Bonus Short Story: First Battle

Flicking clinging insects away with his fingertips and dodging the vines and twigs that tried to snag him, the man looked back.

“Don’t let the line stretch out! Almost there. Put some spirit into it.”

His name was Duwei, a squad leader in the Highserk Empire’s Northern Army. The squad he commanded had slipped into the deep mountains along the border with the Commercial Trade Federation of Liberitoa and was advancing in silence, killing every trace of its presence. They were throwing themselves into those gloomy mountains to put a scorching moxa on the Liberitoa reconnaissance-in-force units that kept crossing the border and raiding. A few unlucky squads had been picked from the company above them, and Duwei’s was one of them.

So far, nothing unusual. The squad had many excellent members, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to call it the best squad Duwei had ever served in. If he had a complaint, it was that all three vacant slots had been filled with new recruits. Considering the situation, it couldn’t be helped. The conflict with Liberitoa was escalating, and a large-scale battle looked unavoidable in the near future. Experienced soldiers were valuable, and every unit wanted them.

Even allowing for all that, a squad saddled with poorly trained recruits had a heavy job ahead. They were going to infiltrate enemy territory where no reinforcements or support could be expected and face a hostile force of seasoned scouts. Even a minor mistake could wipe the squad out.

“What are the higher-ups thinking?”

When Jose muttered that, the three idiots, Reinus, Tibird, and Danfan, reacted.

“Taking us on a field trip to welcome the newbies. How kind of them.”

“After the fun field trip, it’ll be a diversion mission. Next they’ll tell us to dance naked in front of the enemy.”

“That’d be a problem. Everybody’d be smitten with my bewitching butt.”

Duwei gently cautioned the subordinates who had started to enjoy themselves.

“Hey, you lot, will you die of suffocation if you don’t talk? Be good boys and shut up. And Danfan, your ass stinks so bad even goblins wouldn’t eat it.”

“That’s harsh, Squad Leader.”

Duwei raised a hand and answered with a friendly hand signal, then went on with the utmost care. Every so often he veered the route sideways to disguise their tracks, and had the whole squad step on exposed tree roots and rocks so they wouldn’t leave footprints.

“Around here?”

He glared at the sun glittering overhead and read direction and time off it. Correct. This was the designated point where, together with other squads, they would set a net for the enemy’s reconnaissance unit. He tucked the hand-drawn, poor-quality paper map into his pocket and called everyone in. Fully armed soldiers gathered close, like insects bunched up for the winter.

“Listen up. Starting today, for one week, this place is home.”

“Calling it a home is a stretch, no roof or walls.”

Duwei shut Jose up with a fist, then continued.

“The rules for staying are simple. No noise, no fire, no alcohol, no tobacco. Willart, don’t sneak off to warm up just your own meal.”

The three idiots and Willart, the magic soldier, let out a silent scream as if the world were ending.

“Don’t look so happy about it. I’m not sure I can take it myself. I might start praying to God. Watches are in three shifts. Treat the new recruits gently, like ladies.”

Duwei snorted at the ones bragging that they were good at that, then split the squad in three. The group Duwei led directly took the first watch, and the unlucky ones assigned to it took their posts with grimaces. When the sun had set and the twin moons began to drift hazily into the sky, he announced the change of watch. The soldiers who had been relieved collapsed like an avalanche onto their meager beds, the roots of trees.

Duwei didn’t join them. He spoke to one lone recruit. Among the new soldiers, who had fallen asleep like the dead after the grueling trek, this was the one who, thanks to the squad’s rotation, couldn’t rest and had taken up sentry duty.

“Your name was Walm, right? I was going to poke you if you were dozing, but look at that, you’re actually awake.”

The man in front of him was a conscript, assigned by a village quota or because of poverty. He looked like a farmer you could find anywhere, but his eyes were strangely perceptive. It was hard to guess his age from his usual demeanor. Duwei, who had seen all sorts of people, had never met anyone as hard to read as Walm.

“I’m awake, but if you’d give me a few seconds’ permission, I could fly off to dreamland right now.”

Drawn in by his dry smile, Duwei let out a small laugh too.

“You’re soldier material. There’s something worth seeing in you.”

“Flattery? Thank you.”

The way he returned the compliment seemed oddly practiced, enough to make him seem more like a merchant than a farmer.

“I was right to pick you first.”

“You’re overrating me. If there’s a next time, please pick Fugo. I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”

“What, are you two close?”

Fugo was one of the newly assigned soldiers. The last time Duwei had seen him, he was drooling with his head on an exposed root.

“We’re from the same area. The next village over, actually. When we were brats, I got into some trouble a few times when my brother went on campaign. When I took watch, he welcomed me with open arms.”

“Ha, sounds like a fine fellow.”

Walm made a deliberate face, as if he had bitten into a bitter insect. Duwei was impressed that the kid had such a clear-headed friend. As they chatted, Duwei brought up what he had really come to ask.

“By the way. Have you ever killed a person?”

“Uh, no. I haven’t.”

“Do you think you could?”

“…”

That was a tough one. Unlike slaying monsters, killing your own kind met with resistance, and even talented soldiers could die in their first battle. Duwei changed the question.

“Do you dislike the others in the squad?”

“Huh? No, not at all. Sure, at first I wondered what was going to happen to me when I was assigned. But Danfan and the others, rough as their talk is, give me a push, and now and then they teach me battlefield know-how. Willart is quiet, but he’s topped off my water flask more than once without a word. Jose looks after me in all kinds of ways too.”

Feeling a sincerity that went beyond mere words, Duwei spat out a curse. It might become a bond that followed them onto the battlefield, but he didn’t want this subordinate to die.

“Because of the aversion to killing your own kind, a surprising number of men find they can’t kill. I was awful at first too. But if you can’t kill, that enemy will take not only your life but your comrades’, then your unit, then your homeland. Put your life on the scales, and if you still hesitate, remember that. That’s a soldier’s duty.”

Walm nodded silently and answered.

“That’s all. Eat your cold meal and go to sleep.”

Three days after that conversation, Duwei’s roar echoed through the mountains. Liberitoa troops had suddenly burst into their warning net.

They had been told beforehand what enemy strength to expect, but the scale differed from what they had imagined. The estimate had been a reinforced squad at most. In reality, there was an enemy force the size of a platoon. Duwei, who had gone through countless absurdities on battlefields over his long military career, had grown used to them. In this fight he had already killed six, and he was about to send a seventh to the underworld.

“Uoooh, raaa, aaaaaa!!”

He half-sidestepped a longsword thrust at his throat, shouldered the battle axe lightly, and brought it down. The axe head bit through the shield’s defense, and the blade shattered the collarbone and drove on to the throat.

Even so, Duwei’s anxiety didn’t ease. The forest was full of obstacles. He had the confidence and experience to cut down ten or twenty men if he had to. The problem was his squad. Duwei had already confirmed two deaths, and on top of that the new recruit Walm was in serious trouble. Duwei had drawn many enemy soldiers onto himself, but Walm couldn’t escape the fighting either.

Walm, a battle novice, was using the trees to cross spears one-on-one, when a fresh Liberitoa soldier lunged in. He blocked the sword coming at him with his armor, but the impact and the poor footing sent him and two enemy soldiers tumbling into the grass and out of sight.

He might have become a fine soldier with experience, but the situation was what it was. No help was coming. Duwei glared at the enemy before him. Three left. Seen through the trees, the enemy soldiers split left and right to try to sandwich him, but such trifles meant nothing to Duwei. He had 《Heavy Strike》, a Skill that rewrote the laws of the world.

“If you want to die that badly, I’ll kill you!!”

Duwei lowered his hips, stepped in, and poured mana into his battle axe. The axe head gave off a faint glow, releasing the power hidden within.

“Ah, ahhh!?”

“Dodge-”

With a single blow, a felled tree came down on the enemy soldiers closing in low, crushing them under the weight of its trunk. The remaining two stopped, stunned. It was a mistake. With the obstacle in front of him cleared, Duwei hid behind the fallen log and swung his axe down.

“Hii, ah, ahhh!”

The head, protected by a helmet, burst apart as if scraped away. The last soldier tried to flee. Normally Duwei would have let him go, but his gut was off today. He raised his left foot slightly, drew back the right arm gripping the axe, and swung it down with force.

With a whoosh, the thrown battle axe sank into the Liberitoa soldier’s back. Duwei strolled up as if on a walk and pulled the axe out of the motionless enemy.

The sounds of battle had stopped. There might have been some small slips, but they had killed most of the soldiers. Willart’s magic blowing away the enemy commander had helped a great deal. Yet Duwei felt no sense of accomplishment, no battle exhilaration. All that filled his head was how many of his subordinates he had gotten killed.

While cleaning up the remaining enemies, he counted the corpses. He had already found the bodies of four squad members. Then he noticed that the new recruit’s body was missing, Walm’s.

He headed to the last place he had seen him. As expected, the body was not far away, beneath a large tree. If there was one mistake, it was that the corpse was neither Walm’s nor a comrade’s. It belonged to the enemy soldier who had tried to deliver the finishing blow.

Walm was vomiting right beside it. Thinking his guts or throat had been torn open, Duwei rushed over, but his fear was unfounded. The pained breathing was the sound of a man who had thrown up everything in his stomach and was still trying to bring up gastric juices.

“Ueh, geh, gohaa, ha, aaaa.”

It was a rather skillful way to kill. One corpse had a broken spear tip growing out of its throat. The other had a drastically shortened shaft screwed into its eye socket.

Duwei reached out and pulled Walm to his feet.

“I have fulfilled my duty.”

His eyes were darker and cloudier than before the fight. A chill ran down Duwei’s spine, but he praised him without reservation.

“Yeah, you were splendid. Welcome to Duwei’s squad.”

Whether he wished it or not, this was the day Walm survived a battle and became a soldier.