Grey looked at the retreat signal of the Ruhenese mages as it stayed in the air for a few seconds.
Grey felt that it was important that he went back to the centre of the battlefield, thus left Grant and Alice where they were and went to understand what had happened. Grey got close to the centre due to using tier 1 spell [Light Flash].
As he got closer to the centre, his awareness picked up on people retreating with high speed.
'There are only four tier 2 mages that are retreating back. I wonder who killed the second tier 2 mage. That must be the reason that they retreated, but they still outnumbered our lieutenants two to one, something mush have happened to make them believe that they were at risk.'
Grey internally commented about the situation, however before he could get far he stopped.
'Huh...? This accumulation? It can only be a tier 2 combination spell, the mana is very dense and powerful.'
Grey continued to get closer to the centre, his awareness had already picked up on the regular humans still fighting.
BOOOOM! BOOOM! BOOM!
Grey observed as the fortified position of the Ruhen forces was completely destroyed with even a small mushroom shaped cloud being visible.
'That is indeed powerful.'
"Grey your back, were you able to save the civilians?"
Bon asked as he saw Grey come closer, he had managed to kill one of the enemy mages before the signal to retreat came through forcing the other mage to quickly retreat.
'He clearly knows that I had gone to save the civilian recruits, he must have gotten in contact with Louis and Mountain.'
"Yes I did. Who was the one who killed the second tier 2 mage?"
Grey asked Bon what he was very interested in, he could see that Bon had been closer to the battle of the tier 2 mages.
"Lt Marion managed to kill one whilst Lt Elrod held two back long enough for her to finish. The other two that were fighting Lt Stein managed to retreat safely."
'Lt Stein must be a very powerful mage in order to hold off two tier 2 mages for such a long time.'
Grey observed the clearly tired June, there were elements of fire and light around her, clearly she was the one who destroyed the fortified bunker. Percival was with her, the ice aura was still around him, he looked very serious and Grey was not sure what was going through his mind.
"Where is Lt Stein…"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Ahh…! Mercy!"
"I surrender!"
BOOM! BOOM!
"Ahh!"
Grey did finish his question about Qila, that was because he could hear death throes of people a small distance away.
'I am glad our lieutenants are powerful enough, I don't want to find myself being hunted down by a tier 2 mage.'
Grey thought out the implications of Qila's behaviour.
'In this conflict if the high tier fighters of your side get killed, it is guaranteed that as a low tier fighter you will not survive.'
"Recruit Gram, how are the casualties amongst the other recruits?"
Percival asked a question he should be able to find out by just releasing his awareness.
"Sir, Six civilian recruits are dead and only one military mage recruit from team 9 is dead."
As Grey was reporting the dead, the three military recruits from team 9 joined in together with Sharon and Ilse.
"Who died from our side?"
Percival asked again what he should be able to find out by just releasing his awareness, this made those from team 6 look at him weirdly.
Sharon, Ilse and Bon could tell that Sheryl and Ross were dead, their bodies were lying in the battlefield with other dead bodies.
"Sir, recruits Sheryl Katz and Ross Nordeck are dead, Sir."
Grey did not comment on Percival's peculiar behaviour, his face did not show any emotions as well.
"Then what is the condition of the rest of the team?"
"Sir, aside from the heavily injured recruits Alice Whitlock and Grant Hart, the rest of the team is fine."
"Lt Stein, are you alright?"
The one who asked the question was a female tier 1 mage from team 9. The female mage was asking because the short and petite tier 2 female mage looked very tired with burns and blood all over her.
"I'm fine Silica."
Qila unlike Percival, she released her awareness to fully understand what was happening in the battlefield. She was serious and had a calm face as she looked at the battlefield.
"Recruits, since the mage threat is dealt with, go help with the clean up of the remaining regular human troops."
Qila ordered with a calm voice.
"Recruit Gram good work out there."
She took a long glance at Grey, the fact that she was shorter than Grey made her look up to see his face. After she said that she immediately casted a medic summoning flare spell.
Grey and the order recruits spent the next hour helping to kill off any remaining enemies. However it only took a few minutes for the medics to arrive to help the heavily injured mages.
Percival smiled when he saw the injured Alice and Grant, he was happy that not all of his civilian recruits got killed like team 9's recruits.
***
The battle was only starting to happen, in some situations the forces from Arin and Rawyth managed to take over the Ruhen's defended positions and in some situations the forces from Ruhen managed to defend their positions.
"Narah, what are the initial casualties?"
Commander Hadley April asked whilst in her office in FOB number 03.
"Mam, the initial casualties are high. The main reason being that the civilian recruits are dying off in high numbers. It is reported that for every 10 civilian recruits only 3 survived their first encounter battles as an average."
Commander Hadley did not respond for a few seconds.
"I guess that is not bad for completely new rookies, it looks like these 1st lieutenant team leaders have done well in training them. I would have not been surprised if only 1 in 10 civilian recruits survived their first encounter battle."
Commander Hadley commented without any change in emotions. It seemed that the military considered the civilian recruits more as cannon fodder and proper reinforcements.
"Have they done their purpose though?"
"Yes mam, the casualties for the military recruits and normal Mage Army members are much lower in comparison."
Adjutant Narah reported faithfully.
"How many teams were successful in breaching the points of defence at the defence line?"
"Mam, in our 13 attack positions of our Zone 3 only three positions were taken down today."
"Oh, which teams did that?"
Commander Hadley had expected it to take at least three days of constant fighting for an attack position to be taken down.
"Mam, Teams 6, 8, 9, 11, 12 and 14 were there ones that did it."
"Oh, put those teams under observation, if they keep up the good work they will be rewarded."
Commander Hadley ordered as she left her seat to go to the window to look at the tall Dralia Mountain Range.
'It's because of you that we are here, fighting, destroying and killing each other.'