Herald of Steel

The Heeat family soldiers there had never experienced the dread of a catapult, and so with the legionaries beginning to throw out volley after volley of the weapon, coordinated closely with crossbow fire to protect these siege engines from opposing arrow fire, the men on the ramparts found it incredibly hard to even lift their heads over the wooden walls.

They could only duck and pray from behind that the walls held until reinforcements arrived because everybody could tell with a swear in their heart that the rickety palisade was not robust enough to hold against such a lethal onslaught for any appreciable length of time.

And this thought was quickly proved by quite a few unlucky instances when some parts of the wall could not hold, simply snapping away at the hit, and letting the stone bulldoze through to hit its unfortunate destined target.

These hits almost always broke bones, multiple of them, if not cause lethal internal trauma, killing the man slowly through internal bleeding.

It seemed that much of the defenses here had not been well built.

This was mostly because no one there was seriously expecting to be attacked on this isolated island, thus found the tedious task of building brand few fortifications too laborious, especially when they had to build it on cold, frozen ground.

Trying to dig through it felt like digging through solid stone, as due to the cold, much of the water in the ground turned to ice.

So the men only built the most rudimentary walls and then contented themselves with sitting inside by their tents and warming themselves by the fire.

Hence these defenses were never meant to hold for long, especially not against an attack from such a lethal weapon, a weapon that most had never even seen before.

Now, yes, catapults were first used by Iyizarid against Sybaris, so many in the country were familiar with it.

But that battle was fought north of the Central Sea, while the Heeat family resided primarily in the south of it.

Thus although all the duke and his generals knew of the presence of the weapon and had heard tales of its destructive potential, very few had yet to see them actually in action.

As for the regular grunts who were participating here, they were of course not even considered in the equation.

Hence at this unforeseen attack, the best these poor men could do was try to thicken their walls with extra panels as best as they could while they waited.

And to do that, they not only used wood, but whatever else they could get their hands on, be they furniture, their shields, rocks and stone, and even metal pots and pans, while constantly praying to their gods for salvation.

If Alexander had known about the true state of the enemy, he would have likely given only his initial five hundred men to complete the job themselves, thus skipping the second attacking force.

And if he had done that, well then the entire fiasco that was currently unfolding could have been avoided.

Thus it seemed here, Alexander's caution and lack of intel had once again reared its ugly head.

Of course in all fairness, it was not right to judge him for making such a decision.

Alexander had acted with the best knowledge he had at the time and it was in general better to overestimate the enemy than underestimate him.

Imagine if the reverse had happened, and due to a lack of adequate force, Alexander's attack on the island had failed.

Such a thing would have not only put the men on the island in danger, but it would have also made it trying next to impossible, as Lord Parker would be sure to heavily reinforce it next time.

That would have had disastrous consequences for all his future plans.

Hence very eager to prevent such an outcome and kill the enemy for good, Alexander had his three ships moor some distance away from the enemy garrisons, using the nearby rocks along the shore as a shield against any watchtowers set up for detection.

And given these men were too busy buttressing their door so that the attacking legionaries could not break through and slaughter them, this act was accomplished with relative ease, there being no panicked shouts or alarm bells being thrown their way.

"Quickly! And quietly!"

And wanting to keep things very much as they were, Alexander thus let out this order in a subconsciously hushed voice, which the men followed hurriedly, jumping from their ships onto a largely deserted. part of a secluded shore, and quickly but silently getting into the proper formation.

And very much like the initial disembarkment during the night, here too hushed silence ruled.

The men needed only a few small orders and silent nods to get themselves into position.

And with that, they quickly began to move up intending to hit the enemy's from the rear.

"Wha… Oh no! But how?"

The heavy footsteps of four hundred legionaries marching were eventually enough to give themselves away.

But by that point, the men were figuratively breathing down their opponent's neck, busy Heeat family soldiers only noticing this second continent when Alexander's men were already halfway through prepping their catapults.

And the sight of more of those dreadful weapons was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

"Run! We can't win!"

"Save yourself, brothers! Save yourself!"

"To the bridge! Head towards the bridge!"

Screaming with terrified shouts as such, most of the men decided to leave their 'penned fence' then and there, lest it become their coffin.

The door of the camp leading toward the bridge connecting Phyrros Island to the mainland was thus suddenly bolted open with the force of a tornado, and out of it came a torrential surge of black tide, all beeling for that narrow stretch of wood and stone with a maddened look in their eyes.

"Halt! Stand your ground, men! Stand and hold them back"

"Do not run! Desertion is a capital offense! Do not run no matter what!"

"Keep your wits to yourself! Our men are on the way! Endure just a bit longer!"

"Cowards! Stay and defend!"

And while the last of the staunchest commanders tried to rally the collapsing morale of the troops by shouting as such, needless to say, did not work.

Facing two 'armies' attacking them from two sides and wielding such magnificent weapons that appeared to be from the gods themselves soon proved too great a scare for most of the men.

And so leaving everything behind, they all abandoned their positions and started to bolt straight toward their main camp with great terror, wanting to cross that rickety bridge before anyone could.

While seeing the enemy's camp be suddenly abandoned and out of it come such a large mass of terrified men, unarmed and out of formation, the orderly legionaries felt like how a hunting dog felt after spotting a running rabbit- a primal urge to go chasing after it no matter the cause.

It was a thought shared by many of Alexander's commanders too, who instantly called out to their men from both sides of the formation,

"Do not let them get away! Hurry! After them!"

"Kill! Kill them! Each and every one we kill now, we will be spared from killing in the future."

"Avenge all our brothers that have died till now. Their souls want blood! Blood for blood!

Such inciting urgings acted as a great injection of adrenalin for the legionaries, who, riding high in their victory, let out a great big hurrah, before both of Alexander's contingent began to sprint after the running enemy with a greedy, almost malicious glint in their eyes, marching so fast that they were barely able to maintain their coherent formations.

Most chose to bypass the shabbily built enemy's camp, instead preferring to try and hunt down as many of the fleeing men as they could, firing their crossbows, and throwing their javelins at the defenseless backs of the men, while letting out excited and bloodthirsty cheers.

"Go! Quickly! Chase them!"

"Hurry! Hurry! Hah hah! A hit!"

"*Slash!* This is for trying to starve us! Bastards!"

"Dammit! Wish we had brought a few horses! Father would have loved to trample these bastards to death!"

It was like the legionaries soon chased the men onto the narrow bridge, and not intending to let them escape even then, decided to board it themselves, even though they were barely able to keep their

formation on the thin straits.

The excited and half crazed legionaries did not seem to care.

As for what were Alexander's own thoughts on this wild, malicious chase, well, observing the whole thing from his horse in the rear, he tacitly approved of it.

Because not only did he agree with the idea of killing the fleeing enemy, but much more importantly, he found it critical for the bridge to be taken.

Thus he intended to let his men proceed all the way to the other end of the bridge and then have them establish defensive fortifications there, hence not only removing all enemy presence in the area but also safeguarding himself from any future attacks.

In this way, Alexander intended to secure the captured Phyrros Island as well as the land in its vicinity for himself.