Herald of Steel



It was not only the treasury group that had detected the fire.

Others had too, most notably the groups tasked with preparing the meal.

This group of 'culinary experts' had raided the kitchen looking for supplies to start cooking and was at first ecstatic to find the place stacked to the brim with all kinds of food, grains, meats, fishes, vegetables, fruits, and wines of every kind.

All fresh and of the highest quality available.

This stacked pantry was to be expected given the kind of people that lived here and the guests that it entertained, but nevertheless, it made the men who had been on the same dull diet for so long to cheer in elation.

"Haha, brothers we are gonna feast tonight." They cried.

But as soon as one said that, suddenly one of the walls on the far side of the kitchen abruptly collapsed, and long lashes of flames began to snake out of it, spreading its influence to the rest of the structure, setting the rest of it on fire and turning the wood into charcoal.

"What!" And hearing the alarming sound and seeing the intensity of the flames, the men were shocked.

This was not something any of them remotely expected.

Thus they instantly stopped whatever they were asked to do and bolted upstairs, rushing to inform the higher-ups of the situation.

And this was how Perseus's adjutant got news from multiple sources about the raging inferno burning right underneath them.

Which for a time made the man even feel like he was in a burning wok, about to be fried to a crisp.

"Get the men to put it out now! Go!" He thus gave the order and then rushed to inform Perseus.

Who once heard the news, quickly approved the order.

Neither man had seen the fire personally, but the reports they got were vivid enough to grant them his urgency.

And as time went on, they quickly began to get solid evidence that it was very real, and perhaps even bigger than expected as soon they began to somewhat smell the fire, which had started to permeate through the first floor.

Furthermore, they noticed the entire floor begin to somewhat darken, as the charry smoke particles filled the air, giving it an ashy color when placed against the sun.

'The fire is huge! Is it even possible to douche it before it spreads?'

And as these signs became apparent, Perseus, began to fear the scale of the inferno, and how far it could have already gone.

And such fears were shared by this adjutant too, who pondered to himself, 'Perhaps even with all the men fighting it, it will not be enough to save the manor,'

"Your Majesty, perhaps we should order an evacuation," Hence he suggested.

But Perseus rejected this.

"No! There is no need, it is only a small fire." He reassured out of nowhere, and then added, "We cannot abandon it so quickly after spilling so much blood. The soldiers will not like it."

These were all good reasons, but the real why Perseus did not approve the evacuation was for one real reason, and one real reason only- Leosydas.

The doctors were still restricting his wound, and to stop that and then move was not something Perseus was willing to do.

Hence the decision to stay was made.

And thus he only urged his adjutant to commit as many men as possible men to the firefighting effort, urging him, "Theony, you must put that fire out as soon as possible. Use as many men as you want. If water does not work, use sand!"

The fact that Perseus had addressed the man by name went to show how important this was to the king.

And so upon receiving the order. thousands of men were deployed to stop this infernal attack.

But given the time it had to grow and flourish undetected, the fire had truly and well-caught hold of the manor in its fiery grips and seemed to be determined to take the building and everyone unlucky to be still inside it to hell.

Hence given the immense size of their adversary, and how the moment they extinguished a part of the flames, another lick instantly grew to replace it, the Tibans felt they were almost fighting the mythical nine-headed hydra.

No matter how many pales of water they threw, from no matter how many directions, the flames still kept on advancing, surely and steadily.

Of course, it was not like the Tibians were being hyper-efficient with their tactics as well.

These were still peasants turned soldiers, not a trained unit experienced in fighting fires.

So, first of all, it took them quite a while for the man to organize themselves, which let the fire grow even more, enlarging itself exponentially with each passing second as feeding on one piece of wood gave it access to two more, and gulping down on the two let it have four more.

Secondly, there was a shortage of water in the manor, which was a given it was the ancient times without any modern utilities.

So no opening the tap to refill one's buckets.

And speaking of buckets, the Tibians much of their confusion found many of the wells were missing their buckets, not knowing those had been repurposed to carry arrows.

So even getting water from the wells proved challenging, and more importantly, slow, as all the wells were situated outside the manor.

And lastly, there was the challenge of actually getting to the fire to fight it.

And this proved perhaps the most difficult ordeal given the structure of the manor, which, with its long, narrow corridors acts as excellent smoke storage rooms, thus unwittingly creating a black protective shield of miasma around it.

Most men even trying to remotely approach it found themselves coughing uncontrollably, their eyes tearing up, and their lungs burning.

Hence, despite having more than ten thousand potential firefighters, Theony found himself losing the battle.

And as time went on, the smell got worse and worse, and the smoke even more prominent, so much so that, unable to bear it any longer, many men began to evacuate the building on their own.

"Lord Theony, it's no use! That part is completely overrun. The flames have taken the first floor and are rising to the second floor." And soon this report came to him from the same captain he had sent to look for Cambyses.

"......" Proceeding that the captain then shot Perseus a meaningful look.

A look that the adjutant clearly understood.

It meant to warm him that since the fire had spread this far, it was only a matter of time before it made its way here.

And there was little they could do to stop it.

'Fuck! How could such a fire been lit?' Theony cursed, with many possibilities crossing his mind, from an accidentally spilled lamp oil catching fire to intentional malicious sabotage to even the work of the gods or demons.

"Get the men out!" Then at last the man gave the order without Perseus's permission, choosing to evacuate the premises, as he then rushed to inform Perseus of the deteriorating situation.

"Oh! And tell whatever idiots left upstairs too!" But just before that he shot this reminder too.

Because it was possible that many of the men were still obvious to everything, still swept up in their revelry, especially if they were upstairs where the smell of smoke was yet to become too noticeable.

"You imbecile!"

And While the captain followed Theony's order, him unable to accomplish Perseus's got him a loud scolding from the man himself.

Leosydas was in no position to be moved, and desperately needed bed rest, and so the change in events made Perseus furious.

To which Theony could only hang his head low.

But even to Perseus locked in his room it was becoming clear how dire things had become, as by now the entire first floor reeked to smoke, and so after a short outburst, he approved the decision, and soon people began to leave the building like ants on fire.

Most used the many open doors, some climbed out of the windows using the ladders still in place and other desperadoes simply jumped out from the second or third floor, and fell to the soft ground, expertly rolling around to dissipate the impact and avoiding any injuries.

The evacuation was occurring smoothly and the Tibians even remembered to bring their prisoners with them, though not because they particularly cared for them, but because to them, they currently walking piles of money.

Each of them could go anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 ropals depending on the buyer and the condition of the slaves, and so the soldiers would be foolish not to care for something that was worth one to two years of their salary.

" *Trumpet*! Attack! Enemy attack!"

"*Trumpet*! *Trumpet*!"

But just then, in their most vulnerable time of need, came the dreadful trumpet call signaling the impending attack from the enemy!

Menes had launched his counterattack!

The general had found it surprisingly easy to escape the manor as Leosydas's men were nowhere close to attacking the front of the manor then, once he reconnected with his army, and was informed of the fire by Cambyses, he patiently waited to see the smoke rising from the hill before deciding to launch the attack at this time.

And like he had predicted, this caught the Tibians completely off guard, both because of the distraction, and because the morning mist hid their approach till the last minute.