Thirty-three Victory

"Be brave, be brave!" shouted Ashrufat. He knew that he could not do anything, but shouted with all his might, trying to boost morale. The shield-carrying knights and militiamen raised their shields to protect themselves, but many more could only watch as the muzzles of the repeating muskets continued to glow. Bullets raged mercilessly through the crowd, bringing blood and screams. Hordes of coalition soldiers fell at gunpoint. Two of the bullets hit Ashrufat's chest, but they were bounced off by the armor due to the angle.

The blow was not only in terms of casualties, but also in terms of spirit. If it weren't for the knights who had been incorporated into the militia, I am afraid that the militia would have to be dispersed at once. But the knights sternly urged the militia around them, so that they did not dare to flee.

Immediately after this short interval, the coalition forces began to return fire. The archers at the rear of the battle line shot arrows into the sky, and used their falling arrows to kill many musketeers who were too close. Although the revolverant repeating musket can fire eight to ten rounds in a row at a time, it still needs to be loaded with so many bullets per reload. Their reload speed dictates that they will not be able to launch a second attack. The remaining musketeers immediately withdrew, taking space and then the knights in the rear.

This is the decisive attack. After repeated attacks by half-griffin cavalry and musketeers, the central phalanx of the coalition forces is now suffering heavy casualties. The knights could force the militia not to flee, but there was no way to get the untrained militia back into formation in time. At the precious moment when the center of the coalition had not yet been rearranged, the elite knights of Paro swooped up like a tidal wave.

By this time the battle on the left flank had already been decided. After a stubborn resistance, Paro's infantry was eventually routed by the knights. The surviving soldiers were completely demoralized, abandoned their weapons and fled, leaving the knights to be slashed like all defeated soldiers. The victorious knights, with the exception of a small part that continued to pursue the enemy, bypassed the rear of Paro's army and tried to support the friendly forces on the right flank.

But it was too late, and nothing could change the tide of the battle. Nikolai turned his gaze back to the central front. Nikolai watched his troops form a tight phalanx, pressing down on the enemy like an iron wall, and he knew that this round of attacks would inevitably crush the enemy's resistance - no matter what the militia did, whether they fled or resisted on the spot, they would have to collapse this time.

As he had expected, the coalition faltered in the face of this last and fatal blow. Both the militia and the knights on foot turned around and fled. However, human legs cannot compete with the four legs of a war horse. They don't get far before they are caught up and turned into a one-sided massacre......

An unbelievable scene arose. Behind the rapidly receding crowd of militia was a row of sharp wooden stakes to resist horses. Infantry could easily pass through the stakes as well as flowing water through bamboo strips, but cavalry could not.

In an instant, the torrent of steel was stopped in the screams of death. The charging Paro knights were unable to restrain their horses in time, and hordes of men and horses crashed against the merciless horse-repelling stakes. Either the man and the horse are pierced together, or the horse is pierced and the man is thrown forward. The knights in the front two rows had almost the same fate, and none of them were spared. The knight in the back slammed into the corpse in front, and for a moment the man flipped on his back and became a mess.

"Quick, counterattack back!" shouted Ashrufat with his sword raised. This is a rare fighter, and even the militia, who were almost collapsing before, suddenly regained their courage and killed again. With the rejection of the horse as the middle line, the two sides were once again tightly entangled in a ball. But this time it was the militia who had the upper hand. The knights of Paro were in disarray, fighting for themselves, and many of the knights who were thrown off their horses were killed by the militia before they even had a chance to get up.

As soon as the knights were unable to take advantage of the charge, then the battle turned into a grappling. On the entire front, wails were everywhere, and the sound of killing shook the sky. The Palau knights were crowded together before, and they could not give full play to the advantages of the cavalry, and at this time they suffered a big loss in the battle, and they could not protect the horses if they could protect themselves.

Seeing this, Nikolai sent his own troops and personally led the infantry into battle. Now the advantage has once again slipped quietly from the hands of the coalition forces. No matter how hard the militia fought, no matter how much the knights pushed the resistance, no matter how the archers provided fire support, they were still pressed back step by step in the face of the superior enemy.

At this moment, the value of the knight is revealed. The knights were mixed in with the militia and fought hard, like high-energy materials in bulletproof glass, absorbing the impact of the enemy little by little, avoiding the complete collapse of the entire battle line.

At this time, the battle on the right flank was also divided into winners and losers. Despite the best efforts of Paro's officers, the enemy's detour from behind shattered the soldiers' courage to resist. The knights flanked back and forth, and a single onslaught knocked the Paro army to the ground.

Everyone in their right mind can see that the victory or defeat of this battle is at this moment. If the center of the coalition can support the two flanks of friendly forces, then victory is in sight, and if the Paros can defeat the center of the coalition first, then the last victory will belong to the paro.

Ashrufat wielded his magic greatsword and rushed left and right in the middle of the battlefield, invincible. Wherever there is an unstable crisis on the front, he rushes to it, spreading death with his sword. He kept calling out the names of the captains of the detachment, encouraging them to fight. Blood and flesh were already splattered all over his body, and his furious posture made not only the enemy, but also the allies retreat in terror.

He had long forgotten how many enemies he had killed under his sword. When he was in charge of defending the city at Drake, perhaps not as many people were killed in a day's fierce battle as he had in a quarter of an hour. Steel, flesh, bones, everything splattered under the sword, but his body was not tired, only infinite anger and bloodthirsty frenzy filled his mind.

More than one Paro officer tried to stop him, but to no avail of his life under his sword. Then he saw an enemy general, surrounded by a large number of soldiers, smashing into the militia array like an iron ball. These enemies were all knights, and they were all like wolves and tigers, and they penetrated deep into the coalition front like a bamboo.

Ashruphat rushed forward, and the leading Paro knight blocked with a shield, but he was slashed with a sword. He continued to charge forward, and by this time the enemy generals also spotted him.

He recognized the young general's breastplate with the lightning crest of the Paro royal family. Ordinary Paro knights did not carve their coat of arms on their cuirasses, a habit that made it easy to tell which officer was the officer, whether it was an enemy or a friend.

The young general holds a shield in his left hand and a sword in his right. Although he was tightly surrounded by his subordinates, his body was also covered in blood. He noticed Aerufat rushing towards him, and put on a defensive stance. However, the four Paro knights rushed forward and stood in front of Ashrufat. These people are not ordinary knights, their combat skills are extremely strong, and with the cooperation of each other, even Eshurufat can't rush over for a while. Seeing that Paro's young general was about to leave.

"You, fight with my sword!" Ashrufaat took a half-step back and pointed his giant sword at the young royal general.

......

When Palau's three successive waves of charges failed to break the center of the coalition army, the outcome of the battle was in fact decided. There was little suspense about what happened next. When Casilos and St. Jean's knights lined up in a cavalry battle formation and prepared to attack from the rear, Paro's army immediately wavered, and more than one group of soldiers fled the battlefield at this time. Then, chanting a battle cry, the knight charged the enemy from the flanks and rear, closing his wings like pincers, and in an instant he crushed the resistance of the Paro people. The rout was so terrible that even Paro's commander, Prince Nicholas, was killed in the chaos. However, there are some accounts that appear to have died in a battle on the battlefield, and the opponent is unknown.

Prince Nikolai was still very young when he died, he was considered one of the most talented members of the Paro royal family (although he lost to Thomas, but strictly speaking, it is not a shame), and many people thought that this prince could grow into a generation of famous generals in time, but unfortunately, history did not give him this opportunity. After the death of the prince, the Paros did not even have a chance to collect the defeated army (of course, it is difficult to imagine that an experienced general like Thomas would leave the enemy with a chance to counterattack).

Thomas caught up all the way and pursued Paro to a distance of more than ten leagues. It is said that he did not give the order to withdraw his troops until his mount fell to his knees. The 30,000 Paro army was defeated, and according to relevant records, at least 10,000 were killed and 10,000 were captured.

Now, the Paros are going to pay for their mistakes. Wolf's Mouth Castle has become the next target for the ambitious veteran. It was Thomas who captured the fortified city for Cassilos decades ago......

—Excerpt from "History of the Styghian Wars"

Ashrufat removed his blood-soaked helmet from his head. The helmet did a good job today, leaving at least one bullet, two spears, and an unknown number of scuff marks. He tossed his helmet to a servant, only to realize that there was a large crack in his breastplate that had been created by a tomahawk. One of the wings of the Blood Dragon Crest was cut off.

If the amount of power cut down by this axe is increased by three points, I'm afraid that Ashrufat will have to walk around without food today. And Ashruphat couldn't even remember who had chopped him with an axe.

The knights who had returned from chasing the enemy were still returning to the camp in twos and threes, each tired but excited, with crooked weapons in their hands. With the exception of blunt weapons such as war hammers, almost no one had any weapons intact, and I am afraid that the blacksmiths in the army would have a lot of work to do.

Today they had a brilliant victory, which was more intoxicating than all the fine wines.

Ashruphat took off his breastplate, threw it to the servant as well, and walked back to his tent. Leo and the others were waiting for him there, all of them with ecstasy and exhaustion in their eyes.

"It's too late to-day, Lord Count, and let us have another celebratory feast to-morrow at noon. "Someone proposed.

"There's no time to celebrate. Ashrufat replied, "Order the whole army to prepare, and we will set out at once tomorrow morning for a hasty march." The goal is Wolf's Mouth Castle!"

He noticed that all his eyes were full of surprise and bewilderment, and even a little ...... Wrath.

"Any new information received?" asked one of the subordinates, hesitantly. "Is there anything new about the Paro? They haven't been taught enough by us? A new enemy is coming? The Church of the True God has sent reinforcements to the Paro again?"

"No, no. Ashrufat replied simply. "But the soldiers are very fast, and there are still many Paro people in the Wolf's Mouth Castle. ”

There was an unabashedly bloody tone in his voice, which made several of his subordinates look at each other.

"What more do you want, Lord Earl, if the scale of the victory in the war should be counted by the number of deaths of the enemy, you would have been able to go down in history long ago. "It was a knight of St. Jean who spoke.

"I want the Castle of the Wolf's Mouth!" replied Ashrufat. "I want to take it there as soon as possible, at any cost!"