“Sometimes, a realization might only dawn on you when it was all too late for it to be of use.” - Old folk saying.

High Regent Lukas Worsted of Anduille had difficulty sleeping that night.

He received the reports nearly half an hour after the fact, since he and his staff were marching along with the last quarter or so of their troops, near the rear. The difficult terrain of the jungle forced his troops to lengthen their formation, as the roads were too small to allow them to pass through in their usual one, which also caused further delays in relaying of information from the front to the back.

The ambush his vanguard had run into was something the troops were not used to, as most of their experience in combat had been against goblins. Anduille had mostly expanded their territory by diplomatic threats, and they had been the largest power in the north to begin with, so the other, smaller states in the region had mostly capitulated without much of a fight.

And now that lack of experience fighting against other armies bit them in the rear.

Not for the first time, either, as Lukas strongly believed that it was such a lack of experience that killed his father and elder sister in the short war against Caroma four years ago. He had since made reforms and instituted training programs to improve the readiness of his soldiers, but the fact remains that his soldiers still lacked real combat experience against opponents that’s not goblins.

Meanwhile, it appeared that the people defending Levain were determined to extract their pound of flesh from his army, given the sting they already dealt him barely a day after his army crossed the borders.

It was a rather disheartening report that reached him after the fact. Over two hundred dead – some of which drowned to death in a mud pit their enemies had dug in preparation of their arrival – with over twice that number sporting injuries of varying seriousness. Whoever they were dealing with were horribly efficient, as witness reports said that the whole ambush had not taken more than ten minutes from start to finish.

Everything was arranged in detail as well, from the archers who both opened the curtains to the ambush and provided cover fire for the ambushing troops to retreat, to the timing of the strike, which happened just as their troops halted due to the trap that blocked the road. The enemies must have hidden close to the road itself to be able to react in such a timely manner, which was no surprise given how visibility was shit thanks to the dense jungles.

In most places even the people who were proud of their eyesight could barely see more than a couple meters into the jungle itself, so dense was the undergrowth.

That their enemies were patient and hardy enough to wait for them in the middle of such dense foliage was a hint that they weren’t dealing with regular enemies, more likely than not. Regular enemies under such conditions were far more likely to display some flaws that might give away their location, or make other mistakes.

Given how his troops had no idea whatsoever of the enemy’s presence until they struck and the speed with which those enemies rushed out and back into the jungle, they were most likely dealing with professionals. The reports mentioned a large number of large-bodied therians, which definitely weren’t a common sight in the former Clangeddin territory, so probably the mercenaries hired by Levain, then?

The thoughts kept him awake, his sleep interrupted repeatedly after brief moments of rest as he kept finding himself woken up by his thoughts once more. Despite his age, this expedition was the first time Lukas was in charge of an army, much less leading them to battle. He quickly learned that the feeling of guilt he felt for getting some of his men killed was an unpleasant one, however.

In the end, as sleep continued to elude him, he got up from his bed and dressed himself, leaving his tent after a quick wash using the water in the pitcher set near his bedside. It was late in the night, and all was quiet, quite unlike the experiences his sister had told him about during campaigns against the goblins, where a peaceful night of rest was at a premium.

The little buggers loved to make things inconvenient for the army, to say the least.

From the silence Lukas had a brief moment of hope that his enemies – if they were indeed Levainian mercenaries as he doubted that the locals were that skilled – had not subscribed to the same method of war, where they primarily made themselves too annoying to be worth continuing the campaign for. All considered, the casualties from the ambush stung, but they were less than one hundredth of his men, and with the orders to increase their vigilance while on the march, he doubted that a repeat would go as well for those ambushers.

He walked around the quiet camp to clear his mind, the night breeze cold and clammy against his skin. It was a nice change to the damp heat of the day, which made everyone sweat prodigiously and cause their clothes to stick to their bodies uncomfortably. The northern region was always that way, with the temperature differing quite a bit between the day and night.

Due to the cramped conditions of the road, the army couldn’t set up a proper camp the way he would have preferred, so they instead set up simple fences that they’d remove and carry along with them come the morning. Tents were pretty much only the privilege of people like him and his commanders, with most of the soldiers simply sleeping on the ground on bedrolls.

Fortunately they had long learned to concoct effective insect and beast repellants so the soldiers were able to rest in a modicum of comfort despite the lack of proper shelter.

The High Regent was a bit lost in thought as he walked around the camp, greeting the soldiers on watch as he passed them. That was, until his attention was caught by what seemed to be a small flame high in the sky. Before his eyes, the flames seemed to multiply, then they started falling down, in the direction of the vanguard camp.

It was only when the blaze began to erupt in the distance that he realized that he was looking at an enemy night attack.