Morning came with someone banging a metal pot outside the barracks.
"Rise! Formation drills in the courtyard, ten minutes!"
Jade groaned and rolled off his mattress, every muscle in his body aching from yesterday's march, around him the other militia members were doing the same, stumbling around half-awake and cursing
"I hate mornings," Nathaniel mumbled, pulling on his boots
"You hate everything right now," Yuzon said, already dressed and checking his bow
"Fair point"
They grabbed their weapons and filed out into the courtyard where Captain Aldric was waiting with a dozen soldiers, the early morning light made everything look gray and cold
"Form up by village!" Aldric barked, "five rows, shoulder to shoulder!"
The militia shuffled into something resembling formation, Jade's group ended up in the second row with Pravend villagers around them, the whole thing was a mess of uneven spacing and confused faces
Aldric walked down the line, shaking his head, "pathetic, you look like a herd of sheep, raiders see this and they'll cut through you in seconds"
He stopped in front of a nervous-looking farmer, "what's your name?"
"Uh, Gareth sir"
"Gareth, if I swing my sword at you right now what do you do?"
"Duck?"
"Wrong, you raise your shield and hold formation, you duck and the man behind you dies," Aldric moved to the next person, "you there, what's your job in a shield wall?"
The man stammered something incoherent.
"Your job is to not break," Aldric said, raising his voice so everyone could hear, "that's it, just stand there with your shield up and don't run, the soldiers will do the killing, you just need to not die long enough for us to work"
Not exactly inspirational but brutally honest.
The next two hours were pure hell, Aldric and his soldiers drilled them on basic formations, shield wall mostly with spearmen behind and archers on the flanks
"Shields up! Overlap! If I can see daylight between them you're doing it wrong!"
Jade stood in the second row with his spear, trying to keep it level over Mataranas's shoulder while not stabbing anyone by accident
Numerius was three spots down with his club, looking confused about where he fit in the formation
"Two-handed weapons in reserve!" Aldric shouted, "you wait until the line breaks then you rush in and crack skulls, until then you stand behind and shut up!"
"This is boring," Numerius muttered
"Boring keeps you alive," the soldier next to him said
They practiced advancing as a unit, which was harder than it looked, keeping the line straight while moving forward required coordination nobody had
Jade's row kept drifting left, bunching up and creating gaps
Aldric fixed it by whacking people with a stick, Torvald would've been proud
"Straighten out! You, on the end, stop dragging your feet! Shield wall moves as one or doesn't move at all!"
Nathaniel was in the archer section on the flank, looking relieved to not be in the main formation
"Archers!" one of the soldiers called, "your job is to thin them out before they hit the line, aim for the ones without shields first, then work on shield bearers, don't waste arrows on plate armor unless you've got bodkins"
"What's a bodkin?" someone asked
The soldier held up an arrow with a narrow pointed head, "armor-piercing, we've got maybe fifty of them total so don't lose them"
Yuzon was nodding along, his Tactics skill probably making this easier to understand
By midmorning Jade's arms were shaking from holding the spear in position and his feet hurt from standing in formation
His UI kept pinging with small Athletics and Polearm gains but it wasn't enough to offset the exhaustion
"Water break!" Aldric finally called, "ten minutes then we go again!"
The militia collapsed where they stood, some heading to the well while others just sat in the dirt
Jade's crew regrouped near the wall, passing around a waterskin
"That sucked," Numerius said, wiping sweat from his face
"It's only gonna get worse," Yuzon said, "this is just basic stuff, wait until they make us practice under pressure"
"Under pressure how?"
As if answering the question, Aldric's voice rang out again, "alright up! Next drill, soldiers are going to attack the formation, you hold or you run laps around the castle!"
"I hate this," Nathaniel groaned
The soldiers formed a loose line opposite the militia, maybe ten of them with shields and practice weapons, wooden swords and blunted spears
"Ready?" Aldric called
Nobody was ready.
"Charge!"
The soldiers hit the militia shield wall like a hammer, the sound of wood on wood cracking through the courtyard
Jade felt the impact through the whole formation, Mataranas grunted as three soldiers slammed into his shield and the line bowed inward
"Hold!" someone yelled
Jade shoved his spear forward, trying to keep the soldiers at bay but they were faster and stronger, one of them knocked his spear aside and stepped in close
Mataranas held but the man next to him broke, stumbling backward and creating a gap
The soldiers poured through immediately, collapsing the formation from the inside
"Stop!" Aldric called, "see what happens when one person breaks? The whole thing falls apart, again, reform!"
They did it five more times and each time the militia broke faster than the last, some guys were giving up entirely, just stepping aside when the soldiers charged
By the time Aldric called an end to it, half the militia was sitting in the dirt breathing hard
"Pathetic," Aldric said but he didn't sound angry anymore, just tired, "we've got maybe two days before the raiders arrive and you lot can barely hold formation for thirty seconds"
He looked around at the exhausted faces, "listen, I'm not asking you to be heroes, I'm asking you to stand in place and not run, that's it, the soldiers will handle the fighting but we need bodies on the wall and in the courtyard to make the raiders think twice"
"We're just here to look scary," Nathaniel whispered
"Pretty much," Yuzon whispered back
Aldric dismissed them for midday meal and the militia scattered, some heading to the mess hall while others collapsed against walls
Jade's group found a shady spot near the stables and sat in silence for a while
"We're gonna die," Nathaniel said finally
"Probably not," Jade said, trying to sound confident, "we just need to stay in formation and let the real soldiers do their job"
"You heard Aldric, we're bait"
"We're not bait, we're support"
"Same thing"
Numerius stretched out in the dirt, "I don't know about you guys but I'm getting better, my Two-Handed went up three points today"
"Great," Nathaniel said, "you can die three points stronger"
"Stop being so negative"
"I'll stop being negative when we're not marching toward our deaths"
Jade checked his UI, his Polearm was at 33 now and Athletics at 18, the constant drilling was paying off even if it felt like torture
Experience: 45/200
Still a long way from Level 3 but progress was progress.
"We should eat," Mataranas said, standing up and brushing dirt off his pants
The mess hall was packed but they found seats and got their bowls of stew, the food was the same as yesterday, decent enough but nothing special
Around them the other militia members were talking in low voices about the upcoming raid
"Heard they spotted Sturgian scouts this morning"
"How many raiders you think there are?"
"Does it matter? We're screwed either way"
Jade tuned it out and focused on eating, worrying wouldn't help and there was nothing they could do except train and hope Aldric knew what he was doing
After the meal they had an hour of free time before afternoon drills
Jade wanted to check out the armory, see if there was better gear available
"I'll come with you" Yuzon said
Numerius and Mataranas headed back to the barracks for a nap while Nathaniel said something about finding a quiet corner to "mentally prepare" which probably meant panic
The armory was a small stone building near the keep, guarded by a bored-looking soldier
"We're militia," Jade said, "Captain Aldric said we could check for equipment"
The soldier shrugged, "go ahead, don't take anything without asking"
Inside the armory was dim and cramped, racks of weapons lined the walls along with stacks of shields and piles of leather armor
Most of it was in rough shape, dented shields and chipped swords, hand-me-downs from previous garrisons
An older man sat at a workbench sharpening a spear, he looked up when they entered
"Help you?"
"Just looking," Jade said, "trying to see if there's anything better than what we've got"
The man grunted, "militia gear's over there," he pointed to a corner with a pile of mismatched equipment, "you find something that fits you can have it, just sign it out"
Jade picked through the pile and found a padded gambeson that wasn't too torn, it would fit under his mail coif for extra protection
Yuzon grabbed a better quiver and some leather arm guards
"You boys from Pravend?" the armorer asked
"Yeah"
"Heard you fought bandits"
"We got lucky"
"Luck's good," the man said, going back to his sharpening, "you'll need it when the Sturgians get here"
They signed out the equipment and headed back to the barracks where Jade tried on the gambeson, it was hot and uncomfortable but his UI confirmed it added a point of armor
Better than nothing.
Evening came with more formation drills, this time practicing fighting on the walls, climbing up and down the steps while holding position
By the time they were dismissed for dinner Jade could barely lift his arms
The mess hall was quieter tonight, the nervous energy from earlier replaced by exhausted resignation
After eating they returned to the barracks and collapsed on their mattresses
Jade lay there staring at the ceiling, his body aching and his mind numb
Tomorrow would be more of the same, drills and formations and waiting for the raiders to arrive
He closed his eyes and tried not to think about what would happen when they did
Somewhere in the darkness Nathaniel was crying quietly
Nobody said anything