Chapter 10: Battle Of The Cochise River

Maxis, General Leonidas and Edelweiss rode on horseback side by side in the cloudy and gloomy morning, followed by one hundred-twenty five Knights of The Pines as well as knights and soldiers from Middle Tahl with Sir Hetfield and Nathaniel riding to the sides of the marching formation to keep the soldiers in line. Edelweiss read his book that he had from the war room back in the city, not realizing he had taken it. Maxis looked over and smiled at him while he trotted alongside him. "You like the horse I got you?" He asked but with no response. He got closer to Edelweiss and closed his book. Edelweiss jumped a bit and looked over, not expecting it. "Oh, sorry. What did you say?" He asked, slightly embarrassed. Maxis chuckled and asked again. "Do you like the horse I got you?"

"Oh, yes." He answered with a smile. "What did you name him?" Maxis asked, shifting his focus to the road ahead but still listening for his partner. "Sombra, I asked for name recommendations at that speech thing about a week ago." He replied, looking over at Maxis and admiring him. Nathaniel rode up between Edelweiss, causing Maxis to groan in annoyance. "What did I do? I didn't even say anything yet!" Nathaniel said angrily as Edelweiss giggled at the interaction. "You didn't have to say anything." Maxis said with a slight smirk on his face, getting rid of it bef0re Nathaniel could notice. "So when do you think we'll get there?" Nathaniel asked, ignoring the previous conversation. "Probably in another few minutes." Maxis responded, keeping his eyes on the road followed by Nathaniel groaning in boredom. "Quit your whining boy, go back to the flank and keep the men in formation." Maxis snapped at him, not even taking the effort to look at him. Nathaniel rolled his eyes and rode back to his position. "Why are you so mean to everyone that isn't me?" Edelweiss said with a smile and chuckle as he looked at his partner. "Would you like me to be nicer to everyone?" Maxis said with a playful grin. "Hmmm, no." Edelweiss giggled in response, causing Maxis to smile. "Watcha wanna do after this?" Edelweiss asked, riding up closer to Maxis. "What do you mean?" Maxis inquired, looking over to the pale haired knight.

"I mean after the battle. Do you wanna maybe go see a play in the city? Or maybe go have a drink with me somewhere?"

"I'm not sure if we'll have time for any of that, love."

"Pleaseee? It's not like King Skinner asked us to return immediately."

"Hmmm…Fine"

They continued marching through the cold forest throughout the morning until they finally reached the Cochise river. Owaine was already at the river with Tos-que and a detachment of eighty rangers. The Vigils lie in wait in the treeline just west of the river. Their dark brown and green tunics allowed for excellent camouflage, though that wasn't the purpose of the colors. Tos-que had climbed up a tree and up at the top with his flintlock rifle, something that was very rare and state-of-the-art for a mere indian scout to wield, even the Faithful Vigils only had twelve riflemen with flintlocks, the rest of the riflemen had arquebuses while the bulk of the Vigils used crossbows and longbows with maces, swords, spears, axes and other melee weapons as sidearms for when the fight became too close for the archers and riflemen to be effective. Owaine looked up at the scout from the ground and then shifted his gaze to the river and the army that waited on the eastern side of it. He sighed and walked over to the encampment in the forest that the rangers had set up in case they had to occupy the area for more than one day. Maxis and Edelweiss dismounted and approached Owaine to speak with him. Owaine turned around and greeted his friends. "Ah, Maxis, you're here. How many men did you bring?" He asked, looking behind Maxis and trying to count up the fighting force behind him. "Around a hundred twenty." Edelweiss responded. "He's very tired, he didn't get his beauty sleep because of that meeting and he's too tired to bother with the number of men he brought." Bones said playfully with a giggle, wrapping his arm around Maxis' arm and smiling over at him. "Shut up." Maxis said jokingly, kissing the top of his partner's head. "So uh… a hundred twenty?" Owaine asked, a bit put off by the two mens behavior, even though he had known about them for years. "Correct, one hundred twenty foot knights." Maxis responded, looking down at Edelweiss and playing with his hair. "So let me try to understand this. You brought a hundred twenty men to fight two hundred?" Owaine asked angrily, worried about the outcome of the battle. "We're in a defensive position Owaine, this treeline acts as a natural fortress for us, you have nothing to worry about. By the time they reach our position they'll have already taken substantial damage to their ranks and may even retreat." Maxis said calmly, reassuring his comrade. "I hope to God you're right, Max." Owaine said grimly as he walked away from the area and into the encampment. Maxis walked over to the edge of the treeline and opened up his satchel and took out a spyglass, looking through it and observing the enemy force. A worried look overtook his face as he realized there was a thick fog, meaning there was no way to accurately assess the situation. He looked up at Tos-Que, who was still in a tree, and then backed down towards the river. He put his spyglass back into his satchel and began ordering the rangers to set up breastworks made out of logs and rocks in the treeline. While the Vigils began constructing the defenses, he ordered the knights to begin taking up positions. He placed a group of sixteen riflemen of the vigils in the center of the defensive line and had the bowmen and melee fighters on the northern and southern flanks with his foot knights close behind them, ready to assist the lightly armored rangers at a moments notice. After ordering the troops around and helping with building defenses, Maxis looked out of his spyglass again and noticed that it looked like there were several rafts crossing the river. He took a deep breath and waited, staring through the scope and watching as the christians slowly neared their position. Maxis' thoughts raced through his head. "How did they get papal approval? There hasn't been a crusade in almost six hundred years and now every holy order is at our doorstep." He sighed and put his scope back inside his satchel and walked over to Edelweiss, Hetfield and Nathaniel and assigned them detachments of men to lead. Edelweiss would command the archers and riflemen in the center of the formation while Hetfield led the northern flank and Nathaniel was to lead a small detachment of twelve archers behind the southern flank which was led by Owaine. Maxis stood next to Edelweiss who was crouched down and holding a crossbow in one hand and an ax in the other. Maxis looked off into the distance and squinted his eyes, watching as the crusaders neared the river shore. As soon as he could see the insignia on the soldiers chests, Edelweiss gave the riflemen the order to fire on the advancing men. The volley was ineffective as the soldiers were not in range of the flintlocks and arquebuses. Edelweiss ordered the men to reload. He then ordered the more accurate bowmen to fire on the rafts and boats as they slowly made their way across the river. The volley of arrows was much more effective than the rifles, killing multiple crusaders and causing them to fall into the river, where if they were not killed by the arrows, they would most certainly drown to their deaths.

"Wait for them to get closer, love, then fire volley after volley as they advance across the river and struggle to leave their vessels." Maxis said to Edelweiss supportively, putting his hand on his shoulder as the blonde haired knight nodded and waited for the right moment to order the men to fire again. It looked like it was mostly Templars on the vessels with a few smaller rafts with Teutonic Knights and Hospitallers onboard. The watercrafts slowly made their way across the river, the soldiers onboard struggling against the river's current using oars and big sticks to paddle across the raging currents. Edelweiss gave the order for the riflemen to fire once the christians were halfway across. The rangers spewed a deadly volley of hot lead into the ranks of the nearest group of crusaders, killing ten of them and wounding a few more. While the riflemen reloaded, the crusaders fired a volley of their own arrows and took out two riflemen, hitting them in their shoulder and legs which rendered them unfit for combat. Edelweiss yelled out for a stretcher bearer to take the wounded men away to the field hospital in the encampment behind the breastworks and defensive line.

The rangers then returned fire with crossbows and longbows of their own but the volley proved ineffective as the crusaders blocked every arrow with huge kite shields that almost reached the feet of the men. The crusaders finally reached the shore of the river and were immediately met by rifle fire of the Vigil's arquebuses and flintlocks which were far more deadly now that they were closer. Crusaders fell to the ground and into the water as they were shot and got off their rafts and boats. They struggled to find cover to avoid being hit by arrows or lead balls as they advanced further into the shore. While the riflemen were reloading, the archers would cover them with volleys of arrows. This combination of arrow and rifle fire caused horrific casualties among the crusaders as they slowly tried to push forward. Maxis watched the slaughter as rain began to tap the ground. He estimated that about fifty soldiers had crossed the river so far and maybe twenty had been killed. Edelweiss loaded up his crossbow and searched for a target as he crouched down behind the log breastworks. He traced a soldier's movement and kept him in the sights of the crossbow, waiting for an opening. The combination of smoke and fog made it almost impossible for accurate shots on both sides but Edelweiss persisted after the soldier. The crusader took cover behind a log near the treeline and Edelweiss had a clear shot. He squeezed the trigger and sent the bolt flying into the neck of the soldier. He smirked to himself as he began loading another bolt into the crossbow. Tos-Que picked off soldiers from atop his tree, having a clear view above the smoke and fog and being out of the crusader's sight. Soon, more boats and rafts began coming to the shore, testing the limits of the Vigils fire rate. Eventually the rangers couldn't keep up with the growing number of enemies advancing across the shore and were overwhelmed. The south flank was attacked by the Teutonic Knights, the center was attacked by the Templars and the northern flank was attacked by the Hospitallers. The teutons breached the southern flank and started killing the defenseless bowmen while the few rangers armed for close quarters combat ran into the battle, trying to buy time for the archers to escape. Meanwhile, the Hospitallers began closing in on Sir Hetfield's position. Hetfield had no archers and had to make due with a few spearmen that threw spears at the advancing knights. Hospitaller bowmen fired round after round at the rangers, slaughtering many of them. The air was filled with the shrieks and cries of pain as the soldiers clashed, stabbing and hacking at each other with spears and axes, crushing bones and severing limbs with swords and maces. The soldiers cursed and screamed at each other as the fighting continued. Corpses were littered throughout the open field in which Hetfield's men were positioned and men ran away with tattered uniforms, mangled limbs and weapons still planted firmly in their flesh. The rangers were soon pushed back into the treeline where they continued fighting. As they retreated, Hetfield hastily reorganized his small force of now a mere thirty men and stood in front of them, bracing himself for the crusader's charge and gripping the handle to his huge two handed sword tightly.

The Hospitallers rushed forward, screaming and shrieking as they neared the rangers and eventually crashing into their ranks. Hetfield cut down five knights, quickly finding openings in their defenses and taking advantage of them. Whenever he was locked in a stationary blade lock, he slid his sword forward into the enemies chest or shoulder, or he would bring his sword behind him while keeping the enemy's blade away from him and cut the soldiers back or side. As Hetfield and his men struggled to put up a fight against the Hospitallers, Nathaniel and Owaine's rangers were at a standstill against the Teutonic Knights. Owaine had a small crossbow about the size of a pistol which was custom made by him. He often preferred to use ranged attacks rather than hand to hand, despite his tall and bulky physique. He threw small poison tipped knives at the teutons but they proved ineffective against their mail armor and shields. Nathaniel rushed into combat with a poleaxe, using the superior range to kill knights without getting close enough for them to land any blows on him. He stabbed soldiers in the neck and legs where they had to armor with the long spike at the top of the poleaxe and landed heavy blows and hacked at the helmets and shields of the teutons. About nine of the bowmen had survived the attack and they began shooting at the Teutonic Knights from behind the rangers armed with melee weapons, killing four of the Germans. The Knights of the Pines quickly made their way over to help the rangers with the support of the soldiers and knights from Middle Tahl. As the knights of the pines clashed with the teutons, the rangers slipped away and the ones armed with melee weapons quickly ran to the camp and retrieved their bows and rifles before going back into battle.

The teutons and knights of the pines clashed, slaying each other brutally. More and more teutons arrived and more knights of the pines fell, the defenders were forced to retreat further, just outside of the camp. The vigils behind the knights fired arrows and rifle rounds at the teutons, killing ten of the Germans before they got close enough to fight the knights. The knights engaged in combat again, followed by the sound of swords clashing against armor, axes tearing through helmets and uniforms, maces smashing into mail armor and snapping bones, and spears skewering through the unprotected necks of knights. In the center of the defensive line, things were looking better, riflemen and archers continued letting rounds loose into advancing templar infantrymen but they slowly became more and more overwhelmed and the rifleman's powder was getting wet because of the light rain. The templars took advantage of this realization and rushed forward, slashing through the rifleman's light armor with swords and axes and crushing their skulls with maces. Edelweiss and Maxis saw this and hastily ordered a retreat further into the forest. As they retreated, templars threw spears and shot arrows into the backs of retreating rangers. Tos-Que jumped down from his tree and took out a tomahawk with a triangular hole in the middle of it and as he did, a templar rushed towards him. With one hand, Tos-Que held his rifle, aimed at the knight from his hip and fired, killing the christian and sending him to the ground. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and unsheathed a knife from his belt and held it in the hand opposite of the hand that wielded the tomahawk.

A foot sergeant ran towards him with a hatchet, Tos-Que blocked it with his tomahawk and stabbed the soldier in the thigh, sending him to the ground where he writhed in pain. Before the scout could retrieve his knife that was still lodged into the soldier's leg, another crusader charged at him. Thinking quickly, Tos-Que summoned all his strength and let out a loud whoop as he threw his tomahawk at the templar. The head of the ax cleaved through the templar's helmet and lodged itself into the soldier's skull halfway. As the knight collapsed Tos-Que took his knife out of the foot sergeant and finished him off by cutting his throat. Tos-Que turned around to retreat with the rest of the forces and saw the templar getting up from the ground with blood trickling out from underneath the helmet and the tomahawk still stuck. Tos-Que looked in horror as the templar seemingly resurrected himself and tried to walk towards him, clutching a sword and leaving his shield behind. Tos-Que prepared himself to fight this templar that was unwilling to die and rushed forward. The templar groggily swung his sword and missed, taking this opportunity Tos-Que grabbed the handle of his weapon and took it out. The templar fell to the ground and groaned as blood spurted out of his wound. Tos-Que quickly wiped his blades off, sheathed them and began retreating into the camp.

Sir Hetfield's men had taken heavy casualties from the hospitallers but continued to hold their ground. He had a mere twenty-five men left to fight the overwhelming force of around eighty hospitallers closing in on them. While they were fighting, a few hospitallers stayed on the river shore and hastily began building a makeshift bridge across the river for other soldiers, mainly the cavalry, to cross. The heavily armored Hetfield took hit after hit against his armor but remained unscathed. The fighting started to look bleak for Hetfield's detachment as they sustained more and more casualties and lost more ground the longer the fighting went on. Though he and his men fought gallantly, Hetfield knew time was short and ordered his men to retreat further away and sent one of his men as courier to Maxis to tell the Grandmaster of the situation.

The detachment in the middle of the northern and southern flanks fired round after round from their rifles but soon their powder became too wet to be used and their ammunition ran low. Edelweiss fired a bolt from his crossbow into the eye slit of a knight's helmet, causing the templar to fall to the ground face first, resulting in the bolt going all the way through the crusader's skull and helmet.

Edelweiss threw the crossbow to the side and took out his ax and picked up his shield. He retrieved his helmet from his horse quickly and put it on as he ran back into position. His helmet was a teutonic knights helmet that was a darker color and it had metal wings on the left and right sides of the helmet that stuck straight up into the air. The wings looked more like bars than wings and on the outer part of each wing was a small gold colored rod that poked up a bit higher than the wings. He and Maxis fought side by side, slaying as many templars as they could together. The rangers began to pack up the camp and run away while the knights from Middle Tahl covered their retreat. Owaine was forced to adapt his fighting style and picked up a sword and an ax, duel wielding the weapons and using them to great effect.

The rifleman armed themselves with melee weapons of all sorts ranging from clubs, logs, daggers, knives, sabers, swords, axes, maces, hammers, spears, pikes and anything else that could be used to block, hit, or throw. The courier that Sir Hetfield sent had finally reached Maxis and relayed the message to him. Maxis ordered Tos-Que to take a group of thirty knights over to Hetfield's position. The scout nodded and left to go gather thirty knights. Tos-Que quickly found thirty men who weren't in combat and ordered them to follow him to Hetfield's position. The scout ran swiftly with the detachment following close behind, their feet colliding with the wet ground as it started to rain harder. The reinforcements took the hospitallers by surprise and smashed into their right flank, routing them almost immediately.

As Tos-Que led the knights to reinforce Sir Hetfield, Nathaniel and Owaine along with their men did their best to hold off the oncoming teutons but ranger and knight casualties persisted. A teutonic knight swung at Nathaniel and was blocked by the young nobles poleaxe briefly before it was snapped in half by the teuton's mace. Holding the two halves of his weapon he used both sides as separate weapons, swinging at the knight with the ax half and parrying with the handle. He parried an attack and stabbed the knight with the spike on the top of the ax head in his stomach and then stabbed the teuton's unguarded neck with the broken part of the handle.

With no weapon now, Nathaniel panicked and looked around for a weapon hastily. He seized a fallen archer's crossbow and fired the untouched bolt into the knee of an advancing teuton. Throwing the crossbow to the side, he grabbed a spear that was thrown into a knight of the pines and used its range to continue holding off the onslaught of the german knights.

The templars began making more progress against Maxis and Edelweiss' soldiers and started pushing them back. The encampment was almost completely packed up but a few tents and supply wagons remained but had to be left behind so that the rangers and knights could retreat faster. Though Tos-Que had brought reinforcements to Sir Hetfield, it was in vain, as more hospitallers started crossing the river. Maxis and Edelweiss' detachment was pushed further into the forest by the templars and teutons.

Maxis thought for a moment as he and his remaining companions ran through the trees as the christian knights drew closer. When they were far away enough, Maxis gave the order to retreat. Following Maxis was Hetfield and Tos-Que, with Owaine and Nathaniel covering the retreat of the knights.

The crusaders stopped as the Middle Tahls forces retreated to the area. The christians then began constructing bridges across slimmer parts of the river. It began raining harder and they were forced to stop and set up camp on the west side of the river.

Maxis and Edelweiss mounted their horses and rode behind the rest of the retreating rangers and knights so they could make sure everyone left safely. After staying behind the main group for about an hour, it was just the two of them, two knights and five rangers. The small group of companions trotted through the forest on their horses with their weapons sheathed. Edelweiss looked around, feeling uneasy, almost scared of the forest around him. He always liked forest but when it stormed it made him feel unsafe unless he was inside a building. He clutched the handle of his sword while it was sheathed and held the reins to Sombra while continuously shifting his vision around nervously. Maxis noticed his behavior and rode up closer to him to make him feel a little safer.

"It's okay darling." He said tenderly as he patted the young knight's shoulder. "You're okay. You did good today, you fought well." Maxis said, looking over to his lover with a smile.

Edelweiss took his helmet off and smiled at Maxis. "Thank you." He said, trying not to blush at the mundane compliment. They started to pick up speed, galloping through the trees as fast as their steeds could take them. They neared the mountain range west of the river, the white, snowy peaks visible through the forest. The remnants of the army regrouped once they were far away enough from the site of the battle. They managed to get away with most of their supplies and necessities and they began setting up another camp with more breastworks surrounding it. Out of the three hundred-thirty soldiers they started out with, they now had only two hundred thirty-two. With almost a hundred knights of the pines and faithful vigils now dead, Maxis made the decision to ride back to Middle Tahl and tell King Skinner of the defeat of his forces while also asking for reinforcements. Maxis placed Owaine and Nathaniel in charge of the remaining men while he, Edelweiss and Sir Hetfield rode to Middle Tahl.