Tales around Mirateia 34 Part 1

It was around midday when Azran and the 1st cohort ran into the first signs of the battle that the 4th cohort had been in, to the left of the track leading into the hills, they ran into the first death legionaries, most of them sitting, leaning up against one of the trees, likely hoping that they would be rescued, sadly only to die while waiting.
"Decaris, make a note to bury them once we have figured out who attacked them," Azran said while taking a look around the scene.
"Yes sir"
As the cohort moved further into the hills, they began to run into more and more bodies, most of them were quickly identified as the supposed bandit force, what irritated Azran most about this was that they so far had not found any of the attackers still alive, so they still knew nothing. As they didn't have to fight their entire way back to Nicia and moved with a purpose, the cohort managed to get to the area where the 4th cohort was attacked the day before, despite having seen a battlefield before, the view that met Azran and the cohort was brutal, from the position that Azran had, he could see that the cohort had been in the process of constructing the camp as the Decaris had mentioned, they had managed to dig a small ditch and the dirt had been the process of being pilled up on the inside of the ditch to form the rampart of the camp when they had been attack and by the looks of it, the cohort had given them a good beating, judging by the amount of bodies laying on the outside of the ditch and inside it, Azran couldn't help but feel a small amount of pride when he noticed how few of the bodies belonged to the cohort and from he had seen on the route to here, the majority of the cohorts deaths had been happening when they pulled out of the camp and the route back towards Nicia.
"By the Lady, they must have been attacked by an army," The Senior Decaris of the 1st cohort said as he looked out over the battlefield.
"What concerns me more is how a force this big gets so close to Nicia," Azran said, turning toward the city.
"Right, what now sir?"
"First, get some men to search for potential survivors, and some to gather supplies if our unknown enemy has left any for us, although I doubt it, then we have to march a bit further into the hills and make camp"
"Right sir"
About an hour later, the cohort was on the move again. They had again not found any survivors. Azran suspected that as they pulled back from attacking the cohort when it came too close to the city, they went back through the route and finished off those who were too wounded to walk back to their camp. They had, though, managed to find a few sacks of supplies that the two sides had left behind.
While discussing what they had learned about the attack so far, the scouts' Decaris came riding up next to Azran.
"Sir, look up there. It looks like we are being watched," the Decaris said, pointing his spear towards the ridge on their left.
Looking in the direction the scout was pointing, Azran could see a group of at least five riders. It didn't look like they were worried about having been spotted.
"Should I send some to chase them away Sir?"
"No, not worth it, we dont know what is out there so I dont want to split up the cohort when I dont need it"
"Right Sir"
"But do keep an eye on them, inform me if the number of them increases"
The Decaris saluted and returned to the rest of the scouts. Later in the afternoon, Azran ordered the cohort to halt and begin the construction of a marching camp, which luckily didn't take long to prepare thanks to the soil being easy to dig into. When the sun was just about to dip below the horizon and the sky was taking on all these bright colours of red and orange, Azran called all the officers of the cohort to his tent for a briefing.
Azran was standing, going over some thoughts in his mind when the first officers began to come into the tent and after a few minutes the last one entered and the senior Decaris came up to Azran to report that they had all arrived, Azran nodded and moved to a central position where they could all see him.
"Listen up men" Azran yelled out to get their attention.
"We are in what can best be described as a shit situation, we are going up against an enemy that we barely know anything about, we dont know who they are and most importantly, we dont know how many they are."
"Are they not just common bandits Sir?" one of the junior officers interrupted
"When is the last time you have heard of a group of bandits attacking a Dercian cohort of legionaries in daylight?"
The junior officer had no response and almost looked to shrink back when Azran's gaze landed on him.
"To continue where I was, I suspect that those riders we spotted earlier today are the same that attacked the 4th cohort yesterday so we know they are still out there which let me be honest, I dont like, they are too close to the Nicia.
As you said, we dont know where the enemy is located so what are you suggesting we do Sir?" one of the older officers said, old enough to be Azran's father and must surely be reaching the end of his service time, he could look forward to a cushy job in some administrative role in a Dercian city.
"The way I see it, we have two options, we can return to Nicia like Clifian dogs and wait to see what happens or we can go further into the hills and force the enemy to fight"
"How do you plan on forcing them to battle Sir?" one officer asked.
"I dont think it's going to be a problem forcing them to battle, I suspect that we might be seeing an attack already tomorrow if my gut feeling is correct, and it tends to be, it told me that I would only get into trouble with the Crown Princess and well.."
A small chuckle came from the gathered officers, they might not have been around Ira and Azran for that long, but they had seen how they were around each other and they all knew the rumours from back in Pearlhal. Azran spent the next 15 minutes filling in the officers on why he suspected that an attack might come already the following day and when the last officer had left the tent, Azran sat down on his chair and ordered a servant to bring some bread and cheese as he could feel that he had not eaten since that morning.
It took some time for him to finally fall to sleep, he had never been a fan of the field beds, and while he didn't mind a hard surface to sleep on, the felt beds might as well have been a block of marble or granite, but after some tossing and turning he finally managed to fall into a deep sleep.
The following day began as any other day on campaign, Azran woke up early, he hated it but he felt that he should set a good example for the rest of the men by being up and about early after the marching camp had been broken down and the cohort was on the march again, They had been marching until about midday when one of the scouts came up to Azran.
"Sir, we have spotted a dustcloud to our east, it seems to be moving towards our position with a good speed"
"Did you spot how many? and how much time do we have before they arrive?"
The scout was quiet for a moment, getting his thoughts in order before he spoke again.
"We didn't get close enough to spot them, but judging from the size of the dust cloud, a safe estimate is at least twice our number, they are probably upon our position within the next couple of hours. Sir"
Azran nodded and told the scout to keep the dustcloud under observation, but that the scouts should keep their distance and try not to be spotted. Following this, the order for the cohort to prepare for battle was given and Azran was happy to see that the many months of training on the fields back at Nicia were paying off as the cohort without trouble entered into a defensive position, Azran had decided to make his stand upon one of the hills, it wasn't the biggest hill he could have chosen, but it did have the advance that the hill had a rather large and fast flowing river flowing on two of its sides, requiring the enemy to attack from the front, at the same time, it would require the enemy to run up a slope, getting tired in the process and the slingers and archers of the cohort would have a better angle of attack.
When the cohort was in position, the wait began, it didn't take long for the dust cloud to appear on the horizon and within two hours the enemy appeared and took up a position in front of the cohort, the ranks of the enemy force opened up and two riders rode towards the cohort, Azran and the senior Decaris rode out to met them.
"That's close enough!" Azran yelled when the others were about 15 meters away.
The other two riders stopped.
"Were you the ones that attacked a Dercian cohort yesterday?"
"What if we were?" the one Azran assumed to be the leader answered.
"If that's the case, consider yourself and your Warband there behind you, under arrest"
The two riders laughed for a moment and before Azran were able to speak again, the leader looked at Azran, directly in the eyes.
"I dont think so lad, we outnumber you, so if I were you, I would surrender, and maybe, just maybe you would be able to return to that lovely girl of yours"
Azran looked at the enemy leader for some time, before turning around with his horse, with the senior Decaris following a moment later.
Back at their lines, the senior Decaris caught up with Azran.
"What was that about Sir?" 
"It's them, those are the ones that attacked the 4th cohort, Decaris, prepare the men, I want ranged weapons in the rear and the men being ready to throw them, but dont throw before you are sure that you can hit the enemy, they outnumber us so we have to make it count.
The Decaris nodded and began barking orders to the men.
It didn't take long before the battle began, Azran had assumed that the enemy would wait for the dark to attack but it seemed that despite how disciplined they looked, they must have lost their patience and began the battle. not long after the enemy had started moving, their archers released volleys of arrows. Azran just managed to give the warming for the cohort and most of the soldiers managed to raise their shields in time to protect against the arrows, the wounded were quickly passed through the ranks to the back where the team of Custodes Vitae could come and see to them.
When the two sides clashed, his attention was pulled away from the wounded. The cohort was pushed back a few meters in the middle, where the push from the enemy had been hardest, but the discipline of the legions and their soldiers ensured that the cohort held the line. It likewise became clear that the enemy wasn't all equally well equipped, as several of the enemies began trying to pull away from the frontlines as they became wounded.
"Hold the line boys, show these bastards what you are made of," Azran said as he walked up and down the line.
The battle went back and forth for some time. The Cohort held the line but was forced back slowly, giving more and more of the hill to the enemy. Seeing this, Azran made sure his helmet was securely fastened and pushed his way towards the frontline, taking the place of a soldier who became wounded just as Azran reached the frontline.
"Come on lads, on my mark, push... PUSH" Azran yelled at the top of his lungs.
Just as he had given the order, the entire front row of the cohort pushed their shields forward catching a number of the enemy off guard and on Azran's count, they all took a step forward and then another one, slowly but steadily the cohort regained the top of the hill, shortly afterwards the two sides separated and the enemy force retreated to their starting point to lick their wounds and try a new tactic of getting the cohort of the hill. Meanwhile, the cohort remained on the field and half of the cohort was pulled back to rest and prepare some food as it had been hours since breakfast and after what Azran estimated to be at least an hour of battle, he would bet that a lot of them were beginning to be hungry, he certainly was starting to feel it.
Azran met with his officers shortly after.
"Do you have the butcher's bill?" Azran said looking at the senior medic.
"Yes sir, it's still a bit rough so far but at this moment we have 15 dead, 14 seriously wounded, 5 of those wounded I suspect will not survive the day, and finally we have at least 20 walkings wounded, they can fight should the need arise but I would of course as the Custodes Vitae, not recommend it, Sir"
"Thank you"
"They surely gave us a beating but by Mara did we give them a bloody nose" Decaris Caius Camillius said.
"We did, and for round two I have a plan that might just work, I want you to take the scouting force and circumvent the enemy and attack them from behind once they attack again," Azran said turning to face the Decaris for the mounted scouts.
The Decaris nodded, saluted and went to gather his scouts and shortly afterwards set out to find a way behind the enemy force, the officers knew that it would take at least a couple of hours before they might be ready to attack, all they could hope that the enemy didn't attack for a few hours and considering that the enemy had taken a worse beating than Azrans forces, it was likely that they would take some time before they would try again.