Chapter 892 The End of Tibias
?Chapter 892
The news of Perseus's 'death' spread like wildfire among the ranks, his empty horse standing like a flaming beacon of testament to that claim.
And seeing that, the melting pot that was already the streets of Kalimat started to finally boil, as panic and desertion set in with its full effect.
The men threw away their weapons and armor to try and find a way to run as fast as they could, which they of course failed to do spectacularly.
The narrow terrain constricted their movement like an anaconda straggling its prey and many died due to the actions of their own men, as they pushed others into harm's way to save their own. Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only
While their lack of weapons made them like defenseless sheep in front of Grahtos's men, who found the lines had devolved into a squishy hodgepodge that any army could only dream of encountering.
To the legionaries, it appeared like every swing of the blades would reap a new life, making many of the men who were farmers feel like they had been taken back to their fields, where they were cutting wheat.
By this point, that part of the fight could no longer be called a battlefield.
In fact it could no longer be even called a fight.
More like a slaughterhouse, with the animals being unfortunately replaced by humans.
"What! Father is dead? How?"
However for Philips, the ongoing near complete obliteration of a part of his army was far less precedent than the report of the death of his father.
As soon as the news reached his ears, he suddenly felt faint, as his vision blurred and his head swirled a bit.
'Finished! Everything is finished!' The man's worst fear had seemingly come true as he agonizingly then howled in his heart, for he knew perhaps better than anyone else what this meant.
Although Perseus was no great administrator of the lands, he was still considered a great ruler, being very charismatic and seen as a titan in the hearts of the people.
His presence alone inspired the men around him, and it could be said the only reason they had been able to keep fighting for as long as they did was purely due to him.
So Philips was not wrong to judge the loss to be irreplaceable for them.
And with his father's supposed death, Philips judged his country to be also lost.
Tibias could be said to be a country that was originally held up by five pillars.
And these pillars were, in order of descending importance, Perseus, Leosydas, Mithriditus, Philips, and Lord Theony.
Currently, out of the five, three were dead and one had defected, leaving Philips all alone to try and pick up the pieces.
A task that would have been a mammoth undertaking even in peace times, where he only would have had to deal with internal rebellions.
Philips did not even have to give the order to surrender.
Most men did so voluntarily, raising their spears high up into the sky which symbolized the holstering of the white flag.
While Alexander was more than happy to accept a win without bloodshed.
"Send the orders. No company (100 men team) is to engage the enemy in fighting unless they are attacked first."
"If anyone disobeys it, he will be court martialed and executed!"
Alexander had bled enough for this campaign and did not want to lose a single more man and feared some of the more glory seeking men would disobey him for credit.
The legionaries soon formed a semi circular arch around the phalangites, surrounding them, before starting to separate and dismantle the army unit by unit.
"Throw down your weapons. Everything you have. And then lie down."
Came the orders, and the regular grunts quickly followed, lying down on the muddy ground that had been churned up the steps of tens of thousands of men and beasts, with their hands above their heads.
Alexander and company had not brought enough ropes with them to take all these men prisoners at the same time, so after the surrender, fast riders were sent out to Alexander's base camp asking for it, while at the same time, about 10,000 phalangites were unarmed and set on a march towards the camp, escorted by a legion of 5,000 men.
Given Alexander's size of the camp, that was the maximum number of prisoners he could handle without being overwhelmed.
As for the rest, well they were made to lie in that wet ground the whole time, while Alexander tried to make arrangements for them outside the city, as he tasked some of his men to build pens to 'herd' these men in.
The engineers thus got to work cutting down nearby trees to make a very rudimentary fence, asking the men to spend the night under the open sky.
The only people who were given an exception to this treatment were the 3,000 Thesians who had stealthily defected to Alexander prior.
These men had not accompanied Perseus into the city for merriments, though some of them were part of the overzealous who had rushed into the city, although most with the intention to kill Perseus, not save him.
So when the time for surrender came, the leader of the group introduced himself and got a pardon from Alexander, being allowed to rest inside the city.
And this was the same treatment that Philips and the other captured nobles received, while Perseus, who was still breathing, was given Alexander's personal physicals to try and close the man's wound and save him.
Alexander wanted to have him as the main attraction when he did his triumph.
*Trmupet*, *Trumpet*
And as the day came to an end, it was this ceremonial trumpet that rang out from Alexander camps, reverberating throughout the surroundings, its sound appearing especially melancholic to the losing side, for they knew that sound not only signified the end of the battle, but also the end of Tibias a country.
Alexander had won and Perseus had lost.
(End of Volume-3)
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