On the day of the decisive battle, the sun shone on the Durenian plain. The night before it had snowed, and the ground was covered with a light white layer, fortunately not enough to prevent the maneuvers of the cavalry.
Ezran's army had lined up in three ranks, according to the new strategy developed by General Gren. The emperor himself was at the center of the line, and beside him waved the banner with the bicephalous phoenix. The cavalry had been placed on the wings: on the left, it was led by Colonel Marcos, a brilliant officer who had distinguished himself both during the Virenian Invasion and in the Delbarite campaign of 1243. On the right was the Empress, surrounded by Exarch Soren and the Imperial Guard.
Between the second and third lines, ballistas, catapults, and other siege machines were placed, adapted to anti-dragon functions. It was a poor defense against the strength of dragons: the real key to victory, it was clear to everyone, was in the magicians.
Callum, as usual, offers us a fascinating testimony:
"First we heard a rumble of distant thunder. The soldiers thought of a coming storm, but I recognized that voice: it was the roar of Sol Regem. Then on the horizon appeared an immense cloud of dust, a sign that the enemy army was approaching. I had not felt such fear since the battle of the Storm Spire: and yet, at that time my enemy was a human being, no matter how ruthless. The mind of a dragon works differently, and that of Sol Regem had borne hatred and resentment for a thousand two hundred years."
The Imperial army was expecting first an attack by dragons, which were undoubtedly the strongest weapon Sol Regem had. The Archdragon instead stopped with his dragons on a small hill a couple of miles from the army, letting the elves of Hikma Ulug begin the attack. If he did so because he had foreseen that the Katoleans would have prepared magical defenses and did not want to risk the flower of his army, or because he wanted to test his elven followers, or because he did not consider the imperial army a worthy enemy, it is not known: it is, however, certain that in the first phase of the battle the mighty dragons remained on the ground.
On paper, the elves had a good chance of winning the battle even without the help of the dragons: numerically, in fact, the forces of Hikma Ulug surpassed the soldiers of Katolis in a ratio of at least three to one. According to Taleq's Chronicle,
"The enemy stood a mile from us: they were thousands, and their steps shook the earth. Then I saw a figure dressed in a simple robe coming out of the ranks of the elves and walking along the line, shouting and making large and ungainly gestures with his arms: it was Hikma Ulug, who incited his soldiers and invoked on them the blessing of the gods. His men knelt to pray: it was an ancient Elven psalm, a beautiful melody. Then the prayer ceased, and the beauty of the song was replaced by a cacophony of curses and shouts of war, while the elves in disorder ran towards our army.
General Gren then gave an order, and the imperial banner was tilted forward: our first-line advanced, beating the swords rhythmically on the shields with a terrifying metallic rumble. I was surprised: in just four years the Katolean army had developed an impressive discipline."
The Elves were many, and animated by a fury that bordered on madness: under the force of their charge, the first line wavered but held. The elves were brave, but they were not professional soldiers: slowly, the Katolean army began to gain ground.
The fight went on throughout the morning, without the elves being able to break through the formation. Every time the first line seemed on the verge of collapse, General Gren ordered the second line to advance: so the first line could retreat and rest, and the elves were always fighting fresh forces. The Emperor himself had to intervene in person on a couple of occasions: his presence helped to raise the morale of his men, who resumed fighting with renewed vigour.
Sol Regem did not move: sitting at the top of the hill, he was listening to the telling of the fight made by Heliodoro and waiting.
Around noon, General Gren estimated the time was right and signaled the wings to advance.
The mounted archers had limited themselves until then to engage the enemy from a distance, and their arrows had caused huge losses among the enemies, who having no cavalry were unable to counter them. At the general's signal, the knights stopped shooting, drew their swords, and began charging.
On the right side, the Empress was looking forward to it: the Imperial Guards had remained out of the fight until then, saving their strength.
Shabdiz, the white horse of Aanya, galloped.
Behind him, the 500 horses of the imperial guard did the same. Unlike the rest of the lightly armed cavalry, the Imperial Guard was trained to use heavy spears: their impact was devastating.
Only trained lancer units are able to withstand a heavy cavalry charge, and Hikma Ulug had nothing of the sort: the Imperial Guard penetrated the enemy ranks like a knife through butter, creating an opening into which the rest of the right-wing threw itself. The army of the elves faltered and gave way: the enemy began a sudden and disorganized retreat.
At that point, the Sun had reached its zenith: and just then, Sol Regem rose in flight. Some have argued that he had been waiting for that moment on purpose: as he was connected to the Arcanum of the sun, his power would have reached its climax when the solar star was at the apex of the celestial vault.
The Elves regained courage and assaulted the Katoleans with renewed vigour.
Throughout the battle, the magicians had remained inactive, awaiting the attack of the Archdragon: as soon as Sol Regem moved, they began to cast a blanket of spells.
The sky mages, led by Callum, unleashed the winds to counter the flight of dragons, while the fire mages cast protective spells to defend the soldiers from the flames; the catapults and ballistas filled the sky with darts.
Citing the Taleq Chronicle, "those attempts, however ingenious, were doomed to failure. The primary magic, developed by the Elves, does not have spells suitable for fighting dragons: for that, it is necessary dark magic."
In the last thousand years, the dark magicians had invented hundreds of anti-dragon spells, and the lords of Neolandia had spent the days before the battle studying and preparing the most effective and powerful of them.
The dragons had by now had arrived in sight of the right-wing of the empress Aanya, who because of her charge had gone very deep into the enemy army, and was dangerously exposed: the magic counterattack fell on the dragons just in time, bringing down many.
But Sol Regem continued his advance, despite the efforts of almost a hundred magicians. No spell was powerful enough to breach the adamantine scales of the gigantic Archdragon.
Heliodoro was struck down by the shot of a ballista magically aimed by a dark spell of Lord Policar: but even without a guide, Sol Regem was able to orient himself using his sense of smell, and landed on the Imperial Guard with the force of a hurricane.
Callum writes, "All we could do was watch as Sol Regem slaughtered the best soldiers in our army. The Archdragon opened his jaws, vomiting a river of scarlet flames. I saw the Empress horse shying, and Aanya being thrown from the saddle: but I could not see anything else, because the smoke of the fires set by the dragons covered the battlefield."
Ezran wanted to send reinforcements to his wife's aid, but all his forces were engaged in countering Hikma Ulug's counterattack. Then Lady Rayla got on her horse and launched herself into the enemy lines, in a desperate attempt to rescue the Empress.
Meanwhile, the right-wing was being torn apart by the immense devastating power of Sol Regem. The same fury that had annihilated Elarion had unleashed upon the knights of the Guard, who were powerless in the face of the Archdragon's strength. Aanya, wounded, found herself isolated and surrounded from all sides by walls of flames.
The voice of Sol Regem then echoed throughout the battlefield. Taleq himself tells us:
"The great lord of dragons laughed: I pray the gods never to hear such a sound again. His laughter contained all his hatred and all his power. We realized then that Sol Regem was just playing with us, that in front of him we were completely powerless, and that we would not have survived to see the end of that terrible day."
The Imperial army began to disband.
