Herald of Steel

Chapter 708  Lord Ponticus's Counter-Attack (Part-5)

The night soon rolled on, and both sides by now had spent three hours under the full moon of the summer night, neither making a move.

'What's the holdup? Did they get cold feet?' And waiting atop his horse for the past hour or so, Alexander thought a bit impatiently.

He had been looking very forward to the phalanx units charging down the hill, disrupting their own formation in the process, and then being cut down by his organized legionaries.

But it seemed the enemy was just content to just stand there as if they were having last-minute thoughts about whether to really bet everything on this one roll.

So Alexander too waited, cocksure that the opposite side would break before him, as he spent his time swatting the mosquitoes buzzing all around him.

'It should be time!' While Lord Theony was much more anticipating, his ears perked for the call of the trumpet, and his hands itching to issue the order to charge.

The prey named Alexander seemed all too unaware.

"There! We can see light over there! That must be the Zanzan camp,"

And the hunter soon found its mark, as quite like how Perseus was drawn towards the manor using its lights, Lord Ponticus too was led right onto Alexander's rear by his camp's bright illumination.

Except though Alexander had managed to escape that trap by the skin of his teeth, this time his nape appeared bare and defenseless.

"Form up! Quickly! And quietly!"

Once Lord Ponticus confirmed it was indeed the prey he was there to hunt, he immediately gave the order for the soldiers to form a proper battle line and get ready for the attack, with the military veteran placing himself around the front to lead the attack personally.

This was not the traditional place for a commander, but Lord Ponticus felt that given the pain and suffering this enemy had caused him, as well as the loss of face in the Tibian court, his heart would not be soothed if it was not him who was the one to lead his destruction.

And who knows, perhaps he could even capture the enemy commander Alexander himself.

'We never had a pasha being paraded around the capital. Hahaha, that will indeed be a spectacle," Lord Ponticus almost could not wait.

He could see a very prominent standard placed around the back which he strongly suspected to have Alexander himself there and.

*Lick*

Tibias's supreme commander could not wait to bite down on that prey and tear his to shreds, so much so in fact that he wetted his lips in anticipation.

And this was a sentiment which was shared among his officers too, who cheered in whispered tones,

"Hahaha, the gods really favor us. I was afraid the mountain trail was going to be rough, but it was surprisingly smooth. We had no problem hiding our way even through the thick woods," This was said by a high-ranking scout.

"Yes, yes, I did too. Especially because it's easy to get lost at night and we could not even light many torches."

"But the enemy really helped us out here. With them cutting down so much of the forest and today being a full moon, really helped light the way."

 "Hahaha, what nice guys." Another snickered.

"Mmmm, that's why we should be grateful. And repay them in full….by slaughtering these helpless sheep, hehehehee!" While a third sneered with a crazed look, causing his colleagues to form a slight distance between them.

They knew this third guy to have a few screws loose and a tendency to go berserk in battle.

 While the last one, possibly their leader stopped all this useless banter with a whispered chiding,

"Quite! The gods have graced us with every opportunity of success."

"So don't alert the enemy by your useless talks and get in formation. Or I will hang each and every one of you!"

This threat of course worked and everyone returned their focus to doing what actually mattered.

"Captain! Look! What are those lights!"

But while Lord Ponticus was getting ready to imminently chop off Alexander's head, Remus suddenly got a shout report from one of his men next to him, his voice panicked and alarmed.

But the bored boy, sitting atop his horse and yawning, only sluggishly turned his head toward the forest left of his side to see what his friend was getting so exactly about.

'What is it… a fox?' He wondered mindlessly, not even fully reacting to the mention of the lights or the man's shocked words.

But that nonchalance almost immediately evaporated when he at last saw the sight in front of him.

Because It was a horrifying sight!

There were lights, loads of lights.

It was difficult to see at first through all the foilage, but undoubtedly they were lights from which could only be torches.

And along with lights, clearly there were shadows moving around- many shadows.

 And they all seemed to be conversely right behind Alexander!

'Flanking attack! The enemy is about to hit Alexander in a flanking attack!"

Remus was able to instantly figure out what was going on and cried out in shock.

They never even considered the enemy would use the hilly terrains to launch such an attack.

'Dammit! Of course they were going to something like that! They know the terrain better than we do.'

'We should have been more vigilant.' The nineteen year old cursed and rebuked himself.

And then turning to the man who informed of him this, who was also his second in command, shouted at the top of his lungs,

"Have the men charge the enemy. Now! You must stop them at any cost. I have got to save Alexander."

And then as soon as he said this, he was gone.

Spurring his horse on at full gallop, Remus rode like the wind, completely ignoring the shouts shout of "What? Hey wait!" coming from behind.

For in his mind, there was only one thing and one thing that he needed to do, and that was to try and find Alexander before it was too late.

This fortunately did not take long, as in a horse at full speed, Remus was able to complete the short distance of about three kilometers in a matter of minutes.

"Alexander! Alexander! Alexander!"

And as he approached the main body of the army, the captain of the detached legion shouted this at the top of his lungs, more out of panic and out of actual reason.

Finding Alexander, the general of the army too did not prove too complicated as under the full moon, Alexander's standard shone brilliantly, as it was intended to.

There were even large braziers lit around to make him even more prominent and reassure the troops that their lord was with them.

So whirling his horse towards the back of the army, Remus seemed to have no intention of applying the brakes anytime soon as he approached his destination.

As for the case of Alexander, it took a while for his ears to pick by Remus's calls, as the battlefield was a very noisy place.

Gathering tens of thousands of men in one place tended to do that.

There were weapons and armor clanking, tens of thousands of soldiers whispering thus setting the air alight with a buzzing din, officers barking out orders, trumpets going off here and there, horses neighing and so many other miscellaneous clamor and din.

Hence it took Alexander's ear quite a bit of effort to even separate this faint call as being something intelligent as opposed to being just a garbled mess.

'Is it saying Alexander? Is it me? Who could be calling?' And even when he heard it, Alexander was confused.

The people who called him just Alexander could be counted on one hand and none of them should be here.

So for a while he even wondered if it was just the wind or even whether it was just his tired mind playing tricks on him and making him hallucinate.

"Halt! Who are you!"

"Don't you dare come any closer!"

"Cease!"

And of course, as Remus got closer and closer, he got such a 'warm' reception from both Alexander's bodyguards and also some of the cavalrymen.

A few of the more anxious ones even raised their crossbows, intending to put this rogue rider down.

Who knew if this was even an ally?

He did not even carry a standard.

So many even presumed it to be a clever trick employed by the enemy to try and assassinate their commander

But Remus was way past caring about such trivialities.

Even the sight of spears being lowered and crossbows being cocked did not faze the man for a second.

If his death could save Alexander, Remus would be willing to die a hundred times over.

So instead of stopping to explain himself, he continued his charge, now changing his shout to a deeply, panicked voice, "Ambush! Alexander! it's an ambush! Look behind! Look behind! The enemy is coming! Look behind! Look behind!"

Remus must have said the phrase 'Look behind' a hundred times by now, but in his fear, Remus had actually shouted this out in Thesian instead of the native tongue of Adhanians- Azhak.

So most of the soldiers were even unable to understand it.

Instead, hearing the foreign, unknown language, they saw it as vindication for their suspicion that it was indeed a foreign spy sent here on an assassination mission.

So many of the men quickly took aim with their crossbows, ready to put this rogue man down.

It seemed Alexander's savior was about to be prematurely killed.