Chapter 710: Making Adjustments (Part One)
Perhaps Virve could sense the gloom hanging over Ashlynn when she delivered her report. Perhaps that was why, as soon as she mentioned that there had been losses, she quickly mentioned that there had also been a unique success. But Ashlynn was unwilling to indulge herself in the opportunity to ignore pain by searching for joy.
"Start with the losses," she said as she swallowed heavily, wishing that her stomach would unknot itself and the feeling of impending dread would go back to whatever hole it had crawled out from. "How bad was it?"
"The worst losses came from the gladiators who followed Lady Heila," Virve said with a disparaging snort. She’d never approved of them as ’warriors’ from the day Jacques had taken Heila to watch him fight an exhibition match in an arena that allowed wealthy patrons to select their own opponents. She had gained a small measure of respect for them after watching Heila’s matches in the larger arena, but she still looked down on the people who treated combat as a sport.
"Some of them understand heavy armor and are accustomed to fighting in it," Virve explained. "For others, people who fought shirtless to display their physiques to the crowd or with minimal armor to increase their glory as ’fearless’ champions, we offered to equip them the same way our own soldiers are equipped."
"I remember," Ashlynn said as she made another attempt to eat her cold porridge. Unfortunately, cooling had only made it thicker and less palatable, and she gave up before her spoon had made it half way to her mouth. "We spent a considerable sum in High Fen City to have armorers produce equipment for them. I take it that the lack of familiarity contributed to their problems?"
When Thane started teaching her how to fight with a sword, she’d worn armor out of a necessity to protect herself during their aggressive sparring sessions. It had also helped to strengthen her body during her blossoming period as she labored under the weight of tens of pounds of quilted fabric and heavy chainmail.
Ashlynn knew that fighting in armor was a skill of its own, and that it took time to gain proficiency with the heavier forms of armor that knights wore. That was part of the reason why she only invested in high quality, quilted gambesons for most soldiers. The armor would cushion blows from clubs and maces even if it couldn’t prevent bruises and cracked or broken bones. It could also stop light cuts and would provide a measure of protection against arrows fired from a distance.
Combined with a sturdy helm and armored gauntlets to protect the hands, her soldiers wouldn’t be invulnerable by any means, but it would make them significantly more difficult to seriously injure. But had she been wrong about how easy it would be to adapt to light armor? Was even that too much for the irregular fighters to master quickly?
"Worse than lack of familiarity," Virve said with a dark scowl. "Some of them left their armor behind entirely. Others wore only some of it. Of the eighty men who participated in this morning’s raids, fourteen are dead, nine among the gladiators and five of the woodsmen or hunters who joined Commander Tausau’s Third Army of irregular fighters."