The Winged Spears charged down the middle of the field, over the embers of the destroyed barricades. The thunder of the horses drowned out the drums and cracked the burning defenses. The line of Isnumurti stretched across the field in a square formation.

“Two diamonds!” Delger commanded, and the spearhead of lances split the Isnumurti forces into two groups. As the Spears ran through, they themselves split into two streams as they rode behind the Isnumurti on both sides and circled the enemy. The Isnumurti flung javelins at the riders but the Aredunians were too swift. When the riders had returned to the front of the battle they joined both lines but kept the attack on the middle line and continued to ride through and around them, creating two flowing, connected circles of horses.

"This is our cue!" Sarengerel cried as they started to move to the left flank. The Neredunians watched as the Winged Spears continued their course through the middle of the Isnumurti army. Then, on the left flank, instead of riding wide around, the Spears ran through the center of each split group, creating four groups of the Isnumurti army. The Isnumurti’s strength was in solidarity, but Delger was taking that away from them.

When the left group was cut off from the rest, Sarengerel and his men unsheathed their cutlasses and charged in on the isolated Isnumurti. With Aredunian lances on one side and Neredunian swords on the other, the Isnumurti were cut down.

Different sounding drums filled the night, and the elephants charged through. The barreling beasts broke the Aredunian formation. Though the Aredunians had prepared for these large beasts, the smell of the beasts startled the horses.

"Prepare the hooks!" Sarengerel shouted. His Field Riders threw harpoons at the elephants' ears. Most bounced off the armor, but one struck at an elephant's massive flap. The elephant rider tried to hack off the harpoon, but the elephant shook his head to fling the hook off. The Neredunian rider pulled on the harpoon, dragging the elephant away from the Aredunian line. Sarengerel remembered what Menquist had told him about the long nose. He rode toward the stumbling elephant and hacked at its nose. The elephant panicked and started trampling backwards over the Isnumurti infantry.

Drums sounded again and the Isnumurti shuffled. Split into four groups, they moved to form separate tight squared formations with archers at the center. The archers, protected by piked infantry, launched volleys against the Aredunians. The Aredunians one by one fell, and with each one, the square expanded and the Isnumurti used the fallen horses and riders as barricades against the cavalry attacks. At all times the square would expand and contract, keeping its distance against the horses so that if the horses fell they would not break the formation.

There were four remaining elephants rampaging against the Aredunians. Sarengerel shouted at his men to attack the remaining elephants as he rode toward the spearhead.

"Break the square!" he shouted at the Aredunians. "Feint against the volley, then attack the corners of the square!"

He rode at the head of the spearhead and charged at the squared formation. Before he neared a hundred feet he made a sharp turn away. The Isnumurti launched their arrows at Sarengerel but he rode out of range. As the arrows missed, Sarengerel turned back toward the square and directly at the corner, leaping over the pile of dead horses. Sarengerel killed the men at the corner and rode into the square. The Winged Spears followed him as they trampled the Isnumurti archers. The pikes from the outer line turned inward but the movement of the Aredunians were too swift inside the square. While the pikemen had their backs turned the Neredunians from the outside of the square cut them down. The formations had broken.

Three short horn blasts came from the Isnumurti ranks. The soldiers scattered and stepped back while another group stepped forward and formed a firm line. The line held out their shields and formed a wall with their javelins protruding from the shield wall. Another blast sounded and the wall collapsed into a small ball of shields protected from all sides with javelins protruding from all sides.

The Aredunian horses were repelled by the balls and the javelins pierced horse and man as they neared the shield wall. The Aredunian infantry charged at the wall but the infantry was staved off and the shield defenses were no weaker. Multiple shielded units marched forward in tight shield ball formations. The Aredunians continued to circle the shield balls but could not penetrate the defenses. Periodically the shield ball would have an opening and Isnumuriti archers would fire from within the the ball before the wall closed back.

Sarengerel caught up with Delger. "Have you seen this formation before?"

"No," Delger answered. "They are like armored turtles, slow but steady in their advance. As they push forward our best angle is to try to break their defense from the rear as there would be the least resistance, but their formations are small enough to change where they push back, whether front or rear."

"And their units are spread apart enough where your cavalry must also be scattered," Sarengerel added. "They have taken away your greatest strength. We need to take away theirs."

“And what would you do if a turtle stays so low to the ground, where it’s predators stand no chance against its armor?”

“How many bottles of oil left on your horses?” Sarengerel asked.

"Enough to take the ground away from the turtles," Delger said as he galloped back to his men and shouted orders.

Sarengerel rallied his men to him. "When their defenses break will we ride between them. We will be like the hot knife that slides into curd cake."

The Winged Spears scattered in all directions, forcing the Isnumurti to hold their ground and brace their shields. Another group rode behind them, smashing the clay bottles of oil on the ground and against Isnumurti shields.

Delger raised his sword at the Aredunian archers. The ends of the arrows burst into flame, lighting up the darkness behind Delger into a wall of fire. Delger pointed his sword forward and a volley of torches spiraled through the night sky.

The Isnumurti held their ground. The arrows bounced off their shields, but a few of the shield balls lit into flame. The ground burned around their feet.

The Winged Spears rode away in unison and sharply turned back toward the Isnumurti units. They split into multiple streams and knocked the units against the fire. The Isnumurti held their ground but as the streams of Spears rammed against the shield walls some of the units fell back. Some were forced against burning ground and broke their formation. Sarengerel whistled at his men and they rushed toward the broken units. "We've taken away their footing. Now is our time."

They ran through the Insmurti formations with their scimitars, severing limb and life. The field of fire grew and Sarengerel's men did not stop riding.

Drums were beaten repeatedly as the Isnumurti scattered across Gan-Gaidhill. There was a shout, then repeated chanting as the Isnumurti soldiers sprinted west toward the Purged Forest.

"They are retreating!" one rider said.

“We’ve done it!” cried another.

"Create a false circle and force them through the opening. Form a line at the edge of the forest!" Delger shouted from a distance. "Cut them off!"

Half of the Spears charged and formed a barricade between the forest and the Isnumurti. The remaining riders pressed the enemy against the horse wall. In the dark there was confusion among the Isnumurti foot soldiers but for Aredunian cavalry, if it walked, it was an enemy. The trapped Isnumurti were massacred. The screaming of soldiers were drowned out by the thunder of hooves.

Into the night the screams and thunder continued. For the Field God, he drank deeply that night as the blood drenched the earth in ways that hadn’t been seen by the Aredunians in generations. Above them in the the star called Besenyasha crawled across the moonless sky, watching, listening, and holding account of all the dead and the broken promises.