Herald of Steel

“Haaah! Charge!”

It was with a huge euphoric roar and a jubilant shout that Juminus suddenly saw the dam of men burst open along the back door, the wall of armored flesh no longer able to withstand the tide of spears and shield bashes crashing against it.

The defenders there, under the constant poking and prodding of the phalangites’ sharp spears and unable to effectively attack back, were finally forced back from the mouth of the door, opening up a gap for the Tibians to exploit, and letting the red soldiers of death flood into the manor, thus finally destroying the last of the manor’s defenses.

Following this triumphant entry, the Tibians then immediately began to initiate a massacre, surrounding and killing anyone who resisted and dying the floor red.

As for Juminus, contrary to many of the men running in the opposite direction, towards the front door in hopes of escaping through there,

*Clang*

He fearlessly bought out his sword and began to charge toward the enemy, ready to kill as many as possible before he himself was inevitably killed.

The acting guard captain had no intention of surrendering and being taken a prisoner, and intended to die a martyr.

*Slash!*

And with his fearless charge, he even managed to cleanly decapitate a Tibian soldier from the back as he was out of his formation, the young man’s severed head sporting an incredulous expression like he was yet to realize what had happened.

But that was where Juminus’s glorious killing spree ended, a pitifully ephemeral spree.

Because instantly alarmed by their comrade’s demise, a few of his nearby brothers immediately reacted, sending merciless spear thrusts from all directions toward this sudden attacker.

And their numbers were so numerous and their attacks so multi-vectored that Juminus had no time to deflect even a single strike.

And so the man could only instinctively sway his body to try and place the attacks on parts of the body least important to him as a way to mitigate the damage, but even then ended up suffering a stab wound to his right arm, a puncture of his left shoulder, a deep hole on his right thigh and two deep penetration into the stomach.

“*Urgh*” Juminus could only let out a groan of regret as he felt the stinging pain at being hit, his mouth coughing up thick spittles of blood because of his injuries, while the momentum of the thrusts threw him off his balance and made him stagger.

But even with these grave injuries Juminus still stood, his legs violently wobbling and shaking as they tried to regain their posture and then counterattack, while the attackers retrieved their bloodied tips from his body and got ready to finish the job with a second jab.

‘So this is it huh!’ And seeing his fate written off the walls, Juminus could only let out a mirthless smile.

There was no way he could live the next strike, but even as the approach of the grim reaper was imminent, the man did not feel any fear.

Instead, the emotion he felt most strongly was perhaps regret.

Yes, regret!

But not regret at doing being able to win the battle or even properly defend the manor, but regret that he had not been able to find his mistress yet.

He envisioned her being in a secluded part of the manor, hiding, all alone and afraid, and then came the scenes of what the Tibians would do to her after they found her.

That was the thing that scared him the most,

In his mind, Juminus truly regretted not being able to save her.

‘Ahhhh, but maybe dying might not be so bad. Perhaps I can ask for her forgiveness now,’ But following this a sense of relief seemed to also wash over him, feeling the joy of the burden of heavy responsibility leave him, as his mind at one point substituted Cambyses for that little girl.

*Bang!*

But that impending multiple strikes of doom never came.

Because just as the second thrusts were to be made, from the back, another soldier suddenly struck Juminus on the head with his spear, the iron tip crashing right against the steel helmet and the chainmail underneath with the force of a truck, creating a loud, clanking sound, and almost spitting his head in two.

And though the helmet, made of superior material managed to withstand this without snapping like a bronze helmet would have done, thus preventing Juminus’s head from being popped open, it could not absorb the sheer momentum of the hit, thus making him dazed and start seeing stars all around, as several of his teeth got knocked out and even made him almost bite his tongue off.

*Thud!*

But even though the strike did not outright kill Juminus, the force of the impact, compounded with the other injuries on his body was enough to render him incapacitated, as he hit the stone floor with a dull, thud, even breaking his nose during the fall.

And immediately after a pool of blood began to surround his motionless body, as he bled copiously from his wound, his mouth, nose, and even with thin trickles from his head, turning the floor nearby a rusty red.

‘If is not dead yet, he will very soon be,’ Seeing this all the soldiers commented.

And then turning to give a nod of thanks to the man who had helped from behind, the soldiers left in search of other prey, for there was an abundance of it. 𝑜𝘷𝑙.𝘰𝑟𝑔

But what they didn’t know was that though Juminus was down he was not out, for the man’s injuries were nearly not as grievous as they looked at first sight.

The chainmail had worked superbly to mitigate a lot of the damage, plus the weapon used to hurt him, the spare was never a good killing instrument, but a great wounding weapon, designed to create holes and only large wounds.

Thus it still remained to be seen if the man could still come out of his alive.

And while Juminus lay unconscious on the floor for the time being, one of many, many corpses or half corpses dotted across, the Tibians brushed pats them and proceeded to gradually take full control of the entire premises.

With one side breached, it only took some time for the soldiers holding the staircases and other choke points to be flanked and then killed or captured.

While to add to the cheery on top of bad news, by this time, Leosydas had at last also managed to break through the front door on his own, thus linking his forces with his king.

And with this done, the resistance of the manor was effectively over for all men were killed or captured, while the women and children faced a fate much worse.

And for them, in a sort of macabre twist of fate, whereas before the manor offered the promise of safety and security, and a place they literally killed to get inside, now suddenly that same manor turned into a caged hell with no escape.

For though most of the soldiers attacking the manor were not as crazed and furious as the ones outside, who had already descended into levels of depravity rarely seen in the civilized world, and even started engaging in necrophilia or worse right in the open, but even then, these were still enemy soldiers conquering them after all.

And at this point in time, it had become somewhat customary to engage in such practices.

With the higher-ups turning a blind to it all and tacitly approving it, as they knew many men joined the army mostly for the allure of booty and women.

So forbidding this practice could cause desertion en mass or even foment a rebellion.

And besides, most of the higher-ups became higher-ups doing these things, and so in many cases, they even encouraged it as a kind of morale boost, with some of the more extreme even directly taking part in it with their entire unit as a ‘bonding experience.’

Hence the insides of the manor quickly turned into a hellish venue, as most of the soldiers started to engage in mounting the unwilling women and children taking refuge there, viciously tearing off their clothes and pouncing on them to taste that soft, succulent flesh.

Some chose to start doing it right away in front of everyone, not caring who saw or stared.

While others, being a bit more bashful, and being inside a manor, chose to take their unfortunate victims to one of the many vacant rooms, many times accompanied by their friend, for there were thousands of men and only a couple of hundred women.

And in there these women were forced to pleasure multiple men at once as they were violated many, many times over in every orifice, with them finding an ever-increasing long line of men still waiting for them after each shot.

In fact there were so violently preyed upon that most did not even have the time to let out loud cries as their mouths were always occupied, hence only capable of letting out pained, muffled whimpers.

Thus soon, as if hurt by seeing what was happening inside, the whole manor began to sound like it was breaking down, producing a heart-wrenching sensation for anyone with a heart.

And as Perseus at last entered the manor, his heart filled with euphoric elation, it was also somewhat damped by the surrounding sound but chose to ignore it.

It was the cost of war and he was willing to pay it gladly