Herald of Steel

"Run! We can't hold on!"

"We are too few! Disperse! Disperse!"

"The enemy is too fast! We can't take such heavy hits!"

"Move away! Move away! Don't let those huge spears hit you!"

Having seen how their mounted riders were dealt with such rapidness, the rest of the infantry could hardly be blamed when they chose to abandon their position en mass to save themselves.

The fact of the matter was Remus really had struck out of nowhere, catching these elite riders totally off guard.

Disorderly and caught out of formation, even if they stayed and did not run, it was highly unlikely they would have been able to stop Remus.

Especially since these men were not even proper infantry, but really dismounted cavalry with much lighter armor and smaller shields.

Not the ideal gear to face a group of heavily clad horsemen.

The only thing they had going for them was their javelins, and to their credit, they did use that to the best of their abilities, turning around to launch volleys of the deadly missile.

The problem was… that only by itself was always destined to fall short.

First of all, not all these dismounted men dared to launch them in fear of hitting their own men. There were still some riders fighting to the last breath.

And secondly, even those who threw the projectile and were lucky enough to make contact did not always score a kill due to the thick armor the men and horses wore.

The riders were issued the standard infantry armor, while the horses had special barding made of chainmail and thick linen glued together.

This mass of heavy cavalry formation was surprisingly hard to stop with a few simple javelins and instead required rather large volumes of heavy arrow fire.

That was naturally something the hastily formed Heeat lines were unable to produce.

Thus once Remus finished dealing with the remaining stragglers, he menacingly turned his attention to these irritating mosquitoes.

And the outgunned and outnumbered infantry, as elite as they were, finally could not bear the pressure of such an outmatching foe.

They ran!

"Stop! Don't go! Protect the lord! Protect the lord!"

"Why are you running? You are the best of the best! Where is your honor?"

"Brothers! Stay with me! Fight with me! Death is better than dishonor! Death is better than dishonor!"

Of course, some of the most ardent officers did try to stop this collapse, desperately shouting to the men to sacrifice themselves to the god of war.

But no matter how elite a formation was, there was no way they would be willing to lay down their lives like that.

Not when most of their death would have been pointless anyway, their death struggle proving at best an irritating nuisance to the thousand blue cavalrymen.

Thus despite their officer's urgings the men scattered, and soon the desperate pleas of the men who stayed behind also died down, cut down by the advancing cavalry.

Hence, under the orange hue of the setting sun, the road to Lord Parker's camp lay wide open for Remus, paved with hundreds of mangled and dismembered bodies of his enemies.

...…

"Leave the fleeing men. Our prize is in the camp ahead! Remember to capture Lord Parker! Don't kill him! I repeat capture Lord Parker and his entourage!"

Remus was initially afraid that his men were going to learn the bad habits of the Helvati and go off chasing these scattered men to hunt for kills.

Hence he repeated his order twice, trying to dispel any thought of breaking discipline. He even announced a bounty of 10,000 ropals on Lord Parker's capture to make them stay their hand.

But his fears were mostly unfounded here as these thousand riders were perhaps the sharpest blade Zanzan had and by now very drilled in the art of war.

They might not have run off after the fleeing enemy even if ordered to given the terribly uneven slopes that the men were escaping along as well as the general exhaustion of their horses.

It had to be known that horses of this time were nothing like the huge sizes they were during medieval Europe.

Those had been selectively bred over generations and generations to produce that kind of monstrous physique, one that was capable of charging into battle with over a hundred kilos like it was nothing.

However, during Alexander's time, most of the horses were more like ponies in size when compared to the latter destriers.

So to have those small beasts carry a man in full armor and as well its own barding up a steep hill at full gallop, needless to say, it was very hard.

It basically had taken the beasts everything they had and more, as seen by how many of them were rolling out their tongue with heavy pants.

Some of the riders had even gotten off their steads and were seen gently stroking them in an attempt to calm them down, while others even poured their water pouches into the tired beasts' mouths.

As for a few of the unlucky riders, they were seen standing over their dead, lying horse casting a sad, forlorn look.

These beasts had died from over exhaustion, their hearts giving away from the intense demand of the climb. Such events were nothing extraordinary, but they still tore at those cavalrymen's hearts.

To all the men here, their horses were no mere beasts of burden that they simply went to war with.

No, they were their partners, companions, and perhaps for some even half family.

The bond they shared was a unique one and it could be said that if it was not them specifically urging their steads up the hill but some unknown, verdant rider, Remus perhaps might not have been able to even get up here.

A horse would never exert itself to death for a person it did not fully trust.

And this was perhaps also one of the reasons why cavalry was so difficult to master.

Horses were not unfeeling machines like tanks or aircraft you could train on a few weeks or months and master it.

These were living, breathing animals who needed to be coaxed and cajoled into the battlefield, something that took a long time to develop.

And if that master servant bond was not there, you could not effectively deploy horses on the battlefield. They would run the risk of bolting at the first loud bang or even the general chaos.

From that standpoint, it was really much easier to use chariots, as they were missile platforms able to perform some distance away from the main fighting forces.

The horses would be much easier to control when they were not made to face the tips of spears or swords head on in melee like Remus had just done.

Anyway, having used all their horses' stamina in the attack, Remus and the others gave up all thoughts of pursuing the fleeing enemy and dismounted to offer some much needed relief to the tired steads.

Then leaving behind a small token force of only 100 men to take care of their beasts, the 900 strong force quickly made their way towards the wooden camp, whose door by now had become strangely ajar!

"What the…." The surprising sight even caused Remus to let out a small gasp of surprise, but he quickly understood what was going on.

Seeing his lines get smashed and their guards run, it was all too understandable that Lord Parker had chosen to tuck tail and run.

After all, even if the camp's wooden walls, ditches, and palisades were as durable and formidable as they said, and Lord Parker had enough men to defend the place… so what?

The moment Remus had made his way through the gap and shattered the Heeat reserve force, the result of the battle was already written.

With him now being inside Lord Parker's lines and there being nothing to pin him down and restrict his movement, Remus could literally strike out in any direction he wanted.

For instance, the rears of Lord Kite or the Margraves lay open to him, so even if somehow Lord Parker transformed his camp into an adamantine shell that was too hard to crack, Remus could easily instead go help destroy his army and then come back with the full might of Alexander and the Helvati to crash into him.

Lord Parker had no relief force to look forward to and so staying in camp could not win him the battle, only delay the inevitable.

And this was what Lord Macht had tried to explain to Lord Parker as Remus tore through their hastily built last line of defense, finally pleading to him,

"My lord… we need to leave now! The battle is lost! Quickly! Get on the ships! Let's go back to Caira and wait for the duke!"

"......" Lord Parker neither replied yes or no to the urgings.

Rather a somewhat cold, vacant look shrouded his eyes, as if he could not believe he was having to relive the same nightmare once again.

Again and again, they had fought, and again and again, they had lost.

"Alexander!" Somehow the name brought an intense wave of fear and apprehension in him, causing his heart to shiver and cry.

"*Sigh*" While from the side, Lord Macht could only ruefully shake his head.

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