A (hi)story II...

Out of sight to the infantry's left, amid choking dust and battling elephants, the cavalry battle was both mismatched and a forgone conclusion. Within the swirling dust cloud men and horses engaged in a bloody and increasingly desperate close-quarters battle. Lances drove into faces, thighs and equine flanks as the cavalry sword, the kopis, clove at exposed limbs...

The breach, driven deep into the enemy phalanx, was quickly exploited by the native hypaspists and the other phalanx units as they drove in to the left and right, their rearward ranks butt-spiking those underfoot. The enemy phalanx, cohesion falling away, could not retreat as their rear ranks, the light infantry still loosing the odd missile from behind them, kept pushing forward. All now was butchery as phalangites, desperate to escape, discarded weapons and attempted to flee the carnage. Bodies piled on bodies in the rout as those not spitted by sarisae were eviscerated and hacked apart by swords. As the panic spread rearward and along the line, the enemy phalanx was put to incontinent flight...