Herald of Steel

In some ways, Perseus was glad the enemy chose to fight.

Because that meant he would get to try his new toys.

“Let’s show them the might of our new weapons- The catapults. I want to use it to grind their fighting spirit into dust…. under the heel of my stone volleys,” Perseus loudly proclaimed, wanting to defeat the soldiers at their highest morale and thus deal the greatest blow.

Thus, with the king’s command given, the curious wall defenders patiently waited, as they observed the enemy not launch a mass charging assault, or start lobbying arrow volleys as one would expect, but only move some strange wooden contraption on wheels up close to the walls, stopping around 100 meters from the walls.

Once there, a few soldiers then moved to then load a large rock onto a bucket that was attached to the arm, before another soldier at the back quickly pulled a level, making the arms shoot forward and upward.

*Shoo* And an instant later, the twenty-kilogram stone inside the wooden bucket-like structure almost soundlessly flew through the air, before

*Thud*, it impacted the stone walls with a dull, low thud, before rolling harmlessly down and cracking a bit in the process.

While atop the walls, this demonstration made all the defenders have this exact thought. ‘What was that! Did they really throw that big a rock from so far away? How!’

The initial shock of seeing the new weapon made many slightly panic.

With the sound of the impact and the subsequent slight chaos among the soldiers being large enough to even attract the attention of the council members still present nearby, many of whom rushed up to the ramparts to have a look at what was all that commotion about for themselves.

And as they laid their eyes on the very distinct shape of a catapult, squinting their eyes they could help but mutter, “What is that!”

*Shoo*, *Shoo* *Shoo*

While in the meantime, the other catapults started to launch their own projectiles, some failing to make the distance, but most hitting the wall, with one even going over the walls to narrowly miss a defender.

Perseus had arranged all the 30 catapults that the Kaiser family had given him along the right part of the wall, intent on focusing fire and bringing down that section of the wall.

And as the king deployed his secret weapon, seeing these never-before-seen devices, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind this was the thing that gave Tibias the courage to attack such as well fortified city head-on.

‘So this is the new weapon the king was talking about. To think there could be a weapon to lob up huge stones at such distances!’

Even many of the veteran soldiers were impressed seeing the weapon’s range and power, to say nothing of the green ones.

And so for the first two volleys, the wall defenders just stood there, not knowing what to do

Until….

“What are you gawking at? They are shooting at you! Shoot back!” The initial shock and awe finally wore off, especially among the veteran soldiers who were present there, with Menes barking this particular shout.

The armored giant was personally present on the rampart at the time, as he, along with many of his colleagues had gotten up to see the new weapon himself.

And then seeing the soldiers just stand there like wooden ducks even after an attack, he quickly snatched a crossbow from a nearby recent recruit who had become frozen with fear, and then as if to show how it was done, fired the first shot after taking aim. ．𝚌ｏｍ

And though it ultimately missed, the shot did its intended job, which was galvanizing the troops to join back in the fighting, as they felt their slight panic instantly dissipate upon seeing their general take personal charge.

Thus soon return fire began to rain out from the walls, and given the number of defenders there were, and how close together Perseus had put his catapults, the crossbowmen managed to concentrate their fire heavily on the enemy operators manning the weapons and managed to score quite a few kills even on their first volley.

A result which naturally caused a great deal of celebration to break out among the Zanzan ranks.

While Perseus suddenly felt his heart skip a beat faster in anxiety as he saw as many as ten of his men die just like that.

Which might not sound like a lot, but given that only around 200 of them used the catapult, losing such a large proportion on just the first volley was very brutal.

Never mind that these men were special troops specifically trained to operate and use these weapons, as not any Tom, Dick, or Harry could properly load, aim, fire, and most importantly maintain the weapon.

Especially not when the average peasant was not so bright.

‘When did the enemy have so many skilled archers?’ Thus, seeing the dead bodies, Perseus swore to himself in surprise, even wondering if they had so many trained deadeyes, why they did not use more of them in the previous battle.

For the king was of the opinion that perhaps if Menes had used more crossbowmen and used them more cleverly, the battle could have swung the other way even with the presence of the elephants.

But that was a mystery that could be solved another time.

Because right now, Perseus’s main concern was to get his men out of the arrow range.

“Pull back. Move back a hundred meters (100 m)!” He thus loudly shouted, even frantically waving his arm around to signal the retreat as he tried to save as many lives of his men as he could before the next volley of fire came.

And fortunately for him, given the crossbow’s low rate of fire, and Perseus’s own rapid order, the rest of the crew managed to retreat with relatively few casualties and re-set up their siege machines at around 200 meters distance.

Now, the reason why Perseus had not set this up right from the start was because this new weapon had a range of just about 200 m, meaning it was able to only barely cover that much.

And after testing with it, Perseus actually found that its success rate of actually hitting a target at these extreme ranges was quite dismal, as many times, the projectiles would simply be not able to cover this distance.

And the accuracy only started to improve at around the 150-meter mark and became quite good at 100 meters.

Hence, given that Perseus did not expect the enemy to have too many skilled archers, as he had only met around 1,000 of them on the battlefield, he had decided to boldly set his catapult at its most optimal range.

A decision that proved to be quite bloody for him.

So he changed tactics to the following.

“Shoot from here. And use smaller stones if you cannot reach the walls using the twenty kilograms.” He said to his catapults.

And then turning around, he ordered, “Send the archers and slingers forward. Tell them to harass the defenders. Keep them from attacking our siege machines!”

So after a while, the siege changed to this, with the catapults throwing irregular and sometimes even weak volleys at the walls, while the Tibian archers tried to draw the crossbowmen’s fire atop the wall.

But that stalemate did not last long.

Because the losses seemed to heavily favor the defenders.

Tibias seemed to have far more casualties than Zanzan.

Which was already expected as the attackers.

But even still the losses were far more than expected.

And this happened not only because the thousands of defenders on just that section of the wall far outnumbered the around 2,000 missile troops (there were around 1,000 javelin men who were kept in reserve) sent to thwart them.

But also because the Zanzan defenders were on top of a wall, meaning the increased elevation gave their arrows a greater range, so they were able to easily reach even the catapults at the back.

Hence though those precious men at the back were safer, they were certainly not safe.

And it was as such that the first day of the siege ended, having lasted from morning to dusk, though after the first few hours, the rest of the fighting was pretty light, with only sporadic exchange of arrow fire and the occasional one or two catapult fires.

And as such, it also ended with relatively few overall casualties on either side, but with Zanzan definitely coming up top.

A result that worked to very much please the higher-ups of Zanzan who felt very confident in their victory even against the new weapons, while the same outcome managed to very much frustrate Perseus.

“Dammit! When did this cursed city have this many good archers!” The king could not control himself from slamming his fist on the table in his room as he thought back on the day.

This was a day that was supposed to have been a glorious one for him.

He had expected if not take Zanzan, at least have a significant dent on it.

But he only ended up feeling like he had been drenched in rain.

And so after thinking a while, and pointing the reason to all the skilled archers, he summoned his adjutant and ordered,

“Go and interrogate the prisoners about all those new archers.”

“Where did they get it from? How much they are being paid? Why they are figting for Zanzan?”

“I want to know everything.”