Herald of Steel

The bridge under Alexander had been creaking and cracking too like the other two forces, but initially, few among his men had the time or the state of mind to notice that.

Furthermore, given the intensely crowded situation within the unit, where the men were so squeezed together that they could barely watch past their shoulders, much less see what was happening to the rear echelons of the opposing unit, the men failed to notice much of the happenings going on in front or rear of them.

Thus much of the fact that half the enemy forces in front of them had run away and then got eaten up by the sea, or that the Margraves behind them were quickly evacuating themselves remained obscure to them.

But the initial state of confusion managed to quickly erase itself away and as the state of the perilous predicament they were in became clear, panic and fear began to infect the formation just like the two sides.

In fact, the news was so grave and dreadful that when being informed of it for the first time, Alexander was a bit flummoxed, wondering what the hell they were talking about.

He assumed he was hearing them wrong due to all the overlapping voices, or even that these voices were just misinformed, treating them simply as the ravings of a few panicked, mad men.

After all. how could a bridge made of stone like this collapse due to overloading?

Thus Alexander sought to quickly confirm these reports, guessing he would find the real answer to be something very different.

Something along the lines of a collapse in the morale of the opposing due to some unknown reason, such as the sudden appearance of new reinforcements from his side, the sudden death of their commander, or a call to retreat to the main camp among many other possibilities.

However, none of that proved to be the right answer, and that phase of confusion at last passed with a report from Hemicus himself!

"What did you say!" Hearing the confirmation that the bridge was truly collapsing, Alexander let out this great shout of incredulity, before quickly getting very worked up, as he could not believe such a thing was even possible.

This was a stone bridge, not some rickety wooden suspension bridge held up by thin rope on either end.

So how could it break with the weight of a simple few humans, he found himself asking.

Of course, Alexander remained uninformed of the battering the structure had taken in that storm, as well as the fact there were not 'only a few simple humans' up there

The weight of two thousand men, their gears as well the horse added up to perhaps two hundred fifty to three hundred tons (250 - 300 tons), or about five large main battle tanks.

This was a significant number, especially when it was all concentrated in a small place.

Thus when these two 'ingredients' were mixed together, well a mixture for a disaster was quickly created.

It took a while for Alexander to accept Hemicus's report, finding it unbelievable even though he had full trust in the man.

But as he thought about it, some of the things he had seen just before began to make sense.

Such as the fact that he recalled seeing the enemy's standard suddenly disappear, a phenomenon he had thought to be very strange at the time.

Because a unit's standard was its most important component, and its bearer was the most protected person in the group, being always placed at the center of the formation, thus shielding him from any harm from all sides.

This was due to the fact that it was this flag that all the surrounding soldiers used as a reference to follow any given order, going towards them if they were ever confused or lost, or even just to confirm the orders they were given.

And the punishment for losing the standards was always heavy, a 'standard' across all militaries.

Thus for the flag to suddenly disappear, had indeed made Alexander curious.

However, up until now, he had not put any thought any thought into the matter because he had no time to.

But now, given the lull, he began to consider that, and then suddenly thinking of something, he craned his head downwards, trying to spot that flag in the waves below.

If a part of the bridge was really gone into the sea, Alexander reasoned the flag should be somewhere down there, as there was no other way the standard bearer would have never lost his flag.

And wouldn't you know it, there it was right in front of him, a golden banner with a red horse on it, the exact same flag that had brought so much terror to his heart, now floating harmlessly on the waves below.

This was undeniable proof for Alexander.

But the man was still not satisfied!

Because although his head was willing to agree that a part of the bridge had fallen off, his heart was not.

Thus he sought one last confirmation, so he turned to ask the captain of his bodyguards and asked in a slightly didactic tone, "Hemicus, bend down. I want to get on your shoulders to see the state of the bridge for myself. Figure out exactly how bad it is!"

The ask initially got Hemicus to enlargen his eyes like an inflated balloon, the absolute shock and incredulity clearly written on them, before it suddenly turned enraged and malevolent,

"What! You idiot! You want to get shot that badly?"

The man held little back in his scolding reply, despite the other side being his superior as he appeared as if he could slap Alexander to the moon on the spot.

If Alexander really stuck his neck out like this, becoming the tallest tree in the wood, he would be shot to bits the very next second by every archer from either side.

Because no self respecting archers would even let such an easy kill pass, the crumbling ground beneath them be damned.

Thus Hemicus could not believe how blatantly the man was tempting fate, despite having managed to survive by just the skin of his teeth moments before.

"...." And so hearing the man's words, Alexander quickly found himself flushing a bit and then decided to stay put, deciding to take the man's word as the truth.

Due to the fact that fighting on the bridge had ceased for the moment, the collapse had too come to a halt, and only the occasional creaking and cracking reigned, bursting out from various parts of the section to the utter terror of all the men on it.

*Clang*, *Clang*, *Clang*,

Thus it came as a great relief for Alexander and his men when their ships finally docked right the bridge before hurriedly raising their ladders and signaling them to start coming down.

The men needed little such encouragement, as they shuffled their feet with the utmost urgency, shouting to each other, "Go! Go! Go! Hurry!"

In fact, speed was of such import to the men that they even decided to drop their large, heavy shields atop the bridge, even though it was their most important armament.

They found it too hard and bulky to descend with it.

Hence currently, a very strange sight was developing in the battlefield around the bridge.

There were rows of siege ladders placed side by side on either side of the stone structure, along which men of blue and green were quickly descending onto the ships below, forming a moving column that looked like a procession of busy ants from afar.

And these ships that they were descending into were also lined up side by side to the point they were almost touching, even though they belonged to two opposing forces, one bearing the emblem of a golden balance and the other that of a blue flower.

It seemed that right now, no side wished to attack or harm the others, instead choosing to act like they did not exist.

It was as such that whenever one group made eye contact with the other, both would instantly turn away, fearing the other would see the act as a provocation and attack.

Neither was interested in fighting right now, instead being more focused on rescuing their forces.

When Quinnolin had initially approached the other stationary side, both sides were very jittery.

Ser Robert feared they were going to get rammed by these speeding vessels, while Quinnolin feared they were going to get boarded the moment they got close enough.

Thus, it was this legionary who had raised the white flag first, indicating his desire for a momentary truce.

The sight of this brought great relief to the Margraves, while its subsequent acceptance brought great relief to Quinnolin.

Hence vessels from two sides got to cramp together safely in that narrow space, one where their hulls sometimes even touched each other, as both sides got to evacuate almost all their men safely.

It looked as if it was a happy ending for two, but there was one group who was still left in the lurch- the Heeat forces, who could be heard shouting,

"Hey! Where are you going? Don't leave us!"

But the problem was the Margraves ships were already full, already holding close to a thousand men!

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

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