On the narrow battlefield of the Nantz Plains, masses of knights and their squires scurried about, brandishing lances and swords, charging in all directions, striving to maintain their momentum.
The Chaos Warriors, clad in black armor, were undoubtedly the most elite fighters of the Skarlins tribe. Egil could not afford to sacrifice them as he had the old, weak, and small tribes, so the Hell Cannon of Chaos was directed elsewhere.
After a fierce battle, the besieged knights continued their resistance, their indomitable spirit bolstered by the battle flag of Shilruf, which endowed all knights with unparalleled strength.
A Northern Chaos Mammoth beast fell with a wail, its thighs peppered with hundreds of spear and sword wounds, explaining its downfall. Under the knights' stubborn defense, even such massive creatures as the Chaos Mammoths could not sustain combat for long.
"Chain Lightning!" Lake Spirit Prophet Annara's timely spellcasting unleashed a fierce chain of lightning that struck another Chaos Mammoth in the head. Even the mountain-like war mammoth could not withstand it, and Dalheid's court wizard took the opportunity to cast a spell, sending a Doomsday Pendulum that precisely struck the mammoth's head, the massive scythe formed by magic cleaving the beast's skull.
This fearsome behemoth finally fell before the knights, never to rise again.
"Yay!" The knights, trapped within the barbarian lines, were greatly heartened.
But their smiles soon faded as the combined spellcasting of Chaos Sorcerer Chakoy and his subordinates summoned a powerful firestorm, determined to engulf all the knights in flames. The knights scattered to avoid the flames, but those who couldn't escape were turned into charred remains.
"Let us hunt for the head of that southern duke, the best offering to the Blood God," Egil decided to strike directly at the central army.
He aimed to kill the enemy commander and seize ultimate victory.
By now, most of the knights had charged into the fray, leaving Dalheid's central army vulnerable. Egil personally rode a Chaos Steel Bull, with drums thundering and horns blaring. His personal guard, the Crimson Guard, chanting the oaths of the Chaos gods, advanced towards Dalheid in a wave as majestic, formidable, and terrifying as a tsunami. The charge was like the crashing of waves, with Egil's voice like a blood-red comet streaking through the night sky, targeting Dalheid in the center.
The god-chosen champion of terror cut through the ranks, no Britonian knight able to withstand him. With just a single charge, he had already slain an earl, four barons, and several knights.
Now, only Count Ryan, leading a hundred knights, and another, Baron Uther leading a battalion of sergeants, stood between Dalheid and Egil.
Seeing the enemy's formidable approach, Ryan knew that the barbarian commander was upon them. He gripped his sword tightly, then turned for one last look at the battle flag of Shilruf in the central army.
After that, the honorable knight never looked back, not even for an instant.
"Protect the duke! Never retreat!"
"Fight to the death!"
Unending courage burst forth from Ryan as he faced Egil's massive figure, clad in blood-red armor adorned with countless spiked iron rings. Ryan, a legend among men, spurred his horse forward to meet Egil head-on.
The clash of lance and axe followed, and Ryan screamed as he lost an arm. His lance shattered into pieces, including his right arm which was cleaved off by Egil, blood spurting, staining his horse and cloak.
With his remaining left hand, Ryan desperately drew his longsword. His face twisted, almost crazed: "Damn barbarian scum! Face the Lady's judgement!"
Egil, unphased, admired Ryan's resolve to die honorably.
A worthy man deserves a dignified death.
With a brutal swing of his axe, Egil cut through the air, the force scorching the atmosphere. He effortlessly deflected Ryan's final desperate attack and then cleaved open Ryan's chest with his hellish axe.
Blood sprayed.
Ryan, still mounted, teetered, feeling his strength and consciousness fade, but his courage and rage reached their peak.
"Just one more swing for the Lady, please!" Ryan prayed madly in his heart. "I must not let this barbarian approach the duke."
Unfortunately, Ryan was at the end of his strength. A Chaos Champion wielding a halberd pierced him from behind, then decapitated him with a single stroke: "Blood for the Blood God, skulls for the Skull Throne!"
"No! You bastard! He was mine!" Egil, enraged, beheaded the Chaos Champion with his axe: "Die!"
"Count is dead!" Knights and sergeants cried out in despair.
Dalheid felt a chill at the news, his heart tightening as he watched the direction of the battle, realizing that Count Ryan had fallen.
He could not afford to retreat. At this critical moment, any movement on his part might risk the immediate collapse of the knightly army.
"Bring everyone around me to support Baron Uther!" Dalheid's eyes blazed as he commanded his heir, Aldred.
"But..." Aldred hesitated.
"Now! Block those barbarians!!" Dalheid knew that decisive action was needed in war. He roared at his son, spittle flying onto Aldred's face.
"Understood!" Clenching his teeth, Aldred led the last of the reserve troops to counter Egil's assault.
At this moment, Egil, leading his Crimson Guard, was less than a hundred meters away from where Dalheid stood. The god-chosen champion of terror, calm as he extracted his axe from Baron Uther's body, saw that the last defenses around Dalheid were crumbling, but the remaining knights and sergeants were still fighting valiantly, determined to keep Egil away from the duke.
Egil's axes whirled, stirring up a wind of death. His blades sliced through the knights' bodies, separating armor and flesh, and in just a few moments, he had cut down dozens.
The resisting knights and sergeants were driven back, terror in their eyes. To them, Egil seemed like a colossal demon perched upon a throne of skulls, a whirlwind of death swirling around him, turning all in his path to scorched earth.
Legendary knights of the kingdom confronted Egil but were swiftly beheaded. Blood flowed, heads fell; such was the power of Egil.
"Charge! We must kill the opposing duke, Dalheid! You coward, come and meet your death!" Egil noticed more knights and squires rushing into the fray. This last force almost immediately shifted the dynamics of the battlefield. Even the elite warriors of the Crimson Guard were temporarily held back.
However, just then, Aldred, who had reached Egil, did something that changed the course of the entire battle. As he passed by Egil, he thrust his lance at the god-chosen champion with all his might.
Egil wasn't pierced by the lance; instead, his mount, the Chaos Steel Bull, took the hit for its master. The painful jab to its hindquarters caused the Chaos Steel Bull to run amok, breaking through the knights' line and charging directly towards where Dalheid stood.
This was exactly what Egil had wanted.
Dalheid's expression was grave. The duke could see Egil, blood-soaked and axe-wielding, approaching with terrifying force. Egil, like magma erupting from a volcano, made deep impressions in the snow with each step of his Doom Bull. His pale eyes burst with a blood-red light.
"Charge!" Dalheid, a veteran of many battles, knew he had to engage. He spurred his pureblood elven warhorse, which neighed long and loud, then galloped towards Egil.
"Dalheid of Lyonnesse, surrender now! Or I will obliterate you with blood and shadow!" Egil raised his axes, issuing a cold warning to the duke on horseback.
The call to surrender was meaningless; surrender or not, slaughter was certain. Egil simply relished the idea of seeing the lowly southerner grovel.
"Hmph! The pain you've brought to Lyonnesse, I will personally repay!" Dalheid's face was etched with deep-seated hatred, a hatred rooted to his bones. Egil had rampaged across his duchy, and even the most conservative estimate by the duke's counselors put the death toll at over one hundred thousand.
Such losses might take a decade or more to recover from.
"How could I not despise you, Egil?"
"Receive the Lady's judgment, Chaos scum!" Dalheid, a high-level legendary knight, was still full of vigor despite his middle age; he had never ceased his martial training.
If he could kill Egil here, the war could be turned from defeat to victory! Dalheid's aura blazed with intense fighting spirit.
As the horses clashed, the sound of metal on metal echoed across the battlefield. The overwhelming force from Egil nearly disarmed Dalheid, who almost lost his grip on his lance. If not for decades of combat experience, Dalheid would have fallen from his horse right then.
Dalheid's right hand throbbed painfully as he gripped his lance tighter, trying to turn, only to find Egil already behind him!
Dalheid's eyes reddened as he hastily raised his shield to block Egil's hellish axe.
"Crack!" The shield, forged from Britonian mithril, performed its final duty. It shattered under the axe's blow but protected Dalheid one last time. He felt an unmatched force travel up his arm, pain drilling into his left arm; the Duke of Lyonnesse knew it was broken.
Dalheid fell from his horse, tumbling awkwardly to the ground.
"Ugh..." As he tried to rise for another fight, a chill spread from his back to his chest, followed by a sweet taste in his throat and a sharp pain in his chest as blood flowed freely from his mouth.
Egil's left-hand axe, Gamm, had pierced Dalheid's right chest, blood splattering.
Is this where I die? Dalheid's vision began to blur, yet his mind grew increasingly clear, a cruel irony for the duke as he saw his knights still struggling on the battlefield and heard his son's desperate cries.
"The duke is dead! The duke is dead!" Shouts spread across the battlefield; the peasants began to break, and the knights wavered.
The banner of Shilruf, slashed down by Egil and stained with the duke's blood, symbolized the final collapse of hope.
No!
I cannot die here! Using the last of his strength, Dalheid grasped the axe blade that had pierced his body.
"Hmm?" As Egil attempted to pull Gamm from Dalheid's body to deliver a fatal blow with his right-hand axe, Gomm, he found his movement slightly hindered.
This brief resistance saved Dalheid's life.
"For the Lady!" Reinforcements arrived; Grand Master of the Holy Grail Knights, Ulysses, along with three other Holy Grail Knights, rushed to support from the side. Ulysses, eyes burning with the fury of the goddess, led the charge. Their swords and lances, ablaze with golden fire, closed in on Egil's face and head.
"At last, some worthy opponents." Seeing the new threat, Egil abandoned his attempt to kill Dalheid. He withdrew his axes and parried the blows from Ulysses and the Holy Grail Knights. In a flurry of exchanges, sparks flew from the clashing sword and axe, neither side gaining the upper hand.
Egil looked up to find himself surrounded. His nephew and fellow Chaos Champion, Yarl, was slain by Ulysses with two swift strikes. The Crimson Guard suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the Holy Grail Knights.
Egil considered trying again to kill Dalheid, but Ulysses did not give him the chance. The Grand Master's sword pierced the Chaos Steel Bull's head, causing the beast to bellow in pain and uncontrollably flee the battlefield with Egil.
"Heh, keep your head for now; I will come back for it later." Unable to control the Chaos Steel Bull, Egil, seeing the banner of Shilruf down and knowing his objective was achieved, chose not to press further.
Before leaving, Egil took an interested glance at Ulysses, then raised his axe, and with a blade blessed by the Blood God, sliced through the air.
"Slay!"
A Holy Grail Knight attempting to block his path was cleaved in two, Egil's roar bloodthirsty as he broke through the knights' encirclement. The Crimson Guard, seeing their leader retreat, ceased their assault and followed Egil. The remaining knights watched in horror as their comrade was cut down, daring not to pursue.
"The duke is not dead!" Ulysses immediately ordered the knights not to chase Egil and had his own Holy Grail Knight banner raised: "The duke is alive! By the Grail!"
With this, the knightly army's morale was barely stabilized.
"Uh..." Dalheid was helped up by Ulysses, the Duke of Lyonnesse's gaze somewhat unfocused: "Uh... Thank the Lady."
"Your Grace! We cannot continue this fight! We must retreat and set up a defense at Lyonnesse Castle!" Ulysses shouted into Dalheid's ear: "If we continue, we will surely be defeated! You cannot fall here, or we lose our last hope for victory!"
Dalheid's gaze drifted off into the distance, a Chaos Mammoth slowly collapsing — the last of the barbarian army's Chaos Mammoths had fallen. The knights, with help from two other Holy Grail Knights and the reserve cavalry, were breaking through the encirclement.
Although the knightly heavy cavalry had been reduced from over ten thousand to less than eight thousand, and the knights to less than four thousand, there was still a chance to defeat the barbarian army if they could retreat to the high walls of Lyonnesse.
"Alright, Ulysses, thank you for your aid. You've given us a second chance. But who will cover our retreat?" Dalheid gasped for air, tasting the metallic flavor of blood in his mouth.
"I will cover the retreat!" Holy Grail Knight Eisen, covered in blood, arrived with over a hundred knights who had broken through: "Go now!"
Dalheid stared at Holy Grail Knight Eisen for a few seconds, as if to imprint his image forever, then nodded silently.
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