Herald of Steel



The reason for the collapse of the flaking attack on the right side, led by Ural was not as singular as one might make it out to be.

Certainly Alexander's charge was the single most decisive factor.

But other ingredients played their part in this recipe of tucking one's tail and running as well.

The very first incident that had struck especially hard at the morale of the troops was the routing of the Jahal mercenaries.

The two forces were situated directly opposite of each other and each could monitor the other without any visual impairment.

So when the 1,300, or now only 1,200 men witnessed the event, it had an effect on them that was difficult to quantify.

Because many of these men had grown up learning and knowing the reputation of these cut-throat mercenaries and some even idolized them.

And if one went through their stellar battlefield record, many would conclude they deserved such worship.

For whenever these men were deployed, it was almost an assured victory, as they would shoot and charge the enemy to oblivion, many times when facing an enemy much bigger than their own.

And the number of times they had been defeated and lost the battle could be counted on one hand, and all of them were either against overwhelming numbers or when they were forced to fight in unfavorable terrains where their mobility was restricted.

But no one had ever managed to defeat them in flat, open ground like this one, never even mind someone who was outnumbered.

It was because of this that Faruq had laughed in glee when he saw Alexander come out to meet him in battle on such an open battlefield, even being overnumbered no less, as if Faruq needed any more advantages.

And this confidence was justified because without any heavy armor able to withstand the arrow strikes, and some kind of strong but easy to use bow to strike back, the only way to counter-mounted units would be to have one's own.

And those were in very short supply given how hard and time-consuming they were to train.

Pasha Djose had sent his 10,000 contingent to avenge his son knowing this, which was the entirety of such men under him, confident that not even the god's interventions could save Alexander.

But it was his, his son's, and the Jahal mercenary's bad luck that they faced Alexander this time, someone who had managed to find the perfect marriage of these two technologies, which he had given the name of crossbowmen and heavy cavalry.

Thus Alexander was able to effectively stop this menace on the battlefield.

And when this event ultimately occurred, Ural and his men witnessed with almost abject horror the yellow tide being beaten to a pulp by the tiny square of blue, before they were forced to retreat from their positions.

From an outside observer, the retreat of the Jahal mercenaries seemed like the sea of yellow being beaten back by a small dazzling glow of blue.

It was a crippling blow to many in the field, especially for those who knew the mercenaries' reputation and had always felt reassured by their presence.

And now all that boisterousness had disappeared, the once high morale rapidly dropped in troops throughout all sectors of the army.

Even Faruq had felt his heart drop when he saw the left thrust not only be stopped but also be countered, causing a full retreat.

He of course had not expected the mercenaries to outright win as it took mounted units some time to accumulate damage to finally break the enemy.

But he had also never thought in his wildest dream they would fail and be routed.

Faruq's only concern about the strategy up until that point had been the archers and slingers breaking, thus enabling the enemy's archers (crossbowmen) to target his left flank (right from Alexander's perspective) and so forcing him to call back the Jahal mercenaries to reinforce that front.

And the man had not even received the news of Azab's death.

Thus, though Grahtos did not know it yet, him winning against such a huge force with almost casualties was a major turning point in the war, as his win had a cascading effect on all of Faruq's forces.

And this effect was particularly prominent on Ural's men who saw their heroes, facing the exact same problem, run.

And thus, since the other side had decided running away was a viable solution, certainly these men took note of that strategy.

Then, having been dealt such a shock, right after one of their own units was cut down to the last man, many of them had already gone weak in the knee, after which they witnessed the second worsening development- the 1,000 infantry coming after them.

Ural's men knew that though these foot soldiers were slow if Ural could not punch through the 600 men holding them back, they would eventually reinforce Alexander, and make them get bogged down in a battle of attrition.

Ural had already lost a lot of men in this battle and so wanted to avoid that at all costs.

But, the real nail in the coffin in their desire to resist and attack Alexander's position was Grahtos's charge, whom Alexander had missed because he had his back turned to him, but Ural's men certainly did not.

They knew that if those 1,000 men had the same weapons as Alexander did, which was most likely the case given how quickly they had solved the Jahal mercenaries, then there was little they could do to stop them once they got.

Thus when some ran, all ran, completely breaking rank and fleeing in all three directions, very much like headless chickens.

In this way, if the Jahal mercenaries' withdrawal was a textbook example of how to do an organized retreat, then Ural's men running away was a textbook example of what was meant by a complete rout.

These demoralized men ran in every direction open to them, some even running in the opposite direction to their camp in an effort to get away from Alexander's spear in the short term, who had wisely chosen not to follow them.

He was still outnumbered after all.

But a few of the 500 novice cavalry were not so wise and chose to follow the fleeing cavalry.

And though they managed to rack up quite a few kills with backstabs and thrusts, many were also caught off guard when the much more experienced enemy cavalry chose to suddenly turn back and counterattack, transforming themselves from the hunted to the hunter.

And after a few such incidents, and Alexander's urging, these men learned their lessons and regrouped back to their lord. Being vigilant in case it was a fake retreat.

But it seemed the rout was genuine, as Ural and his men soon galloped back to their back, leaving their dead and wounded behind.

And by the time Grahtos managed to reach Alexander, all that greeted him was a few hundred dead and wounded bodies of men and horses as enemies.

"My lord! Apologies for the delay! Thank goodness you are safe!" Grahtos breathed a gigantic sigh of relief as he slowly caught up to Alexander, relief and reassurance washing over him as he then called out from the side to the gaudily dressed man on the extravagant horse.

This was of course Hemicus, who Grahtos had mistaken as Alexander from afar.

"I'm here," And this mistake was rectified a moment later as Alexander's voice rang out from around the vicinity of his guard captain, as he then took off his helmet for easier identification.

"Ahhh!" Grahtos let out an involuntary gasp, before quickly repeating the greeting.

He did not ask why Hemicus was dressed as Alexander.

Because this was not the time or place, and besides, he could reasonably guess the answer.

Instead, he turned to Alexander to give the battle report of the left side.

"My lord, we have managed to make the contingent of Jahal mercenaries retreat! We did it! We beat them!" The cavalry commander was elated by the result, as evidenced by his giant grin, and even he found it hard to believe the speed at which they won and the kind of destruction they had wrought upon the enemy.

This lance seemed to be the weapon of the gods.

And his elation reached even higher levels as with twinkling eyes and a fervent gaze he sang the praises of the heavy cavalry.

"It was all because of you, my lord! Oh, when you promised me we would have a new cavalry, I always knew it would be magnificent, but I could have never imagined it would be such a revolutionary creation. Not even in my wildest dreams!" Grahtos's fists shook as he said this, before continuing his speech unabated,

"Without the barding, he would have died from the counter-spear attacks. Without the lance, we would not have been able to hit the enemy. And without the stirrups, we could not have stayed on the horse."

"It was only through the perfect meshing of these three separate inventions that were we able to achieve the result we did."

"And all this credit belongs to you! Glory to the lord of Zanzan! Glory to Goddess Gaia," Grahtos seemed to have become a bit too emotional as he even got down from his horse to prostate towards Alexander, right in the middle of a battlefield.

And seeing their cavalry captain as such, many others also followed suit to kneel and bow at Alexander, chanting and glorifying him.