Herald of Steel

Chapter 878 Unexpected Developments

Alexander held a small council upon his scouts’ report of the king’s intention to assault his camp.

And there he declared to his officers, “We will not fight Perseus here. There is no need to. We will bait him to give us chase further into Tibias.”

“This will not only put strain on his supply train but also tire him out.”

“We can also use the time to raise some reinforcements from friendly cities, such as the garrisons.”

And to the officers, all these reasons that Alexander gave sounded quite good.

However, although sound, in reality, these were only rudimentary reasons, as Alexander kept the truly insightful ones restricted to him and his very close internal circle.

Alexander considered much of the intel he had received from the defecting messenger top secret and fearing a leak relegated it to only a few very trusted ears.

And it was these reasons that urged him to not engage Perseus right here and there, instead asking Alexander to run the man out of time.

After all, why fight a costly battle where there always existed the possibility of losing as well as the inevitable loss of Perseusecious lives, when you could simply run out the clock?

As per the messenger’s reveal none of them had been paid in months, so Alexander reasoned that if he drew out the conflict, surely the mercenaries would get frustrated with their lack of pay or results and rebel.

And since they made up a large part of Perseus’s army, even before this could happen, it was likely to make the king desperate.

And when you are desperate, you either make clouded judgments or are forced to make less than optimum plays just to stay in the game, kind of like drinking poison to stave off an unquenchable thirst.

Furthermore, courtesy of the messenger, Alexander was even aware of the acute ‘thirst’ for gold possessed by the king, and how he had committed the shameful act of sacking one of his own cities just to stave off the ravenous mercenaries, using the blood of his own people to sate it.

It was surely a very scandalous move, and Alexander really hoped Perseus would repeat that.

Because although one such act would not be enough to cause widespread condemnation if Perseus was to turn it into a habitual practice, Alexander knew that surely even his loyal men would turn on him.

After all, many of these cities would be overseen by nobles with their own friends and family as well as their wealth.

Plus there was the fact that given Perseus’s levied nature of the army, there was bound to them some men from these various cities that the king might sack right in front of them.

Surely that would get the men riled up.

And if that were to happen, Alexander very much planned to add fuel to the fire, using the Thesians as intermediaries to incite a mutiny among Perseus’s ranks.

If possible, Alexander even planned to make his own secret offer to the mercenaries, promising them enough coin to defect.

With the recent conquests, Alexander had quite some spare coin on his hand.

It was due to all these reasons that Alexander decided not to give Perseus what he wanted- another decisive battle, but challenged the king to pursue him if he really wanted to get his country back.

“Hahaha, look Your Majesty! They are running. The enemy is running. This surely a great victory for us!” However, unaware of Alexander’s trap, many of Perseus’s retainers rejoiced at seeing Alexander’s tail, thinking they had managed to make the other side take grievous losses.

To them, the destruction of the two wings proved that.

Thus they were eager to give chase and retrieve as much territory as possible.

And Perseus concurred, being elated to see the results.

He knew that with the win, his men needed to see some tangible results, so pressing on his presumed advantage, Perseus started to doggedly chase Alexander throughout the countryside, eager to catch up, liberating the lands and punishing the invaders.

However, this alacrity lasted only as much as five days, for contrary to his belief that he would be able to catch up soon and force a fight, the enemy appeared to him almost as far as the first day he had started. 𝘦𝑎.𝒸ℴ

Meaning Perseus had not been able to close any of the distance between the two parties despite the forced march he had put his men on.

In fact to the king it appeared as if the other side was happy to let him give them chase, but always making sure to keep a distance of a day or two’s match between themselves, not more, not less.

This was a result that very much surprised the man, as he found himself being caught off guard by the enemy’s marching pace.

Perseus had hoped to use his better knowledge of the terrain to catch up to Alexander.

But such a result was really to be expected.

After all, Alexander’s legionary formation was designed to be a light, nimble army, with much of the baggage train discarded in favor of the soldiers carrying their own equipment.

Thus, with the help of some local guides, the men were able to make quick progress despite traveling through the rough countryside.

Hence after about a week of this, Perseus found himself half hoping for Alexander to stop and give him a fight.

But that of course never happened, as Alexander only kept a fixed distance from Perseus, always baiting him to give chase but never letting himself be caught.

It was like as if they were afraid that the fish might escape if they ran too fast.

And after two weeks of this, the experienced king began to get a bad feeling seeing this.

However, despite his instinct, Perseus knew he had little choice other than to continue.

Hence, he took solace in the fact that he was ‘liberating’ many of his conquered lands and showing off to his men all the earth that the enemy was forced to discard as he tucked his tail and ran.

While in the case of Alexander, during his chase, the man found himself busy too, every day finding himself having to coordinate with the scouts and the local guides regarding the route they were going to take tomorrow.

This might sound a bit weird, as one would think the way back would be easy given Alexander had already come from there.

But Alexander was of course not retreating in a straight line for the capital.

That would have been too simple and even not be according to plan.

Because his goal was not to return to Parthenigh but to take Perseus on a wild goose chase all around southern Tibias.

Thus the man chose to use a much more circuitous route.

To do this, Alexander would first consult the surrounding local population about the terrain ahead, and then send riders two to three days ahead of the main force to scout out the place.

This was done to verify any false or simply misinformed information and avoid the pitfall of running into any difficult or untraversable terrain which could impede their march and let Perseus catch up.

But such precautions were largely unnecessary here, as southern Tibias was relatively very flat and there were few restricting terrains like marches and bogs scattered around.

Hence, throughout the fortnight, Perseus found himself always being offered the hope of being able to catch up to Alexander with just a little bit more marching.

It was amidst traveling as such that Perseus finally came to a city named Kalimat, situated near a river that was a tributary of a tributary of the mighty River Diannu.

And perched upon a solitary hill several kilometers west of the city, Alexander’s scouts quite quickly detected the royal, passing the information along to their camp some fifteen to twenty kilometers away.

Which Alexander received with only a muted nod, as it was only a standard report.

This was not the first time Perseus entered a city for the night during his chase, and Alexander expected nothing to happen, although he did hope the king sacked the city.

On that note, Alexander during the past days of travel had made sure to spread the news of Perseus’s shameful deed, sending small warning messages to all the cities he came by of the risk of letting Perseus in.

He had said to the scouting parties, “Go inform the governor of the cities that if Perseus decides to sack the city, they can open the gates and call for help from us.”

It was something that Alexander had done only on a whim, not expecting any result as he did not think the surrounding nobles in the vicinity, most of whom were still loyal to Perseus would believe such a thing, even if it was the truth.

And indeed most did not, many even pinning the blame on Alexander, saying that was all his doing and this was only a clever way to whitewash himself.

Hence imagine Alexander’s surprise when that very night, he was suddenly woken up by Hemicus, informing Alexander that one of the foraging parties he had sent out was now inside the city, besigning the king in the town’s market center, and they were asking for help!

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