After this brief exchange which seemed to amuse my father and terrify my mother, the Guild officials gave my parents- which included Gryn and I by association- a rundown of the current strategy and sought opinions. Once they started talking, though, old debates about tactics suddenly flared back up. Eventually, discussions started to break down and I got bored.
The only parts I paid attention to were that the preemptive team would be waiting smack dab in the middle of the highway forty or fifty yards behind the trench. The team would be made up of my parents, the head priest, the fire noble, two Guild officials, the commander of the town guards, and then Gryn and myself. From the talks, it became obvious Gryn's sole purpose was to cover me and pull me out of their in case our attacks provoked a full assault.
What we were doing was an actual tactic in this world called the Hero's Stand, it was a collection of the strongest people on hand who would initiate a confrontation with a show of overwhelming force. This would inspire the morale of the people and soldier who fought the actual battle around us. This tactic also had another, more negative, name for when the people involved were not strong enough.
The Martyr's Fall.
If this was a PVP fight of actual people versus people, the attacking force would probably have their own heroes who would trade blows with us. Since these were just lesser intelligent magical beasts and mindless undead, it was not likely that we would face such opposition. However, considering the extremely dominant and social behavior of the evolved goblin species, it was not unlikely that the actual chieftain and their magic users would retaliate.
If we were capable of drawing their commanding forces to the front lines, our side would immediately follow up with an all-out offensive from the archers without advancing the front lines. Because of the trench and other separating factors, we were relatively safe from our own arrows and advancing the front lines would probably scare the leaders away. Their soldiers were mostly just undead, it would take several arrows just cripple most fleshy undead ad they surely had thousands of abominations if they were smart.
There was no rush to fear our archers.
This all hung on the fact that our attacks were both strong and weak enough to enrage and beguile the enemy leaders into reciprocating. If they did not respond themselves but ordered the charge, we would have no choice but to advance all of our troops to a closer and more dangerous position. If the gods chose to bless us with their folly, that would be when the real fun began.
Sadly, I was only allowed a single attack even if it was going to be the first attack of the preemptive. After this, I would immediately retreat with Gryn to a safer distance but then wait their between the preemptive and safety to gather my mana for defensive purposes. If the rest of the heroes tired themselves out too soon or otherwise needed to make a timely retreat, Gryn and I would be their to cast wards and barriers to protect their retreating.
Gryn and I worked it out then and there that he would use wind, water, and light elements to make a magic-resistant and blinding ward and I would catch all of their physical attacks. If I, at least, could conserve the mana of my wisps, I could turn their projectiles into my projectiles for one last lick before completely running away.
Debates soon calmed after witnessing my brother and I briefly work out our own plans with only a few sentences. This allowed our parents to simply ask questions for the information they wanted and then ask for the strategy details to see if they had any input. While our discussions were ongoing, the initial ranks and formations were being taken up further afield.
There were two rows of neat and orderly blocks of one hundred standing bodies stretching out to either side of the highway. The front blocks were ten-by-ten rows of people fronted by uniforms and backed by a myriad of equipment while the second row of blocks were made up entirely of archers.
From some of the starting reports, their last minute efforts to draw in more volunteers had gleaned a few hundred additions to either front liners or archers, but the current placement of ranged troops nagged me.
Surely they would redistribute before the battle or during the preemptive, this was probably just a quick and easy way to keep track of troops and supply needs. Right?
"Is something on your mind?" The head priest suddenly asks from a few seats away after a few minutes of watching me scanning the 'parade grounds' and fidgeting.
Looking around the table a little awkwardly, I say, "I know this is a dumb question, but are the archers going to stay in those blocks?"
Smiling faintly, the head priest says, "Sadly, yes. Because we are dispersing the enemy's formations on the other side with our relics, they feel they need to be able to move our ranged units to different locations."
"Then why not curve the front and back lines with curvature of the trench?" I ask to push the issue while I was being humored. "The enemy lines will be doing the same thing when they finally rush the trench, we'd be in perfect positions to follow their progress the entire way without moving. A little earth magic while the enemy is approaching and our archers can shoot straight over the heads of the front lines."
"What would be the merits of spreading our lines?" One of the Guild officials ask bluntly. "As they are, a hundred-plus arrows could fire in unison in any direction from more than ten different locations. In a line and positioned as you say, they would simply be a thousand-plus arrows being fired in a straight line."
"Because we're fighting undead," I reply simply. "They're mindless beings led by a group of sub-par intelligent species- a group that has thus far simply brute forced their way through all of their obstacles. There won't be any fancy tactics, just big ugly bodies running at us from head-on and bigger bodies take more arrows.
"A block of one hundred arrows would be lucky to bring down ten out of a hundred bodies, a line of a thousand arrows will hit a line of a thousand bodies," I carry on quickly. "Repeatedly. The first few seconds of fire will drop closer to a thousand while the first few volleys of blocks will drop closer to a hundred. In the same way, keeping our infantry in blocks limits their capabilities.
"I know from experience that just because someone is holding a sword does not mean their reach is limited to arm's length," I say as I come to a close. "Blocking up our soldiers is blocking up our combat potential. These aren't thousands of other humans or what-have-you that would be able to fight back the same way, we need to show them what brute force really looks like."
"I like this saint, let's go with his strategy," the fire noble says soon after I finish speaking. "Brute force, that's what I was trying to say earlier."
"You said to keep everybody at the town walls while you find out how many you can kill before running out of magic," the Guild official who had been imbuing holy water the other day remarks. "Then we would have had to charge out to firing range. This plan, at least, actually employs our troops."
"If he's willing to do that much, we should let him," I say with a laugh before I even had the chance to think about it. Seeing a smirk on the fire noble's face and all eyes on me with an odd seriousness, I say, "We're already using a preemptive assault team, of which I am a part. The merits to this, having multiple people to cover for each other's expenditure. Let's just have everybody in the preemptive cover that one person."
"As ideal as that might be, we need him throughout the battle," the head priest corrects me, taking responsibility for having included me. "The enemy has enough magical capacity to raise and maintain thousands of different undead beings, that alone is no easy feat. You, as you are, could probably raise and maintain maybe a hundred abominations. Just imagine the other side has a few dozen magic users of your level, we need a magic user of the count's level in order to defend against their retaliation.
"If they really had a few dozen of Chuck, we'd be dead already," my father mutters to himself while taking a drink of some hot beverage that smelled like a fruity tea. While the fire noble and Old man chuckled softly in response, everybody else at the table seemed to take my father seriously with a deathly silence. My mother was even outright scowling at him.
Seeking the break the tension, Gryn speaks up for the first time and says, "There's only one Chuck and he's ours, it's okay everyone."
This actually made both of our parents start laughing which slowly chipped away at the seriousness of the others until they too relieved the tension with soft laughter. I could not help but think of when I was a one-year-old and asked my grandparents how different I was. The people around this table were probably of high enough rank to be privy to information about me and they took whatever information they had very seriously.
From the way some of the city officials looked at me, I would almost say that some people felt threatened by me. Me. A five-year-old.
Letting everyone know I had any degree of tactical thought probably was not very smart, but at least it would prove helpful for the two thousand and up people placed in the field. It would also bring relief for the people inside the city. The more damage done before the enemy can meet the front lines, the less damage the enemy can do- this meant more families staying together.
A brief vote of sorts was taken before it was approved to redistribute formations. A quick question told us that the ETA was currently at less than two hours and we had received all of the supplies and soldiers from the city as we needed. This meant any other details for the front line or archer formations needed to be enacted now.
Despite the city officials' wishes to keep the east gates open for retreat, it was already decided the gates would be closed at one hour left and left closed until the actual call to retreat. Most of the Guild and guard leaders were of a mind that retreat was not an option and this was probably for the best. Giving the men the idea of leaving before dying would only make them want to leave more and more.
I did not even have to get involved in the following discussions as my parents and the fire noble handled the new formation regime. The head priest was mostly there to ask a question to transition from one point to the next so the others could voice concerns and desires before further mediating to the vote and close. It was decided that both ranks of front liners and archers would be three rows of bodies stretched by their individual reach.
The guards were now given the heavy aggro role of shield bearers that were literally five-feet-by-five-feet walls of shields. The mercenaries in the next two rows would hug either side of a shield bearer and unleash whatever ranged magical attacks they had. Guild members of any faction usually required its people to train in both physical and magical ability, this made mercenaries, mages, and general adventurers well rounded combatants.
The archers were slightly changed up for the sake of supply trains. The front row would stay in place, the second row with step back and to the left, and finally the third row would step back and to the right. This extra space would allow for voluntary noncoms to maintain the arrow supply and steady volleys.
After that, it mostly came down to discussing the preemptive and learning more about 'the kids'. This, obviously, was mostly questions focused around my magic to which I simply answered 'I have the ALL affinity' to the people I did not like. Gryn took the opportunities to advertise himself and his friends as future mercenaries.
He was smart to monopolize on the attention created by me and anyone with half a brain would want to maintain a good relationship with my family to maintain a good relationship with me. I spent the rest of debates going over alchemical craft and enchantment theory in my head to help plan for how I could further make use of Gryn and his friends.
*