Soul of the Warrior

"What is the biggest difference between fighting a horde of monsters and fighting against other people?" Reivyn asked.

He was in a small classroom with the officers and senior enlisted personnel of the company he was training. The regular troops had been given some basic drills based on Reivyn's previous experiences practicing maneuver under fire, and he brought the leadership aside to give his wisdom on warfare.

"Skills," one of the Lieutenants raised his hand and said. "Being able to increase General Skills to become a better fighter, and Class Skills to use offensively and defensively."

"That's a good guess, but not what I'm looking for," Reivyn nodded to the lieutenant. "Think about it. Several types of monsters use weapons, and they have a certain level of proficiency. Some monsters can use Mana and Spells, and that works like Class Skills. Some monsters have racial characteristics like camouflage or poison.

"Also, how often do you actually get the chance to use your Class Skills in group combat? If your troops are fighting individually and have the chance to use their Skills, then something has gone horribly wrong. At that point, they're not fighting for victory, they're fighting for survival."

Several of the veterans nodded their heads absentmindedly at Reivyn's remarks on Skills. He let the silence wash over the room as he watched and waited for the leaders to consider the issue and have an opportunity to come to the right conclusion.

"Organization," the senior staff sergeant finally said.

"That's another good one," Reivyn inclined his head to the older man. "Organization accounts for a lot of things, and it can even be tied to the answer I'm looking for. Organization isn't just soldiers standing in line and protecting the flank. It involves all sorts of issues from overall strategy, to individual tactics, and the supply chain.

"What about organization and leadership separates monster hordes from armies? I've already given you a clue."

"Strategy and Tactics," the captain said. "The ability to intelligently devise plans and countermeasures."

"Yes," Reivyn said. "The biggest difference between monsters and human armies is their ability to analyze and exploit your weaknesses.

"In Drallo the enemy army exploited our misapplication of experience with fighting against monsters. We thought we could trick them and accomplish our main goal of rescuing the civilians by distracting them, but instead, we walked right into a trap and an entire company was annihilated because of our hubris in the first battle.

"On a smaller scale, they used shock troops to literally throw at our spear wielders, and they would use their bodies to nullify the spears and let those behind them move in for the kill while the front lines were flustered.

"You're not going to encounter a monster horde that's going to do that. They might accidentally achieve the same result just from how they instinctively fight, but they're not going to come up with a plan to do it intentionally.

"This is where your leadership comes into play. You have to be able to spot the goal of the enemy's actions and issue the proper orders. In my case, I didn't hesitate to order my men to abandon their spears and switch to another weapon.

"Ok, what's another difference? We've already mentioned Skills, organization, strategy, and tactics. What's something else you need to account for? Something that we live with every day of our lives and probably take for granted?"

Reivyn once again paused to let those present think.

He wasn't going to immediately launch into how to counteract these differences. The biggest mistake he made in Drallo was not pointing out these underlying issues when he tried to introduce different tactics. If he had been able to convince the leadership that they needed to consider different factors, that first battle might have gone differently.

He had an advantage this time, though, because he was now in a trusted position with the confidence of the Imperial Family behind him. He had proof of his experience.

"Classes and Levels," one of the sergeants ventured.

"Exactly," Reivyn said. "Monsters typically fall within a predetermined Level range. People, on the other hand, will have vastly different power levels. People have different Classes and Levels, and that in turn means they have different Stats.

"You will never be able to look at the enemy army and just know how effective they're going to be in fighting. You'll have to test the waters with actual combat to get a feel for it.

"The invaders sound like they're at least affiliated with the same people that invaded Drallo, so I can tell you that they're mostly low Tier soldiers that have no regard for their lives. The enemy commander referred to them as 'Deathsworn,' so I imagine there's some level of brainwashing going on.

"You'll be able to tell their approximate Tier based on the brand marks on their foreheads. It was pretty universal that higher numbers indicated higher Levels and better quality gear. Heck, more than half of the regular enemy soldiers didn't even have weapons."

The officers and sergeants were very attentive and took notes. Reivyn could see that they were taking this lecture very seriously.

"So, we've talked about the main differences between monster hordes and armies. Now, what does that translate to in a practical sense?"

Reivyn looked at each of the soldiers attending his class. He could tell that they were understanding his point, but they just weren't able to put it in the right words.

"It means that you're not going to face ten-to-one odds and come out on top," Reivyn said. "Contemporary wisdom for assaulting a fortified enemy position is three-to-one odds, and by that I mean you have three to their one.

"You're not going to be able to just roll over your enemies. Don't hesitate to use everything to your advantage. One of my favorite things to do was to distract an enemy patrol with a portion of my troops and then descend on their flank from an elevated position. Use your maps and the terrain to your advantage.

"It is not the same as fighting monsters. All my life, the biggest problems I've ever encountered have almost always been due to complacency. Even a tiger gives its all when it hunts a rabbit. Learn to utilize light, medium, and heavy infantry. Make your soldiers use the tools you give them. Be flexible.

"Over the next month, we'll be going over different scenarios in the classroom, and then you'll take the lessons you learn in here to the troops out there. I haven't had time to come up with a complete schedule, yet, but I do know that I want to spend the last week in the field with another company acting as an enemy force.

"Captain, do you have a Mage Corps that's going to accompany your men?" Reivyn turned to the company commander.

"We have a Mage Squad," the captain answered.

"We need to incorporate their training with the soldiers. There's no reason to separate them at this point. There's a place in combat for them standing back and hurtling large Spells at the enemy, but you'll want to be as effective as possible combining your arms. I have a Caster Class, and I mainly used Magic when confronting the enemy on the field to tremendous effect.

"That's all for now," Reivyn began to dismiss the leadership. "I need to come up with the scenarios for you to analyze, and we can begin on those tomorrow. Let's go check out the troops."

"Lieutenant Reivyn, will you be assessing their individual Skills?" The captain asked as they waited for the current drills the company was running to end.

Reivyn had given them some simple maneuvers to practice. One of the things that had led to great success for him in the previous campaign was splitting up his platoons into their smaller individual sections. Small unit tactics had a place in contemporary warfare. Not all battles had to be huge battalions lined up facing off against each other.

The tactics that Adventurers used with their small Parties and the tactics that a military squad used were different. It wasn't difficult to investigate and extrapolate the different fighting styles that regular Adventurer Parties used when they accepted missions to hunt down monsters. It was perfectly normal for the military units to understand and even practice these tactics, especially since they also participated in Dungeon delves to Level up.

Adventurers usually took on missions that were smaller in scale than would make sense for the military to handle, and one of the main purposes of the Imperial Army was to defend against monster and beast hordes. They focused on larger-scale battles and didn't send their soldiers to hunt down the smaller bands of monsters and beasts.

Working as a small team against other people, though, ones that would be organized just like them, was a different story. The drills that Reivyn had assigned the soldiers of the company to practice had been how to disengage from a whole unit into smaller ones as quickly as possible, as well as how to form back up amid combat.

Forming back up into a company or platoon level might seem like something easy and common sense, but adding in the chaos of combat while doing so added dangerous variables to the mix. To simulate this, the four platoons of the company were split in two, and they took turns breaking up and forming back up with one platoon performing the maneuver while another harassed them.

"That won't be necessary," Reivyn denied. "I'm more interested in their ability to work together than on an individual level. There won't be too many duels when fighting against the invaders. Almost all action is going to be in groups, and I trust your own judgment on your troop's Skill Level.

"I'll mainly be focused on personally training you and the other leaders who are more likely to fight alone if you fight at all."

"If we fight at all? What do you mean by that?" One of the lieutenants asked.

Reivyn glanced at the man.

"It's not the job of the officers to do the fighting for their men. Your job is to oversee the overall situation, and you should only step in if there's a threat that your men can't handle, like a really high-Level enemy elite, or someone with Master Level Skills."

The captain nodded his head at the words, and the lieutenants had thoughtful expressions on their faces. The lieutenants weren't as experienced as the captain, and they were still hot-blooded young men. Their idea of warfare was most likely still romanticized, and they had daydreams of standing out in front of their platoons, leading a charge.

"Leading from the front doesn't mean literally standing in front of your men. It's more along the lines of being there with them and not sending them off while you stay at headquarters. As long as you're in your proper position, doing your job and not backing down in the face of danger, your men will view you as 'leading from the front.'"

The platoons finally ended their practice. He could tell that several of them had been flustered at the beginning of their training, and they were still out of breath, but they had been performing smoothly at the end. Repetition was the name of the game for this type of practice. Doing it over and over again, under stress, would make it so that they could act without having to think about it.

Until Reivyn had assigned them the training, they had only ever formed up under ideal conditions. Throwing in a harassing force had shown them that they weren't quite as prepared as they had assumed.

"What I really want to know is their level of Skill in working together and obeying unexpected orders," Reivyn turned to the captain. "I'll assume command over a platoon and give them some combat orders, sir."

"Very good," the captain nodded. "First Platoon, stay where you are. Second, Third, and Fourth Platoon, Fall Out!"

The lieutenants and sergeants went to their men and made sure that they didn't disperse. They formed up into a semi-circle behind First Platoon, and Reivyn took up his position behind them.

"First Platoon, Advance!" Reivyn Commanded.

The platoon began to March forward in an orderly manner.

"First Squad, Javelins! Throw! Draw Swords! Shield Wall! Second Squad, Spear Thrusts! Abandon Spears! Withdraw in Order! Third and Fourth Squads, Disengage Left and Right! Second Squad Retreat at Speed! Shield Push! Disengage! Retreat! Third and Fourth Squad, Envelope! Second Squad, Draw Swords, Charge!"

The orders came fast and hard. The platoon was in the middle of following one Command as Reivyn was already issuing the next. There was some hesitation from some of the men at the fast pace, and it disrupted the flow of the orders slightly, but it wasn't too bad at first.

The real issue came when Reivyn ordered the Third and Fourth Squads to disengage to the left and right. The soldiers in the squads didn't know which direction they were supposed to follow, and they ended up tripping over each other. That caused a further issue when Reivyn commanded the Second Squad to retreat quickly. The First Squad performed the action of the Shield Push easily enough, but there was still a tangle when they were supposed to retreat.

By the time Reivyn ordered the Third and Fourth Squads to envelope the enemy, the platoon was in full disarray. Only a few of the soldiers were in position to follow the Command, and there was nobody available to Charge the enemy from the Second Squad at all.

Reivyn watched it all with an impassive face. The soldiers continued to try and follow the commands that they expected Reivyn wanted them to follow, and there was eventually a situation where the Second Squad was formed up with the men from the Third and Fourth Squads on either side of them. The First Squad was now several yards behind, also formed up.

"Ok, fall back in!" Reivyn said. He walked out in front of the Platoon, accompanied by the captain and the Platoon Commander with a sheepish look on his face.

"Combat is fast," Reivyn said after they had regained their order. "Officers won't always have time to give all the little nuances of a command for everyone to fully understand what they want. This can be alleviated by practice, practice, practice.

"When I called for the Third and Fourth squads to break off to the left and right, nobody knew which squad I was ordering where. There are two ways to get around this. First, like I said, as you practice with your lieutenant, you will learn his intentions. Second, you should always assume that a 'respectively' is added to a Command including more than one element.

"If I had said, 'Third and Fourth Squads, Disengage Left and Right, Respectively, you all would have understood that I was saying Third go left and fourth go right. That being said, speed is paramount in combat. What if adding the word 'respectively' to the command interfered with the timing of what I was trying to accomplish?

"That was the biggest problem. The other problem was hesitation. As the soldiers following the commands of your officer, you are going to be engaged in close combat. You won't always be able to see everything your leaders can.

"When I ordered the Second Squad to abandon their spears, half of you hesitated. You hesitated because you didn't understand the command. You need to put your trust in your leaders' orders, and follow them instantly. Don't think about why you're getting the order, just obey. You can always figure out why an order was given later.

"For instance, in the campaign in Drallo, the enemy soldiers would charge forward and deliberately get impaled on our spears. They would use their bodies to hold the weapons down, and in the moments that the spearmen didn't know what to do, those behind would swoop in and attack. I had to order my soldiers to drop their spears to protect their lives.

"If something like that is happening somewhere on the line, but not to you personally, you might not understand the order. If you hesitate because you don't understand, you put yourself and everyone around you in danger."

Reivyn looked each soldier in the eye. He could see chagrin and embarrassment on their faces.

"It is perfectly acceptable to make mistakes right now," Reivyn said. "I don't look down on you and think you're not good because of what happened. I did it on purpose so you can learn. Right here, right now is the time to make mistakes. We'll practice different scenarios, and we'll push you fast and hard to throw you off balance so that you won't make the same mistakes in combat. Here a mistake means you have to do it again. In combat a mistake means you die.

"Let's go again."

Reivyn once more assumed his position behind the platoon. He gave out the same Commands as before, but he issued them in a different order just so they wouldn't be anticipating them. They performed all of the commands properly, and the final result was everyone witnessing a phantom platoon fall into a trap as they thought they had routed the platoon.

The First Squad ran away from their position, the Second Squad Charged through them as the Third and Fourth Squads descended on the flanks. The First Squad turned around and supported the Second Squad, and the final result was a textbook display of luring an enemy into a trap. There wasn't an actual enemy, of course, and everyone watching the platoon perform the maneuvers had to use their imagination.

"Very good!" Reivyn complimented the men after they once more formed up. "Take a breather, and we'll have the other three platoons start practicing."

Reivyn walked to the side with the captain as the other platoon commanders took charge of their platoons.

"Have the lieutenants give fast orders," Reivyn said to the captain. "They don't always have to make sense. Just have them give a lot of commands quickly, but not so fast that they can't be carried out at all. In the meantime, sir, you should be thinking up similar commands you can issue to platoons as a whole and practice the same thing on a larger scale."

"Sounds good," the captain said. "How long do you want us to continue?"

"A couple hours, with breaks," Reivyn said. "You should also have the lieutenants switch which platoon they Command, and you can also have the squads mix and match with each other to form completely different platoon make-ups.

"You never know what's going to happen out in the field. I ended up with a platoon from a completely different company under my command for a couple of months, and we had to jerry-rig specialized squads for certain situations."

"Hmm, that's something I hadn't considered." The captain stroked his chin in thought.

"Hey, don't feel bad, sir," Reivyn said with a smile. "I hadn't prepared for it, either."

The two men chuckled.

"I have some planning to do for later and some letters to write, so I'll let you get to it," Reivyn said. "When you're done, just do your thing, and I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Alright, see you, then."

Reivyn walked off the drill field and returned to the building next to it where he had given his lecture earlier. He had been given a small office, and he went straight there. The inside of the office didn't have any personal effects, obviously, but it did have a bookshelf with various books relevant to the Imperial Army. There were books on regulations, common strategy and tactics, maps and information on the various vassal Regions, and some standard treatises on leadership.

Reivyn wasn't interested in any of those things, though. The 'mercenaries' he was training weren't going to be operating in any vassal states to Wispan. He also didn't need to know all of the rules and regulations of the Imperial Army just yet. He simply sat at his desk and pulled out some parchment and a pen.

A Mage Squad isn't going to be enough for training purposes, Reivyn thought as he put pen to paper. I'll need more Mages to train with each platoon for maximum efficiency, and the place to get more Mages...

Reivyn considered what he wanted to say for a moment before he drafted the letter.

I am the Imperial Liaison attached to Princess Kefira, Lieutenant Reivyn. I am writing on behalf of the Imperial Army to request a joint exercise with some of the more advanced students. We are practicing the tactic of combined arms, and we are in need of more Mages to efficiently train. As a de facto graduate of the Magic Academy, I could think of no better option than to petition you for cooperation. This is a great opportunity for the students to get some practical training they're unlikely to get anywhere else, and they can make friends and acquaintances with people they would normally not interact with.

I'm not requesting you to act out of goodwill. We will offer just compensation with contribution points and other rewards to the students who volunteer, and if you have anything you require to secure the cooperation, please let me know. This is a venture that has the full support of the Imperial Family.

I look forward to working with you,

Lieutenant Reivyn

Reivyn kept the missive short and to the point before putting it away in an envelope and sealing it.

I can get the name of the Headmaster when I go back to the palace, Reivyn thought as he pulled out another piece of parchment. I'll have someone deliver it, then.

He moved on to the next letter to draft. He could just go in person, but he felt it was better to go through official channels considering his mission.

Prince Trevor,

I am the Imperial Liaison attached to Princess Kefira, Lieutenant Reivyn. I understand that you are looking for new and exciting ways to train your men...