46. The Deluge

  Richard Drengot in his resplendent hauberk armour watched his left flank, his eastern flank be torn to pieces, in this moment though he had one more surprise. 1000 more papal cavalry came out of nowhere and went for the Shadows. The Shadows scattered, and the Christian army regained momentum. 3100 Shadows threw knives, spears and axes at the cavalry, their tactics of causing as much chaos and then navigating said chaos, turning the additional reinforcements into corpses who soon enough fled, but with a brutal cost, 1000 Shadows dead from the shock of the charge, with 800 cavalry littering the field. 21,500 in total was the total count of the Christian coalition at the beginning, there were additional troops secured at the last minute who were now running from the field. Swords, and knives were picked up in the brutal evening. Another salvo had left the infantry peeled off. There were perhaps 12,000 infantry left, climbing over the corpses of their brethren as they threatened the formation, making it buckle under pressure.

  “Go on men! A bloody day but it will be our day! Remember the Frigidus river!”

  It was perhaps an arcane reference, but Richard had talked the previous night about it, how the Pagans were overcome, here the Shadows continued to break the Eastern flanks, lumbering infantry charging at them, only to have their eyes taken out, and smacking the heavily armoured infantry with well placed iron. Over the course of the afternoon, another salvo hit, and there were only 8000 infantry left, mostly concentrated on the centre and the western flank. Mace-men were cycled from the East to the West, as the battle became a slogging match between the two sides, ultimately decided by the formation the Pagans had chosen.

  “Hold the line, and kill them!” Thorphinius screamed, “don’t fear, hold on for as long as you can!”

  The Shadows had to gather throwing weapons and could not properly assault the centre which proceeded to smash into Gocelin’s army causing casualties. From 3000 to 2500, but then again a salvo hit them. 6000 men were left and they wanted Gocelin dead, revenge for the cruel punishment. The papal cavalry came back, but they were shredded annihilated by small missile fire that hit them in the face or otherwise. Those cavalry routed, but the infantry continued their assault, Thorphinius and Gocelin were left with 2000 infantry protecting the artillery, until another salvo hit the eastern wing of the Christian army. There were 4000 men left, a crack in the front lines allowed Christian troops to strike a few of the artillery, but in that moment, the Shadows fully charged into their rear. Mace and glaive wrought terrible destruction on the battlefield, 1500 men fighting to the death, as they were being attacked from the centre and the east; the Catholic centre collapsed because of the Shadows charge, Sauromates leading the assault by using a captured sword that impaled three Christian soldiers. Hiding among the corpses to throw into the groin or throat, the Shadows wrought a terrible punishment. Another salvo of artillery, reduced the Christian number to 2000, but it wasn’t a full salvo for the enemy who were now too close to Gocelin’s army. Fatigue set in as the sun was now setting, the Catholic centre had collapsed totally and Sauromates was now progressing around to the western flank, the pincers now being pincered, destroyed by the Shadows limited cavalry, formations broke and Gocelin’s troops chased the Christian troops down and off the field.

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  “Kill them all!” One man shouted with a bloody glaive.

  Falling into the now limited pit that was filled to the brim with corpses. Blood was in macabre pond, the ground was now filled with red mud, in the mud the Shadows excelled at running and crawling before finishing off the coalition army. The sun crept beneath the horizon, and the redness made the battlefield a scene from hell. Drengot, Guiscard and a few important notables managed to rush out of the disaster. 500 Christians survived, the Shadows had been halved to 1500, and Gocelin was left with a mere 1000 infantry, having lost 4500 infantry in the melee as well as 200 technicians from when the lines buckled. Gocelin stared at the carnage.

  “War huh…” he whispered.

  Thorphinius had cuts on his arm and face, someone putting lemon juice to disinfect it.

  “Fuck,” he grimaced, “rub it on others too, beats fucking dying... probably.”

  Richard Drengot looked at the carnage from a distance awe struck by his defeat; Guiscard fled the battlefield with astonishment on his face, riding off with his son to a safe town.

  Throughout the 2nd of April and the 3rd Gocelin looted the corpses and took their time taking everything. Rings, armour, swords. The Shadows likewise took 500 of the horses for riding purposes, taking part in the rampant gathering of valuables. Sauromates covered in blood met with Gocelin. Gocelin shook hands with the brown haired man, whose muscles and light tunic was covered in blood spurts of combat. Sauromates laid on the ground in exhaustion, as were most of his men, in the middle of the day, before flies roused them from their slumber.

  “Commander, we have been given half the loot,” a man said.

  “That’s great, I am happy that we were given such an opportunity.”

  15,000 solidi each, filling Gocelin to 64,000 solidi, but he had had spent 8000 solidi paying his troops in the meanwhile taking him down to 56,000 solidi. With his limited troops he marched into Andria, immediately boosting his solidi by 20,000 making his treasury 76,000 solidi. Sauromates let Gocelin consolidate there, instead carting off his gold and silver back to Corato, sending a messenger to Kwame of the victory there. The Normans were certainly broken, the only significant forces in Italy were now Gisulf and Sergius who would seize the opportunity that the Pagans had given them.

  April 4th, 3000 glaive-men of Greek origin had been hired from the mercenary merchants, arriving at Andria, they joined Gocelin who quickly used them and his exhausted troops to push onto Barletta. Arriving in the late evening, the city opened their gates without a fight, receiving the dreadful battlefield news, the city was in no mood to fight. Looting 20,000 solidi from the churches and from the governorship, Gocelin proceeded to rest his troops.