Herald of Steel



The issue with the reserves not being at hand had to do with limited space in the barracks, as the city's facilities were simply not equipped to house tens of thousands of soldiers.

To compensate for this, many make-shift buildings had to be created, and given the urgency of the situation they had not been able to be properly heated and furnished yet.

So in this cold weather, most of the soldiers were allowed to stay the night at their homes.

And this lax in military discipline had become especially egregious these past days as Perseus had decreased the intensity of these attacks.

It seemed his strategy of lulling the enemy to complacency had worked.

Cambyses would come to know about all this later, but for now, she decided to go by Juminus's suggestion.

Now, the idea of pulling back the active defenders from atop the walls to bolster the defense of the manor certainly had its risks, as anyone could guess.

But given the reserves were being woken up, and the few still present in the garrison as reserves were enough to be able to temporarily hold the line during the transition, Cambyses saw it as a viable strategy.

Especially when the guard captain of the manor sought to reassure her by saying,

"Don't worry, Mistress. The outer walls are tonight very quiet."

"Or else, much of our nearby reserves would have been called up by now to deal with them."

"I think all the enemy's troops are engaged in this flanking attack. They should not have enough troops to launch a two-front attack."

Juminus was in fact wrong in this assignment, as Perseus certainly had enough troops to attack on both sides.

The 15,000 he left behind might not be enough to break through, but they surely would be enough to prevent the patrolling defenders from reinforcing the manor.

But Perseus had decided against such an attack because his original plan had been to catch Zanzan completely unaware.

And it would have worked if not for the mess up by the mercenaries.

But now, given how events had unfolded, and fortunately for Juminus, although he was wrong in his assessment, he was right in saying that Perseus would not attack the walls, and convinced by this argument, Cambyses felt a bit more confident in issuing the order to move the wall defenders, thus leaving the walls temporarily vacant.

With all this done, Juminus felt he said all he needed to say, and noticing time tug at him relentlessly, quickly excused himself as he tried to catch up with his own work of organizing the defenses.

While the other guard stayed behind as Cambyses went back to her bedroom to hastily write the letter issuing her order, instructing whoever was in charge of the defenders to summon all available personnel present in defending the wall and come with all of them to the manor in defense of it as soon as possible.

And finished it by planting her, or more accurately her husband's seal that she always carried with her.

"Take this. Explain the situation to whoever is in charge. And come with as many men as you can as soon as can." Cambyses repeated the orders to the young guard as she handed the letter which was more important than its weight in gold.

"Yes, ma'am," And the young guard solemnly swore with a quick salute, feeling he would deliver this letter even if it killed him.

"Remember! Be quick! The enemy could be here at any moment! So be quick!" While Cambyses urged him repeatedly about the short time, again and again asked him to bring as many men as he could as fast as he could.

Because if the enemy was at the mines, the good road could have them in as little as half an hour!

So speed was of the essence.

Knowing this, the moment the young guard got his letter, the man ran at breakneck speed out of the manor, and jumping on a horse from the nearby stables, rode it at full gallop across the night city.

And as he did, he was greeted with a sight that normally would have alarmed him but now filled him with only reassurance.

Because the normally pitch-dark city was no longer dark as the abyss, nor silent as the grave.

For there were many glittering sources of light emanating from various points of the city, while loud and alarmed shouts slowly drifted into his ears as he blitzed across the road.

It seemed that the whole city had at least half woken up to the imminent dangers facing them.

And as he got nearer to this destination, the young man even began to notice some people running towards the temples, as well as a bit later noticed an armed contingent of about 50 soldiers making their way towards what seemed to be the manor.

'Is that a group belonging to a lord?' The young man reasoned given that specific contingent's intricate armor and small size, and then added to himself,

'Oh, but it's natural. The fire is so large it would be hard for any of the lords not to be notified,'

In fact, that fire had been so big, it made the young man shudder to even remember that feeling of gazing at it for the first.

He had never felt so small and helpless as then.

And seeing it, he actually thought there was no way any human could live through that alive.

And if they could, they might not be human.

But now, he was actually glad that it had been so big.

Or else everyone might not have woken up so quickly, and help might have taken a long time to release the manor.

So even seeing that small trickle of soldiers already be on its way, the young guard felt truly glad, and even thought of meeting whoever there was in that contingent to tell him of the situation there

But held himself off from doing that after remembering his mistress's urging, saying to himself,

'No! I need to get this letter as soon as possible to the wall. The entire manor is counting on me!'

So the surprisingly responsible young man urged his horse to sprint even faster.

While Cambyses, after donning her iconic red armor first and foremost decided to see the situation with the mines for herself.

So she climbed up to the third floor and through one of the windows facing the iron mines laid her eyes upon the scenery previously described to her.

And just like the reports described, and true to being able to inspire fear in any human as the young guard felt, it was truly a huge fire.

In fact it was so big that the bright embers of the inferno lit up the dark sky in a dull, reddish hue, making it appear as if the sun had decided to wake up early, with the entire surrounding being bathed in a rusty, crimson nebulous glow, as the vermillion color sought to fight the darkness away, forming a river of clashing shades,

'Did the bastards set even the ground on fire?' Cambyses had not really expected such a huge sight.

The fire seemed to have spread from the initial log houses to then the various workshops, including the coke-producing plant and even to even the coal storage plant, which seemed to be burning the brightest, the flames even turning from red to blue at the ends and fantastically even a bit of white at the very center.

Seeing which made Cambyses even wonder if the temperature there might be able to melt iron.

But the most impressive of all this might have to be the burning waterwheels, which Cambyses could see were still spinning even as their wooden bodies caught fire, appearing almost like a circus of death from the final destination series, as lashes of red and copper flames spinning around seemed to reach up to lick the clouds.

'Will the entire hill burn down?'

Seeing his horrific inferno, Cambyses could not help but wonder fearfully, for it was not unheard of for forest fires to burn down entire swathes of land, especially in winter when everything was bone dry and flammable.

But though Cambyses seemed to be able to feel the heat even from here and notice enormous plumbs of fearful black smoke rising into the clear sky, the people directly underneath it did not seem at all bothered.

At least as far as Cambyses could see that is.

Maybe they were really demons as the young guards had fearfully thought.

For against the red fiery light these black figures appeared to be dancing gleefully, neither the heat nor smoke appearing to affect them, as their silhouettes could be clearly seen slashing and hacking other silhouettes, the target no doubt being the Adhanian present there.

And seeing as how the enemy seemed to have no intention of taking any prisoners as everyone was being massacred, Cambyses estimated the entirety of the 4,000 - 5,000 men there had to be dead by now.

"Beasts!" The young girl spat out in a low voice in disgust.

But in a kind of schadenfreude way, she was also glad that the enemy had decided to waste their time burning and destroying that relatively useless refinery.

Because it meant she would have enough time to bolster her defense here.

And as she stood there watching this she actually wished the enemy would kill a few more, hence giving her some more time to prepare.

Or so she wished.