Herald of Steel

As the fight aboard Remus's ship raged on, there cseveral instances, when the enemy's breakthrough seemed imminent, and was only stifled by a barrage of concentrated fire from the Instant bows, which turned the brave few leading the charge into porcupines and discouraged any of the others from continuing.

Sure, if the enemy had still pressed on regardless, like wild berserkers, then they might have been able to very well overrun the defenses, as even the instant bows had to reload their shots.

But the vast majority of the men were not that suicidal.

Add to that the sheer shock and awe factor of this brand new, never before seen weapon, and it helped Remus constantly deter the enemy from trying any such manic endeavors, as the Heeat family officers still remained unsure of the exact properties of this weapon.

All of this worked to show that without Alexander's instant bows and them covering for the crossbow's weakness, Remus would have undoubtedly fallen long, long ago, despite the dogged defense of his men.

However, despite all these new weapons and all the advantages that they bestowed Remus, ultimately, there were sthings that a grossly numerically disadvantaged force just could not overcome.

And Lord Kite was one such 'thing'.

Yes, Remus's brimstone of arrows and even the occasional javelin did manage to put the Heeat family's advance to a crawl.

But a crawling advance was still an advance.

The legionaries had never managed to really stop the enemy.

No, for the veteran soldiers of the family expertly jumped, swerved, ducked, and spun out of the way of the many incoming missiles, adeptly using their shields to cover the most vital parts, or much more preferably positioning themselves as such that between the crossbowmen's line of fire was interrupted by the friendly bodies of defending legionnaires.

And as for these legionaries themselves, well they seemed to be in a great deal of trouble as well, for Remus did not have the men bunch up together like on the other ship but instead had been scattered in small isolated group formations.

This move inevitably exposed many of their flanks to the Heeat family soldiers, who quickly took advantage of this by snaking between the blocks of men and using their expert footwork to poke and prod at the formation, slowly but surely chipping away at it.

The legionaries of course tried their best in their own way to counter this, by calling upon arrow fire on the annoying pests, as well as attacking the intruders themselves.

But their inexperience at fighting on a constant swaying ship made them lose their footwork many a time, while their heavy equipment only got in the way, making them too slow to hit the nimble adversary, and tiring them out.

This let the Heeat family soldiers run circles around the red armored opponents, with the instances of the legionaries stepping out of the safety of their shield to attack them actually acting as a chance for the Heeat family soldiers to get their own thrusts in.

And what deadly thursts they were indeed!

Even to the veteran legionaries, the swordsmanship on display here was really something, as they felt almost blinded by how quickly and swiftly these short swords moved.

They appeared almost like a streak of silver lightning to the naked eyes, impossible to react to, thus the blade was able to snake past all the defenses with ease before landing a stab on the torso, the belly, and even the thigh.

And the frequency of such successful attacks was such that if not for the good, heavy armor Alexander had his man wear, which was among the best, if not the best in the world, then this battle would have been certainly over quite a while ago, even with the crossbows and other gizmos.

It was truly fortunate these men were gifted a formidable combination of leather thorax, chainmail, and a bronze cuirass, all of which worked together to help mitigate most of the nasty effect of the strikes, leaving those short swords with an inadequate punch to create a good puncture.

Of course, that did not mean it still did not hurt the defending legionaries.

No, it hurt like hell, as most of the momentum of the strike was still there, thus causing various levels of swells, bruises, cuts, and even lacerations on and below the skin even though all the protection.

It felt like being constantly poked by a large needle on your naked skin.

Not life-threatening, but very painful, almost torturous.

But when it was these 'paper cuts' or a stab to the guts, well the choice was pretty easy.

Thus the men bore through the greatly discomforting pain with gritted teeth, holding on to the rope of life for dear life.

None of them wanted to die, not after fighting for so many years and coming so far.

And it was something that caused great vexation from the other side, who found these 'golems' a really hard nut to crack.

It was of course doable.

But very tedious.

Because they found the short swords they were using, although perfectly fine for naval warfare in general as it enabled them to freely swing and thurst in narrow, contested spaces such as the decks of ships, in this particular case was proving simply too much of a lightweight to break through.

Its 'punches' simply lacked the mass and power to go through all the layers of armor the legionaries had on them and still cause damage.

Of course, slucky hits did manage to go through, and seven delivered lethal damage, such as by hitting the thinner metal parts.

But overall, the armor did its job and it was a deficit the Heeat family soldiers found hard to compensate even with all the expertise under their belt.

"Give up, you swines! You are surrounded! It's us or the fishes!"

"Right! You are going to die anyway. So let us make it painless for you. A nice, clean cut of the throat."

"Heh heh, I heard drowning is one of the most painful ways to go. Why struggle so hard for such an agonizing death? Cto us! We will make it quick!"

Since it was very hard to break through from the front, the Heeat family soldiers tried to demoralize the beaten up legionaries like this, hoping they would loosen up and start backing away on their own.

But that hope was never a palpable one, as the legionaries, for one, being veterans themselves of course did not flinch at such churlish insults, but only gritted their teeth even harder.

They were not going to budge.

Especially when they were basically being asked to commit suicide.

Instead, if the Heeat soldier had simply called for them to surrender, then maybe sof them would have reconsidered.

But now, how could they?

And as for those who might have considered even this, willing to bet that the other side would show mercy, well even if they wanted to, most did not even understand what the other side was saying.

Because most of the soldiers spoke two very different languages and sometimes the language barrier was so extrthat most could not even distinguish if the other side was cursing him or thanking him.

Thus unable to comprehend the offer, most of the legionaries chose to stand their ground and so continued to get hacked away, while slowly, inch by inch backing away, as a natural, life preserving instinct.

Until they had reached the end of their line.

Taking a small step back with each fateful hit, their backs had at last run out of space to retreat to, for they were now firmly pressed against the wheel of the ship, which was located at the stern of the ship.

Thus only the vast ocean lay behind them.

And around that tiny space was only a small group of fighting men left, one of the very last bastions to hold out for so long, most of whom huddled around the focal point known as Remus, encircling him in concentric rings like the walls of a castle.

And while the men tried their best to ward off the never ending attacks, many loud voices also constantly urged the young general,

"Remus! Jump! Swim to shore. It's not that far!"

The desperation in their voice really told you all that you needed to know.

Given the current situation, it was clear to even a blind man that it was only a matter of tbefore the surrounding mass of unending black, menacing men swallowed up this small lonely island of blue.

And so, already considering their own lives forsaken, Remus's officers' and the last of his bodyguards' only real wish was for their general to live.

Even if it meant taking a risky tumble onto the dangerous surrounding sea, a sea where currently there were huge battleships wheezing past with great speed, churning up the water into a deadly boil.

Even a slight glaze from these behemoths would be enough to knock any unfortunate soul that went overboard unconscious thus drowning him, if not outright kill him

But given the alternative, that gamble seemed very alluring.

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