Azpen's sword came down.
The Nest King's head was severed from its body.
It rolled into the swamp water.
But the lizardmen didn't realize what had happened.
Without missing a beat, Verken, who was still lying in the swamp, got back up.
He grabbed a spear and threw it toward Azpen.
Azpen caught the spear before it could hit him.
He looked at it for only a moment before turning toward the fallen King.
The King's head was already lying nearby.
Azpen drove the spear through the head.
Then he slammed the other end of the spear into the swamp.
BOOM!
The sound echoed across the battlefield.
It was loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.
There was no need for words.
The King was dead.
The head mounted on the spear made the truth impossible to misunderstand.
At that exact moment, the infantry finally closed the gap and reached us, giving us support from the rear.
The lizardman mages understood the situation almost immediately.
The knights were still there, but their bodies were covered in injuries.
The berserk lizardmen were still fighting.
Yet the mages were the only ones who could clearly understand what had happened.
A strange tension spread across the battlefield.
Even from a distance, I could see it on their faces.
Nobody moved.
For a moment, there were no orders.
No battle cries.
Only silence.
Everyone seemed to have the same thought.
This is our chance.
We needed to maintain pressure.
We needed to kill as many of them as possible before they could recover.
The problem was that we didn't have enough people to surround and destroy the entire lizardman force.
But the lizardmen had a much bigger problem.
Their King was dead.
And the berserk warriors were still unable to distinguish friend from foe.
They continued killing anything in their path.
The mages were still sane, but they were too few to control the situation.
They were waiting for an opportunity.
Then one of the lizardman mages shouted.
The others immediately understood what he was trying to do.
One of them raised his hand and began gathering mana.
But before he could complete the spell—
THUD!
An arrow struck him.
His body collapsed onto the ground.
The other mages froze.
They realized something was wrong.
They had been hiding behind the lizardman shield bearers.
But now those shields couldn't protect them.
They were exposed.
Panic began spreading through their ranks.
Azpen saw the opening.
He raised his sword.
"Shields forward!"
The infantry moved.
"Spear points!"
The soldiers lowered their spears.
"Swords!"
The swordsmen prepared themselves.
"Archers—bring them down!"
The archers raised their bows.
We moved together.
The infantry pushed forward while the archers rained arrows into the panicking lizardmen.
Verken was also injured badly, but he climbed onto Azpen's horse.
There was no room for another mount, so Verken sat behind Azpen while they moved with the infantry as a fallback.
I could see injuries covering Azpen's body.
His hand was bleeding.
There were bruises and swelling across his body.
Verken was in a similar condition.
Neither of them looked capable of fighting another prolonged battle.
But they were still moving forward.
In the swamp, the infantry formed a defensive line.
Shields went up.
Spear points extended through the gaps.
The swordsmen waited behind them.
The lizardmen tried to fight back.
But their formation was already collapsing.
Some were panicking.
Others were trying to escape.
And the berserk lizardmen continued attacking anything near them.
The mages were shouting orders, desperately trying to restore some kind of control.
But it was too late.
Their morale had broken.
Our line kept advancing.
One body fell.
Then another.
Every time a lizardman came within range of the shield wall, the spears struck.
Our riders were exhausted and heavily wounded.
More than anything, they needed rest.
But the infantry could still move.
So we continued forward.
For nearly an hour, we pushed them back.
The lizardmen tried to reorganize several times.
They failed every time.
The sun slowly climbed higher into the sky.
Their numbers continued to decrease.
Their mages kept shouting orders, desperately trying to restore some kind of control, but arrows continued to interrupt them.
The berserk lizardmen were still causing chaos, killing both humans and lizardmen.
We continued advancing behind our shields.
Step by step.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
The lizardmen began retreating toward the forest.
Then I noticed something.
The remaining mages were no longer trying to control the battlefield.
They were gathering.
One by one, the six remaining mages moved toward the same location.
Two heavily armored lizardmen knights stood in front of them.
Their eyes bleeding blood.
Black blood ran from their noses and mouths as they stood guard.
The mages moved behind their shields.
Then something strange happened.
Their mana began to gather.
One mage raised his hand.
Another placed his hand beside him.
Slowly, their mana began flowing toward the center.
The air around them started to tremble.
The swamp water beneath their feet began to move.
At first, it was only a small ripple.
Then another.
Then dozens.
The water around them started rising.
Higher.
And higher.
The six mages were combining their magic.
They're preparing something.
I tightened my grip on my weapon.
The soldiers around me also noticed.
"Prepare yourselves!"
The mages continued gathering mana.
The water rose above their heads.
Then ice began spreading through it.
A massive wall of water and ice formed in front of them.
Only then did I understand.
They weren't trying to kill us.
They were trying to break our formation and create an escape route.
One of the mages shouted.
The enormous wave surged toward us.
BOOOOM!
Water crashed into our formation.
The shield wall was overwhelmed.
Soldiers were thrown backward as the force scattered our formation.
For a moment, the battlefield disappeared beneath the water.
Then the lizardmen moved.
They didn't wait.
They scattered into the forest.
The remaining force—perhaps three to four hundred lizardmen—fled in different directions.
Some ran deep into the forest.
Others followed the swamp.
They were no longer an army.
They were simply survivors trying to escape.
The battle was over.