Herald of Steel

870 Perseus Vs Alexander (Part-5)

Lord Mithriditus's fearless solo charge into the mouth of the enemy and the rousing speech he gave as he rode to his death reverberated like a thunderclap across the entire battlefield, penetrating deep into the hearts of every Tibian present.

Even many of the Tibians on Alexander's side were affected.

This aged lord was one of the oldest statesmen of Tibias, having served three kings in his lifetime, Perseus's grandfather, father, and Perseus himself.

Having lived the greater part of his life in court, Mithriditus was highly respected by his peers and loved by the people as he was no tyrant.

So when his standard went down with him, many literally shed tears, such as PP.

The Crown Prince could not help but reminisce that Mithriditus, who unfortunately did not have any son, had always treated him like his own and lamented the fact with his death, Mithriditus's bloodline had come to an end, the rule of the family being transferred to his younger brother.

Thus the death of this elderly, legendary figure caused the entire noisy battlefield to descend into a suppressed silence for a brief while and there was not a single man who had even a speck of love for his country who did not lament this loss

But perhaps what they were most affected by was this great man's powerful speech just before he died, which was grand enough to be put on his tombstone.

It resounded greatly in the hearts of every Tibian.

"Come men! Are you going to run even after hearing that? Can your honor allow that? Charge! Get in line and charge! Charge for Lord Mithriditus! Push the enemy back! For victory!"

And very much catalyzed by this great sacrifice, the officers and even many of the grassroots men rallied, turning around with a great, euphoric,

"Hahhhaaa!" as Perseus's buckling frontlines turned solid once more.

The phalangites might have been down but they were not out of it yet.

As a matter of fact, they even started to launch a fierce counterattack, blunting the offense of the legionaries and even forcing them into a defensive posture for the time being as a storm of spear attacks whirlwinded around them.

Thus the battle once again entered a stalemate, with the center being locked in deadly combat for the third time, while Alexander's flanks were slowly eaten through.

"Dammit! We were so close!"And to say that this frustrated the legionaries would certainly be accurate.

The men had been fighting for hours under heavy, brutal conditions and there were multiple instances where they basically thought they had won.

But the dogged defense of the enemy kept denying them that sweet victory each and every time.

Each Tibian in the center fought like lions and gave such a staunch defense that even the better trained and numerically greater legionaries had to pause their offensive

This of course angered many of them, with some of the more impatient men even starting to get desperate and launching foolish attacks haphazardly, causing unnecessary casualties in their ranks.

"Calm! Calm!" While steady commanders like Melodias worked hard to maintain order and soothe the annoyed soldiers, proclaiming, "This is the enemy's last death throes. Be patient."

"Do not falter now! You have come so close. Remain steady and push them."

"They will tire themselves soon. Then you can slaughter them all!"

And it was with such a promise that the frontline once again froze, with both sides devolving into exchanging brutal spear and sword strikes and claiming many lives.

While at the back, Alexander too pursed his lips in annoyance, as he corrected his estimation about the enemy.

He did not think they would be so determined.

By his original estimation, the battle should have been won by now, but it seemed he had underestimated the enemy's tenacity.

"My lord, the right flanks cannot hold on! They are asking for reinforcements!" It was amidst such a state that suddenly a runner sent by Gnaeus came to Alexander in a panicked voice, detailing the situation there.

Given the battle did not end as JJ and Gnaeus had predicted, the latter finally shed his own pride and asked for support.

The Kaiser and Petricuno mercenaries were by now tearing through his ranks and the frontlines were basically cleared of the wagons.

So many of the peasant crossbowmen men had already started running.

A collapse there seemed imminent.

But even before the messenger could finish describing the predicament of their side, the same call came from Alexander's left flank, describing the same problem- the enemy flanks had penetrated deep into their wings and the men were on the verge of being routed.

This came as a much bigger surprise to Alexander as this flank, commanded by Lord Theony was not nearly as badly manned as Gnaeus's, but was instead composed of many of the participating nobles' personal retinues.

So in theory they should have been able to hold on longer.

But the messenger informed Alexander that upon seeing Mithriditus's glorious death and hearing his speech, many nobles seemed to have changed their minds.

Many, doubting themselves, had started to put up only a lackluster defense, giving away even at the slightest resistance, while others even began to desert the battlefield.

"Stop! Where are you going? Are you violating your oath?" And this happened despite Lord Theony's great protests.

The mustached, by now plump man seeing the situation developing began to repeatedly urge the nobles to rally their men and push back the Crown Prince who was leading the attack on this front, but many seemed unwilling and started to run with the excuse that the lines were about to be imminently breached.

While a few of the more vocal nobles even brazenly declared,

"Lord Theony. We swore to defend Pasha Alexander. But not attack our once king. We cannot do it. Lord Mithriditus's death will not let us do it. We are retreating from this battle. Think of us what you will."

Then turning around, a large number of nobles deserted en mass, their heart guilty over the choices they made as opposed to Mithriditus over the same situation and what that man had said in his dying moments.

And no matter the urging, reminding, or even threatening from Lord Theony's was able to change their mind.

Even when the matter of the oath was brought up, Lord Theony was only rebuked by the words that he too once had sworn an oath to Perseus, but broke it.

It was only at that point, understanding that his flank was doomed that Lord Theony had decided to ask for help from Alexander.

"Shit!" And hearing the unveiling of the great events on his left flanks, Alexander spat out this curse to himself.

Yes.

He did not curse the nobles for leaving, he cursed himself.

Because he knew he had messed up with the troop deployment in this battle.

He should have anticipated something like this.

In hindsight he should have never let the two wings be purely made up of Tibians, or more specifically of troops he had just conquered.

He should have blended some of his own men within, or at least changed the officers.

But in Alexander's defense, he had chosen to do this mainly because of how Lord Theony had personally reassured him that all the men were reliable and that he would personally take responsibility for them.

Furthermore, there was also the fact all the nobles had sworn oaths to him, which further reassured Alexander, as this was a very big thing at the time, and violating it was basically high treason, cursed by both men and the gods.

And lastly, the Tibians and Zanzanites both spoke different languages, meaning Alexander found it hard to have his officers lead them.

This was why he let the nobles operate autonomously.

And this was also why he did not mesh them in the center as he feared these troops would not be able to properly obey orders, instead opting to give them the much cushier option of defending the flanking with crossbows.

This way, Alexander figured the men would face less resistance and be less likely to break than in the battle intensive center.

After all, if he did put the Tibians in the center and then some run, well then a cascading effect could develop and Alexander might lose his entire middle section.

But perhaps most of all, in Alexander's mind, he did not think there was anything wrong with employing Tibians among his ranks because of historical precedence.

It was prevalent at this time, and even in Alexander's previous world, where the Romans regularly used auxiliaries alongside their own troops to bolster their numbers.

And it had to be even noted that Romans treated these outside troops pretty harshly too.

For instance- their rations were usually of poorer quality and many times they were treated as frontline cannon fodder, used primarily as fighters with the goal of tiring out the enemy before the Roman legionaries swooped in for the kill and all the glory.

Yet, despite all this, there was hardly ever rebellion from the auxiliaries.

So Alexander thought it would be a similar case here.

Thus imagine his dismay, as all of a sudden, even before he could muster his reserves and decide how to help the two sides, he witnessed the simultaneous collapse of both his flanks!

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