Herald of Steel

As the night descended and the hour of the act drew nearer, both Miss Linda and Alexander found themselves to be a bit relentless.

The former's reason was of course easily discernable.

Despite her hawkish rant, the act of trying to kill Alexander had not been taken lightly.

But given the situation, Alexander really had to go.

And thus even the not so religious lady suddenly found herself praying to the gods for success.

While Alexander's reason for nervousness was due to a multitude of reasons.

First of all, he really did not want this to happen due to how mismatched the forces were.

5,000 infantry vs 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry.

It was knowing this disparity that he had tried to avoid conflict at all costs, even spending 30 million ropals in an attempt to pay off the calamity.

But it seemed the mistress of fate had other ideas.

The other side thought too little of Alexander and too highly of themselves, and so it seemed that the only way left for Alexander to make them listen was to strike them down.

But this act was of course not as easy as it sounded.

Hence the ever cautious man considered whether or not there were any backup plans the other side might have in store should this fail.

And what that could be.

This meant that Alexander still felt himself to be partially in the dark about the whole thing.

Following that came the concern of the takeover of the mansion which would happen at night, and Alexander hoped that there would be no needless casualties.

Because in the darkness and the heat of the moment, it was very easy to make a mistake.

And if this mistake resulted in the death of someone like Miss Linda or Lord Nolan, never mind if it was one of his allies Lady Miranda or Lord Cassius, then he would have nowhere to shed his tears.

Of course the man had repeatedly urged his men about his, commanding them to be extra careful, but still, the concern remained.

In this way, it can be seen that even if the other side wanted Alexander dead, he did not want them dead, not necessarily because he was some kind of saint, but because that would cause a greater problem than it would solve.

Killing Miss Linda would draw Lord Parker's as well as the entire Margraves family's irk, and an irreconcilable irk at that, along with who knows, perhaps even Lady Miranda's given how the lady sometimes acted.

So the woman and her son were far more useful to him alive, as a very valuable bargaining chip.

And the same reason applied to Lord Nolan, just that this time it would Lord Cassius who would object, and surely object vehemently at that.

However all three of these concerns were trumped fully by this last one- the burning of the ships.

Alexander really hoped Remus would be able to pull this off successfully.

In fact, the man hoped for its success so much that Alexander thought that even if some of the other objectives failed, this one had to succeed, no matter what.

And to see to that it happened, Alexander had initially even wanted to lead the attack himself.

But found it too impractical.

For one, there was always the inherent danger of leading such a crack unit dead at night, where a simple stumble in the pitch black darkness might cause him to be trampled to death.

Alexander then also found that he had other matters that would require his hand in- such as placating the newly would be captured men and women after his men take over the mansion.

It had to be remembered that not even his allies Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius knew of Alexander's plans and so he feared that when the men 'secured' them, they might in panic and react in a way that would cause a completely avoidable tragedy.

So it was with such great balances in the sway in his mind that Alexander waited with a heightened heartbeat in an abandoned room a couple of rooms away from his usual abode, waiting for everything to unfold, being accompanied by the two Queens and five guardsmen.

The eight were in complete darkness, with only the light of the stars flitering in through the small wind, the moon having chosen to take his leave today.

They did not even dare to light a small lamp, fearing the source might give themselves away to any unforeseen prying eyes.

So they kept as quiet as a mouse in that dark and somewhat dusty room, accompanied by only their breathes and the occasional tiny clanks of metal as the soldiers subtly shifted their body, all keeping thier ears perked up to detect even the tiniest squeak of sound from outside.

And after what seemed like an eternity, suddenly it came!

First was a very muffled groan and a dull thud, likely of the two guards being shot and falling, followed by the rapid shuffle of heavy boots of the assassins, who then produced a sudden bang that shattered all the silence in its entirety.

Alexander understood that this was likely the enemy bursting the solid wooden bedroom door open.

"...…." Then it was surprisingly quiet for a while, with no sound entering Alexander's ears.

This was because the assassins were currently scanning the room for their target Alexander and any other, fanning out into two small groups to try and locate their quarry.

When suddenly,"Ahhhh!", "Ughhh!", "Wha…"

The dense silence was shattered by the crude and guttural howls of surprised and then quickly dying men.

And although these mournful sounds should have caused any man to feel dread or at least sad, Alexander only felt elated.

It seemed the operation had gone just as planned.

The six assassins had attacked from both sides in teams of three, quickly incapacitating the guards, and bursting into the room with incredible zeal.

There they scanned a bit to try and perice their sight through the darkness and managed to spot a dummy shaped like Alexander in the bed.

So one group hurriedly approached that, silent as the night, daggers were drawn, the steel blade as pitch black as the surrounding, intent on dying the white metal and the sheets red with crimson blood.

While the others started to fan out to check the other rooms connected to the main one.

And it was right then that Alexander's men revealed themselves, coming in from both sides of the two doors that the bedroom was attached to with a silent but practiced march, and greeting the assains with an unrelenting volley of arrow fire from their 'Instant bows'.

*Shoo*, *Shoo*, *Shoo*

For the next few seconds, the air in the room was set abuzz with the whizzing of arrows zooming through the wind and the crisp twang of the released bowstrings.

These highly trained guards did not bother to shout loud commands or utter morale rising cheers.

There was no need to.

As it would do little more than alert the other party to their presence.

Hence the men worked in silence, first emptying their 'magazine' and turning many of the assassins into almost porcupines, their chest and backs filled with a deadly canopy of bolts, and then to really finish off the job,

*Clang*, *Clang*, *Clang*, the men charged after unsheathing their swords.

It was a bloodbath, with the entire thing from the first arrow loosened to the last head chopped off lasting around only 20 to 30 seconds.

The men Alexander had to protect him were that skilled- the top cream of the crop.

They were so fast and methodical in fact that some assassins in fact did not even understand how they died, the shower of arrows being invisible to them until the moment they hit them.

While others could only let out incoherent rambles as they only saw a black shadowy mass suddenly materialize in front of them and then an unbearable stinging sensation spread throughout their body as they were stabbed and then hacked to pieces.

"Go! Infrom the lord. And give the signal to Remus." With the assilants neutrialized, Hemicus quickly took charge to order as such, and the nine men moved with feathered feet.

Some went to knock on Alexander's door and pronounced the one of the three secret passcodes, letting him know that everything went precisely according to plan.

While others went to apprehend the signaller, who was situated all alone in a remote part of the mansion, perched high up in a storeroom, holding a torch and a mirror.

"Wha… what is this? What are you… arghhhh!" And these were his last words as four men burst through the door and then promptly executed the man with not a single more word uttered.

And there they waited for Alexander to give the word that would allow them to signal to Lord Parker for the attack.

The penultimate group went to inform Remus, or more specifically the officer Remus had put in charge of leading the men to attack the mansion, shining a signal of their own from one of the rooms to give the go ahead.

And lastly, one single man went to check up on the two guard slaves and found them to be still breathing.