Herald of Steel

"Come on you brats! March faster! Those Margraves dogs are hiding in that kennel!"

"You bastards! Why are you slacking? Go! Go! Faster! Faster!"

"You dare call yourself sons of the Helvati? Hurry up and charge! Do not let up!"

"Climb up the walls! Climb up the walls without any fear! Avenge your brothers!"

"Slaughter these outsiders! For the centuries of humiliation! Kill them all…and take no prisoner!"

Such and many more scary curses were shot out loudly into the air as Metztil and other high level warriors urged their men into a battle frenzy, rushing towards the lightly walled small town that garrisoned the Margraves army.

The bloodthirst and malevolence this roughly 8,000 remaining men had was something to behold as whereas a loss of 20% of your army would have crippled most of the other forces in the world, for the Helvati it seemed only to enrage them.

Whipped up into a torrent of battlelust by their elders and heroes, these glory seeking men seemed to have lost all sense of longing for this world or its possession for the time being and madly dashed to repay a blood debt owed.

And the attack's ferocity was such that despite having nearly 12,000 men and a wooden wall to slow them down, the Margraves got a very bloody dealing with these bulldozing savages.

The green uniformed officers had urgently shouted towards their levies,

"Shields together! Stand shoulder to shoulder with your shields locked together!

"Do not be scared. You take a step back and these brutes will tear you apart! So.. attack! Attack! Attack!

Swing your spears and attack!"

"Archers! Where are the archers in the back! What are you doing? Shoot! Shoot your volleys now!"

The Margraves managed to put up a good defense…. for a bit.

But the problem began to show as soon as one of the sections of the thin wall was smashed apart by Metztil personally, using his giant axe.

Yes, the chief had decided to join the very frontlines personally, where he was able to use brute force to completely overwhelm his enemy.

Perhaps he was among a few very men in this world, but this giant had almost a miraculous power to punch a hole through an enemy formation all by himself, thus opening up opportunities for the men following him.

Of course, he could only do this when he was supported by his bodyguards who protected his flanks, but when it happened, that potent core of a few men was able to hack their way through an enormous amount of grunts.

Thus when facing Metztil head on, not even three or four ordinary soldiers combined was enough.

This made the man perhaps the closest thing to a medieval plate armored knight, who could cut through scores of peasants using his honed skill and impenetrable armor.

Metztil hence appeared like a hurricane to the Margraves on the frontlines, utterly unstoppable and so wherever he went, the chief would leave behind only a field of corpse and mangled limbs, a not so subtle proof of his power.

And as this titan took to the frontlines here, his fierce appear and even more ferocious acts was enough to single handledly change the course of that particular section of the lines.

Just looking at that face that was painted so menacingly and seeing him wildly flailing that giant, godly weapon, many of the men's courage crumbled and they broke, letting the rest of the Helvati pour into the town.

"Hah hah! Get out of father's way! My son! Which one of you killed my son! Rawwww…. Where is your commander!

I will kill you! I will slaughter all you outsiders! Come! Fight! Hah haha haha! Cowards!

Run! Haha that's right! Haha,

While the chief seeing the enemy break let out this euphoric roar, as it appeared he had lost most of his sanity, letting the thrill of battle consume him.

There was a reason why he loved the battlefield- it made him feel so free, hacking and stabbing and killing his way forward.

Thus he was seen laughing, crying, roaring and weeping all at the same time, spewing out whatever that came to his mind without even thinking if it made any sense.

And perhaps this added to his aura of fear and madness, causing the enemy Margraves formations to cower like a new born fawn upon facing the giant man.

While Metztil's same wild roars and bloodthirsty laughs boosted the morale of these men to the sky and beyond.

They shouted among themselves,

"Come on men! What are you waiting for? Are you going to let the chief get all the glory? Charge… Aghhhh!"

"Right! We cannot let the chief do all the work! Aghhhhh!"

"Bastards! Die! For my brother! For the chief! For his son! Aghhhh!"

The Helvati men were gripped by such frenzy that some of the crazy one even began to scale up the wooden walls using bare hands to climb over it.

Now usually this was not that hard. Since it was made of wood, climbing these walls was basically the same as climbing trees.

The problem came from the fact that these walls were being actively defended with archers and stone throwers, who rained down various missiles and projectiles to their heart's content.

But depsite this mortal danger, the Helvati showed no signs of backing down.

If one got shot, another took his place.

If one had his head spilt over by falling rock, another took his place.

If one got stabbe, another took his place.

If one slipped and fell, another took his place.

"What are these freaks!" And the defenders were so astounded by this suicidal charge that many of them cried out with such amazement and horror.

Ultimately the Margraves positions were overrun by the desperate Helvati, with the walls being either taken by the daredevil climbers or simply broken down using sheer power.

And seeing his position become untenable, Lord Bakerfield decisively ordered, "Retreat to the foot of the hills. Join the Heeat lines!"

As the Heeats and Margraves slaughtered each other, Alexander was much more concerned about the setting pale sun, understandably feeling the pressure of the time crunch.

For a moment he even cursed his own slow marching pace.

But he quickly got over crying over spilt milk, and his eyes regained focus to order Remus the following dangerous maneuver- 'the center would pretend to fall back and bait the Heeats into give chase, thus opening up gaps between them and the Margraves in the flanks which would then be exploited.'

But towards this, Remus first noted some appreciable problems, commenting with a slight frown,

"Feigning retreat? Isn't that dangerous? What if our men really starts running? You know some of the men are green peasants that Camby… Lady Cambyses picked up from the fields. They lack discipline!"

Needless to say, retreating backwards a steep slope was never an easy thing to pull off.

Hence Remus feared that once the order to back off was given, many of the inexperienced levies would truly break, turning the fake retreat into a real rout.

His worries were certainly not unfounded and thus produced quite a few supporters among the officers, one of whom also made sure to add,

"Right! And what about the Helvati. What will they do when they see us running? If this is to work, they have to stay and pin the Margraves down."

"....." Alexander produced a thoughtful look on his face as he listened to his officers opinion.

And seeing this doubt, some of the others also began to sincerely advise him,

"My lord, why don't we camp in the nearby town for tonight. Then we can launch an attack first thing in the morning!"

"Mmmm, our legionary formation is undoubtedly better than their. It only needs a bit of time to work its magic. If we start at dawn, we can have the enemies' heads on a pike before noon!"

"Right! Let us stay the night here! You also don't have to worry about food or shelter. The man can bear to go hungry for one night."

"They also won't mind sleeping under the sky. Spring is already here and its warming up. These are peasants, hardy men."

"If you want my lord, we can even order the servants in the back fetch some food from the nearby villages. It should be enough for yo… for the officers."

"....." Once again Alexander showed no visible preference to either of the options.

But to say that he was not tempted hearing all this would be wrong.

When you are surrounded by so many people echoing the same idea, it was hard to resist and not just go with the flow.

"No!" But Alexander ultimately was not cowered, and although presented with many valid concerns, he did not change the final calculations in his mind.

He rather bullishly insisted, "I have already told you…. the Heeats need to be defeated by today. All of you should know why!

There will be no change in the plans. I will deal with it if the lines starts to break! If it is in truly such danger, the three thousand man I have in reserve will step in to plug the gap.

As for the Margraves… rest assured Metztil won't let his men run. Now you go do your job. I order you!"

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