Chapter 18: Civil war(7)

The Aetherwolf fleet is continuously pursued by Rosewood ships. Those who are unlucky are burned down by fire arrows or sank by the pursuers. The river is covered in blood and wrecks of ships, fishes feed on corpses of dead soldiers. Gavin, who is leading the retreat, desperately commands his men to counter-attack the Rosewood pursuers to reduce the casualties for his side.

30 minutes later, the figure of Veronica Castle appears in front of both fleet's sight. There is an army in battle formation which faces the river under the brown banner of house Crayton. Lord Edmund Crayton, the head of his dynasty is riding a brown horse and equipped with a long spear. After his scout's noticed that the advantage of the battle was on house Rosewood's side, he immediately led his troops out and prepared for battle in case of house Aetherwolf is defeated.

Although house Rosewood can defeat a larger army in a navy battle, Edmund believes that his warriors, Craytian Macemen are invincible when fighting on a field. The defeated Aetherwolf army jump out of their ships and run as fast as possible to the macemen's position as long as they reach the shore. Gavin, lead some of his household knights that still have a fighting spirit, come to meet Edmund:

- Lord Crayton, we must combine our forces and face them together.

- Relax, Lord Aetherwolf, there is nothing that our maces can not break. Let your men rest and reformed inside the city, I'll lead my men to confront them.

Seeing that Edmund is so confident, and Gavin knows that the Craytian macemen are the strongest heavy infantry in the whole kingdom. So he just thanks to the Crayton Lord and lead his men back to the castle.

Not long after the Aetherwolf men disembark, the flags of house Rosewood appears on the river. Harry Rosewood notice the disciplined solid heavy infantry line on the riverbank, ready to fight. He still has more than 5000 left, he thinks; however, 4000 Craytian macemen are much stronger than them if fighting on the ground. He intends to order his men to burn the remaining Aetherwolf's ships with fire arrows and then retreat, but before he makes a decision, a pigeon flies toward him and drops a small piece of paper. He opens and reads it, a smile shows up on his face, he orders:

- Disembark, form shield wall along the riverbank.

Alfred Rosewood, his father, who believes that he'll order to destroy the enemies' ships and then retreat is surprised by his decision and question him:

- Harry, are you mad? We can't face them in a ground battle. Our men'll be slaughtered.

Not losing his calm expression, Harry answers:

- Don't worry, father, believe me. We'll win this fight.

Alfred still seems to be skeptical; however, his son has shown his talents as a commander since he was young, and Alfred acknowledges his son's ability, which he believes is better than his. So he backs down and says:

- So do whatever you want, just promise that you won't lead us to destruction.

- I promise, father. That's the last thing I would like to do.

Edmund, who strongly reckon that the Rosewood fleet will retreat, is confused by seeing the enemies land their ships and get on the shore. "Why do they do that?" Edmund thinks. He knows that Alfred Rosewood and his son are not bastards who want to join a suicide battle. However, he doesn't care they are fools or what, if they disembark, his army will bring death to them. Raise his spear high, he orders:

- MACEMEN, IN POSITION!

The macemen raise the shield up and grab their maces tightly, ready to fight.

- ADVANCE.

The Crayton soldiers move steadily forward to the Rosewood men, who are still forming their shield wall. Harry, who just get off his ships, see the movement of the enemies, shout to command his men:

- SOLDIERS, READY TO FIGHT.

The Rosewood infantries raise their weapons and roar to answer his command. Not waiting any longer, the Rosewood infantries form the shield wall. The Craytian macemen's advance starts to accelerate, they rush toward the Rosewood's men shield wall. Rosewood archers from ships fire their arrows to stop the macemen ; however, only a few can get throw the macemen's amour and shield to cause damage to them.

Two armies engage, the sound of shields clashed with shields, maces with swords, and spears are heard everywhere. Harry, use his shield to block a deadly attack from an enemy, which causes his left arm to be paralyzed from the shake. Ignore his pain, Charles pushes the enemy back and with his sword, thrust the enemy, the well-made sword penetrates the maceman's shield and armor and kill him.

Nonetheless, the macemen pushes back the Rosewood troops' line and clearly, the favor of the battle belongs to house Crayton. Edmund Crayton, still on his horse observing the battle, laughs loudly and talk to one of his bodyguards:

- People says that Rosewood family is very intelligent, but seems like a rumor is just a rumor.

.- Yes, my lord, it seems like we can defeat them here easily and march north to aid the Royal Army sooner than we've expected.

Unexpectedly, everyone feels the ground shakes beneath their feet. Soldiers stop fighting and look around to see what causes the tremble. Not an exception, Edmund looks around and try to understand what is happening, and from behind the Crayton army, there is a roar:

- NOTHING BREAKS US...

- EVEN THE WINTER...

Fear starts to spread all over the Craytian troops as they notice the source of the sounds. At least a thousand calvaries are charging toward them, leading the charge are creatures with faces that definitely not belong to human's, they are using strange weapons which expose deadly aura. And most importantly, the riders are under blue banners, which mean they are Fortunian soldiers.

Many questions rise up in Edmund's head. " How can a Fortuna army appears here?" " Have they defeated the Royal Army?". However, he and his men don't have much time to wonder. The cavalry charge soon reach their back and Craytian macemen are thrown by horses or killed by the Fortunian riders. Their formation starts to disorder immediately for being attacked from behind and from Rosewood soldiers which morale rise dramatically after seeing their ally has come.

Know that the battle is a certain defeat for him and his men, Edmund control his horse and ride with the highest speed toward the castle. But his fate has deceived him, a rider has blocked his way. This rider wears differently from others, most noticeably is his viper mask, and a long spear that has three pointy ends. Terror covers Edmund's face when he sees the mask and the spear, which belongs to a man called the Blue Viper of Iceland, the man who has killed hundreds of Beastmen with only a spear.

Edmund raises his spear and wields it, tries to attack the Blue Viper and create a chance for him to retreat. However, the Blue Viper reacts faster, his spear block Edmund's and knock him out of his horses. Edmund's bodyguards move in the fight to protect him; unfortunately for them, the Craytian knights can not stop the Fortunian general and die with holes on their bodies.

Edmund goes berserk after seeing his closest men die. He gets back on his feet, takes out his sword and charge the Viper. Kruger, skillfully uses his spear to repel the attack, disarm Edmund simply by a wield. After that, the Blue Viper kicks Edmund right in the face. Fall to the group, Edmund tries to get up again; however, another kick knocks him down and he loses his consciousness.

The battle on the River Quitos's shore finishes with the decisive defeat of house Crayton, the macemen rout to the castle and are supported by arrows from archer towers. Although the Fortunian and Rosewood troops try to take Veronica afterward, they don't prepare much to fight a siege battle so they retreat to reform and treat the wounded.

This battle has a huge effect on the war happening in the Alleinstein Kingdom. Especially with the capture of Lord Edmund Crayton.