"Why are they charging?" Kayal, who had expected an opponent of equal rank, watched in disbelief as his enemy blew the charge horn right before his eyes.
"But that's fine. The honor of the Knights... the blood of my warriors, I'll use you to wash it clean." Kayal's current formation was different from before. He had now placed the archers and crossbowmen completely within the square formation, surrounded on all sides by long pikes. He was no longer afraid of the enemy's charge.
It was clear that the first annihilation of five hundred cavalry did not just give Kayal's infantry honor and contribution points; their courage made them furious at the Knights who had ambushed them earlier.
They had simply been stunned before, their formation broken, making it difficult even to find their squad leaders, let alone regroup and block the enemy.
But now their formation was intact. Were three thousand of them afraid of a mere three hundred?
So Kayal immediately issued an attack order.
"First, second, and third formations, charge!" Kayal's voice was full of a pure masculine feeling when he gave this order. Hearing Kayal's command, the ox horns blared, and everyone shouted loudly, a battle song.
"Kameo. Heros. Theme!" This entire song was sung with hums and roars, making it incredibly suitable for an army. (Originally, the army song was going to be Heros. Theme, but Heros. Theme was too slow, so I chose the more rousing Kameo. Heros. Theme!)
Singing "Kameo. Heros. Theme" and marching to the lyrics, a thousand light infantry advanced with unified steps like ten thousand heavy infantry, their momentum solidifying with each line sung.
Infantry charges were different from cavalry charges. Knights only needed to pull the reins to make their mounts charge at top speed, but if infantry ran wildly, setting aside their stamina, they would have no strength to wield their pikes and kill the enemy by the time they reached them.
The three formations pressed together like a thick wall. The pressure brought by three ranks of long pikes was unparalleled, especially when moving forward—a mobile city wall?
Not to mention the Knights, even excellent warhorses became anxious and uneasy watching a spiked wall approach them, their accelerating hooves slowing.
The Knights hadn't expected Kayal's army to dare to counter-charge. This made them look at each other in surprise. Most of their opponents were counter-charging Knights; they had never encountered a counter-charge from infantry before—the disorganized attacks of the Gauls could never be described as a counter-charge; it was just a chaotic swarm.
In the end, they still decided to attack!
When it came to attacking, who had the Knights ever feared?
But the moment they engaged, they knew where their mistake was.
The greatest advantage of cavalry over infantry, besides mobility and horsepower, was weapon length: a Knight's lance was one point eight to two point two meters long, and the longest, most valiant Knights could even wield a three-meter lance.
However, all of this advantage vanished instantly when faced with Macedonian pikes, which were eight meters at their shortest and ten meters at their longest. Many Knights, charging at full speed, were instantly impaled by the pikes due to their own momentum: ordinary pikes rarely penetrated a Knight's heavy plate armor plus the chainmail underneath!
When the first layer of Macedonian pikes and infantry were either stabbed down or pulled off the ground by the Knights' momentum, the second rank suddenly roared and thrust out with all their might.
In an instant, quite a few Knights were struck by these suddenly thrust-out pikes. At least a hundred Knights were impaled; only two or three with superb martial arts and lightning-fast reactions managed to dodge. As for the others, their bodies were all pierced, and even if they were caught by the chainmail underneath, they were immediately knocked off their horses by dozens of pikes.
"Kill!" Jack, who ranked over three hundred among Kayal's disciples and was also a military talent serving as a squad leader, roared. His relationship with Fulin was the best among everyone. They both knew each other's secret: they were both children of the Gauls, but even so, they received equal opportunities for education. They had once vowed to fight together, serve their teacher together, earn the title of Knight together, marry and have children together. If their children were sons, they would be brothers forever; if daughters, they would be forever intertwined.
But Fulin died in the very first battle!
Upon hearing this news, Jack felt as if his chest was on fire. His face was covered in blood, and with his ferocious expression, he was like a demon crawled out of hell, killing enemies like a madman.
Hearing him, his squad collectively roared and thrust simultaneously. "Kill!"
After a brief pause, the entire main force roared and then stomped down, like an earth-shattering blow: "Kill!"
Facing a simultaneous thrust of pikes from all directions—up, down, left, and right—the mere three hundred Knight squad... was completely annihilated!
Facing an enemy with only a few scattered riders left, Kayal finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Finally... it's over."
The war was over, but his work was far from done.
"Disperse scout cavalry! Reconnaissance range one thousand meters! If there's an enemy attack, immediately fire a whistle arrow to warn!" Kayal would not make the same mistake twice. Whistle arrows were ancient, with the arrowhead shaped like a whistle and three fletchings at the tail. One only needed to shoot it into the sky, and the resulting mournful roar could be heard within a kilometer.
"Immediately inform Belle to bring the medical squad to rendezvous with me! Immediately order the archers and crossbowmen to begin assisting the wounded, and order two main forces of pikemen to separate their formations and repair the ground in place, while one main force of pikemen begins clearing the battlefield!" Kayal's orders were given in an orderly manner, clear and meticulous, not overlooking any detail. Kayal's commands taught Artoria another trick.
"Let's go," Kayal spurred his horse towards the scattered and chaotic position, where at least several hundred of his soldiers lay gravely wounded and unable to move.
"Lie still! You'll be fine!" Almost leaping off the Unicorn, Kayal knelt before a wounded soldier. A Knight's lance had completely pierced a hole in his chest. Perhaps because the Macedonian pike was too long, the Knight's lance only opened a large hole in his chest, piercing his lung. He was now having difficulty breathing, and even blood was spurting from his mouth and nose with each breath.
Laying him flat on the ground, Kayal soothed his spirit, looking into his hopeful eyes: "You'll be fine, I'm here! You'll be fine!" A faint white light glowed in his hand. After only healing his lung, he moved on to the next person: it wasn't that he didn't want to heal him completely, but there were still over a thousand seriously wounded. If he ran out of magic power in the end, every bit of magic power he expended now might mean one less person he could save later.
Kayal was very clear on this point.