Herald of Steel



[Troop formation pic in comments]

Ural had managed to get at around 1,300 men for this attack.

This was out of the original 2,000 he had started with, of which he had lost 500 as dead or wounded in the initial charge, and a further 200 proved themselves to be wounded enough to be not fit enough for the next battle, as they only barely managed to limp back to the safety of the camp.

But still, for the remaining men, just the fact that even after losing 35% of their forces they were still ready to fight was a testament to their eliteness.

Most other formations would have dissolved long ago, its men running into the wilderness to escape, and only coming back to the camp after the battle had finished.

Thus it showed that these warriors bred by Matbar (Marquiss) Uzak were no pushovers, and it also showed that Ural was no stupid commander, and was still able to command the troop's respect, as evidenced by how they were willing to follow him for a second time even through all the casualties.

But for this particular battle, it was not Ural that was leading the charge, owing to his injuries, and the high chance one had of suffering injuries when leading a charge.

So instead he chose to let his cousin have the honor.

And his cousin was happy to take this position, even when it was inherently dangerous.

Because leading a cavalry charge was the epitomic display of a noble's courage.

'Hahaha, the way is open,' He gleefully thought as he saw Alexander's flank now almost bare, save for a few scant scattered units he presumed to be Alexander's bodyguards.

And, now, in addition to being the champion who would bring ultimate victory in this battle,

'If I can capture that Jakqum…hehe,' The man also dreamed of handing Alexander over to Pasha Djose himself, which would likely shoot his political career to the moon in Kuleef by the grace of its ruler.

And so in that anticipation, he urged his horse to ride as fast as possible without breaking formation, intending to take full advantage of the gap.

While Alexander, as he watched the enemy get closer and closer, finally revealing their number, first and foremost breathed a sigh of relief.

'*Sigh*, good, it's only about a thousand to fifteen hundred,' If it had been any more, Alexander's charge might have been similar to the charge of the light brigade, except it would have been spears from the front, spears from the left, and spears from the right.

"Men! Form up! Form up! Our charge will snap the enemy in half!" Alexander yelled to encourage his men and even placed himself in the very front row.

This was certainly a dangerous place, but they were in a dangerous position.

And he needed to do everything he could to encourage his men to fight and not simply flee.

This was because though his one hundred (100) bodyguards were undoubtedly reliable, and would never run, he was not so sure about the other five hundred (500).

They were not purely green troops, but they were not veterans either, consisting of mostly former Cantagenan slaves and servants.

'Darm it, I should have built a bigger reserve knowing my enemy was so much more mobile, I could have easily taken five hundred men from each legion without a problem. And that would have left me with a large number of troops to deal with emergencies.' Alexander berated himself for this mistake as the troops readied himself.

Alexander now understood that instead of 30,000 vs 30,000, 27,000 men fighting against 30,000 would have been good enough.

But he had focused too much on that plan of his to consider this, and so had instead reinforced the part of the army which really did not need reinforcing, or at least not as much compared to the other sectors.

And because of that mistake, he was suffering now.

With the only solace being Faruq too had made a similar mistake, which was not reinforcing Ural's cavalry with some of his own mercenaries, thinking the double pincher with the number he had on hand would be enough.

Which was reasonable given that he had no idea about Alexander's heavy cavalry, which was making its first debut into this world.

And this left Alexander a shiver of chance for eking out a victory.

Alexander scolded himself as such while the troops got into the standard 10 x 10 formation, and Alexander himself changed horses and armor with Hemicus.

This was because the horse Alexander was on and the armor he wore was especially gaudy and eye-catching intentionally designed as such to attract the troops' eyes to him, thus acting like a beacon and a rallying point for the army, and reassuring all the men with faltering morale that their leader was still with them in the fight.

To accomplish this task, his armor was painted gold and made very shiny, thus making it almost glow under the sunlight, while the barding on his horse was embellished with similar, excessive decorative patterns, thus drawing all eyes to him.

And those were the upsides.

While the downside was evident to all if he thought about it for a moment.

If it could draw one's own troops' attention, it could also draw the enemy's attention, or more specifically their aggro, for killing the enemy leader was one of the best and quickest ways to end a battle.

Hence, like Amenheraft had switched garbs with Kefka, Alexander decided to switch places with Hemicus.

In this way it was hoped that though both men would ride in the front, this guard captain would draw all the attacks away from Alexander.

And the time when its efficacy would be proven was closing quickly.

Thus, in preparation for meeting the enemy, Alexander positioned his men in a wedge-like formation, which looked almost like an arrowhead from above.

And at the very front of the arrowhead, acting as its tip was Alexander's unit, consisting of 100 heavy cavalry.

Alexander had fortunately dressed his bodyguards the same way as he did his cavalry, with the thought behind the heavy horse armor being that they would be better able to resist arrow and javelin fire, and the use of lances being that they would able to counter opposing cavalry and if things were truly desperate even the phalanxes with their longer spears.

And this most elite unit was now made the tip of the spearpoint, tasked with bearing the greatest brunt of the enemy.

While the much less heavily equipped infantry, who had no stirrups, a short spear, and only a large shield was placed at the back and sides.

Two units of such light skirmishers were placed directly behind Alexande's unit, looking like the shaft of the arrow, while one of each such unit was also placed at the sides to act as wings of the formations, protecting Alexander's flanks.

This formation soon took shape and in the meantime, Alexander sent the following message via a herald to the 5th legion, "Send the 9th and 10th battalion to the right. We are under attack from about 1,500 horsemen. Lord Alexander himself is fighting to hold the line. Reinforcement is needed urgently. Send them NOW!"

The urgentness of the message need not be said to the legion commander.

But even then, it would take the 1,000 men some time to come to Alexander's rescue.

They were foot soldiers after all.

So in the meantime, Alexander was left on his own, having to hold on no matter what.

Or die trying.

With these thoughts firmly etched into his mind, and the troops finally ready, Alexander clutched his shield closer to his chest, lowered his head so that the shield would cover his mouth, and then bought his lance down to a horizontal level.

He was ready for the charge.

'*Sigh*, If only I had equipped my infantry with those flaming ropes, then this attack would have evaporated into nothing,' Alexander lampooned one last time over another of his mistake, the reason for which was that he never thought troops so much in the rear would need it.

And thus had chosen to equip only the font few ropes with the special weapon.

A mistake that could very well cost him and all his people's life.

But it was what it was, and so vowing to learn from his mistakes, and promising to be much more thorough in his next battles if he lived through it, Alexander steadied himself for the charge.

The enemy was almost here.

Ural's formation was a standard cube, arranged in two relatively even rows of 600, men, with 6 columns.

This was opposed to Alexander's paltry 3 columns, but Alexander made up for it with his center column being 3 rows deep as opposed to the enemy's 2.

And this was according to his strategy, which was simply to use brute force and a greater mass of soldiers to snap the center column and cause a rout, while the two wings prevented an encirclement from the sides.

So in this way, Alexander's plan was very similar to Grahtos's.

And like Grahtos, Alexander hoped that his heavy cavalry would prove too strong for the light cavalry to withstand, because if the enemy did not break and chose to absorb the losses, Alexander would be likely dead.

Much like how the vastly outnumbered Grahtos would be.

So it was kind of like a game of chicken.

And it was a game that both Grahtos and Alexander were playing at the same time.