“Attacking during the night, when the enemy was the least guarded, was an age-old tactic that any military commander worth their salt would think of and guard against. Just because someone knew and prepared for it however, didn’t mean that someone is safe from it.

Guards grew tired and bored over time, became complacent and lax in their duties. A good commander was one who exploited those moments of complacency to the maximum effect, to strike when it was least expected.” - From the “Maxims of War”, ancient military manuscript from the Huan Confederacy.

Throughout the rest of the day, the mercenary archers rained arrows on the Bostvan forces from their southern flank. With their small numbers compared to the number of soldiers fighting, their efforts probably only counted as an annoyance for the Bostvan commanders, though their soldiers likely thought differently.

The most damage they did was almost entirely Salicia’s handiwork, as the one-eyed woman sniped the Bostvan commanders and lieutenants, and even squad leaders one after another as long as she noticed them. Just her actions alone threw the southern flank of the Bostvan forces into some disarray as their commanders either no longer dared to give commands openly, or fell dead.

After a while, the Bostvans had enough of the annoyance and sent a square of light infantry into the first to root out the archers. All that managed to do was to cause the mercenary archers to turn their focus on the incoming infantry, who were welcomed not only by a barrage of arrows, but also by various traps prepared by the Free Lances from days ago.

While they pushed onwards bravely, all that resulted from their efforts was that they became the victim of multiple ambushes along the way. Even so they fought until they reached the line of tall trees the archers used as their perch.

It was there where what was left of the square found themselves assaulted by Mischka’s entire detachment, which had been reinforced back to nearly a hundred people by then. While outnumbered, Mischka and her folks made up for it with pure brute force and unrelenting ferocity as they simply barreled their way through the Bostvan infantrymen.

Yuri had simply pushed with his pair of tower shields linked in front of him and only stopped when he had rammed them into a large redwood tree several times thicker around than he was. Several boston soldiers had been caught between his solid metal shields and the tree, and were reduced to little more than meat paste by the impact.

Others in the way were directly trampled down by the mixed horde, which then spread into two as they wedged the Bostvan infantry formation apart. Mischka herself led the offense on one side. The spears used by the infantrymen deflected or bent against her heavy armor even as he blade reaped them as if they were wheat to a farmer’s sickle.

Yuri and Niko led the other half of their group towards the opposite side as they pried apart the Bostvan formation. The heavy armor the unit wore rendered them mostly safe from the weapons of their enemies, and the few strikes that managed to hit a weak point or a joint were more annoyances than serious injuries to them, thanks to their great vitality and size.

Zyd was amongst the group as well, as he had been assigned to join them to make best use of his prodigious size. The former thug was clad in heavy plates, fashioned out of salvaged pieces and refitted to his massive frame, with a heavy tower shield in one hand and a large metal cudgel on the other. The burly man made use of his inborn strength and size and just squashed soldiers that stood in his way with heavy strikes of the cudgel.

All the while, people from Nicole’s, Fatimah’s and Egil’s group struck from the outside of the Bostvan formation and whittled them down, while the archers above fired down into the center of the formation where there was no risk of friendly fire.

In less than an hour, the square sent to stop the mercenary archers were gone, with most of its people slaughtered other than a few who lost their courage and ran away early. Those that tried to run from the ambush were chased down and slaughtered like animals, their corpses quickly stripped of valuables on the way back and left to feed the wild beasts.

The mercenaries themselves barely took any casualties, while the Bostvan forces seemed to have learned their lesson. They had not sent a second force to pursue the mercenaries, but instead shifted their southern flank a good bit further northwards, out of reach of the arrows fired from the forest.

Of course, such a move did not come without a price, as the defenders on that now-freed southern side pelted the rest of their formation freely instead. Apparently the Bostvan commander was more worried about another potential ambush from the forest, however, and they maintained the distance even into the following days of battle.

That left Reinhardt and his mercenaries with nothing to do for the next few days, which they spent on preparations for the night raid they planned. Earthen jugs were filled with highly combustible oil, mixed with some alchemical accelerants that would make it burn hotter and faster, then sealed and a strip of cloth was tied around it.

They planned to strike the rear side of the enemy encampment because it was the side that was defended the most lightly, and usually important people would have their tents placed closer to the rear. Many of the Bostvan soldiers they took down also only had personal storage items, the commander clearly not caring enough to issue larger ones for the soldiers, so chances are their supplies would be concentrated on a few commanders.

Logically those commanders, or at least the supplies, would be stored closer to the rear to avoid losing them during battle. Reinhardt had informed the young Heir of his plans through messengers, and she apparently liked it so much that they ended up altering the plan for a double assault, hitting the Bostvan camps from both sides at once.

Three days later, after a heated battle that must have left at least a few thousand people dead on the battlefield, Reinhardt watched as the sun went down under the horizon and the moons rose in its place. The larger moon was in a new moon phase, while the smaller was only a bare crescent, and the night was dark as pitch.

Just as they wanted it.