Herald of Steel

Chapter 710  Alexander VS Lord Ponticus (Part-1)

Laying his eyes on the flanking force for the first time, Alexander had felt that the flood of men seemed like the open ocean, vast and endless.

The army seemed much more than just ten thousand.

But that initial shock only lasted a while and soon faded as Alexander quickly regained the focus in his eyes.

'Now is not the time to be dazed!' He lightly bit his tongue as he centered himself, trying to get a hold of the situation.

And as he got his bearings, he found the enemy's numbers to be much more manageable.

'Whew! It's a detachment force. Not the main one.' Alexander breathed a sigh of relief.

His biggest fear had been that the force in front of him was just bait and that the real one was just behind.

That would have been a true nightmare as then it would have meant that the enemy outnumbered him almost 2 to 1.

But this much Alexander still felt he could handle.

It was right then he heard Hemicus's panicked shout, urging him to leave the battlefield and take shelter in the camp.

And this was certainly possible, even seeming like an attractive proposal to Alexander as he subconsciously turned his head to gaze at the inviting, thick wooden gate, one which promised safety and security.

But Alexander did not immediately bolt towards that comforting thought, denying his fear dominion over him.

Instead he cooled his head and tried to think of the consequences of doing such a thing.

He knew that if he left the battlefield right now, the soldiers seeing their commander flee and facing the pincher attack would disintegrate instantly like wet tissue paper.

The casualties would be horrific and the siege would definitely come to an end.

Meaning even if Alexander survived, all the money and hard work he had put into the last four months would be for naught.

Alexander was unwilling to do that.

Even though escaping now would surely ensure that that he would live to fight another day, but Alexander was still unwilling.

And it was not just because of material concerns,

He also feared that perhaps the enemy might wise up to the trick he used this time and not let him do it the next time.

Which might mean this time was his only real chance of capturing Lord Theony by land.

So Alexander decided to not bail out, especially not when he still had a chance.

Because he still believed he had a chance.

And it was not only because his heart said so.

Alexander's sharp eyes had also caught the sight of a small dust cloud approaching from the east, one that was bearing his standard, as could be clearly seen in the clear moonlight.

And seeing so Alexander was instantly able to work out the chain of events that must have occurred.

'Remus must have managed to notice the flanking force from his position and ordered his legion to move to intercept,' Alexander correctly guessed.

But those forces were still a bit of distance away, and would not likely be able to stop Lord Ponticus before he made contact with Alexander, so to buy time, Alexander turned to Hemicus, and shouted in a determined voice, "No! We attack. We can still attack," as he then steadied his horse to face the enemy.

"What! No Alexander! Listen! You go! Switch armor with me and go inside the camp. I will hold the line!" But Hemicus did not approve of this one bit, even grabbing Alexander by the arm to stress the point.

Hemicus judged the enemy that they would be here in ten minutes and knew very well that this was nearly not enough time for the nearly 3,000 horsemen to turn around and initiate a charge.

That amount of time might be needed just to get the orders across.

And he also knew that if Alexander was to leave, the army morale would collapse.

So as evidence of his quick thinking, he even offered to stay in place of Alexander.

So there seemed to be no reason for Alexander to reject

And this sentiment was shared by many, including Remus, who too echoed Hemicus's sentiment, shouting,

"That's right, Alexander. I have already told my legion to attack this force. But they might not make it on time."

"You go! We will hold them back till then!"

An interesting point to note here would be that it seemed that though Alexander's close friends would call him by his noble title most times, but when it came to critical and time-sensitive situations, they would revert back to their usual way of calling him out of habit.

It was of course not something that Alexander minded, but felt was an interesting observation,

Anyway, at both of the two men's loud urging, Alexander did not immediately acquiesce, but only softly placed his hand on the latter's shoulder and comfortingly said in his native Thesian,

"Don't worry, my friend. We have not lost yet."

"Thanks to Remus the enemy was forced to launch his attack prematurely. Meaning his ranks are shallow and disorderly. "

"Our lances will rip right through him!"

"Come! Follow me!"

 "...." Hemicus only pursed his lips at that.

He would not say he bought Alexander's explanation but understood Alexander had finished explaining himself and had made up his mind.

He was determined to hit this force head-on.

The evidence of this was how after saying this to Hemicus, even before the latter could respond, Alexander swiftly turned his head to Remus and gave this long list of orders,

"Remus, I will properly reward you after the battle. But for now, go find Menicus."

"Tell him that the frontlines are to hold and wait for the enemy's main force to make contact."

"And that he is to make the 5th region turn around and attack the flanking flanking."

"Take Digitumas with you! He knows the way!"

Alexander in one breath had thrown out a lot of information.

Firstly, regarding Menicus, well he was the leading man in charge of all the infantry.

Meaning, though each of Alexander's seven legions had a commander, such as Menes, Heliptos, Jamider (Earl) Tikba, and others, above them all was Menicus himself, coordinating with all of them.

While Alexander was at the back, interfering only if any unforeseen situation arose.

So Menicus was kind of like the general manager, overseeing the everyday things, while Alexander was the CEO.

Then there was mention of a man named Digitumas.

He was one of Alexander's trust and comptente heralds, and he carried a special flag indicating his status.

It was this flag that allowed him to enter the protected ring of any general, and without it, most would be cut down by the general's bodyguards at the very perimeter.

In regard to that, Remus was in fact quite lucky, given the security around Alexander was much tighter.

But though the boy was lucky that time, did not mean he would always be, especially given it was nighttime with very low visibility.

At least during the day, the armor would give any the rider's identity.

Hence Alexander paired him with his herald, who as a bonus also knew where Menicus was exactly.

After all, it was a huge battlefield, and given the darkness, finding Menicus among the sea of people would be like searching for a needle in a haystack for Remus alone.

And lastly, the mention of the fifth legion referred to one of the legions Alexander placed on the second row who were being ordered to turn around to face the enemy.

Alexander had compressed all this information into a few short sentences, and as soon as he confirmed Remus had received it, Alexander spurred his horse forward, readying himself to attack and leaving Remus to his task.

Thus the two men parted, while Remus galloped full speed towards a point quite close to him, while Alexander in a weird maneuver actually did not gallop straight towards the enemy, and abruptly turned his horse left and started riding north, in the same direction Remus's legion was.

This at first confused the contingent of bodyguards following him, because their lord seemed to riding away from the flanking force, in a perpendicular direction to where the siege works were.

But nevertheless, none argued, only obediently following him regardless.

While Alexander, unconcerned about explaining himself, only took a bronze horn out from his saddle, and placing it onto his lips, got ready to blow it.

This was a special horn and the sound from it was designed to give the signal to all the cavalrymen that they were to follow him and soon, this was exactly what they heard.

*Trumpet*, *Trumpet*

And again.

And again.

All the cavalrymen placed in the rear repeatedly got this signal, which was saying, 'Follow me! Follow the sound!'

And so, as their training dictated, that was exactly what they did.

The thick chunky formation the cavalry was arranged in began to break apart, as block by block, in packets of 100 all the riders began to follow Alexander, riding north just as the trumpet dictated with the huge standard carried by Hemicus himself acting a visual cue.

And then after a while they saw that standard begin to swerve to the right, taking a giant smooth turn in an enormous arch until the whole formation was made to take a full 180 degree clockwise turn

And suddenly the 2,700 riders then found themselves gazing directly onto Lord Ponticus's own defenseless flank!

The hunter just seemed to have become the hunted.