Herald of Steel

"This looks good enough! Quickly! Ford the river! We have wasted enough time already!"

As Remus made the loud order, the urgency in his voice was palpable.

They had traveled quite a bit further down the river than originally asked by Alexander as they were unable to find a suitable place to cross at the ordered location.

Their main problem was since this river flowed from the hilly northern areas to the flat south, it generally got deeper the further down you went, away from its source. Adding to that also came to the issue of currents, as the arrival of February heralded the coming of spring and the 'great thawing'.

Rivers that had been largely dormant in the past two months suddenly started to wake up and cold, rapid currents filled the once 'dead' channels, making crossing even relatively narrow sections quite perilous.

Encumbered with their armor and horses, Remus thus had to look quite hard to find a safe place where he and his steed would not simply lose footing and get washed away by the raging tides.

Thankfully he managed to at last find a relatively decent spot. And wasted no time in utilizing it.

'The heavens favor me! If it had taken any much longer, I might have had to start cutting trees to make small rafts. Or worse… turn back!'

Remus said this to himself in relief as he crossed, his body shivering while the biting cold water splashed against his lower torso.

Then gathering his thousand men as soon as possible, he quickly turned around, wishing to repeat the journey once again but this time, hopefully ending up at the enemy's rear.

While Remus turned his forces around with the greatest of urgency, Alexander patiently watched the unfolding battle from the back of his formation.

By now the ten thousand Helvati and his five thousand legionaries had managed to bring some much needed stability back to the buckling lines, solidifying it, and turning the center into a stalemate once again.

Alexander half breathed a sigh of relief at this, but at the same time turned half vigilant, muttering to himself in a slight whisper,

"What trump card have you hidden now?"

The man was convinced that the Margraves had to have some kind of last minute trick involving the Heeats and that they would have to reveal it very soon.

Because although it might not look like it, the battle was really not going in their favor.

After fighting and leading so many battles, Alexander had developed almost a sixth sense when it came to things like this and he could clearly feel that this stalemate was largely temporary, largely being forcibly held together by the martinet Margraves nobles.

They shouted, threatened, and urged their poor levies to fight on and not even dare think of breaking and running.

The unfortunate grunts did not have the guts to defy their local lord… at least for now.

However, it did not take a genius to see that this was hardly a long term solution.

Their morale was being strained to the utmost limit and that taut string of loyalty was naturally bound to snap at some point or another.

And from the looks of things, it seemed it was bound to be sooner rather than later.

But paradoxically, the closer this inevitable snap got, the more anxious Alexander began to feel.

Because in his mind, the man was utterly convinced the black clothed Heeat forces were hidden somewhere in the vicinity.

They had to be here! Where else could they be?

Alexander was naturally unable to foresee 'the trouble in paradise' going on between the two allies and this reasoning had influenced a lot of his decision making until this point.

For instance, Remus had been sent ahead not only as a flanking force but also as a scouting party.

So if the Heeats were trying to sneak up on him via that side, well... they were bound to be disappointed.

As for what would happen if they came via the opposite side or miraculously even behind...well that was where the formation he was currently inside came into play.

Alexander had the remaining 5,000 men that he kept in the back arrange themselves in a hollow square formation, so that no matter from which side Lord Parker attacked, he could have a 'face' ready to give battle.

This formation was a very famous defensive style, usually used during marches to easily deal with possible ambushes.

With soldiers facing all four directions simultaneously, they had no true blind spot to be exploited.

The only real downside of the style was that it lacked any true bite.

Because the lines were divided into four, they were quite thin and were unable to be used offensively to push the enemy, lest they risk breaking from a well timed counterattack.

So it was used mainly in blunting the initial surprise of an ambush and thwarting that critical initial breakthrough.

After that it was then expected that the enemy would either simply run away after seeing they were too tough a nut to crack, or the rest of the surrounding units would come and relieve them, flanking the pinned down enemy.

Hence, all in all, it was a good formation- highly effective at what it was supposed to do.

The problem was this type of passive approach did not sit well with some of Alexander's allies, namely the Helvati.

For the glory seeking natives who loved heading into the heat of things straight on, this seemed even cowardly, with Metztil coming to Alexander to even joke with a touch of disdain, "Heh! Good to see you at least have some similarities with the outsiders!"

It was clear the bellicose and straightforward tribal chief found Alexander hiding behind a 360 degree screen of 5,000 men too shameful and thought he was too scared for his life.

"Men should lead from the front!" The man boisterously claimed.

"...." Alexander did not bother to correct the large man over misconceptions, neither did he inform him of his fears and suspicions about a possible attack from another front.

This was because for one he did not think the simple minded man to have to worry about this.

Alexander was the commander here and he wanted to deal with this himself.

Two- Alexander thought that without the knowledge inhibiting the natives, it would be far easier for them to fully commit to the frontal charge. At least now they would not ask to leave a continent of their own men behind as a failsafe or be constantly looking over their heads making sure Alexander had their backs and did not just run away.

Which nicely made their way into Alexander's third point- abandoning the natives and running away if things really turned bleak.

Yes, if it called for it, Alexander would not blink an eye kicking down this 'ally' of his own. Because they were really allies in the most air quote sense possible.

Neither truly trusted the other in the case of a real crisis.

As for fixing the drawback of his formation, well, first of all, there was no miracle formation in the world that could do everything at once.

However, Alexander had a clever work around his current dilemma and its name was- Crossbows!

Yes, the hollow formation had 1,000 of these deadly projectiles wielding men inside, ready to pepper the Heeat forces with deadly, inch long bolts from a hundred meters away.

Forget the slow infantry, even if the Heeats were to charge them with fast cavalry, they would find a wall of withering arrowfire greeting them.

Alexander had not only replenished his stocks with the arrival of Menes's reinforcements but Lord Janus's fief had also allowed his engineers and blacksmiths to pump out some thirty thousand new ones.

Fortunately for him, none of his preparations would be needed, for…

Thud! Thud! Thud!

As Remus approached, the uniform galloping of a thousand horses advancing in rhythm caused the earth beneath to begin to subtly vibrate, kicking up a cloud of dust that gave the impression of a force far larger than it really was.

"What is that!" And as Lord Bakerfield turned his head to try and locate the source of this new chorus of neighs and roars, he could not help but let out a shout of utter incredulity.

But that detection unfortunately came a little too late.

Given the enormous clamor and din that filled the battlefield, it was not until Remus was within a few hundred meters of his prey that the Margraves even noticed this fresh set of foes.

But by then, the horses were figuratively neighing right behind their necks, ready to charge!

"Oh no!"

Enjoy new adventures at M V L

The men's already faltering morale finally crumbled to dust as they realized the mortal danger they were in.

And then without ado… they did the most logical thing- they ran!

Which was in all fairness the best thing to do… because there was no winning here.

The golden rule of any battle was to never let the enemy attack you from both sides. Because if things got so bad that you could be attacked from either side, there was no way to defend from that.

Rather than trying to save the battle, you were far better off trying to save yourself.

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

Please come Here!

=>Link to the original site:

/book/herald-of-steel_24388579605084705

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!