Herald of Steel

“*Sigh*,” Faruq at first let out a visible sigh at this question, as he still found it hard to believe had seen.

But since Ural had asked, he saw no point in hiding it, and so recounted what happened in a simple, short manner, “Alexander faked his army’s collapse, and let the chariots run through. Then used the cavalry he had hidden in the back to attack them head-on. Lord Nibraz is currently trapped behind the enemy.”

Though Faruq had tried to keep his calm as he said this, he still failed to hide the laced trepidation.

‘Trapped behind the enemy’ usually meant dead and this meant that not only did both the cavalry and chariot charge fail, but also most of the unit involved had basically disappeared, leaving Faruq with far fewer options to attack with.

Not to mention the back-to-back deception that Alexander managed to pull weighed heavy on the young man.

The innovative way Alexander had dealt with their cavalry, and then how he hid his own cavalry to lure the enemy in made Faruq understand he was facing no green commander.

Faruq himself was a highly decorated military commander, having won quite a few battles both against Adhanian nobles and other rebel tribes who lived inside Kuleef but had their loyalties constantly shifting between Adhnaia and their own chieftains.

So felt qualified to say judge that Alexander was a good commander.

‘What more has he got?’ He wondered.

“Tha…that…how…arggh,” Ural too was feeling a similar sensation.

It was supposed to be an easy victory, something they would use as a stepping stone to gain political and military accolades, but now, within the few minutes they had started the battle, they had lost about 6,500 horses and 6,5000 men.

It was a horrendous loss.

And it made Ural shiver at the thought of what else Alexander had hidden under his sleeve.

While Faruq, who was a far more mentally resilient commander squashed these similar to Ural thoughts after only a split second, reassuring himself by saying, ‘These bumpkins were useless to begin with. Me and my men will be enough.”

“And if Alexander thinks his pathetic archers will be able to stop my camels, I will teach that fool why roses are dyed red.”

The saying ‘why roses are dyed red’ was a phrase unique to Adhania

Adhania was famous for its beautiful flowers and the origin of the saying came from the fact that these roses would be seen growing over battlefields, particularly battlefields in vast swaths, almost dyeing the green field red.

This was due to all the fertile compost that would be added to it in the form of dead humans and horses.

But the people of Adhania saw the flowers as the crystallization of their blood spilled to defend their land.

And Faruq was determined to bleed Alexander dry.

“My lord, the soldiers are awaiting your command. Please give the order,” While the two men were exchanging reports, a scout suddenly intruded on them to let them know that the infantry in the center was ready to charge.

“Yes, yes, let’s start.” And since time was wasting Faruq gave the command hurriedly, before turning to Ural and finishing their talk, “You go rest. We will take talk later.”

Faruq after all had an army to conduct and perhaps if he hurried, we could rescue a part of Lord Nibraz’s force, or at least he held a tiny bit of that hope against hope.

Thus he quickly left for the frontline, but not before reassuring this step-brother-in-law of his by raising is arms into the air and saying, “And don’t worry. Remember we have the Jahal mercenaries. Victory will be ours.” 𝑏𝑒𝘥𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑒𝘭.𝘯𝑒𝑡

Faruq’s confident smile and the fearsome reputation of the mercenaries did alleviate most of Ural’s concerns as he knew only simple archers would not be enough to stop these lethal warriors.

They moved too fast, and were adept at dodging arrow fire, while the on-foot archers were much more vulnerable to their counterfire.

“Mmmn, be careful,” Ural thus nodded, though he just could not help but worry.

‘*Sigh*, I hope these two tricks are the only tricks under Alexander’s belt,’ Ural said to himself, as he dragged himself to his tent to get some rest.

He doubted he would be able to participate in today’s battle or any battle for that sake in the near future, and thus decided to get his wounds checked out by the doctors his father had sent with him.

While he had ordered one of his deputies to try and gather the scattered men, treat the wounded, and if possible restore the cavalry unit for one last charge.

Though Ural held little hope for the last command.

‘Oh Ramuh! I hope my ribs are not too badly banged,’ He thus decided to concentrate on that.

While Ural basically retired from the battlefield, Faruq was busy giving out battle orders, commanding,

“The center will attack the enemy’s center.”

“Lord Liakit have your archers attack the right flank along with Azab.”

“Lord Nyantim have your slingers attack the left flank along with Jabad.”

Faruq launched these directives in rapid succession, intending to overwhelm Alexander’s flanks using sheer numbers before outflanking the infantry.

Because even after losing 3,500 combat units, Faruq still had the number advantage.

And it was by quite a lot.

For instance, Alexander’s left flank of 5,000 would be attacked with 10,000 troops, double their numbers.

While Alexander’s right flank would be attacked by an almost similar number of 9,000 troops,

And only time would tell whether these green recruits, peasant levies would be able to hold on against the professional soldiers sent their way, at least until Alexander’s infantry had managed to weaken the center enough to execute their plan.

The center of Faruq’s army, consisting of compact phalanx units slowly but steadily crossed the kilometer of open field, their synchronized marching footsteps producing the fateful music of imminent bloodshed, their long spears pointing pitilessly at their enemies until finally they made contact.

“Shoot!” The front legion commanders shouted the moment the enemy had gotten in pilum range of about 20 meters, raining a hail of impending death of short spears on them.

*Thud*, *Thud*, *Arggh*, *Grgghh*

And Faruq’s phalanx reacted to this attack the only way they knew they could, by raising their shields to take cover.

Their commanders had taught them of this novel attack, who themselves had gotten it from Amenheraft.

But the pilum was not a simple javelin that was designed to only kill the enemy.

Its primary role was far more insidious, which was destroying the enemy shield by impaling itself into it.

And a phalanx unit without its shield was no phalanx unit.

So for these peasant levies, this realization had a huge psychological effect, as many stopped their march literally meters away from their enemy to try to yank out the pilum, only to find that the shaft it was attached to snapped when they tried, leaving the metal still embedded in the shield.

While others literally had the pilum pierce their shield and arm together, making just holding the shield hurt like hell, much less fight with it.

Just from the way these soldiers reacted, the quality between these levies, and Amenhearft’s battle-hardened troops could be seen, who had reacted much more calmly when faced with this new weapon, and the injured simply retreated to the back and let their fresh, uninjured comrades take their place.

And that was done by troops who had no idea about the weapons, but simple battlefield experience had allowed them to come up with the solution on the spot, whereas these ‘trained’ soldiers, who knew it was coming were seen fumbling.

It went to just show the real level of training these men had received.

“Charge!”

And these conscripts were offered no respite from their enemies, who immediately after launching their two volleys of the pilum, the front three legions charged.

The soldiers ducked their heads behind their shields and run towards the incoming wall of spears, using it to push away the spiked stick to the side or up, and getting in between the spear and the spear holder.

And then the brutal melee began, as individual groups of three to four attacked their opposing part, trying to strike them down.

The legionaries used their shields to stave off the spear thrusts still coming from the 2nd and 3rd rows of the phalanx while using their short, much more maneuverable in close quarters melee swords to thrust and stab at the phalangites.

And it was not only the humans they targeted, sometimes they would intentionally strike the opposing shields themselves, trying to make the hand holding them too numb to properly react to subsequent attacks.

While the really skilled ones would try to do a parry, swinging their shield away from them the moment a spear struck it, defecting the blow, and creating an opening for them to get a stab in.

Or if that was too hard for you, there was always the good old shield bash, where soldiers would just use their shield to hit the opponent.

And the phalangites were no slouches either.

They would retaliate against these attacks by using their spear’s greater range to keep the legionaries at bay and then try and slip through the cracks in their defenses to get in a hit by employing various feints and fakes.

The entire fight in the middle was a brutal, primal clash, where none gave an inch to the others, and tried their level best to kill one another.

[Note- Troop Formation in comment]