As the elephants charged in, initially, the Zanzan troops who were clad in their helmets that let them barely see forward and in which they had to really concentrate to hear what their commander was saying were totally oblivious to the dangers approaching them.
While the commanders at the back were more focused on ordering their men to advance forward because they simply did not think the enemy had any reserve.
At least they certainly did not expect them to be hiding elephants as none of the scouts had spotted them.
And so these mammoth, terrifying beasts were only spotted when they were already upon the poor, clueless soldiers, and when the soldiers at last laid their eyes upon these magnificent, yet horrific beasts, many felt their feet give away.
Clad in leather armor, the black beasts towered as high as a single-story building, with their trunks swinging in the wind as they charged, kicking up a dust storm using legs the size of tree stumps, as they angled their close to 2-meter tasks clad with blades and metal caps towards the enemy, intent on skewering them like a shish kebab.
All while on their back rode the trainer called a mahout, who controlled the beast, and with him rode a few archers and javelin men, who had already begun to throw projectiles at the incoming enemy.
Most of the people here had never seen an elephant before, much less seen a group of them charging menacingly at them, and so the shock and panic they must have experienced as the beasts approached their flanks all while blasting the air with its signature roar was hard to imagine.
"Hold! Hold! Stay!"
"Do not panic! Stay!"
And while Menes's men tried to recover from their shock at this new weapon, some of the commanders almost instinctually began to shout these orders to try and stabilize the frontlines.
And if you thought that they failed in this, well then you would be…..wrong!
Because much to the credit of the brave soldiers of Zanzan, they actually held their nerves and stood their ground, even against these humungous animals most had never seen before.
"Hahaha, that's right men!"
"We have come so far and a few slightly bigger horses are not gonna scare us!"
And seeing his men did not actually rout and run, Menes cheered from the back, charging his horse all along the full length of the battlefield and roaring out encouraging words.
Because Menes knew that the main weapon of a charge was not its huge momentum or the beasts themselves.
But the physiological effect it carried.
A charge would be successful if that physiological attack was effective and the other side broke rank and ran before contact with the enemy cavalry.
And conversely, it would fail if like now the infantry bundled up. dug its feet into the ground and pointed its stick toward the enemy.
After all, no sane beast, no matter how well it was trained would voluntarily impale itself into a wall of spears.
So given that Zanzan's infantry did not rout, it would seem Perseus's last roll of the die had failed.
It appeared that soon the elephants would be required to stop their charge near the Zanzan cavalry and infantry, and then the cavalrymen and legionaries could be simply able to slowly poke the giant, bulky beasts to death.
And seeing the battle approach towards that end, Menes let out a huge sigh of relief.
This battle had been too dicey, and he had never expected the enemy to have such a card in the end.
'I can't believe they managed to hide so many beasts of such size from us. I will need to give Grahtos a good earful,' Menes made a mental note, before turning his gaze at these unfamiliar beasts.
Menes had heard of war elephants before and had even listened to many vivid descriptions of them from other mercenaries as they were used in some parts of Thesos.
But he had never actually seen them face to face.
And so seeing them in the flesh for the first time, he had to frankly admit these were gorgeous beats.
Terrifying for sure.
But nevertheless gorgeous.
And the reason why Menes could so calmly take in the sights was because he was pretty sure that despite Tibians efforts, he had won.
'At last, I have won,' Menes felt mentally exhausted as he said this to himself, feeling that this battle had been too close for comfort, going too much back and forth.
Or it would seem like that!
Because Menes had actually forgotten to take into account one critical factor- His cavalry.
Or more specifically the horses in his cavalry.
Because one had to remember that though the Zanzan troops were brave and reasonable enough to stand still and not run, as they had been trained and drilled as such, the horses were unfortunately not.
These simple beasts had never seen an elephant before in their entire life, and so when these huge elephants, which were completely unknown to these horses attacked the Zanzan flanks and got closer to the 2,000 horsemen stationed there, the intense smell from the elephants and their significantly larger size of scared all the warhorses there.
Animals naturally did not want to stay anywhere near beasts unknown to them, especially if those beasts were much bigger than them, and even these trained steeds were unable to disobey their natural instinct.
And so acting purely out of base nature, many mares and stallions let out a piercing bleat of terror, as they then disobeyed any and all commands from their riders before they simply bolted!
Yes, bolted, i.e.- The horses left their tight formation and started running all around the battlefield like headless chickens.
Even top-level commanders with impeccable riding skills such as Laykash and Grahtos were not the exception.
"Mitha! Girl oh ho ho! What happened,"
"Shsshh, shhh, girl, it's all right, it's all right,"
For instance, this was how Laykash tried his best to calm the fiery steed down while it jumped and bucked and spun around in its place.
This mare had been with him for five years, and the bond Laykash had with it was exceptional.
And as for his skill in controlling her, that did not really need not be said.
Few could match Laykash in terms of pure horse skill in the entire Zanzan army.
And so given that even he was only barely able to keep this stead from running away, the state of others, especially the new recruits who had only been given their steads a few months ago could be only imagined.
And what was worse for these unskilled riders was that they did not just bolt anywhere.
Because almost as if the heavens were extracting all the luck and opportunity it had given Menes and his commanders up until now, the cavalry like headless chicken actually smashed into its own infantry lines.
And it was not as if it was just one or two cavalry units that hit the vulnerable flanks of the legionaries at the center of the army.
Oh, no.
It was almost the entire cavalry force, all 2,000 of them had crashed into them, perhaps minus a few riders who had died from the fighting up until now.
This occurred mainly because horses were pack animals, and so when one of the horses ran, seeing it, all the other panicking animals followed, meaning both flanks of Zanzan had effectively turned against their own center and had started to dismantle it themselves.
"Oh no!" And seeing from the rear, Menes only had the energy to mutter these two words, his eyes becoming the size of pins and his heart deflating like a lead balloon.
And he said this not only because of the scene unfolding in front of him but also because he knew what was about to happen immediately after this.
Because With his own cavalry running amok inside his own infantry formation, shattering it, and with the counterattack from Tibias from the front coming strong, even the stalwart Zanzan soldiers could not last long, and soon the thing Menes had foreseen happened.
Unable to bear the pressure the legionaries at last broke!
And they routed!
Which meant the force of about 45,000 men, the population of a decent-sized city all threw their spears and shields to the ground, instantly turned around, and bolted, ignoring all cries of help from the surroundings and shrugging off all orders.
And to make matters even worse for Menes, this collapse of the army had been so rapid that he did not have any time to even deploy his 1,000 reserve crossbowmen to try and patch up the damage.
Or even order an orderly retreat.
Because although it took a long time to explain all these events, from the appearance of the elephants to their charge to the breakdown of the flanks and up to the eventual rout of the entire Zanzan army, the time that elapsed for all these to occur was actually really small.
So for Menes, who oversaw an entire 3 km front, even receiving messages from the heralds of each sector and trying to understand what was going on as a whole took more time than it took for all the events to transpire.
Hence Menes could not even issue an orderly retreat with his reserves acting as rear guard.
And as for issuing it now, well the rout that already began.
It was too late now.
Menes could only try and save his own skin.
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