Chapter 99: Warfare

Warfare was an intrinsic part of life in almost all of Orana. The Ferren Continent exemplified that idea to its zenith. The reason for the constant warfare was because the Ferren continent was a new world. For a long time, Monsters controlled Ferren, but their power waned and with the arrival of the new gods, who had no land to speak of, a great war broke out. At first, it was only the new gods in that war, many of them died along the way, mostly to each other than to the monster kings. Eventually, their enthusiasm infected the other lesser gods who were being suffocated by the five emperors.

After destroying the monster kingdoms, their feeble alliances fell; and so it was the midnight of the great monster and mortal wars, was also the dawn of the Ferren expansion wars.

Sia had explained the nature of warfare to Scitus, who was only familiar with conventional warfare, and even then, it wasn't his hobby to learn the ins and outs of generalship.

"At the beginning of the monster wars," Sia had explained, "the majority of the battles were fought barehanded, the new gods thought that with their immense power they could handle any number of Monsters. They were wrong, the first incursion ended with several hundred dead gods. Those gods without a greater god sponsor were not revived. The few non-sponsored gods that were revived but were threatened to surrender their godhood and hand it to someone else."

"That initial defeat deterred any new incursions only briefly. However, in the second incursion, the lesser gods entered more carefully and brought along with them their trusted mortal armies." Sia thoroughly taught Scitus the History of the Ferren continent. This was twofold, the first was to rid Scitus of his ignorance, and the second reason was to teach him how battles were fought in the world of Orana. How warfare evolved on the continent.

“Most armies consist of 5 main types which are then subdivided into smaller types.

"The first is the infantry. There are several different kinds of infantry in a nation. The versatility of magic allows for a versatile army. Many armies are trained specifically to defend specific regions while other infantry types are taught for the sole purpose of invasion. There are a lot more in between these two types of infantry but more on that in the next lesson." Sia was always giddy when she had someone to teach something. And her students were all very enthusiastic which made her sense of accomplishment all the greater.

“the type of Terrain an infantry trains in is secondary to their role in an army. These roles are usually dominated by Berserkers, Protectors, Mage Knights, Cabal knights, and Superior knights.

"These five types come in a wide range of different ways, but their role in war is usually the same. Berserkers are trained to push the front lines, protectors are trained to hold the front line and defend allied soldiers, Mage knights are any front line soldier that use magic spells with casting times longer than 15 seconds, Cabal knights are a group of knights of any number that work together in the battle, these guys are particularly dangerous for the unprepared or those with weak firepower, and finally are the superior knights, these are a select group of soldiers who are stronger than all the other soldiers on the battlefield, in some rare cases, these soldiers are even stronger than the commanding general. " Sia nodded to herself with some satisfaction as Scitus listened to her go into further detail. She especially talked about the Mage knights which she had apparently once been a part of. "they put me in charge of it but I'm more an actual mage than a combat mage. It's just that I practiced speeding up my spells, and my more powerful spells take around 15 seconds to cast." She was particularly boastful that day; it was as if she wanted to tell Scitus all about her past endeavors and achievements. She had never been a boastful girl, but she had been very insistent that day.

"The second major type, are the riders. Riders, like infantry, come in a few different types.

“Those are: Artificial riders, usually called golem riders since that is the predominant method of creating an artificial mount, Beast riders, Mage riders, and Aerial riders.

"Artificial riders are usually slower than most other riders, in rare cases, they are slower than infantry. Artificial riders are normally used in a siege but they are also could front line breakers when the enemy's army is too well-guarded. The beast-riders are very quick and can maneuverer around enemy armies easily. They are usually used to flank enemies but in some cases, they are used as the initial assault troops rather than the infantry. This usually happens because the enemy mages are charging up a devastating attack. That brings me to Mage riders. These guys are usually even faster than beast riders but their fragile nature makes them most useful in instigating and annoying the enemy. However, if mage riders have enough time they can also make a devastating blow. So if your ever out there thinking that I should just ignore them, don't. they can destroy an army with a well-charged attack." Scitus let those words linger, he'd heard them more than once in reference to mages. Sia was moving onto the next subject when Scitus asked, "So what's this about charging?"

"I suppose you really don't understand huh. Charging is when a mage injects more mana into their spell, they do this slowly because the spell can get out of control of they dump too much too quickly. Its why a mage's concentration is the most important weapon in their arsenal. In your case, you haven't used a lot of chaotic spells, the closest one that you used was the fire spell but that was a [skill] spell, very different than a fabricated spell. This will lead to a whole different rabbit hole. In short, mages charge to make their spells more powerful, but in large groups, a charging spell is a group charge. Group charging can cause some horribly devastating effects. A couple of dozen half-decent mages working in tandem can attack with a power equivalent to a god. If they have the time that is.

“Anyways, Aerial riders that take to the skies. They are used to attack from overhead, leap over large obstacles, chase after routing enemies, and block enemies trying to charge the mage troops by jumping over the lines. This brings me onto the third Major category

“Aerial units. The most used types in this category are Beasts, Mages, Riders, Valkyries.

Beasts are trained beasts, I'm sure you've heard the term War-beast, that is usually in reference to these creatures, which were then later associated with the rank. Not all war-beasts are aerial but they aren't commonly used on land as they are often ferocious and don't recognize allies in the midst of battle. Some well-trained war-beasts, however, can and those are used on the frontlines. Those beasts are more common on other continents as most of them here died in the monster wars. Some of them resemble monsters and so they were caught in the crossfire. Anyways beast Aerial units are often used for their powerful airborne attacks. these beasts tend to have long-range attacks that allow them to attack the enemy and are strong enough to defend themselves in an airborne flight.

"Then there are the Mages. " Scitus awkwardly smiled. Sia rubbed her chin as she was a wise philosopher and exposed her two sharp incisors while her lips curved upward. "I think you get the gist about mages. As for riders, these essentially soldiers that mount war beasts. The Valkyries are infantry trained in using flight gear."

Sia would then move on to the 4th type Ranged, which consisted of Archers, Mage archers, and Blitz Archers. She went into depth on their history and their armaments, as she did with all the other previous categories. Scitus loved her lessons and her input on the subjects she spoke off, but he was also growing anxious as the feeling that he would never get to learn about mages washed over him like a tidal wave. However, on the 10th hour of that lesson, she finally began.

“Now Onto mage types.”

That lesson would last several more hours as she went into depth about magic knights and their versatility on the battlefield. Her enthusiasm never waned and she had even cast waking spells on herself to keep going. Never before had she ever gave a lesson so long, If Seresa or Hera was there, they may have noticed something strange. If Scitus wasn't so enraptured by the lesson, perhaps he too would have noticed something about Sia's seemingly bottomless enthusiasm and patience.