Herald of Steel

“Quick! Turn quickly! Get in line! Form up!”

With Perseus suffering from a mild mental breakdown, Theony decided by himself to temporarily take charge of the army, putting it upon himself to try and change the tide, or at least stymie it long enough for Perseus to escape.

And to that effect, he instantly ordered the already gathered phalanx units at the back to turn to face the new enemy.

And as he gave that order, the young man thanked the gods that they had spotted the enemy at the earliest moment, just as they were crossing the peak.

‘Oh, everything is still not lost! We still have some time,’ He optimistically said to himself, as all the soldiers used every bit of the time they had on their hands to try and reorganize their formation.

While up above the hills, Melodias, upon seeing the enemy starting to form up along the wooden walls of the workshop, intending to use that as a defensive crutch, could not help but *tsk* a bit in his heart.

Only if he could have carried out a sneak attack like Menes did.

But he understood that was basically impossible to do.

After all, it was hard to hide a marching army on top of a hill in broad daylight.

“Charge!”

“Break through!”

“Take back our city!”

And so the officers and commanders seeing the enemy line up urged their men to march faster, wanting to make contact with the enemy as soon as possible.

But the steep slope of the hill meant such a rapid move was never really possible.

And if pushed too hard, the entire army risked tripping and tumbling down the hill, smashing into the enemy in the form of a giant ball of human flesh.

Perhaps an effective cannonball tactic, but definitely not recommended.

So the officers soon realized it would be far more prudent to take it slow and maintain a coherent formation, thus giving Tibias the slightest chance to try and defend themselves.

*Shoo*, *Shoo*, *Shoo*

But though the Tibias got to form some sort of a solid line, it was nevertheless hastily organized, and so when the rain of pillas came, followed by the charge downhill, the legionaries roaring, *Arghhhh*,

The phalangites nearly snapped from the casualties suffered then and there.

It was a very heavy charge, and along some points in the line, Perseus noticed that the legionaries had pushed them back by as much as a hundred meters.

And as if energized by the success of his colleague, Menes also ordered an almost suicidal charge along his line, intending to catch the shaken defenders off guard or at the very least pin them down so that they could not provide assistance to the other parts.

“Charge! Charge men! Do not let the other side take the glory for your efforts. Remember they were only there because you fought tooth and nail here,” The giant was heard loudly urging.

“My lord, retreat! Please retreat! I will hold them off!”

While on Perseus’s end, his adjutant came to him with this plea, which implicity meant, ‘We cannot keep the line for too long. I will command the rear guard. You make your getaway!’

“….” And hearing this report, Perseus clenched his jaws so hard that he felt he would break his own teeth.

‘So close, yet so far,’ The man could not remember how many times he had thought of that exact phrase in the last twelve hours.

But seeing things develop to what they had now, the goal really seemed too far.

The enemy was attacking from both sides and the forces Perseus had gathered in hopes of launching a counterattack were now being deployed to hold the other front.

Even for him, to win against close to 30,000 using his 18,000- 19,000 in an open battle of attrition was impossible.

And this was not even considering how tired and exhausted his troops were after the entire night march.

Sooner or later they would break.

And understanding this, Perseus was forced to accept reality.

But he was not yet resigned to it.

So he ordered Theony,

“You go take control of the frontlines personally. Try to hold on for as long as possible.”

“I want to stay here a bit longer and get some of the gold in the manor.” as he looked up at the manor in front of him. 𝗼𝐯𝐞𝐥．𝐜𝐨𝗺

Perseus noticed that the flames on the first floor had subsided by now, probably due to having eaten up all its fuel.

And while the inferno was still raging on on the second and third floor, even filling much of the first floor with smoke, Perseus still wanted to try his luck getting to the treasury located in the basement.

While hearing the command Theony was baffled, even feeling like he had just been struck by thunder.

The adjutant simply could not believe greed would manage to take hold of Perseus at this crucial time!

Sure Theony had his subordinates inform him about the literal mountain of gold underneath the manor, which, being the loyal adjutant he was, then had off-handedly mentioned it to Perseus during one of his many reports about the fire.

But how could he have ever thought it would come to bite him now?

“Your Majesty, is it really the time?” It took Theony the courage to question the king, though what he really meant to say was ‘Now is not the time!’ in an alarmed, exasperated voice.

“Yes, it is!” To this Perseus replied in a very stern voice, saying, “Even if we cannot get the city, we have to get some of the gold.”

“Or I will not be able to answer to the people.”

“…….” The king’s explanation did not produce an understanding look of acceptance in Theony, but his eyes only bulged and if not for the natural etiquette he had been groomed with from birth, he would have even gaped wide.

‘Why does it matter whether you can answer to the people or not if you end up getting captured or worse?’ The man said to himself.

And as if sensing this incredulous gaze, Perseus produced a wry smile that Theony had never seen his king have before, as he then pointed his head up into the sky and in an almost mournful voice explained,

“A lot of nobles died in this campaign. And when I go back, they will want me to show something for it.’

“So whether I die here, on top of this hill, or leave empty-handed, it is all the same!”

“!!!!” Theony had never thought about it that way.

‘It seems that even kings have their difficulties,’ The young man said to himself, feeling he learned something critical about life today.

The master that he viewed as all-powerful, holding the image of a man able to command the entire country to sit and stand at the utterance of a single word was scattered, and Theony understood that even someone called ‘The king’ was not out of reproach.

Indeed a lot of nobles, many of them very heavyweights in their own right had died in this campaign, and as the supreme general of the army, these families would surely hold Perseus responsible, demanding land or gold as an indemnity.

“…..I understand.” Thus, understanding where his king was coming from, Theony at last produced a nod, promising, “I will try to hold on for as long as possible. But please hurry your Majesty. We haven’t got much time.”

“Good! Then I will leave here to you then, Theony.”

No one could understand just how much it hurt Perseus to say this, but some evidence of it could be seen from how the man sounded a bit choked and if one noticed clearly, even had reddened eyes.

If he could, he would not have resorted to this dangerous gamble.

“Then…..please exchange armor with me, Your Majesty!”

Theony then suddenly made this request, intending to take his place.

And this made Perseus almost tear up.

But silently he complied, knowing how significant that would be.

And so soon the costume change was done and as Theony left, he only gave a regal bow, and then silently left towards the frontlines.

And got a roaring cheer from the crowd who thought the king himself was joining them.

While Perseus looked at the back of his man with teary eyes, knowing this might very well he saw the man.

Either he might die, or Perseus might himself be captured after failing to escape.

“Be sure to surrender once the enemy breaks through. Kings are profitable to capture,”

And as Perseus and Theony changed clothes, he had urged Theony this.

And now seeing the man go, Perseus’s eyes lingered on him for a while, before finally he decided time was of the essence and turned his horse to go find Mithriditus, asking him to head the ‘gold expediotn’.

“Your Majesty, you go! And it will take as much gold as I can, and meet up.” And hearing this Mithriditus did not shun away from his duties, but like Theony, only urged Perseus to leave first.

But Perseus would not accept, stubbornly saying, “No! There is no point in me escaping alone without the gold. I will go with the gold, or I will die.”

And then to shut Mithriditus down, he pointedly said,

“And don’t bother bringing up the Kaiser family. You should understand better than me that they will likely find a way to make trouble for us given this result!”

And this made the old man go silent before he was forced to give a nod.

So soon, some of the men in the rear, and even some prisoners were quickly recruited to try and excavate the gold, wrapping their entire faces in whatever clothes they could find to fight the smoke, and after douching their entire bodies with water, they ran inside the still scalding hot building, additionally carrying buckets of water to use if needed.

But soon they came up empty-handed,

Because it seemed that although the first floor was relatively cooler, the basement was still like a burning inferno, as the heat was unable to escape through the narrow gaps.

Meaning no one was able to remotely approach the room, not to even mention enter it.

Cambyses had managed to save her gold.

‘Darm!’

And hearing this, Perseus felt his spirits break, as he understood, by delaying so much, he had lost even more men and got nothing in return.

“Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!”

While seeing things going where it was, Mithriditus took it upon himself to shout this order, though, without the bugle that sounded the retreat, he could only use his voice.

But nevertheless, this signaled the end of Perseus’s resistance.

Cambyses had won!