The tactic that Remus decided to employ was certainly a risky one. If it failed, it would be disastrous for him.
However just like Alexander said, they needed to take some risks to win this campaign.
So once it was confirmed that the enemy had no cavalry, the young man decided to roll the die.
As for the consequences if he failed, well there was no need for Scorpyo to punish him.
Remus intended to go down with his 'ship'. That was also another reason why he was leading from the front and putting himself in so much risk.
And as of right now, that gamble seemed to be paying off, with Scorpyo making considering progress at driving the enemy formation back and making the lines crack and buckle.
And aside from the legionaries's brave assaults, a large part of that success was also due to how Lord Macht had arranged his troops.
He had initially placed the Margraves troops in the very front echelons of his formations, intending to use them as meat shields to soak up the initial blows and soften the enemy up.
It was only once the legionaries had their momentum blunted and became tired that the Heeat family elites were scheduled to reveal themselves
And on paper, there was nothing wrong with this plan.
The only trouble for Lord Macht was that Remus had unknowingly managed to come up with the perfect counter.
Facing the legionaries's heavy, concentrated attack, the weaker Margraves troops found themselves to be expendable and so quickly started to suffer from very low morale.
They soon lost the will to fight and thus began to get pushed back.
And when the Heeat officers tried to stop this by berating them, the hidden bitterness in these men only bloomed further, greatly aggravating the whole collapse.
It seemed Lord Macht's integration of the Margraves into the army still had a lot to be desired. The logic behind the act was no doubt sound- using a victory to smooth over the grievances was good. It was just that both sides had too great a friction up until now and neither had the time yet to hash these grievances out.
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The grassroots Margraves troops had been forcefully stripped of their original command and overnight placed under the command of these 'stranger' commanders who they knew nothing of, thus causing them to highly doubt the men's competence.
After all, they had never seen these men before today.
So how could they be sure that these men were not simply pushing all of them towards their doom?
How could they believe that these foreign men had the best intentions towards them? At least the officers' actions till now seemed to point to the opposite of that.
It also did not help matters that these officers were very different from them.
There was simply no space or time to send enough good men to challenge the relentless legionaries.
And the Heeat officers present cried in their hearts seeing, feeling very much aggrieved. What truly pained them here and the fact they had the tools to stop this collapse but were unable to deploy them.
Thus some of them even cursed the Margrave troops to die sooner, thus giving their elite troops the chance to replace them.
While others quickly turned to their runners and shouted, "Quick! Go to Lord Macht! Ask him to send some units to attack the enemy's rear!"
This order came about as a result of the unfolding circumstances on the battlefield.
Scorpyo had pushed ahead so far along the frontline that a huge distance existed between himself and Remus and Lord Macht. So much so that his flanks and rear were fully exposed to counterattacks by the remaining enemy troops.
And the more experienced Heeat officers wanted to precisely target this weak spot.
However, once again this was easier said than done. Because if they could see this so could Remus.
He had already predicted this.
Hence while Scorpyo pushed in the front, the clever daredevil had his men slowly retreat back, baiting the enormous enemy to give chase.
This produced a variety of desirable effects for the legionaries.
For one- the men in red did not need to face the full blurt of the huge enemy. Instead of doggedly digging in and taking the relentless bashing using such thinned lines, they were allowed to trade space for time, thus increasing their survivability. This gave Scorpyo the opportunity to finish his task and come to their rescue.
Two- it distracted the enemy from focusing on things happening elsewhere on the battlefield, like smoke used to conceal the real fire. The retreat of the legionaries naturally made the 'winning' Heeat formations ecstatic, and so they chased with great gusto. Many had by now even gone red eyed, chasing after the 'fleeing' enemy like possessed demons.
No one doubted this was a trap because in their mind this was exactly what was supposed to happen. The number on both sides involved had predicted just this.
As for these victorious formations turning around to see the deleterious state of their 'rightmost' comrades, well that was impossible. In the battlefield of this time period, one's cone of vision was set to only one mode- forward. And turning one's turning would only get you the sight of the shoulder and head of the man next to you.
As for one's hearing, that might as well not be present most of the time- the intense clamor or din doing around all around made any transfer of long distance useful information by air an utter impossibility. So the units could not shout for help.
Thus as Remus stepped closer and closer to the shore, Lord Macht was more than happy to keep up the pressure and hound his prey.
And this was also where the third benefit came into play- the sheer distance!
With Remus having run away so far, even if Lord Macht got a whiff of the trap, it would take a long time for him to respond.
After all, he would have to have his formations make a complete U-turn, certainly not an easy or fast thing to do.
All this meant that by the time Lord Macht got the message, the battle over there was almost over.
The legionnaires were now not only attacking from the front but some had even swung around the side and attacked the flanks!