For the first time in weeks, Ezra strode out of the military complex. It’d become a home for him, and he was surprised to find that he almost didn’t want to leave at all. Weeks of eating his fill and learning were coming to an end, though he figured that he’d continue eating and being trained until they arrived wherever it was that the Dragonkin were. His shield was stowed on his pack and his spear in hand as he made his way out and onto the paved roads of the inner city. With each step he took, the steel-wrapped butt of his spear struck against the road underfoot, and the rest of his fellow elites walked at his side.
Not long after they walked out of the complex, Ezra met eyes with a guard, and quickly realized that they’d set up a line of guards on the path they were following. As if they were some threat to the safety of the populace. He snorted but didn’t say anything as Amy reached out and grabbed him firmly by the elbow.
She didn’t say anything, and he didn’t need her to, but the reminder was a good one—there were people from within the inner city like Yoran, who were kind, understanding, and not arseholes. Then there were people like the guards and William, to a lesser extent, who thought that just because of where he was born, he was some danger to them. It was a crock of shit, but it was life. Instead of looking at them and getting more pissed off, Ezra just continued walking forward, focusing on the feeling of his boots hitting the ground and his spear thumping with each step.
“What’s the punishment for running over and smashing his teeth in?” Boyd asked as he marched at Ezra's side. “If it’s not too bad, then…”
“Right now, it might be a court martial,” Amy warned. “Infractions right now are more heavily punished than they would be otherwise, so if you pull something stupid, they’ll make an example out of you.”
“Beside me, Boyd,” Petr commanded before Boyd could do or say anything else. “You can’t leave my side.”
The tall man grumbled but did exactly as he’d been commanded, and it wasn’t long before the deceptively quick march took the soldiers outside of Villy’s walls. Once there, Georg led the soldiers further ahead, out of the slums. A part of Ezra’d hoped that he would be able to swing past The Dragon’s Toenail and at least wave goodbye, but the path they were being led on was to the northwest, while his old home was almost directly south of the inner city.
Instead of thinking of things like that, he decided to instead consider what he could do for Adam. His mind wandered, though he managed to keep a small amount of aura getting pulled constantly into his inner world as he marched along. As such, his mind was constantly wandering, sometimes seeing the stern woman he saw the ground’s aura as, and sometimes thinking about Adam. Once the last of the slums were behind them, though, Georg called the soldiers to a halt.
“We’re looking at about ten days until we’re in combat,” he spoke without any preamble. “One week from now, we anticipate coming in contact with the main body of the Duke’s forces. Until then, most of every day will be spent marching. We will break for lunch, though not for long, only finishing for the day just before sunset each day to set up camp. Today, we only need to make it twenty kilometers, while every other day we’ll strike camp and make it, ideally, twenty five kilometers. The final camp is nearly two hundred kilometers from here, and we won’t be calling it a night if we don’t make it at least nineteen kilometers today. So, let’s get moving!”
“Yes sir!” came the response from a hundred throats. The man’s voice was more than loud enough to cover the whole company of one hundred soldiers, and they all saluted as they responded to his command, falling straight away into a march that was slower than the practices had been, though Ezra didn’t allow himself to fully focus on that. Instead, he continued to think about how he might help Adam to survive. He wasn’t supposed to be here, he didn’t want to be, and he was a good man.
“What’s got you frowning?” Leah asked. “That friend of yours?”
“Adam, yeah,” Ezra confirmed as they continued on their path.
“Spoon?” Boyd asked. “What’s Spoon got to—oh, your levie friend. His name’s Adam?”
“I didn’t remember Spoon’s name is Adam,” Ezra admitted. He hadn’t spent much time around the other soldier, though he seemed to be a good enough sort. “I’m just trying to figure out what I should do for him.”
“Worry less about him,” Leah replied, her tone blunt. “He’s a levie, he’ll be just containing the goblinoids when they break. For the real battle, we’ll be the ones in danger. So get your head outta your ass and be ready to be our leader.”
Ezra took a deep, centering breath, and nodded. “You’re right, Leah,” he replied. “I’m just nervous for him.”
“I’m nervous for you,” Amy laughed. “You must have a couple screws loose if think you’re going to be the leader of the elite squad? Just because Georg’s the captain who’s in charge of the march today doesn’t mean that he’s not still the captain of our squad.”
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“I haven’t really thought of us all as a full squad until now,” Ezra said. “I forget that we’re supposed to all be one team. We’ve just been working us four instead of all eight, and I forget. Will Yoran join the line, when it’s time? How about Georg?”
“The elite squad numbers ten,” Petr answered the question in Amy’s place. “I am the second in command, with Georg as the leader. There are two members to the team, both scouts, who’ve been lent to the Duke until we arrive there. Their names are Stella and Troy, and they’ll both join the front ranks with the rest of us when the time comes. Joran and Georg will join us as well, though both have other priorities until we arrive.”
“Why have they been with the Duke’s forces already?” Boyd asked. “Just to help scout?”
“Exactly,” Petr nodded. “The Duke’s initial information was contradictory, so he requested for more experienced scouts to come and help to get more accurate numbers. Initially, we hoped that those numbers would be disproven, but no such luck. Instead, we’ve had it confirmed a dozen times over that this is one of the largest armies that the Dragonkin had led out this far in a couple decades. That’s why we’ve been required to send out so many levies and soldiers.”
“How big is this army expected to be?” Ezra asked, and he noticed that both Amy and Petr paused at that. His stomach dropped before Petr finally decided to give an answer.
“Current estimates put it at five hundred goblinoids and five Dragonkin.”
He felt his fear settle down at that. “So there’ll be a couple other Counts who’re putting two hundred soldiers and levies forward themselves, so it shouldn’t be too bad, right?”
“Fucking stories pilling people’s heads up with nonsense,” Petr cursed to himself before explaining, “We’ll outnumber the enemy by two to one, half of that number trained to fight. You might think we have the advantage, but we won’t. The Duke’s standing army numbers two hundred and fifty soldiers, and he’s bringing just as many levies, providing half of the rank and file soldiers as well as every Pseudo-Knight who’s in charge of the Dragonkin. Our highest ranks will be outnumbered, though the two confirmed Dragonkin aren’t the most dangerous kinds and will be outclassed by the Pseudo-Knights we can provide, so that’ll be about even.”
“So we outnumber the regular ones by two to one,” Ezra continued, confused, “and they’re just goblins, so what’s the problem?”
“Again, stories,” Petr said. “Sure, some Knight won’t have trouble dealing with a hundred goblins. We’re not Knights, we’re just random soldiers, even you. They’re only ever as tall as your shoulder, and people think that means they’re weak. Though they don’t wear armor, their skin is damn tough. I guarantee that your first two or three strikes won’t be deadly. Against an army of half levies and a quarter brand new, barely trained soldiers, they’re damn dangerous, to say nothing of orcs or bugbears.”
Ezra’s confidence flagged more and more by the moment, but he only nodded. Petr sighed and shook his head. “Look. You’ll be fine. We won’t let any of you recruits be on the end or be alone. Just don’t be thinking that this is going to be some simple exercise. The goblinoid weapons will be filthy, and even a light cut can be deadly if it gets infected. Be careful, trust in your brothers-in-arms, and you’ll come out alright.”
They walked in silence for a while longer, until Jormun spoke to Ezra.
It’s a good point. Be careful, keep your head on straight. You’re already pretty near to the peak of Initiate, so far as I can tell. If you work on broadening your inner world while you march, you might have a trump card you can bring out in the fight without knocking yourself out this time around.
Ezra kept that in mind and continued marching. Conversations broke out around him, and he didn’t keep himself completely isolated from them, but he only engaged as much as he could while maintaining focus on pulling aura into his inner world. As they passed further into the wilderness, towards the mountains in the east, snow began falling, fluttering in the breeze that picked up until it was a strong wind. The winds were an aura type he had less experience with, being a flighty woman whose eyes were painfully sharp, and he found himself getting lost in pulling that aura into himself near midday. A sudden elbow to his ribs pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked at Leah, who’d done it.
“What?” he snapped.
“What aura are you pulling right now?” she asked. When he cocked his head, surprised she could tell, she scoffed at him. “You’ve been distracted for most of an hour. Also, you said you would teach us.”
To Ezra’s surprise, Petr and Amy looked just as curious for his response as his fellow recruits. “The wind,” he admitted as he lost hold of the strong thread of aura he’d been pulling on until then. “It’s a lot stronger here, and it’s all around, so it’s new and a better option than a lot of the other ones.”
“Like the ground?” Amy asked. “I’ve touched that once, but I’ve never even tried it while moving.”
“Yeah, earth is one of the other two,” Ezra nodded. “Then ice. And cold, but I can’t really tell if that’s a part of the ice part or not.”
“Wait, really?” Boyd asked. “I thought you knew everything.”
“You saw what Chloe did,” Ezra scoffed, “and then thought that I knew as much as she does?”
Boyd nodded a couple times, a laugh teasing at the corner of his mouth. “You know, I think that makes more sense.”
“But how do you pull it in while you’re walking?” Amy cut back in. “I’ve only gotten it to listen to me the one time, and it seems like you need more time to get it to move instead of just be… I don’t know, visible.”
Ezra shrugged as he tried to give an acceptable answer, and the rest of the elites continued asking him questions while he tried to help until they broke for lunch. It was quick and cold, no time to make fires to warm the food, but it was enough to rest their feet for a few minutes. Then, the army began marching again. This time, Ezra continued to answer a few questions, but put his foot down to allow himself to focus and only answer a question every twenty minutes or so. The day passed quickly, and maybe an hour before nightfall and the wind aura was nearly dwarfed by the cold, Georg called for the soldiers to stop and set up camp.
Without experience, it was slow going, and by the time a dozen fires were set up and most of the tents as well, the levies began showing up, and the first day of the march was complete.