Rewinding the raid back a bit—
At the furthest corner of the provincial capital, there was a small subdivision of land with three large barracks in a single row, built of wood and stone.
In front of the row was a large training field. There was also a large shed that housed all the guard regiment's training equipment, its door hanging open.
Followed by the noise of heavy panting, one man—shirtless in the dead of night—did push-ups right in the middle of the field. On his thumbs.
He was shredded and lean, muscles hardened, breath labored, sweat slipping from every pore in his body and flicking off him each time he pushed. Brown hair, drenched with sweat, hung over his face, covering it.
Around him lay broken stones, mana crystals, practice weapons, and training dummies in various states of destruction. One wooden dummy lay shattered into bits. Another was fully armored, but there was a hole through its metal helmet, and the rest of its armor was dented. The final one—an extra-padded dummy—was lacerated from head to toe, its inner fluff practically hanging out. The gentle night wind caused the linen holding it together to peel off even more.
"Dammit, what was my count again?" he huffed.
"I'll just start again… One!"
Then a smoke cloud descended, forming into captain Prospero He held his churchwarden pipe out, composed. "Still out here doing push-ups, Donny? It's cold out here."
"Yeah, I'd say the same for you," he said, still focused.
Captain Prospero thought for a minute, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
"You got me." He replied calmly, inhaling from his pipe, then looking up to the half-moon in the sky and puffing out a large cloud.
"So what count are you on now, Donny?"
Lieutenant Donny did two push-ups, then answered. "I have no idea—I forgot. I think the last I remember, I was on 500, but after that I don't remember."
Captain Prospero pondered out loud. "Mmm... Not as big as your maximum. 5,000 in a row is pretty impressive."
"You act like you've seen better," he said, now exasperated.
The captain walked over to Donny and looked down on him.
"No, it's just that there's more to combat than just slash, stab, punch, you know? You think having all that brawn but no brain is going to help you... In every scenario, brawn will always be inferior to brain. Brute force can get you into places, but thinking can get you out of places." His tone was crisp.
Captain Prospero looked off as his mind wandered, continuing his monologue. "I'd even go as far as to say that with smarts alone, you could topple whole regions."
Donny then shouted, his voice exhausted. "I'm not a damn mage, Captain! I'm a fighter. A warrior. I fight and hold the line while mages support me!"
The captain chuffed. "Don't be so unrealistic. You won't always have a mage by your side, Donny, and don't think for a minute you're anything like Obsidian."
Donny stopped mid-push-up, sweat dripping off him.
"Listen, Donny. I understand—you graduated from the academy based on your combat level while your theory level wasn't that high, and I commend you on your persistence in training. That's good."
Donny continued his push-ups.
"Do you even know what that exercise primarily trains, Donny?"
Donny's voice turned curt. "Strength?"
"No, not primarily, but in addition, yes. It's for your body's endurance mainly, which is good, but that can only take you so far. And let me remind you—you're not a complete immovable object like he was, Donny."
Donny stopped mid-push-up, sweat dripping off him again.
Captain Prospero stood up, looking at Donny. "So I'll say it again—you 'might' need to get back to the old books there, Don—"
Then Lieutenant Donny's voice cut him off. "I'll get to the top and become a Warden in my own way!"
Donny kept doing his push-ups.
Prospero chuckled as his form slowly became smoky, then separated, making a clone out of him. The clone crouched.
"Well then, you're going to learn today."
The clone pulled Donny's arm behind his back, then sat on it, leaving Donny with only one thumb holding him up. As he almost crashed down, stopping himself just shy of the ground, he slowly pushed up on his thumb, grunting loudly. "Captain!!"
"You chose me as your captain instead of the others, and I usually let you do your own thing, but now it's lesson time."
"So, what do you want to know? Ask anything at all. Think fast, Lieutenant."
"But how!!"
Donny shouted, his eyes fixed on his now-bleeding thumb and his shaking arm, his face twisted into a grimace.
"In battle, stressful situations like this demand quick and decisive decision-making. The ability to think of a way out and adapt with it."
He took a long pause as he smoked.
"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE, CAPTAIN!"
Donny was about to drop, but the captain put a hand on his chest, keeping him up while smoking his pipe.
"Just close your eyes and focus on your mind, as if there was no pain at all."
Donny did as he was instructed. His body started to rest and relax slowly as time went on. His arm stopped shaking. Donny found focus through the fire.
As soon as Donny's body completely stabilized, Captain Prospero stopped holding his chest up and smoked his pipe more.
"So what do you want to know?" the captain asked.
"Why are there no captains or lieutenants in the capital?"
Captain Prospero's smoke floated through the air as he exhaled it.
"Well, provincial capitals don't have their own regiment from the orders like every other establishment in their part of the region. This was a unanimous decision made by Viscura's councils, as they wanted their own privacy... You would know this if you paid more attention at the academy or got into those books I told you about."
"Why would I need to know any of that? It doesn't have anything to do with fighting."
"If you're going to be a big figure one day, then you need to make sure you're an informed one. I mean, how can you live here and not know a bit of the history? Even Obsidian knows that."
"But he's older, so obviously it doesn't count!"
Captain Prospero's eye twitched. Donny's arm bent under the weight as it increased.
Captain Prospero's eyes flickered up. "Stop being so stubborn. Listen to me, Donny..."
Donny just grumbled under the weight, but he maintained a bit of focus.
"Anyway—instead, they have the power to request soldiers from the cities. The number requested... was—wait, let me see if I can remember." He tapped the mouth of the pipe on his chin in deep thought.
"Ah! It was 6,783 from each city. There weren't veterans, captains, or lieutenants. Just fodder soldiers, with the only difference being the varying experiences from the orders."
"How do you know the exact number..."
"Because I pay attention to my surroundings instead of just going with whatever..."
"Whatever. Can you please let me go..."
The clone dissipated. Donny sighed out loud in relief as he got up to sit down, rubbing his back. His hair now off his face revealed his hazel eyes. They didn't cast well at night, however, so they looked slightly darker.
"What makes you so heavy, Captain!"
"I can increase the density of any of my smoke spells, like so."
He demonstrated, conjuring a small puff of smoke from his mouth that immediately became darker as soon as it was airborne and fell to the ground, cracking the stone beneath it. Only for it to become lighter in color and float into the air, swirling around him, then dissipating.
"Woah! Didn't know that one, Captain."
Donny shuffled about on the floor, but as soon as he looked up, Prospero was gone...
Sighing, he stopped rubbing and laid on the solid cold stone. He flinched as it was cold to the touch, considering how much heat he must have produced—the sweat said it all, as it stained the whole area where he'd been working out.
As Donny lay there, he complained. "Damn captain, always disappearing without an explanation."
Then, only a moment later, a whole set of gear was thrown near him, along with a long hand axe and thin short sword, each with dulled runes along the blades.
He turned his head toward the gear, confused but calm. "Listen, Captain, I'd love to go a round with you, but I'm pretty exhausted right now."
"Donny, we have no time. Drink this and put on your gear—my assumption seemed to be right."
He threw a green potion over to him. Donny got up quickly to grab the potion. It tumbled between his hands, but he ended up getting a grasp on it.
Before he drank it, his face looked up, concerned. "What assumption?"
The captain looked toward the direction of the gate. A large crash came. They both watched as a massive wave of wreckage crashed into the capital, creating even more dust clouds, followed by a large screech. Donny held his ears, but Captain Prospero just stood there, silent and composed, arms crossed.
Donny's eyes spotted something in the sky—a big ball of darkness descending and spreading out, releasing many horrors on the capital's people.
Donny was stunned. The captain's voice was still. "It's very unlikely..."
He took a slow smoke of his pipe, inhaling, then exhaling.
"Thank you for your service, then." He gave a faint salute to the distance.
"Donny, I'll alert everyone in the barracks. Put your stuff on—you and me will head out first," Captain Prospero yelled.
Donny put his stuff on as the captain dissipated in a smoke cloud.
They were caught off guard by the sudden dead-of-night attack. Even with the alert from the captain, the soldiers themselves were still unprepared mentally—rushing for their gear, falling over each other, fumbling around as adrenaline rose in them steadily, all in a hasteful panic.
After some time, the battlefield was sparking with explosions which tore it up. Soldiers were fighting undead, trying to fend for themselves in it all.
Two unique bone rattlers were rushing to their next fight.