Herald of Steel

"Good! Now Finish them off! No need to take any prisoner!"

Transferring his gaze towards the wheel of the enemy's ship, Lord Kite was easily able to sense how Remus and co. were on their very last legs.

Just one more push seemed to be enough to make them topple.

Thus the large bear like man let out his triumphant order while shaking his large fist in the air with glee.

They had been delayed here for long enough, and Lord Kite was eager to make up for lost time and be done with all this here right now.

So that they could finally start heading to their real objective.

'I hope the positions on the island have not been overrun.' And the expectation was such that Lord Kite even began to shed all concerns for this battle, determining it to be already inked into the history books as his victory, and instead began to worry about what was to come.

And when he did that, he found himself flinching, because he just recalled the tough armor his enemies were sure to be wearing.

The man cursed that thought.

And then turned to curse himself once again, because he just recalled that amongst their hasty preparation, as well as wanting to quickly outflank the enemy, they did not care to have the men put on too much armor.

That small mistake did end up working in their favor in the end here, so the man really could not complain, but also given how they had been shot to ribbons by the enemy just now, that was sure to become a problem when they disembarked for a melee.

Not to mention, while thinking they were going to participate in a hand-to-hand land battle, they also forgot to take with them enough archers.

Thus if the enemy also had archers with them like they had now, it was going to be another slog.

Lord Kite's heart throbbed at that.

But that did not seem to be a concern for the fighting men, who upon getting the loud order from above, felt like being injected with a rush of adrenaline and thus pounced on the small isolated group of last of the fighters with even more zeal, to which Remus and his scant few remaining men could only recoiled and bunched even closer.

Until there was no more space to even raise their swords, and so they could only duck their heads behind their shields to try and passively defend, doing their best to cover their most vital parts.

And sometimes it would be to the point that some of the men even had their shields literally torn apart by the relentless barrage of enemy attacks, and then without the safety of this most precious tool, be hacked to bits in full view of his comrades, all of whom could do nothing but watch, and tearfully looking away.

Because they knew that if they were to come out of their shells to try and rescue their friend, their fate would certainly be the same.

Thus they could only hold on with reddened eyes and choked sobs while thinking to themselves,

'Is this how we will die?'

The prospect of death appeared scary to even these hardened men.

Especially one as gruesome as being portrayed right in front of them, which they all seemed poised to share.

While conversely, the prospect of killing them appeared very alluring to the opposing Heeat soldiers.

And they made enormous headway in that endeavor.

Until…

*Bam*

A sudden terrible, ear shundering bang thundered past their ears, immediately followed by an enormous rocking of both the boats, one which caused many to lose their footing and stumble.

"Wha… what was that?" And immediately following this came an intense chorus of surprised and panicking shouts, as the men started to look around for the source of their disturbance.

They did not need to look far, turning the query almost rhetorical.

Because the culprit was just behind him, and 'she' was enormous.

Yes, as many could have guessed, this was one of the reinforcement ships that Alexander had sent to rescue Remus, and she had just rammed the bow of the enemy's flagship.

Why choose the stronger, narrower rear and not the much more vulnerable sides?

Well, one was because it was hard to get a good angle from there due to all the surrounding ships moving back and forth.

But perhaps that was more of a weak excuse as an experienced crew would have likely braved even that danger to try and get the attack from the sides, simply because the advantages were that great.

So the much more likely reason for this attack was that its crew was too green to naval fighting and had no idea which side it was better to hit, port, stern, or bow.

Their commander, Kazid had assumed that sea battles were just land battles, with the soldiers being replaced with ships.

And when thinking like that, the very best side to hit a formation of soldiers was of course from the rear, not the flanks.

And thus, unbeknownst to Kazid and his men, a prime opportunity to mortally wound, if not outright sink the enemy ship was lost.

Of course, this tactic had the slight advantage of sneaking up on the enemy without alerting them whatsoever, as they would have certainly noticed a sideways attack from literally miles away, but such meager advantages hardly made up for the lost opportunity.

In fact, it might not have even been such a bad thing for the other side to notice them, as then they would have disengaged with Remus much quicker, leaving the legionaries alone to instead go prepare for the oncoming assault.

That would have surely saved a few more of their lives.

As such, just from this one engagement, it was apparent that there were clearly many lessons for the army to learn here.

Now, whatever strategy Kazid chose to follow, he was stuck with the consequences for now.

And so following the ramming, the attacking ship quickly moved sideways to level with Lord Kite's ships, while hooks and gangplanks from this side were eagerly thrown to the other side.

"Wha… Reinforcements! Darn!" And recovering from the attack, it took but a glance for Lord Kite to identify the eager looking blue armored men on the opposing ship.

And he cursed, for they were so close to finishing off the enemy, yet now it seemed so far.

But there was little he could do about it now.

The chance seemed to have slipped through his fingers.

"Pull back! Get in formation! We have new guests to fight!!"

However, instead of lamenting over the already split milk, Lord Kite instead chose to act decisively, ordered as such with a strong, proud tone.

And there was no panic or fear in voice, because judging by the numbers that he could see in front, these reinforcements did not seem to be enough to match his.

In fact, they seemed to number half or even less than half of his.

So what did Lord Kite exactly have to fear? Especially given the man had just dealt with a similar brood just now.

And even the reason the man had even bothered to call his men back was because he was worried that he might be caught on his flank unprepared.

He had no appetite to lose his men after coming so far, after fighting so hard to secure victory.

And yes, Lord Kite did consider his fight with Remus already concluded, the prey crushed, and the surviving remnants too small and insignificant to matter to him.

Thus Lord Kite did not feel anything more than a little more acrimony about asking his men to leave the last few remaining legionaries alive, even when among whom was also the grand prize Remus.

He could wait to finish him off after this greater threat was dealt with.

The man was not likely going anywhere.

And true to Lord Kite's hypothesis, Remus indeed was too weak and too beaten up, both mentally and physically to really do anything meaningful at this point.

The men he had with him numbered too low, with the rest all laying strewn all around the decks dead or very close to it.

Such a phenomenon had developed over the entire course of the battle, as whenever a legionary fell, be it out of various small injuries or even exhaustion, the Heeat family soldiers tended to instantly gang up on the poor guy and hack him to death, venting all their frustration for making them fight so hard.

Thus, there were many bodies in blue, with a slit throat or a great puncture on the chest or gut, a total that would number greater than sixty!

Meaning a death of more than sixty percent for the unit.

It was mind blogging.

There were suicide missions that had better odds of survival than this!

And this harrowing sight made Remus wept, as he found it hard to even keep standing.

He did not know exactly why he was feeling so sad.

After all, it was not like he had never seen such death and cruelty before.

But somehow, this time it hit the man hard, and he did not know whether to feel happy or sad at being saved.

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