As soon as Azpen shouted the command, every lizardman officer roared their own orders.
The battlefield erupted into chaos.
We charged straight into their formation before they could fully organize themselves.
The goal wasn't to hold ground.
It was to hit them as hard as possible before disappearing again.
A lizardman carrying a round shield and sword rushed toward me.
He kept his shield high, protecting most of his body as he aimed his sword at Rusty's neck.
The moment he entered my range...
I pulled sharply on Rusty's reins.
Rusty reared onto his hind legs.
Using the momentum, I poured Aura into my body and swung my spear downward, the axe blade attached to its shaft leading the strike.
The blow crashed into the shield.
Wood exploded into splinters.
The shield shattered instantly.
The impact forced the lizardman to stumble backward.
Before he could recover, I lowered my spear until its tip nearly touched the ground.
In one smooth motion, I swept it upward.
He instinctively raised his sword to block.
Too slow.
The spear pierced through his stomach and tore upward to the center of his chest.
Black blood burst from the wound.
He staggered back, clutching his stomach while blood poured through his fingers.
I didn't give him another chance.
With a signal from my legs, Rusty lunged forward.
The dying lizardman tried one desperate swing toward Rusty's head.
My spear moved first.
The axe blade cleanly severed his neck.
His head rolled across the muddy ground.
Ahead of me, three lizardman archers were hurriedly reaching for arrows.
They hadn't expected anyone to break through the front line so quickly.
I charged straight at them.
One had just placed an arrow against the bowstring.
Before he could draw it...
Rusty slammed his horn into the lizardman's ribs.
The force lifted him off the ground before throwing him aside.
The remaining two instantly turned their bows toward me.
I thrust my spear.
The tip pierced beneath the shoulder of the first archer.
Without stopping, I drove the spear deeper, forcing his body sideways into the second archer.
Both crashed together.
The second archer's shot went wide.
The arrow flew past my head by only a few inches.
Rusty was already moving again.
The remaining two archers lost their footing as the wounded one crashed into them.
Both fell hard onto the muddy ground.
The third archer quickly rolled to his feet and reached for the dagger hanging from his belt.
I ripped my spear free from the wounded archer's shoulder.
Without hesitation, I did a thrust.
The spear flew straight through the third archer's head.
His body collapsed instantly.
Meanwhile, the injured archer keeping pressure on the wound of the shoulder area crawled backwards
Rusty calmly stepped forward.
His front hoof came down on the archer's chest, pinning him to the ground.
A second stomp crushed what little strength he had left.
The archer went limp.
The first archer —the one Rusty had gored with his horn—was still struggling to crawl away, clutching the hole in his side.
I walked toward him, raising my spear for the finishing blow—
Then...
The retreat horn echoed across the battlefield.
I looked up.
The battle had barely lasted twenty minutes.
Part of me wanted to keep fighting.
The enemy was still reeling.
If we pressed the attack now, we could probably inflict even more damage.
But orders were orders.
I pulled on Rusty's reins.
Without hesitation, we withdrew.
Just as planned.
Our retreat was organized.
No one panicked.
No one broke formation.
Behind us, the lizardmen made no attempt to chase.
They had suffered too much damage in too little time.
Even their archers lowered their bows instead of firing.
As we rode away, I glanced back one last time.
The lizardmen weren't afraid anymore.
They simply stood there...
Staring at us.
The hatred in their eyes burned brighter than the fires consuming the battlefield.
Both sides now understood.
This war would not end with a single battle.