“Even with the presence of mages around, using the natural elements in warfare remained an important thing. In fact, it became more prevalent over time when one side knew the other had mages employed in battle.

The reason for this was because of how most mages are not skilled enough to truly hide their mana fluctuations, which meant another mage could get an idea of their whereabouts with concentration and effort. Over time, this led to a strange complacency of its own, where people did not expect attacks using the elements when their mage detected no mages in the vicinity.

Dammed rivers, oil and torches, or large rocks and logs were mundane ways that proved surprisingly effective in catching those complacent forces off guard.” - Excerpt from “The Vagaries of Warfare” by Maxim Stavros Odenlos, Military Scholar from the Clangeddin Empire, circa 443 VA.

It was roughly three in the morning when the mercenaries made their move. They had actually only brought half or so of their forces for the assault, with the archers and the rest in the woods nearby. Reinhardt had selected only the battle-hardened mercenaries under him to participate, and left the rest to set up ambushes and other surprises for likely pursuers.

Another factor that went into his selection was whether those members could fight in dark nights or not. As the Company had mostly been active in Knallzog, the former Holy Kingdom, and Posuin for the past few years, their new recruits were predominantly humans and dwarves, with more of the former. Humans tend to be awful at seeing, much less fighting, in the dark.

There were exceptions of course. Former thugs from Varsha’s group that joined them seemed pretty comfortable with the dark. They did most of their work at night under the cover of darkness after all, so they were rather used to it. Fatimah’s group also seemed perfectly at home in the dark of the night, despite their being mostly human.

Otherwise, the rest of the strike force was composed of the dwarven, elven, orcish, therian, and goblin members of the company, all of whom could see in the dark in some manner. They quietly looped through the forest and emerged to the rear of the Bostvan encampment, with none the wiser, as the dark, nearly moonless night concealed them from sight well.

Their target, the encampment, was pretty much just a collection of tents of various sizes, with a wooden fence and some watchtowers built around it. It was clearly temporary in nature, and while there were a few torches burning here and there, much of the encampment was dark as most of the Bostvans slept.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

There were guards, of course, who patrolled with torches in hand, as well as people stationed on the watchtowers, although that did little good with the darkness. Most of the watchers looked bored, while a few yawned into their hands repeatedly, courtesy of the late hour.

Reinhardt brought his troops just to the edge of the forest, from where it would roughly be a few hundred meters to the rear of the Bostvan encampment. Even in the darkness, they would likely be noticed if they went out of the forest, so they waited for the arranged distraction.

Said distraction manifested itself moments later, as several jugs, wrapped with cloth that had been soaked in oil and set on fire, fell from high above into the midst of the Bostvan encampment. Hannah had been lent one of the Company’s larger storage items filled with dozens of the jugs and dropped them from high above one after another.

The first jug went unnoticed until it struck the ground and burst apart in flames, flames which quickly latched on to the fabric of the nearby tents and consumed them as well. Panicked shouts were heard from the encampment, which redoubled as the second, then third jug fell and burst into flames as well.

A mage in his underwear came out from one of the burning tents and raised his arms as he created a wall of water above his head. The next jug to fall struck the water and burst, the oil burning on the water’s surface. The soldiers nearby were just about to cheer when an arrow suddenly sprouted from behind the mage’s neck and he collapsed.

His wall of water collapsed along with him, and when it fell on the already burning oil below, all it did was just to further spread the flames.

Not long after the jugs landed, warning shouts and bells were sounded from the front of the encampment, as a detachment from the Dvergarder forces struck them as well. Caught mostly off guard and asleep, many of the Bostvan soldiers ran out of their tents unarmored, some just clad in their underwear, and tried to fight back but were cut down rapidly.

Reinhardt brought his forces to strike from the rear at that moment.

The distance of a few hundred meters was covered in less than a minute by many of the mercenaries, as Yuri struck the wooden fence bodily and broke through, shield-first. Niko and Varilya repeated the feat moments later and opened a gap, which others from their group widened to allow the others in.

While the fire rages in the center of the encampment, and many torches were lit and brought to the front to help fight off the Dvergarder assault, the rear of the encampment was darker and unlit by comparison. The watchers in the towers were silenced by Salicia the moment Reinhardt brought the Free Lances into the fray, and they descended on the unsuspecting Bostvans like a wolf amidst a flock of sheep.

Grünhildr led a group and went for the wagons that the Bostvan army had used for transportation, and her void-clad axes chopped the wheels and axles of the wagons apart to render them unusable. Another group led by Egil snuck towards the stables and hurled flaming jugs which burst apart and burnt brightly within. As a result, many horses ran amok in the encampment, some of them half-crazed as their fur was lit afire.

In the tumultuous chaos that resulted, the mercenaries spread out, and did their best to spread the havoc further. Jugs of incendiary oils were hurled out from time to time, while Bostvan soldiers who managed to get out from their burning tents were met with blades and claw, their lives torn asunder before they could do a thing of worth.