“Exceptional work!” Colonel Harrick cheered, slapping Bordan on the back with a wide smile. “Couldn’t have dreamed of a better result!”

After capturing the Marradi soldiers and allowing their healers to render aid, the adventurers had returned to the meeting point with third battalion, who had made it there ahead of them. The soldiers had penetrated deep into the enemy camp and sown some quality chaos and destruction, but the capture of what they assumed to be Lindvar division’s entire healer contingent was, as the colonel correctly stated, an exceptional coup.

“We got lucky,” Bordan demurred, clearly uncomfortable with the officer’s overly friendly behavior. “They put up their hospital at the edge of the camp nearest to Giant’s Head so their wounded had the shortest way to go, which just happened to be right next to our infiltration point. All we had to do was walk in and ask them to leave.”

“Hah!” Harrick bellowed, slapping Bordan again. “Oh, how I wish I could see the faces of those Marradi skunks right now!”

“Do we go to phase two as planned?” Bordan asked, changing the topic.

“The attack largely went as expected,” Harrick acknowledged, “so there’s no reason not to. Once the wounded are stabilized and we have a clear picture of our remaining strength, we can start assigning shifts.”

“What about the prisoners?” Bordan asked, gesturing at the three groups of Marradi spread out around the temporary camp. One was the healers, their white robes widely visible in the firelight, another the officer and bannermen of the Marradi banner, the third the regular soldiers. Without proper facilities to prevent them from escaping, Bordan and Harrick had decided to keep them separated to prevent them from hatching any plans.

“I’ll leave my second cohort here on guard duty,” Harrick said, scratching his head as he surveyed the campsite. “We might be able to get away with fewer men, but I don’t want to take any chances with the healers. I’d also like at least one of our mages to stay here, in addition to the healer girl. Just in case.”

“Sounds good, we mostly need the crossbows anyway.” Bordan said. “I’ll check on my people and find you once I have numbers.”

They exchanged nods and Bordan returned to the adventurer side of the camp, Edwin trailing behind him. He still found it amusing that nobody ever questioned his presence in the command meetings, which he attended out of simple curiosity. He’d asked Bordan about it at one point, and the former soldier had simply shrugged.

“Most of the people who attend don’t actually need to be there. If a battalion commander decides that one of his cohort commanders should come, everyone just assumes he has a reason for that. Amos and the other logistics people come whenever they have time, but it’s very rare that they actually need to contribute anything. The others probably think you’re somehow important in the adventurer command structure, what with your swanky armor and all. If I tried bringing ten people at once, they might start asking questions, but one or two are nothing special.”

As Bordan walked to the cluster of adventurer banner officers, Edwin veered off toward the well-lit medical area. Between the fighting in the camp, the hectic retreat in the darkness, the arrows, and the fireballs, the Harvand forces had taken a large number of mostly minor injuries. In cases like this, the worst thing that could happen was that somebody’s injury was worse than they themselves thought and they bled out or fell unconscious without seeking help, so the medically trained soldiers and adventurers were working overtime to make sure that everyone got checked out and treated. They only had a single trained healer, the other one being several kilometers away with second battalion, so magical healing was reserved for only the gravest of injuries.

Edwin made his way between the wounded until he crouched down next to one of them that was lying on their stomach, prodding the prone figure with an armored finger.

“You dead yet?”

“Screw you, Edwin,” Leodin groused, turning to slap at the probing hand. After their capture of the Marradi soldiers, Edwin had taken a few moments to examine the marksman’s injuries, drawing on Walter’s extensive knowledge of the human body. The kid had gotten lucky. The arrow had barely missed one of the bone plates sewn into his coat, but that also meant that it had missed the vital organs said bone plates protected when it pierced his lower back. If anything, the head injury from when he ran full speed into a tree was more worrying than the puncture wound, at least as long as the arrow had stayed where it was. Leodin had woken up shortly before they reached the meeting point and started complaining loudly about his unpleasant mode of transportation, which stopped when Edwin threatened to pull him along by a foot.

Now, with the arrow safely removed and both head and back bandaged, Leodin was well out of any kind of danger. As it turned out, he made a terrible patient though.

“Where’s Salissa?” Edwin asked, looking around.

“Got called away to help Siglind stabilize one of the soldiers.”

“If she agreed to leave you alone you really must be fine,” Edwin commented, grinning. “She refused to leave your side from the moment you went down.”

“Hm,” Leodin mumbled, turning his head so Edwin couldn’t see his expression.

He considered to keep pestering his teammate for a little longer, but compassion finally won out and he carefully patted Leodin’s back, rising.

“You just relax, okay? Once the division train catches up, the healers will have you on your feet in minutes.”

“Sure,” the young adventurer answered noncommittally, and Edwin walked off. He’d only made it a few steps when Leodin called after him. “Is that an arrow?”

“What?” Edwin turned, confused. Following Leodin’s pointing finger, he felt around his left shoulder. He was just opening his mouth to say that he didn’t know what his friend was talking about when his gloved fingers ran over a strange, jagged shape protruding from between two armor plates.

I guess one of them actually got through.

“Nah, the shadows from the fire probably just made it look like it,” Edwin said, waving. “I’ll grab something to eat before we head out again, see you later.”

--- ----- ---

“Hrrrrrnghhhhhh!” Edwin forced out between clenched teeth, his fingers clamped tightly around the small bit of broken shaft. Thankfully, the steel-tipped arrow had been unable to penetrate Edwin’s ribcage, instead turning sideways and sliding along the bones. With proper access to the wound, Edwin could’ve cleanly cut it out within seconds. The problem was that with the arrow lodged where it was, he would need help to take off his armor to get to the wound, and he didn’t want anyone to see his injury. That left him with only one option: Pulling it out the same way it had gone in. Sadly, arrowheads weren’t designed for easy removal, so Edwin’s impromptu operation did a lot more damage than the original injury had – and was quite painful. Grinding his teeth hard enough to dent metal, Edwin gave the shaft a final pull and the arrowhead ripped free of his flesh, leaving him breathing heavily and leaning against the tree he’d used for cover from the rest of the camp. Already he could feel the pain fading and the magic in his body stitching the flesh back together.

“Edwin?” Bordan’s voice called, and Edwin forced himself to stand upright, spotting the other man approaching from the direction of the camp.

“Here,” he answered, dropping the bloody arrowhead and stepping out from behind the tree. “Something the matter?”

“Numbers are in, we’re assigning shifts for our night raids. I thought I’d asked you which one you wanted.”

“And that couldn’t wait until I was done taking a leak?” Edwin answered, raising his eyebrows.

“It probably could have,” Bordan relented, looking him up and down. “I guess I’m just trying to get everything done as quickly as possible.”

“Sure. Well, you know me, any of them are fine. When in doubt, give me the one the others don’t want. Not that I’ll be doing much, it’ll mostly be a show for the marksmen anyway.”

“Sure,” Bordan said as he fell in behind Edwin who tromped back toward the fires. “but you’re a loudmouth, so you can sing them a song or something to keep them up at night.”

“Are you insinuating that I can’t sing?” Edwin asked. He turned to Bordan, grasping at his heart in feigned outrage to complete the act, but as he did so he caught the other man quickly looking away from where he’d been examining Edwin’s back.

Leodin you greasy little snitch! Edwin thought. Next time you knock yourself out you can carry your own ass to the healers.