1453: Revival of Byzantium

"Antonius…"

"Antonius… I have remembered his name." Mehmed nodded.

"…And I hope I will not hear his name again, is that clear?"

"Yes, my Sultan." Selim Pasha and Zaganos Pasha bowed and answered.

Meanwhile Antonius is still standing there as he picked up another spear from the ground and continued shouting out to the Ottomans caterchising if anyone still wants to step forward and challenge him. But no one steps forward and confronts him, with every step Antonius steps forward, the Ottomans back off by one step, while the headless body of Talmi is still lying down there and the vice captain with a broken spine is also lying there still breathing.

This reluctance of enemies earnt Antonius the precious time to survive. Mauro, with his calvaries, have just arrived in time charging out of the gates dispersing the Ottoman infantries and horsemen, Mauro pulled Antonius onto his horse back and stormed back into the city with his men, and then shut the gate tightly closed.

After Antonius rode back to the city, he finally lose conscious and collapsed on the ground. This gave the people around him a huge fright as if anything of their commander goes wrong they do not know who will be there to lead them and defend the walls, if the worst case scenario is going to happen, the morales of defenders might go plunging down which will in the end cause a much more severe consequence, which is the fall of the city, and the start of the chain of reaction begins with their commander's collapse.

However, it seems like the god of fortune is still on Antonius' side. He tried his hard to open his lips and mumbled a few words.

"What is the admiral trying to tell us?" One soldier asked.

"How am I supposed to know? You tell me what the admiral is trying to say!" Another soldier responded.

"No, you tell me what the admiral is trying to say!"

"No! You tell me…"

"Easy lads!" The old mercenary stopped this absurd argument between the two clowns. "Your admiral just needs some water."

Mauro immediately detached his wine flask by the side and poured it down the throat of Antonius, but he poured it too hard that it almost choked Antonius sending him choking like mad depleting the last bit of his energy.

"You stupid clumsy bear, you want to strangle him? Let me do it!" The old mercenary jumped up from the ground seeing the clumsy but fatal action. He pushed Mauro aside, lifted Antonius' head up and gently oozed sips after sips of water from his own flask and pat him on the back. After a while Antonius coughed some blood-filled flaming mucus and started panting up and down.

Mauro then scrambled to remove Antonius' dented plate armour and gambeson but is also stopped by the old mercenary.

"What do you want this time? Old man?" Mauro stared at him severely displeased.

"Listen to me if you don't want your admiral to get a stroke." The old mercenary did not back off and stared at Mauro too.

"Fine, doing whatever you want." After a while Mauro backed off.

"Listen, kid, this is valuable experience." The old mercenary said as he gently wipes the sweat on Antonius' head with a dampened cloth.

"After a prolonged battle, do not hastily remove the armour and cloth. Or else it can get you a stroke, wait for your back to dry and your body to cool down first, or else you may get a stroke, clear?"

"…"

Antonius, after leaving the defense of the walls to Mauro, is then transferred to the church Saint Mary of Blachernae, which is been already renovated into a war time hospital where nuns and clergies goes around tending to the wounded applying herbal medicine creams and bandaging up the soldiers. Fathers of the church goes around conducting sermons and prayers providing a psychological treatment for the soldiers lying here worrying that they might be summoned by god soon.

Behind the curtains, a rather sad scene is going on. Soldiers who are already beyond saving are transferred to the confession room where they are told of their incoming fate, then the nun will ask the injured in a gentle angel-like voice that if they want to write down any last words or convey a message to their loved ones.

The usually peaceful and holy churches are now filled with sentiments of life and death, painful moans and wailing of soldiers everywhere. When Antonius arrived in the front hall on a wooden stretcher carried by the old mercenary and Abdullah, the legs of a soldier is being amputated, sawed off without applying anesthetic, his cries can be heard a mile away.

A clergy who recognises Abdullah and Antonius approached them and guided them into a quiet room where it has a long table previously used for conducting mass turned into a surgery table. Antonius is carefully placed on top of the table, then the clergy started peeling off the armour piece by piece. However, there was some problem when it come with the inner gambesons as apparently it has sticked together with Antonius' skin.

A nurse came in to assist the clergy to remove the gloves and gauntlets. What they saw really traumatised them like a thunderbolt through their mind. The skins of Antonius' hands has been mostly peeled off by the sheer friction when he is trying to grip and pull a spear from a cavalry moving on a fast moving horse. The red flesh and muscle tissues on Antonius' hands is exposed to outside air, one can even see muscles bulging up and down as his heart beats.

"Your admiral is pretty fortunate." The clergy said frowning while stopping the bleeding process of the hands, completely not moved by the gruesome sight because he has witnessed too many cases even more terrifying than this. "The artery and veins on his hands are still intact, if anything goes wrong he might has already died on the way here."