The two armies were already close, and the crimson torrent moved faster than anyone could have imagined.
When Edmure fled back to the center in panic and glanced behind him, still shaken, he saw a vision of hell.
The iron-bound shields hastily raised in the Riverlands coalition's front rank, and the spears thrust out behind them and planted at an angle in the ground, were as flimsy as children's paper toys before that crimson torrent.
They offered no resistance at all.
There was only the dull, teeth-grating sound of splintering and crushing.
The Blood Oath Band's armored cavalry utterly ignored the spear points meant to stop them.
Their specially lengthened lances, backed by the terrifying momentum of charging warhorses, easily smashed the wooden shields and sent the soldiers behind them flying, shields and all, with torn sinews and shattered bones.
Even more riders simply used their heavily armored horses as hammers. Ignoring the spears that snapped against the horses' breastplates, they crashed over that flimsy defensive line like a moving wall of iron!
Crack!
Squelch!
"Aaagh!"
Shields shattered, spears snapped, bones broke, and men flew.
In a single clash, the frontal defensive line the Riverlands coalition had struggled so hard to form was pierced like butter beneath a red-hot iron, instantly torn open into an enormous, bloody breach.
Without slowing, the crimson torrent of armored riders drove straight and savagely deeper through the breach, its target clear...
The center, that conspicuous red-and-blue trout banner, and the figure beneath it in splendid armor, fleeing for his life!
Edmure was terrified out of his wits. His gleaming armor and cloak had become the deadliest of beacons.
He clearly saw the spearhead of that terrifying cavalry force adjust its course slightly and drive straight toward him!
He could even make out the cold