Battle of the Mountain Retreat

The Battle of the Mountain Retreat was a battle between the Order of the Jedi Bendu of the Ophuchi and the Eternal Order of the Vipera during the Kal'Shabbol Civil War. During it, the two armies met and came at one another from a distance, with the cultist equestrian riders once more taking the lead to wear away the front lines, though the archers set behind the front of the Jedi Bendu line did manage to take down several of the riders and their mounts. As the main force approached, the Jedi Bendu conducted a rehearsed retreat up the mountain they had their back to, a tactic that Matthew came up with, thus gaining an advantage over their enemy. Unable to reach the army with their riders and other mounts, the Valley People were forced to advance on foot, though the Jedi Bendu rained arrows and spears down upon them. This caused heavy casualties in the cultist lines which forced them to retreat. The Jedi Bendu sent several legions down to give chase and help finish them off, but the Valley People set up archers hidden along the mountain walls and shot at the legion. Matthew realized this almost instantaneously and ordered his men to pull back before the archers could do any significant damage, and in the process routed most of the archers. Although the Jedi Bendu had won a battle earlier, this became their first major victory and a source of higher morale in their ranks.

Angered by the outcome of the battle, a group of Valley People under the command of General Angusis began burning and attacking outlying colonial villages, taking all of the unmarried women as companions of the soldiers. This incensed the Jedi Bendu as they saw it to be blatantly criminal, but it also began making the colonists of Ashla Prime, Vattica and other colonies began rethinking what had been a neutral yet-secretively supportive of the Jedi Bendu stance they had taken throughout the entire war. They immediately began deliberations as to whether they should join the war, but the Jedi Bendu knew that they could not wait for them to make a decision before proceeding again, as the Valley People were quickly becoming bolder and more reckless.