The Union

The main problem though, were the horses. The horses were being grazed at the back so the Castonians failed to capture them. Now, the Tulosan Cavalrymen had begun to mobilize. They formed into two big units. Both groups targeted the left flank of the Castonians which had the least number of soldiers. The Castonians had made a great gamble. By charging in like this, they disregarded formation and any semblance of tactics. It was great at first, but it put them into a vulnerable position. Their attack was neither idiotic nor genius. They simply made a gamble because it was the only way to catch the Tulosans off guard.

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John was charging forward. He was angry. These Tulosans suddenly invaded his Kingdom and they expected him to do nothing? He will show them how wrong they were. His halberd had already struck down two Tulosans and most of the enemy infantry had already fled. As for the cavalry, a huge number of them were currently charging towards them.

If it was any other army, this charge would have broken their spirits. But the men of knightsend stood strong. They were not afraid. They formed a solid wall of defense and raised their halberd towards the charging cavalry.

The cavalry charge"s strength was half true and half false. Yes the momentum of the charge was deadly, horses were powerful beasts after all. A person hit by a horse at full speed could die just because of the impact. If we also take into consideration the rider, then we can surely say that a cavalry charge was a very frightening thing. But for a cavalry unit to fully utilize the effect of its charge, the enemy should be afraid of them. The most successful cavalry charges were those times when the infantry had already routed before the impact of the charge. This way, the cavalrymen could just hara.s.s them from behind.

But horses were not stupid. They wouldn"t charge into pikes and a large group of people standing still. Charging the infantry from the front had always been a gamble for the cavalry. If the infantry were not afraid of the charge, then they wouldn"t run away. If they presented a solid line of defense to the horses, then the animals would terminate the charge. This was the reason why the charge"s strength was half true and half false. It was half physical and half psychological.

If it was a year ago, the men of Knightsend should have already routed by now. Unfortunately for the Tulosans, Timothy came to Knightsend. Just as expected, the cavalry charging towards them suddenly halted and retreated. The horses must have seen the line of halberds pointing towards them.

But before the Castonians could rejoice, a second group of cavalry hit the them from behind. Charging into the rear of the infantry was a hundred times more effective than charging into the front.

Apparently, a second cavalry unit of about 500 encircled them from behind. The Castonians at the left flank didn"t notice the second cavalry unit and were caught by surprise. To further exacerbate things, this particular group of cavalry were the feared Tulosan knights.

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Marvin saw the whole thing. A second cavalry unit struck the left flank in the rear. He recognized them as the Tulosan Knights. It was bad enough that the infantry got charged from the rear, but the Tulosan Knights specialized in this. Charging at the rear of an army is what they were trained to do. Their long lances can penetrate Castonian armor, skewering the unlucky person from behind. Their horses were strong and muscular so anyone hit by the impact of their charge would surely suffer heavy injuries. The Tulosan Knights folded the left flank like a carpet. Many people were skewered by the lances, others lost consciousness from the impact. Seeing this, the other group of cavalrymen charged back. Now, not only did the left flank suffered two successful charges from the front and the back, they were also outnumbered.

The center of the Castonian army rushed to help their brothers. But they were still far away. The earlier crazed charge of the Castonian infantry had put a huge gap between the left flank and the center.

Any other armies would have routed after this, but Marvin saw that the soldiers on left flank were fighting to the death. Those who were downed earlier by the charge stood up again. The fighting on the left had become a free-for-all brawl.

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John"s ears were ringing. He found himself lying down on the dirt. Apparently, a horse hit him in the back. He stood up. He can still fight. Behind him were several of his fellow Castonians who were also recovering from the charge.

A lone Tulosan suddenly charged and stabbed his spear towards him. John gripped his halberd and deflected the blow. The Tulosan turned his horse around and charged him again. John crouched and avoided the spear. He then slammed the hook part of his halberd into the chest of the Tulosan and unhorsed him. The Tulosan fell from his horse but he was quick to roll out of John"s final blow. The Tulosan unsheathed his sword and swung it towards John"s face. The man was able to get pa.s.s the halberd"s zone of attack. John used his forearm to defend his face and the sword hit the mail gauntlet John was wearing. John let go of his halberd and grabbed his dagger. He stabbed the Tulosan in the armpit but blade wasn"t able to penetrate the man"s armor. Now it was the Tulosan"s turn to grab his dagger and stab John in the stomach. The blade was able to penetrate part of his mail armor but the gambeson underneath was able to stop it. Seeing that the Tulosan was in an awkward position, John bashed his head towards him. The Tulosan took a few steps back, he was clearly stunned by the bash. John took the opportunity to bury his dagger into the man"s face. The Tulosan cried in pain. With the Tulosan wallowing in pain, John was able to grab his halberd and delivered the final blow. The axe part of the halberd cut the man"s neck. Since he was wearing a gambeson collar, the halberd failed to decapitate him. But the blow was fatal and blood gushed from his neck.

John looked for another target. He spotted a Tulosan on horseback who was hara.s.sing a Castonian. John rushed towards the Tulosan and lodged the tip of his halberd into the man"s back. His strike was hard and true, penetrating through armor. But it wasn"t enough to kill the Tulosan. The Tulosan turned to him but his fellow Castonian also stabbed the man in the chest. With both of them skewering the Tulosan, they managed to unhorse him. John delivered the final blow with a swing of his halberd. The two of them decided to team up and rescue more Castonians. The battlefield by now was covered with dust from the charge so visibility was low. Despite this, the two of them were able to rally several Castonians. There were seven people in John"s group at first, but this quickly grew into a few dozens.

The group then found the best target they could find- the Tulosan Knights. No words were needed for orders. They all knew that they must kill the Knights. The Knights had gambeson, mail and pieces of plate armor and they were trained for years unlike the soldiers they fought earlier. It was harder and more dangerous to kill a knight, but they wanted to anyway. They charged at the Knights with anger in their eyes. These people killed many of their brothers today.

"Kill them all! Kill the Knights! Today, we will make the rooster prince proud! " John shouted as he rushed towards the Knights

"For Castonia! Long live the rooster prince!"

"For Prince Timothy!"

Cries can be heard as the group slammed against the Knights. The Tulosans must pay with blood!

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The chaotic battle on the left flank lasted for a while until reinforcements from the center arrived. Seeing the approaching Castonians, the Tulosans fled. The men on the left flank were all b.l.o.o.d.y and battered, but they remained unbroken.

In the right flank, the Castonians had finally broken the Tulosans. It was a complete victory for the Castonians despite the messy affair on the left flank. In the end, the Tulosans lost more than half of their army. The Castonians, on the other hand, lost about 800. Most of the Castonian casualties were from the left flank.

General Marvin took 3000 men to reinforce Timothy. He left the others to tend to the wounded and guard the Castle. Since many of the villagers were also staying at Knightsend, he doesn"t need to leave many men behind to maintain the castle.

Marvin then discovered that the Tulosans had just recently replenished their supplies. Now they don"t have to worry about food for a while. Marvin also captured a lot of the Tulosan horses. He can now have more scouts to look for Timothy in Mercus Plains. Before he left, Marvin sent letters by carrier pigeons to all the castles and cities in the Western Region.

"Knightsend had broken the siege. We"re now going to reinforce Prince Timothy"