Herald of Steel

Upon having located the enemy, Alexander wasted no time in ordering his scattered, in-marching formation army to reform their ranks into a much more coherent manner before deploying them in two parts.

The Helvati were tasked with assaulting the small town garrisoned by the Margraves, where they were told they could kill and loot the entire place just as Alexander had promised.

As for Alexander's legionnaires, they were tasked with the much more daunting aspect of climbing up the hill and taking the Heeat camp.

"Are we really just going to fight up a hill? Seems….. unwise."

Faced with this head on confrontation, even the usually war loving Remus began to sound some skepticism.

The man was not stupid enough to look forward to climbing up such rough grounds under enemy fire and covertly urged Alexander to reconsider.

But driven by Lord Bernard's information Alexander was adamant.

"Just because the enemy has better terrain does not mean we will pack our stuff and go back. Sometimes you need to fight through the difficulties," He simply declared, reasoning, "This was what the legionaries were designed to do. They can take the camp."

Alexander's clear, unequivocal order douched any more complaints from the officers, while the higher ups who were in the know understood that this was their pasha's last ditch effort to finish the campaign before the Heeat relief could join them.

Apparently, they were due any time and they planned to rendezvous via the river, something the legionaries were powerless to stop.

'Let's hope the men are as mobile as we thought they were. We need to encircle them as quickly as possible,' They hence prayed.

…..

"The bastards are actually attacking! Hah hah… good! Good!"

Watching the blue lines steadily make their way up the hills from his 'throne' atop the hill, LP gave this pleased chuckle, his eyes twinkling with delight.

This was one of the scenarios Lord Kite had envisioned and also the one LP was most looking forward to.

Because with such a terrain disadvantage, Alexander was sure to at last suffer some true losses.

'Hah hah… finally some revenge!' The ducal scion pumped himself up, before soon deploying his men to meet the incoming enemy led by Lord Kite himself.

"Charge down men! Hurry! Do not let the enemy get a foothold!"

"This is your chance! At last, the gods have given you a chance to avenge all your losses."

"Show these cowards what sons of Lynica are made off."

"Spears forwards. Keep your spears steady and pointed forward!"

Shouting many such morale boosting statements and barking out some last minute instructions, the Heeat officers led their men speeding down the hill like a malevolent freight train and

*Bang*, *Bang*, *Bang*, smashed into Alexander's legionaries with a huge bang.

Now usually the legionaries would have charged and unleashed their volley of javelins just as they made contact, thus blunting the blow by causing many casualties.

However due to the steep incline of the hill, many of them were unable to get a proper footing to be able to do this.

Rather the units were forced to simply lock shields and absorb the majority of the blow head on, thus leading to many points along the lines to buckle and stretch.

Alexander's officers were forced to take the reins seeing this, urgently shouting to their men to rally and not lose ground,

"Do not falter! That was the enemy's largest punch. He cannot do this again."

"Why are you stepping back? Remember your oath! You swore to follow the pasha's order! Forward… forward!"

"Do not lose ground! You have already defeated these cowards before. And then you were several times weaker. So what excuse do you have now?"

"Officers, use your formation's greater mobility. Have your men spread out and surround the enemy!"

"Do not just blindly meet them head on. We are fighting on rough ground… but so are they! Make them work! Try and open up gaps!"

….

In this way the fighting at the center devolved into a bloody, grinding melee, where both sides stabbed, poked, thrusted, and bashed their opponents, hoping to break them through sheer casualties or exhaustion.

The problem was this was a painfully slow process as reported to Alexander by one of the scouts returning from the frontlines.

"My lord, the lines are solid and holding with no problem. Our casualties are nothing to be alarmed about. We are even seeing some… limited advancements along a few points.

Haha… haha, our legionaries formation is truly giving the best in the world…Even when the enemy occupies the higher ground, they are no match for us. As expected of a formation invited by Lord Pasha yourself! We can expect a breakthrough soon."

Looking at the pleased face of the messenger, Alexander was quickly able to separate the wheat from the chaff of what he was told.

After taking part in so many battles, he had come to know most of the scouts not only by name but by nature as well, and he recalled this particular man had a very particular way of dressing up his report.

Now, they were never false or fabricated, but just that instead of a cut and dry answer, the man would slather his words like a touch of sycophantic honey.

It was a form of flattering done to curry favor with Alexander.

So discarding the unnecessary additions, Alexander focused on reading between the lines to figure that the true state of the lines was that while the legionaries were proving quite effective against holding back the Heeat forces, it would take quite some time to produce any appreciable breakthrough in the strategic level.

Basically the battle had only begun.

And this was understandable too.

The legionaries were no miracle superweapon that could instantly turn the tide of any battle after all.

Whatever advantages they might have in terms of mobility in the current terrain, it was only marginal at best, and thus needed time to show its effects.

And this was especially true here as the Heeat forces also unfortunately did not use the heavy phalanx formation like their Adhanian counterparts.

Rather, as already said earlier, due to the steppe like nature of their homeland which also favored mobility, the Heeats tended to don much lighter or medium armor- made of leather, cloth, or thin plates of metals and augmented with shorter shields and spears.

This was bad news for the legionaries, as their formation was super effective against the heavy phalanx with their giant shields and spears.

Alexander specifically created the legionaries to counter this threat because it was the most prevalently used formation around his home city.

But the Heeats had unknowingly due to their inherent geography countered it.

Meaning Alexander would most likely have to fight his way through the bulk of the formation the old fashion way- a bloody, grinding war of attribution.

Needless to say, he was not chaffed about these prospects.

Primarily as he muttered to himself, "The sun will be soon setting."

This was made with great distress, as Alexander turned to look at the once yellow sun which was now looking much paler.

Alexander did not even need to squint whereas most of the time during the day it would be uncomfortable to even directly face it.

Judging by this space on the sky, the young pasha judged there to be one, at most two hours before he lost all light.

'Dammit! I lost so much time dilly dallying during the march and taking prisoners,' Alexander then cursed himself using hindsight, before musing to himself, 'Should I call off the attack for today? Marching at night time is never pleasant. Too many chances of ambushes or simply getting lost.'

But the prospect of once again marching back 20 km to camp for the food and lodgings before making the exact same journey tomorrow morning felt too exhausting to even think about.

Due to a variety of reasons Alexander wanted a decisive win now!

The problem was- it was easier said than done to have one's cake and eat it too.

Given the time crunch Alexander thus could not help but once again turn his gaze to the battlefield, where by now his men had formed a checkerboard formation and were trying to outmaneuver the Heeat forces.

But the other side did not seem to be biting and even when they did, the returns proved marginal at best.

And to add to the matters, the Margraves had already joined the battlefield here after being driven out of the towns by the Helvati.

Instead of standing their ground and fighting to their death as Alexander had thought, it seemed Lord Bakerfield had chosen to retreat from the disadvantageous position and come to joined the left flanks of the Heeat near the foot of the hill, thus making an attack through there also unviable.

"This can't go on!" After judging all his current options, Alexander swore this through gritted teeth, so he turned to propose to the nearby Remus,

"Remus, I will order Menes to initiate a feigned retreat. This will hopefully draw the Heeats out. That will open up a gap between their center and the Margraves flanks. I want you to take your thousand riders up the hill through that and then turn around to attack the rear.

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