Operation Witless part1

I crept silently through the brush gripping the haft of my halberd. This was rather a dangerous thing to be doing. Behind me creeping along the path I created was about a hundred or so souls, half of the militias of Hadran and Einhov as well as their lords were creeping through the brush.

Not the most aspiring image a lord wished to create but at the moment one that needed to be done, even if we wished we did not have to resort to such tactics. I wore leather armor that had been fitted to me.

I was careful about how I was carrying my halberd, as it often was caught on low hanging branches or bushes. It truly was an irritating thing to have to manage, however, Tyran was the only one who did not have a similar problem to me as he carried a sword. Almost everyone else was carrying a spear. There were about a dozen among the hundred of us that were wielding hunting bows.

"Gods," I cursed as my halberd once again caught on a branch. I strained my eyes to see if we had yet to happen across the rumored camp of bandits in the area. I paused as I yanked my halberd from the branch, an odd flash of color had caught my attention.

"You saw them as well?" Tyran asked quietly.

I nodded. Tryan turned and raised his hand, he made a few odd gestures before turning back around. "Einhov's men will deal with this camp, give us a hand if they have reinforcements nearby." With that, they started walking ahead.

Not continuing a quiet stalk that had allowed us to get so close undetected, instead, they began to form into a field formation. Tyran took the place of an officer at the right of the formation. It was quite odd to see just how quickly they had turned from a militia to a disciplined force.

This, of course, was where a fair portion of Hadran's budget had gone, into raising a militia for Einhov, however it appeared that Tyran had done something I hadn't quite anticipated. There was only so much that could be done with a few hundred denars, but it appeared he had made the most of it.

Oddly, they had still yet to be noticed, but Tyran raised his sword above his head and gave an impressive battle cry that was quickly taken up by the rest of his men. They suddenly rushed at the few bandits who were caught completely unaware.

Some put up a fight but they were quickly overtaken and dispatched. I gestured for my own men to follow Einhov's, but alas. There had been no need. We arrived at the small campsite in time to see the last of the bandits being speared.

Of course, the nest part of the operation then came into effect. The bodies were stripped of anything useful. Whatever armor they had been wearing was taken and distributed around, the same went for their weapons. The camp was then plundered of anything of value.

Pots, pans, tents, and whatever denars had been laying around. I walked over to Tyran who was inspecting a sword he'd taken off one of the bandits.

He offered me the hilt. "It should be about the right size."

The blade was perhaps a foot and a half long. I looked at it distastefully. "I'm unsure of my abilities to use such a tool." For that blade was not something that one could use in a dance, it was quite clear it was meant to hack at sinew and bone.

"Eventually there will be a time when you won't be able to use that halberd and you'll find yourself wishing for a blade," Tyran said insistently. "Trust me on this at least, I know from experience. I used to prefer greatswords. But that wasn't exactly suited to every situation I found myself in."

I begrudgingly took the blade and scabbard, placing it on my belt on the left side. At least he seemed somewhat placated, that simply means he won't be bothering me about this for a while. Thank the gods. I did not need such a pointless activity thrust upon me. The halberd suited me fine. It may not be the most subtle of weapons, but it was what I was most comfortable with, and it served as a reminder of my family.

After finishing gathering what the bandit camp had to offer we moved once more, although with the sun beginning to grow long in the sky, we decided to find a place to set up camp. It did not take as long as it had in the past few days, and that came as a welcome surprise.

The combined forces of Hadran and Einhov set up camp atop a small hillock, its northern slope gave way to a deep ravine, and to the west was a swiftly running stream. This was not the first camp we'd set up, after all the bandits we'd wiped out today had been the seventh camp we'd come across, about a half dozen bandits squatting in the wilderness, growing fat off of the hard work of villages like our own. That was why we had combined our militias, to drive out or slaughter the scum that tried to bring society down to their level.

Of course, we did not just leave our camp and supplies, and an additional ten men from each of our villages guarded our supplies. Bringing our combined forces up to a hundred twenty militia soldiers. it was not a wholly incomparable force. Einhov could not field much more manpower at the moment, perhaps another dozen, but even with Hadran's financial support, they couldn't really afford as many as they could support, as it was more than their budget could handle as well.

Tents were set up all across the hillock. Most were shared between three and five soldiers, however upon a great deal many people's insistence, mostly aunt Kathy's, I had one to myself. Propriety be damned, it was downright wasteful to not use all the space we had available.