Facing the relentless attacks of the legionaries, Lord Ponticus's circle grew smaller and smaller with every passing second, until finally,
*Slash*
A lucky sword slash managed to at last penetrate the circle and grievously wound the leg of the horse Lord Ponticus was on, causing it to buckle and fall down, taking its rider with it.
'Ahhh! I should have surrendered' And as Lord Ponticus fell from his horse, ti seed to slow for him, as he could feel his life flash before him.
It was as if the veteran military leader could hear death knocking on his door.
And it was right on the cusp of the journey to the other side that the man ca to the conclusion that perhaps life was more important than pride.
But that enlightennt ca too late.
And besides, even if he had cried out surrender, it was unknown whether it might have actually worked.
Rember, it was dark, the ones facing him were peasants who knew of no such convention and lastly, Lord Ponticus spoke a different language.
Perhaps if he had begged and gotten on his knees as a universal sign of surrender then they would taken him prisoner.
But the man had been unwilling to debase himself like that.
And so, as soon as Lord Ponticus hit the ground, imdiately within the blink of an eye, he was jumped on by several legionaries like hungry jackals and within seconds was hacked to bits.
It was in fact so fast that it was impossible to tell where the first wounds were inflicted or gave any of the bodyguards even the slightest ti to try and mount a defense.
Instead, they too soon joined their lord, dying in the service.
And it was as such that a glorious hero of Tibias, one that had brought much glory to his country but was also responsible for sending so many to their deaths, finally t the scythe wielder himself.
But his demise did not cause any additional ripple in the battlefield,
Though perhaps it was more because this side of the battle was already experiencing a figurative tsunami.
But regardless, the n who killed Lord Ponticus showed not a shred of concern following the act and instead seed more eager to divide up the spoils.
So even seed to want to start another fight with themselves over these, particularly as they struggled to take possession of the head.
Because it was the person possessing that who would get that 100 ropal bounty.
Oh, if Lord Ponticus knew his head was going to exchange for that re amount, he would have certainly turned in his grave.
But for now, his story ended there and here.
And instead, a far more interesting and important event was about to start- The main clash between Lord Theony and lodias.
Because rember, Lord Theony's forces were still intact.
And with Alexander losing two of his legions, Lord Theony actually held a slight nurical superiority, with his 28,000 squaring off against lodias's 25,000.
So Tibias was not out of the fight yet.
Not by a long shot.
"Dammit! How could this happen? Where is Lord Ponticus!"
Of course, this did not an Lord Theony was completely unaffected by the loss.
No, he was very much affected as Lord Ponticus's complete rout was surely not part of the plan.
With the only silver lining being that there was ten thousand fewer n to face.
And since things had already developed to such an extent and Lord Theony was by now only a few hundred ters from the enemy, about to make contact within minutes.
So even if he wanted to stop, it was too late.
Just the orders for an orderly retreat would take much longer.
As for the nuclear card of blowing his horn to sound a full-on retreat, well he feared such a thing would cause the enemy to give chase and result in much higher casualty on his side.
Especially given how chaotic it would be due to the current ti of the day, or more specifically night.
So instead he bit the bullet and pressed on, saying to himself,
"Well, at least so of the enemy soldiers have run away. Now let's hope I can use these elephants to grab a victory."
Lord Theony really hoped all the stories his king told him were real and these beasts were as miraculous as he said.
And with those thoughts, the phalanx units closed the last few paces and finally made contact with the static legionaries.
"Attack! Half their n have run away! Now it's our turn to finish the other half!"
"Show no rcy! For Thesalie!"
"For the King!"
Such loud boisterous last-minute words of encouragent could be heard coming from the Tibian side as the n were about to begin their life or death struggle.
While on Alexander's side, words such as these drifted to the legionnaires' ears,
"Hold the line! Lord Alexander has defeated the enemy behind us. It is ti we defeat the enemy in front of us."
"Stand and fight n! All sorts of riches and won await upon victory."
"Don't falter! We are so close!"
As the threat in the rear was death with, the legions in the front quickly steadied themselves, and soon the battle turned into one that was expected.
Just before the phalanx units were about to hit them, the legionaries charged towards them as trained, throwing their pillas and disabling many of the enemy's shields, before starting to engage in a brutal hand-to-hand lee, dying the ground illuminated by the pristine moonlit sky in blood.
"Dammit! If those idiots did not run, we would be having such an easier ti!"
And after a while, lodias cursed as such, for facing the phalanx units in flat ground, further with a slight nurical inferiority, the Zanzan lines quickly began to get pushed back.
This was usually what happened when legionaries tried to go toe to toe with phalanxes on even ground.
Furthermore, the forces under Lord Theony were actually much fresher than those under lodias, because most of the n had been allowed to rest the entire day in preparation for this attack.
Whereas Alexander, unaware of such a move, made his n mostly work the whole ti, with his only saving grace being that the n had been fed a very hearty al.
But that was hardy enough to compensate for the lack of sleep and rest, and their performance on the battlefield showed.
So it was reasonable for lodias to miss those extra ten thousand n.
However given the current state, he was forced to make do with what he had, and so the brutal slugging match continued.
"My lord, sorry we are late!"
And as the bloody battle unfolded in the center, these words were addressed to Alexander by the officers who were under Remus
It had taken them too long to organize their n so was of no use during the previous flanking attack.
Hence as they t Alexander on the field so distance away from the main fighting, their leader lowered his head and looked ashad.
"Mmmm, it's good you are here." While Alexander, unaware of all the backroom drama simply nodded pensively and then commanded,
"The enemy here has been defeated. Stay here. I will give your next order in ti."
An order that the man wordlessly obeyed with a salute, stationing his n just right of their lord's unit.
The reason for Alexander giving this order was because he wanted to keep this 3,000 infantry, as well as his 3,000 cavalries in the reserve, planning to inject these fresh troops once lodias succeeded in tiring the enemy out.
And so for the next two hours, that was exactly what happened as the battlefield turned into a kind of stagnant but very brutal quagmire, one where phalangites and legionaries pushed and counter-pushed each other, with so individual units managing to shove their opponents sotis as much as several hundred ters back.
All while the 4th and 5th legions ran around the battlefield aimlessly looking for any stragglers.
This was of course a complete waste of their ti and usefulness in the battlefield and a sight that insenced Alexander.
He planned to heavily punish these unruly n later, as well as grill all the officers who had been responsible for their training.
And at a later inquiry, it would turn out that these n mostly received their training from the rcenaries Pasha Farzah had sent.
And though those n were fantastic fighters, they were prolific slackers as well as several recounts from the soldiers would attest, saying that most of the ti, their trainers would leave after only one or two hours, or simply not show up at all.
Sothing Alexander would punish by simply removing all such rcenary trainers altogether, as well as docking a part of their pay.
But such detective findings would be for another ti, as right now, finally after a few hours of brutal struggle, lodias was at last beginning to show signs of breaking.
The phalanxes had inflicted a lot of casualties on him and the legionaries seed unable to get the upper hand.
Thus Alexander was forced to release his reserves while seeing so, Lord Theony let out his elephants.
Now was the ti to see if history would repeat itself, or if would Alexander triumph!
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