Owen became the supreme commander on the battlefield, then reorganized the army. He put Hobbs in temporary command of the troops on the mountain road, filling the vacancy Barrett had left.
As supreme commander, he had the authority to promote personnel on a temporary basis.
The emergency called for flexibility, so the formalities were dispensed with.
They had to stabilize morale and keep attacking.
Aureg, however, could clearly feel that the enemy's offensive had eased considerably.
It seemed feeble and listless.
Apparently, recovering was not so easy after all.
The battlefield had now fallen into a cycle.
Fighting had become a matter of clocking in and out. The soldiers repeated the same work every day, with nothing to show for it.
Aureg launched two more surprise raids, successfully destroying the Redmanes' supplies.
More than half their already meager provisions were destroyed.
They could only rely on support from Owen's side. But he did not have much either.
As time passed, their food gradually ran out, and the daily rations they received grew smaller and smaller.
Soldiering was physically demanding to begin with. Now, without Grace, they depended entirely on food to replenish their strength.
Yet their logistics could not keep up. Growing stronger with every battle was hardly possible.
Ever since they had stepped onto the battlefield, their iron wills had been subjected to constant torment.
Now, the soldiers of the Redmane Army were holding on through sheer determination.
Conviction mattered. Their trust and admiration for the Starscourge, their love for their homeland, their hope of returning home victorious, and so on.
Countless positive emotions could give soldiers extraordinary endurance.
Over the past few days, Hobbs had been spreading those positive emotions throughout the army.
He did everything he could to keep morale from crumbling.
Radahn's heroic deeds, their present