Alexander, like the other mages in the army, didn't notice anything strange at first, though in hindsight he remembered that the smell of recently dug earth had been quite out of place. When the hidden charges began to explode, the vampire burst out of his tent in his underwear and watched in stunned silence as the camp was illuminated by bursts of light, and wagons and people were thrown into the air.
Around him, his mercenaries were bustling about, but nothing was happening nearby; all the horror was taking place half a league away from them. The squad was saved by their commander's persistent desire to be as close to the forest as possible, on the edge of which the soldiers' camp was set up.
Alexander had justified the unusual choice of location with the desire to shield the main camp from goblin attacks. The explanation was weak since, despite their wild aggressiveness and fatalism, goblins were not outright suicidal and did not appear under the fortress walls. But no one argued with the knight. The tents were set up right next to the trees, but far from the main forces of the attacking army.
The simple desire to be closer to the forest with its food and allies helped avoid casualties among the mercenaries. Other squads suffered significant losses both in people and supplies. The latter was even more significant, as the cold was soon approaching.
In addition to nearly a thousand dead, the army lost half of its artifacts during the night. This fact caused the commander the greatest fury. It turned out that all the mages, who represented the real combat power of any army, survived.
Of course, they were hit by mines, and some were even in the epicenter of explosions, but a battle mage is distinguished from his civilian counterpart by constant readiness for surprises, often aided by simple protective amulets. All the mages had time to set up defenses and survived the fatal night. However, the artifacts suffered severe damage, and some were beyond repair. The striking power of the besiegers had greatly diminished.
According to Alexander, the chaos and confusion during the night of the attack and the morning after were such that if Elos had wished to attack, victory would have been guaranteed; no amount of fallen or risen power could have saved the army. But the rebel remained inactive, merely observing the besiegers from the fortress towers.
By noon, when some semblance of order and discipline was finally restored, no one even hinted at a new attack. The game began, called "find the guilty party." The archmage blamed the duke, the duke blamed the archmage, and they both blamed the senior officers, while everyone collectively blamed the "foolish subordinates" who had failed to notice the "simple trap."
After several hours of heated discussions, it was decided that the soldiers were at fault. It remained a mystery to the vampire why there was even a need for long investigations and quarrels when no one wanted to acknowledge their mistakes. If not for Alexander's intervention, it might have happened again the following night.
For once the commanding officers decided that the soldiers had died because of their own fault, they were preoccupied with choosing a new camp location. Having chosen one, they simply ordered everyone to move there. Only Alexander's objection that the new location might have new mines spared the commanders from another such investigation. There were indeed mines at the new location.
All the advantageous positions for the besiegers were mined. Initial targeted searches revealed the dormant traps. The besieged attempted to trigger their surprises when the search parties approached, but the mages rendered such actions ineffective. They spent the night in the old location, deciding not to move. They also studied the new weapons used by Elos.
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