I liked the choice of factions here. The ratmen usually don't get a lot of sympathy, and I enjoyed your giving a different spin and slant on them. I thought it worked well as a contrast to the "legacy" enmity between the rat and saurian factions.

Might I suggest that you could add some power and immediacy to this piece if you were to rework it to be entirely in Tal'Rok's 1st person perspective? The monologue that opens the piece is quite compelling and I think having the whole thing in that voice would be even better. The other thought I had was that Tal'Rok's revelation as to the nobility of the ratmen is both very sudden and very complete. It would flow better if either Tal'Rok begins the story already harbouring doubts about the wisdom of the frog mages and the justice of the saurians' war, or if his change is less comprehensive - i.e., he only starts to have some doubt in the aftermath of the battle.

The overall imagery and description of the battle scene was very well done. You struck a nice balance between giving the reader enough information to follow the big picture of the fight, and keeping the tension high and the action focused on Tal'Rok. Battles are tricky to write, or at least I've yet to get the knack of them, and I'm taking notes here!

Nice flow and battle scenes. As pointed out before, the realization of some wrong doing felt sudden, though naturally if we had been given more space that could have been fleshed out easily in another outro section 

Loved the centerpiece scene of the duel, it's a great piece of drama that's just held back a bit by uneven pacing of character beats, dialogue and ideas.