Chapter 169: Rouse

"Listen up, everyone. There is only so many of us here, so we need to make every single person count. I won't accept any excuses for free-willed insubordinate this time. While I know that we all chosen to follow the mercenary path in order to not put our lives against the impossible odds… But right now, as long as we succeed with this small ruse, we most likely won't ever be forced to fight again through the rest of our lives!"

Fen speech wasn't something that he came up with on the spot, but something that Victor actually created for him. While in terms of the ability to figure out something on the flight both of the men were equals, given his diplomatic experience, Victor was simply far better at crafting the drafts for rousing speeches like the one that Fen was currently bringing to life.

According to Fen's older friend, there were three rules that one had to follow when coming up with the way to address his own people. 

The first thing had to be honesty. While crafting unbelievable stories and legends for the sake of rousing the morale of the army could work in the short terms, for people like the mercenaries before them who picked this lifestyle on their own instead of being serfs forced into the military ranks with conscription, feeding them a mouthful of bullshit would only come back to bite anyone doing that in the ass later on.

Secondly, one had to dangle the incentives created by fulfilling the mission that one wanted to push his people for. Starting with simple stuff, fight hard in this battle and you might increase your odds of survival, all the way to what Fen was doing right now.

Don't act out of the line and just be the background for the people responsible for actually pushing the rouse in ints fruition, and this might be the very last time when everyone gathered will ever be put in a situation when they have no other choice but to fight.

Lastly, a speech should be kept short. 

While this didn't really hold true for the serf-based military, where the people wouldn't care about the speeches at all as their ranks was not the place where they would want to be in the first place, when it came to enlighted troops like the one serving under Fen and Victor right now, the matter would greatly change.

By prolonging one's speech, it would turn boring. Instead of being directed at increasing the morale of the troops, it would be nothing more than the commander orgasming over the tone of his very own voice. If one wanted to make something valuable, then it had to be low in supply and speeches surprisingly had to adhere by this rule.

"Men. I know that we were supposed to just get a quick act of destruction going and go take our deserved rest… But what we are going to do right now, albeit more dangerous, can allow us to effectively finish all our plans way sooner and way easier than expected. In other words, if everything works out properly, we won't even need to fight at all in the first place."

This time, it was Orsha's time to speak. With her stump already covered with a relatively simple contraption that allowed the girl to at least wield a shield in what used to be her left arm, she didn't even bother to stand, opting to sit on the side of a broken carriage instead. 

And surprisingly enough, that alone was enough to make her look badass. Like a true veteran that can't be bothered with official forms of reporting, opting to just make the most of his time to rest and prepare for the fights to come.

"I really hope it will worth it."

While most of the speech was told by Fen, as soon as his friends took over, the young phoenixian backed off, away from the sight of their fellow mercenaries. Given the daring plan they had to put a spark to the dry wood of the conflict that was slowly amassing on both sides of the nearby border, he couldn't waste his time on just talking to the unit. After all, by the time they would pretend to be the runaway remnants of the force devastated by the northern nobles, escaping from the chase, by the Kinarian soldiers would be lead to the area filled with corpses of people dressed in Shalian uniforms, Fen would be already talking to the guards on the border, reporting the atrocities that Kinarians committed against the diplomatic mission that was supposed to pass by their positions.

"It's not like we still have any choice. If we stay idly by the side, we will be swallowed by anyone capable of being bothered to reach for our lands. Unless we take the reins over the development of the events ourselves, we will be simply swept aside to the sidelines of the coming times."

Fen was quite certain about the paths they, as the entirety of the mercenary kingdom, could take. For now, it was only a matter of time before the entirety of Kinzar would consider them their main enemy that needs to be eradicated. Yet, who could've known that they would have to pit two other huge and relatively prosperous countries against each other just to have a shot at survival?

"I guess we really don't have any other choice. May the luck be with you on your mission."

Cutting the talk that no longer held any meaning, Victor placed his hand on Fen's shoulder before tapping it and nodding his head to his younger friend. Between the two of them, there was no need for any more words.

"Let's hope we will meet soon. Remember, do not try to overdo it. Just convincing everyone that the nobles from our kingdom dared to cross the border is enough. I will do the rest."

This time, it was Fen's turn to reassure his friend. Smiling to the older mercenary as a form of bidding his farewells, the young arcanist invoked his catalyst, before spreading his wings, jumping and taking to the skies.

The day was relatively bright, with the sun still hanging high on the sky. Even though the location of what the mercenaries assumed to be a future fortress wasn't that far, just by keeping a low intensity of his flames, Fen could be quite sure that unless someone was specifically looking for him and was advised where a said person should direct their eyes, it would be impossible to locate his body on the wide skies. 

But even with that, only when the young man was way above the level of the clouds did he dare to increase the thickness of the flames of his wings, reaching the border between actually flapping them to fly and just burning the air passing through the fire of his wings to kick himself forward.

"Let's see… Where should I begin…"

The entire plan of putting the two sides against each other relied on the idea that either of the sides would notice that there was a third party meddling in their affairs. That's why, while it was no longer possible to destroy the crossroads in any permanent way - something that was the initial aim of the mercenaries at this stage - devastating a huge chunk of the part of the road a bit closer to the border would fill their new purpose far better. 

Finding his target didn't take the young man almost any time. With neither the mass of soldiers of Kinar nor the border guards of Shallia within his elevated point of view, there was nothing that could infringe the execution of his plans.

"Okay then, there is no point in dawdling on the topic…"

Once again muttering to himself in the lonely expanses of the skies, Fen started to gather his fires around his hands. But instead of condensing them into fireballs, the young phoenixian turned his arcana into long streaks of an extremely hot fire, perfectly capable of spreading on its own. But his next step actually required him to get a little bit closer to the border.

Only when Fen could finally see the first encampments of the Shalian kingdom's troops did he went through with his ides.

Instantly angling his wings to enter a dive, Fen locked his eyes on the point where his plan would begin. With the roaring of the wind completely deafening him as he continued to descend at a worrying rate, only when the insides of the young man started to tense from fear of crashing against the ground - something that even he wouldn't survive - did he set his wings on a proper angle again, levelling his dive to turn it into a glide parallel to the ground.

Right above the road. Right above this piece of hardened surface that was such a pain in the ass for the mercenaries. And with the fire spilling from his hands only to fall on the stones of the street. That was Fen's current position. But instead of flying right above the longest stretch of the road that he could set alight with his arcana without being discovered by the enemy, as soon as his flight slowed down to a rational pace, Fen threw a simple fireball right in front of himself before touching the ground with his legs and running directly into the fireball.

From the moment that his arcana hit the ground and spilt all its fire on its surroundings, it no longer could be controlled or assimilated by the young man. And that was exactly what the young man was aiming for. With his face instantly covering with the ask as his hair started to burn, the young man waited for a moment in the middle of this fire, all the way to the point where he could start feeling the pain taking over his senses. Only then did the young man dashed forward, finally escaping from the influence of the fireball.

Right into the arms of the incoming patrol of Shallian Kingdom.