Second Life as a Soldier

“Do you think they will feed us barbarians?” Barry’s bad joke ruined the casual conversation the whole squad was having while standing atop the southern wall.

I almost felt the urge to puke.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Why would you even say something like that?” My face and tone made my disgust clear. There had not been a single day when my squad had gone on an empty stomach, so there was no reason for them even to think of making jokes about cannibalism.

“For a month after the grand beast tide, all we had was the meat of beasts we had killed. I don’t know if the army has some kind of ritual where they feed you only meat from beasts you killed. After all, it has been fifteen days since I last had any meat,” Barry replied with a shrug while looking at the army in front of us.

It had been four hours since our shift had started, and while the conversation was casual, everyone was on high alert because this was the day Captain Petrae expected the domain to drop.

“I would much rather eat dirt than that meat,” Silas commented.

“Speaking of beast meat, while I hate most of it, right now I could kill someone to get my hands on some,” Oren commented.

While we still had food, the army had started running out of meat, keeping only a small amount of smoked meat for the officers and some stored in reserve to use as a morale boost after a small victory.

“You all sound like you have been starving for a month. Be happy with what you are getting. Perform well here, and I will personally arrange for a noble house to provide a feast for all of you,” I said, patting Peter.

“Hey, young lord—”

Before Barry could continue, we saw a figure descending from the sky.

As soon as I saw it, I sensed the domain collapsing and an enormous amount of mana gathering near the southern gate. Once the mana condensed, a huge blade of wind came hurtling down toward the gate.

The battle is over, I thought.

But then a small hill rose behind the gate as Onyx emerged from the ground.

The hill broke the wind blade before it could strike the southern gate.

The hovering figure disappeared into the clouds once again, while Onyx stood up, one leg on the hill and the other near the southern gate, and let out a roar as if declaring the start of the war.

With that came something I had only read about but never seen.

The first thing I saw was an assault staircase, almost thirty feet wide and thirty feet tall. It was not a complex structure. It was made of flattened, thick tree logs arranged like stairs, with each step two to three feet high. The structure extended only twenty feet horizontally, but Tier-1s and Tier-2s with higher physical stats could easily climb it and engage the soldiers atop the wall.

On the top step of the assault staircase stood a shield wall of mercenaries. Their gear made it clear that taking them down with amateur archers would be difficult. An archer like Lela would have been a great asset against this shield wall, but regrettably, I had none.

I looked at the structure, trying to find a way to take it down.

One solution that came to mind was using rune cannons to send a few concentrated attacks at the center of the frame supporting the stairs. But we did not have just one assault staircase to deal with. There were two of them, along with two leaping ramps.

Moreover, destroying the structure would do minimal damage to the shield wall on top. Because of the steps, their fall would be gradual, and it would hardly injure any of those soldiers.

While I had yet to form a coherent plan to deal with the assault company, I could not let it show.

So I took a deep breath and readied myself.

“DO NOT FALTER. You have seen the might of the Guardian of House Petrae. Now it is time for us to show the world what we commoners can do,” I said, activating [Battlefield Command] and addressing the one hundred and fifty soldiers under my command as my squad ran to take their respective positions.

I was leading the section from the southern gate to the first tower east of it. Fifty of them were very inexperienced archers who had received only seven days of training in how to use a bow and arrow.

“I know this might be your first time fighting humans, but remember who you are fighting for. Remember the faces waiting for you at home. And if you cannot even do that, just focus on the words of your leader.”

I had assigned my squad members as leaders of these one hundred and fifty men, with each member responsible for ten to twenty soldiers.