Tales around Mirateia 34 part 2

Azran stood on a small outcrop overlooking the battlefield. He estimated that the sun had passed its highest point in the sky and was now on its way towardsds the horizon, looking out over the battlefield, Azran could see the ground littered with bodies of the f.allen, those wounded who could not be dragged or walk them self back to friendly lines had been left behind as the two forces withdrew and it had been some hours since movement had been spotted on the field. Behind him, the soldiers were resting in the shade they could find. Many of them had bandages covering wounds. According to their estimate, they had only taken light casualties compared to the enemy, but with the number of wounded, Azran had been forced to rotate soldiers around and place those who had escaped without wounds in the frontline, with the wounded taking out the following ranks depending on their level of wounds. Decaris Caius Camillius came walking towards him and saluted.   "Sir, pickets are reporting that the enemy is getting ready again"   Azran turned towards the direction of the enemy, and while he couldn't see anything from his current position, he did a mental calculation of how long it would take them to get ready compared to his own men.   "Alright, get the rest of the men ready"   "Yes, sir, " the Decaris saluted and turned around to walk back to the cohort.   Before joining the lines of legionnaires that were lining up ready to meet the enemy, Azran went to the Decaris in charge of the reserve force. Azran had just finished giving the updated orders when he heard the orders for javelins to be released, and he ran over to the rest of the cohort, finding the nearest Decaris.   "Status!" Azran ordered, having to raise his voice slightly over the noise of the frontlines clashing.   "Sir, lines are holding for now, they are pressing pretty hard on the centre, but we are holding, javelins broke up the charge, but they still have the weight in numbers", the Decaris reported.   From Azrans position, he could hear the creaks of leather straps and the metalic ring of iron striking iron combinded with the snarls, yelling and grunts of efford from the men as they fought to push the enemy back, the two sides were fighting with shield locked against shield and each side tried to push the other side back, Azrans cohort had the advantage that they had to fight downhill which made it easier, but the enemy still had a solid moral and had maintained a good momentum when they clashed against his forces.   "Sir!" Azran heard one of the Decaris yell and point towards the right flank.   "What is it?" Azran had to yell into the officer's ear.   "Sir, their right flank is staggering, they seem to have lost momentum, 3rd Decarium is pushing them back," the Decaris yelled and pointed with his sword.   Azran nodded and looked in the direction, and rightly so, the enemy right flank was being pushed back slightly, and they could maintain the momentum; there was a chance that Azran's cohort could break through and attack the enemy in the flank and roll up their line. As he though this, he heard an increased amount of shouting from the left flank and spun around and saw that the enemis left flank had likewise faltered, exhaustion clearly visible even from this distance. thousand thoughts ran through Azran's mind at this moment, and after what looked like a few second,s but in his mind had felt like an eternaty, he turned and ran back towards the Decaris in charge of the reserves.   "Decaris Otho, take half of your men and support the left flank in pushing the enemy back"   "Yes, sir," the Decaris answered and turned to relay the order to the men and shortly after, half of the reserve ran towards the left flank.   Turning to the rest of the men, Azran couldn't help but grin a bit, something that the men in front of him reflected as they suspected he was about to do something.   "Lads, we have an opportunity to end this fight before the cavalry arrives. What do you say? want to steal the victory from the scouts?" Azran yelled towards the men in a voice he hoped carried enough authority and confidence.   "YES, SIR!!" came the reply from the men in front of him.   Azran signalled for the rest of the reserve to follow him as he led them towards the right flank that had by now somewhat stabilised, but it was balancing on a knife-edge as it could still go both ways. The Decaris in charge of the right flank turned to see Azran and gave a hasty salute.   "Sir, what are your plans?" The Decaris glanced towards the soldiers following Azran, who stopped up and before he answered the Decaris, took stock of the situation.   "We have a chance to end the fight here, your men have managed to push the enemy back and with some extra weight we should be able to roll up their flank from the side and behind."    The Decaris nodded "Yes sir"   Azran moved to the right side of the formation and the extra 35 men he had brought with him lined up in formation behind him, except for a few that were being used to sure up the lines of the men already fighting, gathering his nerves for a moment, Azran gave the signal for the men to start push and at first the renewed push surprised the enemy and they were pushed back a few steps before they managed to slow down Azran and his formation, Azran had in the meantime pushed his way towards the front and just as a soldier began to fall back after being hit in the shoulder with a sword thrust, as the two passed each other, Azran could see that the mans armour had taken the worst damage but the point of the sword had still managed to find a weak spot between two joints, As they passed Azran took the mans shield and moved to take up the mans position in the front lines.   Just as he took the place he had to raise his shield as he saw the man in front of him trying to hit his head with a overhead swing, quickly raising the shield, it caught the sword on the metal rim of the shield and Azran felt a jolt down his arm, as a reflex Azran thrust out with his swordarm and felt his sword make contact and as he was taught in bootcamp he twisted the blade and pulled back the blade.   Glancing up over the rim of the shield, Azran looked around took in the scene.   "Come on lads! Push, on my count" Azran yelled first to his left side and to his right, giving a nod to each man on his sides.   As Azran began to count "one... two... three" on each count, the men pushed with their shield and stabbed with their swords before they took a step forward, slowly but surely the enemy began to give way, not sure when the shift occured, at one point, the furthest right flank managed to push around the enemy line and it took less than a minute between the breakthrough and total collapse of the enemy formation.    Within a short time the entire enemy formation was routing and retreating in a disorderly way which just resulted in massive cassulties as the Decaris of the cohort lost control of their men who set after the fleeing enemy and cut down countless enemy, Azran was sure that the men would have run down the enemy entirely had they not been distracted by the enemy camp and began to loot it all the while the Decaris trying to regain control of the men. Azran who after the fighting was eshausted and at this moment he would love to sit down and sleep but as the commanding officer, he felt that he should be an example to his men and dispite ever fiber in his body screaming for sleep and maybe a bath, he walked around, head held high, the battlefield between where most of the battle had taken place and the enemy camp. After an estimated half hour, the Decaris of the cohort had regained control over their men, mainly because at this point, the adreneline from the battle had began to leave the body but also because the Decaris of the cohort had been generous with the use of their Decaris cane to bring back some resemblance of order.   Azran was bending down taking with a wounded soldier that had been hit in the leg, it looked serious on the surface but as he looked closer, Azran saw that it was fairly shallow, only a fleshwound and the soldier had been on his way back to the rear lines to receive treatment when the surge forward came and some of his comrades had hit him and he fell down unable to get up. As they were talking the senior Decaris came over and saluted.   "Sir, I have the initial report"    Standing up, Azran walked a distance away from the wounded soldier before turning to the Decaris.   "Alright, lets hear it, whats the butchers bill?"   The Decaris handed Azran a tablet.   "Sir, from this second round of fighting, we have so far, 34 dead, 18 seriously wounded, although none are deadly wounded, we then have another 44 who all have light to medium wounds but are able to walk in most cases. it was some serious fighting sir." The Decaris reported and Azran could see that just as himself, the man was only awake because he was an officer.   "It was indeee Decaris, any news of the scouts?"    "Yes sir, some of our most forward men, as in those that managed to chase the enemy furthest reports that the rest of the fleeing enemy were cut down by the scouts.   "Well thats something, at least we dont have the enemy reforming into groups of bandits and causing chaos" Azran turned as he saw someone come up to them, it was one of the scouts although not one Azran recognized, it certainly wasnt the Decaris in charge of the scouts. "Soldier?" Azran said when the man was close enough.   The scout saluted "Sir, reporting that we believe we managed to cut off the fleeing enemy and deal with them, we have a few captives as well"    Azran nodded "Well done, while it didnt go quite as we had planned, it turned out to our advantage anyway, but whats your name soldier? and where is Decaris Caius"   "Sir, Decaris Caius recrieved a serious wound to his thigh and is currently unconcious and I have taken command over the scouts in his absence"    Azran looked at the scout for a moment "Alright, on your ride around the enemy, did you spot anything of note?"    The scout thought for a moment to gather his thoughts "Nothing of note sir, but will have a proper report soon"   "See to that, dismissed" Azran gave teh scout a nod and the scout turned around and walked back to where Azran assumed the rest of the scouts were.   The clean up following the battle took well into the evening and the dead were burned on large pyres and a large marker made out of destroyed enemy armour, marked the place were the battle had taken place as according to Dercian military culture following a victory.    The next day early in the morning, the cohort set off towards home, those that could walk, walked and those what were to wounded were being transported in carts they had captured from the enemy and a few they had brought from a local village nearby.