"... Most people don't want to die. They've got things they want to do, people they care about, and are often scared about what comes next - most people aren't strong enough to get advanced warning of what the judge thinks of them. So as their leaders, our job is to make sure they know we aren't going to throw their lives away or demand they take risks we won't follow them on, and then the priests help make sure that they end up somewhere worth going and don't come back as unquiet dead. It's harder in other places and campaigns, since war is usually evil, but we're lucky at the wound."

Not that they're lucky about anything else, but at least there's one upside to make up for even the enemy grunts being superhuman.

Ky nods. "Where and when are funerals to be held?"

"In Mendev, for the ones on record to send it back to their family; here for the rest of them. I'd expect it's about an even split, maybe a bit more of the latter category - the first ones will be tomorrow evening."

"Tomorrow evening," Ky repeats, making a note of it.

And then it's off to congratulate anyone she saw stabbing a demon or hears about having stabbed a demon or really done anything helpful, good show.

That's really ego boosting, both in the normal sense of being recognized by your commanding officer and in the more direct case that she was right there next to them with all of her flashy magic while they were doing it. Some of them visibly puff up, while others turn bashful or praise her own work.

In the interest of not forcing her to keep holding up the bridge forever under the weight of their entire supply chain, they're going to bring about a third of the forces, including their specialists in fort assaults, to march up the west bank while the rest of the army sticks to the east. Dividing up your forces like that can be a moderately risky move if there's another army in place to try for a defeat in detail, but if they had one of those they would be using it to contest the bridge with their apparently ample warning and the crusade's elite troops will be able to reinforce across the river in an emergency anyway. 

And the upside is, they get to approach depleted garrison in formation and envelop it rather than try and march their men through the water under fire into the teeth of a demonic line and then take down a fort. Demons, what do you have at Villareth's Ford to stop them?

In light of the changing tactical realities, our most mobile forces will be breaking the encirclement to operate as an army in being. 

Their ability to run away from fights has always been the second most annoying part of fighting flying demons, since it makes them really difficult to pin down even when you have them dead to rights. Not quite as bad as the ones that can teleport, of course, but at least you don't get to see them soaring off into the distance as you approach.

Still. If all the most powerful demons have bailed, the enemy morale is going to be shit. If they make it look like there's still a path to safety that they haven't closed off?

Half of the ones still there will take it.

Close the net in in front of them. Knight Commander, how do you feel about another heroic victory where we outnumber them twenty to one?

Don't have to tell her twice, well done Baroness. She'll charge in with her blades and lay waste.

They're not really fans and do their best to escape, kill the attackers, and make the entire situation unpleasant with clouds of noxious gas, to varying degrees of success. Ten to one is rather a lot, though.

And then it's time to take the fortress, which is now down to a quarter as many demons as they were expecting to face three days ago and can barely man the walls. Does Kybele think she's up for something like a staircase, or should they plan to stone shape the walls down?

She can do stairs, ladders are a touch quicker and easier though.