Part 13: Campaign Chapter 5.

A/N: This will be the last chapter of the Campaign. After this we stick to Earth.

-oOoOo-

There were no newspapers in Rivellon but that didn't seem to slow the spread of news of his improbable victory over Count Farlow. General Gregory accepted his demotion to Lt. Colonel amicably. Part of that might have been the fact that he was still commanding a group mainly made up of his own men.

The other piece of news that started traveling were rumors of a Dragon Knight in his army. It was clearly one of the new soldiers that had spread it, since all of his soldiers were well aware of who the Dragon Knight was. Still, it was bound to happen eventually, and absorbing the other army had more than doubled the number of troops under his command even if they did need retraining.

With more troops, he had enough men to truly lay siege to a castle. He already had the men and the supply lines set up and he could train his new troops even while they laid siege because the next castle didn't have nearly enough men to try to break the siege. They also didn't have enough supplies laid up as only a few weeks after the siege started a small party ventured forth under a flag of truce.

It wasn't hard to see who was in charge. In a land where food wasn't always plentiful but hard work was, being obese was a sign of wealth. It showed you had more than enough money for food and enough so that you didn't have to work hard. Still, he must have been in reasonable shape underneath his bulk as he wasn't huffing after the admittedly long walk from the castle to his headquarters.

Alexander stood as the party entered. "Lord Sears," he gave a slight nod. He had been a little taken aback when he learned the Lord's name, but figured there were only so many letters and syllables in the English language. It was probably a coincidence but he was going to have a talk with the Patriarch if he ever came across a man named Walmart.

"General Alexander," Lord Sears inclined his head in response.

Negotiations were long and boring. Lord Sears and his advisors were certain they could withstand any length of siege. Alex was sure that Sears wouldn't be the one eating short rations during this siege. The burden of this siege would land on the shoulders of the peasants, as it always did. Alex was keeping a tight rein on looting so no homes or crops were damaged other than incidentally, but farmers would still lose money from crops they couldn't bring in. That could be mitigated if they could end this soon, but if they couldn't, his own men would likely bring in the crops themselves to feed his army for the long haul. Lord Sears seemed to want to go for that long haul. Alex couldn't allow that. Not only would it hurt these peasants, but he had places to go and a world to conquer. He needed this castle and these armies to expand his empire.

"Listen, Lord Sears. I don't want to be here. I've given you plenty of time to surrender. If you'll ju-" Alex started.

"You'll find my men much tougher than Count Farlow's. Your tricks will not work a second time." Sears warned him.

"Oh, no?" Alex sneered. He was annoyed that the fatso had interrupted him. He cleared his throat and spit. Not saliva, but fire. The fireball hit a wooden dresser and splattered on the dirt ground. Alex pursed his lips tightly and dismissed the visitors with a wave of his hand. When they were gone, he dunked his face in a nearby bucket of water and drank deeply before pouring the rest on the fires.

Colonel Gawain had an amused expression on his face. "That was... interesting."

"Oww," Alex said carefully. "I bur' my 'ung."

"I can imagine," Gawain said diplomatically. "It was impressive, though. By the smell, I think someone in Sears' party shat themselves."

"Goo'," Alex said. "Ge' 'an'elor."

Gawain interpreted that as an order to get Zandalor who he returned with shortly, already tutting and shaking his head even before he examined the Dragon Knight and healed him.

It would be a long time before Alexander would try that move again but it did work. Sears' castle was his within the week along with a good number of soldiers.

-oOoOo-

Alexander's army fought just one more open battle. After absorbing the Sears castle and most of their army in a siege that was shorted by Alex's fire-spitting, the three neighboring kingdoms decided to combine their armies together to stop him. Alex's army now numbered 4,000. Of that, 1,000 was his original core of men and women who were now battle-tested veterans. The other 3,000 were also experienced but had several months less training in his new ways than his core group.

Facing off against an army of 10,000 this time didn't feel like it would be a challenge when he had 4,000 men when he'd already soundly beaten 5:1 odds. He looked over his men. On his left flank, Lt. Colonel Gregory stood ready with his men. On his right, newly promoted Lt. Colonel Hasset secured the right flank.

Alexander gave Zandalor an angry glance then clenched his jaw and nodded to General Gawain. He and Zandalor had had a long conversation/shouting match the night before. One of their opponents, Duke Igthorn, had conscripted several hundred peasants into his army and were using them as a type of human shield. Worse, he couldn't just fly over there and snack on the worm. They had dug up anti-dragon defenses that had to be taken out first. Zandalor pointed them out. A slight shimmer in the air that just didn't feel right to Alex. Zandalor claimed that being in his dragon form inside that bubble would quickly be fatal.

-oOoOo-

"You cannot spare the peasants, Alexander," the wizard had pointed out. "Or every army you face from now until Rivellon is freed will have peasants in front of them."

"What do I do?" Alex begged.

"Break them. Drive them from the field before the fighting even starts," Zandalor advised. "Show everyone how useless they are."

"Slaughter them?"

"Slaughter these hundreds to save tens of thousands later," Zandalor said gravely.

"Duke Igthorn will wish he'd never been born," Alexander promised.

-oOoOo-

Now the archers and catapults began firing. The archers focused on the unarmored peasants, few of whom had armor or even shields. The catapults focused more on Igthorn's main army. Punishment for using human shields in the first place. There would be a clear message sent with this battle: use human shields and be destroyed.

The other side's archers and catapults started firing too. Alexander's army was well armored so the archers made little dent in his numbers, but the catapults were dangerous. He saw one ball roll through his lines, taking out at least 20 men, many of whom would be beyond even magical healing.

That was his cue. Alexander launched himself up into the air and transformed. A dozen beats of his wings later and he was high enough that none of the enemy's arrows or catapults could touch him. He got higher and higher, sailing behind his army before turning back towards the enemy. He glided at a constant speed, took a deep breath, and launched a large fireball at the enemy catapults. He missed. He hadn't really practiced this before hand but the fireball landing nearby did give the men manning the catapults pause. Some took off running. All the peasants in front of Igthorn were now also running at the sight of him. Alex took another breath and sent another ball of flame into the anti-dragon zone. He couldn't watch where it hit as he had to turn back to avoid running into the shimmery air Zandalor had warned him away from.

A WHOOSH of air went by him. Alex looked and- was that a cannon ball that went by him? Looking up and back, he could see the telltale smoke of cannons firing. An airship had arrived at the mouth of the valley behind his army and was firing a broadside at him. He'd known that this place had airships and cannons for a while now, though he'd never actually seen one or faced one in battle. The dragon had given him quite a bit of money, but not that much. Not enough to buy an airship and still field an army. Alexander dove and spun; the signal to General Gawain to attack. They had to get this fight over with sooner rather than later. His army was smaller but better trained. However, smaller also meant they had fewer catapults and without him to negate the enemy catapults, they needed to close with the enemy quickly or get pounded from afar.

He spared a glance to make sure Gawain had gotten his message then turned his attention back to the ship. Like a ship on the sea, most of its guns were focused on two powerful broadsides. Alex flapped hard to get up and above the ship but every time he got near the height of the guns he was forced back down again. The valley they were in was very narrow and he couldn't go around the mountains at this height. He'd purposely picked this area as it would help negate his enemies' numerical superiority but now it was working against him.

He was trapped. The anti-dragon field on one side, mountains on two sides, and an airship on the last. The ship occasionally fired down on his army or down at him, but mostly seemed content to keep him occupied and contained.

"Lets see if you can handle the real me." Alex murmured. With that, he bent his neck, bit down on a strap of leather there, and pulled on the lacing holding the weights on his body. As they fell off, he belatedly hoped that the weights didn't hit anyone from his own army. Then he started flapping all the harder, building up speed as he advanced on the ship. Suddenly, he pulled up – hard. He rocketed through the range of the guns before any of the crews had a chance to touch off their weapons. Too near and too high for the guns to hit any more, Alex leveled out and attacked the airship from the top. Despite the misleading name of 'zeppelins' and 'airships' these ships were not held up by hydrogen or anything else except for magic. Alexander thanked Zandalor for forcing him to learn how to bring one of these things down. With his firebreath, he melted a hole in the fuselage. He took a second to catch his breath and look down at the hole he made.

A sharp pain caught him in the butt. Snarling, he looked back to find several crossbowmen standing there. A few small fireballs scattered them and sent one flying off the ship into the wild blue yonder while the rest dove for cover. Alex turned back to the crystal his hole had uncovered. One large fireball destroyed it.

The ship fell several feet beneath his claws. The captain was doing pretty good just to keep the ship in the air after losing one of his crystals, Alex knew.

He took a moment to see how the battle was going. He saw his lines engaged over the width of the valley. It took him a moment to see where his reserves were. There, on his right flank. Fighting... shit. Fighting what was left of Igthorn's men along with Hasset's men. The traitor.

What to do? The battle was well inside the anti-dragon field and Alex as a human was an incredible warrior, but he couldn't turn back an army. He looked down at the air ship he was on. Then again.

He dug his claws into the metal of the hull and started flapping sideways, aiming the ship for the middle of the battle. Then he started flapping forwards. It took agonizing minutes to get the great ship going at speed, but once going, there was little anyone could do about it. Just outside the field, Alex hopped to the front of the ship and burned another hole above the other crystal before transforming back into a human. A tingle told him they were past the anti-dragon field. He waited until they were well past the battle before he threw a knife at the crystal. With his enhanced strength behind it, the knife shattered the second and last crystal. The ship plummeted out from under him. Alex used his free falling experience to guide his body away from what would soon be the wreckage of the airship.

He got to watch the heavier ship hit before he landed. The explosion of the ship's magazine sent shrapnel everywhere. Several smaller pieces pinged off Alex's armor. He looked around. The battle was nearby but he knew he could make a bigger dent if he went the other way. He found the anti-dragon field generator easily enough. At least they were big enough to be hard to hide. Between his sword and his strength, he quickly tore the machine to pieces. The tingle he'd felt since entering the field disappeared. He jumped up and transformed. Ten flaps and he was over the battle. Traitors first, he thought.

-oOoOo-

After turning Igthorn and Hasset's men into crispy critters, the rest of the armies were very eager to surrender. Alex was only disappointed that he couldn't question Hasset himself, though he was satisfied with the traitor's fate (being burned alive) and the fate of the men who had chosen to betray their oaths to him. He made a point of mentioning the fate of traitors when he'd taken the oaths of the new recruits.

He also found out that General Gawain had been killed personally leading the charge against the traitor Hasset which saddened him. After receiving the after-action reports from all his men, he determined that Gregory, formerly of Farlow's employ, had performed admirably in his first battle under Alexander. He'd noticed the trouble from the other side of the battle and dispatched one of his captains with a reserve line to reinforce that side. That had been a very good call when the nearest two battalions hadn't realized what was going on until it had almost been too late.

Alexander promoted Gregory to General that night in a somewhat subdued ceremony. He also promoted many of his original core to Sergeant or even Lieutenant to take command of newly added units. After that, he no longer really had a core of the men and women from Gawain's castle. All of them were either leading units of their own or deceased. A few were also heading back to Deodatus Castle for a stint of leave and to train the next batch of recruits. Most of the original mercenaries had also either signed up permanently or left one way or another.

After all that, there wouldn't be another army willing to engage his in open warfare in all of Rivellon.

-oOoOo-

A/N: Duke Igthorn's name comes from Gummi Bears. No relation to that character nor do I own.