The journey to find Medusa might have been greatly delayed, because of unexpected happenstances, but the progress across the coastline was being made, with each step taken. And while on the march, it was possible to teach my new trainees basic mathematical principles, which they would require to use magic. If they had the ability to do so, that is. Either way, knowing math would be useful for them. In the worst case, they could use, what I thought them, to improve their spear-throwing trajectory. The ballistic curve was nothing but math.
Not to mention their improvement with weapons handling and reflexes, while the initial improvement was clearly disappointing, once they were motivated, by the promise of learning magic, they improved at a rapid pace. While I would not call them masters of their craft, observing that mostly through the eyes of amateur, when it came to spear-based combat. But even I was able to tell the stark difference between how they handled themselves the first day and how they were now, almost a week later.
The combined method of carrot and stick was more than successful, with this batch of trainees. And I could not wait to see the results in a few months when they would finally have the necessary mathematical and formulaic knowledge to test which of them was a mage. While the odds were incredibly low that any of them would be a mage. The knowledge they obtained would be useful in order to train the next generation. This way, should their disciples be also loyal to me, as these women were, I would sooner or later be able to build a whole mage battalion. The longevity of a monster, was certainly to my advantage, in that regard.
Though those were very long-term plans. Currently, the only thing I could do, was to train them with their weapons and give them some mock combat experiences, unless we encountered some unlawful militants, also know as bandis, and enact some live target practice on them. Such individuals forfeited their human rights by voluntarily breaking the social contract, which happened to also be laws, in most civilized places.
While I did not want to encounter another obstacle on the way, and a completely uneventful journey would be preferable, I could see the eagerness in the eyes of my trainees. For now, it could be doused with slightly harsher training or faster marching, but these daughters of pirates seem to be at least partially battle maniacs. Which would eventually get annoying. That was why, it was necessary to drill obedience into them. I had no need for some self-proclaimed heroes, who would not listen to my orders. After all, there were no pillboxes to send them into, at least there would not be for several more centuries.
After a short recapitulation of the day's knowledge, I granted them, the camp was prepared shortly. While the selected group performed exercises with their weapons. Then the same group went to procure fresh water, from the nearby river. It was another peaceful day, all days should be like this one. Bare of human stupidity and Being X's unreasonability.
We were about to retire for the day when the sounds of running thunder echoed from the nearby forest. The sounds were distant, for now. But they were approaching at a rapid pace. And I highly doubted that they would, just go away.
"Attention! Get ready for enemy attack!" I shouted to the trainees, they better scramble fast, with how swiftly were the noises getting louder.
The new meatshields made me proud, by their quick reaction time and how well they organized themselves. They got into defensive stances, facing the sounds. While the thunderous noises moved to our left flank. The first visuals appeared in the darkness of the night forest. By the look of it, the presumed enemy would be on us within a few short moments, as they were approaching with haste. The shimmering orange lights getting ever so bigger.
With how, the enemy, was the fast closing distance between our groups, it was clear that they had no intention of stopping. Thus declared their intention to attack my trainees. By the incoming sounds, it was clear that we were dealing with some horse riders. In other words, our enemy was approaching us with a cavalry charge. Such a tactic would be laughable in the modern day of industrial warfare. Few artillery shots or machine guns would make a short work of the horses and the riders. Alas in these ancient times, I had no such luxury.
But that did not mean, that a superior tactic could not be used. While riding seemed to be unprecedented in the time of ancient Greece, it was well known to me. The defense against it was taught in the officer's course during my second life as a child magic soldier, as a historical example. As sad as it was, I never got to use it, not even against the Dacian army. And from the reports, when Francios tried to use it, one time, they were moved down by machine guns. But now, I shouted orders to form a pike wall in the direction of the incoming enemy. Sadly as the concept was new to my trainees, I had to shout detailed orders. Within a few seconds, a meatshield wall with spikes was between me and the riders. Right in time for the encounter.
"Brace for impact!" I shouted while preparing optical formulae.
In this world, I could never be too careful, since monsters were real as I learned. It was better to risk revealing some of my magical powers than being unprepared and potentially mortally endangered.
At that very moment, the horse riders were upon us. But rather than them being people riding horses with torches in their hands, as I expected. There were only horses with hot orange glowing chests and necks. This revealed their monstrous nature and I cursed Being X, for throwing another obscenity my way.
But whether they were monsters or not, did not matter anymore! With their speed, the monstrous horses in the front, impaled themselves on the spike wall, dying instantly. At the same time, I could hear several of my trainees shouting in pain. The impact must have been greater than expected, but broken bones could heal later! Moreover, now was not the time to take care of it. The glowing horses that did not impale themselves, or broke their necks or limbs, when they toppled over, started to get up.
"Scatter! Attack them from the sides!" I commanded new orders, as the pike wall would no longer work.
Now it was time for melee and the glint in the eyes of some of my new trainees confirmed my theory of them being battle maniacs. And what sort of leader I would be if I did not lead by example? I could not give the monstrous horses any chance to reorganize themselves, if they were even capable of such task, and shot several optical formulae into their ranks. But that proved to be a mistake. A great mistake.
When the optical formula beam hit one of the horses' glowing chest, it exploded in a fiery inferno, spilling, what could be described only as napalm, everywhere. While it was good that it managed to ignite several of its comrades. The flaming liquid also set aflame several of my trainees. And the worst of all, it enraged the remaining monsters in the form of horses. If they ever had any kind of self-preservation instinct it was gone for now.
They kicked, and crushed, tore flesh to pieces from living and dead alike. Moreover, they breathed fire like a flamethrower. A scene of carnage, right out of trenches was painted in front of me in vivid colors and smell of burned meat. The only thing that was missing was the thunderous sound of artillery and machine guns, although the monstrous horses' hoofs created a symphonic cacophony of a re-creation.
I reached for my rifle, only to find none. This reminded me that this was indeed not the modern world, which in retrospect was more sane even at its most insane of moments, than the current horror scene happening in front of me. But I could not be shell-shocked now. With no rifle in my hands, my only other options were optical formulae or the spear. And, optical formulae proved to be way too effective. So much in fact, that it caused the friendly fire.
Since my trainees were doing a great job at dismantling the monsters, limb by limb or bisecting them, I had no other choice but to join the fray. Spear splashing, and my spiderly limbs piercing, the enemy numbers began to dwindle. Until finally some of the monsters proved to have a brain in their skulls and decided to turn away. Yes, there was no point in dying needlessly. Every commander worth their name, except commies, knew that losing a significant portion of your forces meant defeat. I knew that and so apparently the monster horses knew.
But even if the enemy was retreating, it did not stop me from firing several more optical formulae at them, it caused more damage thanks to the explosions caused by the well-placed shots to the glowing chests of the horses. How lucky that there were no laws of war yet, because of that, no war crimes could be committed, or more specifically, persecuted.
Yet, being vindictive against the retreating enemy did not help the situation at all. I didn't even need to look, to know, that several of my new trainees were dead, and several more probably maimed for life. What a monstrous waste of human resources!
"Damn you Being X!" I cursed.
Cursing as I wanted, would not solve the situation at hand. While I doubted I could revive the dead, or regrow the limbs of the maimed as there was no golden blood from god-pretender Athena available. I had to at least organize help for the injured.
If anything was good in this situation, it was the fact that most of the injuries sustained were rather light. Those could be looked after later. Dead trainees seemed to die quickly, although painfully if the burned-to-crisp corpses were anything to go by.
The losses were terrible, at minimum thirty percent of my trainees were lost, dead or crippled. If I was still in the Empire of my second life and lost so many of the trainees, I would have been put in front of a firing squad, and executed instantly.
"Sitrep!" I shouted at them, hoping that someone designated as a leader of their group would respond.
But the trainees were looking at me as if I was a dumb idiot. This made me realize, that I was a dumb idiot. Instead of asking them in a language they could understand, I used a shorthand from my previous life. My trainees could not understand it. The centuries of relative laziness must have made my brain go soft. The recreation of a scene right out of the Great War did not help either. An oversight I should not repeat.
"Situation report! What is the situation? Who is hurt, who is unhurt, who needs a medi.. healing?" I said in a loud voice, catching myself the last second before repeating my mistake.
"Lady Arachne, she is bleeding a lot," said one of my trainees, turning my attention towards the woman she was holding.
That woman's blood was regularly pouring out of her wound. Arterial bleeding, without strangulation she would die quickly, with it slowly, as I had no method of fixing this exact issue. She would need a blood coagulation on my silvery blood level to stop the bleeding. It would be better to end her suffering fast...
But didn't the women say, that they were revived by god-pretender Athena's blood? Which was gold in color. Unnatural, just like mine? And my blood seemed to coagulate fast. Should my blood work on other organisms, the same way it worked on me, it could save one of my trainee's life. Should it not she, would die anyway. This way, I could at least learn something about the unnatural substance coursing through my veins.
Cutting part of my skin open, as I had no intention to compromise my lower body half's exoskeleton. I half expected for red blood to pour out, that the silvery blood would be only in my lower spider half. Which would mean that I would have to cut myself again. Alas, out of open skin, a silvery viscous substance poured out on the open wounds of my trainee.
With a morbid fascination, I watched as the silvery substance spread itself along the wound. As the arterial bleeding subsided and then stopped, only the thin scar remained on now healed skin.
This was a great discovery! It was a very fortunate and very unlikely discovery, but this way, I was able to save a great amount of my human resources. Grimly observing many of the various wounds healing. Unfortunately, my silvery blood did not work on the dead, like Athena's golden substance, neither it could regrow missing limbs, just close and heal the wounds.
Still better than nothing. Thanks to this, I did not have to lose many of my trainees to festering wounds, as all the living were now healed. With that I ordered an immediate retreat, staying in this place was dangerous, should the horse monsters return. The dead got spectacular burial in the form of high-yield optical formulae, that evaporated them from existence.