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Their room to maneuver was running out.
After trampling through the enemy's infantry ranks once more, Xu Ning pulled back. Several minor tears were now visible where his chainmail had been breached, leaving faint scratches beneath. The weak point they had just struck had turned into a hellscape of shattered limbs and torn entrails piled into a small mound. Three armored warhorses, riddled with broken spear shafts, lay on the ground, whinnying in pain. Their riders had been swallowed up by the dense mass of enemy ranks long ago.
The heavy infantry had successfully reformed their formation and held firm against wave after wave of cavalry charges, relying on their shields and spears to hold the line. However, the space left for the cavalry to wheel and maneuver was shrinking. If this continued much longer, they would find themselves trapped like butterflies in a spider's web with no chance of escaping.
Xu Ning addressed here as "Tesolus" had no idea why he suddenly understood all this so intuitively. Time and again, however, he found himself able to spot the weak, uneven points scattered throughout the enemy's formation. He led his cavalry into charge after charge. Relying on the heavy armor draped over both rider and horse, they inflicted devastating losses on the enemy time and time again.
They could no longer afford to charge as recklessly as they had at the beginning. He had no idea why the rest of their army hadn't drawn off more of the enemy forces. The heavy infantry surrounding them had grown to several thousand strong, and their raised spears posed a serious threat to any further charge. If they couldn't pull their formation back in time, a few unlucky men who reacted slowly would end up left behind permanently.
Yet, they were still confident that they could keep fighting because they had already accomplished their mission perfectly. The Hols archers and crossbowmen had been entirely wiped out, and they had defeated infantry forces at least three times their own number in the process. That alone gave their side a tremendous advantage. As long as the consul wasn't a complete fool, he should launch a full-scale offensive soon. The Hols surely couldn't hold out much longer. Once they did, coordinating an attack from both inside and outside would make victory effortless.
So, for now, all they could do was wait for that moment to arrive.
But what unsettled Xu Ning was that the deafening clamor of battle, which had once filled the sky and earth, had gradually faded. Now, only their corner of the battlefield rang with the distinctive noise of combat. Everywhere else had fallen into an unnerving silence. This was hardly a good sign, and it set his heart racing once more. He drove the cataphracts forward again, punching into another infantry formation. Under their onslaught, the enemy line wavered visibly at this particular spot, and he seized the opening at once.
As he had suspected, this particular formation was the weakest link in their line. After losing over a dozen cavalrymen, the Hols soldiers stationed here could no longer withstand such horrific casualties. Under the cavalry's deliberate intimidation and relentless charges, the Hols soldiers began falling back. Their once-orderly line collapsed into chaos. Their spears tilted and crossed every which way. They were no longer capable of forming a coherent, threatening spear wall. Soon, they were trampled underfoot, reduced to corpses beneath the horses' hooves. The entire formation broke apart, scattering in every direction.
Any Hols officer with common sense understood that, as long as the heavily armored cataphracts maintained a disciplined formation and advanced slowly, they would be wiped out entirely. After all, they were surrounded on all sides and had lost the mobility that made cavalry so formidable.
But the sheer terror of a cataphract charge was something else entirely! Even within this limited stretch of only a few hundred meters, blood and flesh flew in every direction every time they punched into an infantry formation. Lives were snuffed out in the cheapest, most brutal fashion imaginable. The thunderous impact alone was enough to shatter anyone's nerves heavy infantrymen were sent flying like discarded rag dolls, only to be trampled beneath the weight of the warhorses and never rise again.
With each hammer-like charge, the enemy's encirclement tightened agonizingly slowly. Whenever one unit advanced slightly faster than the rest, it was instantly singled out as the next target and drew the full, concentrated force of the cavalry's elite strikes. Punching through an infantry formation was like driving a small dagger into a living body, carrying away scraps of flesh with each strike while draining morale and courage just as swiftly as blood from an open wound.
The rest of the Hols soldiers naturally began to falter and hesitate when they saw this terrifying spectacle unfold. They advanced at the slowest possible pace, even though their commanding officers screamed curses at them to press forward. This shattered infantry formation had already sown the seeds of disaster far beyond itself. The scattered, fleeing soldiers crashed into neighboring units' formations, dealing a devastating blow to morale across the entire line.
Though the deserters were quickly hunted down and executed, they had allowed the human cataphracts to push their way into a dangerously advantageous position and nearly break through the encirclement. As the enemy scrambled to reform their line, the wall of gleaming, translucent spears seemed enough to freeze the hearts of every nearby Hols soldier.
Every unit silently prayed that they wouldn't be chosen next. But, unsurprisingly, as the horn sounded once more, the black banner surged forward toward the same corner that had just collapsed moments before. The cavalrymen, gleaming with steel, surged forward like heavy iron war chariots, all but unstoppable as they crashed through the line again. In an instant, wails of agony filled the air once more, leaving at least another hundred casualties in their wake.
Every commander watched their assigned sector with bated breath, until at last the terrifying the cavalry withdrew once more. Nearly everyone let out a sigh of relief. Though these cavalrymen were elite, their numbers were limited.
By now, only seven or eight hundred remained. The Hols' losses were far more devastating. Several thousand of their archers, infantry, and light cavalry were trampled and crushed beneath the cataphracts' assault. As long as they could contain the cavalry here, however, it wouldn't be considered a total defeat. One might even call it a great triumph.
May Effas protect us!
...............
Xu Ning's face had gone deathly pale. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. What he had just witnessed struck him like an earth-shattering blow. Though some instinct within him fought to maintain an outward calm, he found the reins creaking under his grip. An overwhelming surge of fury and humiliation crushed him.
Moments earlier, as they charged forward, they caught sight of it, the army that had been fighting these Hols troops had withdrawn a full gari away. The two battle lines had been completely severed from one another. This was precisely why the Hols soldiers were now free to surround and crush them.
This was a disgraceful betrayal! They had been utterly abandoned!
Xu Ning understood exactly what had happened. From the very start, he had been played for a fool. Perhaps, in that moment when they first charged into the enemy formation, the consul had already made an agreement with the Hols general. He had deliberately withdrawn his army, step by step, leaving Xu Ning and his cataphracts utterly stranded within enemy lines! From the beginning, they had been expendable pawns.
What made matters worse was that this news had already begun to spread through his own cavalrymen's ranks. Just as they were on the verge of breaking through the formation and escaping, victory slipped through their fingers at the last possible moment. A surge of fierce, burning rage rose within him, nearly grinding his teeth to dust.
Watching his formation stir with unrest and his cavalrymen panic upon realizing they'd been abandoned, Xu Ning knew he had to act.
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