As the enemy was forced to retreat once more, the soldiers of Kilrun Duchy celebrated, having won another engagement with zero casualties.
The higher-ups let them, knowing that the soldiers deserved it, even if most of the heavy lifting was done by the Genesis Lake experts.
The High Command also found no reason to break the celebration, "Looks like the morale just got even higher," the Marshal said, a huge smile on his usually gruff face.
"Well, yeah. They on the sides, that relatively speaking, horrible outnumbered and outmatched, yet their side was the one that constantly on top, so I say they deserved to celebrate," Ryker replied to the man, a huge smile also on his face.
"True. Besides, even though they were not involved in the attacks, they did play a huge part in supplying the formation with their qi. If not, it would be hard for us to just depend on the energy gathering formation," the Grand Advisor stated, the other members of the High Command agreeing with the man.
While there are energy-gathering formations to help support and supply the super-formations with the necessary energy, when there are numerous attacks on the barrier, the energy consumption also gets larger.
While it would be enough to handle an attack from several Genesis Sea experts on just the energy-gathering formations, when the Mizalas blast them with all of their siege engines, the consumption got too big for the formations to handle.
Enter the soldiers, whose sole job during the battle is to supply the formations with their energy. Of course, energy stones and energy crystals can be used to fuel the formation as well but all of it was saved for when not even the soldiers' qi were enough, or that is the story they used.
The reality is most of the Genesis Crystals were given to the Duke so he would be able to strengthen his foundation and allow him to ascend to the Noble realm.
But, the regular soldiers should not know about it for now, so, they have to come up with a lie. They do hope they would be able to hold on without the Genesis Crystals but they still have some Genesis Stones so it would have to do for now.
"Now then, I think it best to use one of our surprises for the Mizalas," Ryker suggested.
The Marshal's eyes went wide at what he insinuated, "But, isn't it too early?" he asked, the other agreeing with him.
"On the contrary, I think this is the best chance. Most of their men were likely affected by the reveal of what the formations could do but they were too exhausted to do anything for now.
I am pretty sure by tomorrow, they will relocate their camp just to be on the safe side. They might even do it tonight. So, before they could get out of range and when they were the most vulnerable and except it the less, we should do it, to reduce their number even more," Ryker explained.
The other seemed to be in deep thought though they could see the young man reasoning.
"Alright, let us unleash our surprise,"
-x-
"Come on, move unless you want to die!" true to Ryker's expectation, Mizalas had moved their camp, far away from the capital though close enough for a quick march would allow them to get near the vicinity of the capital.
The soldiers are cultivators after all, so the march will not affect them too much. Though the enemy's attack would definitely affect them, the reason why the higher-ups ordered the moving of their camp, less the Kilrunian unleash another surprise.
Unfortunately, while their moving is clever and would have resulted in the Kilrunian not being able to ambush them, they did not expect a night raid to occur. Or a night attack.
So, they were completely blindsided when a huge fireball came flying at them.
"Watch out!" one of the Genesis Sea experts yelled, seeing a huge fireball coming from the capital and soon flying on top of them.
The Genesis Sea experts gathered and created a powerful barrier using all of their strength but to their shock, the fireball passed through the barrier like it was nothing, shattering the part it impacted but leaving the rest intact.
When they still did not get over their shock, several more fireballs came from the capital, the Genesis Sea experts could clearly see it coming from the top of the Kilrun's Duke's Mansion.
"Run away!" one of the Genesis Sea experts ordered while they began to work together to destroy the fireballs before they could hit their forces.
Fortunately for them, the fireballs are rather fragile. Unfortunately for them, the fireballs exploded violently when they were destroyed, resulting in a lot of injuries though the explosion was not dangerous for the Genesis Sea experts.
What comes next, however, is.
"Urgh!" one of the Genesis Sea experts of the Mizalas Duchy let out, his chest being pierced by a sword.
Besides him, his companions were also unlucky, being beheaded by the attackers. Similar things happened all over the battlefields, the Genesis Sea experts of Mizalas were ambushed by the Kilrun's Genesis Sea experts.
With how they were mostly distracted by the fireballs and moving the camp, the sudden attack took them by surprise, their belief the Kilrun forces would not attack them during the siege was shattered that night.
As chaos happened all over the battlefield, it did not take long before the Duke of Mizalas got wind of it. Realizing what would happen if he let the Kilrun force do as they please, he was about to charge towards the backline when a figure flew towards him, his fist outstretched and aimed at his face.
He was about to block it but fear of the death qi made him avoid the attack, resulting in one of the Genesis Sea experts being killed, the fist blowing him into pieces.
"Duke of Kilrun," the Duke of Mizalas exclaimed, eying his foe with trepidation. In their last battle, he was injured, while not too bad for Genesis Sea expert, it still hurt and made it hard for him to focus on the battlefield, the reason why he did not join in the battle after the first day.
Ryker remained silent, eying the Duke behind the mask he wore, what every one of the Genesis Sea and Genesis Lake experts of Kilrun Duchy wore for the night raid. His job is to hold the Duke while letting his men cause as much havoc as possible.
They stared at each other, none of them making any movement. While Ryker is perfectly content with their current state, the Mizalas Duke is anxious, every minute without organizing his forces would result in them being killed.
Thankfully for the Duke of Mizalas, Ryker received a message from his men, making him throw a punch before flying away, their objective was completed for the day and once again, inflected serious casualties to the Mizalas force.