Herald of Steel

As the battle raged on the sandy shores, from his flagship all the way in the back, Lord Macht observed the amphibious attack with a gloomy look plastered on his, with brows wrinkled with a concerning frown.

His plan to intimidate the enemy into holing themselves in had clearly failed and so now, he could only try and bulldoze his way through with sheer mass.

And although they were making progress, he could not help but be frustrated at the crawling speed.

The chosen tactic naturally produced a lot of casualties, and although Lord Macht was not risk adverse, he certainly was also no butcher who liked to see his men get slaughtered.

He would not have pushed his men with such martinetness if there was another way or if things back at camp were not so dire.

However, they were and the man was determined to push through despite the bloody cost

And this was one of the primary reasons why he led from the top of the deck, refusing to take shelter below in spite of the ever present danger of a catapult shot hitting him

Granted he was also quite a distance away and it would have to be one hell of a lucky shot for the stone to find its right target, but still, standing on the bow of the ship such openly with his flashy armor was visible to all was not without risk.

It took courage.

And the fortunate thing was that this display had its effects, as all the soldiers found their morale soaring despite the hardship on the beach and just kept pushing forward.

If Lord Macht's had on the other hand had chosen to cower and run back to the decks down below, it was very uncertain whether much momentum could have been achieved.

Perhaps then the situation would have unfolded just as Scorpyo had hoped for, with the oceans dyed with floating bodies of retreating soldiers.

Now though this commander felt getting pressured as the disembarking soldiers began to form up and push back.

They had by now passed the most dangerous part of their mission and upon successfully swallowing the dense arrow fire and barrage of stone projectiles, the mixture of Heeat and Margrave soldiers began to get into solid, coherent formations.

The threat of injury from the legionaries forced these two groups of dissimilar men to temporarily put their feud on ice and lock shields together, both on the front and above, forming a sort of pseudo testudo, and then with spears pointed forward, they began to march forward, like a particularly spiky tortoise, eager to quickly engage the enemy.

"*Whistle!*, *Whistle!*, *Whistle!* Faster! Faster! The faster you meet the enemy, the safer it will be for you!"

Their officers shouted as such while leading front the front, wishing to force the legionaries to change their loadout from crossbows to swords and shields.

Not only would the shorter ranged weapons make things easier for them they would also make all subsequent landings of their brothers in the rear much, much easier.

Which meant greater numbers and more reinforcements for those at the front.

"Dammit! Back off! Retreat! Retreat towards the camp!"

As for the leader of the opposite side, Scorpyo naturally too understood the enemy's intention.

But unable to stop the initial advance, he was forced to choose the next best option. He quickly ordered his units to slowly withdraw in a controlled manner, trying to once again open up the distance.

The man had absolutely no desire to engage the landing forces in a melee where he was outnumbered three to one.

His intentions for now was to only harass them.

He had hoped this would be enough to break the men before they made it to shore. But alas, the other side proved too tenacious, as well as Scorpyo somewhat lacking the usual good, strong punch.

This was because a lot of his crossbowmen were informed to be running low on ammo,

making them unable to saturate the area with the kind of wall of steel and wood that was expected of them.

That allowed Lord Macht to withstand the barrage somewhat better and get his forces in formation faster.

And towards this inability, the diligent legionaries were not idle, rather they repeatedly harassed Scorpyo via scouts and runners, constantly asking him for additional bolts.

"Where will I get new arrows? Make them out of my own farts? Go order them to make do with what they have got! None of them are allowed to stop firing no matter what!"

But these messengers only returned with such shouts from their top commander, who simply ordered the men to make do with whatever they got.

Scorpyo was not really angry at the legionaries for asking for more ammo.

He was in reality much more frustrated than angry, angry at himself for being unable to provide his men with what they desperately needed.

He thus cursed to himself,

'Shit! All these constant battles without any replenishments have dwindled our supplies to almost nothing. We need to make more!'

Yes, the simple truth of the matter was the three battles that Alexander had with the enemy had at last managed to exhaust even his great supply of bolts, and by now, they were all really scraping the end of the barrel.

In fact, the direness of the need had already shown itself in previous battles, where many of the legionaries quickly picked up any missed bolts that they found lying on the ground, and some even retrieved the bolts stuck to dead bodies.

Of course, the easiest way to rectify this situation would have been to make more, and Alexander had a few legionaries to part timed as amatuer arrow makers.

But alas, the true crux of the matter was that they were under siege inside a manor inside a city, letting them have little access to much supplies.

Even if they could scrounge together the timber from the nearby houses and iron from everyday pots and pans, there still remained the slight trouble of gathering the feathers which were typically taken from geese and without which the shots would have virtually no range and much more importantly a forge to bring all the ingredients together.

And besides, without fresh food and even water, the men hardly had the luxury to be prepreating for a new battle. They were much more concerned with securing their next meal, and when that that was done, the following one.

All these small events slowly one by one had the knock on effect as currently seen now, where after the initial withering barrage of fire, the legionaries were forced to dial down on their ferosity lest they end up with empty quivers half through the battle.

This let the landing force get a small breather and with their vastly superior numbers and elite training, was able to at last exploit the advantage into a good, solid beachhead.

Now all that remained for these men was to expand it and overwhelm all the defenders.

Which was exactly what they tried to do, with their officers urging them forward.

"Now is the time! Push men! Push forward with all you have! These cowards have nowhere to hide." Some of the commanders enticed their men in the allure of victory and the end of the battle.

"Go! Each man you kill, you will get a bounty! Each man you capture, you will get a third of his ransom!" While others dangled the lure of monetary rewards, an especially alluring thought for the Margraves men who had been nearly starved of their wages.

"Don't let the other units get the better of you! Hurry up and I will let you taste them for an hour before you have to hand them over!"

As for the last type of encouraging speech, it was certainly the most rare of all.

In any battle, the majority to be violated were indeed women. But that did not mean men did not suffer.

Some soldiers preferred men more than women and so it was not too uncommon for some of the stronger captured sex to suffer as well. And when they were taken, the event was certainly much more messy than their female counterparts, due to the parts involved.

However for those willing to take part in such acts, the mess was perhaps part of the fun, which is why many cheers from those various parts of the attacking formation, before quickly closed in on Scorpyo's men.

Again and again, the legionaries were forced to abandon their positions and fall back, unwilling to make contact with the enemy.

And again and again, Lord Macht grew bolder, landing more of his forces and expanding his hold on the island.

At one point they even managed to capture two of Alexander's catapults as Scorpyo ordered the thing be abandoned since taking it with the unit was dragging them down too much.

This move however, as necessary as it was, was also the first instance of one of Alexander's 'modern' artillery pieces falling into enemy hands.

It's effects remained to be seen.

For now though, the garrisoned forces' only concern seemed to be surviving and the only clutch they could see as their salvation appeared to be their heavily reinforced camp that they were rapidly approaching.

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