Tolsey shook his head, exasperated. "I fear for you, boy. I don't know what you and the Captain are thinking, but there's no man about this camp that could do such work for days on end and not have it get to him. Now that you're working with us, even if the Captain does not press you on it, I'd appreciate it if you kept a check on your limits.
Else, when you reach your breaking point, we won't have the men prepared to take your place."
As Tolsey talked, Beam was only half listening to him. Tolsey had told him much the same thing the day before, after all. He figured the best way to teach the man that he was fine was merely to continue to show him.
The Vice-Captain seemed to think that they shared similar limits, since they were both of the Second Boundary, but Lombard had pointed out more than once that the significance of a boundary break varied from one person to the next, meaning a Second Boundary man might be even as strong as a Third Boundary man, in particularly rare circumstances.
As they walked, soldiers called out to them.
"Haha! Fine work again today, Mountain Slayer! Just a glance at all that filth on ya, and you can see if you've only gone and slain half the bloody forest again!" One particularly friendly sergeant called out to him. They'd worked a shift together the day prior, and the man had continually remarked just how easy things were with Beam on the front lines.
The two squadrons that were in reserve had far less work to do than they normally might. It was usually bows they kept in their hands rather than spears, assisting Beam with his kills from afar. In truth, merely that added support of arrows raining down in assistance made a world of difference to Beam.
It helped him avoid the deadlocks that he often fell into when confronting a large group of enemies, and it made his misdirection training all the more powerful, for his enemies had multiple threats they had to take care of.
"Mountain Slayer!" Another soldier joined in, raising a toast to his name. "May more little monsters of his like come crawling down from those bastard Black Mountains, so we can be cleared of night shift as well."
"Hah... No more drinks for the rest of the evening," Tolsey said. It was hardly a punishment – they'd already exceeded the ration after all.
At that light-hearted decree, the men saluted with a jovial "sir!" and then went right back to grinning.
"So?" Beam asked. "What were you looking for me for?"
Judas shrugged. He was as drunk as them. Somehow the man had a talent for fitting in amongst the soldiers. A large proportion of them were thoroughly fond of the man, despite his rank. "Just wanted to see how ya getting on, y'know. They figured you'd be wounded by now or something, and everyone was worrying about that.
Not 'cos they're nice, mind you, but 'cos nobody around here wants to do any work."
"Not true! We are nice!" Came a drunken response. "You're one of us now, ain't that right, boys? We're just making sure you're getting on alright. If you're injured, we figured we'd take you to that pretty lady that's started showing up to tend to the wounded. She might be a peasant, but she's a looker!"
"Eh, boys, I wouldn't..." Judas warned.
"Wah? Why not? The boy's entitled to a bit of treatment. Some of the boys have started pretending to be sick, just to get her to check up on them. She's too nice, that's the problem... Makes me want to get injured as well – not a big injury, mind you. Just a little scratch or something," the soldier continued drunkenly.
Beam glanced at Tolsey. Tolsey understood the look.
"Careful, gentlemen," he warned. "Anyone troubling that woman will have the Captain's wrath to deal with." Beam had made them promise as much, after seeing her patiently try to deal with a dozen soldiers acting like children around her the day prior. The Captain had readily agreed. At this point, it seemed that he valued Beam's work so much that he was liable to agree to anything.