Herald of Steel

"They are running! Haha, they are running!"

"The bastards could not hold on any longer! Haha, we did it! We won!"

"See that men! I told you, didn't I? We could win just if we tried a bit! Haha, good job, good job."

"You are all heroes today! Drinks are on me tonight for those who attacked the fort! Hahaha.."

"Don't relax yet! Quickly! Chase them quickly! We cannot let them escape!"

"Heh …heh, relax, we are on an island! They cannot run even if they wanted!"

"Mmmm…. Mnnnn… brother is right! Their only option is to die by our blade or die freezing to death in the waters! Hehe, they are trapped like a fish in a barrel!"

"Then let's go slaughter them to the last man. No need to delay pleasant things!"

"Right! We still have to avenge our general! We will make these bastard pay!"

"Remember to save some for later. We still need to ransom some. Those bastards better fetch a good price."

Such and various crude and nasty cheers rose up from the Heeat and Margraves camp as they witnessed Scorpyo 'tucking his tail and running', making the attackers believe they had won.

Even the experienced officers leading them believed this to be the case, as they thought Scorpyo had finally run out of bolts and arrows and so decided to make his getaway when he could.

After all, he had been showing signs of such shortages for quite some time.

Hence they too joined the cheers of their men and instead of hastily pursuing the enemy, chose to take a slower, more leisurely approach.

Like the men said, there was little space for Scorpyo to run on this tiny, tiny island, and getting the ships ready to sail would take some time.

Thus, since the battle was over in their eyes, the officers decided to let some units loot Scorpyo's camp for whatever scraps were left.

It was something that the chosen formations were happy to do with great alacrity, even if most of the things left behind in the camp would not catch the eye of the most desperate of scavengers.

Given it was only a makeshift garrison, there was obviously no gold or jewelry, those were the first things to be carried out by retreating legionaries. And the same went for most of the iron tools like spades, axes, and shovels.

The servants had even carried out most of the cooking utensils like knives and metal pots and pans.

So the only thing of value that was left were the large, leather tents since they were deemed too heavy to carry and a few bits of scattered miscellanea like plates, jugs, and wooden barrels.

Things of very poor value.

But even that did not stop the Heeat soldiers from very eagerly searching every nook and cranny of the premises as if it did not matter what treasure they found, only that they indeed found some.

It was almost like a scavenger hunt for them, where the joy lay more in the journey, and not necessarily the destination.

And besides, whatever they found was still better than nothing.

So even though they cursed Alexander as being poor as a beggar while ruffling through the camp, every bit of newly looted thing still elicited a small burst of joy in them, making them quickly calculate how many drinks it could get them from the local pawnshop.

This was also something that Scorpyo was more than happy to exchange for his men's quick and safe retreat and was even a bit surprised by the lackluster chase by the enemy. It seemed to him like the other side had suddenly lost the will to fight.

This turn of fortune thus allowed him to rejoin Remus's rank in an orderly fashion very peacefully, letting his breath a sigh of relief that his fears of having to change formation in the middle of an attack did not come true.

While back at the Heeat family side, the lackadaisical discipline among the units was finally enough to alert Lord Macht, and he barked,

"What's the holdup! Who gave you the permission to break formation and start looking for booty? The enemy is still at large. Chase after him!"

Since the siege of the camp had not proudced that many casualties, the soldiers still had their places in the right place and the prestigious man's presence was enough to quickly put an end to their unruly behavior.

So the officers quickly regrouped under their banner and readied themselves to finish the fleeing enemy once and for all.

"Brat! You better have a damn good plan! Or will I personally see….."

Observing the Heeat forces emerge from the shadow of the large camp, Scorpyo was quick to send a wide glare towards Remus, whispering out the semi complete threat in a very menacing

tone.

Remus had not bothered to explain himself the reason behind his 'foolish' order, while the elderly commander had not openly confronted Remus in front of the soldiers in fear of destroying morale.

But now that they were in the back of the formations and relatively alone, he was quick to remind the inexperienced young man of the consequences of his actions should they fail.

"...." Remus first gave the man a reassuring smile towards the harsh words, before whispering,

"I believe it was Alexander who said that to win this campaign we will need to take some risks. So after so many strings of victory, if we were to win once again and in an open field like this at that, it would surely cause enemy morale to plummet. Perhaps they would even sue for peace!"

Remus sounded very optimistic as he laid out his reason, his eyes twinkling with anticipation.

However, instead of being glad at this blossoming opportunity, Scorpyo's face on the other hand instantly flushed red in rage, for he thought the young man was too naive in his interpretation of the whole circumstances.

As far as he could see, the enemy was nowhere near its limit, and even if they would win here, Scorpyo thought the huge number of men Lord Parker had in the back would be enough to swallow the wound.

So he was just about to lambast Remus about how holding this island was far more important than 'winning' and how he was letting his own ambitions get in the way of the success of the campaign, when suddenly, as if sensing the rage, Remus quickly flashed his palms to add,

"Ahhh… don't' get mad so quickly! I told you I have a plan. Killing lots of the enemy and defending the island are not mutually exclusive. We can do both!"

"....." And hearing this, Scorpyo's rage was quickly replaced by a very skeptical look, as according to him, they could hole up inside to deny Lord Macht the island but were unlikely deal too much damage to him.

But now that Remus was promising the best of both worlds, the experienced commander could not help but give Remus an eager signal to continue.

The young man quickly produced a sly smile to this, before mysteriously asking, "Just one more thing before that… does the enemy have any cavalry?"

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The negative answer produced a gushing sprout of joy from Remus and then widening his grin, got close to Scorpyo to iterate, "Great! So this is what we will do!"

Scorpyo would have to say, once he got to see the entire blueprint of the plan, he was truly impressed.

"Hmmm, this…. could work!" And so could not help but chime in a slightly hesitating voice.

The fear of failure and its consequences still remained, but by now it had considerably lessened.

And seeing this, Remus was there to of course quickly reinforce the man, quickly nodding "Of course it will. As long as they won't have any cavalry, victory is already ours!"

"..." The confident tone of his colleague and the potential rewards of the success were at last enough to wipe away the last bits of doubts in Scorpyo, and so decided to last go with Remus, his eyes suddenly turning sharp and decisive.

Like Alexander said, they needed to take risks to win and the risks Remus delineated just now seemed manageable enough.

So the fifteen hundred men were quickly reorganized into two rows, with each row consisting of 3 'packets' of around two hundred and fifty men each.

"Oh! They did not run. They had reinforcements and were regrouping?"

Upon shedding the shadow of the camp, Lord Macht, who was riding on his horse, was the first to quickly rectify his presumptions about Scorpyo running.

The neatly lined up enemy in three columns made it very easy for him.

However despite the correct, and despite the addition of new red uniformed troops, this general seemed utterly perturbed, largely because he could see he still outnumbered them almost 2 to 1.

"In formation! Get ready for battle!"

Thus he was instead actually pleased with the thought that he would be able to bag a much bigger than anticipated, as he shouted his officers to line up too, and then,

*Trumpet*, *Trumpet*, *Trumpet*,

The phalanx like units charged head on, wishing to deal the greatest amount of punch right at the start of the battle and snap the enemy in two then and there.

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