Zaos frowned since he was about to take a nap, but then he suddenly heard the sound of horses again. He thought the first surprise attack failed because he chose his best archers and used Light in the Darkness on them, but it seemed that the mercenaries didn't learn their lesson. Surprise attacks were useless against Zaos because of that spell. Still, he didn't want to demonstrate to the enemies yet that he could see clearly at night. He wanted to make the enemies think that his soldiers were much better than the mercenaries and make them lose their morale.

  When Zaos was about to move with the archers, he noticed that another unit was approaching and that one was heading in their direction. It seemed a bit too soon for that, but since it was a whole unit, Zaos didn't hesitate.

"Retreat!" Zaos shouted.

  The enemies got excited when they heard that that small group wasn't on horses, and they were quite close to them. Although the darkness was a problem, they illuminated the path when the archers fired fire arrows toward them. However, Zaos blocked those since few of the mercenaries could fire those arrows on horses. Zaos alone managed to keep the archers safe. Zaos unit suddenly moved to the side to dodge a small boulder. Still, then when the mercenaries got close, the boulders suddenly grew larger and also gained spikes. The horsemen collided against each other and were knocked down one after the other.

  The unit of horsemen finally realized that those weren't boulders. They were soldiers armed with shields and spears. Their formation was so tight that even the horses were knocked down when they collided against those. The unit captain thought of retreating, but then he recalled the orders that he received… he couldn't go back empty-handed. He decided to open the path by using brute force, but then he got attacked by arrows coming from behind the shield walls. The nearby mercenaries also suffered the same destiny.

  The other mercenaries that weren't so hot-blooded decided to escape. Still, then they noticed that they had been surrounded by shield walls in all directions… those numbers didn't match Zaos's unit, but they didn't have time to understand why. Archers came from behind each shield wall and then killed the horsemen. We killed those who tried to open the path with brute strength by the numerous spears coming from the shield walls.

---- ----

  Luvon's man, who had the sole job to report of what might happen to those units, managed to escape since he stayed two hundred meters behind both and thanks to that. He managed to see the sparks when weapons collided in both battles. Thanks to those same sparks, he knew what happened.

"The first unit didn't have to worry about being flanked, but they still were wiped out since the enemies were waiting for another attack," Luvon said. "However, the second unit fell for a trap when they were chasing the snipers. Some soldiers disguised in the darkness armed with shields and spears prevented them from escaping…"

"The numbers were too high, sir," The scout said. "They had several decent archers behind the shield walls… we can't fight in the darkness like this."

  Luvon was a pretty experienced and calm mercenary, but even his patience had limits. That was just ridiculous, they were on the offense, and they couldn't attack at night without their siege weapons?

"Calm down, Luvon, we still killed more enemies than we lost, so this is fine," Camus said. "Not to mention, we won't fall for the same trick twice."

  Luvon wanted to believe that, but he couldn't help but feel that things that were happening were way too weird. Considering their numbers and the fact that they gained an important foothold early on, he imagined that the conquest of that side of the Sairus kingdom would be swift. Still, thanks to the arrival of a single snot-nosed brat and his unit, things were being a lot tougher than predicted. While their influence would grow a lot if they kill the heir of Sielders family, from Luvon's perspective, Zaos would cause much more trouble if compared to anything they might gain by killing him.

----- -----

  Much to Zaos' disappointment, the mercenaries didn't attack again that night, but that wasn't so bad since he would have some time to sleep. The siege weapons will arrive in the morning that was pretty evident, so he will have less time to rest.

"It seems things went well, Captain," Cohnal said after he checked the other battlefield. "Now we won't have to worry about other night attacks unless they use their siege weapons and start to fire some flammable objects."

"How many did we lose?" Zaos asked.

"You don't have to know that, Captain," Cohnal said. "I know that is your way of doing things, but…"

"Just answer," Zaos said. "I don't want to become a commander who can only see the death of his soldiers on the battlefield like simple numbers on paper."

"… We lost 55 of the recruits and forty-three members of our unit," Cohnal said after a long sigh. "On the other battlefield, we lost 435 soldiers. On the other hand, we killed 1359 mercenaries."

Considering the number of soldiers each side had, it seemed that the soldiers' side was winning. Still, Zaos knew that things weren't so simple. They had to use more men than the mercenaries did, and they also didn't use their siege weapons. Zaos wanted to come up with better plans, but it was hard to think of any decent idea. He was too inexperienced when it came to leading other soldiers, after all.

Although Zaos read many books about tactics and that also registered many battles, the tactics written in those books wouldn't help him. Not to mention, the two commanders on the enemy sides were pretty experienced, so anything too obvious will be perfectly countered.

In the end, before Zaos could think of any decent battle plan, morning came, and he knew that things would get even messier from that point onward.