Outsmarted.

While at the port, Milize finally could use her trump card, as a small enemy ship approached from beside to flank them. Yuuka was still unable to help his allies. Her perseverance in absorbing enemy attacks was paying off.

She now had the enemy walk into her trap but the volley of shots from the ship's fortress was never-ending, but the favour of the battle was turning her side.

On the other end, the commander of Asphodel was sitting behind a watchtower alone, wondering his next step.

"What do I do with this gun?"

Yuuka killed a soldier and some carriage riders to acquire a long-range rifle, but the environment wasn't in his favour. The wind was blowing at high speed, with that long-range accuracy was just a dream.

He could hide in the tall grass behind and use the darkness of the night to his advantage, but shooting any shot would alert soldiers and he couldn't possibly fight many at a time.

"What do I do?"

It was a desperate situation for Yuuka, being the only soldier allied with the attacking ships, he was doing nothing, just sitting around.

As he sat behind the watchtower, he heard the footsteps of multiple soldiers coming his way. He quickly laid down on the ground and hid in the grass.

He crawled to the left of the tower, to hear about the ongoing conversation of the incoming soldiers.

"Where did the person assigned to this watchtower go?"

"We could wonder about that later, just open the door and make sure you don't get in their way."

"Right."

Yuuka was confused about what was stored in the watchtower, it felt they were quite heavy and dangerous.

As the soldiers opened the gates to the watchtower, noises of something thumping on the ground instantly fell into the water. This continued for a while, it was more than 30 barrels right into the waters below.

"These barrels were surely hard to carry, filling them was a different level of difficulty. I am sure those Asphodel ships ain't seeing this one coming."

"Barrels?"

Yuuka whispered to himself, he wasn't sure about the idea of why were the barrels placed in the watchtowers,

"!!!"

It struck him the very next instant,

"Those are explosive barrels!"

He understood the process here, Milize had made sure that no matter what happens, Asphodel's ships never landed on Lynx's soil.

The ships couldn't land on the cliff and the nearest port beside this one was inaccessible due to the storm. She made sure that it was all in her favour. It was a lost situation for Asphodel now.

Even if they won the capital, the soldiers wouldn't last long on capital supplies and will be surrounded by the Lynx's soldiers.

*Boom

A sound echoed throughout the port, and bright light illuminated the dark environment. the debris flew here, and hearing the sound, made Yuuka's heart skip a beat.

"No."

Just the sound, was enough to make him sure about what happened. He knew it was an Asphodelian ship which got caught in the barrels and was blasted away.

It was biggest loss of the war yet, because after this it would only go down for their, the ships could never come close to the port to make a landing.

"Why???!!!! Why am I such a coward?!!"

Yuuka shouted loud inside his heart, he couldn't say a word out loud, guilt and anger filled his mind as he gripped the gun he could. He blamed himself for not acting in the moment.

"I could've done something, anything to help them out."

The first drops of storm were beginning to drop, as the flames from the blasted ships rose, lighting and thunder filling the port but in the noises of everything, something was odd.

Yuuka as he cursed himself became aware of his situation,

"Why aren't the soldiers celebrating?"

The soldier who opened the gates, didn't produce a single noise. they should be celebrating at such a moment but there were no expressions from their sides.

Yuuka left the negative thoughts in his heart and began moving, he gained his composure back and now was focused on doing something to change the tide of the battle.

He moved from the grass, moving carefully as the area was now bright because of the flame of the burning ships, he was visible to any careful scout.

As he moved in front of the tower, he knew why the soldiers had left without any noise.

"The blood is visible."

No person would be able to see or smell so less amount of blood in the darkness and fast winds of the storm but after the explosion, the blood splattered on the rocks from Yuuka earlier shooting was visible.

The soldier just touched the blood to see if it's fresh and left the scene, which only meant one thing and it wasn't good for Yuuka,

"They know about my location."

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