Despite the initial clash being so vicious few actually died. Instead as the soldiers started to pour into formations of 100 they closed in on each other. Oly the stragglers that were left alone and unable to form up properly were picked off easily. Men died surrounded on all sides. This didn’t matter if they were rankers or soldiers or commanders.

It was a battle of attrition as the press of soldiers squeezed the life out of each other. Soldiers were trampled by ally and enemy alike. Falling this early, weather tripping in the mud or unstable footing, or wounded and unable to stand to be healed was a death sentence. Worse the incoming healing rain or mass heals only prolonged their suffering. When the tried to stand and force off their allies they would instead be stomped down to keep them from creating uneven footing and causing wholes in the formation for the enemy to pour through. Entire formations falling because one soldier just wouldn’t stay down.

The blood was already spilling changing the landscape to a muddy red. But the healers wouldn’t let them die no matter how much blood was spilled. Death was only a temporary reprieve as necromancers, black mages, and other undeath casters brought the dead back to life. Some as themselves, the light mages not letting the dead go and casting resurrection, others as abominations and tools of war.

The land itself was not kind though. The mages of war would not launch simple fireballs or tiny little stone spikes. Instead, entire mountains of earth would smash into formations. Floods were rampant and they would then lead the wayward souls into the traps of other mages or creating underwater combat arenas for the specialists. One moment the soldiers would find themselves underwater, the next a scorching desert. The soldiers dying of environmental hazards.

Yes, even the land and sky were in flux, as if they weren’t sure exactly what they wanted to be, or where the soldiers were supposed to be placed. One moment you might find yourself on the stable planes they were originally, mostly, the next you might be teleported into the air and simply falling out of the sky. Then you will find yourself in a water environment, then dessert, then back to the sky.

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Micky had ordered the bubble squad as he called them to keep the bubbles up over command. They had begrudgingly done so, especially after the first siege spell landed right where the bubble squad had been slow. Causing their allies to have to heal up their own. From then on they were much more likely to listen to Micky’s orders timely. Especially since it was kind of hard for the most extreme advocates to find traction with their allies laying down wounded after they blatantly ignored orders. Micky however, knew that he needed to treat the healers with respect. They were mostly village folk that had been conscripted into the army to fight a skirmish in the middle of nowhere. He was firm with his orders but gave them leeway when he didn’t need them directly or didn’t sabotage his plans directly.

Micky was currently working on commanding the soldiers into keeping the line. The problem with having an army of levies was that none of them kept formation. Luckily he was facing even more levies. His opponent’s formation was made entirely out of levies in spite of being the left wing of the enemy’s formation. Mickey didn’t like it. He sent out more scouts to search the forests for any ambushes. It wasn’t like the scouts would do well in the main theater of combat anyway.

What worried him wasn’t that the enemy had more levies making up the ranks, it was the fact that it was only levies making up the ranks. There wasn’t even a significant presence of rankers either. This was not expected. The expected enemy formation was to have a series of elites that would force and crush Micky’s little band easily. This would force Micky’s group to join up with his neighbors to hold them back. Also, command didn’t really care about this assessment.

Micky had orders and he was expected to follow them or die. He was already brazenly ignoring them, but he didn’t want to completely ignore them yet or he might actually be put to the blade. However, the fact that command was so out of it did not bode well for Micky. He didn’t like it, and if it were up to him he would simply retreat and regroup in a line against the forest. This would place more pressure against the main line but the enemy was clearly not putting in it’s effort there.

The fact that the enemy ranker who was a true 10,000 rank yet facing off against Jack and never truly pushing the advantage only made Micky more worried. It was so blatant this was a trap that Micky had almost called for a retreat then and there. However, he held his ground. This was mostly because his scouts were still coming back with a negative. Either they were trying to come back up completely from behind, which would force them to come from the reinforced base, or the enemy was not yet positioned.

Taking the opportunity to do so while he could, Micky forced all of his siege mages, and their valuable formations to move southwest. This would leave him light on siege on his furthest flank, but he figured that when the time came, he would rather abandon nothing than leave it open. Instead, he left some siege prepared for the eventual ambush, ready to launch off at any time.

And it was when he was finishing up with the last of the moves of the formations that his Kux and the other scouts reported the enemy formation fast approaching from the forest. It was an entire brigade. The reason it had taken so long to assault was because they wanted to unify the cavalry which made up half of the army, with the infantry. All of them were trained soldiers and that was where the actual soldiers were.

Micky quickly reorganized and prepared to launch a preemptive assault on the enemy flankers. They came out like it was a marching drill and charges strait into the siege spells. It was actually very fortuitous for them that they launched the combined assualt because it gave them a chance to buff and bubble. The siege spells did not work as intended but the results were the same. Now they simply had a new front to fight on and that was all. Mira was excited to earn credits and cred for herself. She had been chomping at the bit to enter the fray and was more then ready to take the enemy on.

It was unfortunate for her that she wasn’t facing the levies of the main front then. She was losing ground in spite of her aggressive action. Micky himself kept ordering the retreat as it was clear he was not going to be able to handle this new army. He joined and reformed with his neighbor and combined they were able to hold the line, if desperately. Now that Mira and Jack were group fighting they were able to more easily hold off the enemy rankers, however.

Micky renewed his assault and even joined the buffing squad as often as he could. Taking it upon himself to use as much mana as possible before returning to his duties of overseeing the formations. It was a tough battle but there were no surprises. The enemy took ground and forced Micky and the neighboring army back. Micky having the cavalry charge out to harass the flanks but Prin was not having much success.

No the army was falling back in a steady retreat, and the enemy was pushing forward. It was hours of attrition. The day was waning and it appeared that holding his troops off was a valid tactic as both sides flagged. Rotations of fighting forces appeared to be the most important thing in a war like this, simply endless fighting. However, the end was in sight as the sun retreated. It wouldn’t be good to continue this battle at night for either party. And so Micky calmly retreated back with his brigade. His casualties ‘Merely’ reaching 1 in 10.

Unfortunately, that was not the case for the rest of the army region...