The mysterious creature was a charming man. He looked like he was in his thirties. He had a very manly diamond-shaped jaw, long black tapered hair that was combed back, and flawless white skin. He was clad in full golden plate armour that fitted his ripped muscular definition. The armour was without a helmet. A pair of folded wings were visible behind him. They were extensions of his scapula, which were exposed through orifices on the scapula level of the armour. The hilt of his long sword, which was hung behind him, could be seen over his right shoulder. He held a hateful glare towards the Barbax legate, who approached him in a calm and confident gait. Somehow, the charming man's angry gaze wasn't only directed at the Barbax legate; it was directed at every Barbax soldier. The glare was felt by every Barbax soldier that caught sight of him.
The Barbax legate was less than eleven yards away from the mysterious man. He asked rhetorically, "Who do you think you are?"
The mystery man replied, "I am Emperor Gerald, the supreme lord of Camelot, the great red dragon."
A bolt of red lightning hit the mystery man, Emperor Gerald, and he transformed into a tremendously huge red dragon. The dragon looked like a cross between a yinlong and a western dragon; it had the wings of a western dragon and the long, serpent-like body of a yinglong but with a clearly defined neck, torso, and tail. It had four limbs: a pair of forelimbs and a pair of hindlimbs.
The Barbax soldiers halted in their tracks and could only gaze in fright at the humongous beast before them. The fire-breathing beast was over 1200 metres long and over 20 feet tall. The Barbax legate stood before the dragon's menacing face. Compared to the size of the red dragon's head, he was like a man standing before a six-story building. The dragon lunged at him and munched him whole.
The legate of Camelot's battalion was among the few men who stood to watch and also recognised the emperor. His face bore a few deep, bleeding cuts and many bruises. Thanks to the brigandine and chausses he wore, he was still alive. When the emperor ate the Barbax man, he guffawed so loudly that the swarm of retreating soldiers stopped running and looked back. The men were eager to fight again when they saw the dragon.
"It's the Emperor!" most of the retreating men said boisterously.
The dragon dove through the flock of Barbax soldiers. Bloody corpses and bodies piled up in his maw. Frightful wails of scared, anguished men resounded from the slaughterhouse of a maw.
Satisfied with the ruckus he had caused, he ascended towards the sky. Halfway, he spun his body to face his men, and he roared at them to galvanise their desire for triumph. Then he turned away and soared into the clouds.
"You heard the emperor," the Camelot legate turned to his men and yelled, inspiringly, "roar your hearts out and march forth after our lord. Today is another day for triumph!"
The Camelot men raised their swords to the sky and roared. Courage no longer seethed through their blood; it was now pure confidence. Most of the Barbax soldiers were so scared that they couldn't run. Their hands clutched their weapons tightly with an unconvinced desire to fight. The Camelot soldiers charged at them.
"Don't run. Hold your ground. We can win them," a few brave Barbax soldiers encouraged their many scared comrades around them.
When the Camelot soldiers were a couple metres away from colliding with the Barbax soldiers, one of the brave men lost his cool and ran away, yelling like a frightened little boy. A lot of soldiers followed suit. The rest that stood their ground were slaughtered like chickens. The Camelot soldiers didn't relent; they chased after the fleeing opposition. A bunch of the enemies were stampeded and stabbed into the afterlife after a few minutes of the chase.
The red dragon, Emperor Gerald, watched the battle unfold from behind the clouds. Just as he expected, the opponents were fleeing to their camp, which was after Aja. Earlier, he had visited the camp. In his wake, he left a startling whistle sound that left the soldiers in the camp confused.
A deafening roar echoed from the sky. The hearts of the fleeing Barbax soldiers skipped more than two beats. They couldn't afford to look up and know who was responsible. They could only hope that a bad fate wouldn't meet them.
"It is the dragon!" one of the Barbax soldiers shrieked in utter terror.
The warning was followed by gagged screams of intense anguish. The dragon erupted streams of fire on the latter soldier and a bunch of other comrades. Charred corpses were left in the wake of the attack. Before the intervention of the dragon, the invaders lost just over 800 soldiers. But after the intervention, the number of survivors dipped. There were barely 1,105 invaders alive.
The shadow of the dragon fell over the surviving invaders. Their chests contracted more in fright. But they didn't stop running. The mass of the dragon came over them, but he wasn't interested in them. Still on their heels, the invaders looked up at the dragon. They met a contemptuous glare from the fiery beast. They realised that the dragon was using them for sport. The fiery beast just eliminated the stragglers and left the best runners running.
The fiery beast slithered into the clouds in the opposite direction, away from the battle. The Camelot soldiers didn't seem to care about their lord's action. They continued to pursue their enemies.
It took the fleeing enemies two hours to run past Aja and get to their camp. During that time, there were soldiers who gave up running and those who became stragglers. Stragglers were mauled by the maws of the dragon, while those who gave up were murdered by the blades of the pursuing Camelot soldiers.
The approaching, fleeing Barbax soldiers brought confusion and anxiety to their loafing comrades in the camp. The camp soldiers grabbed their weapons and shields. They recognised the people coming at them as their own. They also saw the Camelot soldiers pursuing them. Both groups of sprinters were shouting at the top of their lungs.
Seeing that their comrades in the camp stood up to confront the Camelot soldiers, the fleeing Barbax soldiers dispersed to the right and left directions to escape the battle. Their camp comrades would serve as cannon fodder, and the probability of their survival increased.
Unfortunately, the red dragon came slithering down from the sky. The fiery beast created a ring of fire around the Barbax soldiers. The flames were so hot that if one got a metre close to them, that person would die of a heat stroke.