Herald of Steel

"That's it! Push harder men! Remus is waiting for us in the back!"

"They are breaking! Just a bit more! Keep up the attack!"

"Right! Show these sons of sows who we are!"

Alexander's officers very excitedly uttered these orders while wildly swinging their hands, while Scorpyo personally ordered the special unit of two hundred fifty men,

"Go! Swing around the right of these bastards! Teach them what defeat looks like!"

The thuds of heavy footsteps quickly filled the air following that, as the rear unit quickly pivoted to the side and attempted to attack the flanks of the defending formation.

And like any other formation, when the Heeat units were attacked from such a vulnerable angle, even the most elites were forced to disband themselves.

Hacking, stabbing, and thrusting their way through the unarmored sides of the defending enemy, it took only the legionaries a short time to make a break through, with the low morale NovelFire leading the collapse.

And since they made up the front section of the army, when they collapsed, the Heeat forces in the rear had no chance to hold the 'rickety' house together.

Perhaps if it was the other way around, if the elite Heeat men had made up the front and the weaker MV the rear, then they might have been able to hold on for some time even if the rear abandoned them.

But now, they were afforded too little time to do anything.

Even before the men could raise their spears and lock their shields, they were overwhelmed from both the front and right.

And in the face of such immense tactical disadvantage, no matter how brave or skilled these men were, they were forced to drop everything and run for their lives, bolting towards their docked ships as fast as they could.

Something that they were able to do relatively quickly with almost no casualty despite the utter chaos of the retreat, all due to the courtesy of the orders from the legionaries officers, who urged their men with almost hoarse throats,

"Do not chase them! Let them go!"

"The main enemy is behind us! Turn quickly! Hurry!"

"The battle is not over! Do not forget the battle is not over!"

"Remus is waiting for our rescue! Move your feet men! Quickly!"

Scorpyo would certainly not be foolish enough to focus on the trees and forget the forest.

His job was to only destroy the formation threatening his front, not to hound and kill the fleeing enemy like some mad dog.

Thus as soon as the enemy in front lost its ability as a coherent fighting force and could pose no threat to him, Scorpyo determined the first part of his job was done.

He instantly ordered the large mass of soldiers to halt all forward pushes and then started to turn them around, intending to complete the second part of the part.

"Oh no!"

This wide, open maneuver was of course all too easy to understand for any military officer with the slightest bit of experience.

But even if the defeated Heeat offices could see the imminent disaster just about to unfold for their general, they found they had nothing with them to stop it.

Some of course still tried, attempting to restore the broken units by shouting, barking and even wildly swinging their swords toward the fleeing men,

"Stop! Regroup!"

"Halt! To me men! The general is in trouble!"

"We must save Lord Macht! Show your worth as sons of Lynica!"

But once the lines were broken in any battle, it was just too hard to restore order to such unrestrained chaos, at the very least any time soon.

This was because the infantrymen saw the comrades beside them running, instinctively they too wanted to run, believing the battle was lost, and so they did not want to be left behind.

And as more and more men started to run, each of their actions worked to reinforce this thought across the minds of all the men.

It was like a snowball effect, and there was no way a few scattered officers could halt this avalanche anytime soon.

Not to mention most of the fleeing Heeat and MV soldiers could not even hear what they were saying given the absolute uproar the entire section of that battlefield was in.

They were far more busy moving their legs and feeling very please upon turning back to see the enemy give up on them so easily.

They thought that the now bulkier legionaries was too tired to give them chase, and so they ran even faster, wishing to capitalize on their good fortune as best as could.

This let them quickly cross the relatively short distance to the shore and rapidly clambering up their ships, they ordered the captain to immediately sail away.

The captains too had noticed the disaster that was unfolding ahead of them, and fearful of the enemy chasing them and setting fire to their ships or even boarding them, hurriedly unfurled their sails and started their oars, leaving the island like beaten stray dogs.

In this way, Scorpyo shattered the enemy in front of him, thus leaving Lord Macht in the rear to fend for himself.

This sight naturally caused great cheers from the legionaries and managed to lighten Scorpyo's heart by quite a bit.

He was pleasantly surprised by how decisive the enemy units were in fleeing, leaving everything behind to start running.

Even if this was a clever feigned retreat by the enemy who wanted to turn around and give a surprise counterpart, the sheer equipment they left behind would have made any such thing a very daunting prospect.

And now they had not only done that, but they had even set sail, all without seeking any confirmation from their general.

Based on what Remus and the officers experienced in fighting them had told Scorpyo, the latter did not expect such a huge rout. He figured these units to be much tougher.

Of course, the reason behind this set of circumstances was in large part due to the presence of a lot of MV troops, who only paid a token amount of respect to Lord Macht.

So when push came to shove and things started to downhill, each man decided to look out for himself.

It was an unexpected result that Scorpyo was very glad to see.

Hence without any pressure from the front, he was able to quickly and smoothly turn his forces around, and very soon these men were staring toward their desserts!

"Lord Macht! Sound the retreat! We have lost!"

And seeing the enemy's swords squarely at their rear and approaching fast, Lord Macht's adjutant hurriedly pleaded to the man as such, his eyes tearing up with more regret than anger.

The man was still unwilling to accept they had lost in such a way.

"....." While at any other time, Lord Macht would at any other time rip out the man a new one for even daring to suggest such a thing, now only answered him with a pair of bloodshot eyes and a wall of silence.

He of course understood the game was up.

Facing attacks from both the front and rear, there was no way to win the battle.

This was something even a day one recruit knew and not something even a god of war could change.

'If the enemy attacked you from both sides you surrendered'- this was almost an unwritten law.

But even if Lord Macht knew all of this, even if he knew that he had all but lost, even still, found the result too hard to accept.

Thus in frustration, he clenched his teeth so hard and his gums began to bleed and clasped his hands together so tightly that some of the metal greaves even began to tear apart the leather and dig into his skin.

But such pain did not even amount to a hundredth of the pain he was feeling in his heart, as his mind flooded with all kinds of 'what nows'.

He did not dare to think of the consequences of losing this battle.

And for a moment, he even shouted to himself, 'No retreat! We will win and take this island, or die trying!'

This was the same voice he had used to urge his men to march on. And now, Lord Macht began to say it to himself, thinking death was better than running.

"General! What are you thinking!" However, as Lord Macht was looking for the easier way out, he was quickly rebuked by his attending officer, who appeared to sense the martyr like aura radiating from the defeated men.

Thus he charged at him with loud, crisp reminders, "Remember what is at stake here! The whole camp is depending on you now!"

"We have already lost General Achillas and Lord Parker has been overtaken by grief. So the only thing holding us together is you. But if you perish here… not only will the campaign be lost, but even young master may be captured! So you cannot die. You must live! It is your duty!

Not only towards the young lord but the duke himself!"

The inspiring speech would make it so that Scorpyo would never get to fight Lord Macht, as the latter at last chose life over honor.

Hence by the time the thousand legionnaires got there, the two thousand men under Lord Macht had already disbanded, streaking across the small island like headless chickens.

The victorious legionnaires would thus spend the better part of the latter half of the day catching and killing as many of them as they could.

Sadly, the biggest fish would not be among them.