Ambushed by Foxbat - Invading K327

Ever since I decided to become a merit hunter, the pace of my invasions has become exhausting. I’m launching one attack after another, barely giving myself enough time to analyze and adjust my strategy, leaving plenty of room for mistakes.

The truth is that ever since Alliance Conquest finally ended, I have allowed myself to take bigger risks and push my luck even further because I can afford to lose some troops. But I do not always make it out of an enemy kingdom without getting wounded.

Lately, I have been invading kingdoms that don't put me in too much danger. I have increased my power to over 1.5 billion so I could earn the long-awaited #1 Prince badge. Since then, I have been traveling with millions of troops, which becomes a huge problem when you are not a maxed account or strong enough to defend yourself against a solo attack from a very powerful spear player.

But well… I had received new coordinates, and when I realized I would only need to spend one scroll to get there, I got ready. But I had no idea that a surprise was waiting for me.

Two castles from NpW's secondary alliance were without a bubble in Kingdom 327. One of them was infantry, which means I would have a huge advantage, and the other was a small spear. Both were wearing rebel gear, and in my mind, taking them down would not be so difficult.

The biggest challenge in that kingdom is staying unnoticed, because it's a completely hostile place, and one small mistake can get me ambushed by one of the NpW fighters.

The first thing I noticed was that the biggest names, the most well-known hunters from the NpW alliance, were not in the kingdom, which was a very positive sign since they never hesitate to drop their bubbles to fight off invaders, just like they did the last two times I was here.

That was the motivation I needed to invade the kingdom and attack those two castles. But there was still something bothering me, something that made me feel like I was walking into an ambush.

Foxbat was one of the strongest players in that kingdom, and he was not in NpW, for some reason. He had moved to the vIp alliance, the same alliance as my two targets. I kept wondering why. Was he there for an event, or had he noticed my small castle scouting his two castles? If it was the reason, then I had a serious problem ahead of me.

I tried to convince myself that he was there by coincidence. I trusted the speed of my attacks and believed he wouldn't be fast enough to catch me. I thought I was safe, and that was a lie I wanted to believe.

The first attack showed that things wouldn't be easy. I lost a large number of troops, which shocked me because I believed I wouldn't have any trouble taking down Huulg since he was infantry, wearing rebel gear, and had Seg as his Lord. But I was wrong…

I earned fewer than 7 million merit points from that attack, so I decided to heal my troops and attack again. Otherwise, I would just be wasting time and scrolls.

What had seemed like a great opportunity to earn millions of merit points with very little effort was actually grinding my army down. Once again, I managed to wipe out a large number of enemy troops, but my own losses were becoming far too costly. At that moment, I was almost regretting ever starting the attack.

I knew it was time to stop, or I would lose another huge number of troops. But my instincts kept pushing me to try one more time, convincing me that the next attack would be easier.

I paused for a few seconds. Took a deep breath. Healed my troops. Repositioned my castle and launched the third attack. Then something happened...

The sky went dark...

The battlefield went silent…

And my troops never came back.

After seeing his allies under attack, Foxbat decided to get involved by sending a full garrison to Huulg's castle, destroying my army and capturing my Lord. At that exact moment, I felt a deep sense of frustration.

That attack was devastating. My army was reduced to ashes. I did not know what to do. Just moments earlier, I thought I had found a merit mine, and only a few minutes later, I was on the battlefield, being killed. Not a single man survived.

Foxbat was incredibly strong. I didn't stand a chance. Using Baelish as his main weapon to weaken my female synergy, Fox sent more than 1.7 million troops into battle, which was more than enough to kill over 400 thousand of my troops and wound nearly one million more. That was an amazing reward for him.

My luck was that I invested in building a large number of hospitals in my castle. Otherwise, the damage would have been much worse. Even so, I lost enough troops to reduce my army to a critical level, forcing me to return home earlier than planned.

My biggest concern at that moment was getting attacked, because Foxbat and his impressive strength would certainly attack me again to finish the job, but I managed to stay hidden for fifteen minutes and activate my bubble.

I knew that battle report would spread within a few hours, and I'd become the subject of jokes inside NpW, which made me uncomfortable.

Foxbat sent me a message and explained what had happened, and it was exactly what I had imagined. As soon as he saw my small castle scouting his two allies, he got ready for battle.

I always try to be fast and destroy my targets in less than two minutes, but that exposes a major weakness: most of the time, I don't pay attention to the surrounding castles, giving someone a perfect opportunity to send a garrison and capture my Lord.

This time, I learned that being fast isn't enough. I also need to be careful and analyze the entire battlefield before launching another attack.

The journey back home was silent. I spent the entire trip looking at the ground, replaying everything that had happened. I was alone, traumatized, just me and my horse, riding for long hours. I do not know how things will unfold from now on, but one thing I am certain of: I might be back.