Herald of Steel

Chapter 1142 Margraves Vs Alexander (Part-1)

It was very clear from Lord Bernard's words that his primary goal was not really to go win the battle or even take Phyrros Island back.

All those were just convenient reasons and extensions of his real objective- trying to achieve grand battlefield glory and accreditation, for himself as well as his family.

And Ser Robert knew this.

This is why Lord Bernard had made some very good points about attacking Alexander, he was initially of the mind to reject him, afraid he was just saying this to get in the way and order the army erratically.

And sensing this distrust, Lord Bernard tried to once again make the deal even sweeter, even reminding him of the 'terrible' way Lord Parker treated them, saying things like, "Robert! Did you forget what he has been giving you? I don't even know how you guys can eat that stuff. Barley! Really? Who give barley to his soldiers?"

Lord Bernard's voice was pitched and wounded, as this particular example was made referring to how barley was usually reserved as only animal feed since it had a pungent odor, and caused excess gas in humans.

So it was only eaten as food in desperate times or given as punishment, kind of like prison food.

And this did somewhat rub Ser Robert and the rest of the soldiers the wrong way, as they saw this as naked, blanket discrimination, hampering morale

But this in the grand scheme of things were minor inconveniences.

Most of the men were simply glad they had a place to rest their heads and warm food in their busy chilly winter.

While Ser Robert tended to agree, finding the camp conditions to be largely agreeable.

Sure there were small things to nitpick here and there, such as the aforementioned food quality, and that the portions they received being smaller compared to the Heeat soldiers, and or given that Lord Parker only paid half their monthly salaries.

But none of these were deal breakers.

Ser Robert had seen much worse.

In fact, he had done worse, once giving a group of allied troops just the food, no wages.

As for Lord Parker being supposedly very arrogant, well he did not find the man to be such, at least not any more than any of the other nobles from any other of the many families.

Hence despite Lord Bernard's acrimony toward Lord Parker, they were not enough to make Ser Robert flip.

But he eventually did.

So the single thing that tipped the man to Lord Bernard's side despite all the blockers was really the potential rewards a successful attack could bring.

If they would give back this important island to Lord Parker which was lost under his own command, well surely the rewards would be rich and succulent.

The Heeat family would have to take them much more seriously then.

Ser Robert was convinced of that.

Combine this with Lord Bernard's eager instance that showed no signs of budging and even seemed to display signs of ignoring Ser Robert's refuse, the short, bulky man with thin black whiskers along his cheeks ultimately nodded in assent.

And swiftly got a large smile and a large pat on the shoulders in response, "Haha, great! Don't worry. Your contribution to this will not be forgotten! Haha."

Towards this Ser Robert could only give a thin smile to this, as inside, he prayed with all his heart that things went as smoothly as they had hoped.

While Lord Bernard's ships changed course and started to approach Alexander, the one battalion worth of men, numbering around five hundred, that was atop the bridge remained fully oblivious to the approaching danger.

Most of them were too drunk by the thrill of the chase to pay any heed to their surroundings, as instead loud and energetic shouts such as these filled the narrow pathway,

"Come on men! Run fast! They are getting away!"

"Haha, father has killed another! This is the third."

"Darn, bastards! Why are you running now? Can't fight unless you are starving men to death? Cowards!"

"Capture them! Take them back to camp! Let's see how they like it when they have only a sip of water to drink for the whole day!"

Just as Alexander had hoped, the men were really venting their frustrations on the unlucky few sods who had the misfortune of being stationed in that godforsaken spit of an island in the middle of this harsh winter.

Which was a good thing for them.

Far less were the approaching enemy ships, who by now had so close enough that even these blood crazed men were forced to take notice.

Even through the thick helmet, the men were able to pick up on the loud and intense churning of the water and much more concerning, the blaring, bellicose, belligerent cries of an immense number of bad tempered men, all eager to draw blood.

The sound immediately forced all of them to shift their eyes from the prize in front them toward the right, where, even through the small slits in their helmets, they were able to instantly spot the source of the ruckus- the giant vessels which were beeling towards them with manic intent.

All the ships had their sails unfurled, bearing the emblem of Margraves family- two coins resting on a balance painted in gold, set against a backdrop of marsh green, the color matching the armor of the men on the decks.

If there were any extreme hopefuls in Alexander's unit thinking these were some unknown reinforcements, such as Lord Janus, well they had their misconception swiftly corrected.

The sight and color instantly gave away the true identity of the intruders.

And it made all the legionaries' eyes widen in with horror, so much so that they almost immediately stopped in their tracks, and turned to the right, not caring one hoot about the fact that they were letting the rest of the Heeat soldiers safely retreat beyond the bridge.

They had bigger fish to fry.

And thus they cried out with various degrees of alarm,

"Who… Ho… how?"

"Where did they come from?"

"Dammit! Reinforcements! Couldn't they have come only a bit later? Why now?"

"That darned Parker! How did he react so fast?"

That last sentence was pronounced by an extremely irritated Alexander, whose face in a very rare instance had become twisted in anger and frustration at the arrival of these ships.

He thought that Lord Parker had somehow gotten the news of his force's rout on the island and had dispatched men to reinforce them.

This was not something that Alexander had taken into account because, under reasonable circumstances, this would not have been possible.

It had not really been that long since Alexander dislodged the garrisons at the island and by all means Lord Parker should have had the time to even receive the news, much less react to it.

So his mind buzzed with pain trying to think where he had gone wrong, not even able to consider that these men were originally dispatched for a very different reason.

"Form up! Form up! Archers at the front! Quick! Archers at the front!"

Alexander's turbulent thoughts however were suddenly shattered by this loud, didactic order from the man beside him, Hemicus, who seemed to have instead come to the conclusion that the answer to how the enemy might have gotten wind of their triumph could wait.

For now, it was much more imperative that they staved off this attack to their flanks, if not at the very least flee.

And Alexander would hundred percent agree to this plan.

Thus currently throwing all the 'hows and whys' into the trash bin, he too joined the captain of his bodyguard immediately and started to scream with him.

Wildly flinging his hands toward the surrounding men, Alexander hence ordered,

"Right! Crossbows! Where are the crossbows? Get here! Get here now! Start firing! Start firing now! Do not let a single bastard land here!"

"Set up the catapults! Quick! Bring the catapults to the front and start throwing! Where the catapaults! Fire whenever you are ready!"

With the two of the highest ranking men in the formation taking charge, the small and elite five hundred men unit was able to quickly get its act together, turning to their right and acting just as they desired.

The infantry locked their shield, and since the enemy ships were already in range of their weapons, the crossbowmen only needed to aim and release their shots, wasting no time.

The trigger pulled by these rows of men went completely unnoticed by the Margraves' troops, who did not even know they were under the crosshairs of their enemy.

Instead, aboard Lord Bernard's deck, the unsuspecting men were too busy preparing themselves for their own assaults, such as by checking their grappling hooks and readying the siege ladders they were going to use to climb up to the tall bridge wall.

When they were suddenly and out of nowhere greeted by a hail of fast and accurate arrow fire, hitting the unprepared and packed tightly together men on the decks with their full ferocity.

The thick bolts with sharp steel heads tore through many of the men, and Alexander thought this was the perfect way to greet the other side.

Seeing the attack, Ser Robert groaned.

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