Chapter 168: Scrambled Eggs

Maurice gripped his face when he heard this before responding.

"What does that even mean?"

Kyle became serious at this and focused on Maurice.

"Look of that large army your guy apparently has how many of them are peasants that have been pulled off the street?"

Maurice paused and thought about this for a moment totalling up in his mind the numbers.

"About 90,000 I suppose but it's hard to be exact."

"Good so that means three quarters of their army have no loyalty or training so given the correct impetus would drop and run. Now how much of the remaining force can be classed as soldiers. I'm not talking about thugs and bullies but real soldiers?"

"I guess around 5,000 are former imperial soldiers or fully trained guardsmen."

"Okay now look at my forces we have 20,000 fully trained soldiers which even the least trained is capable of fighting a group of guardsmen on their own. Plus in case you aren't aware all of them have received mage training to a greater or lesser extent depending on their specialization."

When Maurice heard this, his eyebrows tried to escape the top of his head through his hair line. Training even a single mage should take time and would need a specific technique but here was Kyle telling him he had an army of warrior mages.

Kyle on seeing his reaction decided it would be best not to tell Maurice that they were also sorcerers. At this moment Kyle felt Miranda tighten her grip on him from behind while they rode on the alpha.

Half turning so he could see the top of her head as she buried her face in his back Kyle combed his hand through her hair.

"Hey Miranda what's wrong?"

Miranda looked at Kyle with slightly red eyes before responding with a slight hitch in her voice.

"I don't know I just don't want to disappear."

"Don't worry it's just some interference from the over god Procrastinator and the creeping BS Laz-E-Shite."

"Okay if you say so."

Hearing their conversation Maurice looked at them strangely.

"What are you talking about?"

"Look it was just a wall break just leave it at that."

Kyle responded as the broke through the forest into a large clearing and Susan dropped down to join them.

"Hey guys how's the ride?"

She asked with a grin seeing Miranda hugging Kyle and him looking into the middle distance with a silly smile on his face.

"Not bad these wolves can certainly haul ass."

Walking Rih alongside Kyle and his wolf which garnered some strange looks from the surrounding men as they were looking at Rih closely, they saw it was different than any other beast they were familiar with.

"So Kyle what are you going to call your new pet?"

Susan asked with a grin, it was obvious she had a name in mind and was pushing Kyle so she could put forward her idea. Kyle looked around for inspiration before responding.

"How about Bruno?"

Susan and Miranda both looked at him strangely for a second before Miranda responded.

"Kyle you can't name your pet after your best friend."

"Yeah you should call it a name which evokes pride, power and strength like Spot."

With that windup and ultimate let down from Susan, the floodgates were opened and everyone around began giving suggestions.

"Dave."

"Blue."

"Frank.

"Dennis."

"Susan."

"Wrong gender numb nuts."

"It's an animal it doesn't know the difference."

"In that case it doesn't know its own species so I say Duck."

"Oh good point how about Sheep."

"Lamb chop um lamb chop, is anyone else hungry."

"Egg fried rice."

"What as a name or for dinner?"

"Both or neither I just wanted to be involved."

"I like the fluff but these guys could really do with a saddle my balls have been so thoroughly crushed I can almost taste them."

Deciding that enough was enough Kyle whistled to get everyone's attention.

"Alright guys keep moving we've got a lot of ground to cover before we meet our army. I'll decide on a name later."

"Alright you heard the man shift it. Sir I don't mean to repeat myself but are you sure we will be accepted in your force."

Maurice asked with some concern as he didn't know how leadership was distributed among the Powell family and he wasn't sure if Kyle could persuade Landon to spare his men and accept them within the fold.

Kyle smiled at Maurice with a silly grin before responding quietly.

"Its fine this isn't the first time we've done this, soon you will be one of us."

Maurice saw this grin and got a little nervous and with the sentence at the end he had a little shiver run down his spine as he had a bad feeling.

The journey through the forest continued until dusk with the wolves jumping and slipping through the closely clustered trees. These beasts were smart however and were conscious of their riders so always aimed for gaps large enough for them to go through safely.

As dusk approached they noticed the forest began to thin out rather than when the foliage abruptly stopped like when they found a clearing which allowed Susan to rejoin them for a bit before taking to the air again as a guide so they stayed in the same direction even if they couldn't see any landmarks.

Once they breached the tree line Susan dove down and Rih rejoined Kyle's side cantering along keeping pace with the Alpha.

"Kyle if we keep heading in this direction we should get to the area where the battle will happen in about 5-6 hours do you want to stop and let everyone rest as there is a large about 2 miles east of here which we should be able to camp on safely."

Susan said while indicating with her hand to the west. Kyle shook his head with a small smile before giving the men their orders.

"Alright you ingrates we are heading west to the camp ground, once we arrive I want a perimeter set with a 3 split guard get to it!"

Kyle commanded in his best drill sergeant impression which wasn't as effective as it could be due to his still cracking voice.

"YOU HEARD THE MAN! DROP YOUR COCKS AND GRAB YOUR SOCKS SHIFT IT!"

Maurice added his own blend of command as the guys headed over faster than before. They arrived in short order and had the camp setup before night fell. Kyle and the girls took Maurice's command tent while he bunked with some of his men. Kyle let the wolves roam after he whispered to the alpha.

The soldiers began digging through their packs for their rations but before they got to eat them the wolves reappeared with carcasses of different beasts minus their cores and dropped them with the men allowing them to make a proper meal for the first time in who knows how long.

This was an immediate plus in the eyes of the soldiers as they usually ate dry rations with only the upper realms being able to have fresh food. They didn't hate Maurice for this as when they were in the field he would eat whatever they ate.

Kyle moved amongst the tents quietly listening to the chatter of the men for a bit, while Miranda was cooking hers, Kyle and Susan's dinner.

"Maybe it ain't so bad."

"Yeah I hope I can see my boys soon."

"I hope they'll reappear soon."

"It'll be fine they'll drop again soon."