Herald of Steel



As Juminus continued to gaze at the lifeless body, he seemed to begin to enter an even deeper level of hallucination, as to him suddenly it seemed that the unfocused eyes had regained their voices, and even though the body lay prone on the ground, her hand seemed to move to point to a dead woman.

'*Sigh*, but perhaps this is for the best! My mother is already dead, killed by your orders. So me living all by myself any longer will just be tortur..…*crack*!' The ghostly girl's monologue was abruptly put off by a heavy foot crashing against her small head, lightly cracking it and even knocking a few of her teeth out.

Now even that innocent flower's face had been ruined.

"Captain! What are you doing? Advance!" But Juminus had no time to keep gazing at it.

For the owner of that foot then quickly urged him to move, and this loud shout made him regain his focus.

And so as Juminus raised his head to see the owner of the shout, he found it to be of a young man from his own unit, with the man standing with one of his boots on that now dead girl's head, squashing it against the ground like he was stepping on a bug.

The man had not probably even witnessed.

A sight which did not actually make Juminus mad.

But only feel hollow.

'What is the point of all this? Is all this worth it?' A small voice then asked inside him, a voice that had not existed till now, a voice that sounded eerily like that little girl.

'Yes! What was the point?' And Juminus was unable to answer.

"Captain! Hurry! The enemy is almost here!" While from the outside world, the concerned shouts of his colleagues rang out again, who seeing Juminus just stand there felt that he might have exhausted himself.

And for the time being, this noise helped to drive out the overwhelming hopelessness Juminus found himself swimming against, and temporarily drowned out that little voice.

"Yes! Let's go!" And so understanding it was no time to be daydreaming, Juminus summoned back his strength to his limbs, and quickly grabbed his swords before continuing the act, though all of a sudden his moves seemed to lack any spirit behind it.

It was like Juminus had become a puppet who was only mechanically doing what he was supposed to, the fire that had burned in his eyes till now seemingly died out.

The death of that small girl might not even register to almost anyone, but to Juminus personally, it felt like he somehow had destroyed the entire world with that single death.

And he felt like he would eternally see that ghastly, dying face of that girl every time he closed his eyes.

If it was not obvious, Juminus had just suffered from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) right now, and even if he could survive the current ordeal, it was like he would be mentally crippled for the rest of his life.

But in a way perhaps this was the heaven's way of punishing him, perhaps this was his price for giving that cruel command.

A price that seemed to litter the way to the manor, as Juminus noticed many such bodies laying along the path, while the crowd, after receiving a few casualties, quickly dissipated in terror, leaving the way open for Juminus and his men to enter.

"Secure all the exits. Take control of all the doors! Put those with the shields in front. The archers at the back" As soon as Juminus entered the familiar house, he seemed to at least externally get his bearing back, and began to shout out coherent commands, intent on trying to hold the manor for as long as possible, and finished by loudly ordering, "And find me the lords and Mistress!"

Thus, under Juminus's supervision, the narrow doors and other passageways were quickly reinforced with teams of ten to twenty men, with the few one's having shields and wielding a spear at the very front followed by others who stood behind them touching shoulder to shoulder to give the formation mass and support.

The troops immediately facing the enemy were mostly fresh men that Menes and the others had bought, hence the presence of the appropriate gear, while those at the back were much more exhausted, having already fought and without everything given the circumstance back then.

But though they could not offer any offensive help to those in front, if the enemy tried to push past them, they could certainly shove back.

So with the initial control of the manor under Juminus's hands, and the passages secured, under the guard's supervision, people began to enter much more quickly while being in a much more orderly manner.

"Men first!"

"Get back! Let him in!"

"Go away stinky brat! We don't have room!"

And following this, though it might seem very weird, it was men who began to be prioritized to be granted entry into the manor, for the simple fact that men were more useful than women and children for defending the manor.

And remember, the goal of these troops was not to save the citizens and servants but to protect the manor and the nobles dwelling inside.

Hence, it was the reinforcements who had come with Menes that were let in first, followed by other men, while small children were cruelly turned away with a shoo or even a cruel kick, being left to fend for themselves all on their own.

Most of whom would end up being killed by the crazed Tibians.

Or worse!

And more tragically for them, Perseus's men did not discriminate when it came to boys or girls for achieving their enjoyment, leaving truly deplorable scenes to unfold in that backyard.

Speaking of Perseus's men, a question might arise of where they were while Juminus was organizing a defense of the manor.

Why hadn't they attacked yet?

The distance from the mouth of the road to the manor was at best a few hundred meters, and they should have been here in mere minutes.

In all honestly, the manor should have been already taken by now.

So why hadn't it?

And well, the simple answer to it was that Perseus had lost control of a part of his army, leaving those at the front to target the weaker and tastier prey such as the women and running men.

Rather than to try and go after the harder target such as the manor, which, even at its weakest had a lot of men, being it a logistic hub and still being guarded by a few men, and even housing the lords and their bodyguards.

But of course, even that would have mattered little to the vastly superior Tibian army…if they had any cohesion.

As to why they didn't, well that had happened because while along the narrow trek upwards, Perseus had formed his army in a long queue, and placed the least trained and most expendable part of his force at the very front, so that they would bear the brunt of any enemy attack while preferring to keep most of his trained, professional men at the back with him.

And then to guide these lesser troops, he had placed a small group of elite men with them, most of who, as you might have guessed, had died to the arrow fire, leaving the levied peasants without a proper chain of command.

Combine that fact with how these frontline soldiers had suffered for so long, hence once they were 'liberated', these men forgot all about military disciple and dispersed themselves to wreak as much havoc on the surroundings as possible as a way to vent.

And lucky for them, there were almost kinds of entertainment for them all laid out.

There was the game of tag where they could chase and spear down all the running men.

There were many women around the vicinity to comfort them.

And for some of the more crazed people, there was even a group of soldiers who were stubbornly defending without retreating, who were soon surrounded and hacked to bits, these Tibians taking particular pleasure in killing a prey that could fight back.

It was also here that one Tibian man showed evidence of just how insane they had become, as after killing one of the Zanzan soldiers, the man cut open his guts and ripped out his liver before starting to chew it raw right then and there.

How could Perseus, or anyone for that matter even dream of controlling his group of crazed demons?

And so Perseus didn't.

Instead, he only ordered the remaining part, the still sane part of his army, to move up slowly, telling them to pay special attention that the crazed peasants did not attack them in their drunken stupor.

And so given the army climbed cautiously, it gave Juminus just that extra bit of time to prepare.

While upon reaching the summit, Perseus first gazed with feverish eyes onto the manor, looking at it like it was the holy grail.

'Once this is taken, Zanzna will be taken!' Perseus was convinced, and his heart was filled with ecstasy.

"Attack!"

So as soon as he got to the top, without any delay, Perseus gave this order, and Juminus, who had been able to hold the doors relatively easily, instantly felt like he was being crushed by a mountain from all sides.

Because the best Tibias had to offer was being sent to crush his paltry force of a few hundred.