Two days passed quickly.
The water ration of the clone army was maintained at a moderate proportion, and the elimination of two legions temporarily relieved the logistical burden on the clone army.
Septimus could get rid of two clone legions without batting an eye because as long as he won the battle, he could easily replicate the lost clones and restore the number of soldiers to its original size.
The advantage of the replication ability could allow for hundreds, thousands, or millions of dead clone soldiers.
On the other hand, the Numidian tribes were the ones who suffered from the water shortage, and their morale noticeably declined.
The allied Numidian cavalry showed signs of exhaustion and lethargy from the long march, the hostile climate, and prolonged dehydration.
Septimus had long since lost confidence in the allied cavalry and wished for the day to come when he could massacre them all; he would not be so kind as to offer them water.
The incessant harassment from the enemy cavalry remained at a moderate level.
Hiarbas hoped to slow down the Roman army so he could destroy it in a single blow at its most vulnerable moment, and the performance of the Numidian cavalry would determine the outcome of the battle.
The Numidian infantry was notably vulnerable when facing the Roman army, and their only chance of victory would be against a Roman army severely weakened by the hostile desert environment.
On the morning of the following day, a great cloud of sand appeared in the distance within sight of the clone army.
Septimus knew that the Numidian army had arrived, and the moment of a decisive battle was approaching.
The clone soldiers orderly prepared themselves to face the enemy, and the battle formations of the clone soldiers lined up to receive the enemy.
The clone army prepared for battle with almost automatic efficiency, without showing expressions of panic or surprise.
Unlike the allied cavalry led by the tribal leaders, which showed signs of disorganization upon seeing the great cloud of sand that indicated the enemy's arrival.
The Numidian army advanced like a tide through the middle of the desert, raising a cloud of sand in its wake.
Hiarbas ordered a direct attack without giving the Roman army an opportunity to prepare a defense; in his opinion, the demoralized and exhausted Roman army would panic upon seeing a great army attacking, and their centurions would have to spend more time controlling the legionaries in order to prepare for combat.
In large-scale battles like this one, with more than 100,000 soldiers, the outcome is practically decided before the battle lines are even deployed.
This is because the battle lines are immense, stretching for kilometers and appearing endless.
The commander-in-chief simply gives orders, and by the time they reach the commanders at the front, an indeterminate amount of time has already passed.
The clone army had a unique advantage in communication, unlike other armies that depended on messengers and other means to issue military orders.
On the left flank of the Numidian army, there were a total of 100 enormous war elephants advancing and creating a small earthquake around them.
The 100 war elephants were surrounded by Numidian cavalry.
The Numidian army split into two enormous masses of people.
The 50,000-man Numidian infantry would serve to hold the Roman army from the front, while the elephants and cavalry would attack from the flanks, destroying the Roman formation and undermining their morale.
Hiarbas' plan was simple: take advantage of the elephants and open a path through the enemy infantry, allowing the Numidian cavalry to enter.
Time passed, and both armies slowly approached each other.
Within the ranks of the clone army, hundreds of legionaries began making noise with drums and trumpets, managing to bewilder the Numidian army.
"What are they doing?" Hiarbas asked his trusted generals in confusion.
The generals were equally perplexed; what did the Romans want to do with all that noise?
At that precise moment, the war elephants that had begun their charge slowly came to a halt.
Elephants are very intelligent creatures, but that intelligence came with a heightened state of alertness.
The enormous roar approaching them deeply disturbed them, and they finally stopped completely, refusing to advance no matter how much their riders urged them forward.
The formation of the clone army continued advancing while clone soldiers in the rear made noise with drums and trumpets.
Both armies, like two enormous tides, collided, and the infantry of the Numidian army clashed against the clone army.
The impact of thousands of people on unstable terrain such as the desert quickly caused chaos in the formations of the clone army.
No matter how much Septimus struggled to maintain the order of the Roman formation, the pressure of thousands of men advancing and pushing added great difficulty.
The Numidian army did not represent a serious threat to the clone army, but their numbers were extremely overwhelming, and the clone legionaries would have to devote a great deal of time to the engagement.
The Numidian infantry was essentially light infantry with swords, spears, maces, and so on, with a light shield as their only defense.
After one hour, the clone soldiers managed to resist the assault of the Numidian army and used their short swords to dye the desert sand blood red.
The battle between the Numidian infantry and the clone legionaries turned into a meat grinder.
On the other hand, thousands of clone soldiers fought against the Numidian cavalry.
Hundreds of clone soldiers threw javelins at the elephants that were leading the charge and were already in a state of confusion because of the noise coming from the clone army.
The javelins embedded themselves into the flesh of more than 30 elephants, and the sudden confusion in their eyes turned into rage.
The enraged elephants charged at the clone soldiers who were throwing javelins at them.
The elephants' charges hurled the clone soldiers dozens of meters away, causing internal damage to their organs.
Septimus had assigned two clone legions to entangle the elephants and the Numidian cavalry, leaving five legions to face the Numidian infantry.
The battle between the Numidian light cavalry led by 100 elephants and the two clone legions turned into a desperate battle, with clone legionaries fighting without a defined formation.
On the other hand, the Numidian infantry facing the clone army quickly began losing momentum.
The clone soldiers had a shared connection, and as a result, the will to fight of each individual soldier, regardless of the circumstances, was unshakable.
The cloud of sand that arose in the desert because of the battle, which prevented the soldiers from seeing more than 5 meters around them, did not demoralize the clone legionaries from continuing to attack the enemy.
The pressure from the Numidian infantry slowly began to weaken because of the loss of orientation within the dust cloud, and the deafening screams mixed with the dust made it impossible for the Numidian generals to know the situation of the battle.
Due to the immense size of the battlefield, Hiarbas had not even noticed the anomalies within his infantry.
Both armies had committed all their troops without leaving any reserve force available.
Hiarbas trusted that he would destroy the Roman army weakened by dehydration in a single blow.
On the contrary, Septimus longed to destroy the enemy and end the martyrdom of wandering through the Sahara Desert.
Two hours passed quickly.
The Numidian infantry began showing signs of collapse rapidly.
The casualties of the Numidian army were enormous; unlike the basic defense of the clone army, the Numidian soldiers were defenseless.
Numidia had only recently entered an agricultural society with low productivity; it was impossible for everyone to be equipped with decent weapons, much less shields or leather armor.
The scorching sun and the cloud of sand that prevented them from seeing enemies or allies greatly affected the morale of the Numidian army.
The Numidian soldiers began abandoning the battlefield in small groups, which slowly increased in number.
Septimus and the clones were a single entity, and although the scorching sun was unbearable and the cloud of sand prevented them from seeing the situation around them, the clone soldiers persisted and attacked while relying on their shared sense of orientation.
With the collapse of the Numidian infantry, the cavalry that was dealing with the two clone legions also began to waver, and the more timid soldiers started abandoning the battlefield.
The war elephants wreaked havoc within the clone formation, but the incessant javelin attacks caused the elephants to unconsciously avoid approaching the clone soldiers.
Elephants are intelligent animals, and no matter how enraged they were, they would still avoid pain when facing a difficult enemy.
The Numidian cavalry did not suffer much damage mainly because the riders avoided direct charges against the clone soldiers and preferred to launch harassment attacks with javelins and arrows.
The lack of stirrups and the small size of the horses made a direct charge by the Numidian cavalry against the clone legion impossible.