Herald of Steel



Alexander's charge had unfortunately missed the unit Ural and his cousin was in, thus enabling both men to manage to withstand the initial blow.

But withstanding the psychological blow was far harder, as evidenced by how both the men stayed rooted to their spot momentarily not knowing what to do, only looking ahead dumbfoundedly as they took in the visceral horror around them.

All around there were their fallen comrades, strew about, groaning and screaming in pain, while behind them was a pile-up of horses ad men as they were unable to stop in time against the charge.

'Wha…what happened?' Almost every one of them asked because they were unable to understand how this had happened.

Because according to their logic, Alexander and his co should have been skewered just like the people on the ground.

And a similar but even more horrifying sight was created around the left flank where Grahtos struck, as the combined charge of 500 heavy cavalry had decimated the center of the Jahal mercenaries behind recognition.

And unfortunately for Faruq's side, their luck had finally run out, and this time they had lost one of their best warriors as one of the initial casualties.

And that was Azab, the leader of the Jahal mercenaries, who was in the very first echelons of the unit dead center in the middle.

He died in the very first strike, when a lance pierced right through his solid sternum, destroying his ribs in the process and then flinging him off his camel as he was hurled several feet into the air.

But even after suffering such grievous injuries, the man had not died yet, as he croaked and choked through the bloody foam coming out of his mouth, the intense pain making him see flashes of the imminent approach of death.

And it was granted to him momentarily later, for the place where he landed had a scared camel, who gave horrifying belated bleat as it threw off its rider and raised his feet, before caving Azab's face in.

Blood, mucus, and teeth flew out immediately afterward, and more and more of such gore and blood continued coming out as the camel continued to stamp on the dead face multiple times until the face turned into a gooey, cracked candy.

It was a gruesome sight to behold.

And though it was just one of the thousands of macabre sights that filled this hell disguised as the battlefield, but still, for the Jahal mercenaries, no matter how elite and veteran they were, they were still shocked and saddened by the sudden loss of their leader in such a horrible way.

For all his shortcomings, at least to them, Azab was an honorable man, a good leader, and even somewhat of a father figure.

And as they watched the man die by the enemy's strange tactic and weapon, leaderless and shocked, they were momentarily unsure of what to do.

Ural too was in a similar position, as he estimated that the entire unit that Alexander smashed against might not be able to fight effectively for months, for they likely suffered fractures and sprains and internal bleeding from both the charge and the crushing of men and horse when Alexander violently pushed them back.

And the man was trying to figure out what happened and how to deal with it.

But just because the opposing two sides were unsure of their next action did not mean Alexander and Grahtos were the same.

Very much to the contrary, these two men perfectly knew what to do, and so they shouted "Again!", as they took advantage of the enemy's momentary lapse in judgment to turn around their horses without opposition and readied themselves for a second charge.

And as they did this, in Alexander's case, the light skirmishers engaged the blocks of cavalry to his side in the traditional sense, with rapid spears thrusts and javelin fire on the distracted troops, thus keeping them too busy to interfere with Alexander who was in a vulnerable possible while he changed his formation.

Which involved having his men split up right down the middle, one turning left, the other right, while they rode back to the starting line to restart their charge.

And naturally, this thinner, less manned formation was much weaker, hence the need for screening.

And just like the two light skirmisher units protected Alexander's flanks, his rear was also protected by the two units that trailed behind him.

As soon as the charge ended, as Alexander had discussed before, his unit did not engage in melee with the remaining survivor to take advantage of the situation and break through the remaining defenses.

But they instead retreated, throwing away their destroyed lances, and then parting themselves in two, before escaping from both the right and left, thus minimizing the time needed to escape.

After which they joined up at the back to ready themselves for a second attack.

And this quick splitting down the middle maneuver also gave the units in the immediate back the chance to come forward and occupy the space Alexander occupied, after which with a crazed roar they charged with spears against the dazed troops, cutting them down with extreme prejudice, while the skirmishers in the third row threw their javelins, the combined attack of which finally destroying the first cavalry unit.

And now in that column, it was just one of Ural's units facing two of Alexander's.

And this was what Alexander wanted to do, to use a large mass of soldiers along a narrow, selected line to break the enemy, and once that was done, then, have the cavalry swing around to hit the enemy's rear.

Or that the risky plan if the enemy did not rout.

As was expressed by this regretful thought by Alexander, 'Dammit! They did not break! Tenacious bastards.'

Though the actual reason for the cavalry still holding on was that Alexander's numbers were too few.

Only 100 of them had charged with their lance against the 1,300, hence unable to deal overwhelming damage to Ural.

Instead, if all six hundred had charged and dealt damage similar to Grahtos, it was likely these already once-routed men would have broke rank and run.

But since that did not happen, Alexander had no option but to gallop back at full speed back to the starting point 200 meters back, and then, equipping his second and last lance from the steed's back, lined up for a follow-up attack.

Alexander was very nervous about this second charge, because if this did not break the enemy, he would be placed in a really tight pinch, as he would then be all out of lances, and thus unable to again charge.

And if he wanted to do so again, then he would have to retrieve more lances from his camp which was all the way back some kilometer away.

This was certainly not possible in the middle of the combat.

And then to make matters even worse, he noticed already that his outnumbered light skirmishers were being overwhelmed, even within this short time, as the wings of Ural's closed in on them, and started attacking them from multiple sides, reaping significant casualties in the process and causing the men's morale to plummet like a lead balloon.

The reason for such a rapid change towards the worse was multifold.

One because these light skirmishers were originally infantry, and many of them had never properly ridden a horse and thus were unable to properly coordinate with their beasts and companions to put up an effective resistance.

Two was the fact that they faced elite soldiers who had practiced their whole lives for such kind of battle, and those who had gotten over their initial fear and were now raging over their dead companion, showing little regard for their lives as they hacked and slashed at the green riders.

And three was that they were vastly outnumbered, so it was only a matter of time before the 500 cavalry broke and ran.

In fact, with Alexander not around, even within this short amount of time, it could be seen they were wavering.

This was not a good sign.

Now, not everything was doom and gloom for Alexander.

He had at least noticed the contingent of infantry support he had asked for slowly making toward him.

If they got here, things would certainly get better.

But they were still about 10 minutes away, and even if they did get here, it was not like things were going to magically solve themselves.

They were still infantry, meaning the enemy would still have the mobility advantage, and might even outflank them.

But still, with them, and the 600 light and heavy cavalry, Alexander was confident about forming a solid line.

Which might then give Grahtos enough time to come and save him if things went well for the man there.

But all these were all desperate options, all of which would put Alexander right in the crosshairs. And so the best option was for Alexander to try and rout the enemy.

And if that did not happen, then for his contingencies to be implemented, Alexander would need to hold on till that point.

And so regardless of which reason was used, the second charge was needed.

Either to destroy the enemy or relieve the pressure on the 500 men.

"We will hit the right wing," Alexander thus loudly shouted while raising his lance high up into the sky, drawing attention to himself, before lowering his weapon to restart the attack.

This attack could very much make or break the result of the battle, and even make or break the destinies of Alexander and all those who follow him.

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