Micky was quite happy with his little stunt. It was far more successful than he was expecting. Not that either side expected anything out of this little battle. After all, there were only about 10,000 and 30,000 on each side. It was just a small unremarkable battle.

Unfortunately it was enough to disturb Maymay with her spirit senses and she came running with the rest of the army that Micky had put her in charge of. She easily captured the retreating soldiers, who only comprised 5,000 of the attack even when they were full strength let alone the scattered dregs.

That wasn’t the problem, the problem was that the troll’s white glistening residue hadn’t been cleaned up yet. Micky couldn’t allow her to see this tainted substance for fear of what it might do to her innocent self. So with great shame Micky ran towards her to intercept on his quilin.

“Uh, so Maymay what’s up?” Micky said as he arrived before her, way to be nonchalant. She would be arriving in the clearing shortly and he had to stall.

Raising an eyebrow Maymay replied “I felt a disturbance in the forest. A great many voices cried out with rage, and then quit life. I felt I should investigate this area. Are you really ok?”

“Yeah, we’re fine here, everything’s fine here, how are you?” Asked Micky.

“Are you really ok? Are you sure you don’t need me for anything? There are a lot of things I can help you with Micky. All you need is to ask and you shall receive all the help I can give. Just ask me anything.” Maymay said slightly worried.

“This is not the disturbance you’re looking for, move along, move along.” Micky replied, slightly shewing her along.

“If you’re sure then I’ll leave. There were some disturbing reports about the enemy combatants carrying massive supplies, even children. I’m not sure if they were camp followers that had simply been following a larger force or what. It is worrying. I must go then.” She said. Maymay was always so dedicated. Micky had to admit she deserved this promotion more than him, however he was promoted over her simply due to circumstance.

“Centurion, we have reports of a strange… substance that appears all around the supply depo. Honestly commander, I don’t know what to make of this milky white substance that has covered the depo and the surrounding area. Truly the area is soaked in the substance.” Said a female soldier. Clearly she was dedicated as she herself had grabbed some of the substance herself risking that it would contaminate her armored gloves.

So close, Micky thought. Maymay was reaching for the white substance with her own pale white fingers. She was almost about to touch it with her bear, naked, hand. But Micky quickly intercepted. Many of the males that saw this growned, but Micky simply glared.

*Sigh* Micky closed his eyes. It was time to come clean so to speak. There was nothing to be ashamed of. It was a natural part of being a commander of such a large force that they would go through such stages. And one of them was dealing with such substances. “It’s troll residue, don’t touch it. I can’t have you picking up their taint. I’m sorry, I thought you knew what it was. I didn’t want you in the area, and thought I could clean up before you came. Clearly I was wrong and am sorry, but hope you can give me the time to clean up before you arrive. It is shameful to have this kind of substance all over my place, I should have been able to keep it clean after all.” Micky said.

Maymay chuckled, “There’s no need to be ashamed of this Micky, it’s completely natural for a commander of your stature to experience this. I am glad, glad you felt you could share this with one such as myself.” She said, still reaching for the white substance. The males in the area gasped.

Micky still cut her off. “Still, you should let me handle it. It would probably be best if I did this.”

“I suppose you're right. But please do ask me if you need help. I really will do anything you need.” She said imploringly one last time. Then she left to set up camp nearby. While it was true that Micky needed to clean up his place before she could enter, the supply depo was still defensively weak and needed protecting.

Micky quickly cleaned up with his priests and druids. For such a tainted substance as troll fluids, it was indeed a very pure white. Micky couldn’t even bring himself to look at it, he was so ashamed to have the substance all over his depo. But like she said, it was common for commanders to have their areas covered in tainted substances. He just wished his place wasn’t covered in something as embarrassing as troll fluids.

Many of the females gave him consolatory advice and were cheering him on as they worked to clear the taint and make the place presentable for Maymay and the rest of the army. Meanwhile the males tended to snicker at him behind his back. There wasn’t much Micky could do about it. There weren’t any true troublemakers to punish, rather it was simply a general comradery and moral of the army as a whole. As the centurion in charge the only thing he could do was stoically bear through it and move forward with his plans.

Pagebreak

It had been a few days since the troll incident with Maymay. It was embarrassing for him as her senior centurion to be seen in such a position by a junior such as herself but he got over it and moved on.

Amelia was making a far more aggressive push. She had gained massive swaths of land for the army, however there wasn’t much she could do for that last and final league. Miles away from the army she had flown around the area and seen several burnt out villages. It appeared that the enemy would rather burn the area then allow the Aene kingdom to take a foothold near them. This would destroy the area for years until it could be resecured from the forest. Soon monsters would take over the area and it would be uninhabitable for the races, or even as Micky had figured out, intelligent monsters. A veritable no man’s land for intelligent life.

But the army had to get to the area first. And that was the problem. The delay tactics had become worse. The enemy seemed to be willing to bleed even more to simply bleed the army for every finger of territory. Amelia was truly enraged. The enemy had been aware of her entire time here from the beginning. She and the skirmishing army was well aware that she would simply be too high profile from the beginning to actually hide it so there was no use. She had hoped that at least they wouldn’t be aware of her deadline for staying in the area but even that seemed to be something that the enemy was well aware of. It wasn’t surprising though and that too was well known within the army and thus not surprising that it was leaked for a few coins. Even two bits to a camp follower would probably get you that information. And the information itself would be the conciliatory merchandise.

This was why she was raging from one end of the line to another. Of course, she herself could reach out and touch the burnt out villages with her mobility but that wasn’t the point. Without the army, reaching there would be pointless. She needed to take the area and allow the army to keep it. Meaning that she would leave far before she would achieve any true military merits. It seemed the enemy had played her and waited her out. And they had won. Both sides knew it.

So it was a waiting game to see what was going to happen and how the bones fell when Amealia left. So there was a rush of new blood spilled on the battlefield. The enemy was willing to bleed more now, simply to deny the skirmishing army that taste of victory. They wanted them to not be able to taste any triumph, knowing that should they receive a taste that the battles ahead will be much more viscous for it. On the other hand, with the nuptials of a victory so close only to be denied, the army had a new vigour to it. Ready to taste the victory just out of reach. They were willing to do anything, anything to reach it. Those few miles till the enemy’s home had been renamed the last bloody mile(s).