Chapter 249: Routed

"Seems like he knew we were coming." Braydon noted to himself as he looked at the army that had already assembled by the time his had arrived. It would not really have been a fair fight had it been otherwise since the army camp that his scouts had reported was meant to be hidden, not defended. It was nestled in a depression between several of the nearby hills, a good hiding place, sure, but archers would have a field day attacking it.

"Well more fun for me. Prepare for battle!" Braydon shouted to his men. It was still not going to be a fair fight. Even without the archer he had brought, his infantry still outnumbered the opposing lord's army.

"Forward!" He commanded once more. As much as he wanted to take part in this battle, he had decided to sit this one out to observe how skilled the enemy was. He would likely not get this chance again before a significant number of men came to try and take back his new possessions. He wanted to be as prepared as he could be.

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"You are telling me that a mere Earl has this number of men to spare after heavily defending several castles and an entire town?" Lord Shara could hardly believe the amount of men that stood before him. He had assumed that even if his enemy could defend all of the fortifications he had taken, he would not be able to muster any additional men to attack him. The man was a newly raised Earl. It was not like he had the time to raise an army over several years and there was no way that there were enough peasants to conscript in his own lands.

"There is nowhere to run either." Since his camp was hidden, it was not exactly next to a road or near a castle that he could retreat to. Had he known, there was no way that he would rush ahead of everyone else to try and take his castle back. Not that he had time to regret that now, the opposing army was already marching toward his own men.

"Shields up!" He shouted, he had long since noted that this Lord Fiton had brought some archers with him. It was already a losing battle as it was, it looked like he would have to sacrifice a significant portion of his men if he wanted to retreat. Archers would only make that more difficult.

*thud* *thud* *thud*

Not long after giving the command, the arrows started raining down as he had expected. He was just glad that the archers were relatively few in number. If that could even be counted as something to be glad for.

"Hold your ground!" He shouted once again, not that he thought it would help much. It was not like he had an army of knights at his command, these were peasants either hired or conscripted and given minimal training. Even though they had taken part in a few minor battles and skirmishes they were not exactly an elite fighting force.

And reality held up to his expectations. His army was not the only one that had been fighting recently, at least half of Braydon's army was made of mercenaries that made a living on fighting. Not to mention most of his own men had just come out of the other side of Fiveria's own civil war. They were more than a match for Lord Shara's men in terms of experience.

"Protect the flanks! No matter what, do not get surrounded!" Lord Shara was most concerned about this, he knew that he would have to retreat but that was going to be much harder if he had to do it alone than if he was able to take some of his men with him.

Even if he said that, there was only so much that his men could do. It did not take long to notice that the archers were focus firing on his left flank. They would fall eventually regardless of how cautious he was being.

"Right flank, start falling back!" Lord Shara had no other choice, it was the least damaged part of his army and there was no way that he was going to get more than one part of his army out half intact.

As the right flank fell back, Braydon's left flank advanced to keep pace with them, but before they could be pulled out of formation too much they stopped pursuing and started to circle in on the centre. It was obvious that they had been ordered to stop pursuing the right flank and circle in on the centre of Shara's army.

"Looks like he is letting me go for now. Quickly retreat!" Lord Shara shouted to his remaining men, less than a third of his original army. Most of the rest of his men were being surrounded by the enemy and there was no way he was going to be able to get them out.

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"Looks like this was his intention from the moment he saw how many men I had." Braydon said as he watched the remains of the enemy army either retreat or be surrounded and surrender.

"Well not much I can really do to pursue, he probably knows the terrain better than any of us." Braydon had noticed as much as soon as the enemy right flank started retreating, hence why he had his left flank encircle the rest of the army that had been left behind. He was not going to let the rest of them retreat in a similar manner. In the end he had still achieved his goal. The number of men that had managed to retreat was less than 100, compared to the almost 200 that his men had surrounded, he knew which was more important.

"Now what do I do with these guys?" It was not like he could use them as his own fighting force immediately, he was unsure about their loyalty and willingness to fight. Not every surrendering soldier was like the garrison of Damaz, happy to defend their home. Most of these men were peasants that had been levied. It was likely that they would be more than happy to run away or surrender if the going got tough.