Under the onslaught of the main forces of the Olympian coalition, the Holy Roman and Eastern Roman armies were soon at a disadvantage, and all fronts were in a hurry.

Frederick and Justinian were anxious, and although the combined armies of the two countries still had nearly a million soldiers, most of them were physically and mentally exhausted and demoralized, and the elite troops were divided into various positions, and it was difficult to mobilize for a strong counterattack for a while. Among them, the reserves with the strongest combat effectiveness and can be quickly mobilized have already been dispatched in the direction of Larissa, and if they are transferred back at this time, they are afraid that they will be even more self-defeating.

In desperation, Frederick and Justinian had no choice but to raise several death squads with high bounties and personally lead troops to fight back. This did boost the morale of the army, and the battle lines of Holy Rome and Eastern Rome were finally stabilized for the time being.

The battle lasted all day, and although Frederick and Justinian fought hard to command the battle, they could not stop the Olympian coalition from gradually gaining ground. By the end of the evening, the Holy Roman and Eastern Roman positions had been broken through in many places, and the Olympian coalition forces had tore many gaps in the positions, and continued to storm and expand the success. Among them, the assault force composed of the most elite companion knights, even made a surprise attack not far from the main tent of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Just when the shape shì was getting worse and worse, a good news came from the rear. The elite of Holy Rome and Eastern Rome led by Marshal Wallenstein stormed the city of Larissa with a thunderbolt, and the Olympian coalition forces that had attacked the area earlier had to withdraw from the battlefield by sea due to heavy casualties. Then the newly defected Slavic bears had no intention of fighting, and soon retreated in the direction of the city of Pera. As a result, only the barbarian cavalry of the Golden Horde were stationed in Larissa, who were no match for Wallenstein in a hard-fought battle. After several rounds of fighting, Attila lost consecutive battles and finally had to withdraw from Larissa City, hiding far away from the periphery to harass heras.

When they learned that the back road had been reopened, the idea of retreat inevitably came to Frederick and Justinian's minds. After all, the plan to break through the immensely fortified Hot Springs Pass now seemed like an impossible task. It would be no good to stay here. On the contrary, there is a danger of annihilation of the whole army, since it is better to retreat as soon as possible while the losses are not very large, and with their current strength, they only need to retreat. There was no problem in holding on to the vast territory north of the city of Pera.

With this in mind. Frederick and Justinian soon gave the order to retreat. However, retreat in the heat of battle is extremely difficult and dangerous. Not only did they have to face the fierce assault of the Olympian coalition forces in the rear, but they were also constantly harassed by the elusive Golden Horde light cavalry along the way. The Holy Roman and Eastern Roman armies were able to fight and retreat at first, but their morale had dropped dramatically. It seemed that all around him was the shouts of the enemy, and his heart was terrified. The Holy Romans and Eastern Romans suffered heavy losses in the retreat, with lone soldiers or squads constantly being killed in sieges, losing a lot of supplies along the way, and the communication between the various units became chaotic.

Gradually, the retreat turned into an escape, and finally into a complete collapse of the entire front, and even the elite troops who had insisted on fighting were scattered by the rebels, and it was difficult to continue to organize resistance. As a result, the thousands of kilometers of land along the road from Thermopylae to the city of Pera were littered with weapons and equipment, donkey horses, and the corpses of the war dead abandoned by the Holy Roman and Eastern Roman armies. A large number of wounded had no strength to flee after running all night, and could only sit on the side of the road in despair, amid layers of corpses and bloodstains, mournfully waiting for the judgment of fate.

The Knights, the elite allies of the Olympian coalition who had been rushing forward, did not even have time to capture the enemy wounded, but only ordered them to wait in place for the arrival of the main infantry force of the follow-up

A few days later, Frederick and Justinian finally fled back to Pera under the protection of the Praetorian Guard. With great resentment, they immediately set about organizing defenses, hoping to win back a city here and stop the Olympia Alliance.

Unexpectedly, the situation of the troops was worse than the two emperors imagined, although the Holy Roman and Eastern Roman armies still had hundreds of thousands of troops after the previous defeat, but the only ones who could really command and still retain their combat effectiveness were the tens of thousands of Praetorian Guards stationed in the city of Pera. Most of the rest were scattered around the periphery, unorganized and discarded with their weapons, almost all of them wounded, extremely nervous, panicked like lost dogs, just aimlessly messing together and waiting for the enemy to kill.

The two emperors were anxious to fidgeting in the palace of Pera, and it would take at least a month for their troops to be reorganized. However, the emergency situation on the front line flew like snowflakes, and the pursuit of the Olympian coalition army was extremely rapid, forming a huge pincer offensive in the west and south directions, and directly approached the city of Pella. And the resistance forces they organized, the positions they had painstakingly built were as fragile as papier-mâché, and they were easily penetrated by the enemy.

At this moment, in the Grand Palace of Pera, the high-level meeting of the Holy Rome and the Eastern Rome has been going on all day, but there is still no conclusion on how to deal with the current situation.

"In the current form, it is difficult to win if you continue to hold out in Pera, it is just a waste of troops. It is better to lead the troops to continue to retreat to the north before the enemy forces encircle this place, until we can organize an effective defensive force, which is the best way to avoid complete defeat!"

Field Marshal of Holy Rome Wallenstein cried out, hoping to convince the crowd to fight his way out with a strong man's broken arm. In the previous battle as a striker in charge of counterattacking Larissa City to open a retreat, he was injured by the enemy's evil dragon, and his head was still wrapped in bloody gauze, which looked quite hideous and terrifying.

The Eastern Roman marshal Belisarius on the side did not say a word, but from the expression on his face, he also agreed with Wallenstein's opinion

(To be continued......)