That night, tens of thousands of Eastern Roman warriors, under the orders of Marshal Belisarius, broke through the gaps in the encirclement that had not yet been closed and fled in all directions.

However, the feet of the infantry were never faster than the cavalry, and the Golden Horde immediately pursued them in detachments. The breakout soon turned into a chaotic collapse, with countless Eastern Roman warriors fleeing as they fled and were divided and surrounded by cavalry that had caught up from behind, and then cut down to the ground piece by piece. The Eastern Roman warriors had no power to resist, and could only run forward desperately with a sense of terror until they were hacked to death or disarmed. In the vast wilderness outside Larissa, screams, weepings, and the terrifying laughter of the barbarian knights rang out.

The battle for Larissa had now been decided, and the next morning, Belisarius, who had joined up with the reinforcements, finally escaped from the enemy cavalry. He immediately ordered the troops to move to the defense on the spot, and at the same time sent people around to contain the scattered defeated soldiers, and finally he counted the number of people, and now there are less than 20,000 remnants of the original 50,000 elites, most of whom have lost their armor and lost their fighting spirit, and they have no strength to fight again.

As a result, before Belisarius could set up his defenses, the combined forces of Olympia, the Golden Horde, and the Slavic Bear Clan attacked again. The frightened Eastern Roman army collapsed almost at the touch of a button, and the position was quickly broken through in many places. Belisarius had no choice but to continue to lead his army to break through the siege, and many more soldiers were sacrificed in the escape. By evening, Belisarius had retreated to the periphery of the first line of Thermopylae Pass, and when he saw the continuous array of his own military camps ahead, the defeated soldiers finally settled down

By this time, the dynamics of the war had been completely reversed. The Olympian League surrounded the enemy forces from three directions: from the north (Kingdom of Thessaly), from all sides (in the Illyrian mountains), and from the south (the fortress of Thermopylae). The only gap to the east was the sea, and the fleets of the Holy Romans and their allied forces had already been destroyed at the Battle of Salamis, and it was impossible to escape by sea. And the superiority in forces they once had was not only unable to affect the situation of the battle at this time, but became a burden.

Since the fall of Larissa, more than half of the military supplies of the Holy Roman and Eastern Roman armies have been destroyed, and the main communication routes with the rear have been cut off, so that food and grass cannot be transported, and military supplies cannot be reached. The daily attrition of a million-strong army is staggering, not to mention the fierce fighting. Stocks at the front could only last for ten days. If the situation cannot be reopened in the short term, it will be difficult for the army to sustain itself.

The news soon spread, and the hearts of the Holy Romans and Eastern Romans were greatly shaken, and the soldiers panicked. Fear of annihilation in this faraway foreign land. There were no bones. Some of the weak-willed have already begun to desert. The rest of them surrounded the generals beside them to question the situation, and as for patrolling, standing guard, training and other daily work, they couldn't help but relax.

The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian, Marshal Wallenstein, the Teutonic Knights Albrech, the Marshal Belisarius, the golden-robed Archmage Narciss, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomax and other important figures of the coalition had to urgently gather to discuss countermeasures.

At the meeting, Frederick, who was furious, kept shouting: "What the hell are you Eastern Romans doing? Why was the heavily garrisoned city of Larissa captured by the enemy...... This is not enough, even the reinforcements have been defeated by the enemy, and now that our rear road is cut off, the army's spirit is unstable, when will we be able to recapture Larissa?!"

Belisarius's face was like a dark cloud, and he also scolded angrily-for-tat: "Originally, it was easy to recover Larissa, in fact, the Eastern Roman army under my command has already defeated the enemy in the city, if it weren't for the fact that the Golden Horde, a subsidiary of your Holy Rome, suddenly turned against him, I'm afraid that I would have counted the supplies in Larissa City at this moment!"

Marshal Wallenstein sneered and said: "Who can't talk big, in fact, you have failed, and the recovery of Larissa is urgent, and then our soldiers of Holy Rome will go out, and I don't have to work to mobilize the people, the same only 50,000 soldiers and horses are needed, and I will definitely succeed in one fell swoop!"

Narcis sneered, "You are valiant enough to take credit when the enemy and we are already defeated!"

Justinian sighed at the sidelines, naturally not wanting to give up the credit for the recapture of Larissa to the Holy Romans, but fearing that even if he attacked again, he would still not be able to defeat the enemy, and he would lose face and never be able to raise his head in front of Frederick again.

Only Bartholomo and Albrecht remained silent, and His Majesty the Ecumenical Patriarch had no interest in participating in secular disputes. The head of the Teutonic Order, on the other hand, had the same ambition as Attila in his heart, and if Holy Rome was defeated in the war, it would be both sad and happy for him......

At the end of the meeting, it was finally decided that the two sides should mobilize 50,000 elites each as quickly as possible, under the command of Holy Roman Marshal Wallenstein, and make every effort to recover the strategic point of Larissa.

When the first rays of the morning sun rose over the horizon, the 100,000 elites who had been urgently mobilized formed a vigilant formation and headed north under the command of Field Marshal Wallenstein as they searched. However, not long after the second wave of counterattack troops departed, a terrible news came.

After learning that Elrens had succeeded in attacking Larissa City, Princess Cleo, who was guarding the Thermopylae Fortress, immediately convened a meeting and immediately reached a consensus on a comprehensive counterattack. By the next morning, the main force of the Olympian coalition army behind Hot Springs, had completed its emergency mobilization, and in the earth-shattering magic cannons, horns, and shouts, hundreds of thousands of high-morale coalition troops were divided into three groups and launched a fierce assault like a storm from the mountains towards the enemy position. At the same time, in the direction of the Illyrian mountains, the Knights Templar, the Latin Order, and the barbarian coalition, which had long been ready to attack, also attacked the enemy's flank from the west, led by the Latin princess Nomia.

The Holy Roman and Eastern Roman armies were prepared for this, but their warriors had been fighting for years in a strange land far from their homeland, and had exhausted their strength in the fierce battle against Thermopylae Pass, and were already physically and mentally exhausted. In addition, rumors that the back road had been cut off and that the food and grass were running out were circulating in the barracks, and the feelings of panic and fear could not be controlled and the morale dropped sharply, and it was impossible to compete with the Olympian coalition army that fought bravely with the heart of saving the country

(To be continued......)