Being chased by an enemy army was never easy, even if it was on purpose.

Ruhak hadn’t ridden hard, but the army was getting up and breaking camp earlier and setting up camp later. All things considered, his position was a rather nice one compared to the soldiers who had to march on foot.

The Shedim Masters stayed with Legate Iustinianus and another Legate, whose work for the Empire had gone unnoticed by Ruhak. He was a middle-aged man who had apparently gotten his position through personal ties, according to Iustinianus. To appoint someone a Legate on personal connections was to spit in the face of the great conquerors of Konelia.

Ruhak sat on a log situated around one of the thousands of campfires as Seang handed him a cup of tea. It was nice to just sit down with his friends and allies and relax.

Well, it would’ve been if there weren’t another ten soldiers from their Centuria mingling about like this was some kind of gala.

Ruhak just sipped his tea in silence, blocking the conversation between the soldiers and the Masters out of his head.

If he eavesdropped, he’d start assigning them identities. That was dangerous territory.

“Well...you’re a sorry sight.”

Ruhak looked up, ready to rebuke whoever said that, but quickly shut his mouth as his eyes landed on Iustinianus.

“L-Legate. Can I help you?”

“You can stop looking as though you’re trying to blend in among a women’s bathhouse.” Iustinianus dropped next to him, his armor clanging onto the wood.

Ruhak tried to relax himself, his shoulders dropping slightly.

“What’s your deal, Ruhak?” Iustinianus asked.

“My...deal?” he asked.

“You said you used to be a captain. I can tell by the way you are on the battlefield. Very commanding. Very authoritative. Decisive. Outstanding traits to have. But once you’re not looking to defeat an enemy, all that seems to just vanish. I would say you’re acting like a civilian, but even that artist of yours knows your own soldiers better than you do.”

“I’m a leader off the battlefield too.” Ruhak said, “But I can’t have those qualities if I get...involved. Don’t tell me you can still command your men if you get attached.”

“It’s because I befriend my soldiers that I can command them so effectively.”

“What if they die?” Ruhak asked, “What about their families? That grief is on you as their leader.”

“What if? Ruhak, this is war. War shows no mercy. No one involved in it has control over their circumstances. Each and every man under me knows that. I know that. If a man who is my friend dies, I don’t pity myself and call myself a failure. I grieve with his widow and help raise his son.” Iustinianus said, “My own father died in battle, but his commanding officer raised me to become one of the most accomplished soldiers of this nation.”

“But how do you deal with all that pain? Men die all the time. Surely you can’t have the time or the tranquility to console everyone.”

“I don’t. But the pain is a trade-off for camaraderie.” Iustinianus said, “When you know your soldiers, you know who you can trust with what. And because you took the time to know them, your soldiers know you truly care for them. Stop worrying about the future so much. Those who dwell in any time other than the present are easily manipulated.”

“Akropolites…” Ruhak muttered.

“Why don’t you get to know some of my men? I’ll introduce you.” Iustinianus said.

“I’d-” Ruhak started, but a rumbling from the sky made him look up.

Black clouds smothered the ambient blue moonlight. Despite the fires they had, the world seemed to grow darker.

“A storm?” Iustinianus asked.

Ruhak saw the azure flashes of light within the cloud, “A lightning storm.”

No rain came down as the storm passed overhead. But bolts of lightning crashed down miles away, explosions of thunder shaking the entire camp.

Murmurs among the soldiers were panicking.

“What is this?” Iustinianus stood, eyes still solely set on the storm.

“Bjorn…” Cecile said, “Ruhak-”

“I know,” Ruhak said, “Something’s wrong in Koinelia. The lightning storm probably won’t hurt us, but there’s got to be something really wrong going on for him to send a storm of this magnitude. I didn’t even know he could do this.”

“It’s alright everyone!” Iustinianus assured his men, “Just stay away from the trees and we should be fine!”

“What does this mean?” Shahla asked, “What should we do?”

“Now that I think about it...we didn’t see the Twelve, right?” Ricco asked, “And you said they had less Bane Knights than they should’ve.”

Iustinianus’s eyes widened, “I’m going to go inform the Grand Marshal.”

“If they’re occupying the city, we should send out a detachment as soon as possible, not wait for the Legates to debate over it.” Seang said.

“We’ll still need Shedim Masters here to take care of Guanyu.” Ruhak said, “Bjorn and Taya are already in Koinelia, so...let’s send one Shedim Master per member of the Twelve.”

“That leaves four of us here.” Cecile said, “Who stays?”

“I will.” Ruhak was the first to raise his hand.

“My Shedim isn’t great for single combat. I’ll stay put.” Peng said.

“I need to help the medics. I’ll stay too.” Cecile said.

“My skills with my Shedim are...underwhelming. I’ll be more useful on the battlefield.” Orhan said.

“There.” Iustinianus said, “Take one of my Legions. Ride hard. Go! I’ll inform the Marshal and the Legates.”

Ruhak looked to the sky and the storm passing overhead.

This was war. Real war. Where nothing goes as expected. Where taking risks is a requirement. Where refusing to do so spells out doom. He used to know that until the destruction of his fleet.

He wanted a reason for his existence. The first step was to stop refusing to live it.

________________________________________________________________________

Bjorn held back a large slingshot as one man dropped an active gas bomb into the cup. He let go of the slingshot and threw the bomb back at the Nikan soldiers crowding around the entrance to one bridge to the University.

He had extracted Taya in a small covert mission and brought back to the university, where she now slept.

The main bridge was barricaded and manned by most of the rebellion’s manpower.

The Bane Knights were holding back for right now, since their forces were spread thin. Uprisings were happening all over the city since the news of the campus siege got out.

But that didn’t mean the fighting had stopped on their front.

Soldiers fired crossbows and launched bombs filled with stinging gas as Bane Knights tried to push them around with jets of water. The rebels fired flaming arrows, threw fire bombs mixed in clay jars and operated homemade siege equipment like catapult, slingshots and trebuchets.

Despite the fire from both sides, the day was relatively quiet. Occasionally, a gas bomb would get people to yelp or the soldiers would scramble backwards from a firebomb.

Bjorn made it his job to go around the campus and check up on all the entrances that were experiencing difficulty keeping the advance of the Bane Knights at bay. Their most vulnerable spot was a staircase leading from the street to the campus. Many rebels had clogged the path with furniture and laid the area before it with bricks and nails to stop a cavalry charge.

He hadn’t come up with the idea, since most of the rebels were going under the assumption that this revolt had no leader. Bjorn was happy to let that be the case. If there was no leader, there was no head to this snake, making the resistance far more difficult to kill.

Most of the rebels were university students, young men who had come of age, but weren’t yet ready to enter the military, and young women whose husbands were soldiers. If it came down to a melee, they might have a chance at victory if they could arm themselves.

More rebels from other uprisings snuck into the campus in waves, whether it be from the sewers or by climbing the walls in an unoccupied area. With each wave, they got more food and supplies.

On the inside of the campus, it was becoming quite the fortress.

Bjorn’s focus was currently occupied with the North bridge. It had no roof as it crossed the Imperial Canal, making it the most easily defensible, but that meant the least number of rebels were dedicated to defending it. All the Bane Knights and soldiers there were hunkering down at its entrance, which was out of reach from any of their weapons. Bjorn had a sinking feeling that they would try something here.

“How’s everything up here?” Bjorn asked as he climbed onto the nearest rooftop the rebels had stationed themselves on.

“Fine so far, Master Northman.” a young man no older than seventeen muttered, squinting out towards the other end of the bridge, “The Nikan just got a few boxes of who knows what, though. They’ve been stirring a bit since then.”

Bjorn narrowed his eyes, trying to peer across the canal. “Was there any detail you could figure out about those boxes?”

The young man shook his head. “No, sir. But I think they’re bringing it up now.”

“Can you guys get yourselves onto the entrance of the bridge, just in case.”

“We don’t have a lotta numbers, but I think we should be armed enough to help you out.” the man said.

The Bane Knights and soldiers brought up a vertical wooden platform on wheels and set it up so the face of the platform was aimed directly at them.

Then they lit a fuse.

“It’s a weapon! Get down!” Bjorn tackled the young man as a noise like a thousand shrill whistles pierced the air.

Spears propelled by jets of sparks flew overhead.

Bjorn crawled over to the ladder that led up to the roof and slid down to the street, where rebels were panicking in an attempt to hide themselves from the spears.

He ran to the entrance of the bridge and saw the mass of black armor rushing towards them.

“They’re charging the bridge! To arms!” Bjorn roared, “To arms!”

That much snapped the rebels out of their disorder. They picked up their weapons and assembled on the bridge. Before the Bane Knights even made it halfway across the bridge, several rebels pushed mounds of paper, wood and other flammable materials onto the bridge, creating a wall between the two sides.

Bjorn cast out an arc of lightning, which turned it into a barrier of flames.

The rebels then started setting up slingshots and readied fire bombs.

Pretty predictably, several water Knights doused the flames of the wall as they approached, but as soon as they broke through, the slingshots loosed their payloads, which shattered and burst into flames on the first few lines of Bane Knights.

They tried to extinguish the fires again, but these flames seemed to burn even when dunked in water.

“Like it?” A girl of around fifteen asked, “I see it on your face, Northman. That’s Augustan fire. Won’t go out until the sun does. My father used to make it for the navy.”

Many Bane Knights started jumping into the canal to extinguish the flames on them as rebels fired more and more of the bombs.

Soldiers in the back returned fire with gas that the rebels had dubbed “Blind man’s pipe smoke” based on how it made the eyes burn.

Bjorn knocked one of the gas canisters aside with his shield as archers rushed forward and started firing bodkin-tipped arrows at the Knights, specifically engineered to pierce armor.

In return, the Knights unleashed blasts of wind, fire and suppressing jets of water.

Bjorn charged up a hefty amount of electricity in his hand before throwing a hand-axe into one of the fire knights. The lightning dispersed through a few lines of soldiers, knocking some out and stunning others.

He charged up another blast just like that before something came flying at him. He raised his shield and felt the weight of a whole person slam into him.

He staggered backwards as Yahui landed a few feet away from him. Her body morphed with her Shedim. Fox ears poked out of her head, nine tails splayed out from her back. Her eyes displayed an animalistic ferocity in them. Taya had called it Bonemerging during their training.

“You’ve certainly grown in power since we last met.” the princess mused as the rebels still tried to hold off the Bane Knights, “But you’re still below me, Bjorn.”

One fool tried to shoot an arrow at the princess, which was redirected as though it had never been travelling in a different direction and went straight through his skull.

“Let’s do our old dance again.” Yahui sneered.

“You know, I actually thought you were an alright person when we had you captive.” Bjorn drew his spear, “Turns out you’re just as fucked as the rest of your family.”

Yahui’s fingers, which were now claws, ignited with bright orange flames as she slashed at the air where Bjorn once was. She closed the distance and struck again, sending chips of wood spewing from the front of his new shield.

He swept at her feet, then rammed the butt of the spear into her gut as she was jumping over the initial attack. The air audibly fled her lungs as she was flung back towards her still struggling Bane Knights.

Yahui leapt to her feet and threw a ball of black flames at him. Bjorn rolled under the fire and popped up to thrust his spear at her.

The two of them traded blows and maneuvered around each other like they really were dancing. Bjorn centered himself and never took his eyes off Yahui as she revolved around him, darting in for flurry after flurry of attacks.

Her agility exhausted him. It already took great effort to keep track of her. But then coming up with a decent response to her attacks?

Bjorn eventually pinned her down though, foot to her chest and spear to her throat. But he’d been so occupied with her he hadn’t noticed the Bane Knights given up on their charge so soldiers could come to the front and each light a fuse on some kind of iron pipe.

A cacophony of blasts followed, numbing Bjorn’s ear drums. Metal pellets whizzed by. He heard screams from behind him through the thick veil of deafness around his head, but was more focused on the pain that exploded through his sword arm.

The spear clattered harmlessly to the ground along with his shield as he covered the hole in his arm, now oozing out a fountain of blood.

Bjorn didn’t even have time to grit his teeth at the pain before Yahui got out from under him and forced him to the ground.

She sighed with satisfaction, “Told brother we should’ve brought the hand cannons.”

Bjorn glanced behind him. Most of the rebels were fatally wounded or would suffer permanent damage because of them. The rest were retreating, dragging whoever they could back into the campus with them.

“You bitch!” he growled.

“That’s my younger sister.” Yahui grinned.

Bjorn staggered to his feet as the Bane Knights and soldiers started marching towards him.

There was no holding this bridge anymore.

Bjorn took a deep breath and called down an explosion of his own that blew the bridge into rubble.

_____________________________________________________________

Guanyu was not as reckless a commander as the initial strategy of the Koini Empire had been banking on.

As far as Ruhak knew, Guanyu had refused to pursue the legions after their last clash. This last stretch was pivotal, since the distance would then be great enough to significantly disrupt supply lines between the Nikan’s last outpost and the army’s current position. Guanyu had likely settled down for a few days to build up a supply outpost. With that being the case, the Legions split into three groups. Iustinianus in one, the Grand Marshal in the second and Sergia heading the third.

As discussed before the march, the Nikan army had to subsist on both supply lines and pillaging to maintain its massive size. The Legion’s three groups each settled in one of the three closest villages to prevent any kind of significant raid.

Ruhak and his remaining cohorts followed Iustinianus back to a village named Emesa.

In his homeland of Hikuptah, a village meant a few shacks cobbled together out of mud, clay or sandstone bricks and maybe a beaten path on the edge of a nearby creek.

In the Koini heartland, village meant a full system of cobblestone roads, towering stone brick structures, all situated on the rather large Koini River. They even had stone walls like a mid-sized township from anywhere else in the world.

Nearly two hundred thousand soldiers were now garrisoned in Emesa, which only had a population of a few thousand. The citizens were evacuating in case they had to indulge a little in some less savory tactics and scorch the earth.

The village was thrown into a frenzy, however, when Ruhak and Iustinianus were called to the wall during their third day of occupying the village.

Ruhak climbed the stone walls on the southeast side and looked out at waves of black and red clad soldiers that marched from the shadows of the forest. Orhan, Peng, Cecile, and Iustinianus quickly joined him.

Ruhak watched with bated breath as the soldiers marched into the clearing that surrounded the village.

“Peng, right?” Iustinianus glanced at the Nikan engineer.

“Yes, sir.” Peng nodded.

“I’m told you’re quite the battlefield mathematician. What’s your estimate on numbers?” Iustinianus asked.

Peng narrowed his eyes as he looked out towards the Nikan soldiers flying banners of the Gongsun dynasty.

“Two hundred and fifty thousand.” Peng muttered, “Yes. I’d say about a quarter of his forces.”

“Not a third?” Iustinianus murmured, “Strange.”

“Well, it’s possible we whittled their numbers down by a fourth.” Orhan said, cautiously optimistic.

“Too good to be true.” Iustinianus said, “Neither side has inflicted any extremely serious losses.”

“Against three hundred and thirty…” Peng thought aloud, “They could take this village. It wouldn’t be easy, but they could do it. With only fifty thousand less? Our battlements and more professional soldiers would give us a serious edge.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Ruhak muttered.

“Then what does this mean?” Cecile asked.

“It means the prince is making a play.” Iustinianus said, “All the villages we occupied are walled, so if he sent a third of his million men at nearly two hundred thousand at each village, he would probably suffer heavy casualties for each. He might make an attempt at a defeat-in-detail stratagem.”

“What’s that?” Orhan asked.

“A strategy that one normally uses to outmaneuver a larger force,” Ruhak explained. “You split your forces, but only into small groups, to hold the attention of the enemy’s larger detachments. You concentrate the bulk of your forces into one group of the enemy, leading to having more men in individual conflicts while still having a smaller number of men.”

“The question then becomes who is Guanyu attacking? Sergia or the Marshal?” Peng asked.

“Actually, I would argue that the question is currently irrelevant.” Ruhak said, “Assuming, he’s trying to defeat us in detail, which he may not be, we’re still face to face with a formidable force.”

“He’s right.” Iustinianus added, “While they would likely lose this skirmish, we would still take heavy losses. Losses we cannot afford as the smaller force.”

“I think I get it.” Orhan said, “We need to deal with this force swiftly before we can turn our attention to anything else.”

“Exactly.” Iustinianus said.

Cecile sighed, “You boys have fun with your strategy. I’m going to go make sure your poor medics won’t be buried under a mountain of injured men when you inevitably try something stupid.”

“Voluntary stupidity is called daring. And it’s the essence of war.” Ruhak said.

“Voluntary stupidity is still stupidity.” Cecile waved as she descended the step of the wall, “See you in the medical tents. Don’t get pummeled too bad.”

Ruhak chuckled before looking back out at the horde at their doorstep.

“We should muster our forces. I know they’ll launch an attack before they even set their camp.” Iustinianus muttered.

“What are we going to do to prevent so many casualties?” Ruhak asked.

“The other Legates and I need to focus on the defense of the village.” Iustinianus said, “You know what? I’ll let you figure it out. Whatever plan you come up with, we’ll try.”

Ruhak blinked, “I…”

He was no longer overtly avoiding growing attached to the surrounding soldiers, but...was he ready to be the one to actively put their lives on the line?

“You’re a tactician at heart, my friend. The gods don’t birth us with things they don’t want us to use. Especially if we enjoy using those things. You have a passion. Use it.”

Ruhak nodded, “Alright. I’ll see what I can do.”