Full-Scale War 3/4

Meanwhile, before Hot Spring Pass, the surrounding rock faces were embedded with the remnants of arrows and javelins. Every inch of ground bore scorched black marks. Some craters, large and small, were filled with blood, minced flesh, and the organs of humans and even horses. Others were heavily charred, wisps of green smoke rising from them. The stench of burnt flesh spread through the air.

Soldiers in varied attire and with different features lay tangled together across this land, dead and wounded alike. Some were shoved off the cliffs and carried away by the seawater; others were hauled to the breaches and piled before the ruined low walls.

Congealed blood stuck the corpses together, hardening into blocks and forming a gruesome wall of human flesh.

Squelch!

A spear pierced a still-twitching body and twisted within it. The foreign soldier, who had raised a hand to call for help and desperately wished to live, finally spat blood. His pupils dilated, his body gradually stopped convulsing, and his limbs went limp.

As the weapon was pulled free, it brought forth a spray of pumping blood. The burly red-haired man, whose chest bore several savage scars and whose temple had a slash that had nearly cleaved into his skull, casually picked up a strip of cloth from a nearby corpse, wiped the blood from the spearhead, climbed onto the low wall, and looked into the distance.

"Alexander, how are the losses among the city-states?"

"Of the 7,000 elite troops we brought from Tempe Valley, fewer than 3,000 remain. Of Corinth's 400 warriors, 150 have been killed or wounded. Mycenae's 300 men encountered the Immortals and were wiped out on the northern front. Of Thebes' 400 men, more than half have been lost. Of Thessaly's 500, only a double-digit number remain. The Macedonian Pikemen