And like a storm clearing up, Amelia left, just like that. She of course, took the valkyries with her as promised as well. Micky did not get to see her again, or her entourage of rare and powerful classes. What he did see, is the lines being pushed back almost instantly. However now that the Aene could see the prize in sight each and every commander had a blood frenzied greed for the merit. All for some burnt out villages that could have once been said to belong to the enemy.

Micky was one of the few that didn’t give in to the greed, but he was never here for the merits in the first place. Micky at this point would have been happy to go back to his village in the middle of nowhere. But that was not to be, they wouldn’t even have him if he could go. It was all an incredible nightmare. And Micky didn’t know if he would ever wake up. Maybe Bob hit his head and this was all just a terrible dream. Yeah that had to be it. Oh well, time to stop pretending and get up from his power nap. It was still early morning but Micky had been awake the entire time due to knowing that Amelia was going to be leaving soon. And with her gone the enemy would charge.

The forests were now dyed red with blood, occasionally blue green or black since not everyone had red blood. It was splattered everywhere and the originally loomy black earth was now soaked red. It wasn’t easy, it took an average of 5-10 human bodies to soak the ground red, but the maelstrom would not stop. Like some sick artist was being entertained by the pretty color they got to work with the bodies hit the floor.

Maymay was beside herself with handling all of the enemy attacks. The good news was that recruiting the local tribes had never been easier. The bad news was that they were all panicked refugees from the enemy's rabid attacks. Micky’s camp was now filled with the lesser races. Rabbitkin, frogkin, murlocs, gobolds, lizardmen, dogmen, carmen, there were all kinds. There was even a small tribe of Centaur and Faun living out in a small clearing that were distubed and ran through the forests.

However, Micky’s band of misfits, as they had been rebranded, were being faced, and criticized on a regular basis. Of course, that was because all the other centuri were nervous. Entire senior centuri were disappearing into the maelstrom and it didn’t care about age, experience, gender, race, or creed. Micky wasn’t just picking up refugees from the forest but also all the centuri that were disappearing. It wasn’t like the enemy’s formations were any better, in fact they were much, much worse. However, they were also retreating in the Aene kingdom’s direction. It was infuriating.

It was like they were completely ignoring the Aene army and simply charging into the Aene kingdom to continue their terrorist attacks. Micky was almost tempted to suggest they do the same. But no, they were better than that. Also, if it was found out, it was a major violation of the rules of engagement and would cause major problems.

However, Micky’s biggest problem was that his fellow officers kept trying to undermine or poach his soldiers in a valid ‘requisition’ for more soldiers. Even Prin was once dragged away by a group of very anxious soldiers trying to poach soldiers from other commands.

This almost led to a war and Micky outright killed those officers in public. He then sent out Kux to observe and patrol for such activity. Many of the fresh meat passed through his supply post. A supply post that was already looking like a haunted ghost town as all the important structures had been moved, even the logs. Micky also had all the unimportant supplies moved to the next one down in the line. It was still regularly attacked, but unlike his main that he was in now it wasn’t under a constant stream of soldiers that believed in gods good graces shining on them and that they would be the ones to take the fort and be the hero.

As it was, the only thing that was still standing in good order and regular repair was the wall around the encampment. It was fairly easy to tell where what was were with all the flat patches of brown dirt. Micky was well aware that it was going to be captured sooner rather then later. The enemy had already been prepared to commit more reinforcements to the cause from day one even if nothing strategic. On the other hand the Aene kingdom has always been sending a few scattered punitive forces here and there from all over the kingdom.

Micky was anxious, with the fellow centuri literally dragging off soldiers from each other to bolster their own positions and the enemy constantly at the gates banging for alms. He could no longer allow them into his own structure and feared leaving outside. He even drew Maymay back for a time, only allowing her to occasionally ride out into the forests to stealthily remove certain thorns. In particular she may have removed a very loud junior centurion that was screaming his head off about his lost officers. But at least the senior centuri behind him took the hint and changed the territory of his centuri. Now battling on the west side instead of the east.

The northern front was still being pushed back though. The legate’s diversified formation was not enough to keep the enemy from taking over the line and pushing it back. The legate has learned however, finally building a fort on the line that he had been battling on for the last few days. You could see the magic spells going off, bombarding the lines days and night in that direction. If one wasn’t careful or smart, one would think that Amelia was still there bombarding the lines.

She wasn’t and it was a clusterfuck. The line was toast and the enemies pouring around them were testament to that. All the while Micky was planning for the inevitable retreat from the line. It would be a staged, ordered retreat for him, not so much for his fellows. At least he was far more prepared for it then either the enemy or his own Aene kingdom was. Having seen enough retreats to know how, when, and what to prepare. Of course, that isn’t exactly how he wants to be remembered, the retreating commander, the hero of the retreat, the man that made the last retreat at the battle of the bloody pass. Yeah, none of those titles sound very exciting to be called. However, he understood that sometimes it wasn’t what people called you, but the actions that you took and the results of them. In this case the ones that screamed coward were dead, so take it or leave it as is. Of course, had he been stuck in his village and not fighting anyway, he would also be surviving just fine probably.

Anyway, the new potions were coming along great, so yeah that’s a thing. He also used his enchanting to improve his bunsen burner candle into an enchanted piece of gear. He hadn’t thought that by combining his enchanting and his alchemy that he would actually be excited for enchanting. Mostly by all the new gear that he could make for his alchemy. It was hardly new or original but Micky didn’t care. All this newly enchanted alchemical gear was like heaven for him. He had improved his alchemy by leaps and bounds with how much control he could gain over his alchemy now. It also helped that fire mana wasn’t being introduced accidentally. He could even use a cold fire setting that would introduce frost mana instead as it heated up the material so as to prevent explosions.

This helped immensely with his latest project with some local ‘fire brand flower’ herbs he had been experimenting on. They were something the locals used as a bit of a poison since they sizzled and popped if the extract was rubbed on a blade and then stabbed into a wound. It would then light the blood on fire as it ran through the body. Incredibly effective if a little bit of a waste. Micky had plans though, big plans, in little packages.

Oh yeah, the war though? It was FUBAR.