Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 9

After reordering her ranks, Ludmila reviewed the impromptu battle in her mind. Ultimately, what had destabilized it was the appearance of the new ‘officers’.

“Your Majesty,” she asked, “what are these red Skeleton Warriors?”

“They’re Red Skeleton Warriors.”

She looked up at him, unable to keep the dubious expression from her face.

“…really?”

“I-I didn’t come up with the name,” his tone turned defensive, “that’s just what they’re called. Besides, they’re Skeleton Warriors that are red, so what’s wrong with ‘Red Skeleton Warrior’?”

“If Lord Ainz says that they are red,” Lady Shalltear said, “then they are red. Even if they’re blue–I mean, red. No, wait…”

Ludmila’s gaze travelled to Lady Shalltear, then back to the Sorcerer King. The Sorcerer King’s gaze travelled to Lady Shalltear, then back to Ludmila.

“If they’re blue,” His Majesty said, “then they’re blue. Even if I say that they are red. Unless we’re pretending that they’re red for some reason…erm, at any rate, I do not like that way of thinking. I would rather people think for themselves.”

“But they are Red Skeleton Warriors?”

“…yes.”

“I see…then are there any notable differences between Skeleton Warriors and Red Skeleton Warriors?”

“Well, they’re red, so they go faster. And stronger in general since they’re a higher level variant of Skeleton Warriors.”

Did changing the colour of a Skeleton Warrior really make it stronger? She should have given the request to paint her Undead labourers more serious thought. Liane always had her favourite wagons painted red, too.

“Does this difference in strength account for how much damage they were dealing to the Blood Meat Hulks?”

“It does not. What you’ve noted is the result of Attack Skills. As your opponents – even mindless ones – increase in level, things become more difficult not only because of increases in raw power, but also because Skills start coming into play more frequently.”

“So these Red Skeleton Warriors aren’t using Martial Arts?”

“Though the effects they might produce are similar, Attack Skills and Martial Arts are not the same. Martial Arts are resource-dependent, while the Attack Skills you see used by the Red Skeleton Warriors are timer-based. Generally speaking, basic Attack Skills have shorter times. As with other Skills you may know about, with increased power comes longer timers or more specific conditions. The most powerful Attack Skills can only be used a few times per day or less.”

“Between Strike Arts and Attack Skills, which is better?”

His Majesty crossed his arms, and silence fell between them. A slender finger tapped on his forearm as he seemed to consider her question.

“I believe that there are advantages and disadvantages to both,” he said after several moments. “Martial Arts take time to develop, but it appears that one can develop them in any direction. They are limited by resources – stamina, focus, and such – but do not have timers. As such, they may be employed in rapid succession or even combined to create even more powerful attacks.”

The Sorcerer King gestured to one of the Red Skeleton Warriors nearby.

“These Red Skeleton Warriors manifest with Skills and require no training to use them. Those Skills will always be the same, however. Once one fights a Red Skeleton Warrior, they know what every Red Skeleton Warrior is capable of. Skills do not require resources, but the timer can make the user predictable. This is a weakness that may be exploited by opponents and particularly true for mindless creatures like these Undead, who will always go all out.”

Ludmila nodded and examined the two Red Skeleton Warriors that had been added to her company, resuming her evaluation of their performance. Though she had intended on using the Blood Meat Hulks as heavy infantry, the Red Skeleton Warriors had demonstrated themselves to be the superior option.

Disadvantages she should have considered when fighting against the Blood Meat Hulks made themselves clear to her now that she was employing them. Their attacks were slow and unwieldy, making it close to impossible to fight effectively in a formation. The size of each was a huge detriment: three Skeleton Warriors could fit in the space of one Blood Meat Hulk, resulting in higher overall damage, flexibility and functional infantry ranks.

The size, mass, raw durability and regenerative capabilities of the Blood Meat Hulks were, at a glance, ideal traits for a front-line role. A single skirmish had definitively proven this carelessly conceived notion to be flawed. Now that she had been ousted from her entrenched line of thought, Ludmila realized what they were actually ideal for.

Despite their appearance and relatively slow acceleration, Blood Meat Hulks could be employed like heavy cavalry. Their traits were ideal for smashing apart formations. Rather than have them stand and fight, relying on their slow, unwieldy attacks, they simply needed to keep moving. They were huge masses of mobile flesh – Undead battering rams. Once they finished trampling their way through the enemy, they would continue out of harm’s reach and regenerate the damage they had accumulated while setting up their next charge.

The idea was not without problems, however. Foremost was the use of Defensive Arts like Fortress to stop them in their tracks. This was probably a standard answer to all cavalry charges, so she would have to look into how cavalry wings dealt with it. Strike Arts like Called Shot would also make Blood Meat Hulks laughably slow and an easy target for archer companies to whittle down. A single archer in that company using glass arrows filled with Holy Water would disable the Blood Meat Hulk’s regeneration, making it even easier to get rid of. There also existed many magical options that could hamper or arrest their advance.

As with many things, it seemed that mundane martial thinking was invariably thwarted once Magic and Martial Arts came into play. Manuals describing mundane tactics were commonly available to those that had an interest in them, but anything beyond that was in the realm of national secrets.

What was clear was that, barring tremendous gaps in power, unsophisticated approaches became less reliable the stronger combatants became. This was true for individuals and armies alike. At some point, Ludmila thought that the Sorcerous Kingdom’s relationship with the Empire would become amicable enough that she could gain access to information about the Imperial Legions and how they operated. For the time being, however, her focus was still on domestic affairs and she would have to puzzle things out at home.

…or maybe she would find some inspiration on their excursion.

Ludmila walked up to the front of the garrison again, examining the extent of its external damage. It stuck out strangely amidst the rest of the ruins around the plaza, which were essentially levelled and left as piles of rubble. The building felt more like the ruined towers that had somehow survived longer than the surrounding structures. Though what they had come across so far left her with severe doubts over finding anything, coming across a training manual or even a piece of fiction that hinted at the military thinking of the age would be nice.

She scaled the steps to the entrance, concealing her presence and poking her head through the archway of its ruined gate. The hallway inside had the look of being left long undisturbed. Piles of dust and rubble had been kicked up by the swarm of Skeleton Warriors that rushed out at her shout.

The right corridor and main hallway had caved in, so she made her way left past what appeared to be a waiting area and entered an attached office. A quick check through the large room revealed that it, like the interiors of the towers, had been burned out. Something about how it looked seemed odd, however.

Ludmila left the office and continued making her way through the building. It was laid out in a way that one might expect a large garrison barracks would be. Halls for various activities were arrayed over the main floor, while the second floor had other halls for sleeping. Piles of ashen debris lay where furniture was once placed, and she could make out the rows of beds, closets and chests, their remains left untouched for untold ages.

Roughly halfway through the second floor, she found the edge of where her shout had been loud enough to draw the occupants. After noting the number of Red Skeleton Warriors mixed in with the regular ones, she returned to her company outside.

“No boss yet, hm?”

“Do you believe that there might be something in there, Your Majesty?”

“It does seem like our best shot so far,” the Sorcerer King replied. “Did the Undead you find inside match what I described earlier?”

“I think so,” Ludmila nodded. “There are more Red Skeleton Warriors on the second floor, but between what’s left and the ones that we fought, the overall ratios appear to be similar to present-day army organization. There’s one Red Skeleton Warrior for every ‘squad’ of twenty, much like an army squad has a sergeant. There’s a third floor that I didn’t check, just in case there’s a ‘captain’ or two there that possesses intelligence.”

The Sorcerer King looked up at the garrison barracks, speaking with a curious note in his voice.

“What makes you think that there might be two?”

“There are enough Undead in there for two companies. It could also be a particularly large company, but that would still mean it has lieutenants to command the wings.”

“You’ve embraced this idea of the arrangement of the Undead mirroring what existed in life, I see.”

“The notion appears to hold out so far, Your Majesty,” Ludmila said. “At least in terms of how things are arranged. The fighting strength of this garrison is extraordinarily high: before it was annexed, E-Rantel’s militia consisted mostly of Iron-rank – I suppose that would be Level 4 to 7 – members. Veterans with decades of service might be Level 8 to 10. These ‘militia’ start at Level 16, and the Red Skeleton Warriors should be around Level 20 to 22.”

“It could be a choice assignment,” the Sorcerer King offered. “The Empire’s First Legion is stationed in Arwintar, while the Imperial Earth Guard can be found at key institutions and government offices.”

Their strength still didn’t match up. Veteran rank-and-file Legionnaires were the equivalent of Silver-rank Adventurers, while members of the Imperial Earth Guard were roughly Gold-rank. Going by Alessia’s account in the few conversations that they had so far, the militia represented here would be a match for soldiers from the Theocracy if the Undead truly mirrored the strength of what once was.

The idea that the Katze Plains was once a perfect place for Human civilization lent weight to the possibility, but it could have just as easily been the barracks manifesting with ‘soldiers’ that were stronger than the ‘civilians’ outside.

“All that aside,” His Majesty said, “what is your plan of attack, Miss Zahradnik?”

“I was going to surround the entrance and fight there,” Ludmila replied. “Doing so should provide our forces with an overwhelming advantage.”

“Is that so? Well, I’ll leave it to you, then.”

Ludmila went about ordering her preparations. With the various soldiers of her once well-rounded company being replaced by Skeleton Warriors, her forces consisted of six Blood Meat Hulks, two dozen Bone Vultures, sixty Skeleton Warriors and two Red Skeleton Warriors.

She first had them go around the plaza collecting all the heavy stones they could find. Once she thought they had enough, she arranged half of her Skeleton Warriors in a semicircle around the entrance, two ranks deep. The other half of her Skeleton Warriors were divided into two ‘archer’ formations. Her two Red Skeleton Warriors stood in reserve to plug any unexpected holes that formed in her encirclement.

With her Skeletons in place, she directed the Blood Meat Hulks to gather the much larger pieces of rubble from the crumbled wall of the barracks. Contrary to what she had feared would happen, the disturbance that they created while doing so did not attract any Undead. She had them pile their makeshift ranged weapons behind the centre of the encircling ranks.

Preparations complete, she sent in her Wraith to draw out the Undead on the second floor. Several minutes passed in silence, and Ludmila frowned.

“Why isn’t it coming out?”

Floating above her, the Sorcerer King offered no reply. Ludmila cast her voice to cover the entire building, ordering the Wraith to return. After several more minutes, she concealed her presence and reentered the barracks. On the second floor, she found a number of Skeleton Warriors and a single Red Skeleton Warrior bunched up in one of the sleeping areas. The Wraith was nowhere to be found.

Puzzled, but not wanting to delay things any longer, Ludmila threw a rock at the clustered Skeleton Warriors and ran back outside. She made it to the rear of her lines well ahead of the angry ball of Skeleton Warriors, turning to see the first few trickle out.

“Stay in formation!” She ordered her front ranks, “Only attack enemies that come within striking distance!”

More enemy Skeleton Warriors spilled out of the gate. To her surprise, they did not fan out to attack the encirclement, instead attempting to head straight towards her until they or one of their fellow Skeleton Warriors was attacked. Ludmila didn’t miss the opportunity.

“Blood Meat Hulks,” she shouted, “let loose!”

The Blood Meat Hulks raised their boulder-sized pieces of rubble over their heads, hurling them straight into the line of Skeleton Warriors trying to shove their way forward. Shattered bones sprayed against the stone wall of the barracks as the boulders left scores of broken Undead in their wake. Using the reprieve, she switched out the damaged Skeleton Warriors from the front line with those in the archer formations, then left instructions with the rest to cycle their number in the same manner.

With the gathered rocks on hand, the damaged Skeleton Warriors could continue attacking at a distance, but Ludmila didn’t want to alter how the enemy streaming out of the gate so neatly lined themselves up to be destroyed. When enough of them piled up that they started to crawl over one another, she ordered another barrage to devastating effect. In the wake of that attack, she sent her Bone Vultures to pick up the crippled remains of the Skeleton Warriors, sending them to fall to their deaths in the plaza.

A silvery laugh of delight drifted down from above.

“I’m definitely watching her battles with the living from now on,” Lady Shalltear said. “How expansive will her repertoire of terror be by the time we return, I wonder?”

“I’d at least recommend that they surrender,” Ludmila replied.

“But you would still conduct your battles in this manner?” The Sorcerer King asked, “Though standards may differ from species to species, the living generally have boundaries for conduct for whatever they’re doing. This includes what is deemed acceptable in times of war.”

The Skeleton Warriors pouring out of the barracks built up again, and Ludmila ordered another barrage to clear them. The debris piling up inside the encirclement was making it harder and harder for the enemy to push forward.

“The answer is complicated,” Ludmila said. “If I’m not mistaken, Your Majesty is referring to how not only soldiers on the battlefield judge certain acts of war, but how those at large receive word of them and how it can influence public sentiment or be used to manipulate the political and diplomatic landscape?”

“Umu. The Sorcerous Kingdom has a certain image to maintain. While I have come to understand that you conduct your battles efficiently, many will not perceive that efficiency in a positive light.”

“As a Noble and as a Commander, I always strive to achieve what is outlined by our national policies. Frontier Nobles are not so adept at matters beyond warfare and the management of their own territories, however. If I were confronted with a situation in which a high degree of political and diplomatic skill was required, I would rely on my friends. It is a battlefield that they are far better suited for.”

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