Herald of Steel

"Get ready! We are about to meet the enemy! Hurry! Get ready!"

"Prepare yourself, men! Do not let a single one of them board us."

"Move! Move! Bunch up! Bunch up! Don't have any gaps!"

"Lock your shields like a priestess's cunt. Do not let a fly in."

"Follow the plan! Remember what you were told! Stand strong and you will be fine!"

As the Heeat family soldiers got ready to charge, sensing the imminent onslaught, the commanders of the legionaries shouted as such trying to boost morale as best as they could.

And credit to them where it's due, after the initial disaster of having their oars broken in almost a blink of the eye, these men did hastily try to figure out an alternative defensive plan, one which they planned to act on soon.

It just remained to be seen how effective that would be.

The time for that test would arrive very soon, as it was only a few moments later.

*Trumpet*, *Trumpet*, *Trumpet*, the call for the Heeat family's men to charge was given.

And this signal was as if the floodgates had been opened for these men.

"*Ahhhh!*... *Ahhhh!*...*Ahhhh!*"

Thus an instant later these black armored men started to crash towards the blue legionaries with manic bloodthirst, wildly swinging their swords and wanting to cut each and every man there into pieces.

However unfortunately for them, just before they could sate their thirst in the blood of their enemy, a sudden ear splitting order rang out from the other side too, one which frantically asked,

"Now! Now! Let loose you bows… now!"

Yes, this was the 'brilliant' plan these commanders had been able to come up with- to pepper the attackers with a barrage of blistering arrow fire, with the hope being to make this attempted boarding as bloody an affair as possible.

And in preparing for that endeavor, the officers had the front few lines of the formation facing either side, to be composed entirely of heavy legionaries, who were tasked with locking their huge, tower like shields and defending the ground they stood on, or in this case, more aptly the wooden plank they stood on, till their last dying breath.

While the back rows, consisting of entire men wielding crossbows and instant bows were designated as the attackers and asked to shoot their arrows through the small gaps in the legionary's lines or overhead in a slanting arch, thus raining arrow fire on their adversary.

And in that effort, a few of the men even chose to throw deadly javelins as a greeting, thus making the frontlines for a moment appear almost dim, as the sunlight was eaten up by the sheer volume of missiles being thrown around with wild abandon.

And always accompanying the streaking projectiles were loud frantic shouts of Remus's officers, who kept on encouraging the men with ear bursting cheers and applause,

"Archers! Fire! Shoot! Kill!"

"Do not let up! The enemy is at our doorsteps! He is in front of us! He is behind us! He is to our right, he is to our left."

"Hahaha, Goddess Gaia has blessed us with an unending supply of enemies. Shoot! Shoot in whichever direction you please! Shoot until your fingers fall off!"

"What luck! There is no need to aim. Just keep firing!"

It was amongst such morbid life and death jokes that the legionaries continued to deliver incessant showers of arrow fire upon the Heeat family forces, hoping desperately it would be enough to stymie the tidal wave like attack.

While the ones on the receiving end of all this, the ones experiencing the hail of wood and steel were naturally in a far less pleased mood.

When they had heard their commander's blow of the trumpet, they had thought this was signaling the doom for this crippled ship, armageddon for its crew.

It was due to this they had appeared so excited, anticipating to reap all the lives aboard, which is why they had charged frantically, with delighted and frantic shouts.

But contrary to many of their past similar experiences, where the enemy would quickly buckle and break like a loose pile of sand when attacked like this, i.e.- from both sides simultaneously, the blue armored men here surprisingly stood their ground, bearing through this immense pressure and even at some points pushing back.

Sure it was not as effortless as it sounded, as many of the lines did stagger at one point or the another, and some even showed initial signs of buckling, but those instances were simply the lined men adjusting themselves to the incoming attacks and 'recoiling' themselves to better absorb the blows.

As a whole though, this was just a fleeting phenomenon, lasting for only an ephemeral second, and in reality, the 'wall' of shield and sword proved to be very airtight, with the men bearing through the more than 2 to 1 disadvantaged onslaught fairly comfortably.

It was of course no cakewalk, but neither did they seem to be in danger of splittering any time soon.

And they managed to produce such stability by standing shoulder to shoulder, connecting shield to shield, and then tucking most of their body, including most of their heads behind that heavy wooden shield.

It was to the point that the only really unprotected body part sticking out were their eyelids, which they only used to furtively peep out, so as to be able to have at least some semblance of awareness of their surrounding.

If they did not need to do that, the legionaries would have likely even skipped on that, and chose a testudo formation.

But that was deemed too restrictive in terms of mobility and the ability to respond to an evolving battlefield.

So this balance was struck, with the legionnaires only occasionally coming out of their shells to get an opportunistic hit or two in with their short swords.

However, the low frequency of the attacks and the generally anemic intentions behind them very soon made it clear to the Heeat family soldiers that these legionaries were not interested in actually fighting them in a melee.

They only wanted to defend, to take the hits but in exchange make it extremely hard for the other side to break through and thus board the ships.

It was a pure stalling technique, making the Heeat family soldiers almost feel they were facing a rock!

A rock that was blocking the entrance to their desired treasure.

A rock that could not attack them, but sure was sturdy as hell, and sure as hell could make them eat their time.

Given the experience of these veteran attackers, the legionaries's tactics very soon became crystal clear to them.

But so what?

Even if they knew the purpose of the move, that did not mean they could do something about it.

It did not help change the equation.

The ship could not be taken without going through them first.

And what was perhaps even more demoralizing for the Heeat family soldiers, was that if that was all there was to the legionaries- them being a solid, nigh impenetrable but ultimately passive defensive wall, then perhaps it would not have likely caused them to become that irritated.

Because it was not like these men had never faced staunchly determined enemies, people who would rather die than surrender.

Although few and rare for example, they had.

But even these bulwarks of determination were slowly eroded of their will by the constant and repeated attacks.

After all, there was only so much the human body and mind would endure before it started to waver and crack.

Fighting hand to hand in such close quarters was a very draining endeavor and all men tended to break at some point, the question only being when.

Hence if the legionnaries wished to simply passively sit there and hope the enemy got bored and left, well then they had another thing coming.

So it was a good thing they did not.

The choice in the passivity of their offense was not something they were forced to take, but something they were willing to choose.

Because they had a better candidate for that job- the archers at the back.

In the very brief planning meeting, it was quickly agreed among all the commanders that instead of the legionnaires haphazardly risking their neck out to only get a few thrusts in, it would be far more prudent for them to only defend, while the archers, safely tucked away in the rear attacked the enemy with almost complete impunity.

Division of labor as they say!

And this was exactly what they did, thus forming a deadly combination.

The taste of which Heeat family soldiers were now being forced to swallow as they found it almost impossible to advance amidst the withering fire of steel and wood.

Arrows might not be bullets- i.e.- they might not be able to stop a man in his tracks with just a few shots, but when fired from such close range and with such heavy draw weights behind them, they certainly started to feel like so to the poor sods who had the unfortunate luck to experience them.

Thus they cried out in great agony and even greater surprise at this sudden attack,

"Aghh! What is that? An arrow? How are they so fast? And hit so hard?"