Herald of Steel

Cambyses entered the backyard with Takfiz to find the entire place had been transformed, with the most immediate change being how large braziers were lit all around, turning the just recently dark and pitch-black back garden into a place bright enough to host a ball.

And matching the luminescence of that bright place was the energy all around, with the whole place buzzing with activity, the soft grounds being stomped with hurried steps and the air filled with the sounds of sharp barks, as every man, woman, and child moved with haste and urgency as if their lives depended on it.

Because their lives really did depend on it.

“Quick! Move quick! Men! Get in formation!”

“Sheilds! We need more shields”

“Crossbows here! Come here!”

“Arrows! This unit has not gotten their arrows!”

“Who is commanding this unit? Who is the commander here! Get back here!”

All sorts of loud inquiries, orders, and requests bombarded Cambyses’s ears as she entered the place, where she noticed about five to six hundred men and women seemed to be engaged there trying to contribute to the defense effort.

Some were running to the frontlines, some were loading off weapons from carts, some were moving such carts, little boys were seen acting as arrow boys, running to the frontlines to drop arrows for the soldiers, girls were feeding firewood to the braziers to keep the fires going, and the armed soldiers were shouting orders to try and co-ordinate everything.

Everyone and every age group could be seen contributing to the effort in some shape or form, all in the hopes of forming a coherent line of defense that would push away the attackers.

“Let’s go find Juminus,” And seeing this, Cambyses left the people to their devices and urged Takfiz to come and meet Juminus.

And the temporary guard was easy to find given his eye-catching armor and the small crowd that surrounded him, as each of them waited to receive their orders.

“Get me more shields. We do not have enough shields.”

“Tell the women they will need to start delivering arrows once the fight starts.”

“Find more crossbow bolts. 30,000 is not nearly enough.”

Juminus was heard loudly shouting these to his subordinates, who upon receiving the order appeared to run off in different directions to try and solve their respective problems.

“So how’s it going?” At last, once Juminus at last cleared his immediate backlog, Cambyses approached him, her tone more inquisitive than fearful.

And seeing her, Juminus subconsciously bolted his back a bit straighter, before giving a realistic answer,

“Mistress….*sigh*, it’s going as well as we could have hoped for. Not enough shields, not enough bolts, not enough men.”

Saying this Juminus then pointed his finger to the slope of the hill, “Look, the enemy is almost here. Look at their numbers. I really hope the garrison can get here in time,”

Just as Juminus pointed out, the mass of lights down the hill was indeed much closer than before, and getting ever closer.

While the number of lit torches easily told Cambyses that the enemy had to number at least in the upper thousands, at least 5,000- 6,000 even by the most conservative estimate.

“How many men do we have?” And seeing this naturally made Cambyses ask so.

“About 1,000 including the women and children slaves and servants. But men who can fight- 500-ish. ”

“And that it counting all the male servants, the workers of the workshop, and the palace and workshop guards combined.” Juminus readily gave the answer.

But a point to be noted here was even though the enemy seemed to outnumber them 10 to 1, the man did not actually answer with fear in his voice, but simply concern.

This guard had an adamantium heart.

And hearing this Cambyses replied stoically as such, “Whatever the numbers are, we must still hold the line nevertheless. Do whatever we can.”

Though internally she really regreeted that Alexander had taken 500 of the 600 men meant to protect the manor.

She could have really used those extra hands.

But it was actually her who had urged Alexander to do so, even though Alexander wanted to take only two hundred.

She had reasoned that Zanzan was completely safe and hence saw no reason to keep such a well-trained force just sitting at home when their master was outside the province facing who knows what kind of dangers.

“As long as you live, we can live on, whether in this life or the other. But if we lose you, this world will consume us,” Cambyses had famously said to Alexander in private.

And it was because of this reason, where Alexander’s safety was much more important than Cambyses’s that he had taken such a huge chunk of the force, leaving the manor so vulnerable.

And though it made perfect sense that the time, that decision was coming to bite Cambyses in the ass right now.

But what was done, was done.

The past could not be changed, and knowing this Cambyses put all her regrets to the trash can, and first introduced the old man to Juminus,

“Oh this Takfiz, he is the caretaker of the workshops. I’m sure you have heard of him,”

“Ah, yes, yes, we have gotten a lot of weapons and armor from there. Thank you,” Juminus was quick to greet with a smile.

But before Takfiz could reply, Cambyses was quick to interject to save time. 𝘦𝘯.𝘰𝘳𝘨

“Mmm, so I have decided to put him in charge of the supplies.” as she turned to Takfiz to delegate, “Takfiz, you will oversee everything at the back. The supplies, equipping the soldiers, and informing me once the lords reach here.”

“Make sure to keep the men and arrows coming,” Cambyses urged, to which Takfiz replied with a loud “Yes.”

After this, Cambyses turned to Juminus, who just had his job taken by Takfiz, and with a swing of her arms said to him,

“Take me to the frontlines. I want to see the defenses for myself.”

“Judging by the speed of their approaching, they could be here in as little as 15 to 20 minutes, or at worst half an hour.”

“You do not have time to waste here. The soldiers need you to be with them.”

And Juminus was quick to comply, as he took Cambyses near the edge of the hill, where she noticed a somewhat solid line had indeed been formed with a proper chain of command.

The one-hundred bodyguards in their iconic full-fledged armor, plus the guards that protected Alexander’s workshops formed the back row, divided into three groups of about 50 men each, arranged in two rows.

They were of course armed with the iconic ‘Instant bow’, placed in a checkerboard pattern so both rows could fire simultaneously without blocking the other’s view.

As for the arrows themselves, given the prodigious rate they were expected to be used in, the soldiers did not carry a quiver but were instead given a bucket or a pot next to their feet, each one filled to the brim with sharp bolts.

And funnily Cambyses noticed these most of these wooden buckets were ones used to bring water up from the wells.

“Ahhh, when I noticed we did not have enough quivers to go around, I got buckets and even some pots and pans from the kitchen,” Juminus explained himself, as he, who was originally stationed to guard the kitchens thought of this little innovation to solve the little problem.

But these buckets were not the only sources of arrows for the soldiers.

For just behind them, each group had a cart, filled to the brim with arrows.

“The workshop gave us 20,000 bolts. So about two carts of worth. They are already here.”

“And we had about 10,000 in the manor. That is the other cart. Hopefully, they can last until we get more,” Juminus explained the situation to Cambyses.

These experts 150 men were placed at the very back of the formation, forming the very rear units of the line.

And immediately in front of them stood another unit of crossbows, numbering about the same as them, and arrange in the same two-row formation.

While at the very front, to protect these 300 archers were about 200 infantrymen, though calling them proper infantrymen might be a stretch.

Because though they were equipped with all kinds of weapons going from the natural spear, to axes, scythes, hammers to even a shovel, most did not have that one iconic thing that makes an infantryman an infantryman- shields.

And when asked about this, Juminus simply replied they did not have enough at the manor.

And this made Cambyses quite incensed,

“Fool. What will the soldiers defend with when the enemy phalanx decided to skewer them with their spear?”

“Will they just stand there and let themselves be poked to death?

“What is even the use of having an infrared screen without a shield? They will run after the first hit.”

Cambyses shouted angrily and made Juminus shrink in fear.

Of course, he had thought about it before.

But had been unable to think of a solution, only hoping the enemy could be held at bay using the bows alone until supplies from the walls reached them.

And after her little tirade, for a while, Cambyses was unable too.

‘Is there no way?’ She regretfully thought, because without shields, this ‘naked’ infantry formation was useless.

Until she suddenly turned to spot an empty cart leaving the frontline after delivering something.

‘Cart! Let’s use the cart to form a barricade!’ An epiphany suddenly hit Cambyses