Heir of the Sword

36 | Daemones

Daemones {demons}

"The scenario is as presented: Your army has less than three hundred men while your opponents have over a thousand. The terrain is the dessert and there are sand dunes everywhere. The enemy has cavalry and weapons you cannot compete with. If there was a possibility of winning this war, how would you do it?" Madame Kenna asked Arya with a composed face.

Arya though over the scenario she had been presented with as best as she could. The tests to be admitted into the army had begun today starting with the test of knowledge. Across the room other knights and high ranking officials were seated with students as they were also being presented with scenarios they needed to navigate through. Arya made sure to go over the scenario once again in her head and she began plotting her plan.

The students had been provided parchments and ink if they wished to draw out the scene in order clarify their points and Arya used that to her advantage. She drew out the terrain before asking Madame Kenna if it was similar to the problem. She merely nodded and let Arya continue what she was doing. Arya drew the troops next and she estimated how the enemy would have placed their warriors.

She didn't know the exact location but in a real battle most of the time one didn't know the true position of their enemies anyway. Once Arya had drawn out what she had envisioned, she was able to gain a better understanding of where the best place would be to attack from.

After mulling over her strategy for a few more moments she spoke. "The smartest thing to do in this instance would be to place archers on the mountain top. It would be much easier to attack from the top and the archers would be able to take down people as well as their horses. The rest of the troops would be placed on the ground with the horses out at front and people filled within the ranks. You would make sure that the horses kicked sand towards the enemy, blinding them but also not allowing them to get a good look at the numbers. This way the archers would also be able to hide from any other people that would attack them. Another strategy that you could imply is making the sand around the hills weak as by pouring water. It would stop the opposing army in their tracks as they would get stuck in the soft sand."

Arya looked up at Madame Kenna to see her reaction to the purposed idea is she was satisfied to see a smile. "I must say Arya, I'm impressed. Your tactics were extremely similar to what I would have done if I were in the situation. You may be good at battling but you're a tactician as well. Nowadays it's rare to have both those qualities in the same person. It will serve you well."

"Thank you Madame," Arya said humbly.

Madame Kenna nodded. "You have passed. Now it's time for the dueling portion which will take place in the southern arena."

Arya got up and as she was about to leave Madame Kenna called her once more. "Do not disappoint me. I have taught you everything that you need to be successful-remember that."

"I will." Arya vowed and she walked across the hallway.

She could see Silvia and Yasmin from the corner of her eye, it seemed as though they will still going through their scenarios. As she was about to exit the hall, her gaze met Aaron's and he gave her a small smile.

Arya returned it.

Things between her and Aaron were calm and sometimes it just helped Arya knowing that she had someone she could lean on. Arya cupped her hands over her eyes as she made her way out of the manor.

There were knights training on the manor grounds and Arya made sure to avoid them as much as possible. Most of the knights had not been welcoming of the academy students and Arya had a hunch she knew why. These knights had trained much longer and harder than the academy students and they had been allowed to join the armed forces only after taking various difficult test. On the other hand the students only had to pass three test and they were automatically in the armed forces. It was simple. They didn't like the fact that the students who were much younger than them were being treated as equals.