Chapter 304 - Respects

Zaos sighed in relief when he saw the enemies withdrawing. Their numbers were still over ten thousand, but despite the fact that the defending side hadn't even five thousand, they still pursued the enemies.

"Oh, right… we can't let them attack the villages and return to Toules town," Zaos recognized that it would be troublesome if either of those were to happen. "Cohnal, Melisse, we will follow them. Make sure to only let those who aren't too wounded to follow us. We might have to fight along the way, and even without commanders, they might prove to be troublesome if they see some weakness on our side."

"Understood, Captain," Cohnal said.

"I am going to grab some bows and arrows from Commander Brien," Melisse said. "We might need those to put the enemies on their toes."

Zaos nodded and then began to ride toward the group that was pursuing the mercenaries. Although their side had the most exhausted fighters, their speed didn't drop because they focused on defending. Meanwhile, the mercenaries made their horses fight hard and used a lot of stamina.

The foot soldiers that survived on the mercenaries' side spread in all directions since they wouldn't escape on foot. The soldiers were forced to leave them alone for the time being. First of all, they had to secure all the villages and towns in that direction.

After not too long, Cohnal, Melisse, and around two hundred members of Zaos's unit and two hundred recruits appeared and joined the group. Apparently, Commander Brien stayed behind because he suffered some wounds on his legs.

"What were our losses?" Zaos asked.

Cohnal couldn't help but sigh. Zaos was as serious as ever. When it came to his unit deceased, he always tried to hear the bad news first. While that was his way to show that he was a different leader, Cohnal nor Melisse could see him working as commander of an army for long.

"In the last battle, we lost more than 110 members. We let twenty heavily soldiers behind to be treated," Cohnal said.

"As for the recruits, we lost more than five hundred, but only those two hundred could come with us for many reasons," Melisse said.

Zaos nodded and then looked forward toward where he could see the remaining cavalry of the mercenaries. They really couldn't afford to let those guys return to Toules town. Otherwise, many more people will die. 

In the end, the pursuers could have increased their speed and caught up with the mercenaries. Still, in order to avoid some traps and some surprise attacks, they decided to keep a certain distance. Still, despite that, the mercenaries didn't have enough time to stop at the villages along the way to gather some supplies. However, they certainly were moving toward Toules town. While they will need some time to position themselves to defend the place, they certainly will succeed since the pursuers will be exhausted.

However, it seemed that Commander Brien had a surprise prepared for them when the mercenaries arrived at Toules town. They left some mercenaries behind to keep the few survivors of the city in check. Still, despite that, those mercenaries had been deal with somehow. The survivors closed the gates and reinforced the other side with some boulders. The mercenaries tried to destroy the gates, but they quickly gave up when the pursuing party got close.

The mercenaries tried to use the South and West gate, but those also had been sealed, and they were forced to run toward the border just like that. Once again, Zaos sighed in relief, he would have a lot of work to do, but the battle was really over this time.

Although Zaos wasn't in a condition to fight due to the wounds in his hands, he wanted to hunt the foot soldiers that spread around in the region. Still, Cohnal convinced him to stay in Toules town. He only accepted because later, he heard that Commander Brien gave him the order to be the commander of the place until the whole situation is dealt with… although he wasn't that impressive of a commander, he sure was meddlesome. Zaos didn't want to lead a group of strangers. He wanted to command those he knew. Regardless, orders were orders. If he can't respect the chain of command, then he won't go far relying on that when he stands at the top of it.

Later that day, Zaos learned how Commander Brien managed to take over the city while he was fighting to protect the Western base. Even though he couldn't tell who would win, he still had some disguised soldiers in the city. Their original goal was to assassinate the commanders, but they never had that chance. However, they had the opportunity to fight and kill the mercenaries who stayed behind to guard the town… Although he wasn't an impressive commander, Zaos could learn a thing or two from him.

That night, all the soldiers who stayed in Toules town to guard the place alongside the survivors celebrated that astonishing victory. Although they were supposed to stay on guard, most of them drank until they barely could walk. Zaos drunk some beer since he learned from Erean that he should do that on these kinds of occasions to pay respects to the memories of his soldiers. Still, he didn't do it much since his wounds began to burn a little and because he needed to keep himself aware of possible attacks. Still, Zaos welcomed that atmosphere. A soldier's life was already too grim since it was dangerous, and many of them already saw many of their friends in battles or in some missions, so they needed that break now and then.

In the end, the pursuing party returned the following day with the news that the cavalry crossed the border. Fortunately, one of the captains of the western base was smart enough to leave some scouts there. So, for the time being, they were safe. Still, Zaos knew that the next days would be pretty hard doing the cleanup work… disposing of the corpses, burying their fallen friends. It was in situations like that that Zaos felt like pretty punching those who write history books. After all, they never write about that kind of job, and they rarely pay the respects to the fallen heroes.