Ichor

General (Part II)

Year 11 - General
Planet Primae

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Running for Commander was very hard. The paperwork was endless. The pressure to be perfect all the time was unrelenting. The limitless list of things to do was... well, limitless. It'd been a month and Percy hadn't even had time to think about the acts to demonstrate wisdom, temperance/moderation, bravery, justice, and piety.

He figured he'd make some wise judgment call over the year that could count. He was joining in on a mission with the Iota (I) Division, so he would try to do something brave there. In the tenth month of the year, he was in charge of the administration of punishments for or the pardoning of certain crimes, so he was sure to do an act of justice then. But the other two were trickier. Temperance/moderation was linked to restraint, and while Percy could hold back, he wasn't sure what meaningful act of restraint would qualify towards being Commander. And then there was piety—the quality of being religious or reverent. Yeah, he was not very respectful to higher beings, so that would be a difficult act to perform.

But he had made headway in defeating the higher-ranking soldiers in combat. So far he'd beaten every colonel. Not to be too boastful, but most didn't last long. Percy figured if he dedicated each day to beating one rank of one division, he'd be done with that part in a quarter of a year.

After some deliberation, he also decided to be trained by the Ω Division. Percy thought it would be beneficial to be able to aid people when they got injured. If he was to command the Ω Division, he ought to know how to best use them and that meant understanding what they do. It was similar to knowing all about different sword maneuvers so you know when to implement each.

Plus, he believed it wouldn't be right for someone ignorant in healing to lead a group of healers. So they agreed to teach him what they thought most useful from first aid to battlefield trauma surgery. Of course, his tutorage would last longer than a year, but Percy insisted on starting sooner than later.

The basics were easy to pick up because he'd learned most of it at camp. Learning the more technical things about the human body was harder, but his powers helped in an unexpected way. Sure, he could control blood which would help in most situations, but it also enhanced his understanding of the body. He could sense which blood vessels went where and such, so identifying them became second nature after some studying.

The actual surgical technique and diagnosis stuff proved much harder. That took long nights of studying and sometimes he snuck off into a pocket dimension that suspended time so he could study it all. Furthermore, he found out he had a steady hand and was able to work under pressure off of the battlefield too. It was honestly a relief to Percy that he could be good at saving lives instead of just taking them. True, he saved lives by fighting for those who couldn't protect themselves, but he also wanted to save lives without threatening others.

Unbeknownst to him—until Chaos informed him, at least—that was his act of wisdom. The choice to learn all the skills people under his command had—except archery because he was still terrible at that—was a wise one. The combat and strategy he had down, but learning how to heal was the final piece to represent everyone soon to be under his command.

Percy's act of temperance also came about in an unexpected way. Unexpected to him, that is. His simple refusal to engage with seemingly hostile rebels fit the bill. His majors were calling for a head-on assault before the rebels attacked first. But Percy disagreed. He noticed that the rebels only ever attacked warehouses and that the governments that called for their aid only complained about the stolen property, not the damage done or those who perished protecting the goods they claimed to have lost.