The loyalty and fanaticism of the Khorngors were trustworthy, but their inability to correctly and adequately understand Al's commands, combined with a slightly lax discipline due to their fiery tempers and beastly nature, was an issue.
However, all of this was well-remedied after Al introduced his matured scions into the tribal army, building a hierarchy that, while still simple, was loyal and efficient.
Al made no major changes to the organization of the Khorngor Legion, maintaining the "multiple of 8" formation that all Bloodmother believers, from top to bottom including the Centaur Alina, insisted upon.
It remained an 8-man squad, a 24-man platoon led by a Red-Mane Sergeant, and an 88-man warband led by a Khorngor Vanguard.
Vanguards and above were directly under Al's command. Unless they were in the heat of a chaotic battle, they were to report to the Everchosen's royal tent to receive orders.
A main legion consisted of sixteen 88-man warbands, totaling 1,408 warriors.
Al currently had twelve such Khorngor Legions under his command. He intended to use nine for this battle, with the remaining three left at the base as reserves—one of which was split and scattered across various regions as a military police force.
There was also an auxiliary legion composed of Beastmen, Sagegor Shamans, mages, and a squad of "Apostles of the Reveler's Gospel"—each possessing beautiful little hooves and a charming appearance.
Numbering three hundred, they provided a series of functions including spellcasting, divination, staff support, healing, and spiritual comfort.
Additionally, there were the Troll corps, Troll-Goblin Bombardier squads, Bloodmother Minotaurs, and Giants.
The non-Khorngor ordinary Beastman ranged units—though the population growth increased pressure, it also increased productivity—allowed Al to have spare manpower and resources to develop ranged branches. Currently, they used poisoned shortbows and blowguns, focusing on mobility. Al didn't expect much from them, as long as they performed slightly better than Goblin archer boyz.
The main reason was that compared to ordinary Beastmen, Khorngors possessed too much of an advantage as a melee branch, discipline notwithstanding. However, with so many ordinary Beastmen who hadn't been blessed and mutated, he couldn't simply leave a vast amount of secondary manpower unused, so Al still selected many of them to join his legions.
The Khorngors absolutely refused to use bows and arrows. While everyone else was using greatswords and halberds to charge forward and "Urah!" to please the Bloodmother, being stuck in the back with a flimsy thing that might snap its string if they pulled too hard was worse than dying in battle to them.
However, a number of gunpowder weapons harvested from several cities caught the attention of some Khorngors. After trying them out, they felt the caliber and power of the human toys were slightly lacking, shaking their heads in "deeply moved but firm refusal."
Al couldn't exactly whip out bolt guns for them now, so he could only complain internally that both the followers of the Bloodmother Mom and those of Old K [Khorne] were incredibly thick-headed.
Then there was the batch of pirate cannons captured at the walls of Veling.
The Khorngors liked these things very much. Without Al knowing, a few Khorngors gathered together and used blood to wash away the filth and sea-stench left by the pirates.
They instead used beast teeth and blood to engrave the inverted Khorne symbol of the Bloodmother into the barrels and chambers of these large-caliber weapons. They even went so far as to set up a small altar with the skulls and blood of prey, stacking the cannon barrels together to receive the Khorngors' prayers.
Just as Al thought these cannons were being ruined by that group of Khorngors, an unexpected surprise occurred:
Perhaps the Khorngors' blessing ritual was a success. The Furious Mom didn't go through Al, but instead cast her gaze directly into the mortal realm. The cannons captured from the pirates underwent a subtle change; their barrels fused together, forming a shape similar to a multi-chambered honeycomb. The mount and the altar merged into one, with blood-red veins surfacing on the metal.
When Al, with a "try and see" attitude, let those Khorngors continue to operate this bizarre artillery, they stuffed shells—which had been blessed along with the cannons—into the device, lit the fuse, and aimed (though there might not even have been an aiming process). The multi-barrel battery, which no one knew how to name, let out an earth-shattering roar, instantly blasting a section of the forest's trees into a chaotic mess.
It was a shocking sight.
Al was greatly moved, and the spectating Khorngors cheered, clearly viewing this as a miracle and blessing of the Bloodmother.
This artillery, now treated as a holy relic by the Khorngor Legion and receiving blessings before and after every battle, would roar with a violent posture every time it fired. It unleashed a thunderclap of iron and fire, shattering stones and pulverizing flesh. Every boom sent the Khorngors' morale soaring.
Just like that, before Al could even get the Khorngors to accept muskets, they had taught themselves the skill of creating and using blessed cannons.
In a game, this artillery would easily count as a unique unit card.
At this point, he understood that the Khorngors weren't unwilling to use ranged force, but first, such a weapon had to be large enough, strong enough, and possess enough presence—the kind that unleashed a thunderous posture to blow away a horde of enemies with every attack.
"Well, I'll consider developing bolters in the future then..."
Al currently had 649 scions who could step onto the battlefield, not counting the original first batch but including the second, third, and fourth batches that had matured. The subsequent ones hadn't reached full growth yet; Al didn't want to be so utilitarian as to make them fight for their little father so soon, so he refused to accept them into the tribal legions for now. Otherwise, this number would have more than doubled.
This was mainly because the first and second batches of scions had set a brilliant precedent, performing far beyond their peers and growing extremely fast. Combined with Al leading the tribe in a sustainable rise and development—with the situation improving every day—the Beastmen mothers' enthusiasm for having their next generation become a "Son of Al"—an extraordinary warrior fighting for the Four Mothers and the Everchosen—remained sky-high.
And because he had taken in a large number of refugees, Al had also paused the creation of more scions, no longer providing blood to the Genesis Herdstone, using it only as a holy totem.
Otherwise, the number of scions would have been several times higher.
Their combat prowess varied slightly depending on the other half of their bloodline, but compared to the tribe's average level, they were exceptionally outstanding individuals. Within the Khorngor Legion, they were the elite of the elite, with every stat above average. After a period of integration, plus the bonus of the "Son of Al" status, winning over the soldiers was a matter of course.
As for the long-lived original scions, aside from a few naturally belligerent ones like the wolf-girl, most were kept in the rear by Al. Compared to the results they could achieve on the battlefield, Al still preferred they assist him in developing the tribe as excellent administrators.
With a large number of scions joining the army and gradually taking over command and leadership roles after integration, Al's military reforms and planning in all aspects had finally reached a level that barely met his expectations.
As for the effect this legion—now infused with the blood of his scions—would have, it still needed to be tested with blood and fire.
Now, all was ready.