Shortly afterwards, Gonçalo Mendes de Vasconcelos arrived at Elvas as officer of the marches and requested Gil Fernandes to join him in an attack on Badajoz, to which the latter agreed. He added, however, that he understood that there were so many troops in the town that it would be impossible to avoid conflict with them. He should, therefore, ensure that all those whom he took with him from Elvas were well disciplined. He would attack Badajoz with forty horsemen at a place known as Torre de las Palomas [Pigeon Tower]; the noblemen who were inside would sally forth against him, and he would draw them away to the point where battle was to be joined.

Having planned it in this way, Gil Fernandes made his attack, and from that place many troops emerged, both horsemen and foot soldiers; he duly challenged them in order to draw them away to the spot where they were to join in battle. On reaching Gonçalo Mendes, he began to call out in a loud voice that they should all strive mightily, as this was their great day. Indeed, Gil Fernandes's horse already bore in its forehead the iron tip of a lance, along with a length of its shaft, yet it continued in this fashion throughout the battle.

The Castilians came up, and both sides joined in battle. Such was the misfortune of a knight from Badajoz, Fernán Sánchez by name, who was the nobleman of greatest standing in that town, that a foot soldier, who was a Lisbon butcher and known as Lourencinho, struck his horse on the foreleg with his cleaver, with the result that it at once toppled to the ground with him, Fernán Sánchez, and another knight from Toledo, causing the same to happen to other valiant knights, who met their deaths there. The remaining troops fled back to Badajoz, which lay close by, and they were pursued as far as it was possible to do so. The Portuguese then made their way back to Elvas, greatly pleased at their victory.