Herald of Steel

If Alexander had only wanted to deny any enemy reinforcements from reaching the other side of the island, he would have simply had a section of the bridge destroyed, and then put a small garrison behind.

With just a few good crossbowmen, he was very confident in being able to retard any repair attempts made by the other side, being more than adequate to hold Lord Parker at bay for a very long period of time.

But denying access to just one side of the bridge was not quite enough for Alexander.

He wanted to take control of the whole of it.

Because upon seeing Lord Parker's fleet, nascent as it may be, Alexander quickly came to the realization that the enemy's naval capabilities had not been as squashed as he thought it might have been.

Sure, they had been greatly diminished, but upon seeing some of it in action, Alexander accurately guessed that some of the ships must have survived the blazing inferno, and were then likely moved to the abandoned harbor for repairs.

This abandoned harbor was a relatively new harbor, although not in the sense you might think.

Originally it used to be just the western part of the Great Harbor, and also called as such.

But after the disaster five years ago, it was virtually destroyed by the tidal waves, to the point it ceased to basically exist, and then had been till now left 'abandoned'.

The Margraves originally planned to repair it after the eastern side of the Great Harbor was restored, but the plans were yet to get that far, thus leaving this harbor to ruin.

Until now that is.

Because after Alexander's recent stunt, one that created a blazing inferno threatening to almost burn down the entire city, as its flash point, the eastern Great Harbor was left in a state even worse than the western side one, to the point it was now simply a charred, crumbling stone pathway facing the sea, its surfaces warped and 'wrinkled' as many of the stones literally turned to glass under the immense heat.

The fire had made it so that the 'Great Harbor' of Caira really did not exist at this point.

And so Lord Parker had his surviving ships moved to the second port, finding access to better facilities there, as well as letting the man evade Alexander's spying eyes.

In fact, this was primarily how he was able to prevent Alexander from detecting the fact that he still had a fleet until now.

This was a phenomenon that the pasha was very eager to rectify, for given the clear mismatch in naval warfare being revealed to him as of now, it would be disastrous if Lord Parker, after he regained his fleet strength, was to launch an attack while his ships were still on the port.

Alexander would be outmatched in skill and grossly outnumbered in men, and the man had not risked burning half the city down to have it all end up for naught.

Hence he desired to place troops on the bridge, from there they would be able to churn out deadly missiles of steel and fire onto any approaching enemy vessels, thus denying them this easier passage.

While his garrison on Phyrros Island would put a stop to any northern approaches.

Alexander revealed all such of his inner thoughts to Pyanos in a quick succinct manner, a matter that quickly worked to create a genuine sense of admiration in the man.

Pyanos felt that he could have his belly blown wide open and yet not be able to come up with so many insightful reasons, not to mention so quickly.

Thus for the first time in his life, Pyanos felt a slight shiver run through his spine at the sharpness of the man in front of him.

And then a hint of shame began to creep up on him.

Because being a highly social man, he was quickly able to tell that Pasha had caught on it his ass kissing, and very clearly did not like it.

So feeling somewhat intimidated the commander only obediently nodded and kept his head down, gently bobbing it at everything Alexander said while appearing bashful and servile.

The tactfulness impressed Alexander, finding the highly malleable man not as much an eyesore as before.

Thus the thought of immediately dismissing him after the campaign was over was put on hold for now.

Of course, if he knew of Pyanos's past deeds, the feeling would be entirely different, but for now, Alexander decided to remove his gaze with a pleased aftertaste behind it.

As the battle rolled on, Alexander continued to closely follow his men chasing the fleeing enemy across the bridge, with the legionaries slaying all who they could get their hands on, to the point the entire stretch of the 'road' behind them laid strewn with mangled bodies, bearing various wounds pertaining to slashes, jibes, pokes and hits by arrows, etc. before being squashed and flattened under the footsteps of a thousand armored men.

But while Lord Parker's men fled from the battlefield in panic like this, back in his camp, newer events were unfolding in a way that caused the situation to develop along paths that Alexander had not predicted.

Among the first of which was Lord Kite's plea for help from the lord.

Yes, after being pinned by Alexander's reinforcement and seeing no easy way to break through, the man quickly sent his own call for more troops, wishing to draw from his own reserves, his much, much bigger reserves, and crush both the old and new legionaries together.

Lord Parker responded immediately upon learning of the recent battlefield developments, ordering a thousand more men to board the ships and start sailing toward the battleground at their earliest.

With the command for this second fleet surprisingly landed on Lord Bernard's hand, and not General Achillas.

This was a once in a life golden chance afforded to him courtesy of his familiar kin- Miss Linda.

The scheming lady had been in the tent when the runner came to inform Lord Parker of Lord Kite's situation and sensing an opportunity for herself here, the stunning lady quickly pounced on her husband's lap and whispered to him the idea of giving Lord Bernard and his men a 'chance to redeem themselves', referring to the drinking water debacle.

Of course in reality Miss Linda had little love for Lord Bernard, only knowing the man in a professional context.

And this was really just her way of letting the troops of her family gain some battlefield credits, thus hoping to elevate her own position within the Heeat family.

Because any wife, if she wanted to ever have influence over her lord husband needed to have a strong maternal family.

Yes, even someone as beautiful as Miss Linda, for the charm and allure of one's beauty always had a fixed expiration date, as the magic tended to usually wear off after a few years.

And at that point, one needed to have the power and prestige to assert their dominance and keep out any newer, fresher mistresses that might catch their husband's eyes.

And for a woman, that power and prestige exclusively came from her family lineage.

Lord Parker did not have to be a genius to be able to see through all of this, but he did not seem to mind, finding it nothing of significance.

He had already cooled off regarding Lord Bernard's lack of results with the drinking water and furthermore felt that it might not be a bad idea for the Margraves troops and his men to participate in a joint battle- just to let each side see how the other fought, what were the signal they used, their command structure, and even their general attitude towards battles.

And since they were going to only reinforce an already existing large force, Lord Parker thought there was nothing to worry about in terms of the battlefield results and thus acquiesced to the Margraves' men having their short time under the sunlight.

Hence Lord Bernard got his own ships, crewed by his own men.

The extremely dashing officer got to quickly maneuvering his beauties, intent on making good on the trust that was placed on him by both the ducal lord and his family's future head.

And as such, he set off immediately and soon approached the bridge, his course being to sail under it.

When suddenly,

"Sir! Look! It's our men! On the bridge!", his men drew attention to the happenings atop there with a panicked screech.

Lord Bernard instantly spotted their men, dressed in black fleeing towards the camp with great shouts and greater urgency while being chased by a group of ravenous beasts in blue.

Lord Bernard's heart sank at seeing this.

Not necessarily because of the state of their forces, but more so because of what it represented- the loss of Phyrros Island.

And at this realization, the man momentarily found himself with a hollow heart, pondering what to do.

Because the way he saw it, there was little point in going to help Lord Kite now, was there?

The main battle had been already lost.

Thus the man decisively ordered the following,

"Turn the ships! Have them head towards the bridge! We will flank the enemy from here!"