Early the next morning, Xapferey was staring at the current ragtag army and preparing his spiel; Nethalus, Jebra and Parn were standing nearby, ready to assist him. He sighed quietly before he began dividing his forces into the separate units that was required.

"All right, I want everyone with experience with a bow to go over there, I want a minimum of 750 men over there, everyone who is my height or taller group over there, as for the rest of you, form ranks and I will get to you in a few moments.

"Um, sir, I came here to learn a sword, not how to shoot people," one man with a bow said "it's not very heroic."

'Here we go," Xapferey grumbled mentally "you will, but that's not your primary purpose; your purpose is to support the swordsmen. You will get enough sword training to protect yourselves, but that is secondary." Xapferey paused for a moment before deciding to begin his speech. "If you came here for glory, then go home. You are here to be an army, and that means you are here to fight under my command. My tactics may seem unusual. They may not be considered heroic. But they will bring you victory. You," Xapferey pointed at the man who spoke up originally "what's your name?"

"Jarred sir."

"Jarred, I take it you have a family back home, maybe a sweetheart?" Jarred nodded, slightly perplexed before Xapferey used a spell to amplify his voice. "Most if not all of you have families and those important to you back home. Now tell me, will you fight to protect them?" Scattered murmurs of assent were his answer. "Now tell me; if it came to a choice between a little glory or the lives of your loved ones, which would you pick?!"

"LOVED ONES SIR," His army shouted back.

"You are here to hold back the Marmo, you are here to keep your people safe, and you are here so that your families can enjoy their freedom. Isn't that something worth fighting for, isn't that something worth dying for?" His army cheered, their morale growing with each word. "The Marmo expect us to cower before them. They expect us to break before them. They expect us to be afraid." He smirked humorlessly. "When we're done here, we shall give the Marmo something to fear, we will make them cower at our very presence and we shall show them how war is truly fought!"

After finishing his speech, Xapferey, Nethalus, Parn and Jebra began assigning people to companies and the explaining the simplified ranking scheme; Jebra was appointed Xapferey's second in command with Nethalus as his third. The middle officers would have to be decided later as others within his army began to shine.

Xapferey took charge of the special group of his army. They were equipped with strong padded breastplates with chain shirts protecting the rest of their torso. A pair of vambrances was to be strapped on their forearms to provide decent protection without compromising mobility. For weapons, all were to be given a brace of throwing knives and a short sword. Their primary weapon however was the odachi, a katana the size of a great-sword.

Xapferey began pairing the men up, each pair functioning as a unit within the main group. "Your weapons as you can imagine have greater swinging arcs than a regular longsword, but their reach and the power you can put behind a swing makes up for that. What you must consider is your partner; they will buy you the time you need to return to guard. You must trust each other, to draw upon one and other. You will learn to predict the other's moves and act accordingly. Your power comes from being a team so we must build that trust."

Xapferey began teaching them teamwork exercises to build coordination. For hours they practiced the teamwork exercises before Xapferey switched them to practicing with the swords. One line would swing the swords slowly, then the staggered line behind would step forwards and swing their weapons, before repeating the steps.

The men were ready to drop from everything after several hours, so Xapferey called it early, telling them to get a good night sleep. He warned that he would not be tolerant of hangovers. It still being somewhat early, Xapferey went to find Slayn for help in a runecrafting project.

"Slayn you busy?" Xapferey asked as he knocked on the mage's quarters.

"Not at the moment, what do you need my friend?" he asked after he opened the door, standing aside to welcome Xapferey into the room. Xapferey tossed Slayn a circlet engraved with runes.

"I recognize the runes for communication, but these others I do not."

"Selection, and sending and receiving runes, with your help I can finish this project."

"What sort of aid do you require?"

"I managed to make a system to complete the circlets, and Nethalus, Deedlit and I tested them successfully, well the few I managed to charge myself, but I still have many many more to complete. I'm at a roadblock when it comes to speeding up production in terms of charging the runes," Xapferey explained. Slayn sat at a table near his friend, his brows furrowed in thought.

"Perhaps… perhaps we are thinking too small, is there some way to charge the runes with the magical energies in the leylines?" Slayn asked.

Xapferey stared at him. "Slayn you're a genius. I created a runecrafted tablet of sort which charges a machine from my world by drawing magical energy from the leylines, and we can use such a trick to charge these, we just need a far bigger plate. The one I have at the moment could comfortably charge at best four at a time."

"Then we should begin our acquisition of new plates to prepare our plan to expedite the charging of these circlets."

They quickly acquired two more plates from the blacksmith, and began work immediately. Xapferey had Slayn practice the runes on a small chalkboard while he inscribed them onto the plates. Slayn at this point understood much of the theory behind runecrafting but had not had much of a chance to learn handwritten or scribed Draconic.

Once the inscription process was completed, Xapferey got Slayn to help him charge the runes under Xapferey's guidance; after two hours work of finessing the energy levels, the charging plates activated and began drawing energy.

"It's working," Slayn said with a smile. "Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me Xapferey."

"My pleasure Slayn, now we just need to get these circlets onto the plates and the runes will be charged over time. They'll begin glowing slightly once they've absorbed all they can hold, but shouldn't go past that."

"You should get some rest Xapferey, it's getting late," Slayn said at seeing his friend hide a yawn.

"You know what, you're right, thanks again Slayn." Xapferey smiled gratefully before he left to his room. Exhaustion finally caught up to him, and he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Three days later

With the charging of the runic plates and communication circlets complete, Xapferey brought them to his army and began incorporating them in his Combined Arms Action doctrine. With communications from the swordsmen, the archers were now able to accurately volley arrows close to the front line, normally a high-risk tactic, but with accurate and constant communication, the risk undertaken was far less.

The rank and file were in awe at the ease of communications, and the officers loved it. The Linebreaker forces under Xapferey's direct training were still learning to coordinate with each other, and slowly sword moves were added. The movements comprised of wide and powerful swings, combined with spins, when synchronized with their partners, each member of the Linebreakers would be able to cleave a line, spin behind their partner who would do the same, buying time for the first partner to get back into position and repeating until the whole line were cleaving through the enemy while moving forwards.

Having finished training for another day, Xapferey went for dinner with Deedlit. The High Elf was waiting for him as he arrived, she had a gentle smile but her eyes lit up on seeing him. Xapferey let her sit first before sitting across from her.

"How is training?"

"Well considering I saw you watching several times, you should know," Xapferey said with a teasing smirk.

"I thought I was being unobtrusive."

"Oh you were, I have better eyesight than most."

"How did you create the concept of these Linebreakers?"

"It was several ideas, I borrowed the idea from a… play of sorts called Lord of the Rings, and the doctrine of a division of the Cilarista species, the 447th division: The Linebreakers."

"So you are copying ideas from others then?"

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I am not plagiarizing, that is to say copying without credit granted to the original source."

"Fair enough I suppose, they are impressive now, but when fully trained…"

Deedlit winced at the thought of the Linebreakers slamming into an enemy force. As they ate Deedlit began asking questions of Xapferey's old world.

"So what did you do for a living?"

"I relied on a combination of …" Xapferey paused for a moment to think about how to explain the stock market to the Elf. "Tenancy on properties owned by my family, and …um… commodity exchanges for lack of a better term. My true passion was in trying to understand the mind through the field of psychology. "

"I'm guessing from what you said about advanced technology, but could you see the brain as it was working in a person?"

"Yes and no, yes we could see which sections of the brain were being used, and how much energy were being used by it to an extent. Could we see thoughts? No, at least not yet."

"I see, so you understand how to detect and treat injuries?"

"To an extent, without the technology to see the brain I would have to rely on physical tests and more guesswork than I want to admit to. "

"That's fair I suppose," Deedlit trailed off in companionable silence while they ate. As time went on, Deedlit mulled over what Xapferey had shared with her. The Elf was growing very curious about the types of Dragons that could change their form.

"Xapferey what can I expect when you are a Dragon, what would change? Your brain would change, but you as a person?" She asked.

"I will be able to maintain my old human form as a preferred alternate form. I will be immortal obviously, but I will be growing again."

"Growing?"

"I will only be a juvenile in Dragon terms, not until I reach 1200 years of age will I be finished growing so at times I may act a little immaturely. Hmm, as my wife I will be more… protective and at times possessive of you."

"Possessive? Deedlit said with raised eyebrows.

"What I mean is that when others attempt to gain your romantic attentions or try to harm you I will react rather defensively or even aggressively at times. It's instinctual so I may not always be able to suppress it."

"I see, and which form would you prefer to be in?"

"Whichever depending on my mood or the situation."

"Oh, what about a home? As a Dragon, I know your kind do live in caves… I do love you but that is not what I imagined for a home."

"Something to properly sort out after the war ends my love. But I would craft you a palace for us alone if you wished it of me."

"If your army is successful, I think you will have many who would aid you in that," Deedlit said with a smile.

"True, but all I need is you," Xapferey said truthfully. He knew it sounded a little cheesy but he honestly did not care at the moment.

"I would recommend though that you complete the bloodrite before we return to the Forest, your immortality would make it easier for you to pass through the forest again."

"I can arrange that easily enough," Xapferey said with a smile. The two finished and broke for the night to sleep. Xapferey woke to a knocking on his door; Xapferey opened it to find a guard informing him that King Fahn wished to see him for an emergency council. The news was rather bleak; the northern border of Valis had fallen to Marmo's advance. Prince Jester of Moss promised to aid and reinforce Vails' garrisons and it was recommended that somebody go to see the reclusive sage Wort in Moss

"The journey is a long and perilous one," Fahn was saying.

"I can handle this if you would allow me, my second and third in command can look after my army, and Nethalus has been instructed on what has been required for my forces to keep their training schedule going while I am gone."

"Very well Xapferey, we will await word once you have returned."

Xapferey bowed and departed the room. He returned to bed to rest for a few more hours before he packed what he needed, then sought out his traveling companions. He found Parn, Deedlit, Slayn, Etoh, Wood and Ghim and briefed them on what was required.

"We are pressed for time, so hopefully somebody knows a faster way through?"

"I don't suppose you could magic us a portal with those runes?" Woodchuck asked.

"No, and I have three reasons, one I have never been to Wort's. Can't portal to where I have never been, two I don't know how to make portals, that requires research and three I don't have the time to do research on that… I'm a sorcerer, not a miracle worker."

"We can take the Dwarves old tunnel," Slayn suggested and Ghim grunted his assent.

"I'll take ya through," the Dwarf said and the group went off out of the city journeying towards Moss and Wort.