The French knights knew how formidable heavy cavalrymen were.
Whenever there was a civil war between their dukes and counts, their enemies usually struggled to hurt the heavy cavalrymen. They were a disgusting troop to encounter on the battlefield.
Thus, the French began crafting blunt weapons such as halberds and hammers specifically designed to smash those metal cans.
Yet, these weapons were useless against the Metal Fortresses! No matter how hard they hammered, the Metal Fortresses remained unfazed.
But as soon as the Metal Fortresses swung their weapons back at them, their skulls were sent flying in a flash.
“NO!”
A knight smashed his halberd on the back of a Metal Fortress, but it was ineffective. He could only watch helplessly as the Metal Fortress took out a terrifying halberd and…
Bam!
Clang!
The knight was slammed off his steed. Blood was seeping from his mouth, and his chest was caved in. He had breathed his last.
“How is it going?” King Charles watched the battlefield with squinted eyes.
From his view, he saw an intense battle between the French knights and the Metal Fortresses, mixed with swirling dust and battle cries. There wasn’t a conclusion to their clash yet.
Meanwhile, the soldiers by the flanks were busy encircling the Khitans.
The prince-elector internally berated King Charles for not following the plan as he hurriedly mobilized the remaining soldiers. He figured that as long as they surrounded the Khitans’ heavy cavalrymen, they should be able to take them down.
The intensity of the clashes slowly died down. The dust slowly settled.
King Charles narrowed his eyes.
The blood twin-headed eagle flag was still soaring!
“Hahahaha!!!” Shu Yichao laughed in exhilaration as he swung the metal cudgel in his hand. “Welcome to oblivion!”
The French knights had crumbled apart.
The remaining survivors realized that this was no glorious showdown between knights; they were fighting against a human-shaped dragon, and there was no Saint George among them!
“They can’t be killed!” 𝗳r𝚎𝐞w𝐞𝚋𝗻𝗼vel.𝗰o𝐦
“Why can’t we kill them?!”
“Scourge of God!”
“He really is the Scourge of God!”
“Has the Lord forsaken us?”
King Charles could hardly believe his eyes when he saw his knights, who had usually dominated the battlefield, suffering heavy casualties and trying to escape in a fluster.
“We… lost? They are the strongest knights in the world! And we outnumber them by so much! How did we lose?!”
It was 15,000 knights against 3000 heavy cavalrymen; they outnumbered their enemy by more than fivefold! How did his troops crumble so quickly?
My Lord, is this for real?!
King Charles was in a state of disbelief.
Meanwhile, the prince-elector was trembling with rage. The French knights failed to liaise with them before charging at the enemies, and now that they had finally surrounded the enemies, the knights suddenly began fleeing from the battlefield instead.
This is bad!
Now, their scattered troops had to face the newly-reorganized Metal Fortresses… the outcome of that was obvious.
“Gather into a formation!” the prince-elector shouted as loudly as he could. “Hurry up, or else we’d be doomed once they charge over!”
Unfortunately, his troops weren’t sufficiently trained to execute that kind of order.
His troops came from many different places, including imperial knights, reserve knights, squires, mercenaries, militias, civilians who had joined the army to make a living, farmers… There were also convicted thieves, clergymen with terrible records, pirates from North Europe, and so on.
Their equipment greatly varied, and they spoke different languages. It would take a miracle for such an army to swiftly react on the battlefield.
Unfortunately, the same was true for their allies too.
To make things worse, Shu Yichao was already eyeing them. With so many red dots gathered in one place, there was no reason for him to stomp them right away.
“Attack!” Shu Yichao roared as he charged with the Metal Fortresses.
The prince-elector was on the verge of sprouting blood.
What the hell is King Charles doing?! Look, it’s because of your reckless actions that the Metal Fortresses are coming at us now!
Knowing that it was impossible for them to survive the onslaught, the prince-elector turned tail and fled. He was riding on a horse, so there was still a glimmer of hope for him to get away.
The sight of their fleeing commander caused the entire left flank to plunge into chaos.
Why should we fight when our commander has fled? Run!
Thus, the soldiers of the left flank began running around in a fluster, stepping on each other.
Shortly after, Shu Yichao arrived at the scene.
As if a metal hurricane was sweeping through the area, blood and flesh splattered nonstop in the left flank. Wherever Shu Yichao went, enemy soldiers died in droves.
“Such is the fate of those who become my enemy!”
Under Shu Yichao’s lead, the Metal Fortresses pierced through the left flank as easily as a heated knife slicing through butter. They proceeded to crush the middle army, followed by the right flank.
Everything just crumbled.
It was as if a calamity had befallen the Crusade. Any attempt they made at resisting their fate looked so miserable that it was almost laughable.
Screams of misery and wails of despair filled the air. Soldiers who had lost their fighting will trampled on one another as they frantically searched for a way to survive this ordeal.
Soon, it struck them that King Charles had done them dirty.
They were fighting with their backs against River Po—there was nowhere for them to escape! There weren't enough rafts and boats on River Po for them to use.
Panicked, the soldiers tossed aside their armor, and regardless of whether they could swim or not, they leaped into the icy-cold river water.
“What are you doing?!”
“Don’t row the boats away!”
When King Charles realized that things were going awry, he quickly fled with his aides and swiftly found a boat. He didn’t want too many people boarding the boat, so he released the ropes, removed the plank, and began frantically rowing himself away to safety.
“My Lord, how did things turn out like that?”
Watching the panicking troops, the burning dock, and the collapsed army formations, King Charles tearfully drew a cross in front of him.
That was an army of 80,000 soldiers!
For it to crumble like that…
“Your Majesty,” his pale-faced aide tried to console him, “don’t be too upset. At least we were able to escape this ordeal thanks to the Lord’s… AH!”
A white flash leaped off the bridge and surged toward the shaking boats as like a majestic eagle swooping down on its prey.
“Don’t think of leaving when you’re already here!”
There was no way Shu Yichao would let these people, whose heads were obviously worth a lot more, to slip away. Galewind landed on one of the boats like a cannonball, crushing it into two.
Before the boat sank, Galewind leaped off again and made his way toward the other boats.
Like a dragonfly skipping water, he was quickly catching up with King Charles’ boat.
“NO!”
There was a loud explosion, followed by cries of terror. Shu Yichao swung his spear, and everyone on the boat was crushed by the sheer force of the swing.
King Charles only felt something smacking heavily into his chest before weakness consumed him. He fell into the water with his heavy armor and sank to the bottom of the river.
Not too far away, the prince-elector also sunk into the river as well.
On this day, River Po became the deathbed of countless corpses.
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