Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire

Chapter 240: So It Begins



Julius watched from his position overlooking the entirety of the battlefield of his choice.

Arrayed before him was the Greecian allied force of one hundred thousand men, and on his own side was merely five thousand the numbers alone made it seem like a lost cause, but the numbers were far from all that mattered in this fight.

Julius had chosen the location of their battle for it's defensive position this hill would be his equivalent of Thermopaly or troy where his vastly larger enemy would fail to prevail over it's underdog opponent except without the similar fate of dying just when victory was finally within his grasp of course.

As the Greecian's finally entered into range of their bows, the heads up display alerted Julius to the enemy's true numbers.

______________________________

Battle Commence;

[Greecian Alliance Army: 106,128]

[Romanus 2nd Legion: 5,036]

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Huh, his scout weren't far off on their guess of one hundred thousand men but infact there there 6% more men than even their guess.

More outnumbered than even before, but chattle to the slaughter was all Julius could think.

The rewards for his recent victories were paltry in comparison to the battles he'd faced in Lunan, or Bridget, and considerably less than when he faced off against the Visigoth's who'd already become an Empire absorbing neighboring kingdoms.

But this time, if he manages to pull of this battle the system rewards should be extremely rewarding.

The thought of all those points had him practically salivating.

But not enough so to miss his opportunity.

"Fire!"

His command rung out and in an instant swarms of arrows took flight sailing through the air until they finished their journey through the sky landing among the Greecian rabble before them.

Around where the arrows fell the battle lines slowed their marching pace allowing the others to pull ahead slightly,

But Julius was far from done.

"Fire, Left Flank!"

Again another flock of arrows took flight.

Each batch changing their target, each time causing maximum damage as the marching greecians were unprepared, the lines of communication were almost nonexistent within their ranks, each attacked line would stop to raise shields after being attacked onto to be attacked against after dropping their shields.

In the first minute of the battle over ten thousand arrows had already been shot towards the enemy.

Julius eyes flicked over to the display showing him the efficiency of their efforts.

[Greecian Alliance Army: 103,728]

Not a bad start, his five hundred bowmen had managed to pull off close to a 40% kill rate for the number of arrows that had been shot thus far, and that's not even counting the wounded who'd die before treatment, or from being trampled under their own allies feet.

With the total number of arrows they had on hand per his demands of the legion his archers had 100,000 arrows available to them, if they managed to keep up the 40% kill ratio that meant his archer alone could possibly reduce the enemy's numbers down to only 60,000.

On top of that were the 3 javelins carried by the rest of the legionaries.

Amounting further to another 13,000 range missiles that could rain devastation upon the unfortunate greecian victims.

Each minute that passed the slow moving battle lines approach, each movement costing them more men just to trek the journey, all the while the commanders in the rear were sending runner after runner demanding the army move uninterrupted to deal with the beligerent force now lest they allow even greater harm come to the liberation army.

But the runners could only relay the message not their masters intent and thus the lines continued to stop and start.

But even with the slow approach finally the massive army's lines crashed into the waiting Romanus legion's shield wall, however without the aid of the final charge the mass simply pressed up against the shield wall and the wall itself only gave a few feet in response but as the line was pushed back the Greecians were met with disaster, for as the Romanus shields were pushed back stakes and spears where there to greet them, as those behind pushed their brothers in front quite literally to their deaths unable to avoid the sharpen points being pressed into their forms, all along the battle line cries of anguished called out as those in the unluckiest of positions were speared without ever being attack by their enemy, instead being killed by their own men's actions.

Meanwhile as battle had broken out on the front lines, arrows and other missile fire continued to rain down overhead all over the awaiting mass of men.

Each time was timed to keep the enemy forces from resting, constantly having to hunker down or raise up their heavy bronze shields to defend against the incoming fire even though the total number being fired was negligent, none were willing to take the risk of being the one to not raise their shield only to be struck down as a result.

Meanwhile all across the battle line ten minutes after the start of the battle horns resounded and in a hurry, a wave of javelins were hurled at their opponents who in response hoisted their shields, only to lower them and find the Romanus lines had drawn back a half step.

But actually in that instant they were blinded by their own shields, the Romanus legion had shifted, the front two lines had dropped back into the formation, while the 3rd and 4th lines now took up position as the new front line.

This was the method first used by the real romans to allow their men the chance to fallback and rest when tired, while allowing fresh men to fight on the front lines all the while their opponents would be running their soldiers ragged until they simply could no longer defend themselves most often resulting in death.

As Julius watched on his well oiled legion continued to harrass their opponent with missile fire occasionally but not wasting arrows in barrages as the enemy had learned to properly defend against them, so instead only keeping up light fire to further tire them out, while his legionaires did their work stopping the advance and slowly whittling away at the armies strength.

Each ten minutes the horns would sound and the legion would fall back another half step to rotate out, and as they did the advancing Greecian kept being met with more defenses that appeared from within the Romanus battle lines, or traps that had been setup but otherwise not activated until the Legion had fallen back enough.

Within the first hour, Julius could only look on as he watched the numbers ever so slightly turning more and more in his favour.

[Greecian Alliance Army: 96,188]


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