"Sir, would you please come? We are getting slaughtered out there!"
I turned to the soldier asking me to do something. I sighed. Once more I would have to explain why it was that I couldn't do anything yet.
"Soldier, you know very well that the laws set down by the Electors limit me. How many have we lost so far?"
"We have at least 1500 casualties so far. We are expecting that we will have another 500 casualties within the next ten minutes. Can't you just bend the laws sir? I don't think the men will be able to hold if we have to wait for the casualties to reach 2500 men"
I shook my head. What could I do? The laws set down by the Electors had been upheld for centuries. For any magic user above that of a seed to participate in war they would have to be able to prove a loss of 75% of the army participating in that specific battle or 10 000 men, whichever came first.
If I were to break those laws I would forfeit my life. The enforcers employed by the Emperor and Electors were just too powerful. I once asked my teacher why the enforcers were so powerful and still followed the commands of the Emperor and Electors. The answer I got was that no one knows. There was a theory about them being Angels under Tirmandar. Other theories ranged from them being broken magic users, manipulated from before their birth, to beings from another world.
"You are dismissed soldier, come back when we reach 2500. Until then leave me to prepare. I want those bastards to experience fear and pain when I enter the field!"
How could I not want to inflict proper suffering on the enemy? They were killing my people. Men who had willingly signed up to the army. Those who had marched at the front of the army knew they would end up dying. Perhaps even the last of the 2500 also knew he would die?
It didn't help that I had gotten reports of the Verenden military employing a new rifle. The range it could fire at was too far. When we sat out to correct the king of Verenden I had been sure that I wouldn't have to step in so early. It hurt. How had the spies we employed not found anything about those rifles? But it wouldn't be too long now before I would be able to rain fire upon them.
I turned back to my spell book and continued trying to get the calculations correct for my new fire-storm spell. It was certainly not easy. I would have to make sure that every part of the spell that didn't need changing was correct. Most of the work I did on sheets of paper I had to the side of the book. After all wasting ink made from Deltanium or the pages of the spell book would have been stupid. The metal was the only known metal that could be used to create ink that worked as a conduit for spells.
Because of the limited amount of Deltanium that had been found so far in the different provinces, kingdoms and dependencies of the empire, magic users were rather rare. There were way more talented people than available resources for them to be used. So there was extremely strict rules for who could be trained. In addition the laws set down by the Electors also limited the number of magic users any one ruler within the empires influence could employ at any one time.
The formulas and diagrams I had started on with the current paper seemed to be able to work. Though there were areas of the spell that seemed to be missing bits and pieces. Had there not been a requirement for magic users to serve in Mirans army I would have been staying at the University to do research and find those missing pieces.
Just as I started on down the rabbit hole known as progress I heard footsteps and the sound of the tent flap moving.
"Alice! Casualties are at 2500! Do your duty!"
The man who didn't show any respect towards me was Brigadier General Mews. Normally they would have had a Colonel in charge of the 3750 men attacking Fort Exor. However, since I had obtained the rank of Colonel the Grand Duke had assigned Mews instead so that I would be outranked. That was all ignoring my station as a grand magus. Had it not been for those laws I would have killed both Mews and the Grand Duke when they were children.
"Tch. Fuck you Mews. I will crush the Verenden force. They have been allowed to inflict too much pain upon my men."
I could see on his face that he wanted to hit me. I might be one of the few people who actually talked back at him. But he knew that the moment he touched me he would die. Those laws only went so far to protect non-users. It wasn't like we would have had to lie down and be beaten or killed without fighting back. Even the Electors knew that imposing such laws would have brought doom upon them. The way they were now most magic users were content. For that matter I was mostly content with the status quo.
It was actually quite funny seeing how he struggled to restrain himself. His fat cheeks shook with rage. What hair he had left seemed almost to fall of. I wanted so much to push him, but the enforcers were known to have found out when a magic user pushed someone over the edge deliberately.
Before he got even closer to losing his restraint I grabbed my spell book and walked past him out of the tent.
Once outside the tent I could clearly hear the sounds of rifles being fired. The command camp had been set up behind one of the massive rocks that had fallen to the floor of the valley. I really didn't want for more of my people to suffer at the hands of the Verenden military.
Running I quickly found my way to the field of battle. The Lieutenant Colonel in command in the field saw me and gave out the command for the men to let me through. As the man started to part for me I leafed through the spell book. I wanted to stop more from dying so I first located a gravity spell. I would have to apply onto the formula and diagram forming the spell the area of effect and how much I wanted to increase the power of gravity.
I quickly went through the calculations allowing for the spell to affect an area spanning ten meters in front of our army. Given that the Verenden were using a new type of rifle I wasn't too sure about the muzzle velocity of the rifles and the mass of their bullets. I decided it would be better to be on the safe side so I increased the power of gravity by over a hundred times. Hopefully that would be enough.
As I walked through the parting men and exerted my will through the spell the sound of men screaming died down. The only sound that filled my surroundings was that of the enemies rifles and bullets hitting the ground.
When I passed through the front ranks of the army I could see the smoke clearing from what seemed to be trenches. Trenches! Those cowards had dug themselves in and hid. First those new rifles and now hiding in trenches. I felt the anger boil within me. They would burn. All of them. With the seething anger boiling within me I flipped the pages of the book and found my favourite spell. Fireball.
It might seem simple at first glance. Just a ball of flames, often for theatrics formed in the hand not holding the spell book to give the sense of someone throwing a stone or a ball. But it was quite intricate, especially if one wanted that extra fear produced when you held fire in your hand. First one had to create a shield of some sort either around the area you wanted the fire to appear or around your hand. Then you would have to either increase the pressure, if it was within a shield, or introduce another form of energy to start the flame. The more pressure or energy the better the fire. The only thing left to really do at this point would be to send it.
I pushed as much pressure and energy as I could into a large round shield I created in front of me. This would be a fire ball the size of a rock!
Barely able to hold the shield around the fire I sent it towards the trenches. It flew fast. I pushed energy into the air behind it to speed it up. Just before it hit, it seemed to divert slightly. Only enough to spare some of the enemy from dying immediately.
The first trench seemed to explode from the impact of the large fire ball. Men flew every direction, many already dead. Those that weren't yet dead screamed.
At the same time I started to conjure a second ball, intending to send it to one of the other trenches.
Many of the enemy started to scramble out of their trenches and running back towards their fort. Some, those whom seemed to be officers from their actions, tried to rally the fleeing men. But it was of no help, they didn't have any magic users deployed here.
From what I know, most of the magic users, warlocks they call themselves, live in Holther. For some reason they enjoy being a technological backwater, lording with the duke and other nobles over the 'peasants'.
Seeing as the enemy was fleeing, I redirected the second fire ball towards the mass that had started running upwards towards the fort. To save my head from overexertion I though it would be better to close in on the enemy and finish as many as possible with lesser magic.
Sending just those two large fire balls had drained me quite a bit. Even here I felt that there was something missing from the spell, it must be some way to improve them. I am sure we are missing something about the nature of our world.
I continued to slowly walk towards the enemy. The men behind me started too cheer at the utter destruction of the enemy. Some started running towards them to get the pleasure of finishing off some of the survivors, though calmer heads in the form of officers managed to reign in that particular idea. Those that had survived at this point would have to be taken as prisoners of war.
Again the laws of the empire stood between what we wanted and what we would have. After all they were still men that belonged to the empire. And to be fair many of them probably felt that they had no other choice but sign up with the army. There were sure to be quite a few of the enemy that had no idea about the world outside their kingdom, perhaps even some who knew less than even that.