Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Baron Walker’s End

Braydon was much happier with this battle. Not because it was easier, or because it was one sided, but because he could charge in with the first of his men. A battlefield was considerably different to a siege battle. It was much safer to be one of the first people in than going up enemy walls. Rhydian had nothing to say when Braydon announced that he would be going in first. Though that was partially due to the numerical advantage they had. But that did not matter to Braydon, he’d take what he could get.

Although his men had been marching and had fought a battle in the morning, they had time to rest in between. Not to mention that a significant portion of his men had not actually done any fighting yet. On the other hand, it was apparent that Walker’s men were exhausted. They had just fought a hard won victory and now had to face a larger and better rested force.

He had wanted to fight Baron Walker but that would depend on luck in this battlefield. Nobody was riding a horse into battle so it was much harder to spot any specific person. And thus Braydon started fighting, hoping that he would see the Baron.

Though he hoped for such a thing, Braydon did not want to get distracted. That would be fatal on the battlefield. Braydon had not had a problem with not focusing on the man in front of him before. Contrarily, he focused too much on the man in front of him a lot of the time, that did not mean that he wanted to start now 

He stabbed his sword into his opponent’s gut, downing the man. Braydon turned to look for his next foe and found him immediately, having moved forward to replace his fallen comrade. Braydon did not need to worry that anyone would sneak behind him in this fight. There was an entire army of his men behind him. It meant that he could focus on the foe in front of him, rather than having to watch over his shoulder or hope one of his men would help him out.

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Only that was what it was like in the centre of the clash. Braydon’s forces outnumbered his opponent’s even after sending half his men to gather up the remains of Abel’s men. On the edges of the  battle, Braydon’s mercenaries had wrapped around the edges of Walker’s troops, forcing them to fight multiple adversaries at once.  

It was precisely the edges of the battle that Baron Walker had found himself. He was struggling to fight off two mercenaries at one but was holding his ground. Had he been any less skilled, he’d have been bested long ago. Instead, he had managed to strike one man to the ground but had gotten a strike to his side whilst doing so.

Now he was facing two men while he was injured. He could not find the ability to take one out anymore. He had his shield raised, he did not want to be hit a second time. But that severely hampered his ability to strike back at the two men whaling on him.

*Bang*

Another strike hit his shield. The men were trying to get him to counter attack. Once he moved from behind his large round shield he had no hope. And both sides knew it. The problem he had was it was hard to strike whilst defending with such a large shield. But it could not go on. He was losing.

Baron Walker tried to strike at the man to his right. He shoved his shield at one man and tried to slash at the other. It failed. He had managed to block one man from hitting him, evidenced by the loud hit on his shield. But the man he had tried to strike blocked his attack with his sword. 

Now he was open. Walker tried to pull back his shield in time to block but his enemy would not let it happen. He swung his sword at Walker’s arm. It was sliced clean off. Now the Baron had no shield and had to deal with the pain of a missing arm. It did not go well. He now had to take on two men with no shield to block their attacks.

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The mercenary to his left, now unblocked took a swing at him. He managed to side step in time, but now the other man swung at him again. This time he was forced into blocking the sword. But now he was left open to attack. The mercenary who had not gotten a hit on him yet now stabbed him in the chest.

Baron Walker knew he was finished. ‘Where did Abel get so many men?’ Even until the end he did not know who his second assailant was. The man who had sliced off his arm went for the finishing blow, striking him in the head. He was dead before he hit the ground.

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“Go search for Baron Walker!”

The battle had ended and Braydon was disappointed that he did not get to fight the head of the enemy. He ordered his men to search the dead and unconscious for the Baron. His men had managed to encircle Walker’s forces, forcing their surrender. Now it was just a matter of cleaning the field. He did not want to waste a single man if he could help it, so any unconscious men and the captives would be taken with him. They were all potential soldiers, and he needed to expand his force if he wanted to retain his gains.

It was at this point that Gerald came back, with the other half of his army. He had many captives in tow, appearing to have gotten most of them. As the captives of both sides were pooled together and the battlefield was slowly searched, Gerald came up to meet Braydon and Rhydian.

“So how did it go with the captives?” Braydon asked. He might not be able to get as many captives as mercenaries he had hired but it would not be a small number. After all this was three baronies and lands that had once been a fairly prosperous viscounty. There ought to be a lot of manpower at the very least.

“We got about 100 men from those that fled the field. But the most interesting part was we managed to get Abel’s knight.” This was good news. Knights were hard to come by, and so far they had been rather unlucky. Baron Monrow had no knights at all and from the looks of the battlefield Baron Walker either did not have one or he was dead.

“That is great news, what of the Baron himself?” He did not want to have an escaped Baron on the loose. Especially not one who knew what had actually happened. There would be plenty of people who would want to take him down a peg after what he had just managed. Not least his brothers. And the last rightful baron of the old viscounty would do just nicely as a legitimate reason.

“He did not even enter the field himself. According to his knight, Baron Abel never does.” ‘Now there’s a surprise.’ It was not exactly shocking, the man was not very fit. Braydon didn’t know if it was Abel’s difficulty getting through a door or his triple chins that gave it away.

“We best make post-haste to his manor then. We would not want our Baron to leave before we could tell him of our victory.” Rhydian added. Now that they had captured Abel’s knight it was not likely that he had learnt of what had happened. But, if they left it much later the astute man would probably figure out that his men had lost and run anyway.

“Then let's get to it. Gerald, you stay with the men who just fought and clean up the field. Rhydian and I will go and tell our 'friend', Abel, the good news.”