Chapter 136 Strange Encounter

Alaric sat behind the ramparts of his fortress with his back against the merlon. His shoulder had an arrow embedded in it, while there was a giant bleeding wound across his face, which caused his beard to be dyed crimson. The man coughed heavily as his soldiers fought off the eastern roman invaders, who tried their best to get into the fortress.

The war had been going on for nearly two months as Constantius marched his armies east into Illyricum. Every day, Alaric would stand on the ramparts and defend the fortress behind him. Why? Because it was his people, the goths who would suffer most if the diocese fell to the east. All that stood between them and a horde of angry romans was himself, and the warriors by his side, who fought and bled for the continued survival of their people.

The Barbarian King saw another one of his men fall by the wayside, which allowed a Sassanid warrior to scale the ladders and enter the ramparts. Despite having recently been slashed across his face, and having difficulty seeing, Alaric dragged himself up from the stones beneath his feet, and grabbed hold of his sword before rushing towards the enemy.

He roared like a wild beast as he slashed his sword at a downward angle toward’s his opponent’s unguarded neck. However, the man blocked his attack and kicked him backwards with a push kick. Alaric almost lost his balance and fell into the courtyard below. However, in the last moment, he was grabbed by one of his men, who pushed him back into the fight.

Alaric thrust his blade towards the opponent’s chest with a feigned stab, before reversing the blade towards the man’s neck, where he quickly cut the jugular, causing the man to rapidly bleed out. After which, Alaric kicked him off the ledge, and down towards the courtyard below where he dropped to his death.

Having killed the Persian, Alaric rushed forward with a group of men towards the gap in the wall’s defence and quickly blocked the area where the ladder led to. Stabbing and hacking at any man who would dare climb it. They continued to hold their position for some time. He would defend the position for as long as he was able, before rotating with other warriors of the Gothic tribe.

—

While Alaric desperately defended his stronghold against an overwhelming tide of enemies. Constantius was on his way to his location. Despite the construction of border fortresses, the Eastern Roman army could still go around them and loot the province. Thus, Constantius and his army were met with a field battle far from the edges of the border.

The Sassanid heavy cavalry was rushing towards the Western Roman ranks as Constantius sat upon horseback at the rear of the army. He merely scoffed when he saw the Persian attempts to break his lines. He decided he would show them what true heavy cavalry was. With a quick decree, the western roman general sent his Cataphracts into the mix.

“Cataphracts, show the enemy your might, intercept them before they reach the front lines!”

The Roman cataphracts did not disobey their orders and quickly rushed down out from the flanks of the western roman army towards the Sassanid cavalry. It did not take long for the two factions to clash. However, the Sassanid horsemen were lacking an important piece of technology, which the Western roman proudly boasted. That was the stirrup.

In a chaotic display, the thousands of horsemen clashed in between the two walls of infantry. Ultimately it was the Cataprhacts who would emerge victorious as their lances penetrated through the armor of their enemies, and into their hearts.

Those Sassanids who survived the initial charge were dropped off their horses from the lance’s impact upon their shields, and tumbled to the ground, many of which received injuries in their falls. As for the rest, they were either skewered by the lances, or had broken off just in time to avoid their fates. The Sassanid general nearly lost his eyes as he gazed upon the scene of his heavy cavalry being so quickly cut down by the western roman forces.

Meanwhile, the majority of the Cataphracts were completely unphased by the Perisan assault. The survivors fell back to the flanks of their comrades while waiting for the infantry of both sides to press forward.

As if the sight of his heavy cavalry being slaughtered had deterred the Persian Commander, the Sassanid army halted in its tracks, as the western romans sat there in wait for them. Upon seeing that the enemy was not advancing, Constantius sighed before giving the order to push forward.

“Advance!”

The Roman army marched in lockstep like a well-oiled machine, with their shields raised and their swords in hand as they slowly advanced towards the enemy army. The perfect precision of their formation had caused many of the Sassanid warriors at the front of their formation to petrify in fright and consider running. However, there were too many men behind them. Thus, they could only raise their shields and wait for the Romans to surround them.

Eventually, the Persian commander snapped out of his horror and realized his army was about to be swarmed. Thus, in a rather shocking turn of events, he quickly gave the order to retreat. Fearing that he was about to fall into an enemy trap. Thousands of Sassanid warriors immediately turned tail and ran, causing Constantius to gaze upon them in confusion. Thinking to himself whether this was a poor attempt at a feigned retreat, or if they were just cowards.

He had no idea how important the heavy cavalry were to the Sassanid army, to see them butchered during the first engagement, was practically like tearing out the hearts of every member of the Persian army. After coming to his senses, Constantius decided that it was entirely unlikely that the enemy had set a trap for him, and decided to probe them with his heavy cavalry.

“Cataphracts, Charge!”

With the order given, the western roman cataphracts snapped the reins of their mounts nad sprinted towards the fleeing army, most of who were on foot. With lances in hand, the western roman cavalry skewered the enemy from behind, claiming thousands of lives. It was at this moment that Constantius knew the enemy had truly begun to route, and quickly tried to pursue them.

However, unfortunately, there were simply not enough cataphracts, and much of the Sassanid army had fled deep into enemy occupied territory, causing the roman cavalrymen to turn back and rejoin the main army.

Constantius was still in disbelief at what had happened. He was hoping to crush the Persian force in a single battle, but in the end, they broke ranks and fled before he could even engage them with his infantry. He could only scoff and think to himself that Marcellus would never believe him if he were to speak about this strange encounter.