Herald of Steel

"Hurry up men! Force march! Your brothers need you!"

In the dead silence of the night, this forceful, slightly irritated shout rang particularly loudly across the wide, open Tibian countryside, as Alexander from atop his horse sounded a bit annoyed.

Upon receiving news of Grahtos, the young pasha had mobilized his army as soon as possible, waking the camp up and putting two thirds of his men on a forced march, wishing to come to his detachment's aid yesterday.

To make the pace even faster, Alexander did not even make the men carry their 30 to 35 kg heavy baggage of supplies, only equipping them in their armor and weapon and perhaps a water pouch for the journey.

All so that he could cover the 20 kilometer journey at the maximum pace possible.

However, despite all that, given the general ambient darkness, as well as the fatigue of the men, the soldiers could only move their legs that fast.

They tried their best, but that did not seem fast enough for Alexander.

"It will be sunrise by the time we make it." Hence a bit annoyed, Alexander pursued his lips and murmured to himself, at the advancing rate, as he had hoped to arrive at the battlefield sooner.

But since he could only push the men so far, Alexander had to settle for wishing Grahtos would be able to keep Perseus trapped in the city in the meantime.

While Alexander was racing towards Kalimat in the dead of the night, inside the city, after waiting for what to him seemed like ages, Perseus was beginning to get a bit frustrated.

"The gate is not opened yet? What's taking so long? Did the men not deliver the message properly?" The king furrowed his brow and swore, turning his head towards the sky above to let out a sigh of exasperation.

He could already tell the darkness was starting to dissipate as the horizon did not look as dark as before.

And this observation made the man feel quite pessimistic about his future.

Contrary to normal human nature, right now Perseus hated that the darkness was fleeing and dawn was approaching, for he feared what the next day would hold.

Once everything became clear, the enemy would surely revamp his attacks, and that would not bode well for him.

"The Prince is trying Your Highness. It's just that door is proving more difficult than anticipated."

And sensing Perseus's anger, one of his guards quickly tried to soothe him as such.

While the city lord who was also participating in the fight close to him darted his eyes a bit uncomfortably since he felt he might know why the Crown Prince was having a hard time breaking through.

Fearing an attack from Alexander, the portly man had replaced many of the aging gates with brand new ones, thus reinforcing his defenses.

This was of course a very sensible thing to do as a whole.

But right now it seemed to have come to bite them in the back in a twisted way.

About this incident, the large lord kept his mouth tightly shut, as revealing it now would have no positive effect.

So instead he only gritted his teeth in fear and frustration at the current predicament, 'Dammit! We cannot even return to the mansion! Is this where I die?'

The manson was of course a much better stronghold than the marketplace and would have been able to provide much greater protection to its inhabitants.

So Perseus and company had every incentive to try and access it.

And the reason why they did not do so was simple because the path was locked.

The building lay north of the city, and Grahtos's men coming from the west had managed to swing left and block off the only street leading there.

Thus Perseus's only escape route was to the south, which his son was trying his damnest to open.

Philips by now had no idea how long he had been going at it.

But he did not know this was the third time he had to change elephants.

Meaning the initial 6 that were tasked with snapping the gate down had been switched after they had gotten tired with a fresh batch, and then swapped back in once they had recuperated long enough.

"Come on! Come on! Come on!" And recognizing the peril his father might be in, every second Philips remained stuck here felt agonizing to the man, and he had to murmur such words to keep his mind distracted.

It was at this point he also regretted not having any access to any siege equipment like a battering ram, and being forced to rely on this primitive, brute force method.

In fact however, there was a far easier method than this available to Philips, if the man had only put a bit more thought into it.

If the Crown Prince was a bit more clever, he could have recalled how the three royal guards had scaled the wall to come deliver the message and then do the same, just from the opposite side.

Yes!

Given the walls were literally empty, some of Philips's men could have easily entered the city by climbing up them and then opening the gates from inside, saving Philips potentially hours!

It was such a simple solution, but for whatever reasons- be it the stress of the suddenness of the attack, the explicit order from his father, the darkness which obscured the walls and thus that visual stimuli, the inherent grogginess or simply forgetfulness, the man had failed to come up with this.

As neither did all the men around him, who too were single mindedly focused on obeying the king's order to the letter, nothing less, but also nothing more.

Thus came the following result, where the elephants went at the door for quite some time, wasting precious time, as the heavy main door tried to resist with all its might.

And it was here that Philips for the first time in his life learned just how hard it was for wood to be forcefully pulled apart,

But eventually, like any other material, no matter how strong it might have been, it was inevitably worn down.

The sheer muscular prowess of six elephants was nothing short of incredible.

So at last the various planks of wood holding the huge gate together began to slowly buckle, split, and splitter, as Philips imagined he could see light coming from there.

And then finally, right around dawn, as the surroundings were just starting to get bright, it happened!

*Twang!*, *Twang!*, *Twang!*

Giving one last cry as such,

*Bang!* with a thunderous crash the whole thing came tumbling down, as one part of the gates smacked into the ground, opening the way forward.

"Ahhhhhh!" And Philips did not even have to give the order to advance, as some of the more eager men rushed into the city on their own, crying out terrifying battle cries as they sought to come to the defense of their king.

"Reinforcements! Reinforcements are here!"

"We are saved! Praise the prince!"

"Hurry! Hurry and make your way towards the gates."

"We don't have much time. Let's run while we can."

And since it was already dawn, with the surroundings becoming clearer by the second, hearing the loud shout and seeing the charging men, everyone's attention was drawn to that place.

And no one was left in any confusion as to which faction they belonged to.

Their armor made that endeavor moot.

Hence Perseus's side cheered jubilously, as if like the gate to paradise had been opened, as many of the units, especially the outer ones began to rush towards their freedom.

While in the complete flipside of the coin, Grahtos and his officers cursed, "Dammit! Why now?"

They could not believe that Alexander had still not arrived, and with this development, well it seemed the bird was getting ready to fly off.

Intense regret particularly filled Grahtos's heart, as he felt mortified at the thought of letting Perseus escape, both because of what it would mean for the war, as well as what it would mean for him personally.

If that were to really happen, if Perseus really were to escape, and then if Grahtos's delay about informing Alexander was revealed in the post battle analysis, well, then man would do well to prepare for what was to come.

Perhaps he would be able to squirm out of being heavily punished by claiming he did not tell Alexander fearing it might be a trap, but even that excuse would be pretty weak.

So even if Alexander bought it, he would certainly favor him less from then on.

And all this went without saying anything about his colleagues, who would surely kick him when he was down and try and replace him in Alexander's eyes.

This was only natural as if Grahtos were in their shoes, he would have probably done the same.

But then again, even if he wanted to stop Perseus, what could Grahtos do?

He was already doing what he could.

"Get out of the way!"

"Ahhhh! Don't push!"

"Stop! I'm on your side."

However, it seemed Grahtos did not need to do anything, as Philips's men who were charging into the city found themselves colliding with their own men who were trying to escape the battle, thus creating a clog of their own.

If you are not reading this at wuxiap.com, then sorry, the content you're reading is STOLEN!

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!