On the other side of the battlefield, King Anua conferred with his chief military adviser.

"It can't be a coincidence that their army and their queen are here to meet us in the pass that we were told to use," the king said.

"Damn Dranii, I told you they can't be trusted."

"Or maybe they set this up so that we could get rid of their army in one go, leaving us with an unobstructed path toward the capital."

"If that were the case they would have told us."

"Even if you're right, we can't prove it, and if we accuse them, their response will be exactly what I just suggested."

"We can't allow word to get out that we were successfully led into a trap."

"That is not a cause for concern, our only concern now is winning this battle."

"Yes my king. How do you wish to proceed?"

"They've got, what, four infantry regiments over there? Defeating them will not be a challenge, in fact, I'd like to get this over with as quickly as possible. Signal to the cavalry, have them move to the front."

By moving his cavalry forward to charge at us King Anua was doing exactly what I was expecting him to do. The signal was given to Uraia to tell Bandor and the rest of the teewah riders to get ready. Over on the Volstaff side, the order was given for the cavalry to attack. The Volstaff cavalry charged, intending to trample our infantry. In the face of the Volstaff cavalry galloping towards them, our infantrymen held firm, staying faithful to the orders that Uther had given them before the battle. The teewah riders waited in a state of absolute readiness for the semaphore signaling for them to attack, which came when the cavalry had crossed what looked like the halfway point between our two armies. The infantry regiments moved to the side and the teewah riders dashed up the slope to intercept Volstaff's cavalry. The teewahs were being ridden by two riders: one upfront who was responsible for directing the teewah and another one behind facing the rear armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows. The teewahs rode out onto the battlefield and quickly turned around, giving the archers that were sitting behind the riders a clear shot at the Volstaff cavalrymen.

The Volstaff cavalrymen weren't prepared for such a counteroffensive and had no defense against it. The first volley that was fired by the teewah archers took down many, with the slain cavalrymen and their horses causing chaos and disarray among the advancing cavalry. The chaos slowed down the cavalry, allowing the teewah's to slow down which allowed the teewah archers to increase their rate of fire. The cavalrymen were in no man's land. Even without the chaos that was being caused by the cavalrymen dropping like flies their horses didn't have the speed to catch the teewahs, and they couldn't turn back because if they did they would just be easy pickings. The infantry regiments that Uther placed at the front were there to serve an additional purpose besides just being decoys. When the cavalry men were felled and their horses kept running our infantrymen moved in from the sides, grabbed them by the reins, mounted them and rode them to the rear where our cavalry was waiting for them to join their ranks.

King Anua, seeing his cavalry being decimated, moved forward his archers to attack the teewah riders from range. As soon as the Volstaff archers moved forward the signal was given for the teewah riders to retreat. Using the teewah's speed they were able to escape the Volstaff archers' range, and, with the Volstaff archers now in an advanced position, it was time for our archers to enter the battle. The longbowmen didn't need to move forward from their positions to fire, the range of the Okwari longbows was such that the arrows they fired were capable of reaching across the battlefield. The first volley that they fired made it all the way to reach the Volstaff archers, who began to retreat after being struck by the first volley.

We had played our cards and sprung our traps, and now it was time for us to make our move. Our forces organized themselves into a new formation. The infantry came together again and moved forward, the teewah riders also moved forward and orgainzed themselves in columns between the infantry, and the longbowmen marched up the slope and took up their position behind the infantry. Across the battlefield there was no further movement from Volstaff. The few cavalry that had managed to survive had retreated to the rear, and because of our longbows there was nothing King Anua could do with his infantry or his archers.

Our attack was begun by the teewah riders. They moved forward while firing their arrows at the Volstaff frontline infantry, who defended themselves by raising their shields and forming a phalanx. Behind the teewahs, our infantry and longbowmen marched forward. When they had reached a certain distance two signals were given: one for the longbowmen and the infantry, the other for the cavalry. The signal for the infantry and the longbowmen was to tell them to organize themselves into narrow columns spaced far apart and for the longbowmen to hold station and commence firing. The signal for the cavalry was to tell them to begin their charge. Uther and I were at the head of the cavalry and we led the charge.

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The Volstaff soldiers were too focused on defending themselves against the arrows that were coming from ahead and from above to take defensive measures against our cavalry. We rode between the columns of longbowmen and infantry without slowing down, and when we were through our infantry started running forward to keep pace with us as best they could. Once we were beyond the columns of infantry, the teewah riders also split up to create space for us to run through, freeing us to continue riding at the Volstaff infantry full speed. We smashed into them, knocked them down to the ground and trampled over them, after which our infantry set upon them and made easy work of them.

The Volstaff army, caught off guard by our tactics, panicked and began to retreat, which was the cue for our longbowmen to resume firing, targeting the retreating soldiers at the rear, which thinned out those regiments and made it easier for our cavalry to charge through them, and once we had penetrated as far as we could we dismounted and engaged the disorganized and demoralized Volstaff soldiers in melee combat. Fighting on the ground, my only focus was on killing as many Volstaff soldiers as I could. With every swing and every thrust I was killing, eventually getting lost in the frenzy of all the blood I was spilling. I lost perspective of the battle as a whole and needed Uraia to come to me and point out something to me that I should have been paying attention to.

"Alegra, he's getting away!"

I looked behind me and saw King Anua fleeing on his chariot flanked by his Royal Guard.

"MYRA!"

Myra took flight and came to me on the battlefield. At the sight of Myra, the remaining Volstaff soldiers lost what little will to fight they had left, and the bloodbath got worse. I lifted myself up onto Myra and we flew after the king. He had managed to travel a good distance from his army; obviously he had begun his retreat much sooner than the army had begun theirs. We flew past them and I had Myra discharge a pillar of fire to the ground below as a message to the king and his guards that they would go no further. Myra descended to the ground and I dismounted her with the intention of challenging King Anua to direct combat with me. When I stepped toward the king his Royal Guard moved quickly to attack me but were stopped in their tracks by a loud and menacing screech from Myra.

King Anua understood that I wanted to fight him one on one and that there was nothing that he could do to avoid it. He ordered his royal guard to stand down, picked up his shield and disembarked from his chariot. I could tell that he was nervous about engaging me in combat. It had probably been a long time since he had participated in real combat and the ornate armor that he was wearing looked like it was heavy and difficult to move in. Nothing was said between us before we commenced combat. We circled each other for a few seconds, waiting for the other to make the first move. King Anua made the first move, lunging at me and swinging his sword wildly, the kind of move that an unskilled fighter would make. I dodged his attack with ease by stepping to my left and decided to wait and see what his next move would be rather than counterattacking. His next move was to lunge at me again, this time with a backhand swing that I was able to dodge by taking a step back. I was right about him, he was slow and rusty. He came at me again with another lunge and this time I blocked it with my shield and followed with a strike of my own. He blocked my strike with his shield but his movement was clumsy and the blow caused him to stumble backwards. For a moment I thought about taking pity on him and giving him the opportunity to surrender because he had no hope of beating me, but then I remembered his vow to kill us all if we didn't surrender to him and all I could think about was making sure he didn't leave this battlefield alive. I went on the attack, unleashing a barrage of swift and powerful strikes that he struggled to defend against. With the fifth strike of my barrage I managed to get him on the arm that he was holding his sword in but the armor that he was wearing was so thick that I didn't do any damage to him. His movements were so slow and ponderous that I didn't need a shield to fight him, so I discarded it, which made me faster and more agile. Seeing the advantage that getting rid of my shield had given me, King Anua did the same. He started moving a little more freely, but his movements were still restricted by his decorative armor. I continued to get the better of our exchanges as King Anua fought reactively, focusing on parrying my strikes. He did well enough for a while but eventually his inferior stamina and heavy armor caused his movements to slow significantly. He was breathing heavily and sweating and was struggling to find the energy just to keep moving. I, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. I attacked him again and struck so hard with one of my swings I knocked his sword out of his hand. With him now defenseless I could aim for a target. I thrust with my sword and got him between his breast plate and his shoulder armor, piercing his right shoulder and inflicting a grievous wound upon him which, together with his fatigue, dropped him to his knees.

"Just a little longer, and I would have had your kingdom," he looked up and said to me.

"The moment it became my kingdom your fate was sealed."

I delivered the killing blow by driving my sword into his right shoulder. He didn't die instantly, he remained on his knees and drew his final breaths before his body succumbed to its wounds and collapsed to the ground.

"Take your king back to your kingdom, and tell them there that if Volstaff ever challenges Aseron again you will suffer the same fate that you have suffered here today," I said to the king's guards.