Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn jolted awake suddenly. Coming out of unconsciousness with his Divine Sense Skill wasn't the same as when he went to sleep and woke up properly. He had spent days trying to figure out how to shut his brain off enough to fall asleep in the deserts of Drallo, and it had been a couple of weeks until he had it reliably down. As he intended to go to sleep, his brain would slowly fade out the sensations he received from his Skill. Likewise, they would slowly fade in after he had a moment to wake up.

This was not that. One moment there was nothing but darkness, then all of reality seemed to explode into existence all at once. Reivyn still hadn't opened his eyes and he was a bit confused, still, but the Divine Sense Skill kicking in instantaneously immediately brought him to full focus.

He had been laid down on top of the city walls, his father standing over him. The entire mercenary company was formed up on the walls and ready for battle. Before Reivyn opened his eyes, he took his surroundings in as he assessed himself and checked his Status.

Health: 5,225/11,480 (+310) Stamina: 17,341/22,020 (+410) Mana: 34,012/12,935 (+50)

Qi: 188/1,000 (T4/Li)

What? I've barely recovered! Reivyn's first instinct was to assume that there had been something wrong with his recovery abilities, but everything seemed in order with a quick scan of his body. He was subtle with his Mana usage in checking over his body, but it was enough to draw Refix's attention, so Reivyn opened his eyes and met his father's gaze.

"Look at you sleeping on the job," Refix shook his head. "I thought I taught you better than that." He sighed dramatically.

"Wait, what's going on?" Reivyn asked with a frown as he stood up. His balance was perfectly fine, and he didn't feel weak or dizzy. "Why did I pass out at all? I didn't lose that much Health... Relatively."

Refix shrugged his shoulders.

"You were in shock," he replied. "Not much can be done about it. You suffered a dramatic decrease in blood pressure. No amount of Stats can save you from the consequences of that, though some Skills will. It looks like you have a couple working in your favor for your speedy recovery."

Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at his father.

"Speedy recovery?"

"Yeah, you were unconscious for less than a minute. Your men just set you down at my feet. You're fine. Walk it off."

Reivyn rolled his eyes at his father, but other than a slight ache in his sides - which were neatly bandaged up, stopping the bleeding - he did feel fine. Reivyn turned his attention to the open field in the distance where everyone was anxiously awaiting an enemy assault.

They had apparently kicked the beehive, and a swift reprisal was expected.

Reivyn looked up and down the lines of the wall, and he frowned as he noticed several noticeable gaps from some of the other companies. Refix noticed the direction of his gaze.

"Yeah, not everyone was as lucky as you guys," Refix said solemnly. "Most of the patrols at least had some survivors make it back to the walls, but at least one was completely wiped out. Or captured. We don't know."

Reivyn felt a slight pang of sorrow at that. His Danger Sense, likely empowered by his Hero Class, had warned him just in time of the devastating sneak attack. It would have been a moot issue if his men weren't trained for instant obedience to orders, though. Reivyn still felt a bit of pride for his men at how far they had come, and he had a bit of pride in himself at their implicit trust in him.

"What's the situation with the enemy attack? Do we know anything about that, or are we just waiting?" Reivyn asked.

"Just waiting for now," Refix answered. "There was a moment there where there was a cacophony of war horns blaring in the distance, but they've gone quiet. I don't know if that's because the attack is imminent or if it was called off. Either way, we gotta stay here and be ready."

Reivyn stopped asking questions. The silence permeated over the entire city, and Reivyn realized how anxious everyone was. Nothing happened for a long time, though.

Eventually, there was movement from the distant tree line. It wasn't a horde of legions emerging from the trees, though. In Reivyn's estimation, it was worse.

A dozen cloaked men stepped forth. They were evenly spaced across the distance the city walls covered. The man who stepped out in front of Reivyn's company was disheveled and walked with a limp. He was also holding one hand to his neck, and Reivyn felt like he could feel the man's piercing gaze zero directly on him.

Reivyn knew something bad was about to happen.

"Full power shields!" Reivyn bellowed at the top of his lungs. He infused it with every bit of willpower his Commanding Shout could infuse into his voice. His own soldiers immediately erected their Group Shield Skills, and his Mage Squad supplemented it with their own combined Mana Shield.

Reivyn didn't waste his energy creating his own shield. Instead, he simply tapped into the Mages' shield and infused his Eternal Affinity into it. It had succeeded all on its own against the enemy archer, so having a layered shield without him supplying all the power would likely survive, as well. Refix copied his actions, though he joined the physical combatants in their Group Shield. Reivyn was confident that the layers of magical and physical would be enough to withstand the storm that was about to rain on them.

The soldiers in the other companies closest to him automatically reacted to his command. Many individual shields sprang up sporadically all on their own all across the arrayed defenders, though most of them were those that were closest. All of the Conscripts nearby all erected their Group Shields - Likely because their trust in me - but it still needed work. Luckily, they were already dispersed with more experienced soldiers, so they could integrate their Skill with theirs.

The Commanders of the other companies also had great faith in Reivyn, and so did Prince Allik. His order wasn't questioned, and they all immediately repeated the orders all up and down the line. Their faith in Reivyn's judgement was all that saved them from the judgement of the enemy.

The cloaked men all brandished their personal weapons and launched a ranged Skill at the city walls. It was clear to Reivyn that some of the ones who were more focused on close combat had been accumulating energy for some time before they made their appearance. He didn't know if they were waiting for the defenders to react to them, or not, but the short delay between their emergence and their actions allowed the defenders to put up their Skills in time.

Most of the Skills moved to quick to see, including the arrow launched by the archer straight in front of Reivyn's company. Sonic booms echoed out one after another across the battlefield, and the entire city shook from the impact of the Skills and Spells directed at them.

Some of the Skills reminded Reivyn of his father's Class Skill. They were like ethereal projections of melee weapons that traveled across the distance of the open field. Some of the enemies used ranged weapons like the archer, but they weren't all bows and arrows. Reivyn was pretty sure he spotted a javelin in the distance, but it was so quick that he wasn't entirely sure.

A couple of the cloaked figures weren't physical combatants. Reivyn felt the might of the Mana accumulation all the way from his vantage position. Beams of energy, bolts of lightning, and projectiles the size of large boulders arced through the sky toward the city walls.

A tremendous force blasted into the Mana and Group Shields of the mercenary company. Instead of using the Skill where the archer's arrow burst into thousands of projectiles, he had released the same Skill that had devastated the trees where they had been hiding. Smoke and dust exploded out of the walls from the impact obscuring everyone's vision momentarily, but the shields had protected the people as well as the integrity of the wall. If they hadn't been so in sync with their defensive Skills, Reivyn suspected the archer could have brought a huge portion of the wall down all on his own from that one arrow alone.

Refix waved the smoke and dust away from his face as he coughed for a second before looking at his son.

"That's the guy who ambushed you in the woods?" His eyes were wide as he stared at Reivyn.

"Yeah," Reivyn answered simply, nodding his head.

"And you closed the distance on him and knocked him out of a tree in an instant?" Refix stood in stunned silence for a moment. "I can safely guarantee that guy is considerably more powerful than the giant we fought together in Piori. You guys are lucky you made it back in one piece."

"Well, we all made it back, but it wasn't all in one piece," Reivyn retorted. Refix snorted at the reply. "We had two things going for us," Reivyn continued. "One, it was the first time I used Qi, and I'm pretty sure everything about me, including my Qi infusion, was empowered by my Class Skill. It feels like that's what happened, at least. Without either of those, I wouldn't have been able to close the distance at the speed I did and he would have been able to get a lot more attacks in on us as we retreated."

"We'll explore those later," Refix said.

The smoke and dust was clearing fairly quickly, and Reivyn noted that there were giant tears in the walls in many places. Bodies were strewn about on the wall and inside the city where they had been blasted. Most of the soldiers survived the attack, but if Reivyn had to guess, he would estimate that over 10% of the entire force had perished.

Reivyn quickly looked to the closest companies and scanned their ranks for the Conscripts. He felt a pain in his heart as he noticed several of the bodies were a fair bit younger than the rest and only wore the gambesons of the newer recruits. A couple dozen of the young Conscripts had lost their lives to the attacks.

Reivyn didn't have to personally inspect his own troops. His Divine Sense told him that nobody had died, though he could see several - including the ones that had previously been wounded by the archer - were out of commission.

Reivyn clenched his fists as he looked across the field to the cloaked figures, waiting for the next hammer to drop.

The cloaked figures simply stood there for a minute before they all turned and stepped back into the tree line, leaving the field. Reivyn watched them go with both confusion and relief.

"Tend to the wounded!" Reivyn commanded his men. "Make sure they're stabilized and get them back to the barracks. Everyone else, split up and check on the other companies nearby."

Reivyn shared a look with Refix. His father gave him a nod and turned south to supervise the rescue efforts leading away from Prince Allik's command. Reivyn turned north, though he quickly delegated supervising the mercenaries to Jekle. He made his way straight to where Prince Allik had been standing.

The devastation along the wall was terrible. There were some places where there simply wasn't any wall left. The enemy forces would be able to just March straight through those gaps if they weren't plugged. Most of the damage wasn't so severe, though, and simply reduced portions of the top to ugly rubble. Gone was the pristine look of the walls that promised protection from outsiders. The damage extended as far as Reivyn could see, his position being the least damaged.

Reivyn quickly made his way toward Prince Allik's position. He couldn't stop to help everyone. That wasn't his mission. He did stop a few times to get some of the more seriously wounded soldiers to a position where similar triage efforts were being conducted all along the wall. Reivyn wasn't a healer and he hadn't spent any time developing any significant First Aid Skills, so there wasn't much he could add other than his physical strength to move people where they needed to be.

Yet another oversight I need to take care of, Reivyn grumbled to himself. I really need to unlock the Affinity that can let me do some Magical healing without having to use Holy Mana like priests or paladins.

He still remembered the one Party member he had delved the Revenant Dungeon with. He knew it was possible to use Mana to heal others outside of being devoted to a religion. He had just never been in a position where he would have been required to give the aid.

I should have at least worked on it a little! Reivyn berated himself. Shoulda-woulda-coulda! When would I have had the time?! My days have been filled to the brim with nothing but training! I'll have to devote a significant portion of time while in Tier 3 shoring up these gaps.

Reivyn hadn't lost his rational thought. He understood that it was impractical to have expected him to cover every eventuality. He still scolded himself for a moment before he let his logic prevail, and he wouldn't let a failure in his past prevent him from addressing it in the future.

Reivyn quickly made it to the command center. He was relieved to see that it was mostly intact. Prince Allik was coughing, down on one knee, but he seemed unharmed. The senior military staff were various states of disarray, but there were no fatally injured that Reivyn could see.

Good, the chain of command won't get confusing, at least.

Reivyn noted several other company captains jog up beside him. Some were only slightly injured while others had blood running down their faces or staining their armor. There were fewer than Reivyn expected. He turned to one of the Captains that was from a company further down the line from him.

"Captain Jorm?" Reivyn asked.

The other man just closed his eyes and shook his head. Reivyn surveyed the rest of the officers and did a mental calculation.

Seven. We're missing seven company commanders, he thought. I hope they didn't all perish.

"Report!" Prince Allik ordered after he got his coughing fit under control. He slowly climbed to his feet and looked at each of the officers surrounding him.

"Sir, the enemy has retreated," one of the majors answered the most pressing issue.

"Casualties?" Allik asked.

"Too soon to tell, but we're missing seven captains," another officer of his staff supplied.

"Damage to the walls?"

"Extensive."

Prince Allik closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He remained like that only for a moment before mastering himself, though. Reivyn subtly nodded his head in admiration. There was a time and place to mourn the fallen under one's command, and it was usually after everything was settled.

"What was the meaning of this attack? They bring forth that group of monsters, launch their attack which decimates our forces and defenses, and just... walk away?"

"I think..." a tentative voice started. All eyes turned to the captain in question, and he stuttered to a stop with the intense gaze many of the senior officers leveled at him.

"What do you think, captain?" Prince Allik's tone was firm, yet gentle. He expressed genuine interest in what his subordinate had to say.

"Sir, I think they were sending us a message," he squared his shoulders and confidently answered.

"A message? What message?" Prince Allik frowned.

"That we need to play by their rules," the captain elaborated. "They're happy with us sitting here blocking their way and providing and obstacle for them to chip away at, but if we start getting ideas of our own outside of their parameters, they'll punish us."

Reivyn nodded his head at the answer. It made sense to him with what he understood of the purpose of the enemy assaults.

"They never did anything like this before when we were at Piori," Prince Allik countered. "Why now?"

One of the senior colone's cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself.

"We did just note that there seemed to be a change in their behavior, sir," he said. "Maybe they don't want us finding out what it is, or maybe whatever it is changed their style. Maybe a bit of both."

"Hmm, that makes sense," Prince Allik stared off into the distance at the tree line as he thought. "Well, get back to your companies and tend to your men. That takes priority right now. Get a head count of the casualties, too. We need to properly identify them all and make preparations to accommodate the bereaved families."

"Yes, sir," all the officers replied in unison, including Reivyn.

Reivyn's journey back to his men along the wall was slower than his rush to the command center. It would have been bedlam if the Prince had been killed, and order would have had to have been quickly established in that case. Now, with the competency of his subordinates, Reivyn didn't need to rush.

He allowed himself to take in the death toll suffered from the enemy strike. He let himself face the reality of war. It had been so long where the enemy had gone out of their way to avoid killing that many of the soldiers had forgotten or ignored the possibility. This was still war, and death was still a very real possibility.

Reivyn was under no illusion that his own mercenary soldiers were superior to all the regular soldiers. If he and his father weren't able to supplement their Shield Skills with their own, they too would have suffered the same fate. Reivyn and Refix - Xudrid and Vyria for that matter, too - wouldn't always be present with their men in a conflict.

There would be times when they suffered real tragedy in the future, and Reivyn was not looking forward to it. They weren't going to stick around in Vairo forever. Setting up their mercenary company also implied they would sell their services on other fronts as well. From the stories his father had told him when they had their teleportation suddenly cut off, Reivyn knew that not all the invading forces were so merciful to the locals as these particular invaders.

Reivyn paid special attention to the deceased Conscripts he walked past. He stopped to speak to the survivors who all had the same look of shock on their faces. He gave a sympathetic word where he could and tried his best to not let them fall into despair. He paused in his walk when he spotted a familiar face among the deceased youths.

Krey, the young man who had shown such leadership among his peers, lay almost peacefully among a short row of other deceased soldiers. His squad mates were hunkered down near his body, not knowing what to do. Reivyn felt a particular sense of grief over discovering the young man hadn't made it. He was someone he could have possibly been friends with in different circumstances. Their age difference wasn't too terribly great, especially with Reivyn mentally losing several years.

He walked up to the grieving Conscripts and stood silently with them for a moment.

"I know I spoke to all of you about turning this situation into an opportunity," Reivyn quietly addressed them. "But this," he gestured to the fallen soldiers, "is why we train so much. Death is a part of life, and it shouldn't be taken from us so soon. But this is the real world we live in. Nobody can anticipate what will happen in the future. If you don't want to mourn the loss of more of your friends, you have to face reality head-on.

"Don't lock your emotions away. Mourn for your friends, but don't let it consume you. He wouldn't want that. If any of you need someone to talk to, you know where to find me."

Reivyn didn't overstay his welcome or try to preach to the young Conscripts. They weren't in a mental place to process everything he could tell them now, and even if they were, they probably wouldn't appreciate it. He gave his advice and let them know he was someone they could come to, and he left it at that. He couldn't be the moral support for everyone in the army, but he could reach out his hand to the most vulnerable, at the very least.

Reivyn met up with Jekle and his soldiers. They were busy helping the companies around them tend to their wounded and fallen. Reivyn could see the same grief reflected in their eyes as his own held, but they were professionals, and they did what had to be done.

They still had a long day ahead of them.