Herald of Steel

When the captain of the city guards had informed everyone of the disaster unfolding right next to them, the very first thought that had went through Papando's mind was that it was all a ploy by Perseus, cock sure that what the mercenaries were doing was all orchestrated by the very man sitting on the chair of highest honor.

'This is exactly what the Lord of Zanzan had warned us about.'

At the news of his city being sacked, Papando actually felt a bit elated initially, as the man saw himself as being vindicated in his suspicions towards the king.

And this conviction that Perseus was the real puppet master was so strong that he would have bet not only his money but his very life too on that hypothesis.

After all, the man had Perseus's precedence to back up his thoughts.

Thus when Papando saw his father plead to Perseus asking for help, his very first instinct had been to try and shout incredulously at the members of the court, "What are you people doing asking help from him? He is the mastermind! He did it once, now he is trying to do it again!"

But Papando of course suppressed it.

He knew he would likely be silenced the moment he uttered this.

And it would not have to be Perseus who did it either.

No, his father would have been more than glad to do it.

So seeing the man who sired him grovel at the 'architect of the whole thing', the son had sneered, 'Heh! This is like watching a chicken ask for help from a fox.'

And then he grit his teeth and bid his time, as his mind raced with the thought of wanting to open the gates and let in Grahtos.

By this point, Papando had put all his hopes of saving his city on only Alexander's men.

And fortunately for him, Papando did not have to wait long for that chance to present itself, as Perseus and the city lord quickly left the party with their guards to go take a look at the situation for themselves, thus leaving Papando all alone to do what he liked.

The city lord had pronounced a throwaway line at Papando asking him to look after the place while he was away, but Papando of course did not care.

Instead, just as planned, he quickly led a small number of his guards who were also his conspirators towards that fateful western part of the city gate and luckily found the place that would be usually guarded by at least a squad men even at the worst of times, now unnaturally vacant.

In fact, from the looks of it, Papando found the place to be literally deserted.

But then again that was understandable if one took into account just what was happening to the city right now.

All the guards stationed here naturally had families and loved ones of their own residing inside, so it was only human that they rushed to confirm their safety first.

But that also meant leaving the entrance to the city wide open for any people with 'nefarious thoughts.'

Thus taking advantage of the situation, Papando was unable to skip the 'persuade the guards or kill them' section of his adventure and quickly operated the complex mechanism to open the heavy wooden entrance.

Following which he lit up a torch and started to wave it around, signaling to Grahtos to make his move.

"Look! There! The signal. The gate's open."

And it did not take long for Papando to get a response, as the lookouts stationed by Grahtos on that solitary hill there quickly answered back with their own light signal, following which the camp of 5,000 men quickly started to organize themselves.

Since the soldiers already knew such an order could come, there was no panic among the ranks despite the time of the day, and the ranks quickly formed up under the moonless night, with many of the men holding torches to try and illuminate the pitch black surrounding.

And it was truly a pitch black surroundings.

It was a level of darkness that would be difficult for modern humans to relate to, as due to the advent of widespread use of electricity and abundance of artificial light, people rarely got to experience such true darkness, the level of darkness a night could truly possess.

Those who did experience it however found the description 'pitch black darkness' to be really apt, for if one was out on a moonless night with no light sources, you would feel almost that the surrounding darkness not only existed but appeared to be encroaching on one's own self, trying to devour you.

It was a feeling that had to be experienced to be truly appreciated, and in fact, when Alexander had first transmigrated, he was initially actually afraid to go out at night, just because of how very dark it was.

It was because of that even with numerous torches lit, Grahtos's contingent of 5,000 advanced towards the city slowly and cautiously, afraid of bumping into or tripping against someone or something along the way.

And once they did arrive at the gate, Grahtos sensibly did not push his entire army into but ordered,

"Send 500 men in as the vanguard first. Check if it is a trap."

Yes.

The man rightfully feared that leading his entire legion through the narrow streets, he would be beset from either side by the ambushing enemy and cut down in a pincer attack.

Grahtos of course did not trust Papando as much as he outwardly appeared to show, as neither did the man's officers, who raised the possibility that the whole thing might be Perseus's plan to cut down a large part, if not, at the very least a part of Alexander's army.

But then again, he also could not dismiss the man, for the bait was that lucrative.

Grahtos knew he had to bite and see, even if it might be a trap, Perseus was a such prize that it was worth almost any risk.

Hence Grahtos decided to proceed, but with a bit of caution.

500 men, acting as vanguards were sent as bait.

And composing them were mostly expendable levied peasants of the army, who were the unlucky few that came here in the first place due to being sent here by their more elite squad mates to gather ingredients on their behalf.

But then instead of being able to return, they were made to stay and camp here on Grahtos's order.

It was these men, tired from a whole day's march, and then woken up after only a few hours of sleep, that were chosen to be the sacrificial lambs, as bait against the possibility of a clever ambush.

So it was quite lucky for them that there was no such thing, as confirmed by the men after fanning out to the surrounding streets and finding them to be utterly deserted.

"Good!" Hearing the report and finding that what Papando had said was truly genuine, Grahtos was ecstatic.

He would never admit to it, but the real reason, the real reason and not the one he gave to his officers on why he did not inform Alexander of this opportunity but instead preferred to act on his own was because he wanted the glory of it.

He wanted to be the one to capture Perseus and take all of it.

It was very selfish of him, he knew that, but given the size of the prize, Grahtos could not resist.

'Perhaps I will be made a Talukder (Viscount) for this!' Grahtos dreamed.

Hence, with the man within his grasp, Grahtos turned to his men and loudly shouted to give one last rousing speech,

"Soldiers! The prize is right there!" He pointed towards the city,

"All you have to do is go and take it. There must be nothing in your mind except winning. A victory here will end the war. It will mean ultimate glory for all of you, it will mean ultimate glory for Zanzan, and it will mean ultimate glory for your lord, Pasha Alexander!"

"Now go! *Trumpet!*"

Making the men pumped up for battle, Grahtos quickly blew the battle trumpet, and instantly the legionaries began to pour into the city with loud cheers, "Ahhhh!"

Their overzealous cheers however had the unintended effect of drawing the attention of the nearby mercenaries, although at first these men were not alarmed.

Because they did not really know who was making such a huge ruckus.

They would have had to be psychic to hear a sound and assume that Papando had opened the gates and let Alexander's men inside the city.

So instead, due to the pitch black darkness of the night, they initially thought it was just a different group belonging to them who were perhaps getting a bit carried away with their fun.

Some of the more eager ones even ran towards the sound, thinking there was something interesting there.

Thus imagine their horror when they laid their eyes upon the telltale, distinct blue armor that had been burned into their retina as being the enemy's.

"Wha… what!"

"Ene…*agghh*!"

"Why are they…*ugghhh*"

And an instant later these 'vanguard' mercenaries were dead from a storm of projectiles.

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