The Regret - K122

The hunts are becoming dangerous lately. My enemies are starting to get stronger and more organized, and some of them have even started to attack me back, something that rarely happened before and that completely changes the pace of the invasions from now on. Some alliances have been forced to learn to fight after being invaded and reduced to ashes repeatedly, while others have raised or recruited great warriors to lead their armies and protect their kingdoms.

I always felt safe and confident that nothing bad would happen to me. But, at the same time, I know when a kingdom is very well protected or when it's the home of a big alliance, a hunt is very risky. In these cases, I always try to be as fast as I can to avoid giving time for reaction. In most cases, I was able to invade and leave the kingdom without much trouble.

But this time, I had a different challenge.

Two castles were positioned side by side, and one of them was without a protection bubble. I already knew them; they were former players from the FDH alliance who had left in search of a new adventure. One of them was cavalry, and the other was spearmen. As soon as I saw SniW without a protection bubble in Kingdom 122, my hunter instinct took over, and I wanted to go there. I wanted to prove to myself that I could face anyone, no matter the kingdom or the alliance. It was a matter of honor.

My scouts returned with the information that the castle without a protection bubble was the cavalry one, which gave me even more motivation to go there since it was not spearmen. I was also informed that FDH knew he was without a protection bubble, but would not attack him because he was a former member, and that they would also protect him if someone dared to go there for him. That meant I would be in danger the moment I set foot in those lands.

My previous experiences had taught me that fighting cavalry is my weakness, more than any other troop type, but even so, I wanted to attack and destroy SniW. I knew there were no other players from his alliance in that kingdom, so no one would send a full garrison to try to capture me, and that, in addition to making me feel more confident, served as motivation. A short time later, I was inside Kingdom 122, ready to be hunted like a boar in the middle of the forest by the strongest members of FDH.

The battle took place in the middle of the forest, in the darkness. I was curious and restless to know the outcome of that fight, but silence took over, and my men were not returning.

“Lord, the battle was a disaster,” one of my commanders said.

I stayed quiet for a moment, trying to understand what had just happened. When I opened the battle report, I was shocked. Nearly one million of my men had been brutally killed or wounded. The problem was much bigger than I had imagined. I kept wondering how SniW, without synergy, base attack, or battle gear, had managed to deal so much damage to my army. The answer came shortly after: even not being in a battle setup, SniW had more than 1300% cavalry attack, which was a huge problem considering he had a wall with more than 16 million troops.

It was a complex moment. I had to decide whether to stop or continue. I analyzed the report once again. In my mind, I knew the wall and fortifications would no longer be there to support his defense, and his defending army would be reduced. After thinking it through and fully understanding the risk I was taking, I decided to go all in and attack one more time, hoping to take less damage.

The second attack was a bit better, but I still considered it a disaster. Even though I managed to eliminate nearly four million troops from the enemy army, losing 216 thousand soldiers to gain 4.42 million merit points is not a good deal, not even close. For some reason, SniW was dealing massive damage to my army, and that was driving me insane.

I was ready to give up. I did not want to risk the lives of thousands more troops for a third time; I saw no advantage in launching another attack. I hid everything I had in the shelter and waited a few seconds while analyzing the numbers from the last battle. And one detail caught my attention: what was tearing through my army was SniW’s cavalry, and I had eliminated all of those troops in the second attack. That could only mean one thing: the next attacks would be easier. That was the small spark of hope I needed to continue and finish that difficult task.

Boom! A surprise! The third battle was far bloodier than the previous ones and completely changed the atmosphere of that duel. SniW, who until then had been a big problem for me, weakened without his cavalry, and that opened a huge gap for my army to enter his castle and cause massive damage. That was the kind of result I had been expecting, and it restored my confidence in that invasion.

Things shifted when my coordinates were leaked in world chat. The strongest players from FDH had switched to battle gear, and the hunt for me had begun. I still had not finished the job, SniW still had five million troops left in his castle. I needed to act fast before something went wrong.

The fifth attack brought me relief. My target’s castle was in flames, and my mission was complete. I was not satisfied; half of my army had been wiped out, which would cost me billions of resources to recover. And after that attack, my objective changed; I needed to hide as quickly as possible, but I had barely any time to think… I was attacked.

I was finishing hiding my troops when I saw the notification: someone was attacking me and needed to act fast to avoid a humiliating defeat. And when Dirkem’s troops hit my wall, there was nothing left exposed that could be of any use to him. Just 2 seconds saved me from losing an entire battalion. The relief was huge. I was safe, and the invasion was finally over.

Some invasions are simply not worth it. Gaining little merit and losing nearly a million troops in return is never a good trade. But it is part of the routine of every merit hunter. Next time, I need to analyze the risks more carefully to avoid bad surprises like this. Thank you for reading this far!