A Bored Lich

As Doevm clambered over the massive roots, he realized what the source of the smell of blood was: corpses. Dozens of bodies were being lowered into shallow graves. Their stained equipment lay to the side; waiting to be cleaned off. Around a hundred men were working on setting up tents. Some of them were heavily wounded. Dozens of tiny tents were being set up for the soldiers. "What happened here?" Doevm asked even though he knew the answer.

"Those damned fishies knew we were coming." Frey stood beside Doevm. "My squad took heavy losses, but we pushed the back into the forest. To be honest, if you didn't have a good excuse for being late, I would have beaten the crap out of you. I needed men to support me. Even the three squads who showed up to support me didn't do much."

Doevm beckoned the rest of his men over the roots and to go help bury the dead. He could tell who was apart of Frey's squad and who was apart of the other three squad based on how much they glared. While squad one saw them as friendly rivals, the other three had a strange sense of immediate hostility mostly pointed at Hopi. Doevm ordered a few people of squad six to stay close to the Elf.

Frey lead Doevm through the gathering of the green tents to the very base of the tree. 'They're not even going for a bit of subtlety,' Doevm thought as he saw the giant colorful tent. A mess of poles and ropes stood it up by holding it to the roots of the tree. Two guards at the front parted the two tent flaps for them. 𝘧𝓇𝗲𝑒we𝙗noѵ𝑒l.𝐜o𝘮

Inside, three older men were standing around a table with a map on top of it. Their white beards each draped over the inscriptions of phoenixes on their breast plates. Their armor looked to be two sizes too big for them, and too heavy. "If we move around here, we are assured to get the drop on them." One of them said as he moved tiny blue figurines around. "We just need…Oh, the reinforcements are finally here." Doevm and Frey gave a quick salute that was not returned.

"Look what we have here." One of the men said. "This guy was late. What happened, did you get scared? You look awfully young to be a squad captain."

"We were ambushed." Doevm responded as he went up to the table. "We were able to eliminate the enemy squads, but we took losses."

"Sure." The man got uncomfortably closer to Doevm. "And you're proof of this?" His greasy beard nearly swayed into his face.

"Every one of my men can testify for me." Doevm was unfazed by his hostility. "We were outnumbered, but I managed to dig us out of the situation. Get out of my face please, your breath smells worse than a goblin." He stepped around the man and got to the table. "What is the situation?"

"Hold on." The other two cohorts interrupted. They stood between Doevm and the map. "Witnesses are fine and all, but we need to know what really happened. This could be vital information. Do you have any physical proof?"

"No." Doevm told them about the three squads and how he managed to kill everyone one of them. The bodies dissolved like his men. At this, the men nearly shoved him out of the tent. Even Frey looked a little skeptical.

"Interesting." One of the men laughed, his belly protruded enough to call him pregnant. "And did you happen to slay a dragon on your way here? Did the goddess herself come down and enlighten you about the holy word?"

"What are you trying to say?" Doevm's hand drew closer to his knife. Just a few seconds and these idiots could be bleeding out on the floor. He decided against it and let it go. 𝗳𝐫𝘦e𝘸𝗲𝚋𝓃𝚘v𝘦𝘭.𝑐𝒐m

"I'm saying your story is unbelievable. You obviously got scared. You most likely got ambushed by a single squad and lost with your inexperience. How old are you squirt? Ten? I didn't know they let people in that early."

"It happened and each of my men can testify for me. Whether you believe me or not is not relevant to planning our defense of this place." Doevm screamed out in his mind: 'You ignorant, blatantly obvious, power-hungry bunch of kids dare to lecture me?' It didn't matter if these men were in the right or the wrong, they were numerous. This place had turned into a political game to these people. They were the majority while Frey and Doevm were the minority.

"It does matter if you lie." The men said in unison. "We can't trust you even if we're on the same side. All we know is that you're both some trash commoners while we serve the Von Trike household and that you lied to us. Take a look at our emblems." They pointed to the phoenix. "These emblems mean we serve a noble, something greater than ourselves. To go against us is to go against our lord. You will listen to us."

'I don't recognize the name.' Doevm thought. 'It must be a new household that rose to power in the last hundred years between my reincarnation.'

"So here's what's going to happen. You two are going to hold down this base." He jammed his two wrinkled fingers at Doevm and Frey. "Our scouts have informed us that the enemy will try for a night raid. My squad will go request reinforcements while these two trustworthy squads go to the left and right around this base in the night. When the enemy comes to attack this base, we will be in a good flanking position. The enemy will be eradicated."

"In other terms we are bait." Frey stepped forward. "You can't just make this decision. We are of equal rank. My squad took the most amount of losses when we took this base before any of you arrived so we should request for reinforcements. Since none of your squads had many casualties, you guys should act as bait."

"Ah, but there lies the problem. You see…" He pulled out a scroll and shoved in Frey's hands, who handed it to Doevm. On the clause already highlighted read: in situations where squad leaders are at odds, the way to determine temporary leadership will be the number of squad members, age, and position relative to nobility. "In addition..." the man continued.

It didn't matter which of the three men talked. They all spouted manipulative words based off a clause they had probably studied for hours. Doevm could tell the entire speech had been rehearsed by all of them. The worst part was that he couldn't retort any of it. He was already familiar with the clause of the Acrin Kingdom's army from a book on warfare in the lord's library. It was meant to serve the nobility and hinder commoners, created to appease the nobles when they were drafted. The men said Frey shouldn't go back because if he got ambushed, he couldn't defend himself. Doevm couldn't be trusted to attack because he was a liar. The only thing that kept the two squad leaders from disobeying them was that one clause that they clung onto like it was life and death.

Doevm got so angry that he just left. Frey followed suit: "How can they do this? They didn't even fight at all. They just came and took order of the camp. What gives them the right?"

"They're part of a noble household while we are not (anymore)." Doevm sneered. "We are acting as regular commoners, remember. They were planning to throw us into the enemy from the moment they saw us. They most likely are going to do this throughout the war to ensure their own survival. Noble households might have been drafted into the war, but they still don't want to fight it. They will do anything to avoid confrontation." He kept taking deep breaths. 'Of the humans I hate most, it's those people. They discriminate and bully and get away with it. Religion says those that sin will get punished, but they never do. Those are the same kinds of people that tried to sick Arthur on me and burn down my library.'

"Hold on." Frey stopped and craned his head up. Doevm did the same, and he could hear a lot of voices. The hurried through the mess of tents to get to an open area near the edge of the massive tree. Doevm's and Frey's squad were together, surrounded by men with emblems of phoenixes. "What's going on here?" With Frey's size, he weaved through the mass of people. Doevm followed behind him, ready to break anyone that tried to stop him.

One of the men turned around. "Guys, it's the squad leaders." The crowd slowly dispersed as Doevm and Frey shoved everyone out of the way. The crowd made their way back to the tents, leaving the two squads at the center. Upon seeing their squad leaders, they stood in lines. At the center of them was Hopi. His entire body was shaking and one of his ears had a scratch on it. His entire face was red, and his knuckles were bleeding a little.

"What happened?" Doevm asked as he brought some bandages out of his bag and tied them around his knuckles and ears. Away from the base, the men had no healers to rely on. While the injuries were only scratches, open wounds were dangerous in the forest. Chance for infection here was not to be underestimated.