Chapter 37 - Fight

Matthew nervously looks at the fort in front of him. The snow is falling from the sky, and he knows that they need to break through the fort in a single attack. If they cannot do that, they will be stuck here because of the thick snow that gets in their way.

Not only that, but he also knows that they will get trapped in a snowstorm before they could get into Sea Dragon City. He heard a rumor that said a northern snowstorm is the most dangerous snowstorm on the entire continent.

But he cannot turn back now. He can only fight against the northern man.

"My lord!"

Matthew snaps from his thought when the scout arrives in front of him.

"Speak! How many soldiers does the enemy have?"

"Around three thousand, my lord. They have five towers. Three outer towers and two inner towers. They have a few hundred archers in the tower and wall of the fortress. The fortress itself is made of wood, my lord."

Matthew cannot help curse his luck. If the Fire Mage is still alive, this war will be easy.

"Anything else? Can you see anyone on top of the mountain?"

"No, my lord. I cannot see anyone or any building on top of the mountain from where I see."

"Good work, you can go back to your unit."

It looks like Isaac decided to save his soldier from defending his city. Matthew knows that a Count has more than three thousand or so men. That means that the bastard ordered the rest of his troops to stay in the city.

That means this is his chance to crush them in one final swoop. He then can use that fortress to be their temporary headquarters in case a snowstorm happens.

"Move out!"

On the other side of the battlefield, Isaac smiled a little. It Looks like his spell is working. He cast a notice-me-not spell around the place where Lord Byron's unit and the ambush archer were located. Not only that, but Isaac also summons the Silver Talon to do a skirmish. He ordered the Silver Talon to create a massive gust of wind to create a small snowstorm around the Blackbriar army to reduce their vision on the battlefield.

"Thank you, Silver Talon. Will you watch the fight from above and create chaos as much as you can?"

"Kaw! Kaw!"

"Thank you. I promise you that I will cook some meat for you."

"Kaw!"

Isaac let Silver Talon fly to the sky and then look at the incoming army. When he sees the cavalry will be their enemy, Isaac takes a deep breath and shouts.

"Shield Wall! Spear behind! Go!"

The shield man walked to the front and created a shield wall with their tower shield while the spearman put their spear above the shield wall and the gap between the shield wall. After ordering the troops, Isaac raises his left hand and says.

"Protection Mist"

The Flowing Rune, his left hand glowing a little before suddenly a dense mist appeared around them. However, to Isaac and his ally, this mist is not as dense as it would appear to their enemy. The Blackbriar army, this Mist is dense enough to cover the entire fortress.

Despite the dense mist, one of Blackbriar's vassals tells his unit to keep charging toward the enemy's general direction. As they continue to ride their horse and charge inside the mist, they meet a wall of a spear that greets them with pain and death.

"Archer! Fire!"

Hearing his word, the archer hiding behind the thick forest on the mountain appears and begins to fire their arrow, attacking the enemy from above. The archer on top of the wall and tower also begin to fire their arrow toward the enemy.

When Isaac saw the enemy infantry charged toward his location, he shouted to his men.

"Brace for impact! Another wave is coming! Archer! Shoot the infantry!"

Isaac raised his left hand once again before saying.

"Rain of Kindness!"

Suddenly, rain happened, but this rain heals anyone injured by the enemy attack, unlike normal rain.

"The second line, go front! First-line retreat!"

The first shield wall slowly gets switched by the new and fresher soldier to hold the enemy. When Isaac sees the enemy archer almost reach the perfect place to fire their arrow, he looks at the warhorn bearer and says.

"Blow the horn!"

Daniel looks at the fortress when he hears the sound of the war horn before saying.

"Charge! Attack their archers. Move! Move! Move!"

As he rides his horse, he also sees Leonardo, the Lionheart Master of Arms, leading his unit to take charge toward the enemy archer. Daniel rode his horse with his sword and shield in hand. When they reach the enemy archer, he begins to swing down his sword at the enemy, killing as many as he can in a single charge.

After he and his punch through the enemy formation, they run away from them after hitting them the first time. They then begin another charge once again. They are doing this because Daniel did not want to let the enemy archer shoot them down when they are stopped to fight.

By doing this, Daniel and his man will be harder to get hit by the arrow.

Isaac nodded his head when he saw Lord Byron and Leonardo attacking the enemy's backline. Some of the enemy infantry that has not yet fought against the shield and spear wall decides to help the archer in their back.

After fifteen minutes of fighting, the protection mist is gone letting the enemy unit commander see their archer get harassed by Daniel's cavalry.

"Retreat! Retreat! We need to help the archer! Move!"

Hearing their commander, the people begin to run away from the fight. However, they did not realize this action was bad for them. In the war, they cannot show their back to the enemy, but here they show their back to the enemy and forget that their enemy has another unit, a fresher unit ready to be deployed.

"Cavalry! Get ready! We will charge at the enemy in a few seconds. The first and second line of infantry will stay here. The third and fourth lines will come with me! We will attack them and surround them! Third to the left, Fourth to the right! Cavalry will come with me to herding the enemy into one point."

When the first and second infantry units create a gap in their formation, Isaac points his spear at the enemy.

"Charge!"

With that war cry, Isaac and his cavalry begin to charge at the enemy's back. The enemy, who is still running toward their backline, try their hardest to block or defend against Isaac and his cavalry unit attack.

One of the Blackbriar vassals orders his troop to split up, one to defend against Isaac's unit while he and the rest of the troop help the archer. However, this strategy only holds them for a few minutes, and when the infantry arrive, Isaac easily punches through their formation.

After punching through the enemy formation, Isaac let his horse galloping toward the enemy commander, who was busy fighting one of Lord Byron's men. When he arrived in front of the enemy commander, he thrust his spear and pierce the enemy commander's skull.

Isaac ignores his man shouting that the enemy commander is dead, and fights against the enemy that keeps coming at him.

Matthew knew that this campaign is a lost cause. Especially when he hears one of his vassals is dead in the hand of Isaac Lionheart. He wants to run away and retreat to his castle, but his vassals argue to him that they can still win if they send the rest of the troops.

They say that if they run away, the Lionheart family will win the war, and they cannot attack the Lionheart family before the winter is over. If they wait until the winter is over, the duration for this war that the king gives them will be over, and they need to pay tribute to the Lionheart family because they are the winner in this war as they are the ones that won the first and last battle.

Matthew sees a few hundreds of cavalry galloping away from the hill charging toward the enemy. He widens his eyes when he sees the enemy quickly create a shield wall and spear to welcome the cavalry that is coming their way.

The bad feeling in his gut begins to worsen when he sees the cavalry gets skewered by the massive spear. When the rain starts to appear around the battlefield, he knows that his troops will be dead, and when a dense mist appears, he knows that his troops' fate has been sealed.

Fifteen minutes later, his worst prediction came true. The snarling lion flag still stood in the middle of the battlefield while the swimming fish flag was trampled on the ground. His army can finally see the situation, decide it is time to run and run they did.

They run anywhere they can find safety in any direction except north, where they know that their fate if they run toward the north, is dead.

Seeing his army is defeated, Matthew orders his personal troops to go full retreat. His son and two of his vassals who did not want to join the fight begin to run away from the battlefield, leaving the rest of their army slaughtered by the Lion and his pride.

From this single victory, Isaac Lionheart got himself a title. A title that Lord Blackbriar will always remember in his entire life.

Isaac 'The Silver Lion' Lionheart.

And the Gate that separates the north and the south also gets its own nickname.

The Bloody Gate.