The Royal Knight Order was like a silver blade, cutting into the rear of Garcia's ranks.
The crowd instantly descended into chaos, with many people falling to the ground in a desperate scramble and then being trampled to death by the horses.
Occasionally, someone would draw a weapon to resist, only to be pierced by the lance of a skilled knight. Leading this unstoppable torrent, at the very front of the blade, was the Gale Knight, Naiman Moore, whose blue-striped cloak fluttering behind him was particularly eye-catching. Wherever he went, enemies gave way. After a round of charging and killing, the tip of his spear and longsword were stained with blood.
Tifico Wimbledon stood on a small hill some distance away, observing the situation on the battlefield. At this time, the tail of the three-thousand-man队伍 no longer resembled its previous orderly appearance, the crowd became more and more scattered, and the speed of the队伍's advance almost came to a standstill.
They won't last long, Tifico thought. After two more rounds, Three Sisters's队伍 would collapse. These people had no way to withstand the onslaught of Graycastle's elite knights. Most of them didn't even have armor. As long as they were hit by a sword, they would completely lose their fighting ability.
As he had expected, it took an extra hour to detour from the edge of Eagle City, cross a mountain col, and then pass through a sparse forest before the Knight Order returned to the main road. Then he ordered the entire队伍 to speed up, and finally caught up with Garcia's main force at noon.
Tifico, according to what the Duke had taught him, divided the Knight Order into three groups, each of about three hundred people, taking turns ambushing the enemy's side and rear. This not only conserved horsepower, but also ensured that there were reinforcements available in case of an emergency. To avoid being surrounded, the knights did not need to plunge into the large crowd. They only needed to approach the队伍 from the side, accelerate and charge, cut off and eat a small section of the tail, each time causing dozens of casualties to the other side.
This tactic obviously worked. After several rounds, more than a hundred enemies were killed or wounded, but they had no power to fight back. They also wanted to organize a cavalry counterattack, but the difference in equipment and training was too great. Compared with the Royal Knight Order, the hastily assembled cavalry was nothing more than a group of infantry riding on horses. In a single encounter, those "cavalrymen" who gritted their teeth and went into battle were killed and fled in all directions.
This kind of one-sided slaughter greatly demoralized them. Tifico noticed that some people in Garcia's队伍 had begun to break away from the ranks and flee in other directions.
It was time to launch a general attack, he thought. When the Gale Knight returned with his队伍, he did not order the next round of attack, but returned to the Knight Order from the small hill.
"Your Majesty, they are about to be scattered," Naiman wiped the sweat from his forehead, and the bloodstains in his palm left several marks on his face—all of them were the blood of the enemy. He had been fighting until now and was still unscathed.
Tifico took out his handkerchief and handed it to him. "Well done, rest for a moment, and we will give the enemy the final blow."
Seeing that the next round of tail-cutting attacks did not arrive, Garcia's troops also realized that the moment of decisive battle was coming. The huge队伍 completely stopped advancing, slowly gathered, and finally huddled together. The people on the outermost layer raised their wooden spears.
Tifico sneered. This was nothing more than a last-ditch effort. Without caltrops or armor, simply relying on flesh and blood to block the Royal Knight Order's charge could only end in a miserable defeat. Regardless of whether Three Sisters was still in the队伍 at this time, it would not change the outcome. Perhaps she had already changed her clothes and left, leaving these people behind to buy time for herself.
But he soon realized he was wrong.
The banner of the Aqua Queen was raised again in the crowd. The green flag fluttered in the wind, and the patterns of帆船 and crown made Tifico frown. He raised his spyglass and looked into the enemy阵. He saw a blurry figure of a woman standing on a "human platform" erected by several warriors, raising her hand high, as if shouting something. He couldn't see the other party's appearance clearly, but that fluttering gray hair revealed her identity.
Garcia Wimbledon, she hadn't run away.
Tifico took a deep breath. Very well, in this way, the farce would end here ahead of schedule. He didn't need to make a trip to Aqua Port.
After the horses had rested sufficiently, the new king issued an order for a full-scale attack.
Led by the Royal Knight Order, more than a hundred cavalrymen composed of knights and squires launched a charge against the enemy. And the tip of the Knight Order's knife was still the Gale Knight—Naiman Moore.
Just as the knights were about to rush into the enemy陣, a large number of troops suddenly appeared on the horizon on both the east and west sides. They made bursts of strange noises and rushed towards the center of the battlefield all the way.
Tifico widened his eyes in disbelief. Who were these people?
Without flags or family crests, the suddenly appearing troops were different from any faction in the kingdom. Under the spyglass, most of them didn't even have armor, and their weapons were a motley collection. However, in Tifico's mind, only one type of person had those tall, sturdy figures and strange faces.
The sand people of the far south!
He no longer needed to guess whether the other party was an enemy or a friend. Without a doubt, Garcia must have reached some kind of deal with the sand people, allowing this group of damn异族 to intervene in the Graycastle throne. Thinking of this, Tifico was furious. He turned his head and shouted loudly: "Sound the horn, summon the knights back!"
But it was already too late. The large army charging at high speed could not easily turn its attack, and the Knight Order plunged into Garcia's阵 and, like a hot knife through butter, stabbed straight at the Aqua Queen's location.
Tifico looked eagerly at the flag standing in the wind, hoping it would break—the sand people attacking from both sides numbered around a thousand, so Garcia's army had expanded to five thousand people, a number he could no longer handle. Moreover, the sand people were individually powerful, and posed a great threat to the Knight Order after falling into close combat. If he could kill the enemy leader, cut off the flagpole, and crush Garcia's militia团 at this time, he would still have a glimmer of hope.
However, the flagpole swayed, but remained standing in the阵.
The sand people completed the encirclement and joined the battle through the channel opened by the Knight Order.
Without these reinforcements, Garcia's three thousand desperadoes would have already collapsed, but at this moment, they were still holding on, like a swamp, slowly dragging the knights into it.
The retreat horn sounded across the battlefield. Knights who had rushed out gradually gathered around Tifico, but many were still trapped in the enemy's territory, including the Gale Knight.
He was entangled by an异族 warrior who was nine feet tall, and was already panting. The giant wooden club wielded by the other party created a small patch of empty space around the two of them. Naiman's mount had already been smashed to death. He relied on his extraordinary reaction and agility to dodge left and right, but his thick armor quickly consumed his little remaining energy. Finally, during a side dodge, he lost his footing and was hit squarely in the chest by the sweeping wooden棒. The force was so great that the armor sank into his body, and the wooden棒 broke into two pieces as a result.
The blue cloak slowly fell and disappeared into the crowd.
Half an hour later, there were fewer and fewer knights still fighting. When the sand people turned their attention to the location where Tifico was standing, he gritted his teeth and issued a retreat order. The group began to retreat north, compared to the large队伍 that had come, only three hundred people remained by the new king's side. (。)