Chapter 750 – Runtwork
Magic is too wide a field for general users to find any sort of important or notable success in the find. This is not sorcery, where surviving Anassa’s trial filters out the general user before they can even become a user, this is magic, where every village has the capability to produce a dozen mages with the right mindset.
Generally, combat is the first and last thing that is taught in Arcadia. At the start, military theory is discussed, at the end, the basics that were learned are applied to military doctrine. Arcadia does not operate in any complicated manner, even if the subject matter is extremely complex. The Arcadian mages are ready for warfare because Arcadia actually takes interest in understanding warfare as a speciality.
The mistake that over schools make, along with most other people, is that they treat combat magic as a side-effect of magical self-actualization. If one is able to hold back the weather and affect the winds, once should be able to sweep opposing forces off their feet. This ignores the fact that there are infinitely more efficient ways to deal with supporting an army.
Likewise, a mage specializing in construction will find it easy to think they have any semblance of control over the battlefield. An irrigator will think themselves a combat hydromancer, the floromancers who work in the fields will only be able to weep when their amateurish attempts at controlling plants are burned or chopped away. Every job can be adapted for military purposes, this is doubly so for magic. And every job is done worse if we think we can avoid specialisation and the dreaded combat magician.
- Excerpt from “Introduction to Combat Arts”, written by Goddess Elassa, of Magic. Used in Arcadia.
To think that a few years ago, Lyca was stood in a line like the one he was walking in front of right now. The snow parted before him, a faint shimmering net of crimson, so fine it was almost invisible yet dense enough to act like a plough, pushed the worst punishment of winter away from him. There were cities in the Empire that didn’t feel the cold, most military bases had at least one or two weather control mages to make sure that the logistics could still keep running irrelevant of the weather.
Weather mages had been offered to him as well, although that went directly against the objective of the mission he had received now. Lyca stared ahead at Eliza, who was stood motionless on a rock, staring at the men and women who had been sent to them. In the distance, Edmonton and Fleur were busy scouting the snowy mountains north of Rilia. “This is how I know we’ve made it to the big leagues.” Lyca said, stopping next to Eliza.
“I know.” Eliza said. “Look at us now.” She almost cooed. They had made it through the grind in Rilia, then through the slaughter of Esberia, then assisted in the clean-up after Operation Cloudbreaker. That last one job was nothing to write home about, Lyca would have to come across a Divine level threat to actually slow down, the masses of the Tartarian legions were simply not good enough.
Eliza looked beautiful, as always, in a thick coat of dark-brown which matched her eyes and hair. The smile that put sunshine to shame still appeared on her lips, although that was reserved for private moments. In front of the troops which had been sent to the most elite team of sorcerers in the entire Empire, they were Lyca, beast of nightmare, and Eliza, the laughing sorceress. Not a single of the team who had been sent here had said anything in the past hour. “I’m going for a smoke.” Lyca said.
“I hate when you smoke.”
“I know.” Lyca said. He pulled out a packet of fine cigarettes, the sort that only officers got and lit it with the snap of a finger. Anassa had always said to push sorcery forward, to do what no one had done before. Lyca had taught himself to use sorcery as a springboarding catalyst for his pyromancy. It worked well enough to light cigarettes. In battle though, it was still better to just slice with the crimson. He stood and finally gave a long look at the so-called battlemages which had been sent to him.
The order came down from Iliyal Tremali, the elf had held a private meeting with the four sorcerers to explain the problem which had happened. Arcadia-Mages were good enough to be trusted with their own combat missions but that was because Elassa herself knew war. The rest of the National Colleges of Magic started off with staff taken from the pacifist-era Arcadia and whilst the new regimen trained combat, it did not instil…
As Tremali put it: character.
The Rilia campaign had been supposed to do that, but it had too high a rate of attrition. The Esberia campaign succeeded for a time, but it had too heavy a reliance on Irinika and Anassa to truly bring the warriors out of these idiots. And the clean-up operation had been a joke. It wouldn’t have been challenging for the Imperial Army alone, much less when they had Divine support, Sorcerer support. The Tartarian forces gave up precisely when the ICDT towers tore down the sky.
But that was a one-trick pony, and the demons would know not to be afraid next time. That, at least, was Kassandora’s and Tremali’s prediction. So this lot needed the character Iliyal demanded and other mages were too useful on constructing the ICDT towers or breaking down the Rilia landbridge and the failed one which would have led to Rancais. Elassa herself was far too busy and far too important, she was a Divine after all, but someone had to do the job. Lyca didn’t really care, the elf had prepared the region here and the four sorcerers had a private cabin with a hot-tub apparently. The rest of the men had a cave.
In Lyca’s opinion, Tremali was going easy on them, he would have just given them the open snow. They were mages after all, weren’t they? “Do you know what to do?” Eliza asked quietly.
Lyca took a long drag of the cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke in the air towards the men. “I improvise.” He answered. “What about you?”
“I just roll with the situation and give what is demanded of me.” Eliza said dryly. Lyca ran his eyes down the magicians, all of them were dressed in black coats that hung down to their knees. They had brought their caps, they stood in formation. The only traces of colour on their clothes were a medal here and there and the highlights of trim to mark what element they specialized in. “I honestly don’t know.” Eliza said. “What? We give them magical lessons?”
“We treat them like sorcerers.” Lyca said and Eliza jumped off her rock to stand by his side.
“Alright.” She said. “That’s better than the idea I had.”
“What idea did you have?” Lyca asked.
“I didn’t.” Eliza said. “What am I supposed to say?”
“I always thought you were the people-person.”
“I am.” Eliza said. “Go on, lead off. I’ll cover if you need support.”
“This won’t be a battle.” Lyca said, he took a step forward and clapped his hands. The wind rustled with him, nature already reacted to the young sorcerer claiming dominion over it. “Pupils and students!” He shouted, or was that not demeaning enough? It was just him, but he couldn’t think of a word worse than student. “Wastes of space.” There, that got their attention.
Lyca slapped his chest. “My name is Sorcerer Myklos, although you will call me Sir.” The arm was extended to Eliza. “This is Miss Grinhoff, Sorcerer as well.” He stopped and stared at them. “We’re of Inner Crimson.” That got their attention. Inner Crimson was a legend amongst the Imperial Army, the core sorcerers who relayed Anassa’s orders from her mouth to the rest of the troops. And Lyca had been there since the start. He pointed to Fleur and Edmonton working on their creation. “Over there is Ambelee and Weaver. I am sure you know the She-Devil of Rancais.”
Eliza was spoken about in the circles of Sorcerers, Lyca too, Edmonton, a fair few of the troops knew. But Fleur? The She-Devil of Rancais had been famous ever since the Pantheon invasion of Kirinyaa. Whispers of how she treated the men underneath spread amongst the army in the same way that the myths of the boogieman spread across children.
And that set the tone for how this would go. Now that the magicians knew Fleur was here, they stood up taller, they wiped their smiles and their curious gazes at Lyca and instead adopted peak Imperial military professionalism. Or what they imagined of it anyway. “I have been given a job.” Lyca said. “And I am to complete it.” He snapped his fingers, behind him, sorcerer formed in the air as if an invisible curtain had pulled back to reveal it.
“Soon enough, we shall strike at Arika with the same towers that we used to strike at Esberia.” That was all Tremali had really given to Lyca. That, and what the job of these men would be. “The towers will be manned by Imperial Knights, as they had been before but we are not sending the knights in alone. The most dangerous drops will be done by us.” Lyca proudly slapped his chest again. “The rest of them will be done by you.”
And suddenly, Lyca saw exactly what Iliyal meant when he said that this set of mages lacked the required to character to be sent on such a grand operation. They actually shivered and made worried faces, nothing like the hasty excitement Lyca had in his voice. They looked around, at each other and at Lyca and far too many of those looks were pleading. Lyca burst out in laughter and rose into the air. “And this is why you are my pupils today. You will be Ambelee’s pupils tomorrow, pray you learn quickly enough that I decide you can be sent back to your barracks.” That would happen to precisely none of them.
Eliza stepped forward and spoke. “What Sorcerer Myklos aims to say here is rather simple.” She patted her own cream coat. “We were magicians before we were sorcerers.” From her pocket, Eliza pulled out a small topaz, she held it between her finger and thumb and Lyca felt her begin to channel magic. A moment later, the catalyst crystal began to glow, a moment after that, the ground rumbled and shifted as she used her geomancy. “We understand how magic operates, we understand what it is capable of and, most importantly, we understand what can be asked of you and what can’t.” She stopped for a moment. “Nonetheless, we are not here to teach you to cheap magical tricks, or things that you should have already learned in school. We expect everyone who stands on this field to already be well-versed in magic. If you’re not, you will not making through the training.”
Lyca crossed his arms. He knew that Eliza would be able to explain it far better than he would. When it came to things like this, she was just a god-send. An actual god-send of a person. He looked to her and motioned for her to keep going. Frankly, he was just here to ensure order would be kept. Eliza stopped for a moment, and then continued. “Thus, what we shall be training is character discipline. You will be riding into battle atop the most advanced pieces of Imperial technology that currently exist. The Empire does not send cowards into battle.”
Eliza turned and gave Lyca the look that he was to do something. “Lyca.” Eliza said, her intonation readying a question. “Within the Empire, what is one of the worst traits to embody?”
Lyca didn’t even have to think about it. “Cowardice.”
“Indeed.” Eliza agreed. “Cowardice is one of the worst crimes we can be accused of.” The mages all moved. “Nevertheless, cowardice is a human behaviour. It is human to be afraid, we have to learn how to be brave.” Lyca stood as Eliza took a step forward. “You are under the possession of Inner Crimson until we decide that you are ready and fit for combat. We will show you how much punishment you can actually take, until you are ready to march into Tartarus all by yourself.”
Maybe it was the fact that Eliza was easily the youngest person here. It was probably that, soldiers did not like taking orders from a young girl. It could have been the fact they were mages too, that lot never listened to orders well. Lyca himself was proof of it.
Unfortunately though, Lyca knew how mages worked, or maybe he didn’t and he just knew how people worked. He took a step forward, crimson energies flashed behind him to make temporary images of great beasts. “First exercise.” Lyca called out. “Will be testing your survival abilities. Strip, somewhere in this region, there is a cave. You may use your magic to avoid frostbite, otherwise, clerics will arrive here in two days.”
Lyca stared at them. He wasn’t sure if they heard him at first, and if they did hear him, they must have misunderstood. Lightning fashioned out of crimson sorceries slammed into the snow around him. “Take your clothes off and march. You will receive uniforms when you find the cave!” This time, there was some movement.
It was too lethargic and slow for Lyca’s liking. A slash of red energies smashing into one of the mages and flinging him backwards, enough to hurt but not enough to kill, got them moving.