As they had planned, after the repeated failures of the other Midland armies to retake Doldrey the king had placed his last hope of retaking this fortress in the wings of the white hawk and Griffith had promised him victory under the mockery of the other petty generals who had all failed and only Laban had esteem for him among the nobles.
It had been a little over a month and a half since Guts had woken up so he had had time to recover from his injuries.
Now, the black hawk was at the front of the troops with Griffith right in front of the walls of the very large fortress as the wind and dust blew over them.
Griffith: How confident are you of defeating Boscogn ? If he falls his rhinos will be helpless.
"To tell you the whole truth, I don't know. All I know is that after what happened in the forest I understand the path of my sword a little better, I'm stronger than before..." Guts said as he made a one-handed swing with his sword, the blow was easy for Guts but Griffith could barely see the blade.
Griffith: Today, our little gang is going to go down in history. Are you covering my back ?
"Isn't that what I usually do?" Guts asked with a smile and they joined their fists. The others watched them discuss as if the two were in their sphere, it had been like this for years and Guts had been the only one so close to Griffith, the only one for whom Griffith was not so inaccessible.
In this dust storm, the men began to assemble some tools as if to make several wooden machines, they looked like small ballistas.
Griffith, Guts, Pippin and a few other hawks advanced towards Boscogn's troops with a white flag and they asked for a parley.
Boscogn had already recognized Griffith as an honorable and worthy opponent, even Barkha had already praised the hawk's band even though he had already crushed them once, he accepted Griffith's request but Griffith's target was not Boscogn but indeed Gennon on his balcony who watched Griffith approach from a distance and quickly asked for his armor to be brought to him.
The hawks approached the fortress when they saw Gennon and his soldiers come out while Boscogn seemed to start a discussion with the governor.
Griffith advanced alone from a certain distance and Gennon did the same, they talked a little and no one knew what they had said to each other but Griffith came back galloping smiling at Guts.
Gennon, motivated by who knows what Griffith told him, immediately ordered a general charge on the falcons with a reward of his choosing to whoever would bring Griffith back to him, despite Boscogn's protests, he would not listen and the men were already galvanized by Gennon's offer.
"General, what do we do ?" Boscogn's lieutenant asked him as he put on his rhino helmet.
"It's not like we have a choice, the governor is the highest ranking officer here so we obey. All troops charge at the falcons." Boscogn said in frustration before calling for the charge as Griffith and the others had already moved away in the large clouds of dust.
After a while, they joined the others and Griffith patted Guts on the shoulder to tell him that it was his time to conduct the operations .
"First section of the black falcons with me, the archers, be ready. Ros, Rickert we count on you to make these bastards bleed..." Guts said as behind, Ros and his 1000 archers got ready as did Rickert and the wooden machine unit.
When they all started to feel the ground shaking as the purple rhinos approached, Ros waited a little longer and stepped forward before ordering her men to draw their bows and then shoot but in a certain direction at the right time but especially at a certain distance from the ground.
Ros's goal was not to hit the soldiers themselves but their horses to then panic them and trigger a chain reaction.
Rickert also gave his signal and his men fired the projectiles from their small catapults, they were bombs that exploded in the enemy ranks, panicking their horses even more while Guts ordered the charge with him at the front. Boscogn meanwhile found himself in a difficult position, his men were almost uncontrollable, the horses wounded by the bombs and arrows became agitated, causing an almost general agitation of the other horses which became difficult to control but that was not all because he saw Guts and the falcons charging at them.
The two armies came into contact and the black falcons, Guts' heavy cavalry did immense damage especially with Guts and Pippin in the lead.
Without mercy and with his great sword, Guts easily cut down the purple rhinos in front of him and he killed them again and again before noticing someone .
Tall, imposing with horned purple rhinoceros armor, it was Boscogn in the distance who was killing the falcons with his halberd and each of his blows cut down several men at once.
Boscogn looked at the fight around him and couldn't help but notice that individually, the falcons were really strong for the vast majority to the point where the Purple Rhinoceros was slowly losing this battle.
It was really incomprehensible, he continued to kill and fight when Barkha's words that had asked him to be careful of the falcon's band came back to his mind.
"GET A GOOD BACK, REFORM THE RANKS RIGHT NOW... SOLDIERS, REFORM THE RANKS..." He shouted but in vain, the shouts of the others and the clash of weapons made his voice a drop of water in an Ocean, he saw Hern his second in command charge towards Griffith to confront him but after a few exchanges, Griffith killed him by slitting his throat with the tip of his sword in a quick and smooth movement of his blade.
"What's going on? We are usually more numerous and stronger, my men aren't the black wolves but they're still disciplined usually... yes, disciplined... usually. The governor's offer to capture the white hawk has made them uncontrollable, just like our horses, and we risk losing... No, not now, not today... I, Boscogn, will be victorious today again." Boscogn thought as his gaze fell on Griffith leading his men, if he killed him now, it would be a first step towards victory.
A normal army had a leader who knew his men and knew how to lead them to victory, to bring down this leader would disorganize this army but the problem with the hawks was that apart from Griffith who was their leader and genius strategist while having a supernatural charisma, there was in fact a second man just as dangerous and perhaps even more dangerous than Griffith, it was Guts the black hawk, the one who killed more than 200 men…
He rushed at full gallop towards Griffith who ended up noticing him and calmly watched Boscogn head towards him.
The orders to capture Griffith, Boscogn didn't care because the survival of his men was more important and killing Griffith was one of the two conditions for victory.
However, as he approached the white hawk, Griffith under his helmet smiled and Boscogn felt the urgency to look to his left to see that Guts was about 4 meters away from him on his horse, if he had noticed Griffith, the black hawk had targeted Boscogn for a while already.
For Guts who had heard many times about Boscogn's strength and exploits, he knew that this man was not to be underestimated under any circumstances.
Since the fight in the forest, his swordsmanship had improved in this life-or-death situation but he didn't know to what extent.
He charged at Boscogn and while the latter wanted to reach Griffith, Guts was already near him with his sword ready to strike and Boscogn, experienced and master of halberd combat, managed to position himself correctly to block Guts' blow.
*QBAAAAOOOOOOOOONGK*
The metallic clash was heard as Boscogn deflected Guts' one-handed strike but he felt his weapon vibrate under Guts' terrifying strength.
The general attacked and Guts was also able to block the blow before starting an intense exchange of blows against Boscogn, so intense that the others began to distance themselves from the two opponents.
The fight between Guts and Boscogn was no joke, the winner would be decisive for the outcome of this battle.
On one side was a legendary general of Tudor, the most experienced of this generation with terrifying physical strength and in front of him was The mythical warrior who single-handedly killed 200 men while he himself was wounded, the second in command of the falcon troop, the one who was credited with the possibility of reaching Barkha's level later.
For Boscogn, it was clear that Guts was strong, one of the strongest opponents he had faced but he was far from Barkha's level. Facing Guts was similar to facing an imposing and extraordinarily strong beast but facing Barkha... that was something else.
When Boscogn had fought Barkha years ago, the fight had only lasted a few seconds before Boscogn found himself on his knees in front of the young man with the mocking and arrogant smile.
They continued to fight while the others either watched them or fought. Further away, at the top of a cliff, Zodd very far away was watching the fight with his supernatural apostle eyes allowing him to watch the fight without problem despite the distance.
He looked at Guts with appreciation noticing that the boy was even faster than when they fought and Zodd could feel that Guts wasn't yet fully in the fight because he was holding his sword with only one hand at the moment.
The two once again struck their weapons violently and with the sound of a great metallic crash, the two men fell from their horses to continue the fight on the ground where their supports would be much stronger and it was at this moment that all the advantage went to Guts.
On his horse, Guts was restricted to almost always blocking blows and attacking in turn but on the ground, he could now apply his true fighting style which involved his quick dodges and counterattacks.
Inside the fortress, an eerie silence reigned as at the West Gate, all the guards and the few soldiers left there were dead all with their throats slit. It was the work of Adon's soldiers who had returned several days after the battle on the four-sided hill.
In truth, these guys were neither soldiers nor even mercenaries of Tudor but hawks sent there to infiltrate the castle by a plan of Guts and Griffith, they had pretended to be escaped prisoners of war and after more than a month there, it was time to take action.
They lowered the moat of the west gate to bring Casca and her 2000 men into the fortress to kill the rest of the soldiers and take Doldrey. Outside the walls, Gennon surrounded by his Blue Whale soldiers watched the melee of the two armies in the dust while impatient.
He complained about Boscogn who was too busy fighting instead of capturing Griffith as he had requested when in the distance, unbeknownst to them, a detachment of a few horsemen arrived from the right, it was Ros as well as a few falcons who had circled the entire battlefield to get there.
Ros looked at the man with the big beard as described by Griffith and she cocked her bow before shooting an arrow directly into Gennon's neck taken by surprise like the other soldiers.
"GOVERNOR !!"
"THE GOVERNOR IS HIT"
They started to get agitated and looked at where the arrow came from to see only a few riders in the distance disappearing in the dust-laden wind, this was also an indicator of Ros's monstrous talent with a bow to hit a target at this distance and with so much wind.
As they wanted to evacuate him to the inside of the fortress, they saw in disbelief the gates completely closed with the banners of the band of the falcon on the ramparts, the fortress was lost to them and they realized that the battle at the front was just a diversion all along.
Barkha for over a year had certainly taught her the way of the bow and daggers but she developed her skills through her own already remarkable talent, the luck she had was to have a genius teacher to properly exploit her talents.
The assassination of Gennon was a mission given personally by Griffith in case he could have escaped after seeing Boscogn fall because a living Gennon represents the risk that the secret of his past with Griffith will be revealed one day.
Guts continued his fight with Boscogn and the latter's armor had been severely damaged by Guts, he was injured and a look of disbelief was on his face.
"How could this fight have taken such a turn ? How did this kid become so dominant the moment we continued the fight on the ground ? How with such a size, he could move to dodge his blows with that flexibility ? " The questions assaulted his mind and he attacked again to see Guts dodge or deflect his attacks before quickly counterattacking with fast and powerful attacks that even made Boscogn retreat.
It was clear to everyone who was dominating the fight and that it was only a matter of seconds before it was all over.
"General, you have not betrayed your reputation and are truly a strong opponent. Thank you for this good fight… " Guts said before grabbing his sword for the first time with both hands under the eyes of Boscogn who with a fierce cry of fighting and resilient spirit sent a powerful attack at Guts but the black hawk was much faster and with a diagonal attack from top to bottom with his large sword, Guts sliced Boscogn in two as well as his weapon before the eyes of those watching.
"WOOOOOOOOOOOH" The hawks let out a victorious howl as they saw the enemy general fall.
"General..."
"The general has fallen !! "
"Our general is dead..." The purple rhinos took note of the situation, without Boscogn the victory was lost.
As if that wasn't enough, some at the back shouted, saying that the fortress had been captured by the hawks.
"THEIR GENERAL HAS FALLEN AND THEY HAVE LOST DOLDREY, VICTORY IS OURS. PUSH THEM BACK AND KILL THOSE WHO RESIST..." Griffith shouted raising his sword as the hawks as if they had had a recharge of energy let out ferocious cries before charging towards their enemies.
Some purple rhinos wanted to fight but the will of the majority was broken and they threw down their weapons before riding away on their horses.
Guts watched with a smile as the men fought with renewed vigor and with Boscogn's cloak, he covered his corpse respectfully when Griffith on his horse arrived in front of him.
"Nice fight, even if you could have finished this earlier..." Griffith told him with a smile.
Guts: We had to buy Casca and the others time. Besides, Boscogn was far from weak and I needed to know how much I had progressed myself. We won a great battle today.
"No, you won us a great victory today. Come get back on your horse and let's join the others." Griffith told him and Guts only smiled shaking his head before getting back on his horse and riding alongside Griffith to finish this battle with the others.