Heir of Aurelian

Chapter 81 Hunting the Usurper

The battle between Marcellus and Constantine’s forces turned into a slaughter. In reality, Marcellus was unaware of how much the usurper’s forces had been drained during his failed bid to invade Hispania. Thus, he was vastly over-prepared for this so-called campaign.

However, Marcellus did not expect that Constantine would send his army to their deaths, and used the resulting chaos to escape. As a matter of fact, the emperor was furious when he found out that Constantine had slipped from his grasp. Though he did not immediately know how the man had accomplished it, he had quickly sent word to all fifty-four thousand men in his army to scour the nearby mountains for any sign of the man.

Currently Constantine was huddled under a rock cropping, as a century of Roman soldiers passed by above. He was so nervous that he had bitten his tongue in order to ensure his silence. As for Hagen and his men, they were hidden nearby, on the other side of the ravine, under their own cover.

The Roman soldiers stopped as they came to the ledge and saw that there was a narrow path leading up the cliff’s side. Though it was treacherous, it was entirely possible that the usurper had used it to escape. Thus, the centurion in charge of the unit quickly called out to one of his men and gave him an order.

“Ride off and inform the Emperor that we may have found the route that the usurper used to escape. Request that he dispatch more forces to this area. If Constantine followed this route, he should not be far.”

The messenger quickly nodded his head and saluted his centurion before hopping on his horse and riding off towards where Marcellus was currently resting. As for the Constantine, he and his men did not move a muscle in fear that the slightest disturbance would reveal themselves._.

However, in the next moment Constantine gazed in horror as a scorpion crawled from the top of the cliff onto the helmet of one of his nearby soldiers. He tried to motion towards the man that there was a poisonous insect on top of his head, but the soldier merely looked at his “emperor” as if he had lost his mind.

In the next moment, the bug crawled down on to his neck and stung the man. Causing him to yelp and lose his footing. The soldier fell over the edge, and down to his death, which the nearby Romans noticed. The Centurion in charge quickly unsheathed his blade and cried out to his unit.

“They’re hiding under the cliffs!”

Having been spotted, Hagen and his men rushed out from their position and engaged with the Roman soldiers before they could prepare a proper formation. The century of soldiers from Marcellus’ army and the Frankish barbarians clashed against one another on the edges of the cliff above.

A Frankish warrior wearing a bear’s skin rushed toward the Centurion, who responded by firmly kicking the man in the chest and pushing him over the edge.  After killing that warrior, the centurion brought his spatha to the nearest man’s chest, shoving his blade deep into the frank’s heart. He quickly called out to his men to form ranks as he the Frankish warriors began to overwhelm the Roman numbers.

Like the legions of the principate, Marcellus men formed an exceptional war machine when they worked together. However, they were lacking in individual combat. It was all too easy for the lifelong warriors of the franks to overwhelm their enemies once they were out of formation.

As a result, over a dozen Romans had fallen in the short time since the engagement began. Ultimately, the remaining Romans quickly fell into formation, forming a shield wall that surrounded Hagen and his men while pushing them closer and closer to the edge.

The Frankish chieftain began to sweat profusely as he looked behind him to see that he and his men were about to be shoved off the mountainside to their deaths. However, he quickly realized that they were surrounded, and if they could not break through the Roman century, then they were as good as dead.

It was at this moment that Constantine mustered his courage and led his few bodyguards out of the opposite ravine. Hagen was relieved when he saw this, however, he began to curse his very existence when he saw that Constantine and his men did not come to aid him, instead they had run off. Leaving the Franks to their fate. Seeing that he was about to be left behind, Hagen quickly called out in the loudest voice he could muster.

“Look at the usurper! He’s behind you!”

The centurion instantly responded to this by looking behind him, and catching Constantine red handed. This ultimately forced the coward to fight, as he could not escape now that he had been spotted. Constantine cursed beneath his breath for Hagen’s disloyalty and unsheathed his blade before charging at the Romans from behind.

He only had about a dozen men with him, and thus the Legionaries in the rearmost line quickly spun around to deal with Gallo-Romans while the rest of the soldiers continued to push Hagen and his Frankish warriors off the ledge.

Those who were lucky fell to the blades of the Romans, their abdomens pierced by the length of the noric steel spathas. Others had to fall down the edge of the mountain and into the ravine below. Splattering on the rocks like a flattened pancake.

One by one Constantine’s men fell by his side until he was all alone, and surrounded by angry Romans, he quickly threw his sword to the side and surrendered, seeing no other option to escape with his life.

“I yield!”

The Centurion sneered in disdain before backhanding Constantine so hard he fell unconscious. He spared no time to bind up the man with rope. All the while, Hagen and his men continued to be pressed to the edge. Bodies fell to the blades, and others were pushed off the ledge. Until finally, only Hagen remained. He refused to fall to his death and instead tossed his shield to the side, as a Roman legionary stuck his blade into the man’s gut.

Blood seeped from the man’s mouth as he fell to his knees, gazing up at his killer with a fierce look of determination in his eyes. He was about to say something about the gods when he was interrupted by a stern kick into his open wound, sending him over the edge in disbelief.

His fall felt like it lasted for minutes, despite it only taking seconds, however in those moments he saw something shocking. Whether it was reality, or simply the fever dream of a dying man. In his last moments Hagen witnessed the Valkyries descend from the cliff side, and fly towards him while reaching out for his hands. He could not help but muster the last bit of his strength to grab towards the valkyrie’s while speaking of his excitement in a very feeble voice.

“I can see them… The valkyries! They’re coming for me!”

Immediately after saying these words, he crashed against a rock, and splattered onto its flat surface. The Frankish Chieftain was well and truly dead. As for The Romans, they had gotten the man they came for, and killed the rest just as they were ordered.

By now Constantine had recovered consciousness only to find that he was not able to kill himself because the Romans had bound and gagged him. Marcellus arrived on the scene shortly after, along with an army of soldiers. When he witnessed the sight of the usurper struggling on the ground, and the slain men by his side, he grinned maliciously before calling out to the man who had caused him much grief over the past two years.

“I presume you must be Constantine. Though this is our first time meeting in person, it is by no means our first encounter, wouldn’t you say? Do not worry, I won’t have you lashed to a cross just yet. I have other plans in mind for you. Men secure the usurper. You have done well. As for you, Centurion, I believe a reward is in order. Consider yourself promoted to Tribune!”

The Centurion, who had overseen the capture of a usurper, and the elimination of his army’s remnants, was overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately saluted his Emperor before speaking the common battle cry his soldiers yelled.

“Ave, true to Augustus!”

Marcellus was pleased. Now that Constantine was taken care of, he had matters to attend to in Hispania before returning home. Though Tasius had sworn loyalty to him in order to gain Rome’s support in removing Constantine as a threat, Marcellus was unsure if the man would keep his word and reincorporate the region into the Empire.

Thus, despite the victory achieved on this day, Marcellus still needed to descend into Hispania and deal with the Theodosian loyalists once in for all. Whether that was through brutal conquest or skilled diplomacy, that remained to be seen.

However, with Constantine’s capture, Gaul and Britannia had fallen back into Western Rome’s control. Or at least in name. It would still take some time to dispatch legions into those lands to secure them until a local force could be raised.