The next ten days were hectic with last minute preparations. While the adult lizard men trained furiously to improve their rudimentary fighting skills and learn the lessons taught by their encounter with the six messenger pakin-kho, the young, the old and the unhatched eggs were sent to the mangrove forest where Drake had lived for the past three months, hoping that, if the battle failed to go as they hoped, they would escape the notice of the evil creatures there. Since it was above water level, there was a chance that the pakin-kho might not try to enter, even if they knew they were there. Being out of their element, they would be at a disadvantage, even against weaponless young and old lizard men, and outnumbered as well. However, they could, and probably would, surround the forest and starve them out. The lizard men had slow metabolisms and could go for weeks or even months without food, but even they would eventually grow hungry and would then have to either come out or starve. It was up to the fighting adults to see that it didn't come to that.

     On the morning of the tenth day, the thousand lizard man warriors started east, travelling twenty miles to where another ancient Agglemonian ridge ran from north to south. The average spacing between ridges was about a hundred miles, but for some reason these two had been built unusually close together. There, under Drake's direction, their army divided into four units. Two units of four hundred lizard men each and two of one hundred lizard men each. One of the large units crossed the ridge, divided into two smaller units of two hundred lizard men each, and hid themselves among the reeds and rushes on either side of the path along which the enemy would come, assuming they came along the same path as they had last time. The other unit of four hundred did the same on the western side of the ridge, and the two units of one hundred took up positions on the ridge itself, on either side of the point at which the pakin-kho would cross. They spent the rest of the day getting themselves sorted out and ready, and then settled down for a long wait.

     Lizard men have a lizard's ability to remain almost motionless for long periods of time, being almost immune to cramp and boredom and, hiding out of sight among the swamp's vegetation, they gave away no sign of their existence. Drake, however, was not so fortunate and had to hide on a part of the ridge on which a small clump of trees grew, where he could stand up and walk around a bit from time to time to ease his aching muscles without being seen.

     The yellow sun went down and darkness fell, ameliorated slightly by the light of the second largest moon, Lara, which was half full, and a couple of medium sized comets which lit the landscape with a beautiful but dim silvery light. The swamp came alive with the sounds of night creatures, bellowing and screaming, eating and being eaten, some coming quite close to where the lizard man army lay hidden, completely unaware of their presence.

     Around midnight, the red sun rose, changing the illumination to blood red and drowning out all but twenty or so of the brightest stars and two planets, blue Lamon and golden Sereena. The golden planet was particularly bright that night, and the young priest fancied that he could almost make it out as a visible disc. He even thought he could discern its golden rings, normally only visible when it made its closest approach to Tharia every twenty three years. Then, reprimanding himself for daydreaming, he returned his full attention to the here and now and the coming battle.

     An hour after the rising of the red sun, Drake finally heard the signal that told him the pakin-kho were coming, the imitated croak of the wart toad sent by one of the lookouts a mile further east. The whole army must have heard it, but gave no sign of having done so, much to Drake's relief. Anyone who might have been wandering around here would have sworn that there wasn't a single living person for miles around, so quiet and motionless did the lizard men remain. With a little luck, they would take the pakin-kho completely by surprise.

     Relative silence returned, but only for a few minutes. Then, the silence suddenly became absolute as the noises made by all the nocturnal swamp creatures stopped abruptly. Something had disturbed them, and it could only be the enemy, drawing close at last. Then, very faintly, they heard the distant splashing and rustling of the pakin-kho, and a moment later they saw the ruddy light of the red sun reflected off the tridents and spears of the approaching enemy. Drake sensed a tense excitement radiating from the waiting lizard men, and prayed that they would do nothing to give themselves away before they were ready.

     As the pakin-kho got closer, and their dark, shadowy forms, half immersed in the water and almost hidden among the reeds, became visible at last, Drake tried to count them. There were more than he had hoped there would be, but not as many as the lizard men. Probably about four or five hundred. Taking into account the fact that the pakin-kho were much more experienced fighters than the lizard men, that meant that the two forces would be more or less evenly matched, and the element of surprise would be important to give the lizard men the edge.

     The pakin-kho reached the ridge and began to climb over, those on the far side waiting patiently for the others to join them. The atmosphere of tenseness and anticipation grew even greater, and Drake marvelled that the pakin-kho couldn't sense it. They were completely oblivious to the presence of the lizard men, and climbed over the ridge in a calm, orderly manner, a row at a time, confident that there was nothing within a hundred miles that would dare to molest them.

     When about half the pakin-kho had crossed the ridge, Drake knew the time had come and, drawing his broadsword, shouted loudly enough for all the lizard men to hear him. "Archers, shoot!" The pakin-kho gave a start of surprise and alarm, and then broke ranks in panic as a hail of arrows rained down on them. Dozens of them died, and the rest dived below the surface of the water to hide.

     Before they could organise themselves, Drake gave the second order. "Attack!" The lizard men jumped up from their hiding places, formed two rings completely encircling the two halves of the pakin-kho army, and moved in, attacking every pakin-kho they found. Those few with Calmanian swords slashed wildly with them, the rest used their homemade spears. Those who managed to kill a pakin-kho took its weapon, but the tridents and spears felt strange in their hands, lizard man hands differing in many ways from those of their aquatic enemies, and many of them discarded them, preferring their own cruder but more familiar weapons.

     The two hundred lizard men on the ridge killed the few pakin-kho still on it and then moved in along it to cut the enemy into two isolated groups in the marsh below. Then, after instructing them to remain there as a strategic reserve and to prevent the two groups of pakin-kho from joining up, Drake jumped down into the waist high water to join in the fight. A few of the lizard men disobeyed the order and also jumped down to join in, not wanting to miss out on all the action and glory, but most of them obediently stayed put, recognising the importance of their role in the battle, and those with bows and arrows shot a few of them into the enemy below.

     Everything so far had gone completely according to plan. The pakin-kho had suffered heavy losses in the first few moments of the battle and were now divided and surrounded while the enemy outnumbered them and held the high ground. However, they were now over their initial surprise and began to organise themselves, forming themselves into two defensive circles which the lizard men were unable to penetrate. Now, their greater fighting skill began to count and the lizard men died by the dozen as they hurled themselves uselessly at them. Their attack faltered, and several just stood there in confusion and bafflement, wondering what they were going to do now.

     This was the most dangerous part of the whole battle, the critical point. The lizard men's confidence and determination was crumbling rapidly in the face of the pakin-kho's skilful defence, and there was a danger that they might give up their attack completely in frustration, whereupon the pakin-kho would assume the offensive. Once that happened, the lizard men's defeat would be inevitable, and even though they outnumbered the pakin-kho by nearly three to one, they would soon be scattered, hunted down and slaughtered. That could not be allowed to happen. Those defensive circles had to be broken, and fast, no matter what the cost.

     Drake pushed his way through the lizard men to the front of the battle, where a double line of the aquatic monsters were standing firm, holding the lizard men at bay with their spears and tridents, many of them stained blue with lizard man blood. When they saw him their eyes bulged in amazement, and a thrown dagger bounced off his chain mail, leaving a small tear in his filthy dirty robes, now more mud coloured than blood red.

     Drake attacked fiercely with his broadsword, the heavy, skillfully made weapon making short work of the pakin-kho facing him, but the gap in the enemy's ranks was immediately filled from behind. His attack had only been to make sure the lizard men knew he was there, however, and as soon as he knew he had their attention he stepped back again.

     Still holding his broadsword, Drake lifted his arms and stared up at the dark sky above him. "Mighty Lord Samnos!" he cried. "I, your humble and unworthy servant, call upon Thee to help us defeat these vile creatures of the deeps! Lend us Thy power, fill us with Thy righteous wrath, so that justice and righteousness shall triumph here!"

     Almost immediately, the dozen or so lizard men nearest him felt themselves filled with an uncontrollable fury directed against the pakin-kho, a rage more powerful than anything they had ever felt before and that could be neither denied nor restrained. They leapt, screaming, at the enemy lines with no thought for their own safety. Four of them died on the enemy's tridents, but before the fish creatures could withdraw their weapons the other lizard men were on top of them, tearing and biting with their teeth and claws in berserk rage. The second line of pakin-kho speared three more of them, but then they also fell victim to the crazed lizard men and suddenly there was a hole in the enemy's ranks. The pakin-kho on either side tried vainly to fill the gap, but then lizard man were pouring through and the defensive circle collapsed like a bursting soap bubble.

     The battle degenerated into a disorganised melee, exactly the kind of fighting that suited the lizard men best and in which the pakin-kho were unable to use most of their carefully learned battle tactics. The lizard men returned to the battle with renewed enthusiasm, and suddenly the pakin-kho knew they were in big trouble. They were still much better fighters than the lizard men, but now the relative numbers of the two sides had become the deciding factor, with two or three lizard men to each pakin-kho and the outcome all but decided.

     Drake quickly climbed over the ridge and did the same thing again, using the war God's power to send a dozen or so lizard men into a berserk rage to break the pakin-kho's defensive circle. Soon, they too had been forced into hand to hand combat, and Drake gave a signal to those remaining on the ridge, telling them that they could also enter the battle. There was no longer any reason why they shouldn't join in, and he knew that none of them would want to miss his or her share of the glory.

     The battle lasted only another few minutes. The last few pakin-kho were buried beneath a mass of lizard men, chopping, stabbing and clubbing, and then it was all over. The surviving lizard men gave a howling scream of triumph and victory that rang out across the swamp and was clearly heard by the young and old hiding in the mangrove forest twenty miles away.

    They danced and sang in their hissing, throaty voices, jumping and stamping savagely all over the bodies of their hated enemy for almost a full hour, pounding them deep into the mud of the swamp, and when they finally stopped, their jubilation running out with their energy, they stood around in silence as if what they'd done was only just beginning to seem real to them. Then, moving in solemn silence, they gathered up their dead and injured and headed back to their reed villages, taking with them all the untouched pakin-kho bodies they could find for their victory feast.