Herald of Steel

The generally temperate Alexander's sudden outburst took the nearby soldiers by surprise and they suddenly snapped their heads to give Alexander a fearful look.

And then they ran off to get ready as soon as possible.

Thus., before long, the streets around the Margraves family mansion were teeming with men in a vast sea of blue, with rows and rows of shielded men setting up checkpoints at all the leading streets, stopping and questioning anyone wishing to pass.

"What do you think our chances are?" And while observing all these from a distance, Alexander grimly asked Remus about his own thoughts on the matter.

Because in his mind, the deployment of his army indicated that the worst thing that could have happened had happened, and his fears of full fledged fight were starting to ctrue.

It seemed that even if Alexander wanted to avoid conflict, the other side was not in any mood to talk.

They seemed poised to strike.

And why would they not, if you thought about it?

They outnumbered Alexander more than 4 to 1, so it was only natural for them to press their advantage.

And fearing this was the enemy's mindset, Alexander was alarmed that they might put the thought to the test.

Thus then turned to the commander of his army his own opinion on the matter, and how well they would fare if they were to really get into conflict with such a skewed force.

"Great!" Remus's single word answer however belied any of Alexander's pessimism, but was only crisp, succinct, and bubbling with optimism, to the point Alexander even wished the young commander was a bit less cavalier, and more grounded in his claim, thinking more before promising.

But Remus was there to assuage Alexander's acridness about his answer by pointing at all the brick and wooden houses around the streets and confidently elucidating,

"Look! The streets here are so narrow. Not even two horses can pass side by side. So as long as the men lock their shields closely and stand shoulder to shoulder, not even 20 million men can move us!"

Remus here was exaggerating about the slimness of the streets, which were around two carriages wide, and he was of course clearly exaggerating about the numbers here, but the main point of his promise was clear- using the favorable terrain they would be able to hold back an enemy many times his size without an issue.

And this answer of course made perfect sense to Alexander, who knew of many historical instances of such a thing happening, with one of the most famous examples being the Battle of Thermopylae, where around 7,000 Greeks were able to halt the advances of 100,000 to 300,000 Persians in a mountain pass, making the Achaemenid troop feels their assaults were like waves breaking against a boulder, ever strong and ever unflinching.

However, also like the Battle of Thermopylae, Alexander was well aware that the key to his success was by making sure the enemy did not find a 'secret passage' to outflank his legionnaires and attack them from the back in a pincher move.

The key to winning any battle of fixed position was to ensure the enemy could only attack from one side.

And in this realization, he was both afraid and glad that they faced the sea to their back and surroundings.

And why did Alexander feel both such contradicting feelings?

Well, he decided to test Remus if he could cto the sconclusion as him,

Thus he first nodded in order to show his agreement with Remus's assessment,

"Mmm, you are right. These streets can indeed be turned into formidable defenses when properly manned. Especially by men with shields as huge as ours. Hehe, looks like you guys got a quick chance to earn great glory," Alexander humorously chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood, although Remus could only produce a sheepish grin as he too knew he had been a bit too optimistic on his claims.

He said he could defend it, but he never claimed that it would be easy.

The young man was just boasting in front of his boss.

While the boss too understood that, that was why, suddenly slightly slanting his eyes with a skeptical glint, he posed, "So if you were the commander of the other side, how would you try to go around this?"

Because although Remus was able to take a formidable position, Alexander was confident he would be able to dislodge the legionaries if he was given control of the troops on the other side.

Hearing the inquiry, Remus instantly understood that this was a test for him from Alexander.

It was something that the man occasionally did, wanting his generals to try and figure out the answer.

Thus placing his hands on his chin, Remus quickly put his thinking cap on, trying to put himself in the shoes of the enemy commander just as Alexander taught him.

To try and visualize the problem from their side and then attempt to plug any holes in the defenses that might cusing the 'borrowed' set of eyes.

'If I was the enemy general, and was unable to break through the front, then what would I do?' So Remus asked himself, as he then began to turn his head, looking at the surroundings to scan the terrain and try and spot any weakness.

However, he found none.

All he could see that lay in front of him were rows and rows of virtually impenetrable houses.

Houses that would go nowhere unless burnt to the ground.

He immediately froze his moving head, at the remembrance of this fearful word, before shooting his eyes toward Alexander with a fearful look.

"Are you afraid that the enemy will set fire to the houses and burn them away to make way? No! We cannot let that happen! We must stop them." Remus expressed his answer with extrapprehension in his voice, suddenly feeling his body get extremely agitated, almost as if fire ants were biting all over him.

If the other side did this, then they were all doomed!

"What? No! What are you talking about?" However, Alexander's curt bark cut through Remus's worries, as he was quick to shoot down the idea with a frowning face, for there was not the nice, pleased nod one would expect from this Directly support the authors on Web!

'great' discovery.

Following this, he was quick to show Remus his mistake,

"We are currently in winter. So the entire place is dry like timber. If they really set light to the house here, what reassurances do they have that the fire will not spread across the whole city? They are as likely to burn us to death as they are likely to do so themselves."

Saying this, Alexander resolutely shook his head, "No, that is not the answer."

The very first thought of ran through Remus when he heard was relief, followed by enlightenment as he was convinced by the logic of the answer, and lastly, a bit of disheartenment, as it meant his answer was wrong.

'*Tsk*, if is not fire, then what?' Remus thus felt a bit frustrated at having failed.

The young man however would have the tto contemplate on his shortcomings later, as Alexander, no longer wishing to keep Remus on the hook, decided to reveal the answer by himself, turning his arms to point towards the sea which was all around them and declaring,

"Look there. The Great Harbor is connected to the small Royal Harbor. So if Lord Parker cannot go through the front door, he will be able to use the ships there to land his troops right behind the mansion and take it from there."

"Oh by the gods!!!" No sooner had Alexander revealed the potential outflanking maneuver, did Remus explode with all the explosive expletives that Alexander's monotone voice lacked, him alone more than making up for the two of them, as he literally jumped up a bit in the air at this, such fearful was he.

To say that he was 'shaking in his boots' would be a very apt description, as his head almost spun at having missed such an obvious answer.

'Dammit! I'm still drunk from last night,' The young commander tried to find excuses for himself, before quickly shouting to himself, 'No! Now is not the tfor this. We need to act!'

Thus recovering himself from the state of mind, he then almost manically shouted to Alexander, "The ships! The ships in the harbor! Let's go burn them now."

And saying this, Remus did not even wait for Alexander's answer, as he seemed ready to head there right now, his legs twitching animatedly, apparently intent on heading to the harbor and setting the hundreds of ships there alight all by himself if need be this very instant.

But just as suddenly cRemus's intent to depart, so too chis intent to stop for a second and think about what he was about to do.

"No! If we go right now, they will see us. We should do it at night. Let's wait." Remus chimed out to himself, showing evidence of his on the spot thinking ability, much to his commander's satisfaction.

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