Herald of Steel



As the first volleys turned to the second, the third, and so forth, the instant bow really started to showcase its power.

The speed at which the arrows were let loose made it seem like there were 10 times the men firing at the enemy, and the intensity of the fire made it quite hard for Perseus to continue up the hill.

Especially after the casualties he took following the first volley where, the hundred fifty (150) instant bow users let off their entire magazine at once, totaling a concentrated shot of seven hundred fifty (750) arrows, accompanied by 150 bolts from the crossbows, for a grand total of nine hundred (900) arrows fired, given a few seconds.

And what made it worse for Perseus was that this concentrated attack of so many arrows came from nowhere to them, at a time when his troops were caught out of formation and without their shields up as the phalanx units marched in a loose array up the hills.

Thus there some about a hundred (100) casualties from that initial strike only, showing just how devastating that wall of arrows from the instant bow actually was.

And to add a cherry on top for the defenders, these shots were quite easy to carry out.

They really did not need to aim but just had to look at the blazing torches against the dark background and let loose their shots around that general direction.

And given how the seven to eight thousand men under Perseus were forced to queue up along the relatively narrow roads leading to the mines, most of the time, these arrows hit something, be it shield, armor, or if lucky flesh.

Plus, the defenders could do this in relative safety, without the fear of getting shot back, for the following reasons as described by Perseus and his entourage when his adjutant came to him from the front shouting,

"Your Majesty! Shoot! Command our archers to shoot back! Or else we cannot proceed!"

The man very reasonably wanted to use their archers to fire back and suppress the defenders as such, while the infantry advanced.

But Perseus shook his head in denial at this, saying,

"There is no point. The enemy is shooting downhill. So he has more range. My archers will be shot even theirs," before his voice started to sound bitter, as he said,

"I forgot about that. That's why a hundred good men (100) died,"

The king seemed genuinely quite regretful and even rebuked himself for letting his emotions get in the way of good military strategy.

In hindsight, when he had heard the loud cheer, he should have been prudent enough to slow his march down and get his troops into proper phalanx formation.

But because he had not done so, they were now being forced to do so under a hail of arrow fire.

As Perseus finished saying this, another high-ranking noble from beside him too chimed in, turning to the adjutant to say,

"His Majesty is right. Our archers will not be able to reach the enemy on the top. So if we bring them up front, they will simply stand there and be killed given their thin armor."

"And that is even if we can bring them to the front lines." The noble then added forcibly, before gesturing with his arms by swaying them around,

"Look around us kid…. surrounded by hills and forests on all sides with only a narrow road leading up. Trying to maneuver any units either front or back is futile."

"Nevermind even if we can actually do that, we might not even know whether the arrows are hitting the enemy."

This sentence was not said by the high-ranking noble but was uttered in a high, pitched, almost feminine voice from the other side of Perseus, and it belonged to a sickly-looking man, with gaunt cheeks and sunken eyes, appearing to be in his mid-fifties.

He was named Mithriditus and could be said to be the third most powerful man in Tibias after Perseus and Leosydas, though his health was not one of envy.

But what he lacked in brawn, he seemed to make up somewhat in brains, as he pointed to the hilltop above using his almost cadaverous hands, and said.

"Try and look from where the arrows are coming from…. where do you think the enemy is…can you find it?"

And at this instruction, the adjutant naturally looked up to try and determine the enemy's location.

And strangely failed to grasp it.

To him, the arrows seemed to be shooting out of the dark night itself.

"See….you can't find them." And Mithriditus of course predicted this would happen, as he explained, "This is because the enemy is firing from above us in almost darkness. They can see perfectly well with all our lit torches."

"But we can't see them except as one of the many shadows up there." He intelligently pointed out,

"So if we send our archers ahead, they will not where to shoot, and might even end up hitting our troops."

Thus this relatively older man fully explained the intricate reason by pushing the archers forward would not be a good option.

"That…" And the adjutant for the first time felt something like being enlightened, and his eyes widened as he was unable to reply back.

But the others did not have time to wait for this young man to come out of his stupor.

So as soon as this was finished being said, Perseus interjected with his order, saying, "Mithriditus is right. The archers stay back."

"The best thing to do now is to lock our shields together and have the infantry slowly move up through the fire."

"Now go! We are close!"

Perseus of course meant this as an order with the adjutant benign commanded to pass this to the frontline commadners.

"Yes, sir!" And understanding this, the man received it with a loud saute and quickly proceeded to carry it out.

While back on the top of the hill, the fierce release of arrow after arrow continued, as the men almost mechanically drew, shot, and reloaded their bows, all so that they could resume the cycle once again.

The continued motions were starting to take a toll on their arms, especially for the ones using the instant bows, but they knew they had to keep going.

This miracle weapon had managed to do quite a bit in halting the enemy's advances, with the rapid concentrated fire managing to even literally shred some shields in two and kill its holder with multiple grievous wounds.

But the men knew they would have to keep up the pressure or all their gains might be lost.

So they persevered even through the pain.

All while Juminus and Cambyses shouted encouraging words such as.

"Fight! Fight for your lord, your land, your loved ones!"

"Do not let up! The enemy is faltering."

"Be calm! Be steady! Nothing can stand against our weapons."

While to help the men accomplish their tasks, women and children were seen frantically running back and forth from the nearby arrow carts to the frontlines, each time replenishing the stocks of arrows with a new full bucket.

And contrary to Mithriditus's claim that the Zanzan were shooting from a dark place, it was actually quite bright here.

But the reason he had made that mistake was because the light from the braziers was obstructed from reaching him by the wall of men lined along the very edge of the edges.

So it did appear quite dark to the older man.

Due to this, Perseus was unable to offer any counterattack to the enemy and was forced to only passively take the hits while sustaining ever-increasing damage, causing his casualties to rise up.

And when to mitigate this, he slowed his advance down, so that the phalanx units could hold their cohesion, it turned his speed into almost a crawl.

And even then the inherent trouble phalanxes had with moving through terrains in formation remained, nevermind they were also being shot at at the same time.

So the occasional gaps would open up regularly, letting the lucky shots in, and reaping a life and decreasing morale.

But Perseus was unable to think of an effective strategy other than to the obvious retreat for now.

Or just to power through this relatively short distance, resolving to absorb the casualties and then start slaughtering those annoying bugs once they were in range.

The former was out of the question.

Not a single commander or officer dared to utter those words.

And so it had to be the second one.

With that blazing determination, Perseus and his men persevered, and very, very slowly made their up the hill, while the enemy tried to suppress them using volley after volley of arrows as much as possible.

All of which was observed with silent trepidation by Cambyses right from the best sit in the house, right on the frontlines.

And to a bit of her relief, the enemy did seem to slow down to almost a standstill after her archers had started to fire on them, and so for now, the goal of stalling for time until reinforcements got here seemed to be heading in the right direction.

'Where are they? What's taking so long!' But much to Cambyses's chagrin, they were yet to actually arrive.

It was already half an hour till the battle started.

And so she went to meet with Juminus and asked this in a tense tone. "How many arrows do we have left?"

Because she knew they were about to run out!