Herald of Steel



The old man who expressed his concerns over the evolving situation was called Kalidus and in his younger years, he had worked as Lord Ponticus's adjudant, thus giving his current words a lot of weight.

And his concerns were further justified when supported by the next man, who was interestingly  Lapitus himself, as this time he sided against his boss, stepping forward and saying, 

"I too agree that we should do something."

"Just sitting behind the wall and hoping the enemy will give up like our ancestors said seems to be no longer working."

"And whatever we do, it should be done as soon as possible."

"Because every day we take more and more casualties. And every day our numbers dwindle that little bit."

"Just today we had 39 dead and 53 wounded. We cannot sustain this forever."

"If we do not stem the bleeding, or take action soon, then we might even lose the ability to do anything about it in the future even if we wanted to!"

Lapitus sounded very pessimistic about the situation by the end of it.

"Hmmmm," And facing all these officers' petitions, Lord Ponticus first and foremost let out a long drawn out sigh.

To be honest, even with the situation evolving to such, he still felt that leaving the safety of his wall would be a great mistake.

He had no basis for this, but gut feelings did not need any basis.

But he also knew gut feelings would not be enough to convince these men to stay put.

If he directly suggested such, he risked being seen as an old timer who lost his courage. 

"I heard there was a fire recently that burnt some of our food. How much was it….. I forgot." And at some point during his rumination, Lord Ponticus suddenly brought this up.

And Lapitus hastily confirmed, 

"Yes, one of the fireballs fired from the east side somehow managed to land on top of one of the granaries."

"What was unlucky was the fireball burnt through a part of the roof and drooped down into the actual grains inside, directly lighting those on fire."

"By the time we managed to get it under control….there was nothing left to rescue." The man sounded genuinely sad and bitter at the loss of all the precious produce.

And he was then joined by Kalidus too, who added,

"*Sigh*, shots from the sides never reached that far. The enemy lacks the high elevation there after all. So our patrols around those parts were less."

"But it seems one strike managed to somehow make it through!"

"What luck!" 

The old man sounded equally sad and bitter.

While Lord Ponticus could understand the context for the decreased patrol.

Given the enemy's cruel tactic, many of the men were sleep deprived, he included, and so it seemed that lowering the number of patrols was a type of necessary measure the garrison had been forced to take.

They had been able to get away with it for most of the time as Alexander did not have enough resources, particularly the cement to build more walls like he had done in the front, so the attacks from the side were less dangerous.

  But it seemed their luck had finally run out.

And Alexander was able to recoup all this bad luck with this one shot.

"So how much grain was there?" Lord Ponticus repeated the latter part of his question, this time while massaging his forehead.

He felt a slight migraine coming.

"About one fifth…a bit less than that." Came the straightforward answer.

And it made Lord Ponticus feel like a small stake had gone through his heart.

That was certainly not insignificant, and it did hurt his ability to last against this siege.

'We might need to start rationing,' The experienced general muttered to himself.

Though the food situation was not yet so dire, it certainly had the chance to be. 

Hence facing so many threats both from the outside and inside his own deteriorating domestic situation, Lord Ponticus knew he could not stave off the pressure from his officers.

So bringing his hand up and clasping them in front of him, this member of the royal family announced in a heavy voice,

"Okay. Given the current development of the situation, I believe it is indeed imperative that we strike."

And no sooner had he said this that a wave of delighted murmur buzzed across the room, as the officers rejoiced at having had wished come true.

But Lord Ponticus was not done yet.

So he continued unimpeded, raising his octaves a bit in order to drown out the muffled voices, 

"But not right now!"

"Now is not the time."

"We will attack two months from now."

"We will need this time to train the garrisons."

"And I will also personally write to His Majesty in the hopes some reinforcement can get here in time."

Lord Ponticus revealed this plan, which worked dashing some of the more cheerful spirits.

They were hoping to attack within the week.

But Lord Ponticus was of the mind to bolster his forces as much as he could before initiating an attack.

Now ideally, he should have asked this at least a month ago, just when the night terrors had started.

But he simply could not think things would have gotten so bad so quickly.

So he tried to fix his mistake now.

Better late than never I guess.

"Two months! That's too long my lord!" 

But predictably the timeline proposed by Lord Ponticus was too long for Kalidus's liking.

And he was supported by all the other officers too.

"One month! I think it would be a grave mistake to wait any more than one month." Lapitus quickly claimed.

"Yes! The enemy has already finished filling up the ditch. And the siege towers should not take more than one month to build. Certainly not two!" The very eager officer quickly joined, clutching his fist.

"We can train our troops within one month. Let us not any longer than that!" Another urged Lord Ponticus.

"...." And facing this combined pressure Lord Ponticus once again found himself on the back foot, as he struggled to get back control.

He could shout and use his authority and peerage to forcibly suppress it.

But he doubted that would be a long term solution

Using force against one's army was usually a bad idea.

The men might even charge out of the gates when push came to shove.

Or the alternative was that he could acquiesce to the officers.

But he really did not attack without any reinforcements from the capital.

He had a gut feeling he would lose if he did.

So thinking a bit, he decided to play his trump card, his one time use ace in the hole.

Stating in a heavy, boisterous manner, Lord Ponticus threw away these concerns officers had forcefully,

"The enemy will not be able to launch an attack within the next month. I have lived through more sieges than all of combined, and I'm sure of it."

"He has not set the necessary conditions."

"You talk about the siege towers being completed but you forget about the ramp."

"That ramp is yet to be anywhere close to being finished."

"And without that, he cannot move his siege towers."

"So we actually have time."

"We will attack when the time is right. Just as the enemy has finished his siege towers. We can then burn it after all the hard work he has done, hehehe," Lord Ponticus cunningly smirked, as if the enemy was dancing to his tunes, and finished by turning to the men and loudly announcing,

"Do not panic men! A panicking soldier is a weak soldier!"

"This city has stood for hundreds of years, it will stand for hundreds more!"

Lord Ponticus's heavy words and the enormous belt of experience he carried worked to convince the officers, and though reluctant, it seemed nobody was willing to challenge this authoritative figure of the royal family.

So they retreated for the second time.

But Lord Ponticus knew he would not be so lucky the third time.

He had managed to bluff his way out of his this time, but this ace could be done only one time.

There would be no pushing them back next time.

Thus as soon as his study was emptied, he immediately started writing a letter to PR, describing the present situation, as well as the enemy's new tactic and the imminent possibility of a dire predicament. 

Lord Ponticus then described his intended attack and ended the letter as such,

"The planned counterattack requires more men than I have at my disposal. Thus I urge His Majesty with the utmost urgency to send me at least 20,000 men within the next month."

"Or else though this subject is not afraid to give his life defending the Fortress of Fortresses, I fear it might be all for naught!"

Lord Ponticus put the sealed parchment at the hand of a skilled rider within an hour of adjourning the meeting and urged him to 'ride like the wind', instructing him to see the king as soon as he got there without any delay.

"Rest assured my lord. I will not fail you," And this man, though did not know the entire story, could immediately feel things were not going well with the city.

Thus he promised such.

And as Lord Ponticus watched the horse gallop away, all the way until it was no longer visible over the horizon, he really hoped some significant reinforcements would be headed towards his way as soon as possible.

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