Chronos fully intended to fix that on this trip.
"Good response. Now decide what your roles are before I decide them for you and show me your triangle guard formation." Chronos yelled at them.
They easily picked their roles and took their positions with one in front and two slightly back and to either side of the forward guard. Chronos watched as it took them 30 seconds to get into formation.
They were slow and the formations still needed to be adapted, but Chronos knew they would be doing better than this within the hour.
"Good, you know your place and role." Chronos let a slight mocking tone enter his voice, some of them scowled at him as they determined to do better. "Now unlike a regular triangle guard where all three of you will take your own quadrant and support each other this formation will let the forward guard defend the two behind him while making openings against whatever attacks you.
However, since this is a flying ship, we will adjust the formation further so that the person closest to the ship's cabin is the center guard. If you are facing the port then that would be the guard on the right, if you are facing the starboard then it is the guard on the left. The center guard is the most important one as his job is to secure the path back to the hold in case of an emergency."
"Sir, if we just kill everything attacking us that would make the forward guard the most important position, wouldn't it? Securing a retreat path shouldn't matter." One of them asked in confusion.
"That is true if they are targeting you. But what if they target the sails or the magic keeping the ship afloat?" Chronos gave them a moment to ponder that.
All of them realized that they could defend themselves and their position but if the ship fell from the sky none of them would be safe.
"If the ship is going to fall then you must return to the cabin as it has the highest chance of withstanding a crash. If you can't retreat to the cabin, you will die when the ship hits the ground." Chronos' voice dropped as he impressed this upon them.
He had them run through several drills while continuing to adjust their stances and balance until they could reliably get in formation in less than ten seconds.
While they were doing the early morning training Micheal and the ship's captain were finishing up one final check before taking off.
"...The boom's been repaired, the dents and scratches have been fixed, the holes in the sails patched, and the holds already been restocked. Everything is ready to go Micheal; we're just waiting on your orders." The captain reported.
"Good, once the spirit scanners have finished being recalibrated, we'll leave."
The spirit scanners had been giving them trouble ever since they entered Dracon Fen. They kept saying there should be far more world spirit in the swamp than there actually was, but they had a theory that the tears stole a lot of spirit from the world when they formed.
That meant that as long as they knew the baseline amount of world spirit in the area, they could track the lower regions to reliably find hidden tears.
Although Micheal would never say it, he was grateful for Chronos's suggestion, researching the tears was already showing favorable results.
An apprentice came running out of the cabin.
"The spirit scanner has been recalibrated sir." He reported.
Nodding Micheal turned to the captain.
"Captain, we're ready to leave whenever you'd like."
"All men to your posts! We're shoving off in 5 minutes!" The captain shouted as the sailors on deck scrambled to set the sails.
Seeing the chaos on deck Chronos decided to take advantage of it for training.
"Alright men, we're doing active combat drills now. The ship is under attack, and the captain has given the order for an emergency take off. Take defensive positions to protect the sailors while they are setting off, your job is to keep them safe while fighting a ground-based assault on the ship. Now move!"
Chronos walked over to the captain as the guard captain gave directions to his men, sending them to key points where they wouldn't be in the sailor's way while they were taking off but could defend the area around themselves.
"Sorry if we're getting in the way." He said to the captain.
"No complaints from me, I asked you to train them. The hypothetical situation you came up with might really happen too so it's best to know what to do when it does happen. How do you think the young one is doing?" He asked while gesturing to the young guard captain.
Chronos watched him ordering the guards around for a few minutes before responding.
"He's got a good head on his shoulders and knows what to do but he did freeze up during the last emergency. I think his superiors sent him on this trip to gain experience while thinking it wouldn't be that dangerous. Once he gets back, he might be promoted to a higher rank or put in charge of more men." Chronos speculated.
"Then you'd better make sure to train him well, especially if he's going to be sent out on more missions like this one." The captain said while looking at a map of the eastern area of the Leighla Kingdom.
"Will do. What's our first destination?"
"The city of Malark under Earl Malric is the first major city on our way; I expect we'll see the regular army of Leighla passing by when we arrive. We'll be stopping three times before then at several smaller villages over the course of a week." The captain reported while pointing at several spots on the map.
Chronos frowned, he wasn't sure if they would arrive before or after the Dragon church told Earl Malric about his son and Chronos's part in that mess. He could only hope that Earl Malric wouldn't make things too difficult for him while he was there.
On the bright side the regular army was making good time and could be expected to arrive at the far side of Dracon Fen by next month. That should be enough time for the Crucible Knights to finish building the other two castles and was early enough that an attacking army wouldn't have the time to conquer one of them if they were attacked before then.
That was assuming that the devils didn't intervene again.
"Any flying threats we should be aware of?"
"The eastern plains don't have any forested areas for birds or other fowl to roost, so I doubt it. The first time we flew past nothing bothered us but if there are more tears and black beasts then who can say."
While the black beasts that came out of the tears were usually from the area the tear had formed in his time in Dracon Fen had taught him that that wasn't always true. And Chronos was looking forward to the random enemies he might face in the eastern plains.
If they were lucky, he might be able to convince them to stop at one of the nomadic orc tribes that wandered between the eastern plains and the Ancient Caldrian battlefield to the south. They were always up for a good fight and would know more about what was going on in the plains than most of the patrols did.
Now that he thought about it, the Ancient Caldrian battlefield that covered the south and parts of the southeastern sections of the kingdom might be a real problem. Tears could form inside the battlefield, and nobody would know about it until undead type black beasts started swarming out of it.
Chronos sighed as he realized he would have to meet with Earl Malric and arrange for patrols into the ancient battlefield. He was the highest-ranking noble in the eastern plains and would have the easiest time organizing the other nobles.
He would have to get a proper suit when he arrived in Malarch for the meeting and send a formal request and prepare a gift, maybe he could invite Lyla to accompany him. Having her with him would make it difficult for the Earl to cause problems without offending the Tri-Goddess church at least.
He would have a lot to do soon, until then he would focus on teaching the ship's guards.
While he was thinking, the guard captain came up to them.
"The men are in place awaiting the captain's orders." He reported.
The captain glanced up before shouting, "Shove off! The first stop is an unnamed village on the outskirts of the Dragon Churches territory!"
""Yes, sir""
With that the anchors locking the ship to the ground were raised and the ship took off. The wind strongly buffeted them as they rose into the sky, but the captain didn't want to waste energy by raising the barrier yet.
"Keep the barrier down for now. I'll use the wind to train the guard's balance. Do we have ropes to tie around their waists?" Chronos asked with a cruel grin.