Herald of Steel

At Cambyses’s inquiry, Juminus produced a slight frown on his brows that was visible even through the helmet.

That question really revealed their current Achiell’s heel, and the man should have been commended to keep his reaction to just a mild reaction.

“Not many. 30,000 is really not a lot of arrows to begin with,” He frankly answered with a rueful shake of his head, before elaborating, “Our stocks here meant each of the 300 archers got a hundred (100_ arrows.”

“An average archer, he can shoot about 5 shots a minute. A crossbowman about 1 to 2 a minute. And as for the instant bow…well mistress can see for herself.”

The prodigious rate at which the instant bow ate up arrows was a scene to behold.

And though Juminus had suspected it before, seeing it firsthand was an eye-opening experience for him.

As was for Cambyses.

Saying this, Juminus here paused a bit to articulate his thoughts, perhaps ruminating on how to say the next words, before again starting.

“We have already told the men to try and conserve as many arrows as possible. But we also have to keep up a certain rate of fire to keep the enemy’s head and slow down their advance.”

“So as you can see, though the battle has only been going for 30 minutes, we are already two-thirds down.” Juminus pointed to the dwindling stock of bolts on the carts as he said so and ultimately finished by declaring,

“Given such, we can last maybe another 10 to 15 minutes!”

It was a grim prophecy.

Made all the more harrowing when Cambyses was able to see the enemy had managed to make remarkable progress even enough through such hardship, advancing almost a hundred and fifty meters (150 m) in the meantime, leaving them just fifty meters (50 m) away from reaching the frontlines.

Cambyses’s heart shook with fear and even a hint of despair as she could not believe any army would be able to still make their way up a hill under such heavy arrow fire.

It had to be remembered that Perseus was forced to channel his army through a narrow road up the hill, all while having to face the equivalent of around a thousand (1,000) archers raining incessant volleys sorely focused narrowly on them.

And the result of this was very visibly apparent even to Cambyses, who standing at the very back of her army, a distance of about a hundred meters (100 m).

But even from there, even under the darkness, Cambyses clearly spotted how mangled and torn the shields of the first few rows of the phalanx formations were. 𝘦𝘯.𝘰𝘳𝘨

Each of them had perhaps ten to twenty of these short bolts sticking out of them, and Cambyses dreaded to think how many of these arrowheads had pierced both the shield and arm behind it, locking it in place, and how much it must hurt to even hold on to their shields, much less march with it, keeping it level and steady.

These shields weighed around 10 to 15 kgs and wielding them even in normal times had to be daunting, much less under these perilous conditions.

So seeing the soldiers still persevere, Cambyses felt a foreboding feeling.

While her counterpart Perseus cheered his men on, knowing victory was so close he could smell it.

“One last push! One last push, and you can slaughter the men and have all their women. Make them pay for what they have done to you!” The king shouted.

This climb had definitely not been as easy as Cambyses presumed it to be.

To encourage his army forward through all the obstacles, he had to put his own personal bodyguards at the very front, and have them lead the attack, resulting in casualties among them could be described by only one word- Dessimation!

The concentrated fire, especially from the instant bow wreaked havoc on that unit, and if the casualty reports he got were true, Perseus was pretty sure after this battle, he would have to reconstitute this entire unit from scratch.

And that realization made his heart bleed.

Because it was not as if this was any other unit that he could have to remake.

It was arguably the most elite fighting unit in all of Adhania, formed with the sole purpose of defending their liege.

And the formidable warriors in their roster really showed that for among them there was arguably the best swordmaster in the country, a very talented horseman, and a formidable spear user to name only a few.

Any single one of their deaths would have been a tragedy.

But if going by the report his adjutant had delivered, all of them were either dead or close to death.

But though Perseus wept for them, with many of them even being his close friends, he did not regret his decision.

Nothing mattered as much as capturing Zanzan.

Both to him, and to them.

And it was because of this they followed Perseus’s orders without flinching, advancing stoically even amidst that lethal showing of arrows, slowly but methodically, and even heartlessly stepping over their comrades’ fallen bodies in the process if they had to, thus bravely using their own fleshy bodies as a bulwark to lead the rest of the peasants up the hill.

All for the final victory.

In the eyes of every Tibians, they were the very incarnation of the word ‘Hero.’

And as Cambyses’s gaze suddenly locked on to one of them, the crazed determination that burned within them actually scared the girl for a moment, as she doubted if her hastily recruited slaves and servants could stand against even one strike from them.

‘Hmmp! No matter what the gods are with us!’ But soon she stared back with an even manic gaze.

Cambyses was convinced even if the 500 men were to be slaughtered, and even if she were to join, the gods would find a way to save Zanzan.

She was sure of it, hence her eyes too began to blaze with a zealous fervor.

“Charge!” And just as she reinforced her conviction, did Perseus’s men reach close enough to the frontlines, and immediately afterward launched a manic charge a furious roar, where they lowered their spears and started to sprint forward, intent on skewering ‘every single of those fucking archers’ as they swore.

But alas!

Reality was much different than they had hoped.

Because though they managed to cross that last 20 meters in a heartbeat with negligible casualties, their dream of puncturing through one, two, or even three men at a time in retaliation for the attacks they suffered till now did not manifest.

Instead, most of them were met with the unpleasant sensation of iron hitting wood or the bronze plating of the shields, and soon afterward a few unlucky ones had one or two puncher wounds gifted to them, as the infantrymen standing securely behind the wagons first let the inanimate object absorb most of the blow and then counterattacked in their full fury.

“What!”

“Spears! Infantry!”

“The way forward is blocked!”

“They have infantry defending the top!”

And this came as a complete surprise to the Tibians, who let out panicked shouts of disbelief and even despair.

They could not believe it.

Up until now, they had always believed that reaching the top would be the end of their suffering, a place where they would be able to fan out, and then slaughter those abominable but now defenseless archers.

And it was that point that had given these reaching their breaking point to still continue.

But reality seemed to have hammered a cruel nail in the coffin to that wish.

For just in front of their most hated foe stood a row of infantrymen guarding them, protected by what seemed to be wagons.

The Tibians in the darkness had entirely missed these men or mistook them for archers, which was why they had commenced that suicidal charge.

The result of which were even more needless deaths of some very famous Tibian warriors.

And it was all for nothing.

Because not only had their charge failed, it was only now that the Tibians were becoming aware of the fact that Juminus had placed his troop at the very mouth of the road, which created a narrow choke point that was very hard to pass through, given Perseus’s two flanks were covered by dense wood.

And so bulldozing straight through seemed to be the only option.

An option given the only narrow road they could stand on would take a long time to carry out, if ever.

Yes!

Just arrows and archers were not the only tricks Cambyses’s sleeve.

They also had soldiers holding a dreadful choke point.

In fact, it was precisely because of his strategic location that Cambyses had allowed Juminus to defend outside the manor, and not use the manor’s stone walls to hole up inside and fire arrows in all directions.

And as Cambyses’s lines held, Perseus’s lines despaired.

These men had already been close to their breaking point and only the sweet desire of revenge that laid at the top of the hill had kept them going.

But now seeing that they would still have to go through this solid bulk of men, solidly entrenched in their position and defended by a thousand archer, even Perseus’s hardened bodyguards began to break down.

They had trekked up a treacherous route for almost six hours, under treacherous conditions, taking untold casualties, all to be stopped at literally the very mouth of the gate.

It was heartrending for them.