Goshtasp

From the swirling dust of the battlefield emerged Gerami, the valiant son of the grand vizier Jamasp, mounted upon a noble charger and resembling the mighty Rostam in stature and prowess. Positioned before the Turanian line, he raised a thunderous challenge, demanding to face the sorcerer Namkhast. Namkhast stepped forth like a pillar of stone, and the two champions clashed with maces, spears, and blades. Yet such was Gerami's lion-like ferocity that the Turanian sorcerer broke rank and fled. Burning with vengeance for his fallen comrades, Gerami plunged deep into the dense enemy ranks like a storm wind.

In the chaos and blinding gloom of combat, the radiant Kavian Banner slipped from the back of an Iranian war elephant and hit the blood-soaked earth. Seeing the sacred purple banner in the dust, Gerami dismounted without hesitation, lifted it, and wiped the soil from its folds. Spotting him holding the emblem of Fereydun, the Turanian hosts swarmed around him and severed his hand with a sword blow. Undaunted, the hero gripped the standard in his teeth and fought on with a single arm, swinging his mace until he was overwhelmed and cut down upon the warm earth.

Following this sacrifice, young Bastur, son of the slain prince Zarir, launched a fierce counter-attack, slaying countless enemies before returning triumphant to the lines. Then Prince Newzar, the noble son of King Goshtasp, charged into the fray upon his swift steed Shulak. Sounding his war cry, he whirled among the enemy, cutting down sixty renown Turanian warriors with his heavy mace. But fate decreed his end: a bolt from a siege crossbow struck him down, unseating him from Shulak to die upon the field.

With Newzar's fall, the fury of both armies erupted into an unrelenting carnage that raged for fourteen days and nights without pause. No warrior slept, and the valleys and plains turned crimson as a bed of tulips, so densely covered with the fallen that the paths were entirely choked with corpses.