Herald of Steel



"You seem pretty sure I will get Kuleef's throne. What if I don't" Faruq icily answered back to Ural's joke.

This was certainly possible as though Djose's main wife had no male children or unmarried daughters, Faruq still had a lot of brothers, both younger and older than him, all of who could be viable candidates.

Not to mention it was not impossible for Djose's main wife to conceive another main heir.

The woman was still in her mid-thirties.

"Hahaha, well if you can't then that's it. But I'm confident in you. So, think of this as me investing in you, brother-in-law," Ural spoke like a true politician, even shamelessly drawing familiar blood to smooth over the wound he had created by asking for so much.

Faruq had never heard Ural call him his brother-in-law as he was too down the pecking order then, and usually, the address would be previously attributed to Fatrak, who, as he was the heir to Kuleef could interact with heirs of other noble houses as their peers, while Faruq would be left to the wayside.

But instead of being happy at the close address, the circumstances under which it was said, only made Faruq's skin crawl.

He did not want to be associated with his guy and so he only turned his head.

But his mood turned even more sour right after hearing the next words drift into his ears.

"Ahem, my lord," Lord Liakit began with a slightly embarrassed cough, but still continued, "Now that we think about it, double might be a little too low for the risks we are taking…..We want four times."

The two men felt no shame when they decided to take advantage of one's ally, and instead really regretted they did not share territory with Djose, and so could not fleech some kind of land concession.

After all, money was good but not good as land.

"...." Faruq went past the stage of rage and anger and simply produced a stony face, glaring at the two lords who had decided they too wanted a piece of the meat with smoldering rage in his eyes.

'Well since I have drunk the poison, might as well drink the pot,' But the man was calm enough to still make rational judgments, and so in a cold voice responded,

"Fine! I will give you five times the amount. But only if we win."

"Hahaha, great, great!" The two lords readily cheered, believing the war was already in the bag.

Finally, done with convincing these parasites as Faruq would like to call them, Faruq at last finalized some last-moment strategies, and then turned to the leader of the Jahal mercenaries Azab, who had been mute up until now, to only say, "Everything will depend on you."

"Don't worry young master, my men are ready," Azab confidently replied.

He had fought wars harder than these.

And thus the order to reengage the enemy was given out as trumpets blared out signaling the restart of the conflict, which the tired soldiers could only forcibly accept.

So most of the soldiers who were sitting in the middle of the field, drinking water and resting reluctantly got up, bringing power back to their feet and arms as they picked up their shields and spears and under the barks of their officers got into formation, ready to charge.

'Sigh, again,' They tiredly thought.

But compared to Alexander's men, they were the lucky ones.

Because Alexander's thought that the enemy would not attack today was long ago proven wrong as he quickly noticed that though the enemy infantry had retreated to a distance of around 500 meters, the Jahal mercenaries had not.

Yes, Faruq had decided to keep these expert men in the field, lobbying arrows all across the front and keeping Alexander's men generally on edge.

These mercenaries not only attacked the flanks but also sometimes tried to charge the center, though they never committed to it, and so all of them were fake.

The reason for that being obvious, the flaming chains.

If not for that new weapons, the Jahal mercenaries would have been able to charge pretty confidently without any threat of arrow fire from the flanks because Alexander's center was 1.5 kilometers long, and his crossbowmen could cover only around 200 meters to 300 meters on either side, leaving a safe corridor of about a kilometer for the mercenaries.

Which was more than enough to demolish the center.

But since they could not, the mercenaries settled for harassing all the front lines units, making fake charges, shooting arrows, mocking their opposition, and generally agitating the enemy, all in an effort to frustrate the enemy.

And they succeeded in this because even though the mercenaries failed to do any real damage, Alexander's men still had to respond to their attacks by raising their shields and keeping in formation, not getting any rest.

This was because they had to be ready to respond in case this attack was the real one, or if the attack was indeed a fake one, but the experienced mercenaries decided to turn it into a real one sensing the enemy's weakness.

This, in this way, though Faruq's men got two hours of rest, Alexander's men got none and where Faruq's men got to recover some strength, Alexander's men got weaker and weaker over time.

With their only saving grace being the rotation system which mitigated much of the damage.

"Thank Gaia, we can rotate our soldiers, Without that the battle might have been already over," Grahtos breathed a tense breath of relief as he waited with nervous trepidation while the enemy readied themselves for the next round.

A feeling shared by all, from grass root soldiers to even Alexander.

'What are they planning?' As it was obvious the enemy planned to attack again, for the enemy soldiers had not retreated to their camp, Alexander tried to think of what the enemy could do by them himself in their shoes.

But he failed to think of anything that could seriously threaten him.

And this was because Alexander failed to take into consideration that the routed slinger, archers, and cavalry had reorganized themselves, and were ready to fight again.

Because according to him, those men were done and dusted, and not a threat anymore.

And so, finally unable to find an answer, he decided to take some precautions,

"Grahtos, the one thousand infantry we have," He drew the attention of his cavalry captain, and instructed him the following, "Have them mount some of the horses we have captured. In this way, whatever tricks the enemy has, we will be able to respond to it quicker."

These units will not be true cavalry with the barding (horse armor) and lances, but light cavalry, who would be also able to fight as dismounted infantry if needed.

"....Yes, my lord," Grahtos saw the creation of a fully mobile reserve as a very good plan, and so immediately complied.

And as this transition was going on, the mercenaries kept up their attack, sapping away Alexander's strength.

One might posit whether the mercenaries who were also denied the rest would also become tired.

And the answer was yes, they would, as riding on any mount was tiring, and shooting bows was one of the most exhausting things to do on any battlefield.

Every other action on the battlefield, whether it we thrusting spears, swinging swords, or using lances, nothing was as physically draining as drawing a now.

Because it took a lot of strength.

This was very poorly reflected in video games, where usually, the dexterity stat was used when using bows, such as in the rouges class, while the strength stat was denominated to the fighter class using swords.

Whereas in reality it should have been the opposite, with swords requiring dexterity to skirt past the enemy's defense to stab him, while bows required great strength to pull back the string to launch the arrow.

And in the same vein, anyone who said a bow is a woman's weapon clearly had never touched a bow in his life.

Because it's far easier for females, who are generally weaker, to use a sword than wield a bow.

But ultimately these mercenaries were much more trained and experienced than Alexander's peasant levies, having literally decades of fighting wisdom ingrained in them, and so they were able to withstand much more punishment of the elements on the battlefield than Alexander's men.

This was a battle of endurance and a question of who could last longer.

And speaking of lasting long, the Jahal mercenaries seemed to have perfected the art of ammunition replenishment for their weapons, enabling them to stay on the battlefield for as long as they wished.

They did this by having a thousand (1,000) camels as mobile arrow carriers, with each beast able to carry 3,000 arrows, who would go around the battlefield and let the left riders refill their stocks then and there.

This not only meant the mercenaries could stay longer on the battlefield but also meant their own steeds would not tire as quickly as they did not need to make the long journey back to the supply wagons each time their quiver ran empty.

Whereas Alexander's own crossbowmen had their supply wagons to their rear, and arrow boys had to run to the frontlines to manually deliver the arrow.

The total number of which up until now being 1 million.

*Blare*, *Blare*, *Blare*

And amidst this resupply, did everyone on Alexander's side hear the call to restart the battle, as did Faruq's men, and thus the second round began.

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