The first rays of sunlight greeted him and Brahm went over to wake Wenzel up. He knocked on his door, but there was no reaction. He knocked again, louder and more often this time. Then he waited a little longer. .....Still nothing. He called for him: "Wenzel!" When this still didn't elicit a response, he went into his room. The curtains were open and the bed was neatly made. So, had the boy already gotten up? As the man looked around the room, he noticed an envelope lying on the pillow. I think we all know what that means! After the bodyguard had quickly skimmed the text left behind, he stood there paralysed for a moment. The information slowly sank into his consciousness. Then he rushed over to Ferenc and informed him and the others. Wenzel had run away!
In the skies above Ordania, the mage flew through the fresh morning air. It had taken him a while to make out, where Münzberg Castle was on a map, but eventually he managed to find it. He was on his way to rescue Amalie! He knew that this was reckless and somewhat stupid. He also knew that this was a trap. But he couldn't let anything happen to the girl, just because she had some connection to him. He couldn’t reconcile it with his heart and his conscience, that yet another person should die senselessly just because of him! Albrecht had come to his mind, another person whose only crime was to have been in contact with Wenzel. Not to forget Aurel....
No, the young man had had enough! He was responsible for this and therefore he would make things right. Besides, he was convinced that he could definitely win with his magic. Na?ve as he was, however, he hadn't come up with a plan. He would storm into the castle and rescue Amalie. "Although," he thought to himself, "all I really need to do is fly to the highest tower and eliminate everyone who comes up from there. A few guards in narrow corridors absolutely won’t stand any chance against me!" His friends would certainly be very worried about him now, but he saw no other option than this. Ferenc and Brahm, and even more so August, would never have allowed him to do something so crazy. And for good reason! He would apologise to them later, but this task had priority now. He had written to them not to follow him, but to wait for him in the city. He would return to Greifenburg once he was done.
In the meantime, the revolutionary army had arrived at the bridge over the Duhn. The fact that the bridge hadn’t been destroyed and no enemy units were here made Theodor a little suspicious. He ordered the bridge to be crossed as quickly as possible. "Now is the time for utmost haste! Get everyone across the Duhn as quickly as possible and then we'll continue on the double!" A somewhat confused lieutenant then approached the field marshal and asked: "After crossing, we'll hurry on straight away? Why’s that, Field Marshal?" The commander-in-chief coughed briefly and then replied in a strangely raspy voice: "I smell a trap. The lack of enemy troops means they want us to get across the river. We want to meet them too, but I'm going to cheat them and use our sprint to build up as much distance from the river as possible to prevent us from getting pressed with our backs against it." At first, the lieutenant reacted with a suspicious look, but then saluted and stepped away. "Yes, sir!" Something about the field marshal struck him as odd, he just couldn't put his finger on it.
The troops streamed across the large bridge in a great hurry and then scudded off as if stung by a tarantula. At the encampment of the Alethian Alliance, the bugles suddenly sounded. Etzel jumped up and looked towards the east. The rebel army was already here! The generals, knights and all those in charge whirled around frantically. "To battle!" they cried out everywhere. The Five Peoples' Army had been taken completely by surprise by the Martyrs' incredibly fast arrival. So, they rushed eastwards across the Archfeld to meet them. "Damn it!" shouted Etzel angrily, realising that an important part of his strategy had already been ruined. The armies of a hundred thousand men were now marching into battle under great pressure. When the revolutionary army had built up enough distance from the Duhn, however, it was ordered to slow its advance again and get into battle formation. Unexpectedly, the weakest units of the so-called People's Army were under Theodor's command and stood right in the centre of the formation. On the left was Wienand and on the right Tassilo. They were all in full armour and wore their face-covering helmets.
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The enemy army, led by Etzel's Royal Ordanian Army, marched up to meet them. The battlefield would be a wide plain where both armies could face each other on equal terms. The distance between them was no longer particularly great. Now the first archers began to fire. The Battle of Archfeld had begun! The horns sounded, shouting began and Etzel and Gawein charged forward on the flanks with their cavalry. They were met by Wienand and Tassilo with theirs. Theodor, on the other hand, remained exactly where he was. Unusual. This allowed Melvin, Maxentio and Almos to push their men forward. They soon came upon the first ranks of the revolutionaries and the direct confrontation began. The masses of warriors clashed with their long pikes. From the rear ranks, a steady fire of arrows flew down onto both sides.
Meanwhile, on the left flank, fierce fighting had broken out between the elite troops of the Martyrs' Brigades and those of Etzel. It was brutal and both sides gave each other no quarter. It was all or nothing. No one had any scruples and the casualties on both sides began to mount rapidly. Meanwhile, the centre remained rock solid under the leadership of Field Marshal Theodor. With the legend of the Martyrs at their backs the inexperienced troops were full of conviction and courage and stood firm. A strong wind arose, carrying with it the loud cries of battle. It was no longer raining, but the ground was still soaked and gave way with every step.
The fighting on the right flank was just as wild and bloody as on the other. Now Gawein rode right up to Tassilo in the turmoil of battle. The blond stopped a few metres in front of him and called over: "I, the dragon slayer Gawein, hereby challenge you to meet me in battle, my lord!" The general did not reply, but simply dismounted from his steed and held out the tip of his halberd, signalling that he had accepted the challenge. Gawein grinned smugly and did the same. A few of their fighters standing nearby stopped fighting and watched the two. They ran towards each other and the duel began. The Knight of Zeemark swung his sword through the air, which confused his opponent a little, as he was still some distance away from him. The mystery was solved when, as if out of nowhere, the sword strike flew through the air, forcing Tassilo to dodge it. "What the?" he uttered. Gawein laughed maliciously and continued to unleash strike after strike of flying sword blows at him using his magic sword .
But the challenger did not give in, dodging and weaving his way between the blows to get closer and closer to Gawein. He was caught by the legs, staggered briefly, but then managed to stay on his feet. However, then the next attack came and hit him in the head. His helmet flew off. What the knight saw now startled him for a moment. The person he was looking at wasn’t Tassilo. It was Theodor! To keep the troops motivated, they had swapped places and pretended to be each other. The black bear sprinted towards him to take advantage of the man’s temporary paralysis. He finally reached him! Theodor waved his halberd around wildly and tried to confuse Gawein, which he succeeded in doing. The man had some fighting talent, but Theodor was the undefeated leader of the Martyrs. A few sword blows still flew, but not many of them could do much damage through the armour. A feint on the right, a feint on the left. Theodor manoeuvred his weapon around at lightning speed. Then it happened. Bam! A hit through one of the small gaps in his armour paralysed Gawein for the moment. Then Theodor plunged the sharp tip of his halberd through his throat! It was over. Gawein had fallen. The field marshal remained undefeated and the myth of the Knight of Zeemark died with him.
When the troops saw this, they fell into fear and panic. The next in the chain of command saw the collapse coming and ordered a retreat. Theodor saddled up again and ordered his men to take up the pursuit. When Etzel saw the flank collapse from the other side, he briefly considered stopping the breakthrough. However, he quickly realised that he wouldn’t be able to do so in the required time. Thus, he also ordered a retreat. Wienand also stormed after him. While all this was going on, the centre continued to hold out under "Theodor's" leadership, but was now slowly being pushed back. At least this applied to the troops in the centre. The others remained stationary and began to more and more find themselves at the flanks of the advancing enemy. In the centre, the Boskettian company continued to advance through the almost knee-deep mud. Their training and experience definitely made them superior to the green men of the Martyrs here. With their greatswords, which had impressively curved blades like flames, the rural recruits in front of them were pushed back piece by piece. Their only misfortune was that the Duhn was still very far away from them. To be precise, it was at an unreachable distance.
