Inyis looked back to the Black Widow Matriarch who was still feeling the effects of being paralyzed from the combination of Lightning magic from Marco and Roman as well as the Magnetic Shockwave Liam had thrown at it.
This gave the defenders and the melee attackers a brief moment to replenish their stamina and any health or mana they had used up.
“Marco, get back in there as quickly as you can. Attackers, after Marco gets settled back into a rhythm, continue attacking. Avery and Roman do not use your magical abilities. Save as much mana as you can for the later fights,” Inyis ordered. “Liam’s team, call out for heals when you get too low.”
Inyis’ attackers yelled out a confirming shout while Liam’s remaining team nodded while staring at the Black Widow Matriarch.
Lapis let out a scoff at Liam’s team’s lack of verbal affirmation compared to when Liam called out orders before chugging down one of her mana potions to try and get back the mana she had spent on that Water Orb spell.
“Do you need me to use my Mana Pulse spell to replenish your mana?” Mercer asked Lapis.
Lapis glared at Mercer before stating, “No, I should be fine with this mana potion.”
“Lapis, allow him to hasten your mana regeneration,” Inyis stated as she watched Marco run right towards the giant spider and begin to strike the creature as fast as he could. The other melee attackers joined back in.
“Fine,” Lapis grumbled as she looked away from them.
Inyis watched as Mercer pulled out a violin and started playing a rather interesting song. The sounds coming out weren’t master level, in fact there were a few notes that screeched or didn’t sound like he ran the bow right. It didn’t affect the spell he was casting through the instrument though. This was proven when a light blue wave pulsed out away from him and washed over Lapis and Inyis.
Inyis stared at the Tiefling with some amazement. She looked at the other members of Liam’s team and thought how mismatched they were. She knew they weren’t related to Liam or to any one of them. They were strangers who had met when they arrived here in this new world and yet their teamwork spoke volumes. They trusted their leader and their leader trusted them.
He didn’t need to voice out many orders. They knew what he wanted, which led to him not needing to fully vocalize the commands. Instead, sometimes it seemed they just needed him to relay when to act or react. However, there were a few moments when they were confused by what he wanted.
Many times, during the fight with the Black Widow Matriarch, Inyis had given him some glances. His facial expression changed multiple times throughout the fight. Even though he hadn’t attacked much, it looked more like he was fighting a theorized battle. Coming up with and adjusting ideas to attack, when to attack, what to look out for, and how to counter.
Adding in her team probably changed a lot of his strategies since he didn’t know much about them, but she was able to see how he slowly grasped what they could do and were capable of.
This had impressed Inyis.
“His adaptability is astounding,” Inyis quietly muttered to herself. “What did he go through to be able to adapt and add factors no one would take the time to think about?”
Inyis looked again at each of his members. They didn’t have the looks of someone who hated taking orders from someone who wasn’t their leader.
Is it trust? Do they trust him that much to be able to listen to an order that gives their life to another? Inyis thought before looking at her team.
Inyis wasn’t dumb, she knew a couple of her members weren’t happy taking orders from another. She also knew with their personality they would turn that unhappiness towards those who were associated with Liam.
Although Inyis hated to admit it, she too was skeptical about having someone else lead them during this battle. So, she could understand how her teammates felt. However, after watching how he led his teammates adding in how he didn’t play favorites towards his teammates only, allowing her members to handle key roles, she had to admit he had better foresight than her.
Also, the way he fought without needing his team to take out that group from earlier showed he knew what he was doing.
Luckily Lector, Danny, and Nidy weren’t ones to give it much thought and went with the flow allowing the synergy between her team and Liam’s team to not crumble. Marco tried to show his dissatisfaction at the beginning but after Liam revealed he wanted him to be the main tank she believed it made him start to think differently towards their temporary leader.
Lapis, however, didn’t get onboard with the whole thing. Inyis could understand her frustration about the whole thing. She was someone who was raised to follow only Inyis and take her orders. However, even Inyis knew that in order to survive this everyone had to do things they weren’t happy doing.
A sudden thought came to Inyis’ mind as she quietly muttered, “Did he calculate that some of my members wouldn’t be happy? Is that why he wanted me to act like a vice leader, allowing me to relay my own orders to my team while throwing in some commands here and there?”
“It’s not as simple as you think,” Inyis heard Mercer replied while playing his song.
Inyis turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”
Mercer gave her a smile. “Liam is a big ball of contradictions. He doesn’t want to lead yet he has the ability to give out orders and the mind to make difficult decisions. He struggles with his inner demons yet at times he looks so calm and composed. One thing we have come to learn is that you can’t begin to understand what is going on in his mind.”
“He pays attention to everything around him. He spots certain details when constructing plans and can notice minor changes in people’s body language even when he isn’t speaking to them. He probably had an inkling there would be some who would have an issue with him leading everyone. He’d be delusional to believe everyone would be onboard. Hell, I thought for sure there would be a lot more people causing issues. He probably made the judgement call on having you lead your team due to that, but at the same time he really doesn’t know your team. He doesn’t like adding in factors he doesn’t have knowledge of.”
Inyis’ brows furrowed as she tried to understand what Mercer said, “Are you saying he had me lead my team so he could see what we can do so he could make adjustments in his strategy? Can he really adapt on the fly after gathering information during battle?”
Mercer gave her a smile. “Is it really that hard to grasp? That is how we’ve managed to make it this far. I don’t know how you or the other two groups have made it this far, but for us it has always been because he has adjusted and strategized during battle. That’s why we can trust his orders. Are his orders always right? No. And he has expressed to us many times that his plans won’t always go the way he planned.”
“But why make a plan if it won’t go the way you envision it?” Inyis questioned.
“Because nothing ever goes the way you want it to,” Mercer replied. “Battles evolve as time goes on. You won’t always have all the information on an opponent you’ve never fought before. That’s why you must have not just one plan but multiple back up plans as well as be able to readjust those back up plans.”
Inyis gave him a disbelieving look. “I do not believe there is someone capable enough to be able to do that.”
“Believe it or not. It’s your choice,” Mercer stated before giving her a devilish grin. “He can do it and it’s not even the strangest part about him.”
Curious, Inyis questioned, “What is the strangest part about him?”
“It’s his uncanny ability to test new things out while during battle and they end up working about ninety percent of the time.”
“Bullshit!” Lapis suddenly shouted.
Mercer turned to look at her. “How so?”
“No one is stupid enough to test new things out during a battle. This isn’t a place where you can try something and not expect consequences,” Lapis frowned, feeling irritated that this man was trying to make his leader sound like some genius.
“You’re right,” Mercer agreed. “But that still doesn’t stop him. Regardless of if you believe me or not. He’s already proved during this fight.”
“What do you mean?” Inyis questioned as she turned to look over the fight still going on before them.
The Black Widow Matriarch was released from her paralyzed debuff and started to stretch her legs out. Artem stopped striking and paid closer attention to the front leg before him while Blair and Roman backed off as well awaiting for the right time to strike again.
Avery pulled her rapier out from being able to pierce it into the Black Widow Matriarch’s side.
Danny, Nidy, and Lector took note of what the other team was doing and decided to do as they were doing.
Are they learning from them? Why aren’t they continuing their attacks? Inyis thought as she noticed this. My team is good enough to be able to do anything and yet those three are following the flow of the others?
“Tell me, did you know that the lightning magic and his Magnetic Shockwave would work on that spider?” Mercer asked, pulling Inyis’ attention back to him.
Inyis turned to look at him with a puzzled look. Without thinking she stated, “No, I thought that the Black Widow Matriarch’s body was covered in a hard shell since our attacks weren’t doing as much damage as well as how hard her body feels when hitting it.”
“Exactly,” Mercer stated before pulling an arrow on his bow string, aimed, and released. “He didn’t look at it and thought hey this wont work because it looks like the creature can block it. No, instead he looked at the creature and thought I wonder if this would work against. And after it did what did he do?”
Inyis’ eyes slowly widened as realization struck. “He made an adjustment to the plan and threw the alchemy item at it.”
“Exactly,” Mercer grinned. “He tests what works and what doesn’t work and creates new plans based on those findings. A mind that can process that during a battle isn’t someone you can grasp. If you try he’ll just end up surprising you when you least expect it.”
“You jest,” Lapis scoffed. “Please don’t try to make your leader out to be some amazing and cool guy that can do anything and everything.”
Mercer glanced over to her and gave her a stern look. “Please don’t misunderstand. We all know he has flaws and isn’t perfect. Sometimes his plans don’t go the way he wants them to and there have been a couple of times where a couple of us have almost lost our lives.”
“Then…,” Lapis started to say as a victorious grin started forming. However, that grin stopped and returned to a frown.
“However, there is something I have learned from watching you, Inyis, and the other leaders during this fight,” Mercer began.
“Oh, what’s that?” Inyis questioned before turning her gaze back to Avery and Roman who started channeling mana. “Avery and Roman! I said don’t use any magical attacks! Save your mana for later!”
Avery and Roman glared at her as they stopped channeling and ran back in to attack.
“That is going to prove what I am about to say,” Mercer started back up. “You don’t really know how to lead during battle do you?”
Inyis jerked her head to look at Mercer with an incredulous expression.
“How…how dare you question our lady’s credibility to lead!” Lapis roared. Her face turned so red, Mercer thought she was going to burst a vein.
“I never said she couldn’t lead. I said she doesn’t know how to lead during battle,” Mercer corrected. “I can see she can keep you and the rest of your team under control outside of battle, but she made a mistake just now.”
“What do you mean?” Inyis questioned starting to feel a bit frustrated.
“That was a perfect time to gather mana to use magical abilities,” Mercer stated. “Besides the fact that our physical attacks are barely doing any damage. By allowing them to channel mana and get ready to use a spell, it would have allowed Marco to gain more aggro. However, right now he’s barely hanging on to that. And because he’s struggling he’s exerting more stamina to try and keep it which in turn is tiring him out.”
Inyis turned to look at the Black Widow Matriarch. After studying her for a few seconds, she was able to see it. The creature’s gaze was shifting away from Marco who was struggling to keep it.
She was able to see how tired he was getting. Sweat was rolling down his face and his breathing was starting to labor. She took a glance at his stamina bar and saw how it was dangerously low. Not only that but his health was slowly dropping, from what she wasn’t able to tell.
What the hell? How did I not see that? Inyis thought as she slowly started to panic internally. What do I do? If Marco cant keep this up he’s going to get seriously hurt! What do I do? What do I do?!
Mercer watched as her eyes showed signs of panic. After waiting for her to make some worth while calls he let out a sigh. After releasing an arrow towards the giant creature, he shouted out, “Avery, Roman, Blair, and Artem! Adjustments to the plan! Artem trade take over for Marco and take aggro.”
“Blair back him up! Avery and Roman start channeling some mana to give Artem and Blair enough time to gain the creatures attention. After they have accumulated enough of it, use Fireball. Danny, Nidy, and Lector, if you guys have any helpful magical attack do the same. The objective right now isn’t to do a lot of damage, but instead give Marco enough time to regain his stamina so he can retake his role!”
“Got it!” Avery and Roman yelled out.
Artem and Blair grunted as their strained faces eased up and started to shift into the roles given to them.
Danny, Lector, and Nidy jumped back, stopped what they were doing and stared at Inyis and Mercer.
“What do you think you’re doing!” Lapis yelled out. “What makes you think you have any right to take command and tell our people what to do while…”
Mercer shifted his gaze upon him, making her flinch. He narrowed his eyes and bored down on her while stating in a creepily calm and collective tone of voice, “What I am doing is trying to make sure we don’t get ourselves into a situation that will fuck us in the long run. If your leader is as competent as you clearly wish her to be then she needs to step up and think better before I take over.”
Inyis was shocked to hear him say this. That shock slowly turned to frustration as she whirled and stated, “I am in charge here. Your leader…”
“Has made a mistake allowing you to lead us when you can’t properly lead,” Mercer finished. He then added, “He has also stated since we gave him the role that if someone has a better strategy then they need to relay it. And since you haven’t been giving out any good instructions I’m going to take command.”
Lapis looked like she was about to argue while Inyis grew even more frustrated.
What this Tiefling was saying was right. She had never been a war leader. She was trained at a young age to lead people outside of fights but never in one since she was never supposed to see battles back on Earth. There was no need to learn battle tactics since her country was never in a war zone.
That was true until the planet turned into an apocalyptic hell. When it did, her family had started teaching her in the art, but due to the suddenness it was too little too late especially with what was going on.
It became even more apparent when she arrived here to this new world with her best friend and five bodyguards. They had lost one of her most trusted body guards during the third floor fight against the Black Widow Matriarch when she tried to issue commands.
It was after that that she truly understood the importance of learning how to properly lead during fights. She had picked up the Perception of the Control Tower thanks to her efforts, but she didn’t truly understand its worth till Liam had pointed out things she didn’t know about it.
She believed her team had faith in her, but she didn’t know if it was because they were bodyguards still taking their roles seriously or if they believed her competent enough to do it.
“You look frustrated. Good,” Mercer jumped back in. “If you’re frustrated then you understand how right I am. You can grow. Watch and learn. And when you’re ready to take full reigns then I’ll step back down and allow you to do your job.”
“How dare you!” Lapis yelled again. “Marco don…”
Before she could finish her sentence, they heard a loud explosion shortly before Ariyana yell out Liam’s name. This proved to be a mistake that could prove fatal.
As they turned their attention towards Liam skipping backwards like a stone, the Black Widow Matriarch took advantage and lifted her right leg and struck Marco across the chest creating a gash diagonally across it.
“Marco!” Inyis yelled as she watched blood fly out from the wound.
Inyis looked back to the Black Widow Matriarch who was still feeling the effects of being paralyzed from the combination of Lightning magic from Marco and Roman as well as the Magnetic Shockwave Liam had thrown at it.
This gave the defenders and the melee attackers a brief moment to replenish their stamina and any health or mana they had used up.
“Marco, get back in there as quickly as you can. Attackers, after Marco gets settled back into a rhythm, continue attacking. Avery and Roman do not use your magical abilities. Save as much mana as you can for the later fights,” Inyis ordered. “Liam’s team, call out for heals when you get too low.”
Inyis’ attackers yelled out a confirming shout while Liam’s remaining team nodded while staring at the Black Widow Matriarch.
Lapis let out a scoff at Liam’s team’s lack of verbal affirmation compared to when Liam called out orders before chugging down one of her mana potions to try and get back the mana she had spent on that Water Orb spell.
“Do you need me to use my Mana Pulse spell to replenish your mana?” Mercer asked Lapis.
Lapis glared at Mercer before stating, “No, I should be fine with this mana potion.”
“Lapis, allow him to hasten your mana regeneration,” Inyis stated as she watched Marco run right towards the giant spider and begin to strike the creature as fast as he could. The other melee attackers joined back in.
“Fine,” Lapis grumbled as she looked away from them.
Inyis watched as Mercer pulled out a violin and started playing a rather interesting song. The sounds coming out weren’t master level, in fact there were a few notes that screeched or didn’t sound like he ran the bow right. It didn’t affect the spell he was casting through the instrument though. This was proven when a light blue wave pulsed out away from him and washed over Lapis and Inyis.
Inyis stared at the Tiefling with some amazement. She looked at the other members of Liam’s team and thought how mismatched they were. She knew they weren’t related to Liam or to any one of them. They were strangers who had met when they arrived here in this new world and yet their teamwork spoke volumes. They trusted their leader and their leader trusted them.
He didn’t need to voice out many orders. They knew what he wanted, which led to him not needing to fully vocalize the commands. Instead, sometimes it seemed they just needed him to relay when to act or react. However, there were a few moments when they were confused by what he wanted.
Many times, during the fight with the Black Widow Matriarch, Inyis had given him some glances. His facial expression changed multiple times throughout the fight. Even though he hadn’t attacked much, it looked more like he was fighting a theorized battle. Coming up with and adjusting ideas to attack, when to attack, what to look out for, and how to counter.
Adding in her team probably changed a lot of his strategies since he didn’t know much about them, but she was able to see how he slowly grasped what they could do and were capable of.
This had impressed Inyis.
“His adaptability is astounding,” Inyis quietly muttered to herself. “What did he go through to be able to adapt and add factors no one would take the time to think about?”
Inyis looked again at each of his members. They didn’t have the looks of someone who hated taking orders from someone who wasn’t their leader.
Is it trust? Do they trust him that much to be able to listen to an order that gives their life to another? Inyis thought before looking at her team.
Inyis wasn’t dumb, she knew a couple of her members weren’t happy taking orders from another. She also knew with their personality they would turn that unhappiness towards those who were associated with Liam.
Although Inyis hated to admit it, she too was skeptical about having someone else lead them during this battle. So, she could understand how her teammates felt. However, after watching how he led his teammates adding in how he didn’t play favorites towards his teammates only, allowing her members to handle key roles, she had to admit he had better foresight than her.
Also, the way he fought without needing his team to take out that group from earlier showed he knew what he was doing.
Luckily Lector, Danny, and Nidy weren’t ones to give it much thought and went with the flow allowing the synergy between her team and Liam’s team to not crumble. Marco tried to show his dissatisfaction at the beginning but after Liam revealed he wanted him to be the main tank she believed it made him start to think differently towards their temporary leader.
Lapis, however, didn’t get onboard with the whole thing. Inyis could understand her frustration about the whole thing. She was someone who was raised to follow only Inyis and take her orders. However, even Inyis knew that in order to survive this everyone had to do things they weren’t happy doing.
A sudden thought came to Inyis’ mind as she quietly muttered, “Did he calculate that some of my members wouldn’t be happy? Is that why he wanted me to act like a vice leader, allowing me to relay my own orders to my team while throwing in some commands here and there?”
“It’s not as simple as you think,” Inyis heard Mercer replied while playing his song.
Inyis turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”
Mercer gave her a smile. “Liam is a big ball of contradictions. He doesn’t want to lead yet he has the ability to give out orders and the mind to make difficult decisions. He struggles with his inner demons yet at times he looks so calm and composed. One thing we have come to learn is that you can’t begin to understand what is going on in his mind.”
“He pays attention to everything around him. He spots certain details when constructing plans and can notice minor changes in people’s body language even when he isn’t speaking to them. He probably had an inkling there would be some who would have an issue with him leading everyone. He’d be delusional to believe everyone would be onboard. Hell, I thought for sure there would be a lot more people causing issues. He probably made the judgement call on having you lead your team due to that, but at the same time he really doesn’t know your team. He doesn’t like adding in factors he doesn’t have knowledge of.”
Inyis’ brows furrowed as she tried to understand what Mercer said, “Are you saying he had me lead my team so he could see what we can do so he could make adjustments in his strategy? Can he really adapt on the fly after gathering information during battle?”
Mercer gave her a smile. “Is it really that hard to grasp? That is how we’ve managed to make it this far. I don’t know how you or the other two groups have made it this far, but for us it has always been because he has adjusted and strategized during battle. That’s why we can trust his orders. Are his orders always right? No. And he has expressed to us many times that his plans won’t always go the way he planned.”
“But why make a plan if it won’t go the way you envision it?” Inyis questioned.
“Because nothing ever goes the way you want it to,” Mercer replied. “Battles evolve as time goes on. You won’t always have all the information on an opponent you’ve never fought before. That’s why you must have not just one plan but multiple back up plans as well as be able to readjust those back up plans.”
Inyis gave him a disbelieving look. “I do not believe there is someone capable enough to be able to do that.”
“Believe it or not. It’s your choice,” Mercer stated before giving her a devilish grin. “He can do it and it’s not even the strangest part about him.”
Curious, Inyis questioned, “What is the strangest part about him?”
“It’s his uncanny ability to test new things out while during battle and they end up working about ninety percent of the time.”
“Bullshit!” Lapis suddenly shouted.
Mercer turned to look at her. “How so?”
“No one is stupid enough to test new things out during a battle. This isn’t a place where you can try something and not expect consequences,” Lapis frowned, feeling irritated that this man was trying to make his leader sound like some genius.
“You’re right,” Mercer agreed. “But that still doesn’t stop him. Regardless of if you believe me or not. He’s already proved during this fight.”
“What do you mean?” Inyis questioned as she turned to look over the fight still going on before them.
The Black Widow Matriarch was released from her paralyzed debuff and started to stretch her legs out. Artem stopped striking and paid closer attention to the front leg before him while Blair and Roman backed off as well awaiting for the right time to strike again.
Avery pulled her rapier out from being able to pierce it into the Black Widow Matriarch’s side.
Danny, Nidy, and Lector took note of what the other team was doing and decided to do as they were doing.
Are they learning from them? Why aren’t they continuing their attacks? Inyis thought as she noticed this. My team is good enough to be able to do anything and yet those three are following the flow of the others?
“Tell me, did you know that the lightning magic and his Magnetic Shockwave would work on that spider?” Mercer asked, pulling Inyis’ attention back to him.
Inyis turned to look at him with a puzzled look. Without thinking she stated, “No, I thought that the Black Widow Matriarch’s body was covered in a hard shell since our attacks weren’t doing as much damage as well as how hard her body feels when hitting it.”
“Exactly,” Mercer stated before pulling an arrow on his bow string, aimed, and released. “He didn’t look at it and thought hey this wont work because it looks like the creature can block it. No, instead he looked at the creature and thought I wonder if this would work against. And after it did what did he do?”
Inyis’ eyes slowly widened as realization struck. “He made an adjustment to the plan and threw the alchemy item at it.”
“Exactly,” Mercer grinned. “He tests what works and what doesn’t work and creates new plans based on those findings. A mind that can process that during a battle isn’t someone you can grasp. If you try he’ll just end up surprising you when you least expect it.”
“You jest,” Lapis scoffed. “Please don’t try to make your leader out to be some amazing and cool guy that can do anything and everything.”
Mercer glanced over to her and gave her a stern look. “Please don’t misunderstand. We all know he has flaws and isn’t perfect. Sometimes his plans don’t go the way he wants them to and there have been a couple of times where a couple of us have almost lost our lives.”
“Then…,” Lapis started to say as a victorious grin started forming. However, that grin stopped and returned to a frown.
“However, there is something I have learned from watching you, Inyis, and the other leaders during this fight,” Mercer began.
“Oh, what’s that?” Inyis questioned before turning her gaze back to Avery and Roman who started channeling mana. “Avery and Roman! I said don’t use any magical attacks! Save your mana for later!”
Avery and Roman glared at her as they stopped channeling and ran back in to attack.
“That is going to prove what I am about to say,” Mercer started back up. “You don’t really know how to lead during battle do you?”
Inyis jerked her head to look at Mercer with an incredulous expression.
“How…how dare you question our lady’s credibility to lead!” Lapis roared. Her face turned so red, Mercer thought she was going to burst a vein.
“I never said she couldn’t lead. I said she doesn’t know how to lead during battle,” Mercer corrected. “I can see she can keep you and the rest of your team under control outside of battle, but she made a mistake just now.”
“What do you mean?” Inyis questioned starting to feel a bit frustrated.
“That was a perfect time to gather mana to use magical abilities,” Mercer stated. “Besides the fact that our physical attacks are barely doing any damage. By allowing them to channel mana and get ready to use a spell, it would have allowed Marco to gain more aggro. However, right now he’s barely hanging on to that. And because he’s struggling he’s exerting more stamina to try and keep it which in turn is tiring him out.”
Inyis turned to look at the Black Widow Matriarch. After studying her for a few seconds, she was able to see it. The creature’s gaze was shifting away from Marco who was struggling to keep it.
She was able to see how tired he was getting. Sweat was rolling down his face and his breathing was starting to labor. She took a glance at his stamina bar and saw how it was dangerously low. Not only that but his health was slowly dropping, from what she wasn’t able to tell.
What the hell? How did I not see that? Inyis thought as she slowly started to panic internally. What do I do? If Marco cant keep this up he’s going to get seriously hurt! What do I do? What do I do?!
Mercer watched as her eyes showed signs of panic. After waiting for her to make some worth while calls he let out a sigh. After releasing an arrow towards the giant creature, he shouted out, “Avery, Roman, Blair, and Artem! Adjustments to the plan! Artem trade take over for Marco and take aggro.”
“Blair back him up! Avery and Roman start channeling some mana to give Artem and Blair enough time to gain the creatures attention. After they have accumulated enough of it, use Fireball. Danny, Nidy, and Lector, if you guys have any helpful magical attack do the same. The objective right now isn’t to do a lot of damage, but instead give Marco enough time to regain his stamina so he can retake his role!”
“Got it!” Avery and Roman yelled out.
Artem and Blair grunted as their strained faces eased up and started to shift into the roles given to them.
Danny, Lector, and Nidy jumped back, stopped what they were doing and stared at Inyis and Mercer.
“What do you think you’re doing!” Lapis yelled out. “What makes you think you have any right to take command and tell our people what to do while…”
Mercer shifted his gaze upon him, making her flinch. He narrowed his eyes and bored down on her while stating in a creepily calm and collective tone of voice, “What I am doing is trying to make sure we don’t get ourselves into a situation that will fuck us in the long run. If your leader is as competent as you clearly wish her to be then she needs to step up and think better before I take over.”
Inyis was shocked to hear him say this. That shock slowly turned to frustration as she whirled and stated, “I am in charge here. Your leader…”
“Has made a mistake allowing you to lead us when you can’t properly lead,” Mercer finished. He then added, “He has also stated since we gave him the role that if someone has a better strategy then they need to relay it. And since you haven’t been giving out any good instructions I’m going to take command.”
Lapis looked like she was about to argue while Inyis grew even more frustrated.
What this Tiefling was saying was right. She had never been a war leader. She was trained at a young age to lead people outside of fights but never in one since she was never supposed to see battles back on Earth. There was no need to learn battle tactics since her country was never in a war zone.
That was true until the planet turned into an apocalyptic hell. When it did, her family had started teaching her in the art, but due to the suddenness it was too little too late especially with what was going on.
It became even more apparent when she arrived here to this new world with her best friend and five bodyguards. They had lost one of her most trusted body guards during the third floor fight against the Black Widow Matriarch when she tried to issue commands.
It was after that that she truly understood the importance of learning how to properly lead during fights. She had picked up the Perception of the Control Tower thanks to her efforts, but she didn’t truly understand its worth till Liam had pointed out things she didn’t know about it.
She believed her team had faith in her, but she didn’t know if it was because they were bodyguards still taking their roles seriously or if they believed her competent enough to do it.
“You look frustrated. Good,” Mercer jumped back in. “If you’re frustrated then you understand how right I am. You can grow. Watch and learn. And when you’re ready to take full reigns then I’ll step back down and allow you to do your job.”
“How dare you!” Lapis yelled again. “Marco don…”
Before she could finish her sentence, they heard a loud explosion shortly before Ariyana yell out Liam’s name. This proved to be a mistake that could prove fatal.
As they turned their attention towards Liam skipping backwards like a stone, the Black Widow Matriarch took advantage and lifted her right leg and struck Marco across the chest creating a gash diagonally across it.
“Marco!” Inyis yelled as she watched blood fly out from the wound.
