Kamytzes received Alexios' orders but disregarded instructions not to fight a battle. He caught up with Kontogmen and the amir Mouchoumet at Aorata and attacked at once, scattering the Turks, who thought he was Alexios (whom they were expecting). When they learned from a Pecheneg that this was Kamytzes, they reassembled their army and approached him at Aorata, where he was still sorting out their booty and prisoners, not realising that he needed refuge in a fortress like Poimanenon. When his army saw the huge Turkish force, most of them fled at once, and most of those who fought (chiefly Pechenegs and Normans) were killed. Kamytzes fought on, receiving a horse from his nephew Katarodon when his own was killed. He struggled on for some time, and the admiring Turks decided to spare him. Mouchoumet, who knew him, dismounted and offered his hand, which the exhausted Kamytzes took. He was shackled to a horse