Battle for Glarentza Part 2

The knights of Epirus are met by the kataphraktoi of the army of Morea, however they bypass many or impale others, while very few are intercepted as they strike straight into the lines of the skoutotai, immediately killing many and trampling other. Men would scream in horror having their torso completely pierced by lances while many others would see themselves being trampled to death by heavy horses attempting to get past the line of the skoutotai. Blood would be painted across the armor of soldiers, friend and foe, and with clouds of dust following the movement of cavalry blinding everyone involved. All that could be heard would be screams, metal striking metal, those asking for mercy, and the rattles from those of which were already killed. 

Constantine seeing this occur sees his men beginning to lose morale, so he orders his own bodyguard to join the fight as well alongside the skoutotai to prevent them from collapsing, which would see the complete destruction of the Rhomaioi army. 

He would ride up with his own personal bodyguard and avoid nearly being beheaded as Domianus rides up to throw a javelin into the torso of an enemy knight, knocking him off his horse, and then allowing the skoutotai beside him to beat the man to death. He then rides up to Constantine to tell him,

"Constantine! The line is about to break, we must hold or all is lost, YOU must restore hope!"

Constantine nods his head and moves forward to deal with the issue by having a counter charge by his bodyguard and the bodyguard of Domianus to aid the skoutotai. The battle would continue on, seeing men struck down and maimed, this would continue for only about 30 minutes as by time all had ended, it had reached night, and the knights of Epirus would be recalled to reorganize. 

"Constantine!" yells out Domianus,

"What is going on? Why have they stopped?"

"Its night now, we would have the advantage, I'm more wondering as to why they didn't engage their infantry into this battle, we would have surely been crushed." responds Constantine

"I'm sure they expected an easy victory against us." blurts out Demetrios

"These knights are prideful and probably expected us to fall as soon as we saw them approaching, if we had even partially had our formation break up before they charged into us, we would all be dead now. You did well keeping them together Constantine, but I don't see us winning this in a pitched battle tomorrow morning. We must retreat."

Constantine looks over the battlefield, visibility low, but able to still see the weapons of fallen soldiers reflecting the moon's light from off of them. He could tell that many had been lost. 

"Count the remaining men, we need to come up with a plan, or else this campaign will fail. Inform me of what we have when able to." orders Constantine

An hour after the fighting had stopped, a temporary camp had been constructed while captains had attempted to gather the remaining men and re-organize them. 

"Kephale, we have lost about two hundred men, either dead or missing, I wouldn't be surprised if many had fled. Regarding wounded, about another two hundred, though most aren't too serious." responds Demetrios

"What is your plan now? I suggest we retreat, save our losses for when John returns with his navy."

"And if he does come with his navy? What then? Glarentza wont just fall if we blockade them, they can still be supplied by land! The point of this campaign is to cut off all support towards the main base of Epirus support here, if we can't do this, we won't win against Carlo Tocco." responds Constantine in a serious tone

"I have a plan however, I'm unsure of how successful it would be, but I have a plan, is it honorable? No, but it may just save us this victory."

"Demetrios, I need you to inform the skoutotai to begin arranging the tents together as to hide the number of men sleeping in them, while also setting up torches to cover multiple entrances of the camp. Inform your men ALL of them will be put to work tonight I need 200 men from them to join Domianus in the plan I have for him, the rest will be put forth all towards guard duty."

Constantine then continues speaking, issuing out an order to Domianus,

"We will use the remaining kataphraktoi and the 200 skoutotai to launch an attack on the enemy camp at night, we will have the toxotai aid us in firing upon the night watch of the camp to delay their attempts at raising any armed resistance." 

"Alexios, you will have all of the toxotai move with us, I want them to move around to surround the camp as to be ready to begin firing from each side of the camp to cause panic until our soldiers engage the enemy."

Demetrios, Domianus, and Alexios all nod their heads responding with agreeance to the plan to be set in motion. 

"This will commence in 4 hours, prepare now for this, this will give us enough time to get out without being seen and for them to begin resting and for the enemy to feel safe. This will either work really well or we may see ourselves be wiped out, whichever it may be, I hope god is with us in this battle."

The soldiers would be informed of their new orders and begin putting into motion the plan, by about midnight of that day, crossbowmen would sneakily make their way surrounding the camp from all sides from hundreds of meters away as to not be seen well by enemy night watch, also leaving their helmet and pavise back in the camp as to reduce the amount of sound being made and to reduce the gleam from the moon onto their equipment. The Kataphraktoi would ride south from the camp and circle around from almost a kilometer or more out in a small forested region, infantry themselves would also come around just a bit further back from the crossbowmen as well as to not be seen. 

"If our kataphraktoi charge from here into the camp, they have about 2 minutes to react, for many of them, that won't be enough time to mount their horses and gear, we will have to see though." whispers the Kephale

Soon, a loud horn would be blasted from each side of the camp of Epirus, leaving much of the night watch confused as to what was happening, looking in confusion, and then horror as hundreds of bolts came from every direction into the camp of the enemy, striking many and killing many. Then a large wave of cavalry would begin galloping towards the camp, causing many soldiers of Epirus to begin fleeing, and for those who wished to resist they would see themselves sliced open and cut down. Many of the soldiers of Epirus would jump out of their tents in confusion, barely armed and armored, and see themselves quickly killed by Rhomaioi soldiers, and by footmen coming in to spear them, some would even try to escape however many would be killed by crossbowmen outside of the camp awaiting their attempt at doing so. The number of soldiers killed would number hundreds, while many would also be captured. A few hundred would also just barely escape by running into the night frantically, however this would see the captain of the army and the majority of the enemy soldiers pacified. 

By the end of the night, 400 men would lie captured by the Kephale while many others would be slaughtered. Constantine would think to himself on whether or not such a tactic could be considered cowardly or not, however he'd rather be a coward than dead he thought to himself. He would then march into the Captain's tent to find a large chest of ducats and supplies for the army he had just defeated in battle.

"Domianus! Come here!" he shouts

"Yes Constantine? What's the pro-" Domianus pauses as he witnesses the amount of loot found by Kephale

"This is quite a bit my friend, what do you plan to do with it?"

"I was thinking of splitting it evenly, this would please the soldiers so they won't be encouraged to pillage the land here and give us the image of bandits, but also improve their morale and give them the ability to buy better equipment." says Constantine

"We as well will get a share, which I think I will save towards a future project."

"A pretty wise choice my friend! I'm honestly surprised we won this battle, I expected defeat after the fighting earlier today. This will free up our ability to take Glarentza, and put a chokehold on Carlo Tocco." says Domianus

"I'm surprised too, that deals with one problem, now we have another soon to deal with after John arrives with his navy. We will immediately set out back towards Mystras once daybreak sets so we won't be attacked by any unsuspecting parties." commands Constantine

The Morean army then proceeds to make its way back towards Mystras following a similar path to the one that was taken earlier, showing off the captives they had taken and causing celebrations in each town they had crossed by. Soon after about a week of traveling, they would make it back towards Mystras and would be greeted by a huge celebration for the victors. Theodore would greet the soldiers into the city himself and the citizens of the city would have a mini triumph for the soldiers present, as they paraded the captives taken through the city and the loot as well. Once within the city, it would be distributed to the soldiers, with some of the loot given to the families of those who died. Constantine was proud of what he had accomplished, a task thought to be impossible, done so by him and his men. The cost would result in the death of around 350 men in his army, with many succumbing to their injuries and some even dying after getting an infection. Though such is the case in war.