Herald of Steel

Perseus felt his heart fall at seeing his army being stopped at the very edge of the gates to his dreams.

They were so close.

By now, given the amount of resistance he had encountered and through even the few loud shouts he could pick up on, he had become certain the manor was definitely up there.

Which made it all the more heartbreaking as knowing he had come so close, having endured such hardships, only to be presented with such a tough challenge once again…well it was enough to make even this charismatic leader with a heart of steel feel crestfallen.

And like him, his army, who had taken hundreds of casualties as dead or wounded to get here, amounting to as much as 5% of their total force, too felt like breaking.

It had to be noted that even now the arrow fire, though reduced in its intensity, had not stopped, but had continued to pick off a few of their unlucky comrades with each volley, decreasing morale lower and lower.

‘If I can’t break through that choke point soon, I will have to retreat,’ Perseus’s heart bled at the thought of coming so far, spilling so much blood, losing so many friends, and then ultimately having to go back empty-handed.

But even with that imminent inevitability, he was ultimately unable to think of a proper response.

And it seemed he was doomed to fail after coming so, so close.

Perseus actually felt his eyes turn red at the thought.

While his counterpart Cambyses too felt her eyes redden, but for the opposite emotion- joy, instead of sorrow.

“The enemy is stopped. Hold firm! Hold steady! The enemy is stopped!” The girl could be heard shouting at the top of her voice as she rode in her horse behind the lines.

Her worst nightmare of the lines snapping at the first charge did not come true and instead, the men seemed to be doing reasonably well.

‘The enemy can’t break through!’ And further looking for a bit at the current stalemate she concluded as such, for she could clearly see how after the initial charge, the Tibians seemed to have all their zeal sapped away, their attacks becoming slow and lethargic.

It was as if they had lost their will to fight.

And as she saw this, she understood the threat had been mostly neutralized.

All that remained was to gather the reinforcement and push them back.

And this realization made Cambyses feel a sense of intense, almost overwhelming relief washed over her.

Her heart, which until now seemed to be beating loud enough to smash out of her chest, finally calmed down, and she even began to feel a bit weak in her limbs as the adrenaline started to wear off.

“My lady, Lord Menes is here. As well as a few of the lords! They have all brought reinforcements!” And as if to add cream to the cake, suddenly Takfiz came running to Cambyses to inform her of this.

And a few moments later the evidence of this became clear, as hundreds of men began to pour into the backyard.

“Finally they are here!” And seeing the familiar armor and livery, made Cambyses mutter so in a sigh of relief.

It had to be nearly two hours since the first distress calls went out, and frankly, Cambyses was very irritated with the slow, lax response.

“My lady, we gravely apologize for the delay. Organizing the troops took longer than anticipated!” And as soon as the man leading them, Menes saw Cambyses approach them on horseback, the man slightly bowed as he said so.

To which Cambyses lightly glanced over him and produced a stoic nod, and then not deciding to criticize the general up front, instead only said, “Mmm, its good that you are. We were waiting for you.”

And then quickly gave the battlefield report, “We have stopped the enemy’s advance at the mouth of the hill. But we need your help to push them down. Please go assist our defenders!”

“Yes!” Menes replied so with a deep nod, though it was largely unnecessary as under his adjutant’s instructions, the frontlines had begun to be automatically reinforced.

And seeing their numbers swell, the Zanzan defenders excitedly cheered, while Perseus finally despaired.

He finally understood that there was no way he would be able to break through here now.

So he internally acknowledged his defeat and resolved to blow the retreat sound.

But just as he was ruminating on that, suddenly he noticed the winds of fortune seemed to turn towards him, as if performing a complete one-eighty, and started blessing him with all their fortune.

For all of a sudden, he started to see the enemy soldiers holding the chokepoint, whose solid formation till now was almost reminiscent of a steel wall, now appeared to be wavering and slowly breaking rank, almost like they were crumbling into a sand castle that was hit by the waves.

Perseus had no idea what could have made an enemy so close to victory do such a suicidal thing.

‘Perhaps their leaders have died somehow,’ He assumed for a split second.

But an instant later he figured it did not matter to him one bit why this happened.

Only that it did.

“Attack! The enemy has broken. He is routing! Attack!” So to immediately capitalize on the situation, Perseus in almost a maddened voice shouted like there was no tomorrow as he instantly ordered a counterattack.

While the soldiers at the frontlines too noticed his change, and with reddened eyes rushed forward like the very garden of Eden laid in front of them, killing and slaughtering anyone in the way.

Finally, their most hated enemy was in front of them, and after suffering for more than an hour under their arrows and spear, the Tibians were eager for revenge,

While the Zanzan defenders who had held so strong for so long, suddenly seemed to have lost all hope for victory and began to run away like headless chickens.

But then the question became what actually caused this change?

And to know that one had to go back to around the time Cambyses met with Menes and some of the other council members such as Grahtos, Menicus, Harun, and Jazum.

There, after only a brief time Takfiz gave the glad tidings, and the men the lords had bought with them began to fortify the frontlines, a very ominous message came to Cambyses.

Or more specifically it came to everyone present there.

For all of a sudden a barefooted man, with sunken eyes, and ragged clothes covered in bloodstains all over, burst through the back door, and in a hoarse, panicked, high-pitched voice shouted, “Enemies! There are enemies attacking the workshops. Look! Tens of thousands of enemies are coming from there.”

“Look!” The man repeated as he pointed up towards the hill to his right, and in a shrilled voice urged,

“Run! Run for your lives! The enemy has already broken through!”

The alarmed shouts and the gestures naturally drew everyone’s attention to him, and then to the place his fingers were pointing to.

And there they saw!

Even through the fog that had begun to settle in, they saw!

Torches!

Many torches! Many, many torches!

Numbering in the thousands, possibly tens of thousands if going by the man’s numbers, these torches were all rapidly descending down the hill, and seemed to be heading straight towards them!

And as you might have guessed, it was indeed Leosydas, who had first gone to the cement crushing plant, and then understanding that it was not the place, intended to turn back.

When suddenly he noticed another road leading to the same place, or from Leosydass’s perspective the same light source Perseus was attacking

And better still, he could clearly see the place that had become much more illuminated than before, with many, many, shadows seeming to move to and fro in the dim light.

And this left no doubt in Leosydas’s mind about what that could

“Found you!” The man hence let out a wolfish smile when he had seen this.

And then, deciding against turning back and rejoining his king, he instead opted to follow this second route, intent on attacking the manor from the other side.

And the closer he got, the more assured he became that it was the right path, for he could see almost no soldiers there to stop.

“Men! Hurry! The enemy has moved as its troops to fight against our liege. It is a golden opportunity. We must relieve His Majesty as soon as possible!” Leosydas had urged as he pushed his men up.

And he was absolutely right that in that order as Cambyses had indeed moved all the guards from the workshop that laid west of the manor to reinforce against Perseus. .

Leaving the way completely open for Leosydas.

The man’s gamble of not rejoining his king had paid off ten folds and more.

While at the manor, it soon became clear to every man, woman, and child that the enemy had just pulled off a successful two-pronged attack, and they had been already placed inside a cage, with the door about to be closed imminently.

And if they wanted to escape this imminent encirclement, the time to run was now!

Hence the complete collapse of the frontlines, which no one was capable of stopping,

While Cambyses sat atop her horse like a statue, her heart filled with only these two words,

‘I forgot!’ ‘I forgot!’ ‘I forgot!’

She kept repeating it.

Because she just remembered she had forgotten to send that contingent of soldiers to the cement plant like she had wanted to.