The brutal lee at the center raged on for hours with both sides cracking from the bloody engagent.
And as ti passed these cracks spread and blood, with both sides taking huge casualties, until finally one side could not take it anyway.
The cracks on nes's side had beco too large to ignore.
So he at last sent word to lodias, asking him to charge up the right side of the hill and swing around to flank Perseus, thus relieving the pressure off him.
"The enemy is weakened. Use your legionaries to hit them on the side and destroy these bulky formations." The instructions read.
And as nes was giving this order, at the sa ti, sensing the sa weakness in the Zanzan lines, Perseus sent word to Petricuno, informing him that the enemy was truly and well pinned down with little strength to struggle or run.
"Now is the ti to hit him where it hurts and win us a great victory," The scout read out those exact words said by Perseus to Petricuno.
Thus by following the most logical path, both generals inadvertently played the exact card they had hidden at the sa ti.
This had happened also because due to the fog and heat of battle, neither side got a chance to get an exact number of the troops the other side had deployed, and so both thought that this was all they had.
Otherwise why would they endure for so long under such brutal condition?
Upon receiving nes's word, lodias, who already had everyone ford up, quickly blew the trumpet and shouted in large expletives, "Charge! Quick! Our sides needs help! Charge!"
By now most of the fog had dissipated and for the past few while, lodias had been able to celery observe the fight on the top from the foot of the hill, and the scene filled him with great tension in his heart.
How could he see not how the tide of the battle was becoming more and more against them?
He had even sent multiple heralds to nes if he should start coming up, but the black general rejected it, asking him to be patient for a bit longer.
"Not yet. I can still hold on. Let tire the enemy out a bit more." He claid.
Until finally he gave the order for lodias to move.
And the clear weather ant the latter was able to quickly ascend up the hill, eager to assist his ally in battle.
While his counterpart on the opposite side, Petricuno was not so nimble.
The heavy phalangites wielding the much bigger and heavier sarissa were hardly Olympic sprinters, and the nature of their formation ant that for these units to be most effective, they needed to be bunched together.
So when a bunch of heavily armored n wielding deadly 4 to 5 ters spears were bunched up together and asked to move up a steep slope, well it was not wrong to say they moved at a snail's pace.
"Co on n! Faster! The enemy is gonna break any ti. Do you want those lowly Tibian peasants to get all the glory?"
"Hurry! Move quickly. Or else the fight is going to be over."
"Spread apart! Spread apart!"
"There is no enemy. Spread apart and moving quickly."
And seeing the crawling speed, the ever impatient Petricuno ordered this.
He could never accept 'Alexander' being defeated without him even getting a single stab in.
That was the whole reason he was here.
This rcenary leader had learned quite a bit of Alexander's accomplishnts in the past three years and each of the latter's achievents had set his heart burning with green flas.
He simply could not believe in three re years the man had obtained powers beyond Petricuno's imagination.
Whereas he had managed to get a ager position as an ordinary citizen in a city state, he beca a person surpassing in power even when compared to the most powerful senators of Cantagena.
Now, becoming a citizen of a city state like Cantagena was no small feat in itself.
It was the ultimate dream of many stateless people of this ti, kind of similar to how many people dread of receiving a US or Canadian Green Card, though the forr was a lot harder.
The superpower Cantagena had an enormous demand for its citizenship, but only limited space within its walls, not to ntion the inherent racism.
So what Petricuno managed to do was certainly very impressive.
But when compared to Alexander's position as a Pasha, one who currently controlled around 100,000 sq km, the status of an ordinary citizen really could not hold any candle.
And what wounded the rcenary leader most was perhaps the fact that he knew he too could have beco a lord if he had only swallowed his pride and taken that offer.
He too could have been like nes, lodias, and nicus, lords with huge plots of land, a beautiful house to live in, fine food and drink to eat every day, and sexy servants to attend to all his whims and desires.
But he missed that opportunity, letting it slip right through his fingers.
All because he was too proud, too vain, too stupid to see the opportunity.
And given that that door had closed, Petricuno's heart turned crooked.
'If I cannot have it, then no one can.' The rcenary leader venomously ground his teeth as he swore.
And that is why he was really here to help Tibias.
To pull down Alexander from his high pedestal and show that he and him were not so different.
And for that to happen, Petricuno needed to join the fight currently raging on.
It would be of no use if 'Alexander' broke before he could co.
Then he would not be able to gloat.
Thus eschewing his own advice of keeping his phalanx units bunched up so that they do not scatter and open up gaps between themselves, in order to speed up the march, he did the opposite, allowing each formation to advance up the slope without having to worry about bumping into the unit next to them.
And this order did produce the intended result- the marching speed almost doubled.
But it was still not as quick as lodias's who by now had already reached the top.
Up until now, both sides had been unaware of the other's presence as a slight fog still lingered along so parts of the hill, and the current ongoing battle and its clamor and din captured all the eyes.
So just imagine lodias's surprise when he was about to turn to hit Perseus's right flanks when suddenly he laid his eyes upon what was coming up the other side of the hill.
Around twenty thousand, 20,000 heavily armored n wielding spears the size of which he had never seen before!
'What is that?' And for a mont, lodias's heart beca dry as a desert as all strength seed to have left him.
Even a child could tell that if these n managed to join the fight, they were done for.
The only lucky break here for lodias was that Petricuno was spread out, just like that ti against Manuk, and lodias decided to clutch at that chance with both hands and if he could even both feet.
His heart even danced joyfully at this sight, as a torrential flood of euphoria filled his shrunken heart, ballooning it to double its original size.
'You idiots. You still haven't figured out why we brought you here to fight? On this hilly ridge. Where the ground is so uneven. Hahaha.'
And then when he thought about it for a bit, lodias found that it was indeed natural for the bulky phalanx units to be spread out and disorganized.
So he hastily ordered,
"Quick! Charge downhill!"
"*Trumpet*, *Trumpet.*"
"The enemy is still disorganized. Charge downhill when we still have the chance."
"*Trumpet*, *Trumpet.*"
And naturally, since lodias could see the enemy, many officers could too.
Hence the 9,000 n and horses were instantly told to halt turning left to hit Perseus and instead redirected to charge thundering down the slope.
"Ahhh….."
"Advance!"
"Ready your pillas."
"Kill them all!"
Monts after lodias's trumpet rang, many similar such signals waved past the nearly two legion worth of n and the orderly formation began a deadly swoop down the steep slopes of the hill, determined to catch the enemy off guards, as they shouted various threatening words and let out huge roars to pump themselves up for battle.
And then once the infantry started to advance down the slop and finally got close enough, they threw their pilla just like they practiced and pounced into the enemy, eager to destroy them.
But they did not attack head first.
Because that would have been suicidal.
When Petricuno's n noticed the blue wave of torrent slip down the slopes bee lining for them, these trained n did not simply panic and run, but instead instinctively halted and lowered their huge weapons, forming a very formidable spear wall.
If the legionaries were stupid enough to attack head on, these sarissas could very well beco gigantic shish kebab sticks, with two or even three n at the end of each stick.
So it was fortunately for lodias that his n had that survival instinct.
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