Tactics [FanaCorps Training]

Bright stars dotted the night sky over the plains, something Ayero had grown to appreciate after being away from both Remano and Rakushou for a prolonged amount of time. Big cities were nice, but Ayero always felt more at peace in less populated areas. Out here she was alone with her thoughts, responsible for her own welfare (and that of her beasts) and not much else. Once she returned to Kou and then Reim, she’d have to shoulder more responsibilities. Being a ranked military officer meant that she had to be concerned with her soldiers, her people and her country. She had slowly grown into her role, dealing with the fact that her actions impacted more than just herself and her family at this point.

Grunting, Ayero used one hand to lean back onto the carpet. Kabu tilted his head in her direction slightly from where he rested at her hip, but ultimately closed his eyes and settled his head back down. Ayero pinched the bridge of her nose with the hand that had been resting on the carpet, sighing and wishing that Kabu or Tomato could talk to her. She’d done a lot of thinking about her growth and what direction she wanted to take, but not much action aside from training.

”Fighting shouldn’t be the only thing I know how to do well.” Moving her hand away from her face, Ayero tapped Kabu once on the head. The snake opened his eyes and blinked at her, tongue flicking out from his mouth in mild annoyance at being disturbed. Ayero dipped her head toward the front of the carpet, where her other hand grasped the fabric to control the flying object. With sluggish movement, Kabu slid from Ayero’s lap to take the fabric from her hand, coiling a portion of his body tightly around it.

With both hands free, Ayero rummaged around into her bag until she retrieved a thin stack of parchment bound with strings and a quill. The night was mild and there were few breezes, but to be safe Ayero turned and faced her back to the wind, her body providing enough resistance so that the papers would not get ruffled too much.

Putting the pen to paper, Ayero began to sketch a few illustrations of simple battle formations. She had never taken to book learning all that well, but thankfully had picked up basic tactical knowledge during the war as she helped lead troops to defend certain key cities. Once she had the basics down, Ayero’s sketches started to become more complex with a blend of both Reim and Kou styled formations. She was lucky enough to have been both mentored by Octavius and accepted into Kou’s military exchange program, and she supposed that the Fanalis General had sent her for a reason. While she never fancied herself a tactician—for more than just herself—Ayero found that she had more of a desire for learning than she had initially thought.

There was more to war than simply hitting the enemy with your weapon, after all. Ayero held up her paper and examined the shapes and squiggles she had drawn on it, each symbol denoting the building of a formation or a landmark. There were a lot of factors that went in to coordinating a battle, she had come to learn. Topography could make the difference between an easy win or a harsh defeat, as could weather in certain situations. One had to take into account the statistics of the opponent’s army, whether gathered beforehand or in the moment. How many ranged fighters, close combat specialist, magicians, beasts, etc. were all important factors in figuring out how to best your opponent.

Turning her attention back to the parchment, Ayero’s mind began to whirl with potential enemy scenarios for her sketch. There were too many to count, all of them filtering through Ayero’s mind quicker than she could pin them down. Her hand worked furiously, pen jotting down as many notations to her sketch as possible, lest she lose a good idea during her brainstorm. When she finally began to slow down, Ayero’s mind drifted toward a slightly different, yet still relevant topic.

As much as she had traveled in the recent years, she tended not to be interested in the militaristic relations of a country if she could help it. Oh, how things had changed for her. Now she found herself wondering how far Heliohapt had come since their skirmish with Reim decades ago. And Magnostadt, with its cache of magical tools and wealth of knowledge, were they a threat? While many of its resident magicians were not fond of goi, or non-magical persons, the country did tend to keep to itself and was still recovering from their own Kou invasion. Balbadd didn’t worry her much, but she wondered how good their relations were with Reim. From her time there, she did admire how the country rejected monarchy in favor of democracy. Perhaps electing a group of officials to control a country was a better idea than leaving it up to one person.

Ayero made a mental note to study up on the other countries when she returned to her post in Remano, perhaps paying more attention to how relations seemed between Heliohapt, Magnostadt and Reim. After all, there wasn’t much she could do about that right now. With that in mind, the Fanalis woman returned to her drawing, intent on creating another battle scenario but found that her mind was concerned with other things.

It had been a while since she’d been in Reim, after all. She found herself eager to return to her home country, to see how things had changed and grown. Lagi’s rule had started to become shaky on the eve of her departure, but she trusted that it would not destabilize the country too much. Big changes had come to Reim in the wake of their war with Kou, hopefully ushering in a new era of peace.

Putting down her pen, Ayero frowned at her battle sketches. She wouldn’t be satisfied until she would be able to test them on the field for herself. Perhaps once she settled back in to Reim, Octavius would grant her permission to do drills.

[FanaCorps Training: 1000+/1000]