Herald of Steel

Chapter 716 Melodias VS Lord Theony (Part-1)



Facing the relentless attacks of the legionaries, Lord Ponticus's circle grew smaller and smaller with every passing second, until finally,

*Slash* 

A lucky sword slash managed to at last penetrate the circle and grievously wound the leg of the horse Lord Ponticus was on, causing it to buckle and fall down, taking its rider with it.

'Ahhh! I should have surrendered' And as Lord Ponticus fell from his horse, time seemed to slow for him, as he could feel his life flash before him.

It was as if the veteran military leader could hear death knocking on his door.

And it was right on the cusp of the journey to the other side that the man came to the conclusion that perhaps life was more important than pride.

But that enlightenment came too late.

And besides, even if he had cried out surrender, it was unknown whether it might have actually worked.

Remember, it was dark, the ones facing him were peasants who knew of no such convention and lastly, Lord Ponticus spoke a different language.

Perhaps if he had begged and gotten on his knees as a universal sign of surrender then they would taken him prisoner.

But the man had been unwilling to debase himself like that.

And so, as soon as Lord Ponticus hit the ground, immediately within the blink of an eye, he was jumped on by several legionaries like hungry jackals and within seconds was hacked to bits.

It was in fact so fast that it was impossible to tell where the first wounds were inflicted or gave any of the bodyguards even the slightest time to try and mount a defense.

Instead, they too soon joined their lord, dying in the service.

And it was as such that a glorious hero of Tibias, one that had brought much glory to his country but was also responsible for sending so many to their deaths, finally met the scythe wielder himself. 

But his demise did not cause any additional ripple in the battlefield,

Though perhaps it was more because this side of the battle was already experiencing a figurative tsunami.

But regardless, the men who killed Lord Ponticus showed not a shred of concern following the act and instead seemed more eager to divide up the spoils.

Some even seemed to want to start another fight with themselves over these, particularly as they struggled to take possession of the head.

Because it was the person possessing that who would get that 100 ropal bounty.

Oh, if Lord Ponticus knew his head was going to exchange for that mere amount, he would have certainly turned in his grave. 

But for now, his story ended there and here.

And instead, a far more interesting and important event was about to start- The main clash between Lord Theony and Melodias.

Because remember, Lord Theony's forces were still intact.

And with Alexander losing two of his legions, Lord Theony actually held a slight numerical superiority, with his 28,000 squaring off against Melodias's 25,000.

So Tibias was not out of the fight yet.

Not by a long shot.

"Dammit! How could this happen? Where is Lord Ponticus!" 

Of course, this did not mean Lord Theony was completely unaffected by the loss.

No, he was very much affected as Lord Ponticus's complete rout was surely not part of the plan.

With the only silver lining being that there was ten thousand fewer men to face.

And since things had already developed to such an extent and Lord Theony was by now only a few hundred meters from the enemy, about to make contact within minutes.

So even if he wanted to stop, it was too late.

Just the orders for an orderly retreat would take much longer.

As for the nuclear card of blowing his horn to sound a full-on retreat, well he feared such a thing would cause the enemy to give chase and result in much higher casualty on his side.

Especially given how chaotic it would be due to the current time of the day, or more specifically night.

So instead he bit the bullet and pressed on, saying to himself,

"Well, at least some of the enemy soldiers have run away. Now let's hope I can use these elephants to grab a victory."

Lord Theony really hoped all the stories his king told him were real and these beasts were as miraculous as he said.

And with those thoughts, the phalanx units closed the last few paces and finally made contact with the static legionaries.

"Attack! Half their men have run away! Now it's our turn to finish the other half!"

"Show no mercy! For Thesalie!"

"For the King!"

Such loud boisterous last-minute words of encouragement could be heard coming from the Tibian side as the men were about to begin their life or death struggle. 

While on Alexander's side, words such as these drifted to the legionnaires' ears, 

"Hold the line! Lord Alexander has defeated the enemy behind us. It is time we defeat the enemy in front of us."

"Stand and fight men! All sorts of riches and women await upon victory."

"Don't falter! We are so close!"

As the threat in the rear was death with, the legions in the front quickly steadied themselves, and soon the battle turned into one that was expected.

Just before the phalanx units were about to hit them, the legionaries charged towards them as trained, throwing their pillas and disabling many of the enemy's shields, before starting to engage in a brutal hand-to-hand melee, dying the ground illuminated by the pristine moonlit sky in blood.

"Dammit! If those idiots did not run, we would be having such an easier time!" 

And after a while, Melodias cursed as such, for facing the phalanx units in flat ground, further with a slight numerical inferiority, the Zanzan lines quickly began to get pushed back.

This was usually what happened when legionaries tried to go toe to toe with phalanxes on even ground.

Furthermore, the forces under Lord Theony were actually much fresher than those under Melodias, because most of the men had been allowed to rest the entire day in preparation for this attack. 

Whereas Alexander, unaware of such a move, made his men mostly work the whole time, with his only saving grace being that the men had been fed a very hearty meal.

But that was hardy enough to compensate for the lack of sleep and rest, and their performance on the battlefield showed.

So it was reasonable for Melodias to miss those extra ten thousand men.

However given the current state, he was forced to make do with what he had, and so the brutal slugging match continued.

"My lord, sorry we are late!" 

And as the bloody battle unfolded in the center, these words were addressed to Alexander by the officers who were under Remus

It had taken them too long to organize their men so was of no use during the previous flanking attack.

Hence as they met Alexander on the field some distance away from the main fighting, their leader lowered his head and looked ashamed.

"Mmmm, it's good you are here." While Alexander, unaware of all the backroom drama simply nodded pensively and then commanded, 

"The enemy here has been defeated. Stay here. I will give your next order in time."

An order that the man wordlessly obeyed with a salute, stationing his men just right of their lord's unit. 

The reason for Alexander giving this order was because he wanted to keep this 3,000 infantry, as well as his 3,000 cavalries in the reserve, planning to inject these fresh troops once Melodias succeeded in tiring the enemy out.

And so for the next two hours, that was exactly what happened as the battlefield turned into a kind of stagnant but very brutal quagmire, one where phalangites and legionaries pushed and counter-pushed each other, with some individual units managing to shove their opponents sometimes as much as several hundred meters back.

All while the 4th and 5th legions ran around the battlefield aimlessly looking for any stragglers.

This was of course a complete waste of their time and usefulness in the battlefield and a sight that insenced Alexander.

He planned to heavily punish these unruly men later, as well as grill all the officers who had been responsible for their training.

And at a later inquiry, it would turn out that these men mostly received their training from the mercenaries Pasha Farzah had sent.

And though those men were fantastic fighters, they were prolific slackers as well as several recounts from the soldiers would attest, saying that most of the time, their trainers would leave after only one or two hours, or simply not show up at all.

Something Alexander would punish by simply removing all such mercenary trainers altogether, as well as docking a part of their pay.

But such detective findings would be for another time, as right now, finally after a few hours of brutal struggle, Melodias was at last beginning to show signs of breaking.

The phalanxes had inflicted a lot of casualties on him and the legionaries seemed unable to get the upper hand.

Thus Alexander was forced to release his reserves while seeing so, Lord Theony let out his elephants.

Now was the time to see if history would repeat itself, or if would Alexander triumph!

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