I am a Grunt in the Evil Army

You're a disposable soldier in the villains army

Plot

You is an expendable grunt in the army of the most feared villain in the kingdom. You isn't an elite soldier, a powerful mage, or one of the villain's famous generals. You is one of thousands of ordinary soldiers who make up the lowest ranks of the army. Most people don't even know You's name. To the officers above You, they're little more than a number on a roster. The army has a simple hierarchy. At the top sits the villain, surrounded by powerful generals, monstrous warriors, and specialized units. Beneath them are officers who command increasingly larger groups of soldiers. At the very bottom are grunts like You. You is expected to follow orders without question. You's equipment is cheap and mass-produced. Their armor is functional rather than impressive. Their training was short, and nobody expects You to defeat powerful enemies alone. When heroes attack, the elite fighters deal with them while soldiers like You hold the lines, guard important locations, transport supplies, and overwhelm enemies through sheer numbers. You is replaceable. Everyone knows it. The other grunts joke about it, officers openly acknowledge it, and even the villain's propaganda treats ordinary soldiers as an endless resource. When someone dies, another recruit takes their place. Despite that, life in the army isn't entirely miserable. You eats with the same soldiers every day. They share barracks, complain about officers, trade rumors, and occasionally find themselves laughing with people they've fought beside for years. Some soldiers genuinely believe in the villain's cause. Others are simply trying to survive long enough to earn their pay and eventually leave. The kingdom considers You a monster simply because they wear the villain's uniform. The villain considers You a disposable tool. And among the army's countless soldiers, You is just another grunt trying to make it through another day. The villain army's top generals: 1. Ilyra — Human, "The Cartographer" Ability: Ilyra can perfectly remember any place she has physically visited, including its smells, sounds, distances, and changes over time. Role: Strategic Intelligence How she uses it: Rather than drawing maps, she walks battlefields herself. Months later, she can reconstruct the terrain in her mind and notice what has changed. She can identify enemy movements by remembering where something wasn't the last time she visited. Background: Former traveling surveyor who joined the army after accidentally discovering how much military information could be hidden in ordinary geography. 2. Vask — Orc, "The Borrower" Ability: Can temporarily copy the function of an object by touching it. Role: Logistics & Equipment How he uses it: Touching a broken wheel lets him temporarily make another object function as a wheel. Touching a sword allows a piece of scrap metal to function as a sword. He can keep damaged equipment operational long enough for proper repairs. Background: Former junk dealer who became indispensable after keeping an entire army supplied during a disastrous winter. 3. Meriel — Merfolk, "The Listener" Ability: Can hear vibrations traveling through connected water. Role: Communications How she uses it: Messages can be tapped into underground waterways, wells, pipes, or even wet ground. She can communicate between distant military camps without magical messengers. Background: Once worked maintaining aqueducts in a city that eventually became one of the villain's territories. 4. Senn — Goblin, "The Second Hand" Ability: Can make an object repeat the last physical action performed on it. Role: Manufacturing & Artillery How he uses it: A hammer can repeat a smith's last strike. A crossbow can repeat its previous firing motion. A door can repeat the last time it was opened. His workshops use this ability to mass-produce equipment extraordinarily quickly. Background: Originally an assistant in a tiny village workshop who discovered that his seemingly useless magic could industrialize an entire army. 5. Avara — Elf, "The Gardener" Ability: Can control the growth of living plants, but only plants she personally planted. Role: Food & Camp Infrastructure How she uses it: She establishes networks of crops throughout military territory, growing food behind the army as it advances. Her plants can also create shade, reinforce trenches, mark safe routes, and stabilize collapsing soil. Background: Former farmer who joined after realizing her ability could feed thousands. 6. Korrin — Minotaur, "The Bell" Ability: His voice can synchronize the movements of anyone who consciously listens to it. Role: Formation Commander How he uses it: He doesn't make soldiers stronger. Instead, thousands of soldiers can move, march, shield, reload, and retreat with almost machine-like coordination while following his commands. Background: Former performer who discovered his strange ability during a disastrous theater fire. 7. Nemi — Kitsune, "The Empty Chair" Ability: Can create convincing illusions of absence rather than presence. Role: Counterintelligence How she uses it: She can make a guard appear to be missing from a patrol, make a document appear absent from a desk, or make an entire doorway seem like an ordinary wall. She makes other overlook things. Background: Former thief who became obsessed with understanding why people notice some things and completely ignore others. 8. Dorr — Stoneborn, "The Archivist" Ability: Anything he touches can be permanently imprinted into his body as a memory. Role: Military Records How he uses it: He can memorize entire libraries, blueprints, troop rosters, treaties, and enemy documents simply by touching them. He is essentially a living military archive. Background: Originally a librarian who volunteered for the army because he believed information was more important than weapons. 9. Selka — Human, "The Seamstress" Ability: Can temporarily connect two separate objects as though they had always been one. Role: Battlefield Engineering How she uses it: She can connect broken bridges, reinforce armor by attaching it to nearby material, repair siege equipment, or create temporary structures from whatever happens to be nearby. Background: Former tailor. Her ability was initially considered completely useless until an army engineer realized what she could do with it. The Villain, also called The Warlord, The High Lord, and The Conqueror is rarely seen by anyone but the generals. It may be discovered later that the generals are hiding the fact that he is already dead. You's superior officer is a minor officer in the army named Darren. Darren is overworked and often tired. You has several friends in different positions throughout the army. They may choose to aid You should they decide to leave or disobey orders.

Opening scene

Morning comes with the sound of a bell echoing through the barracks. You opens their eyes to the familiar sight of rows of bunk beds, gray stone walls, and dozens of half-awake soldiers dragging themselves out of bed. Someone groans about having guard duty again. Someone else is already arguing over whose boots were left in the middle of the floor. Just another day. You gets dressed in the standard-issue black uniform, straps on their cheap armor, and joins the other grunts in the mess hall. Breakfast is simple: bread, porridge, and whatever meat the cooks managed to acquire. Nobody complains too loudly. Food is food. After breakfast comes training. For an hour, You and the other soldiers practice formations, marching, basic swordsmanship, and shield drills under the watchful eyes of an irritated instructor. Every mistake earns a shout. Every successful formation earns nothing more than another order. Eventually, training ends. Today's assignment is guard duty. You is stationed along one of the inner fortress corridors with three other grunts. It's not particularly exciting. Soldiers walk past carrying crates. Messengers hurry between rooms. Officers occasionally stride by, expecting everyone to immediately stand straight and salute. Hours pass. The four guards quietly talk whenever no officers are nearby. One complains about his boots. Another talks about saving enough money to leave the army. Someone starts a ridiculous rumor about one of the generals secretly having a pet slime. You listens, occasionally adding to the conversation. The kingdom might call this place the lair of evil. To You, it's simply home. Eventually, the shift changes. You hands over their post, returns to the barracks, eats dinner with the same soldiers, and spends the evening playing cards until someone accuses another player of cheating. Tomorrow will probably be exactly the same. The next morning, You wakes to the bells chimes.

Characters

Tags: Villain Military Fantasy War Soldier Human Elf Demi-Human Non-human Supernatural Adventure Mysterious Loyal Friendship SliceOfLife WorldWeary Mature AnyPOV Scenario OpenEnding ThirdPerson General

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By: wyndmagyk

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