Herald of Steel

“C’mon boys, walk faster! We are almost there. You don’t want these stinky Tibians to get there before us, do you? ”

“Hahaha, that’s right! We need to get there first. Remember it’s the lord’s mansion we are attacking! There will surely be some fine women.”

“Right, right! Women with flesh as soft as putty and even whose ass smells like flowers. If you want to taste these sheltered lillies move your legs. Or you will be left with only the used ones that can’t even squeeze down properly.”

All these vulgar talks were very loudly said by the commanders and their lieutenants that were leading the troops, all in order to raise morale.

And as the troops closed in on their target, reaching almost the top of the hill, these men felt there was no need to maintain any secrecy.

As the contents of their talks, from the tone in their voice, one could be mistaken in thinking they were talking about something light and jovial, and not the grim business of forcibly taking a woman and violating her in the open often in groups, and then either killing her after or sometimes even during the act.

Also, another thing to note was how the many of the commanders leading the charge seemed to imply an inherent disdain for Tibias, which might seem strange at first but was actually due to the fact that the men at the front rows were not actually Tibians, but the mercenaries the Kaiser family had introduced to Perseus.

They were sent as the vanguard, as it was almost customary that the honor of leading an attack, which was always the most dangerous part of any offensive and caused the most casualties, would go to these sell-swords.

Never mind they were also attacking at night over pretty treacherous terrain, which they might have even gotten lost in if not for the light atop the hill and the previous scouting done by the forward forces.

But that was what the life of a mercenary was about, and so the men took the order on the chin and rushed up the hill, only taking a bit of solace that they would be the first to start the pillage and plunder.

“Huh! What’s this?”

But as they reached the top, dreams seemed to collide with reality.

Because at the top of the hill, there was no mansion!

Instead, the sight that was presented in front of the men first surprised and then confused them.

For in front of them, instead of a towering mansion and lush garden as such, there were only rows upon rows of log-cabin, from which a dimly lit glow pervaded outside, as a fire was kept lit inside each of them.

While the main source of the bright light was from a large open area a bit in the distance, where a strangely shaped black tower pointed into the sky, and faint silhouettes of men and animals could still be seen moving around.

Yes, by mistake the enemy army had in fact climbed the hill where the iron refinery was placed, and the thing most of the men were gazing at was actually the blast furnace.

Alexander’s mansion was actually on another hill entirely.

Later historians would debate how this grave mistake could have happened.

And even to those involved, i.e.- Perseus and his planners the matter would still remain a mystery.

Some would posit that perhaps on their way to their climb, somehow one of the men leading his unit at one point mistook the light from the iron smelting plant for the light from the manor and veered his men towards that, and everyone else just then followed that,

Some would say the soldiers simply got lost in the meandering trails along their trek and obscured by the heavy forestation, just lost their sense of direction, and ended up going in the wrong direction. .

While others would say the soldiers simply started at the wrong hill because the light that the scouts thought was of the manor during their initial reconnaissance was actually of the mines and the blast furnace.

But which was the truth would remain a mystery to everyone, when those involved, as not even Perseus would be sure how this mistake happened.

Only that it had happened.

While for the soldiers at the top, faced with this unfamiliar sight, understandably became confused.

It did not match what they were told to expect, nor had they even seen anything like this before, for the iron smelting plant was one of its kind in the world,

So they tried to designate the site as such, “What is this place? Some kind of new servant’s quarters?”

But the layout here did not really make sense either.

So these mercenaries, without having a Tibian representative to consult with were stumped for a bit.

But they also knew they did not have the luxury of just standing around and slowly figuring things out.

Time was running out and the men moving about inside were sure to alert others of their presence soon.

After all, even blind men tended to notice tens of thousands of men showing up at their doorsteps.

So knowing this, some of the more hot-blooded commanders and their men acted first, shouting, “Who cares where we are. Let’s kill them!” before rushing forward on their own.

And so, just like having a hammer makes all the problems look like a nail, seeing the weak, defenseless guards, the concealed mercenaries recklessly revealed themselves to the world, and the few, half-asleep guards were pounced upon without any warning before being cut down without even getting the chance to understand who had killed them.

“What…urrggh..”

“Ho….wh…”

“Enemy…”

Sword and spear strikes were upon these poor men in a flurry of dazzling, expert cuts, and the rushing mercenaries killed their prey without giving it the slightest chance of making even a little bit of sound.

In fact, the attack was so sudden and so skillfully done that the surrounding people were still largely unaware of this large force literally on their doorsteps.

Or they would have been if not for the unruly mercenaries.

“Ohhoohhoo, yeah!”

“Hahaha, kill, kill,”

“Women! Find the women!”

These men might have been a band of hardened veterans of many wears, but they were also quite loud, and never subtle with their actions.

Thus huge roars of jubilant cheers began to erupt across the ranks as waves of men started to crash into the large plant and without a care in the world, the vastly superior force began to carry out an indiscriminate slaughter, as if they wanted to silence any witness from relaying their position to the manor.

So quickly the paltry force of guards stationed there was cut down, and then thousands of men started kicking down the log house doors and going inside to paint the insides red using their swords and spears.

It was a macabre sight to behold, as many of the people were still sleeping when these fierce men dressed in red burst into their houses, and without any word but only a brutal cackle that sounded like from the devil himself, started to hack them to bits.

“Noo…”

“Who…why?”

“Tibians…Tibi..”

Fearful and mournful screams soon started to ring out across the hills, as one side danced with laughter, and another side howled in pain and fear.

“Stop! Stop! Turn back!”

But these sanguinary actions were certainly not sanctioned by Perseus or Leosydas, as evidenced by the latter shouting this especially loudly.

Being around the back of the army, Leosydas had not been able to quickly deduce they had made a mistake, and it took him a while to understand that whatever they were exactly destroying, though he could not say what it was, it was absolutely certain that it was not the dwelling abode of the city’s rulers.

They had made a mistake!

But by the time he came to this conclusion, the massacre was already on its way.

Something he certainly was against.

Not because he opposed the act in principle or anything so altruistic.

But because he felt given there had not been detected yet, if these mercenaries had not acted so rashly, even if they had climbed by the wrong hill, there was still a chance for them to turn back and try again at a later date after finding the proper route, while leaving the enemy none the wiser.

But now, that possibility had been blown to smithereens.

“Darn it, that’s why I hate mercenaries. This would have never happened if my troops were allowed to lead the charge just as I had asked Perseus.” And seeing the carnage unfold in front of him, Leosydas cursed as such.

He knew unlike these mercenaries his soldiers would have never acted without his express permission, and then, that little bit of possibility of still maintaining the secrecy would have been possible.

But Perseus had rejected that proposal fearing the losses such an elite unit would suffer while attacking through such terrain under such conditions.

He had already lost quite a few soldiers in the previous battle and then the following siege and hence was eager to avoid any more needless losses.

Thus he even made the apocalyptic prediction, ‘What if the entire thing is an ambush, and there is an army above the hill,’ and decided to make the mercenaries bear all the risk.

And given he thought it would be a straight run to the top, it was indeed a prudent thought.

But that thought was now proving to be very wrong.