Reborn 10 - Demonic Valor

by D. W. Jackson

  “I shall endeavor to do my best,” Uthla said holding his hand over his chest in a form of salute.

  “Well my lord they are preparing your tent as we speak,” Uthla said. “While we wait would you like to have a tour of the camp and here what we have learned thus far about the duchy’s defense and the enemy’s current forces.”

  “Yes I would like that very much,” Ash replied nodding his head.

  The camp was much more spread out than Ash would have thought. Around the edges of the camp the demons had asset up a hasty defense and camouflage just in case someone stumbled to close. Using their abilities and magic they caused large brambles to grow. They couldn’t completely block out everything but they made it nearly impossible for the camp to be discovered without the people who stumble on it being discovered.

  The news on the duchy’s defense was not much different than what Ash had head back in his palace. Emelia had ordered all of her forces to pull back to the capital while at the same time sending out a general notice that any villagers who see enemy forces to retreat and hide and by no means approach them.

  The news on the enemy armies was much more detailed than he had heard before. They still hadn’t crossed into the duchy territories yet through they were close to the brooder and since two days before they had started to move. Just as the clan heads had expected the kings forces started to move once they had enough supplies prepared. The number was larger than they had expected but not by much. They vastly outnumbered Emelia’s forces but they weren’t expecting a demon army to flank them so not only would they have superior numbers but they would also have the element of surprise.

  Once his and his wives tents were ready he retired for the night along with all the reports that Uthla had prepared upon his request. Most of them had to do with scout reports but others told him how much food and supplies that the current force was using. While the information wasn’t really needed by Ash he thought it would be a good idea to get a full grasp of the situation in case he found himself in a similar position in the future.

  10-5

  Six days passed quickly with little for Ash to do. Even the large number of reports only took a quarter of the first day to completely go through. After the second time reading through them Ash found himself staring at the papers that talked about Emelia even if it was just in passing.

  Once he grew tired of staring at papers Ash started to venture into the camp to meet the soldiers. At first he was a little apprehensive about meeting those that he might be sending to their deaths but Tolarea urged him to show his face.

  In the beginning he was nervous but from the actions and look on the soldier’s faces they were as well. It was once again Tolarea who broke the tension between the two groups when she started dragging soldiers to spar against them. At first the soldiers were against fighting against their lord but when Tolarea explained that she and the others guards were still new and needed to practice on how to work as a group many of the soldiers began to join in. Ash himself never fought much during the battles as it was his job to play the useless protected lord though he would quickly grow tired of the role and ask one of the more skilled soldiers to fight one on one without the use of skills or abilities.

  It had been so long since Ash had fought merely based on skill. 90% of the demons that were in the camp belonged to the same clan though there were a few of the others mixed in. they were a large yet agile race of demons with green skin and light scales coving their back and chest. From the sages explanation it was believed that they were a mix of lizard based monsters which made them of use in a variety of situations since they could move quickly in almost any terrain.

  With their speed and agility they used mainly bows and daggers and their fighting style reminded him of how Shina fought. It was challenging to fight against them but with his stats and personal skill with a sword Ash found that one of the demons were his equal one on one. If they were like Tolarea and had absurd strength then they might be able to cause him a problem but with them fighting with speed like he did they were at a disadvantage. Soon Ash started to fight against two demons at a time then three. Three made it hard for him to keep his pace and two out of three times he would lose. Ash didn’t feel bad about this but instead it was what he wanted. He knew that he didn’t have enough experience when fighting against superior number and with the war that was coming it was something that he would need to know otherwise the chance of losing his own life would be increased greatly.

  Ash wanted to continue his training but today more soldiers were going to be arriving. One of the main addition to the troops were mages who used a mixture of wind and light magic to cast illusions. They were mainly skilled in small operations and extremely deadly when used for infiltration since their magic could increase their speed and help them disguise themselves as anything they wanted. Though it wasn’t what they were mainly used for their main role in this war would be helping disguise the current forces so that they could expand the number of troops currently present.

  Other than the mages there would also be more melee soldiers coming to join the ranks. There would also be more officers that would be joining them as well to help command the new troops.

  The setup of the army was easy to understand. For every twenty regular troops there was a sergeant. Once there was ten sergeants a Lieutenant was place over them. After three Lieutenants there was a captain. If there was three Lieutenants a general was placed over them.

  Right now there hadn’t been a need for a general yet but soon there would be but since Ash was taking over the forces he would currently hold that post. If the forces grew so much that he couldn’t keep up with them a second general would be appointed to help pick up the slack.

  Ash couldn’t meet with all the soldiers and even meeting all the officers was nearly impossible and while he did try and get out to mingle with the common troops most of his time would be spent with the captains once the new troops arrived and the preparations for the war started in earnest.

  Ash didn’t meet the new commanders as soon as they arrived instead he allowed them to get settled into their positions while at the same time a letter was sent to the commander leading the forces within the capital so that he could be present during the coming discussion.

  It was three days after the new soldiers arrived that Ash first sat down with the new commanders. It was not as if he had not met any of them but mostly he had only greeted them in passing while he was out amongst the common troops. It was not only him and Tolarea that was moving amid the troops either. Each one of his wives moved around working with the troops and their commanders in any way they could. It was hard for Ash to remember but his wives were amount the elite of each of their tribes younger generation. They had been given the best training and resources so in many ways they were much more skilled than a common troops not to mention their levels were much higher than the average soldiers.

  Celina having the same standard fighting style of most the troops worked with them daily. Ash had feared that it would cause problems with Uthla but instead he was quite happy with the troop’s small advancements.

  Seia worked with the few archers within the group from time to time but mostly spent her time hunting for Ash’s supper. It wasn’t that the army camp didn’t have good food but it was mostly bland food that was made for a large number of people and while filling was not that tasty.

  Li spent her mornings and evenings cooking for Ash but when she was not in the kitchen she moved among the troops healing any wounds they might have received during training. Ash did this as well so that he could help increase his abilities level but the troops were much more comfortable asking Li for help than him.

  Mia created a small farm at the edges of the camp where she used her nature magic to grow vegetables. The rest of the time she spent moving amount the woods helping Seia hunt. Ash still didn’t know much about nature magic since it was what they called a melded or unique magic.

  Tina spent most of her time tak
ing care of the large hawks that had been moved to a small pin in the center of the camp. The birds didn’t like the forest and at first would squawk noisily all night but now that Tina groomed them each day they had started to quiet down.

  Gena like Tolarea never left Ash’s side but she didn’t involve herself in the battles and remained silently at his side watching anyone close to him with narrowed eyes. Ash knew that she had no problem talking like Li did but when she was working she was almost like a moving statue.

  Eun spent most of her time with the commander Uthla and reporting everything back to Ash. The main reason for her post was because she and Uthla had trained together when they were younger since the two were close together in age and their clans were close to each other. It was also Eun who had spoken up and helped Uthla keep his post. If Ash had been the jealous type he might have suspected something untoward but given how many wives he had Ash didn’t have the time to worry about every one of the actions.

  Though each one of his wives had things they tended to throughout the day today they were all by his side as he sat in the large command tent waiting on the officers to arrive.

  Taking a deep breath Ash look up at the dark green cloth ceiling of the tent then looked back to the group of demons gathered before him. There were far more than he had anticipated. It seemed that the clan heads had moved fast after leaving his palace and almost all of the commanders were present.

  “We have received new that the enemy forces are less than two weeks away from the duchy capital,” Ash said trying to keep his tone even. “I am sure that each of you have received your orders but I wanted to bring you all together at least once so that we could make sure that everyone was sure of their part in the coming battle.”

  When none of the commanders said anything Ash continued. “We are expecting that the enemy forces will surround the fort and erect siege weapons before attacking but if they directly assault the fort then we will have to skip the first to plans of action and move directly to their third…So please keep that in mind.”

  “First for the positions and jobs. We have the first advanced company that is within the city itself. Your job is to make sure the citizens stay safe and to fight off any enemy troops that try to scale the wall. If everything goes as predicted they enemy will pay little attention to the city until the fort has fallen or unless they start to run down on supplies. If that is the case you may use your best judgment on how to hinder the enemy during the main battle.”

  “Understood,” the commander said nodding his head while his hand was rested gently on his chin.

  “Second is the second through seventh phoenix companies. You are the main fighting force of the army. You job is to attack the enemy forces on the side when they are occupied with the fort. This should throw them into disarray and allow our other forces to be more effective.”

  “The first and third mage companies will use fire and earth magic to help heard the enemy to the north when they try to retreat. While the second through forty flying corps will sword down from the north after they have been fully committed to retreating. Do we have any questions?”

  “What if they do not retreat?” the commander of the flying corps asked.

  “Then I don’t want you to expose yourself. If they entrench their forces and prepare to fight it out we will pull back and reevaluate our choices.”

  A few other questions were asked but for the most part everyone knew what they were supposed to do during the battle since Ash and the sage had tried to keep it simple. There were a number of problems that could occur during the battle but each commander was given enough leeway that they could make decisions if things do not go as planned.

  After the meeting Ash retired to his personal tent to look over the new reports that had come in. Not only did it have troop number but it also have the average level and equipment of each group. The reason Ash asked for this was just because of the war but because he knew he was still lacking in common knowledge.

  The army was broken up into three types of troops; common, advance, and elite troops. Even though the demons had been created for war there were some that were still better built to fight than others. The common troops had only one to two abilities and the average level of a soldier was forty-three. The advanced groups had three to four abilities and had an average level of forty-seven. Lastly the elite troops had five or more abilities and their levels average was forty-five.

  Ash was more than a little startled when he found that the average level was the same but then again the number of abilities one had did change how good a person could fight during a battle.

  Just like humans demons also had guild-like groups though it was all based on army. Every demon joined their clan’s army and gained one of four jobs. There were a few cases where a demon was born within a clan who didn’t have any abilities that would be good with a job the clan had and they were often sent to another clan if they were acceptable.

  Ash had once asked the sage how jobs were made. It seemed that the description of the gods helping make them was mostly a lie. Each guild or job center was made of a large crystal that was made from processing monster cores and turning them into soul crystals. The small one that Ash used when he advanced to his second profession level could be made from two processed monster cores while the large ones which were the source of the guilds skills that had been saved over the years cost fifty cores to make at a minimal.

  From the way the sage explained it the soul crystals worked like an ability scroll instead it was reusable and could be loaded with any skill that a person made on their own. Ash knew that one could receive a job title even if they didn’t go to a guild as the heavens would assign it but that person would have to create their own skills. It seemed that at one point one of these people learned how to make a soul creature so that they could pass down their jobs and skills to the next generation.

  Thanks to this even if the soldier’s levels were close to being even there was a vast difference in their jobs and what skills and abilities they could use. The elite members got a higher level job and were offered more advanced and desirable skills. It seemed a little unfair but no matter where one looked in life they would find that some people were born with talent while others weren’t and while some could overcome this with hard work the majority could not.

  While the soldiers levels were all close to each other the same could not be said of the commanders. The weakest of the officers was only at level forty-one while the strongest was level eighty-seven. In fact there were a number of high level regular soldiers though most of them were soldiers. The only reason the average level was so low was because most of the troops were only around level twenty.

  Though Ash was able to level up fairly easy once you reached level twenty it became incredibly hard and time consuming to reach the next level. The humans used the party formation to level up but the demons didn’t do the same thing. In fact many demons died every year during training. The reason for this was because that the demons felt that outside of sparing leveling should be done by one’s own skill. It was for that reason that only people of the shame level were paired together to train within the labyrinth.

  Ash could see the reasoning behind the demon’s decision. A person without training with a sword would be far weaker than a person with training no matter what their level. The same could be said with how to use ones abilities and skills. Ash had already learned firsthand the difference between having an ability and understanding how to use it. If a person was forced to borrow another person’s power in order to gain levels then the levels were never truly their own and they would be far weaker than a person of the same level who gained it through their own power. There stats might be close to the same but the experience in real battles between the two would be vastly different.

  As Ash read through the papers he thought about a number of things as he made marks on a scrap piece of paper.

  10-6

  As the day passed more and more soldiers arrived
from the other side of the mountain and soon the forest was so full of demons Ash was afraid that the illusion that had been put up wouldn’t be able to hide them all.

  Two times over the past weeks Ash had moved with the scouts to check out the area. One time they flew high over the enemy troops. To keep from being seen they brought along one of the illusionary mages to make them the same color of the sky. If they were close to the army it would be easy to tell the difference but since they were flying more than a hundred feet overhead they were completely undetectable.

  The second time they went to the duchy capital to see how the condition of the regular people were. It was odd for Ash to be so close to Emelia without seeing her. It had never been as hard as when they flew over the fort. He wanted to do nothing more than to land and let her know that he was alive but Ash had to admit it wasn’t worth the risk.

  There was too much of a chance that there were spies within the fort, or those who hated demons so much they would turn on Emelia if they knew that Ash was waiting not far away with an army of them ready to come to her aid during the coming battle.

  During his short say within the limits of the city Ash spent a good amount of time looking at his own house from more than fifty feet away. He had seen Yuki coming back from her school. The young fox girl looked slightly older than she had last time Ash had seen her but she was so far away that it was hard for him to tell for sure.

  Today once again Ash looked at the fort where his wife waited for him though this time it was different since he was not the only one watching the fort. Coming from the west was an endless number of soldiers marching with hate filled eyes.

  Ash wanted to move closer but the mages had only cast a think illusion of a tree over him so the closer someone came to him the easier it would be to see through his disguise. Just before he turned around to go back into the forest Ash noticed a woman wearing a dark red dress step on top of the battlements.