Jack knew that he was something different. He knew that he did not come with the others to the Earth’s tutorial. He knew next to nothing about what happened before. He didn’t remember if he had family, or friends, dreams or aspirations, fears, any of it. All he knew was that one day, he started remembering, and shortly after that, he’d found himself standing before the Centurion, some intuition in his gut pushing him to ingratiate himself to these people.
It was a hard time, full of training and a cinched belt, but they’d pulled through. It was a dangerous time, and memories of the Raccans were some of the most vivid in his mind. Yet each horrible memory was tempered with the fraternity, the camaraderie brought by the Legion, and he found the nightmares held at bay by his own growing confidence and proficiency.
However, this was his first time with his squad on an actual mission, with no backup, and the weight of leadership was pressing down on him in a way he was still growing used to.
“Odd.” One of his soldiers commented.
“Keep it locked up tight.” Jack admonished, eyes straining to see through the darkness of the first chamber. Behind the 9-man squad, a swirling blue portal hung in the air just an inch over the craggy ground. “Remember: Retreat before injury.”
“Aren’t you supposed to say ‘Death before Dishonour’ or something to get us pumped up?”
Jack looked at the woman who’d made the remark, holding her gaze until she averted her eyes. “Retreat before injury. There was no sign of any sort of restrictions or cool downs, so we proceed as per the briefing. Besides, none of you have fought the ants before. I have, so when I say we retreat, we do so. We’ve practiced our backstep formations, but I want to put them to the test.”
“Yes, Optio.”
Jack grimaced. John had made good choices when the Legion was small, but as it grew, he had an innate sense that the ranking system would need to be expanded. Optio held a higher rank than a simple leader of a contubernium. The interim rank of Optio Primus would work, but that was the role of an actual Optio. He was unsure of the name for a squad leader, but he knew it was a position that held respect, though not to the level of the Optio or the Centurion himself. An Optio was a right hand of the Centurion, not a squad leader.
Occasionally he caught himself daydreaming of the coming day when they had a full Legion, thousands of men in their storied Cohorts taking to the field of battle in formation, Centurions each with their own host coming together under the command of then-Legate Forrest, standards waving in the breeze-
“Contact front.”
“Understood, Legionnaire.” Jack responded, shaking his head to dispel the errant thoughts. “Numbers?” Jack could see them just fine, a trio of Carp workers slowly ambling down the tunnel.
“Six, Six, Eight.” The soldier responded. Jack nodded. He had made a point of following John’s directions for combat-thoughtspace. Outside of battle, it was important, almost essential for his squad to feel seen and recognized, but in battle was a different story. In battle, it was imperative that he see his squad for what they were - Legionnaires. Some might be better at some things than others, but at the end of the day, they fought with shield and spear and sword in formation, and that was what they needed to do here.
Thus, he used ranks instead of names where possible. It’s not that he didn’t know his squad - Terem, Jian, Tally, a set of triplets who’d insisted on being placed near each other. Johann and Cynthia, a couple who were too busy angsting over the world to finally make the first move on each other. Kenneth, the old widow, and Numen, the consummate professional, an ice cold yet reliable soldier. Finally there was Tara, his best soldier and next in line for squad leader if he were to take a promotion.
But in here, they were all Legionnaires - it had been a mark of pride for him, convincing John to allow his squad the promotion from Tiros. They were no longer a green squad of fresh faced recruits, and their discipline showed it. “Double-line reverse echelon formation. Sword spacing, ready to advance or fall back on my mark. Prepare Javelins.”
The squad knew exactly how to carry out his orders - two lines of four formed, and the outer flanks took a pace forwards to create a v-shape. The formation was more effective with two or more contubernii, as two files wide was not sufficient to prevent enveloping on either side, but with three enemies the formation should hold. A screech sounded from the stronger ant as the group was spotted, and scutum shields slammed down against the rough floor of the cave as the first rank took their positions. Behind them, each front-line soldier had a backup, to either interpose their shield and prevent an injury, or to take their place if a soldier should fall.
Jack decided then and there that none of his soldiers would fall. “Alpha Squad!” He called out in a moment of inspiration. As the first and foremost of the First Legion’s squads, and the only one that could be considered veterans, Jack hoped the Centurion would allow them to keep the designation. “Loose javelins!”
With grunts of effort, first four, then four more javelins soared forward toward the approaching creatures. Surprised, Jack watched as only two javelins missed, the rest finding purchase in the shining carapace that protected the ant on the left. The level six ant fell in on itself, six javelins protruding from its back like spines. “Ready second javelin!” He called out. “Left files aim for the six, Right files for the eight. Aim… throw!”
As one, eight more javelins shot out, piercing through chitin with ease. Jack smiled and threw his first javelin of the encounter, finishing off the dying level 8. “Collect your javelins, check them for damage. I want a report on how our weapons fared, then form up and prepare to delve deeper.”
“Ha-oh, Optio.”
Jack rubbed his brow where he could reach under his helmet. “If it was all this easy, John wouldn’t have been acting how he did. I want half of you watching that next hallway and the other half policing our javelins. Give the first set to the watch - I’d rather have four of you with full javelin loads than eight with varying amounts. Let’s do this quick, and move on to the next. Good work, Alpha Squad.”
There was no glowing light nor impassioned speech, but his soldiers walked with slightly more purpose, and held their heads just a little bit higher.
“Another successful day.” George said, strolling casually back into the forest clearing with a pair of rabbits over his shoulder. When he reached the center, he closed his eyes, felt deep inside himself, and “That one.” He said, pointing at the nearby oak tree.
With a sigh and a scattered applause, Comfy shifted out of the tree, appearing to emerge from the trunk like a stage performer coming out from behind a curtain. “Good! Good. You are making fine leaps towards your goal, Master Ranger.”
George hummed his agreement. With his new Treestrider Skill, he had marked both a nearby tree - an old willow, sat in the crook of a stream - and one closer to the Khanclave’s camp. This morning, he’d used the skill for the first time, walking the trunk as if it weren’t there, and walking out of the other marked tree - A gnarled old spruce that was missing most of its lower branches and whose crown leaned dangerously far from its base. This little game was one Comfy had designed to help him recognize when a tree was considered ‘significant’, so it could be used with his skill.
When he was done harassing any attempts to follow into the forest, he’d come back, almost idly spotting and hunting down the rabbits on his shoulder. A couple quick Cook spells, and significantly higher quality rabbit meat was soon roasting over a fire.
He’d stay here with Nimbus and Comfy for the night, then head back out in the morning and keep going. Old Milltown and the Khanclave were at war, but in George’s mind, it was really just him they were at war with - if it were up to him, those wannabe Mongols wouldn’t ever lay eyes on their towns walls.
A brief thought had him wondering if Kyla had made it back yet, then he admonished himself and resolved to forget about her until after the war. He reluctantly forced thoughts of her from his mind.
For the third time that hour.
“Nettles!” Sarah spat as if it were a curse, dumping the entire concoction onto the ground and ignoring the way it sizzled and hissed as she kicked dirt over it.
“Uhm.. do you think we should bury it deeper or something?”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Sarah whirled about on her apprentice, a waif of a girl that nonetheless was a part of the growing Legion. Her name was Dalia, and though she was tight-lipped about the why, she’d been sent back from the new fort to learn more about medicine. She already had a Battlefield Medic class, though, so she had to assume her husband had seen some sort of action.
Either that, or he was pushing their training entirely too hard. Either way, the Battlefield Medic class was quite different from her own. No spells or MP at all, but a minor proficiency with both alchemical items and pretty much every form of weapon made the class more than useful even at its low level. So Sarah had taken her on, as she was both healer and alchemist.
“No, it’s fine.” Sarah responded after a moment of thought. After each attempt, she’d Diagnose the result, but it was clear Diagnose was not meant for that type of identifying. If she’d had more glass to work with, she’d just bring batches of potions down to Tommen to get identified, as he’d begun offering that service just the past day, but as it stood, her “lab” was far away from the Market and she didn’t want to walk over after ever-
“Dalia? How’s your cardio?”
“Upper half of the legion, ma’am.” The woman responded, sharp angular eyes boring into her in promised retribution.
“Good! You can be my runner.”
“... yes ma’am.” Dalia responded forlornly.
Sarah returned to her paltry collection of beakers and stills. “For now, watch as I attempt our newest creation! Surely, this will be the one!”
Dalia sighed, but paid full attention. She was starting to see why this odd woman had been placed in charge of things - this was the fifteenth attempt today to create either a healing, mana, or stamina potion. With each failed attempt, she would note something down, gather up new ingredients, and dispose of the previous attempt before starting again. This time was no different, other than the fact that Dalia soon found herself carrying a black sludge-filled test tube down to the market with a pair of metal tongs.
She was only mildly surprised by the result.
Alchemical Sludge (High Quality)
This paradoxical concoction is a high quality failed attempt at alchemy. Consuming this item will grant a randomized effect from a pool of all alchemical effects. The random effect will not be a lower grade than High Quality.
Warning: The alchemical effects list includes all poisons, oils, bombs, munitions, potions, tonics, sprays, pills, and incenses.
Sarah was, however, overjoyed at the result. “I know how to make a Potion of Random Effect, then! It’s not the target I was going for, but it’s still a step forward. Besides, it already raised my level just from having you tell me that.”
“To a skill level?” Dalia asked.
Sarah gave a mischievous grin. “Lets pound out a few more of those and see if I can’t get the next skill level by the end of the day.”
She did, in fact, manage to do so, bringing Healer to level 30 and gaining a new skill for it.
You have gained the class skill: Continued Care
Continued Care (Uncommon Class Skill | Versatile)
You have gained an insight into the echoes of your magic, allowing you to see what worked and what didn’t. Each spell cast on a target increases the effectiveness of further spells by 5%. This effect can stack a number of times equal to the class that granted this skill’s level. Stacks are lost when changing the target of your spellcasting, or after 1 minute with the target out of sight, whichever comes first.
Sarah began to laugh. Then she took a deep breath, and laughed even harder.
Dalia began to look concerned. “Miss Sarah? Are you alright?”
Sarah slapped her knee and fought to choke back the laughter. “It works for the bones!” She cried, and though it seemed odd to Dalia at first, she soon pieced together what the hysterical woman was laughing about:
Back before the Legion properly came into its own - a work in progress she nevertheless considered a done deal in her head - Sarah had created a spell with the help of the Court Wizard. An offensive spell. The new skill said nothing about her spells being of the Healing variety.
“Forward line, double advance, Rear line, double backstep, on my mark! Mark!” Jack shouted out.
As one, the line of Legionnaires bashed forwards with their shields, pushing the four carp workers back, taking two steps and settling back into their shield wall. Behind them lay carcasses, and in front of them yet more. The second room had gone smoothly, slightly higher numbers than the first but on the same level of strength. The third had been more of the same, so Jack had pushed onwards to the fourth room, which was where things started getting tricky.
None of the level 6’s came, it was all the level 8’s with a few scattered level 10’s, and they just kept coming. It wasn’t a horde by any means, but every few seconds another pair of carp workers drifted in from the tunnel at the other side of the cave, and for every two pairs that came from the front, a third came from behind them. Unfortunately for them, the time between new enemies appearing was shortening.
Jack didn’t know if it was true, but something inside him was screaming that the ants would come and come and come until they either left or made it through, so Jack would make it through. “Tally, Cynthia! Get off the back line and grab any javelins we pass by. Front line, continued advance, rear follow with the backstep, on my Step!”
“Ha-oh!” The shout came back, and two Legionnaires split off from the rear line, making quick dashes off to the sides of the formation to pry javelins from the chitin of the defeated foe.
“Ready… Step!”
A crash of wood slamming against chitin, the chittering screeches of the carps, the grunts and shouts of his Legionnaires as they countered and attacked. The noise was overwhelming at first - by the third room he’d learned to tune it out. Standing in the middle of the formation, Jack kept his own blade from the fight. This trip was to level up his squad, and if they all came out of this at level 15, he would be happy. That was the goal set by the Centurion, anyways.
However, with only two Legionnaires remaining at the back, Jack knew he would have to step in if any more than two ants came from the back. One-on-one, his Legionnaires would have a hard time against a carp worker. Two on two, however, made short work of the creatures. He didn’t want to see what it would look like in a three on two.
“Optio, we got a big’un, and he brought friends!”
Jack whirled about, seeing a larger, more dangerous looking carpenter ant emerge from the tunnel at the end of the cave.
Giant Carpenter Ant Worker (Major)
Level 13
True enough, 10 more carpenter ants came with, though thankfully only the level six variety.
“We have no javelins, which means we do this up close. Alpha Squad, reform into two ranks, prepare to push through!”
The Legionnaires stood stalwart in the face of the horse-sized monster, and Jack let a genuine smile cross his face. These were hard men and women, and he was proud to lead them. Jack waited as the force approached, sparing a glance and thanking whoever was watching over them that their rear had seen no more attackers. Soon they were just ten meters away. “Now! ”
With a roar, eight humans stood against the forces of the giant insects, fighting with shield and blade and roars of pain and effort. First, the escort ants crashed against the wall, and were rebuffed, one falling dead in the attempt but three more were wounded. Then, the giant one attempted to reach over the wall of shields, but thrusting swords forced it to recoil, chittering in pain. After that, the charge was slowed, and the Legionnaires got to their dirty work that they’d been trained for: battling in a line.
An escort fell with its mandibles clamped around a shield, a sword thrust from either side almost decapitating it. Another attempted to swing around the flank, but Numen deftly stepped out of the second rank and met the charge, fighting it one-on one.
“Rear line, refuse the flanks!” Jack shouted at his full volume, desperate to be heard over the crash of battle. Numen was quickly backed up by a partner, and the other two moved to the other flank, stepping away from battle and leaving the front rank with no backup save for Jack himself. In good time though, as the escorts swept out in a pincer attack only to be met with more painted shields and gleaming swords.
Jack’s eyes flew from side to side, doing his best to take in the battle as a whole, though it was truly more of a skirmish than a true battle. As the second and third escort ants fell, Jack saw an opportunity and went for it. “Second rank, with me!” As the four fell in - and one of his soldiers arms hung limp, to his dismay, though his sword was still held tight - he jumped in place a couple times to build himself up. The flanking ants followed, and were soon outnumbered and defeated by his small group. To the front, the line held admirably.
“Make a hole!” Jack shouted out, charging forward at the center of the formation. Two went left, two went right, Jack crashed through the middle with his shield raised high and felt an impact, but he kept pushing. “Push! Put them to the sword!”
“Ha-oh!” A vigorous yell, almost a cheer sounded in response, and then it was into the melee, soldiers following the path he’d made and pushing outwards, separating the escort workers from the larger one. Jack, for his part, pushed and pushed, keeping the level 10 beast on the back feet until they were far and away from the escorts who were being defeated in detail.
Until he could be backed up, Jack took the solo combat with the higher level monster, shield arm quaking under thunderous blows and tendons screaming as the ant tried to pry the defense from his arm. However, each blunt swing was met with the biting edge of gladius, each bite on his shield pushed back as Jack rammed the implement forwards. He fell into a combat haze, thrusts and dodges and parries falling automatically into place, until he was startled by a presence at his side.
First Numen, then Tara and Jian, soon enough Jack was reinforced enough to spare a glance, and his heart beat with steady pride that all of his soldiers were standing. Not just standing, but at his side.
Within the span of eight heartbeats, the creature died, and Alpha Squad let out a ragged, bloody cheer.
Jack suppressed the urge to join them. “Alright Alpha, that’s it for today. You get 2 minutes to wrap it up, then we make for the exit, then the Fort. Keep it locked tight until we get back.”
This fight could have gone either way, in Jack’s recollection. If the enemy had lead their assault with the attempt at flanking, the ranks would not have been able to adjust in time. If that larger ant had been any stronger, it could have pushed through the first rank, tying up the second rank and also preventing the Squad from refusing the flank. There were a number of ways that final push could have gone wrong, and with each that reared its metaphorical head Jack found himself wincing.
He would do better next time. In fact, so focussed was he on reviewing his performance and finding ways to better it, he was distracted. Alone, that wouldn’t be a problem, but the rest of the squad was high off adrenaline, and talkative besides. This meant that nobody was looking out when they returned through the cleared parts of the dungeon, which was fine. It was when they proceeded through the gate into the forest clearing and found it full of Raccan skirmishers that Jack realized that he should save the recollection for back at the fort.
