Herald of Steel

“I will give you 500 mounted infantry. And they will act as your rear guard in case things go bad. But the others will stay with me just in case.” Alexander delineated his troop deployment.

And the reason for keeping the small amount back was not because he sensed something, but simply because of his cautious nature.

Alexander always believed in keeping some troops in the back no matter the situation just in case.

Which some would call smart, others cowardly.

But regardless, that was the deployment he wanted.

And seeing his staunch stanch, Grahtos could only nod and accept.

On the other side of the battlefield, Azab, whose command had been temporarily switched from the right flank to the left (this is the opposite when viewed from Alexander’s perspective), was currently swinging his cavalry all the way around the battlefield in a wide arc, intending to come around to smash into the left flank of Alexander’s infantry.

And while he was on the way, he ruefully thought, ‘So, the enemy did not give chase’.

The feigned retreat was a classic move, and he hoped to catch the enemy off guard using this, for if Alexander committed his reserve there, Azab’s path to success would become wide open.

And then Ural would not have been even needed. ．

‘Hmmp, I guess it’s true they are mercenaries,’ Azab thus grudgingly admired the enemy commander’s foresight for not taking the bait, attributing it to his former profession.

While soon, under the screen of the already 5,000 mercenaries on their right flank, the extra 4,500 camels, because 500 of these camels were supply camels, soon crossed and positioned themselves to their new side relatively undetected.

And then they soon readied themselves to charge.

Their formation was in the classic 10 by 10 men, 3 rows deep and 150 men wide, arranged as such because infantry formations tended to be thick and thus usually required greater mass to smash into before they broke.

And instead of using their iconic bow which they were famous for, Azab and his men equipped themselves with their sharp spears, and with shields up and spears pointed, these bloodthirsty men started their slow gallop into Alexander’s exposed left flank.

“Hahaha, so they are here,” Grahtos had noticed these extra men long ago.

After all, there was no way anyone was going to miss 4,500 camels when they were so close,

But instead of being scared of being outnumbered more than 3 to 1, the cavalry commander was actually thrilled.

Because to his knowledge, this engagement would be the world’s first clash between light skirmishers and heavy cavalry.

And this was an actual heavy cavalry, with heavy, thick chainmail horse armor, stirrups, and lances.

So Grahtos was looking very forward to seeing the results.

Because if they were anything replicative of the practice results they had, then it would be a bloodbath…for the mercenaries.

Time would tell.

And in anticipation of that Grahtos placed his 1,000 men evenly in two rows, forming 5 blocks of men per row, with each block being made of 100 men, in preparation for intercepting Azab’s much wider, 15-block row.

Then, to compensate for his shorter wing due to lower numbers, and thus mitigate the threat of encirclement he faced from Azab’s much wider wing, which would be able to fold and close around from both of his sides and trap him, Grahtos placed the 500 infantry-turned-light skirmishers evenly on both sides of the second row.

The idea was that when Grahtos charged, these 500 men would stay behind, and engage any enemy coming from either side to prevent a complete encirclement, at least until the 1,000 elite cavalry could break through.

And with this plan made, just as Azab led the charge from the front row, so did Grahtos, both doing so to increase ally morale, as their clash appeared imminent.

“So it was just as Grahtos said,” While from the back, Alexander muttered this under his breath, for it seemed like the landmass to the left side of his periphery vision was starting to move, caused by the two sides starting their charge.

When Alexander first saw the camel appear out of the horizon, he would wholeheartedly admit he was very scared.

But it was not because of what their appearance meant.

But what they could have meant.

If not for Grahtos today, Alexander would have been caught totally off guard by this move and would have most likely had to escape the battlefield, leaving his army and many of his retainers, and all his friends to die or be captured.

And that was if Alexander could escape at that.

So apart from breathing a sigh of relief, Alexander also felt his feet go cold at the thought of what it could have been.

But a second later, his relief was snatched away from him, and he was only left with cold feet.

For Hemicus had drawn his eyes to something troubling.

Something very troubling that was approaching him from the horizon around his right flank.

“What’s that?” Alexander squinted his eyes to get a better look after Hemicus pointed it out, but the dust being kicked up made it difficult to too well into the distance.

So to him it only looked like black dots moving slightly up and down, and shaking a bit side to side.

But paradoxically, that dust also gave away what it could be been.

Becasue nothing on the battlefield could kick up dust like that that fast except expect galloping horses.

“Cavalry! They are cavalry!” Hemicus shouted at the top of his in alarm.

And the fact that the usually nonchalant man reacted as such conveyed just how fearful and afraid the man was.

Of course, he was not fearful for himself, but for Alexander’s life.

And so immediately turned to Alexander to scream, “Run! Alexander, you must run!”

In his haste, he even addressed Alexander as normal as he felt the boy’s life was in mortal danger.

And this sudden development certainly made Alexander want to tuck tail and run.

He had grown to love the luxurious life of Zanzan, and for a brief moment, it seemed the earthly delights had eroded his will to fight.

But that was only for a brief moment.

“Calm down!” Alexander first and fore shouted, calming not only Hemicus and his personal bodyguards of 100, but also the 500 light skirmishers.

Just as the temptation of running away spread its sweet fragrance, Alexander remembered the thoughts he just had prior.

The thoughts about what would happen if he used his reserves before Azab’s men made their appearance.

And so he knew running away was not an option.

So since flight was not an option, fight was the only choice left.

Thus he calmly said to the people around, “The cavalry that is coming towards us is tiny. Remember all the scouting reports. All the enemy troops we know of are already here.”

“The 30,000 infantry are fighting our infantry.”

“The slinger and archers are fighting to the right.”

“The 10,000 mercenaries are to our left.”

“And the 6,000 charioteers are lying there” Alexander pointed to the ground in front of them, where there were still the tied-up prisoners.

‘So, what they have left to throw at us are the losers who ran away during the initial cavalry charge. So what are you afraid of such cowards?” Alexander sneered.

And then boosted morale by saying, “Think back to how those men had crashed, collided, and stumbled over each other when they saw our weapon. So how many do you think they have left? 100? 200? Maybe 500? We can easily take them on!”

Alexander shouted energetically while raising his fist to the sky.

“Yes!”

“Woohhooo,”

“Yeah!”

“Fight!”

And convinced by this, as Alexander’s bodyguards began to cheer at this, the other 500 soon followed.

While in reality, Alexander himself had no confidence in what he said.

Because though sounding very logical, there were some major flaws in his logic.

One was the assumption of such a small number of the cavalry, that Alexander simply chose because it was slightly lesser than his troop number of 600.

And this number was completely wrong, for Ural had more than 1,200 men, almost two and a half times Alexander’s estimate.

Two was the assumption that Ural had gotten no reinforcement.

But there was always the possibility that Ural had men in the camp, who had not participated in the initial charge for whatever reasons.

Or simply some of the servants in the camp were made into temporary soldiers.

And third was the assumption that it was Ural’s cavalry at all.

After all, with so many horses and camels running around, it was certainly possible that it was one or two thousand (1,000 – 2,000) Jahal mercenaries who were coming through this side to complete pincher.

This was certainly possible as the leftover others would be able to suppress Alexander’s flanks for long enough to complete this project.

And the force that Grahtos was engaging was just a distraction, a bait.

Any one of these made Alexander’s heart want to leap out of his mouth and run.

But he held.

And he put up a brave front.

A front of courage, calmness, and steadfast strength.

As he then instructed, “Hemicus, get you men to equip their lances. Arrange the formation in a wedge shape. We will charge against them!”

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