A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1740 - 1740: An Iron Curtain - Part 10

"You're a General aren't you, boy?" Blackthorn said impatiently. "Move someone else to take command there. Sort it out. The walls are yours. Use the systems of communication I already have in place. If you can't do this much, then what sort of use is that decorative title of yours? Colonel Reid, assist him."

"Very well, my Lord," Reid said, saluting.

With that, Blackthorn was gone, grimacing his way down those steps from the effect of the damage that King Germanicus had seen done to his ribs.

There were hardly a few moments for Oliver to drink in the position that he was in. Already warnings were being shouted about impending dangers from around the fort.

"WE'RE LOSING GROUND ON THE NORTH SIDE!" Came the shout of a messenger, running over. There was a look of mild confusion on his face when he saw Oliver standing there in place of his own General, but he didn't let that deter him from delivering his message.

"Do we have requests for reinforcements?" Colonel Reid asked. "Which Commanders?"

"Colonel Germe and Colonel Teel both request the same thing. A further twenty men to plug the gaps that are being overridden," the messenger reported.

"And where ought we to take them from?" Colonel Reid asked, directing the question towards Oliver.

Oliver looked at him blankly. All around, the walls were in chaos. Catapult fire hit them continuously, and because their defenders no longer had the opportunities to put archers on the edge of the wall themselves, Tavar had sent his own archers marching forward in their place, peppering the back line steadily with arrows, whilst managing to avoid – for the most part – the landing grounds that his ladder-bearing men were seeking to establish.

It wasn't at all a good position to be in. When it was just him, and his group, fending off against the masses, it was one thing. He very well made sure that what stood in front of them was sorted. That they wouldn't be pushed any further back than they currently had been – or that they could make sure their section was permanently free of ladders so that they might help the men next to them.

Naturally he'd had his own few groups that he'd had to keep an eye on, with his own set of messengers to tell him of how they were getting on, but they were hardly two walls in total which he had to control, and even then, it was only lightly, as a subordinate General. It was General Blackthorn who truly decided when and how they were reinforced, according to his grand overall strategy and his feel for the field.

Now it was Oliver forced to make the moves on that strategy board, and take a feel for the field in his place.

"General Patrick?" Reid asked again, wearing just a small part of the impatience that General Blackthorn had shown Oliver.

Oliver shook his head. "What of the state of the Commanders to either side of those that have asked for assistance?"

The messenger thought on it, and he looked over to check for himself. "I think they're surviving, General…" He said.

"Evenly?" Oliver pressed.

"Perhaps evenly?" The messenger said.

It was too little information for Oliver to go on. He wanted to make a move and see that problem crushed, but another messenger was already rushing towards him.

"REINFORCEMENTS REQUESTED ON THE EASTERN WALL! COLONEL NORTH AND CAPTAIN LORDRY! CAPTAIN LAWDRY REQUESTS FIFTY MEN, AND TWENTY COMES AS THE REQUEST FROM COLONEL NORTH!"

"Fifty men? Just what sort of dire state are they in over there?" Oliver asked in alarm. He looked towards the eastern wall, and indeed when really concentrating, he thought he could hear the sounds of cheering going on – and it didn't seem likely to be cheering of the allied sort.

There was some sort of fire beginning to be built over there, and already it was burning at Oliver's feet, freshly put in command as he was. He hardly knew the steps that had brought them to this point, so concentrated had he been on his own area of fighting. It was like one of those Battle board positions that Volguard used to show him, where he'd have to continue from another man's game and attempt to understand the value that same man had seen in building the position that he'd snatched.

About the only thing that Oliver had a strong knowledge of was that group that he himself had fought alongside, and when he glanced to check in on them, he saw that they were holding to the same magnificent effort. Continually, they repelled the efforts of men to reach them, and beyond that, they were even assisting the groups to either side of them, digging into the flanks of the enemy.

The radius of their effect was extraordinary for a group that lacked even one fully fledged Commander, on account of the fact that Oliver had once been there. Oliver gritted his teeth, and ran his fingers frustratedly through his hair.

"I'm sorry Colonel Reid, I have no idea how to operate as Blackthorn does," Oliver said.

"This is your position, General Patrick," Reid said. "You can not abdicate responsibility when the troops are in need of you."

"I do not intend to. However, I can not fight the same way that your General does. I cannot be in all of these places at once," Oliver said. "I want to take messages, and see the structure of command changed according to it."

Reid looked hesitant, but given the orders that he had already received, he was forced to nod. "Send word to Verdant. Place him in the centre of the eastern wall. Have him rearrange the men as needed there to repair their weaknesses. For the northern wall, see Commander Jorah found, and Commander Firyr," Oliver said.

"…Very well," Reid said, performing his duty, and relaying those orders to the appropriate messengers, though he didn't seem particularly excited about it. Once it was done, he turned to Oliver once more. "Those Colonels and Captains did request reinforcements for a reason, however. I fail to see how it is that the mere moving of your own men will result in the solving of those problems."