Herald of Steel

*Trumpet*, *Trumpet*, *Trumpet*.

The blaring sirens of loud trumpets blasted across Phyrros Island as Lord Macht quickly assembled his lines into a coherent fighting formation.

It was a simple double lined formation, with each row consisting of around twelve hundred men.

"So that's why the bastards ran! To meet up with their relief force"

And as the men reorganized themselves, they whispered among themselves as such, their voices laced with a certain bit of appreciation.

They no longer saw Scorpyo and his men as cowards who ran from the battlefield. But rather viewed them with a hint of caution.

This was because although they still outnumbered the group by almost a thousand men, the densely packed red units with their shields locked together and swords drawn out made many of the Heeat men cautious.

And while some of the clever officers did wonder why Scorpyo had chosen to give up his camp to meet with the relief force, rather than it being the other way around- the reinforcements meeting up with the defenders and hunkering down there, but after thinking for a bit, they quickly found there was nothing to worry about.

Because they figured whatever the reason might have been for the enemy abandoning their advantageous terrain, it did not change the fact that they did.

That camp was undoubtedly formidable, and so no one found themselves complaining that they did not need to bash their heads against it.

Whatever trap Scorpyo might be setting up for them, these officers thought it would still be better than having to deal with this formidable fort.

Some even chalked the whole thing up as most likely being Scorpyo unable to hold his position any longer, while others simply thought the legionaries had become desperate and wanted to put on one last show.

In this way, they soon reassured themselves that whatever the enemy had up their sleeves, they lacked both the number and preparation to do anything about it.

And it was with this determination that once Lord Macht gave the signal, the readied troops charged, producing an earth shaking roar as they bulldozed towards their prepared opponent.

While seeing the enormous wall of shields and spears trucking toward him, not only was Remus cowered, but rather felt energized.

Turning to his men, he too shouted at them to meet the enemy head on, determined not to be outdone by the slightest.

"Go! Charge brothers! Charge! Victory or death! Victory or death!" Remus cried, then pointing his sword to the sky led from the front.

Today, the young commander had decided to disobey Alexander's tactics and placed himself near the very front of the formation.

The reason for this risky move also quickly became apparent, as with greater danger, came greater rewards.

Seeing their commander fighting shoulder to shoulder with them, the legionaries's morale sored and thus even though they faced a much bigger enemy, these men had no problem speeding towards them with nary a mind in the world.

And this high level battle tempo was precisely what Remus had wanted, for a great amount of zeal among the men was needed if his tactic was to work.

The two sides quickly managed to cross the short few hundred meter distance between them, and after the legionaries threw their first volley of javelins to somewhat blunt the initial enemy charge, the battle quickly developed into a brutal, chaotic melee.

"Ahhhhh! Kill brothers! Kill!"

"Push! With me men! Push these bastards back!"

"Keep close to each other! Do not get intimidated! These wastes are nothing!"

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Then as time passed and the battle developed and matured, the greater mass of the Heeat soldiers coupled with their longer ranged spears quickly began to show its effects, making the legionaries very quickly take quite the beating.

This was of course nothing unexpected, as it had been proved time and time again, head on legion formations were no match for their spear wielding couterpart.

And it was also something foreseen by the experienced Lord Macht at the very start of the fight. But still, seeing it really come true and there be no unpleasant surprises in store managed to yet gladden his heart.

The stoic man even let out a couple of pleased hmms and nods toward his officers, signaling them to keep up the good work.

While his counterpart Remus strangely did not have the kind of panicking expression one might have expected to have by now seeing how things were going.

His face was still flushed red from commanding the battle and from time to time he grimaced due to the pressure he was being put under, but overall, he was still acting normally, shouting and urging his men to hold on and not falter.

And then his urging suddenly got louder, as the frontline units of 2 of the columns (the leftmost and the center column) suddenly felt the second row behind them disappear, thus putting five hundred men in the front under enormous pressure!

The 2 units of two hundred men each were now the only thing that separated this battle and most likely even this whole campaign from total defeat.

If this thin fragile looking line broke, it would not be just the collapse of the army's flank, but rather a complete destruction, where the sole rightmost column would be nothing but like a stray straw in an ocean of enemies.

It was imperative that this did not happen, which is why Remus was there was lead these units personally from the front.

And while he did this, the spare 2 units of five hundred men that were in the back were now rushing to reinforce the rightmost column, joining them to bolster the number there to a staggering thousand men!

Right, this was Remus's plan.

To thin one section of the army to the bare minimum, just barely enough for them to not immediately collapse while using the 'reinforcements' to swell another part to his maximum limit.

This swollen part would then act like a hammer against the now relatively thinner enemy lines, smashing them apart with sheer mass, before swinging around to the left to destroy the remaining enemy forces that were pressing on their weakened brothers.

This was quite a good idea by Remus- as he decided to make use of the legionary formation's greatest strength- its great mobility to counter the heavy, bulky, and more numerous enemy.

The only caveat to his brilliance was that this tactic was much easier said than done. Although solid on paper, once one thought about it, it would quickly dawn on them a lot of things needed to go right for it to work.

For instance, as stated earlier, the thinned out lines had to hold while their brothers finished off the enemy.

Then two, since such a tactic would basically mean sacrificing the existence of flank in all but name only, there could not be any cavalry to interfere with them.

There was nothing to protect those infantry from such an angle of attack, so even if a small number of horsemen managed to swing around and attack the thinned lines, it would be instantly game over.

That was why Remus had asked Scorpyo to confirm if the enemy had any cavalry.

And once he did, he led from the front, willing to put his life on the line to prove his tactic.

While his colleague, Scorpyo led from the back, urging the newly formed thousand men column he commanded to push with everything they got.

"Your brothers are waiting for you! Do not fail them! Quickly! Quickly! Breakthrough quickly!"

The experienced legionaries also knew what was at stake, and so even without Scorpyo's nagging, they threw caution to the wind and charged blindly toward their foes, wishing to destroy them or at least take them with them.

While facing these heavy, almost crazed attacks from so many legionaries, that part of the frontline then quickly began to buckle, with some of the units being pushed as many as a hundred meters away from the rest of the army.

This ultimately caused the leading Heeat officers to bark menacingly at their men, ordering them to get their act together and even threatening them with severe punishment.

"Hold bastards! Hold! These are nothing but crazed dogs! Do not bring shame to your family! Hold and push back!"

"Not a step back! Any man who takes a foot towards me will be court martialed!"

"Forward! Lord Macht has ordered you cowards to march forward! Forward! Charge forward!"

Now, the high intensity, intense battle they were currently embroiled in was hardly the place for such bitter, nasty words and it could be easily seen this did more harm than good.

Not only did the collapse not halt at these shouts, but along some small parts it actually sped up.

And if this was in normal times, the officers would have never made such a rookie mistake.

But the reason for the officers' choice of such words was because the units that were currently fighting Remus and Scorpyo were no longer formations that consisted purely of the Heeat family elites, but rather a mixture of them and the Margraves.

And given the bad blood between them, in the heat of the battle, these officers were quick to pin all the blame on these 'outsiders' for the collapse of their lines. While the Margraves, who hated how they were used on the front echelons like cannon fooder, detested these words and broke even quicker.

It seemed Lord Macht's integration of the Margraves into the army still had a lot to be desired.

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