Retreat

"Where did they come from?" Some of the Herewealth soldiers were complaining. "Turn around! Turn around and receive them!" orders were being shouted out.

"Sir! They look like our men!" one of the accompanying knights shouted to Christopher as they were in the middle of the battle.

Not having the possibility to look at the direction the attack came from, he just replied in a quicken voice, "I hope that that they can push the enemy sufficiently to help us out here." Even while speaking, Christopher did not stop concentrating on his targets. The first target he had fell down quickly. There was no proper armor that the soldier had, so a good timed sword lunge finished him off.

However the other two opponents proved to be a bigger problem than he had hoped. One of them even had chain armor, making it a trickier opponent. Before he was able to cross swords with him one of the soldiers shouted from the back, "Sir! Leave these men to us. Make your way to Sir Francis! You have to save him."

Regretfully accepting the proposal, Christopher changed his direction to directly go towards the location where Francis was located. The two targets he had tried to stop him, but the moment one blocked Christopher's way, an object flew to his direction. Startled by this, the soldiers who were blocking Christopher was able to past one of them.

The other one, he had to finish up in an instant. Not minding his own health he pushed forward. Trying to dodge the incoming attack, he was not able to avoid being hit. The incoming attack pierced his armor, hitting his left shoulder. Biting his lip from the pain, he still managed to stab the soldier that tried to block him.

Blood slowly started to flow at his left shoulder, as the sword that lunged into him left a nasty looking mark. However, now his route was free. Without any regret, he rushed towards the location where Francis was.

As he got closer, he saw that Francis was lying on the ground. Not sure is he was still alive, a hard feeling kept on growing into his hearth. 'Please be alive. You are strong! I know that you can do it.'

The sound of metal hitting metal was sounding everywhere. However the path towards Francis was clear. Because of this, Christopher managed to make it to his side in an instant. Quickly jumping off from his horse, he rushed towards the side of Francis. Christopher kept on hoping, praying. 'Be alive! Be alive!'

The moment he touched the skin, he felt an immense coldness. It was as if he was touching the skin of a corpse. Despair filling his body, he could not feel himself from getting sad. The sadness was also filling his heart. Painfully, he picked up the hand of Francis who was lying on the ground. There were numerous cut and puncture marks all across his body.

"I am sorry. I was not able to make it I time." Christopher whispered in a soft voice. The words that were spoken were meant for Francis to hear.

"Y… You man… managed to g… get here." A stuttering voice replied.

Shocked, Christopher looked with wide open eyes towards the direction that the voice came from. The voice came from Francis. He was not able to open his eyes. Only a small portion of his moth was moving.

"Don't speak! You have to save your strength!" Christopher urged. Now he finally noticed the faint heartbeat coming from Francis. Putting his strength on lifting up Francis from the ground, he slowly made his way towards the horse.

By the time he arrived, two other knights who were accompanying Christopher made their way to him. "Help me out! He is still breathing. We have to get him away from this location."

Hearing those orders, one of the knights got off his horse and approached Christopher to help him out. The other acted as a guard in case someone decided to come over.

Putting Francis onto his Christopher's horse, Christopher mounted the horse before riding towards the direction that he came from. "Sound the retreat! The sun is about to set, and we have a lot of wounded to take care of! Sent for a small portion of soldier to act as rearguard."

Before the knight was about to leave Christopher quickly added, "Make sure that the medics are ready to receive Francis."

Nodding his head, one of the knights dashed off in an increased speed. "Slowly retreat! The sun is setting! Slowly retreat!" he started to shout as he made his way towards the rear. Before disappearing into the distance Christopher heard him give out another order to a group of soldiers, "You guys go to the back and make sure that everyone is retreating in an orderly manner."

As the soldiers slowly made their retreat, the curtains of the first day of battle slowly started to settle down. The only question what Christopher, as well as the majority of the soldiers in the northern gate had was the status of Francis.

…