Herald of Steel

Alexander had no qualms about handing Ptolomy over, the man was a fool and a liability.

"But we want safe passage by ships to Cantagena before the winter," Alexander stated his condition.

"Are you dumb? Hand over Ptolomy or be destroyed. There will be no negotiations." Arazadm shouted.

"And besides what do you need ships for?" He asked, "Aren't you gonna be hired by us?"

"Heh, you think we are fools?" The quick-mouthed, fiery mercenary- Petricuno could not hold his tongue any longer, "You just want to lure and kill us"

"What who told you that?" Arazadm was genuinely confused by this accusation.

Adhania really wanted to hire the mercenaries in good faith, because they needed their men to plant wheat instead.

"Then why does Adhania need to hire us when they can threaten to kill us?" Alexander asked with a sneer.

"That….," Alexander's argument made it difficult for Arazadm to explain his position.

It's unlikely they would buy the farming story.

"It seems we have reached an impasse," Seeing Arazadm give no reply, Alexander sighed heavily.

Then he gestured for the messenger to leave the tent, "Please enjoy some refreshments while we come to a decision."

The 'enjoy some refreshments' was sarcasm as Arazadm had been just told to wait in the cold rain, which he did, but not before sending a look of pure loathing towards Alexander, as if wanting to eat him raw.

Alexander then called a guard and told him to get Camius.

"Run as fast as you can. And tell Camius it's a code delta situation," Alexander gave the cryptic command.

As the guards scampered off, Alexander turned to look at the concerned faces of the leaders.

Meniscus was the first to speak up, "War it is then."

He said this fiercely, grinding his teeth in anger.

Surprisingly the old bones still had a lot of spunk left in them.

"*Sigh* can we win?" After losing two battles consecutively so decisively, Heliptos had grown somewhat afraid of facing the Adhanians, who seemed to be protected by the heavens themselves.

"We have to win," Melodias shouted raising his clenched fists in determination.

Alexander was very happy to see them not discussing folding or running away as he too felt that running now would be a mistake.

"What? Seriously? We can't fight them. Let's run away." Petricuno thought everyone else had lost their mind.

"Leader Petricuno, didn't you hear how they boxed Ptolomy in? If we run, it could also happen to us. It would leave our flanks open to attack as the Adhanians will be able to use the roads and cities to move around, while we would have to go around urban centers, vastly slowing us down. They can attack us in waves and slowly whittle us down." Alexander showed the flaw in Petricuno's reasoning.

"But…" Petricuno attempted to defend himself.

But Alexander cut him off, "Yes, what you mentioned does make it possible for some of us to leave Adhania. But how many? As the commander, I have a responsibility to my troops and I will not leave them." He heroically declared.

"If we fight them, we will all die. Some alive is better than none." This was not Petricuno, but a buff, strong man named Zumahun.

He was the one who had taken over Alcmene's camp.

"Being slain under a sword is a much kinder death than being hounded like dogs and slowly bleeding to death over days. We are mercenaries, we aren't afraid of death, just of an undignified one." Menicus had the tone of a martyr.

"Leader Petricuno if you fight now, there is a chance you can win. Nothing's been set in stone yet." Alexander placed his hands on Petricuno's shoulder. "But if you run, your loss will be. Can you take responsibility for the death of many of your men,"

"I..we..Then we can over the marches. We marched over them right?" Petricuno pointed with his hand to the west, his eyes full of a hopeful glow as he felt he had come across a brand new option no one had thought of.

"That was originally a massive lake that had its water drained due to the drought, Even then we had to wade through knee-deep water then." Melodias reminded Petricuno of a piece of information we conveniently had forgotten.

"And now it's been constantly raining for two days. It will have returned to a lake by now," Alexander chimed in.

"With no nearby large trees to make boats. Because of the drought, remember?" Meniscus added sarcastically.

"I…then…," Petricuno stammered, but ultimately just hung his head, grabbed a fistful of hair and spat, "Augh fine. If I am gonna die anyways, dying with you guys is not the worst thing that can happen."

"Good, then it's settled…" Alexander did not get to finish as a sharp cry interrupted him.

"I'm here. I'm here. What's going on?" This was Camius who had barged into the tent, sweating, soaked, and out of breath.

Code delta was Alexander's way of saying drop anything and everything you are doing and come meet me.

"Camius, it's good you are here. Now, there's a messenger outside the tent as I'm sure you noticed. When he leaves the tent, on his way I want him to hear this multiple times, 'Wake up! Adhania is gonna attack us in the morning. We gotta run at the crack of dawn.' Got it?" Alexander whispered the words so Arazadm can't hear.

"What? The Adhanians are attacking?" Camius jumped up in fright and yelled in horror, even letting Arazadm hear it.

'Wasn't the negotiations supposed to start three days from today? Why is the Adhanian messenger here now? Is it because of Ptolomy?' A million questions ran through Camius's head.

"Go now! Time is of the essence. We will make a formal announcement in two hours." Alexander ignored Camius's question and sternly ordered him.

And though Camius was confused, he trusted Alexander, so with a silent nod, he exited the camp.

"So, we are unanimously in not handing over Ptolomy even at the threat of going to warm right?" Alexander even looked at the two new mercenary leaders: Zumahun and Agnosh.

And all unanimously nodded.

"Good, then let's call Arazadm in."

And so the news was delivered and Arazadm left huffing and puffing, though he had a weirdly satisfied smile on his face.

And as if the heavens were smiling on him, by chance he had even heard some soldiers shout calls for running away right at dawn.

'So, that man was called to get the soldiers ready to run. That brat isn't totally incompetent.' Arazadm identified Camius and praised Alexander.

Then he sneered in his heart, 'But our army is already ready. The moment dawn comes, we will be at your doorsteps, hehe.'

Arazadm was ecstatic that he was able to gleam this 'secret information.'

After Arazadm left, the mercenary leaders look at Alexander with baffled looks.

He was the one who advocated going to war, yet going by what he had told Camius, it seemed he wanted run?

That made no sense.

"Hehe, our plan is simple. We will fake a retreat, making it appear we have left our camp, and with a little bit of luck the Adhanian will charge up the hill and right into our ambush."

Alexander succinctly explained the plan.

"Commander, did you already think of it while we were discussing if we would go to war or not? Is that why you called for Camius just as Arazadm left?" Heliptos asked incredulously, finding Alexander's thinking operating on a whole different level from his.

"Hehe," Alexander only chuckled a bit.

"It's my great luck to be able to meet a youngster like you. Ohh, only if I was a bit younger," Meniscus praised Alexander in his own, unique way.

The amazing part was not the strategy but the time he took to devise it and the little scheme he pulled off to pretty much guarantee the Adhanians will attack them, and not suspect it is an ambush.

"Please, store your praise after we have won." Alexander reminded them that the battle was far from over and they were still in a bad situation.

"Does anyone have any good estimates of their forces?" Alexander looked around.

"They had fifteen thousand (15,000) infantry, five thousand (5,000) archers, and fifteen thousand (15,000) slingers. Out of the thirty-five thousand (35,000), we killed around ten thousand (10,000). Particularly before the first ambush and when Samaras had forced the slingers to retreat. So twenty-five to thirty thousand (25,000- 30.000) would be a good estimate," Melodias made quite an accurate prediction.

"So, around double our forces," Alexander had a small frown but found the situation though bad, but not hopeless.

Hannibal beat eighty thousand (80,000) Romans at Cannae with forty thousand (40,000) men.

At Agincourt, the English with (8000) beat twenty-five thousand (25,000) French.

At the Battle of Bard, 300 Muslims beat 1000 pagans on open flat desert, by sheer determination.

Compared to them, Alexander's position was extremely enviable.

So although he felt pressured, he wasn't discouraged.

"Go and prepare your men for battle. It will dawn in about three hours, so you have two hours to get your soldiers to pack their things, arrange them in full combat formation, and then report with them at the clearing. I will address them there" Alexander commanded the leaders to take action immediately.

"Ohh and do not tell them about the ambush. But have them dismantle their tents and pack everything. They won't be able to do this in time and that's okay. We want to give the Adhanians the impression that we left so quickly, we only had the time to take the barest necessity." Alexander gave detailed instructions.

"Hehe, the commander's thought of everything," Heliptos let out a chuckle.

And with this, because of a negotiator's own personal feelings over the dislike of a particular mercenary group's commander, because of his one's own hubris to not compromise an inch, a war that could have been easily avoided was started.