Herald of Steel

When the power hungry lady was thinking of leaving everything behind, many names had popped into her mind. But the chances of any of them successfully escaping Lord Parker's chase remained a pipe dream within a pipe dream.

The only man she could think of who had the muscle to contend with the Heeat family and the forces that were sure to hound after her was Alexander.

But just the thought of her going to beg that man was enough to make her feel nauseated.

Miss Linda would rather take her chances with Lord Parker and die than grovel to that man.

Thus the lady ultimately decided to strap herself for the long haul, determined to somehow kill Lord Parker, and then try and use Marcus to take control of a part or even the whole of the Heeat family.

But before all such magical things could happen, the lady subconsciously looked out of her tent flaps and stared towards the sea, noting to herself with a bit of uncertainty,

"I wonder how the battle today is going. From what I hear, we should be able to capture the island with relative ease. I don't know whether I should be happy or angry!"

The reason behind Miss Linda's such ominous words was because she was unsure whether a stronger Heeat family was good or bad for her.

On one hand, if they won they would be one step closer to destroying Alexander and getting her manor back. The lady knew that the control of the Margraves family was crucial for the success of all her future endeavors.

But on the other hand, she fumed at how the Heeat family declawed and defanged her men.

She had almost vomited when she heard that speech by Lord Macht, particularly cursing his fourteen generations when he talked about 'sharing the blame'.

'Fuck you old fart! If they are both to blame when why is only our family getting their formation destroyed and officers arrested? Where is the head of the officer under whom Lord Bernard got stabbed? And why have you not said anything about Achillas's orders to slaughter our men to make more space in the ship?'

Of course, all these indignations and more could only be bottled up deep inside her for the moment, as Miss Linda knew this was all a great farce designed to crush and blend them to the ground.

It was just that she was too weak to do anything about it.

And if Lord Macht won back Phyrros Island, his work could very well be done, greatly eroding the Margraves family's identity and weakening its position in the alliance to a nadir.

They would almost become like a vassal.

This was because the win would let Lord Macht properly solidify his position in the army, and reassure the soldiers that even though their original Lord might be having a crisis of his own, they were still in good hands.

They had good commanders to take care of them.

It would also placate the shocked men from both sides, who saw the collapse of the bridge as an act of god and work to convince them that they still had the favor of heaven with them.

All this would bring some much needed stability and order back to the camp.

However, all these benefits would also come at the cost of Miss Linda losing the Margraves troops, for they would lose all thoughts of rebelling against this new integration into the Heeat formation.

The much more coherent force would instead come to see this black man as the true authority.

After all, most grassroots soldiers really did not care who was giving the order.

In this time period, the commoners who were levied to fight for their fight lacked any definite tie to him and most of the time, only really cared about whether the orders they were being given let them win battles and come back home alive.

It was only the officers and nobles in the army that tended to cause 'trouble', for they were the ones with the brains.

They swore oaths to their lords, knew him by name and recognition, and they also had a strong personal incentive to not only win but obtain other benefits from it for their family- be it land, coin, glory, or the honor of being enshrined in the annals of history. And one would do well to not discount that last part because to many honor was perhaps many times more important than even their lives.

Which was also why Lord Macht had removed these unstable elements long ago, pushing them to long past the sidelines and leaving the Margraves almost toothless.

The only way left for the lady to influence her men was through the other's defeat.

If Lord Macht could not produce results, the already low morale in the camp would continue to dip and dissatisfied voices regarding him and his forced methods would start to slowly rear their ugly heads.

This would then give Miss Linda a chance to enter the stage and offer her men's cooperation in exchange for certain concessions.

That's why even though Lord Macht being in charge would likely make things safer for her, as the man would see it to that Lady Margraves was well protected from Lord Parker the lady ultimately decided she would rather see Lord Macht lose today.

She prayed to the gods as such, while gazing at the distant island that appeared only like a dot.

The experienced aged warrior also knew the stakes that were on the line for him today, which was why he decided to lead the attack on the island personally, and with all the forces he could muster.

The battle today was much more than about this simple spit of land. Rather it could be said the whole momentum of their campaign depended on it.

Hence to ensure success he had deployed about three quarters of all available ships, only leaving a token force of battered ships behind, most of which were undergoing various repairs in the harbor and hardly considered seaworthy. Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr

They were so bad in fact that Lord Macht feared these might sink the moment they sailed out. And the last thing that he needed was another ill omen.

So he held them back in reserve, hoping that they would be able to provide some kind of aid just in case of some catastrophic emergencies.

This meant that the commander was able to carry three thousand men with him to the battlefield, out of which, two and a half thousand were soldiers and the rest of the five hundred rowers.

Lord Macht was very confident with these numbers despite it not being his maximum capacity because his initial scouting of the island reported that Alexander only had a garrison of about five to eight hundred men.

This let him outnumber the enemy three to one.

Hence the veteran commander strongly believed he would be able to dislodge this force even if they were well entrenched.

And under normal circumstances, he would have been indeed correct.

This lopsided number would be able to uproot even decently fortified positions, positions such as those that had three days to prepare themselves.

However, it was just that he forgot to take into account the fact that this attack would have to be an amphibious landing in broad daylight!

Alexander's garrisoned forces could see the huge sails approaching them miles away and more than being panicked or alarmed, first and foremost, they were astounded by the sheer gall in display here by the enemy.

Because regardless of the time period, contested landings were always very hard. Especially if the other side had time to react and knew where the force was going to land.

Arrows, javelins, and catapults were sure to greet the vulnerable landing force the moment they got close enough.

So seeing the Heeat ships approach them with such arrogance, one of the officers even turned to whisper to his commander, Scorpyo with absolute incredulity,

"They can't be this stupid right? This has to be a trap! It's like they want us to find them, They are like a naked whore dancing to catch our attention!"

That crude example got a vulgar chuckle from another officer who was standing next to him, and this man too then quickly joined with a swift nod,

"Right! I think so too. The enemy has shown itself to be quite competent in all our previous fights. So perhaps they are trying to copy what the Lord had done."

Proposing this hypothesis, the man then elucidated with a point of his finger toward the ship, "This is likely only a distracting force, meant to draw our attention away. The real attackers are likely somewhere hidden from our view. Look, the morning fog is making it hard for us to see anything too far away."

"Mmm…. I agree!" And this rhetoric was then quickly buttressed by the first officer, whose face turned heavy seeing the hazy smoke out at sea, and caused him to chime,

"These hidden ships will surely show themselves only once we are engaged with the enemy.

"Their entrance is too flamboyant and flashy. This is definitely a trap! Commander Scorpyo, we must absolutely not take the bait."

"....." The leading man neither replied yes or no.

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