corps officers how to do the same," Reivyn said. "I'm assuming you have the Mathematics Skill?"

"Of course," Fira lifted her chin. "I've had an excellent education."

"You'll have to apply your Mathematics Skill with Map Reading in order to determine the proper angle to hit the target. Every officer is given a magic tool to communicate across a fifty-mile radius. We should make sure we have some extras to give to any scouting units sent out to find the enemy so they can send the information without having to meet back up with the main unit they're attached to."

"Ok, you've laid out some pretty grand plans for all of us to go over," Derik said, leaning forward. "So do you have any other, specific tactics?"

Reivyn nodded his head and smiled. We only have two days with the troops to train in these tactics, but the overall movement and orders should overlap with each other. It's much more important that the officers and leaders understand the tactics, and they're definitely on board.