Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire
Chapter 193: Retaliation (5)

Chapter 193: Retaliation (5)

The battle had been raging now for a few hours, the cavalry were successful in routing the opposing cavalry and had begun to nip at the Roserun armies flanks now and a again, the legionnaires meanwhile even with their cycling trick were beginning to feel the intense fatigue from sustained combat.

The front row was still fighting 10 minutes a piece roughly ever hour before pulling back meanwhile the 2nd row had split in two and was ever so slowly side stepping the formation on both sides extending the Latinium battle lines bit by bit, the exhausted Roserun soldiers were unaware of this as their own straight line began to curl around to meet this extension.

From his horse at the rear of the formation Julius could see everything as it happened.

His forces were holding back the advance, while his 2nd line was beginning to zipper in with the first line and slowly encircling the enemy without letting them get wise to their impending doom of being trapped on all sides.

For if they could stop to think about it they surely would route.

Julius may be outnumbered but as the figures stood his army had taken significantly fewer casualties than his counterpart.

The heavy shields cover his men from neck to toe the opponents spears and short swords meant nothing in the face of the defense.

Strong Axes might could shatter shields and the arms that wielded them, but the light blows these weapons could deliver merely nicked the surface time and time against without damaging the structural integrity of the equipment itself.

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Another few dozen minutes passed by and Roserun’s forces fate was sealed, the Legionnaires had all but surrounded the enemy forces, and now a new command was given.

Over was the tactic that had the legion cycling back, and now instead they locked shields and on their Tenmen commands that radiated their way down the line the battle cry.

"As One!" <Legionnaires>

Could be heard crystal clear even as far back as Julius’s command position.

These lock shields were pushing back for the first time, not just preventing the opponents advance but physically forcing them back.

Back over the fallen and broken bodies of their comrades.

Inch by inch they were pressed till the realization set in, the available space became lesser and lesser and they could not maintain the belt formation, many needing to turn sideways some to remain standing upright, others tripped and fell over the slippery dead at their feet, only to join them moments latter and the mass of men fought for the limited space afforded to them.

These men still fighting were running on adrenaline, there was no chain of command to speak of, all their leaders if you could call them that had died hours ago either in the failed cavalry charge against the Iron Cavalry, or by placing themselves on the front lines to obtain greater glory by personally slaying the professional soldiery of the Grand Duchy.

But even running on adrenaline they could tell one thing for sure...

They had Lost...

Not only that but they had lost badly.

Trapped by the enemy forces, even if the army was to break into a rout they could not escape, their choices now were simple, surrender or go down fighting to the last man.

As poetic as it might sound it took extreme levels of loyalty to actually go down fighting to the last man, that or you had to be fighting an opponent where surrendering yourself unto them was a fate worse than death.

And so the signs of battle came to an end, the legion continued to slowly press in, but their opponents almost all threw down their arms, dropping to their knees arms raised above their heads.

It didn’t take long, at first only a few fell, but once they did others saw and followed suit and mere minutes later the army had capitulated.

The invasion of Roserun had ended in Julius’s victory.

His forces quickly bound their new captives with rope before placing them into a hastily build POW camp, others meanwhile roamed the battlefield recovering weapons, armors, usable javelins and arrows, while others dug deep pits and disposed of the dead to forever be interred within a mass grave.

The Latinium losses were wrapped in a simple cloth and sent home for their families to tend to their burials after receiving compensation from Julius for their loss.

The captured men were bound with ropes, while some of the logistics division began to make their way through the crowd escorted by a few Praetorian Elites.

These men were Mana Art users capable of applying a slave brand.

These captured men were war slaves now, their rights as free men cast aside in the name of their King and Country.

The ownership of the surviving few thousand belonged to Julius, these men could be forced to enlist in his military or used for cheap labor working the ever growing crop fields.

As abhorrent as slavery might seem, the loss of life in comparison by simply executing all who dared to challenge him would be an even greater loss.

And so the day passed, a procession of newly enslaved men were led away in bondage to begin a new life living under their reasonable master in the new Grand Duchy many eventually coming to realize they were beyond lucky as their lives even as slaves would become better than when they were free men under the king of Roserun.

As for Roserun itself.

Julius penned a document and had it delivered to the capital city, not bothering to waste and of his men to be executed simply for delivering said message.

The message was simple.

A box was left at the north city gate with Julius’s terms of cessation of hostilities sitting atop it held down by a rock.

The box was collected and delivered to the boy king, however upon it’s opening many nobles present including the king promptly threw up and dirtied their grand hall.

The box contained the severed head of General Bellac, his face frozen in a contorted grip of utter agony.

The missive meanwhile declared an open state of war due to the invasion by the forces of Roserun against the peaceful Grand Duchy of Latinium and that for peace to reign following this the cessation of territory would be required, illustrating upon how the north and east had already been annexed per the terms of this agreement, and should it be refused the armies would continue their march to whatever end.

Having just lost their entire army, their greatest general, and more importantly their people the Nobles, and King could not simply refuse, and so the Kingdom of Roserun chose to give up much of it’s territory that is now was not much large as a kingdom than Aquitania was as a simple province of the Lunan Kingdom.

Their Autonomy would be maintained however thanks to the recent aggression brought upon by the Roserun kingdom the Nations borders were to be closed, which offered this tiny speck of a nation only a single avenue of escape, the sea.

And so long as hostilities did not resume, their only means of trade or contact with the outside world would come from the singular seaport in what was left of their territory.