The red-haired adventurer’s name was Woke, and he was a mithril tiered adventurer of some renown. He was known amongst the local adventurers and was well respected. He and his team had helped out various newer teams and were always quick to respond to any call for aid from their fellow adventurers. The next few ‘talks’ with the other adventurer groups went much the same as the first, although Woke did a much better job at bringing the message to them than Jace had.

The adventurers were for now, pacified. But night was falling and ambushes were expected, a perimeter was set and guards patrolled between the camps. Wards and glyphs decorated the dirt walls of the tunnel to warn of the arrival of the dravu. The atmosphere was anxious, everyone was aware of the stakes and everyone knew it might be their last day. Tension, was the word that could be used to describe the army. Jace lay on his bedroll, next to Weira with Hirki on the other side. Both of the women were quiet, Hirki out of utter relaxation, Weira simply out of habit.

To be honest Jace had expected to be ambushed during the night but it had been suspiciously quiet. When they woke up Jace had them do a headcount but as far as anyone could tell everyone was still here, no one had vanished during the night. The adventurers hadn’t run off and the warriors while nervous, remained disciplined. The army stood back up and continued their grueling run towards what they hoped was the Matriarch. Armoured boots stomped the earth, a cascading rhythm carrying them through the tunnels. The dwarves remained at the front and set the pace, the day passed slowly. The march tedious, exhausting and extremely boring.

Night came again, arguments broke out but people kept it together for now. Everyone was stressed, few people slept well and the rulers had near constantly been working to keep people at ease. Jace and Woke had been working hard to visit the various adventurer groups with renown and get them to help keep the adventurers focused and ready. Patrols were set up once again and a perimeter was set, glyphs were prepared and people went to sleep. They cycled through their guard shifts and woke up to find they had once again no longer been attacked. Jace thought for a while then frowned, he walked towards Collin.

“What if the dravu stopped attacking us because we can use their corpses for sustenance.”

Collin blinked, then tapped his chin. “It’s possible.” He glanced over at Miyu for confirmation, she nodded. “Dravu corpses are edible, we gathered what we could from those that ambushed us. It was enough for a day or two of extra supplies. Water would be an issue but a lot of the mages have the basic summon water spell so we should be good on that front.”

“So we have another four days before we run out of food? If things keep going as they are now, with how tense people are. We will have a riot on our hands before then. The adventurers are good for now… But I don’t think it will stay that way.” Jace groaned.

Collin smirked, “You really hate being in a leadership role don’t you.”

Jace smirked, “Of course I do, there’s a reason I stayed a sergeant all this time. Keeping all these people in check, knowing their personal faults, keeping them in mind. Making the peace, coming up with different solutions for different people even though the problem is the same. It’s bloody annoying, it’s not my cup of tea and you know it. I just do me, and that’s it.”

Collin shrugged, “We make do with what we have, you know that. That red-head, Woke. He seems to be doing well, just dump the responsibility on him.”

Jace furrowed his brows, “He doesn’t have the ruling body support, I do. He’s a good speaker, and charismatic but he doesn’t have authority backing him. Unless you and the rest of the royalty want to start backing him?”

Collin frowned, Jace rolled his eyes, “My point exactly.”

In the end Jace decided to spread the word around that they had gotten another load of supplies and would have enough food to last them comfortably for four days and on rations it was enough for six. He also spread around that the dravu may intentionally be avoiding them to make sure they didn’t get any extra food and so that the stress would grow and that people would be set against one another. Jace hoped that this piece of news would make people at least try to suppress their grievances. All this running around and organising things put Jace in a perpetually bad mood. At one point he’d even snapped at Weira, something he had never really done before. The girl had been really surprised but didn’t hold it against him.

----------------------- Plip Pov-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once another day’s march ended and Jace collapsed into his bedroll he immediately fell asleep. Weira sat up and looked at the others lying around their campfire. “I honestly didn’t expect Jace to hate being a leader as much as he does. He seemed to like leading the squad and teaching you guys the ropes.”

Florian shrugged, “There’s a big difference between teaching a group of rookies and leading them in combat and being the commander of a forty fourty-thousand man army.”

Weira sighed, “I suppose, It’s just the first time I've seen him being… grumpy. It feels so unnatural.”

Qyra nodded, “No smile, no random comments. A grumpy glare at people who interrupt him. Even Carmine is being affected by him and being testy.”

Gerald frowned, “Is it alright to keep him as a commander, he looks like he’ll eventually snap. That would be pretty bad towards the army as a whole wouldn’t it?”

Plip looked at them beneath the rim of his hood. “It seems even Jace sucks at some things and has a limit to his endless positivity.” He stood up, “I’m going to arrange a replacement.” He looked over at Hirki, “Mind coming with me?”

The Xor shrugged, “There is no better use of my time, very well then.”

The others whispered among each other for a bit before Weira stood up and declared she would join them. The three headed towards the rulers tent and requested an audience. Collin who was familiar with them waved them inside. The three stood before the other rulers, Plip swallowed. Speaking in front of others was not exactly his forté, he took a deep breath. “I would like to request Jace’s removal from the commanding position of the adventurers, as I believe he is ill-suited to the position and things will change for the worse if he stays in place as a commander.”

The queen raised an eyebrow, “Do you have grievances with Jace?”

“No, your highness. I consider myself one of his friends, but I have seen how being in command is affecting him and not for the better. He is… frustrated, but is too bound by duty to request the change himself because he believes there is no better option. The adventurer by the name of Woke, would, in my opinion, be better suited for the task. He would require the approval and support of the ruling body however.”

The queen looked over at Collin with a questioning eyebrow. Collin shrugged, “Jace has always hated being in command, he excels as a second in command and is an incredible sergeant and small squad commander. But give him a group larger than ten to command and it will affect him adversely. The young man may be right, it may be better if we removed him from command.”

The dwarven king shrugged, “Keeping someone in command against their wishes, when we have the possibility of someone more suited would be ill advised. I agree with the replacement of Jace with this young man called Woke.

The other rulers shared a glance and agreed, they had many other things on their mind and if the man in command was ill-suited and did not want the command the solution seemed simple. The queen nodded and looked at Plip, “I only put the young knight in command because he was the most suited at the time, things change. Find this young adventurer Woke and bring him to us, we will notify him of his duties.”

Plip bowed slightly, “Yes your highness.” He turned around and pushed aside the tent flap, he released a breath and wiped his hands on his trousers.

Weira patted him on the shoulder, “You spoke well Plip. I’m surprised you’re so good at speaking.”

Hirki nodded, “Well done.”

Plip smiled softly, then rolled his shoulders. “Let’s find Woke!”

-------------------------------------------- END POV------------------------------------------------------

Jace woke up with a grunt and readied himself to go start screaming at some more adventurers. Plip walked up to him with a grin, “Jace you have been relieved of duty, Woke has been put in command of the adventurers.”

Jace raised his eyebrows. “Really? Oh Owh thank god.”

Plip smiled smugly, Jace raised and eyebrow. “What did you do?”

Plip shrugged, “Told the rulers that it was a bad idea to keep you in command and that giving Woke their support would be more effective and beneficial in the long run.”

Jace rolled his eyes, “Since when have you started using all those big words. here I thought you were a quiet guy, then you go out and start convincing royalty. That’s some progress right there.”

Plip blushed a little when Jace patted his head proudly, unknown to Jace, Plip felt and acted like Jace was his elder brother. Since Jace himself treated Plip like a younger brother there wasn’t much of an issue with the fact. Jace rolled up his bedroll and cleared away the tent, putting them in his backpack. A good deal of tension had left his shoulders and a smile was back on his face.

This day of marching was less stressful, at least to Jace. The lower level soldiers and adventurers were starting to tire, from the news they had gotten from the scryers it seemed the matriarch had started to attempt to increase the distance between their army and herself. Currently they would need at least another two days of marching to catch up. Which made the officers nervous, that only gave them one day of buffer when it came to rations. If they were ambushed or some other unforeseen circumstances happened along the way they may not be able to reach the Matriarch before the supplies ran out.

They continued on and when camp was set they were slightly less than a day removed from their goal. Night passed and when they woke up the officers cursed, their prey was now nearly a day and a half removed from them. Going by the pace the Matriarch distanced themselves from them and the rate they closed said distance they would reach the dravu only just before their rations ran out. Adding in the amount of time the battle would take meant they were at less than favourable odds. Everyone simply grit their teeth and marched at an even faster pace. Even the adventurers were now well aware that it was do or die. They would not be able to make it back in time even if they did turn around.

The day’s march progressed and when the time to set up camp came they were a mere two hours away from the Matriarch. Not wanting to come across the horde of dravu just after a tiring sixteen hour march, they set up camp and prepared for the battle tomorrow. The perimeter was set up and the glyphs were placed more often due to the proximity of the enemy forces. Most soldiers collapsed due to simple exhaustion and fell asleep immediately, the veterans reluctantly took over most of the guard duties. If there was one positive that could be taken from the forced march it was that most of the lower level soldiers had been awarded the Lesser Endurance perk. Those that didn’t already have it at least.

Jace with his infinite stamina, took all the guard shifts he could manage. His body no longer required sleep, but his mind did. A single night of lacking sleep was something he could easily work with however, it was also the reason he had chosen to sleep normally the previous nights in camp. Now he made sure that as many people could rest as possible. Silence fell over the camp as the soldiers fell asleep, Jace kept his eyes and ears peeled. But he did not expect an attack tonight. If anything the army was overly prepared for a midnight ambush.

If Jace’s assumptions were correct he expected the dravu to find a spot where it would be advantageous to them to battle. Somewhere open, where they could use their numbers to their advantage. The dravu had the luxury to pick the field of battle, the army was nearly out of supplies and was desperate to force a fight. The dravu could use stalling tactics and keep running, tiring out the army some more. Or they could choose a spot to fight. Jace was hoping and expecting the second. The first was the more dangerous of the two, the second would still cause catastrophic damage to the army.

Jace placed his blade on his knees and carefully sharpened it, he glanced at the other guards that were placed some distance away. Most of them had weapons in hand, sharpening them while keeping an eye on the surroundings. Jace saw Elle walking towards one of the mages with a pile of parchment. The mage looked at her and the two seemed to be discussing something, the mage eventually nodded and a light enveloped the parchment. Elle bowed her head slightly and went back to her camp, Jace waved her over and raised an questioning eyebrow.

Elle smiled grimly, “Me and most of the vets wrote our last-wills. We are fully aware how bad the situation is. The mage scanned the letters and sent them back to the city, most of us old ones will focus on protecting the rookies tomorrow. If we can keep them alive for long enough to reach a proper level of strength the whole of us will have a bigger chance to survive.”

Jace nodded, “Good luck tomorrow.”

She nodded with determination, “And the same to you.”

She turned around and left, lying back down on her bedroll and went to sleep. Jace looked at the other veterans and the grim faces became a reality. He was familiar with how they felt, back in the army he himself was counted as one of the vets at an age of twenty five. Most soldiers in the elite units would join at the age of twenty and would have moved on around the ages of twenty five to twenty eight.

Jace breathed deeply, “Tomorrow is going to be a terrible day, a red day.”