Here we go.

Cover: GWBrex

Chapter 68

"Ships are gathering north of Vale."

That was the news delivered by one of Sienna's scout vessels, sleek ships that could roam far and move quickly, tasked with keeping an eye out for any signs that Salem was preparing her navy. Jaune had feared, for a moment, that she wouldn't take the bait, but of course she'd gather it away from the east coast where he'd been sighted. She didn't want to scare him away or give him the chance to set fire to the ships. Everything was going to plan, but that wasn't any reason to let their guard down. Salem still had all the advantages, and they were one pitched battle away from being annihilated.

"Is there any sign of Chosen being sent to Mistral?"

"None, ma'am," said the faunus who brought the report. "We've had more ships stationed on the west coast to see if any forces were slipped across. There's been no movement. Looks like they want to do this in one big push."

"Looks like it," agreed Sienna, looking Jaune's way. "That fits with our assumptions about her ego. The question now is whether her arrogance is founded or not."

Jaune tapped his fingers on Sienna's wooden table. It was attached to the floor of her cabin. "How long would it take to muster a full army?"

"You're asking the wrong person. No one here has had to deal with the kind of logistics the church has. You're calling levies from every town and village across two remaining kingdoms. Weeks at least, but quite possibly months. But I don't think she can afford to wait that long."

Neither did he. If Salem thought him insane enough to leave Menagerie, then she needed to strike quick and corner him before he regained his sanity and went back to the island fortress. That meant she'd move as soon as she felt she had enough men, and not when they all arrived. Extras could be told to trickle in or muster somewhere else as reinforcements. It'd mean two armies effectively, but the first would be the most elite since her most trained soldiers would have already been at Vale. The second would consist of trained peasant levy and a smattering of woodsmen and animal hunters from across the realm. It was doubtful they'd save any Chosen for the second army when she could better seek to overwhelm them with aura and magic now.

If we can somehow beat the first army then she'll be in complete disarray…

Though she'd still have the Grimm, and no reason not to use them. Jaune grimaced and amended his mental notes. Salem had three armies. At least the third couldn't justifiably be used to reinforce the first or second, but it was perhaps just as dangerous as one made up of elite soldiers and Chosen.

"You see now why victory has eluded me over the millennia," said Ozma. "Were it one army, I might have won eons ago, but she ever has more waiting in the wings. Some human, some monsters, and then there is Salem herself. Do not think her a helpless being relying on those beneath her. She is the most powerful being in this world."

He shouldn't accept any one-on-one combat, then.

"Certainly not. I can provide you knowledge and wisdom, but she has tens of thousands of years of experience with magic, and her physical form is close to immortal. You cannot win such a fight. The only real solution is to cast her out, force her from the lands, and turn the people against her."

Sienna spoke up over Ozma's voice. "Good work. Swap duties with another crew and have them take your place. We need to know when they set sail. There's not much point us attacking them until then."

"Yes, ma'am." The faunus departed.

"We're attacking them, are we?" asked Jaune.

"Wasn't that always the plan? You have a better idea?"

"No." He held up his hands in surrender. "And you know more about matters of naval combat than I ever could. I'm just curious how this is a good idea when they outnumber us. I trust you have a reason, though."

Sienna relaxed a little, content to know he wasn't challenging her. He really was simply curious. He'd thought their best bets were to let Salem's army land, then embark and outrun them, and keep them chasing. He hadn't thought they'd have a chance on the open water.

"Battles on the water are nothing like on land," she explained. "Numbers mean less due to the difficulty in traversing the water, making equipment and formations the dominant traits. On land, if you lure the enemy into a trap, they can quickly react to send cavalry to free them up, or they can retreat rapidly, and some will get away. Other forces can also crash into your own as you spring the trap, taking advantage of the chaos. That exists on the open water as well, but everything is much slower and more deliberate."

Sienna placed a dagger on the table. "Imagine this is a ship who has just seen its ally being drawn into an ambush. It can't just turn and sprint over to help. It must manoeuvre into a position." She tilted it slightly. "But even that's not as simple as placing one foot back and turning. The captain has to shout for the sails to be adjusted. That takes time. The rudder then has to turn, the crew has to act, and a ship can only move as quickly as the wind, or any oars, let it." She slowly prodded the knife across the table, tilting it in a turn as it went. "From noticing a friend in danger to reacting and moving to assist them, it can take anywhere from five to ten minutes depending on the conditions and how far away they are. Time aplenty to be done with it."

"I see." Jaune scratched his chin. "So, plans laid in advance matter a lot more in naval battles than they do in normal ones?"

"Exactly. Battle plans are important in every kind of battle, obviously, but they're much more prone to going wrong on land. That's why sub-generals need to be capable of adapting and reacting. It also helps that numbers aren't as immediately useful. Ships take up space, and you can't slip a pike over an ally's shoulder. When the lines meet, there's suddenly no room for all the ships behind. They can fire arrows or use siege equipment if they don't care about the risk to their friends, but the only other option is to either sail all the way around – which takes a lot of time – or slide up to your own allies, board them, and use their ship as a bridge to reach the enemy. Both can work, but the conditions of the water again determine how long it'll take."

"Not that we want to let boarding happen with the huntresses on their side, I assume?"

"Not if we can help it, but our focus will be on doing a lot of damage to as many ships as possible without sinking too many. Force them to waste time hauling ships, repairing them, or getting people off them onto others. Anything to keep them on the water longer so their supplies can start running out before they even land on Mistral."

Sienna was all smiles now as she picked up her knife and slid it back into the sheathe. "The larger an army gets, the more complicated its supply lines become – and if those lines are coming from Vale, then we'll make sure they never reach Mistral. That huge army will be stuck on land doing its best to survive off foraging and hunting."

"While we eat the supplies Vale sends to feed them that we intercept," finished Jaune. "We become pirates. But we'll need to keep them busy on Mistral as well or they'll just try and evacuate the island, and brute force their way back home."

"That'll be your job. I'm most comfortable on the water. You have in your head someone with thousands of years' experience in land battles." Sienna frowned. "Though try to make sure it doesn't end the way those always did. I'll be leaving a lot of good faunus under your command, and I expect you to do well by them."

"No pressure, then. What's the work in the meanwhile?"

"Supplies. Both obtaining them and destroying any that the church's forces would be able to gather when they land." Sienna tapped the map. "That'll obviously be on the western coast – they'll have to land soon after we hit them. Somewhere around here. If you want something to do, then take some of your people and make sure the church will find nothing of value when they wash up ashore."

/-/

It was strange to ride through Mistral again. The country had been quiet before, the roads unused thanks to Winter Schnee's laws that no one could travel without permission, but now those same roads connected to silent villages and hamlets. Homes stood abandoned, sometimes burned down and sometimes pristine.

Jaune rode at the head of a small column consisting mostly of wagons pulled by horses. Most of those were empty, a few having been laden with food and dispatched back already. Most of the food in the houses was rotten, but they'd come across animals left in large pastures who hadn't yet died, and fields of crops that were still growing.

"It's strange to see the fields looking like they're still being tended," said Ruby, riding beside him.

Jaune hummed. "It's easy to forget Mistral fell only a few months ago. There hasn't been a winter since, so the crops are still growing."

"Should we stop and harvest these?"

"No." It was Nora who answered. She'd come, without Ren, to act as a guide for them. Jaune could vaguely remember some parts of the country, but this had been her homeland. "It's better we take from the coast first, where they'll land. We can always come back for these later."

"Makes sense. Don't the coastal places fish, though?"

"A bit of both. Even those places would have small farms. You have to remember that the Schnee didn't let us trade with one another. If a village only had fish, then that's all they'd be able to eat."

A few wild deer grazed in the meadows on the sides of the roads, and they would make for food for the oncoming army. There was little chance they could shoo them all away and killing them all wasn't going to work either. The best they could hope for was that, with the fields burned, the deer would move elsewhere in search of fresh grass.

Another hour of travel passed with no human life observed on the land. In the distance, past the shoreline, the sails of ships belonging to their own fleet could just about be made out. Those were on their way to Vale, or patrolling the waters between Vale and Mistral, and would be their own first indication something was wrong. Not that he expected Salem could move yet, given the vast amount of people she had to organise.

The fishing village they stopped at turned out to be more familiar than he expected – it was the very one he'd first landed on the island at, and the place was still in one piece. There was no one there, of course, which meant they'd have been among the majority forced to the city by Willow, and then massacred by the Grimm afterwards. Jaune tugged on his horse's reins and stopped it just outside, on the dirty road with the wagons.

"Ruby, Nora, and I will check the village. The rest of you harvest what crops you can onto the wagons and then set the rest alight. We don't want anything remaining for the church to eat."

The various faunus sounded their assent and climbed off their mounts. It would be hard work, akin to a harvest of their own, but fortunately the villagers had left behind much of the equipment. Scythes and bags lay stacked by an outdoor barn with the doors wide open, and wooden barrels ready for the eventual harvest were in there as well. The faunus were quick to roll those out and park them by the wagons, then take the other tools and get to work.

"Destroy any nets and fishing equipment you see," said Nora, nodding to him and Ruby as they walked between the houses. "And I mean, destroy it. Cutting some nets won't matter if they can weave them back together. Burn them."

"Should we burn the houses down as well?" asked Ruby.

"No. Let them waste time thinking they'll find something useful and searching all the homes." There was a vicious tint to Nora's words, as if she was enjoying the thought of those hungry people struggling through here. "I want them to know how it felt for those who had to live here under the magnanimous church's rule. Let them experience the same hunger we did."

Was he supposed to say something? Ruby looked like she wanted to, but neither of them knew what, and they had a job to do regardless. Jaune moved into the first house and looked around it. Almost everything had been left behind, and yet it was obvious someone else had gotten here before them. Raven's tribe, or maybe other scavengers, or even survivors of Mistral looting before fleeing. Belongings were all across the ground, and wooden chests, barrels and boxes had been smashed open. Valuables had been taken, including clothing and fabrics, but there were still some usable things left behind.

For one, a large net that someone had been halfway through repairing lay draped across a table, with needle and thread nearby. It could be used to catch fish with a little patching up. Apologising silently to the ones who once owned it, he picked the edge of the net up and trickled aura into it, slowly burning the thing away. The flames dared to lick at the table, but he snuffed those out before they could take hold.

He moved onto another as Ruby came out of hers, and Nora soon after carrying some rods and twine in her hand that she tossed into a pile to be burned later. The village wasn't that large, there being maybe ten homes in total, but they had once caught enough fish to be shipped back to larger towns and even the city itself, so there was a lot of potential here that they couldn't let fall into enemy hands.

Already, a field of corn was burning wildly away, the noise of it almost deafening with constant popping and crackling. It was just the one for now, so the faunus must have decided to harvest from the others. The fire was spreading however, though Jaune doubted it would reach the nearby forests.

"Sir!" called a faunus, approaching at a jog. "We wanted to know if we should poison the water source as well. Marrick thinks if we tossed a few animal carcasses down there, it'd soon make anyone who drinks from it sorry."

Burning the crops, poisoning the wells… They were feeling more and more like the bad guys here, though it didn't much matter since Salem had slaughtered the population of Mistral en masse for daring to rebel against her.

"Do it."

The faunus, a young boy his own age if any older, laughed and ran back to the wagons. They were almost cheerful about all this. He wasn't sure why.

"Every action taken now reinforces the idea in their head that we aren't planning to throw their lives away," said Ozma. "They fear open battle and are relieved that dishonourable – but safe – tactics like this are being used instead. It doesn't harm us any and it keeps them in good spirits. Let them be."

"Morale is something I don't much understand," mumbled Jaune. "Any other tips?"

"Do not be discouraged by threats, battle cries, screaming or displays of incredible aggression and violence before a battle. People psyche themselves up because it is hard to kill another person. But if you can convince yourself that they are evil, then it becomes easier for a while. Sometimes just shouting at the enemy and hearing the shouts of all your allies around you is enough to calm your nerves."

It made sense. In a way, he found it just as calming to listen to Ozma speak in his head, to be a reminder that he wasn't alone. He supposed that was what everyone needed in a battle as well – the surety that they weren't alone in it, and that someone, or many someones, had their back. Jaune wondered how frightening it would be to exist on the edge of a battle formation, and to know that while everyone else had someone on both sides, you were completely open. It'd be easier to break and run, too. That would be a constant temptation.

"Jaune!" Ruby poked her head into the house he was searching through. "We have a problem."

"Damn it. What's wrong?"

"Well, it's not us per se. It's the ships – they're in a fight with someone. Or something."

Had Salem launched her armada already? No. If she had then the patrol ships certainly wouldn't have engaged them. Rushing outside, he quickly found the faunus, along with Nora, looking out to sea. There, it wasn't hard to make out the two very different-looking ships sailing side-on-side beside one another. It was too far to see the arrows being fired, but the brief tongues of orange suggested magic was being hurled from the faunus ship.

It was just the one. One on one combat.

"Do you think they're patrolling the waters as well as us?" asked Nora. "It'd make sense, wouldn't it? They don't want to sail into an ambush."

"I don't think they'd want to engage if they were just scouting, though," said Ruby. There were several more flashes of light, this time going both ways. "And I don't think they'd risk Chosen on a scout vessel. But it's still just the one ship. What are they doing?"

"It's a vanguard," said Jaune. Or, rather, he repeated what Ozma whispered.

"What?" Nora turned to him. "But you and Sienna both said they wouldn't send anyone ahead. You said they'd wait until they could muster the full army!"

"We said that because it's what would have made the most sense. We didn't think she would be stupid enough to dilute her forces like that." He cursed under his breath. "We should have expected her arrogance would extend this far. We have to retreat. That ship could be full of Chosen. We'll need more people if we want to take them out."

"Forget the crops!" shouted Nora. "Burn the fields – take what we've already got and go!"

Their own vessel had realised its mistake as well now that magic was being thrown freely. It was pulling away, and, thankfully, the church ship didn't bother to follow. It headed toward land – not their stretch of it, but further up the coast. Close enough that they couldn't afford to be there when it landed. He could take a few Chosen on but there could have been a hundred on there. It was time to leave.

Sienna had to be told.

Next Chapter: 9th July

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