The greatsword cleaved through the wind and snow.
Karl Hazel gripped the hilt with his only remaining hand, his right. Beneath him, his Frostland Direwolf drove all four paws into the frozen earth, gouging four deep furrows.
"Kill!"
His roar was the signal.
Behind him, five hundred riders in silver-gray coats lowered themselves over their mounts in unison.
The direwolves accelerated into a gray torrent, charging down the upstream riverbed toward the Empire's army.
The Empire's mages, tasked with harassing the defenders from afar, had raised their staves and were preparing to unleash a third volley of Fireballs at the battlements.
One of them heard the howling and instinctively turned his head.
The gray torrent had already surged to the edge of the army!
"Enemy attack-!!"
One mage's scream had barely left his mouth before a dull impact drowned it out.
Karl led the charge.
Rather than slowing down, he tightened his legs around his direwolf's belly.
The direwolf opened its fang-filled jaws and, carried by the momentum of its charge, clamped down on the head of a shield-bearing infantryman at the outer edge.
Crack.
Helmet and skull shattered like a cracker.
Bounding past the thin line of guards, the direwolf reached the still-dazed Mage Corps in just a few leaps. Karl swept his greatsword sideways, putting the charge's momentum behind it.
The blade cut into the crowd.
Their fragile mage robes offered no protection against such a blow. Three mages still chanting their spells were cleaved in half at the waist, their warm entrails and blood splashing across the ice in a cloud of steam.
"Stop them! Ice Wall Spell! Cast Ice Wall Spell, now!"
Someone shouted in terror.
But it was too late.
Cavalry against infantry was a slaughter to begin with.
All the more so on terrain