The Broken System

"Here you go, boy." It was a mesmerizing voice. The shining blue armour was only there to increase the beauty. The symbol of ice-peak Mountain with three-star on it was shining on her mound. The more he looked the more he was dragged in.

A giggle broke his trance but the chill intensified. "Do you like what you see, boy?" The voice whispered in the ear and with a peck on his cheek, everything around him turned silent.

The moment wind blew against the sweat-wet armour Kinoya came back to his sense holding the leg in his hand.

"If I were you I would have run away as far as possible." Kinoya turned to find it was Amogh.

"Captain, that is a 3 star general right?" That was what the three stars on the peak represent.

"That is General Andlat. She is also a Countess. But she is famous with a different name, Countess of Death." Amogh said in low voice. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Be aware, otherwise she might gobble you up in the middle of the night."

Kinoya was a little surprised. He didn"t understand what Amogh meant by gobbling up, but he was sure that if she wanted she could kill him without even looking.

***********

"What about the formation?" General Kirmac asked in a calm voice.

The messenger bowed and explained, "The army was about 180,000 strong. Led by the general of the West, one of the four cardinal generals of the empire. There are 3 more 3-star generals under him, The Red general Akai, Countess Andlat and General Vorn."

"The army is divided in 4 part, excluding general camp. Two 60,000 strong unit and two 30,000 strong units. The 60,000 units are at right and left slightly bend inwards. With the 30,000 units one in front and one at the back. And…"

"And what?" Official Nus was worried as always.

"And there is a gap of almost 400-500 meters between the front and back 30,000 unit. Also, the army at left wing has 12 regiments of 5000 soldiers making 3 rows with four columns. But the army at the right has 4 rows with three columns."

Being a military scout the messenger was clear about the formation up to the last detail. There were two people in the tent who were constantly arranging the pieces in the sand made topography while another one writing it down. They are from the ministry of war, under the command of official Nus.

"Why did they left a s.p.a.ce between the front and back unit?" Official Nus was the one to talk.

"You are just overly cautious." General Liyato spoke. Somehow he felt no goodwill towards the official in the military camp. In his words "The work of pen and sword is totally different. One work with ink other with blood. Blood can replace the ink but not the other way around. So a scholar should never interfere in the war."

Official Nus didn"t mind anything. To him, the fate of the country is a lot more important than the petty argument. "If they had used that s.p.a.ce the formation would have been more stable. And General of the West wouldn"t do anything that will hinder his winning. Rather he is a person who would do everything for the sake of victory. There should be some meaning behind it."

"Look at both sides of the troop. There is not enough s.p.a.ce to create a line formation. So they have used such peculiar formation. Is there any other secret?"

"Yes, that is good for us. They were unable to exert all their force. It will be easier for us to break them." With the first word from the general Liyato other soon followed suits.

"If we use the wave after wave attack it will be just the matter of time before the war will be over."

Even official Nus want to believe that but couldn"t. Somewhere in his heart, he felt something is really wrong in the formation. "If it was really because of s.p.a.ce they would have simply made a rectangular…"

Before Nus could complete his sentence general Kirmic raise his hand to stop it. "I think you are worrying too much." Without giving any chance to Nus he continued. "With the drum, Liyato will lead the charge. Test the water first. If everything is okay then attack and kill as many of the empire"s dogs before dusk."

"Thank you for your faith, general. I will take the head of the empire"s general by the end of the day." Everybody knew that was an almost impossible task without the help of any miracle. But no one argued Liyato rather they cheered as he left the tent. Following which the first war began.

********

"It is kind of like convention or comic-con, but some way it is different." Thousands of soldiers lined up in perfect array. Both red and blue soldiers were present here.

"Sergeant we heard that all the new recruits are made into vanguard."

"Does it matter?" Kinoya, with a smile on his face, continued. "I know this place is full of dangers but this is also the place that gave birth of most of the heroes."

Even before his squad members could respond, someone else did, "What a beautiful way to put it, no matter how odd it sounded you are true to the last words." Kinoya looked up to find out it was the same old man whom he met at the time of the march.

"You are not a new recruit."

"But the old bones don"t worth much."

"So you are saying they have sent us to the death." Being just a sergeant, Kinoya had no idea how the formation was. But he knew they were the first one to rally out. So they have to be the vanguard.

From the tactics and the strategies, he has read in the book he had believed the war of this world somehow depend on the strength and number. But if that was really the matter they wouldn"t have sent out the old one and the new recruits at the vanguard. They wouldn"t want the front line to be broken so easily unless there was some catch. No matter how fearless to death he called himself somewhere in his chest he could feel his heart started to beat faster.

"Don"t worry boy, it is not that easy. The general of the west is very accustomed in these types of tricks. If it is about tricks even the strongest of four, the general of the east is no match for him."

"What is there to worry, we are here to fight, so we can just hope that the head behind us is doing the right thing."

*Drum rolls*.

The sound of beating war drum increased continuously. The sun wasn"t on the top yet. A light wind was blowing by the plane of Eale, but the surrounding was becoming more and more suffocating. No matter how trained or how experienced the army is, there is always a tension before the first blood was drawn. But…

"Brothers, the moment is here to fight, to fight for the empire, to protect the one that protected us till now. We have to repay the debts by protecting the old, woman and child, behind us in the cities. We have to stop the enemies at the doorsteps and push them back, so a child could have a sound sleep, so the old could have a peaceful last breath and" The voice paused for a moment then resounded in louder one, "So we could enjoy ourselves with ladies at both arms."

The last sentence came with a shock to Kinoya. For starter, he didn"t expect the inspirational speech to end up with such s.e.xist line. But it was effective. The fearful hearts of the soldiers are now excited, excited with the hope that they would survive to go back and enjoy with the beauties. They were cheering, taunting the enemies, those were too far away to hear it, they were ready to fight.

But what surprised him more, that it was the same old man who voiced the speech. The air around him changed. Now that Kinoya looked carefully there were many soldiers those were different from the others in the vanguard. No matter how experienced a soldier maybe he can never exclude the aura of a general.

"I have never seen any flower marks or star on his armour. Who could he be?" Before he could look around he felt the old man whispered in his ear, "You are too young to enjoy the ladies but you have your things to do, so always stay on the right and never go in front of me. They are coming."

The rock bits on his legs were dancing by the vibration. He was small, and couldn"t see much with the soldiers in front him, still, he could see black clouds were forming at the horizon and that was charging towards them at high speed.

"No one allowed to go in front of me, "Kinoya shouted.

"Don"t worry sergeant we will protect you," Drow said with a shaky voice.

"No one, I mean no one is allowed to go in front of me." Kinoya"s demeanour changed in a split second for a moment. Even the old man who was in front of him was surprised, much less his own squad member.

"Am I clear?" Kinoya shouted again.

"Yes, sergeant." The squad members shouted in unison. It wasn"t just Kinoya, all the other were a.s.sembling their own too.

"Boys, ready or not here they are." Kinoya saw a calming smile on the face of the Old man.

[Shield Anchor]

The leader of the shield-bearer squad who shouted the most basic skill of the shield-bearer. It was followed by another shout.

[Stab]

The line of spear wilder that formed a line just behind the shield bearer. They used the skill at the order.

Kinoya wasn"t where he could see all of them. But could feel everything. The constant galloping of the horse, the vibration of their momentum,  the explosion of the collision with the shield wall, followed by the neighing of the horses or the cry of the human that was stabbed or got run downed by the cavalry charge.

Behind it was the cry of the enemy infantry that was greeted by the empire"s infantry.

He was at such a position when he couldn"t face the sharp edge of the first wave, but not so distance away so that we couldn"t fight at all. Soon enough some of the enemies pa.s.sed through but were taken care of within a moment. The old man didn"t move from the place at all. Kinoya wanted to move but the aura around the old man was saying otherwise. He was like a crouching tiger waiting for the right moment to strike. Not just him there were other people too. Whether they were close or far, all was standing there like a statue with their squad waiting for the right moment.

Again the ground stated to vibrate. "It must be another charge of cavalry." Kinoya"s mind was in disarray. With the wall of shield out of the equation, they have to face the sharp end of the charge. His mind was working like a quantum computer trying to find out the best possible solution.

"Best possible solution against the cavalry would have been the phalanx. But without enough number of spearman, it will be impossible." In the current situation, he was unable to find a solution. Unconsciously he looked at the old man who was still as calm as a cuc.u.mber. The others around him too. He observed something that he missed last time. All the one waiting was red armour guys.

The train of thought interrupted by the movement from the old man.

"Don"t move," he said under the breath and stepped forward. He pulled out two big sabres. The wind started to blow around him. A light green aura enveloped him in a moment. Kinoya could observe the excitement on the face of others who were waiting alongside the old man.

What happened next surprised him too much, not seeing much of the use of it Kinoya almost forgot about the presence of another variable of this world, The Magic.

In a blink, all the air stopped. There wasn"t any green aura around the old man but the Sabres were bright green. The old man swung both the sabre horizontally. Two green crescent blade rushed towards the upcoming cavalry charge.

[Skill Check: The Host has observed [Death-Wind Blade]]