Herald of Steel

To say Perseus was currently not in the best of moods would be an understatement.

He was cranky, angry, and frustrated, all of which was of course due to a storm of reasons that hit one after another consecutively.

One was that he had been on the march throughout the night, meaning he was sleepless, tired, and hungry.

He was meant to get some food after taking the manor, but that never happened due to the second reason, i.e.- ‘his house’ being set on fire by some scoundrels.

And tying to that same reason was how he had to now face the bitter pill of disappointment at having accomplished his goal of taking the manor but still not having achieved the desired result- i.e.- the capture of the city.

As for why, well came nicely to the third reason- Cambyses’s escape and the fierce counterattack under her order, one which had them pinned to the hill and was slowly whittling down.

Perseus was still unable to think of an effective strategy out of that one.

Fourthly was the deteriorating condition of his friend, who seemed to have gotten worse due to the general loss of blood and also all the recent movement.

And the fifth and perhaps the biggest reason for his bad mood was that he had no one to rely on in this time of need, having to be a one-man show.

This had happened primarily because when Laykash had shattered his left wing, a lot of experienced and veteran officers had died then, leaving a temporary ‘competency vacuum’ in the army.

A problem that was recently exasperated when a lot of personal bodyguards, who were experienced warriors and leaders themselves had also died to Juminus’s arrow fire.

So to plug those gaps Perseus had no other option than to install the leftovers, and many times even people from other parts of the administration.

With their abilities being questionable at best.

The poster child of this being perhaps Mithriditus himself.

Mithriditus was never a military leader and almost had zero experience in leading anything larger than a thousand men.

No, he preferred to let a few of his retainers he trusted to do the heavy lifting.

While he applied his talents to civilian administration.

And it was where he shone like the sun.

The man had gotten the respect he commanded not by relying on his father’s name, but by slowly climbing up through Adhania’s court.

He rose from a minor civil servant to an important clerk, to the protegee of a great minister to becoming a great minister himself, as time and time again he showcased his genius at managing coin, skillfully handling Tibias’s commerce until finally he became the country’s treasurer.

And in all these years, it was almost entirely his credit that the books were in black and not red, which was especially impressive given the massive war they had.

In fact, as a side note, it was in the interest of keeping the books black that he had recently contacted the Kaiser family, which inadvertently led to him brokering a series of deals between the two all of which culminated to the situation both sides found themselves in.

So it could be said it was Mithriditus who was the unwilling mastermind behind the chain of events.

But that was where praises for him had to stop.

Because when it came to the military,…. well, his caliber of generalship quickly became evident when Mithriditus had made that suggestion to Perseus without considering the bigger picture, something Leosydas would have never done,

And what made it even worse was that given Leosydas was in no position to fight, the commander of the army after Perseus by default went to Mithriditus, as he was the next highest ranking noble.

And it was also that realization that made Perseus even more anxious, for being a genius military leader, he hated incompetent subordinates.

But being also the king, he knew he could not sideline Mithriditus for someone else unless he had a very, very good reason.

No trumped-up charges would work against such an aged and prestigious man unless Perseus wanted to earn the ire of all the nobility.

Thus in some way, Perseus scolding the man could be seen as him trying to teach the noble about military affairs.

Though the way he delivered the lecture ensured Mithriditus had thrown all the lessons inside the trash bin a second after it had entered his ear.

Thus ultimately all this meant was that Perseus was left to try and handle everything on his own.

While TH, being right beside the king and knowing this was not how one talked to a noble as powerful as Mithriditus quickly chimed in to try and soothe the man’s sore heart, saying in a comforting tone,

“My lord, what His Majesty is trying to say is that our men are more valuable than the enemy’s! So it is much better for us to keep to the high grounds and let the other side tire itself out.”

“That would be far more prudent.”

It was not unknown how much of this was truly Perseus’s intention and how much it was TH’s own personal interpretation.

But that did not seem to matter as Mithriditus had by now gone silent, and after giving a stiff bow to the king, he silently excused himself.

While Perseus treated him like thin and only pursed his lips trying to think of a way to turn this around.

“Are the phalanxes not yet ready? Why is it taking so long?” And after a while, he turned to ask TH this, for the plan he at last came up with was to charge the enemy downhill with all his men simultaneously and hopefully break them in one go.

It was basically Mithriditus’s plan but with a lot more men.

And though TH very well understood this, if they wanted to keep his head he knew he had to keep his mouth shut.

So he promptly replied, “Yes sire, they have mostly formed up. All we need is your command and we can start!”

“Good, then….” But Perseus never got to finish that sentence.

Because a sharp, high-pitched cry suddenly pierced his ear, one which shouted,

“Enemy! Enemy from the left! Quick! The enemy is coming from the left!”

And this instantly made everyone, including Perseus spin their head towards the hill housing the cement plant, and the huge silhouette of Melodiass’s force marching towards them became as clear as day to every one of them.

Dressed in blue, these 15,000 infantrymen kicked up a whole lot of dust, as if announcing the approach of a raging storm, with the thundering boom of their steps making the nearby tress shake and vibrate, while they hurriedly charged down the hill, eager to draw blood.

And as they did, Melodias was filled with joy at seeing the terrain, for this hill had almost no trees or any other obstacles along its slopes, meaning he could fully deploy his troops along the slope in the standard formation without worry.

The reason for this deforestation was due to the workshops that laid on these parts, and thus the entire hill had been cleaned of its wooded landscape to make space for living.

Most of the cut trees were used as firewood for cooking and running the various furnaces, or turned into furniture, while the empty land was converted into farmland, used to feed the residents there, and let small animals like chickens and ghosts graze.

A plot of it was even planted with the ‘magical’ crop of Zanzna- beetroots.

All of which meant Melodias could charge straight towards Perseus without the worry of a chokepoint, just like Leosydas had simply hours ago.

“Fuuuuuckkkk!” And seeing this Perseus, could not help but let out an enraged roar like no one had ever heard.

He simply had not had the time or thinking space to even consider that the enemy could outflank them via that route, as this was not really apparent from where he was standing.

The Cisran Hills were really a byzantine collection of hills covering a huge area and covered in thick undergrowth that even if the king had state-of-the-art modern reconnaissance assets such as satellites, GPS, and drones he still might not have been able to spot that route going from the city to the hill.

So being outflanked as such was not really a discredit towards him.

But discredit or not, at the end of the day, all of this did not matter.

The only thing that mattered was that Melodias had caught them unaware and was rushing to attack them. .𝘤𝘰𝑚

And now it was up to Perseus to decide how to react.

But as it would seem, Perseus was suffering from a bit of ‘rage quitting’, where he seemed to have lost his will to fight, as evidenced by his enraged wounded roar, which made every single person in the camp feel their hearts somersault, and even some nearby birds were seen flying off from their trees at the sudden noise.

But then again, if one was in Perseus’s shoes, perhaps one might sympathize, given he had gotten so close, but was about to be thwarted at the last moment.

As to whether he could stop it, or whether Melodias would be able to smash through them, well, the time to tell that was!

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