The cacophony of the battlefield completely drowned out human shouts, as the area was filled with the cries of humans: the screams before death, the ferocious cackles of slaughter, the wails of despair, and so on. Humans simply couldn't distinguish their officers' voices amidst such a multitude of sounds.
But the ox horn was different. When its sound echoed in their ears, all the Knights immersed in the killing instantly cleared their minds. They looked up towards the source of the horn, and immediately spurred their horses towards it.
If one were to look from the sky, they would see the Knights wantonly cutting down the Gauls blocking their path, eventually gathering in the cavalry position in the middle of the Gaulish camp. More and more Knights charged towards that spot.
The King was there!
"Long live Britain! Long live Camelot!" Artoria shouted, raising her Sword of Victory high.
"Long live Camelot! Long live Britain! Long live King Arthur!" All the Knights cheered, shouting "Hitte!" (Long live) as they charged the enemy.
This time, the target was the rear guard.
Artoria was no longer in a hurry to break up the enemy army, because if the vanguard scattered and the main army fell into disarray, then the rear guard would flee, and that would not be good.
With a single charge, the Knights all achieved kills, one or two each. In just a brief moment, over four thousand Gauls lay permanently on the cold earth.
The second charge was not against the scattered Gauls, but against the steadily approaching rear guard!
Insignificant!
Looking at the charging Gauls with a sidelong glance, Artoria, with a sense of superiority, disdained them from above. Having been influenced by Kailar for many years, she was no longer the humble and gentle guard, but a majestic King!
"Kill!" At her command, there was no need for further words. She herself was an arrowhead, leading the Knights to pierce through the enemy's formation with swords and spears, then effortlessly cutting through them as if slicing butter with a red-hot knife, with just a light stroke.
Artoria and the Knights were already behind the Gaulish formation.
Having lost seven or eight thousand men, the Gauls finally learned their lesson. Facing such a penetrative enemy, they no longer dared to scatter. Even the remnants of their army gathered together under the leadership of their commanders, facing the Knights in formation. However, with only over seven thousand men remaining, the difference between them and the over three thousand Knights was not great. Two charges had also consumed a good deal of the Knights' stamina. One could say both sides were evenly matched, except for—the warhorses!
"Camelot!" Artoria reined her horse around and shouted loudly, "Long live!!!" The Knights raised their longswords, like a forest of blades.
"Charge!" Artoria roared. Hooves thundered like thunder, and the earth trembled.
"Defend! Defend!" The Gaulish leader shouted, his voice suppressing the restless Gauls who were on the verge of scattering.
"Hand axes! Hand axes!"
The Gaulish leader shouted. The Gauls gripped their axes. The Gauls did not possess advanced forging techniques, and iron was scarce. Besides axes, their only ranged attack was the hand axe. This throwing weapon, due to its rotation, had a longer range than javelins and possessed some armor-piercing properties. However... the same question remained: how much strength did they have left after running at full speed for twenty kilometers in front of Artoria and her Knights? One must remember that the greatest advantages of cavalry combat are mobility, and the fact that the horse takes care of all the running, meaning the rider doesn't need to expend most of their energy. This issue became even more pronounced after the invention of the stirrup (otherwise, cavalrymen would have to clamp their legs tightly around the horse's belly, which was very strenuous. This is also why Gongsun Zan's three thousand White Horse Riders during the Three Kingdoms period were invincible against barbarian nomads but were utterly defeated when faced with a volley of crossbow bolts, as at that time there was only a single stirrup).
Camelot's heavy horses: the entire country's plains were filled with warhorses. Kailar, who implemented a breeding system, organized horses into groups of a thousand, managed by breeders. From each thousand, three hundred adult, strong warhorses could be drawn. The entire country's plains were dotted with thousands of horse-breeding households. Under Kailar's deployment, they also raised cattle and dairy cows. Those who could afford to raise a thousand horses didn't care about raising two or three more cows.
With so many horses, Kailar had long since equipped the Knights with double-sided saddles and horseshoes.
Kailar, who placed great importance on secrecy, only provided these items to military horses. Under the surveillance of his pervasive spies, the secrecy measures could not fly out of Camelot.
Therefore, the horseshoes on their hooves seemed to arm the horses, and just one hit would result in broken muscles and bones.
And the flesh-colored hide on the horse's body... *pat pat pat pat*... fell like rain on banana leaves onto the horse's armor-like covering.
The warhorses cried out in pain, rearing and neighing loudly, yet not a single horse was brought down by an axe chopping into its body. All the horses charged forward, looking enraged.
"How can this be! How can this be!" The Gauls, who were very confident in their axe-throwing skills, instantly fell into disarray.
There were two reasons: they were exhausted, and the other was dragon hide!
One of Igneel's dragon hides had not been made into leather armor by Kailar, because for Knights, plate armor was the best. But for horses, a defensive device with high breathability, strong defense, and that wasn't too bulky or heavy was the most comfortable thing.
The front and sides of these three thousand horses were wrapped in dragon hide lamellar armor. Did a mere, weakened thrown axe expect to pierce dragon hide? Even without dragon scales, how could the Knights of the Round Table, who had hacked at Igneel for over ten minutes without breaking his defense, feel about this!
The third crushing blow completely extinguished the spirit, courage, and fighting will of all the Gauls. Like ordinary peasants facing slaughter, after suffering over a thousand casualties, they scattered and fled. The Knights did not disperse, but merely followed the largest fleeing group, pursuing and slaughtering them, completely breaking the spirit and backbone of these fifteen thousand Gauls. When Artoria saw the two-thousand-strong Gaulish teams, who had gathered again after scattering to loot but found nothing, she was quite tempted to charge a fourth time. But, exhausted as she and her horse were, she gave the re-formed two thousand Gauls a cold, unwilling glance, let out a cold snort, and rode away.
The loyal Knights followed closely behind her, unaware that Artoria's anxiousness had slowly subsided through this slaughter.
Before such a calm and angry King, who had been raised by Kailar for over a decade, how long could the so-called pirate coalition last?