Chapter 389: shocked !

Hao Mi recieved a report on her desk stating that heavy casualties were observed inside the mercury village stronghold in Nineclouds kingdom. 

It was reported that the Hazelgroove kingdom army took down the fort in under one day , and that the territory was completely lost. 

However the most disturbing fact was that , the leader of the Elites , Rudra was seen leading the charge of the army , and is rumored to be the mastermind behind the operation. 

Coupled with the fact that the Elites posted a post increasing the crowd traffic inside the village , it was assumed that they were the masterminds behind the operation. 

This absolutely changed the meaning of the defeat for Hao Mi , who hated Rudra to the bone. She was already humiliated by the leader of the Elites in Purplehaze city. Yet now even before she could avenge that humiliation , Rudra was back out meddling in her buisness again. 

Further intelligence report suggested that the most likely target of the conquest army next was the Fort Magma and that Rudra would most likely lead charge against it as well. 

Hao Mi hence decided to quadruple the mercenary count at fort Magma for no extra cost , and even deployed her first in command Jackson Ryker and the best of her Elite players as added security. 

Hao Mi wanted a video of a humiliating defeat of the Hazelgroove army on her desk. However , expectations betray reality , as ontop of the devastating defeat of Mercury village , there was also another report on her desk that was worrisome. 

Nearly 220 gang members of a cartel under her command were found dead , with their neck pierced by daggers , yesterday by the local police. 

It was one of a string of incidents that had been continually happening over the last 2 weeks. Hao Mi was already loosing nearly 100 million dollar weekly because the supply chain had been, disrupted. However with the complete wipe of yet another cartel , it was going to increase even more . 

She banged her desk in frustration , she could not understand why these string of problems were happening. The culprit did not match the general pattern of any known major player. 

A high class mercenary using daggers was still unknown in the underworld and she could not pinpoint the culprit , as his face remained unseen , the only thing the footage review revealed was that he wore a pure black single coat that was stocked with assasin daggers to the brim. 

She gave out an order to tighten the security in other cartels and put them on high alert , any more of such events and she would suffer a serious operation loss. She swore , that the day she got her hands on the man causing her these problems , she would make him pay. 

Ethan Grey , Rudra Rajput and this one Unknown man , they were currently the 3 people Hao Mi hated the most. 

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( Meanwhile in Hazelgroove kingdom ) 

The news of Rudra's overwhelming victory spread amongst the NPC's of the kingdom , as the prestige of the first division lieutenant took a rise. 

Especially those lieutenants who looked down on Rudra , were now silent , as none of them could understand how he could take down a village in 14 hours with only 100 casualties and a complete enemy wipe. 

Emperor Cervantez was reading the report with a smiling face , as he told Patricia that his brother was something else. 

Patricia too had a big smile plastered on her face being the proud elder sister , however she only said " It's too early to be happy , fort Magma is the real challenge. Mercury is just meh ". 

Cervantez chuckled before saying " Indeed , I wonder what trick he will pull out of his head now .... Even a seasoned veteran like me cannot understand what goes in the erratic mind of that young man". 

It seemed like Cervantez had developed an interest in Rudra , he was keen to know what strategies the young man employed , as his methods were always ten step ahead of the enemy thought process. It was a talent , Cervantez greatly valued. 

And that was exactly what Rudra was doing , the overwhelming victory had already receded to the back of his mind , as he sat down with the commodores who now respected the lieutenant greatly , as the five discussed the next battle palns. 

Fort Magma was roughly half a days March from Mercury village. If Rudra was unable to take down the Mercury village soo quickly , it was likely that reinforcements from the fort would have arrived and it would have turned into a messy battle. 

But taking the fort down at the electric speed that he did , left no chance for the enemy to send reinforcements. However this also meant that , the forces at fort Magma had became even more vigilant of the invading forces. 

Fort Magma was built on a 40° elevated hill. It was a good place to defend , as the fort was an extremely sturdy structure with many small openings that allowed for attacking the approaching forces. 

The climb towards the fort was hurdled with barricades and barbed fence. Making a frontal assault on the fort extremely difficult as the defences from the fort would pummel the invading forces with arrows and spears. 

The other problem was that , the fort was on the border of Nineclouds and Aquahose Kingdom , meaning that seige was a bad option. If Rudra was somehow caught between two armies during a siege , he would be minced meat. 

This exponentially increased the challenge of the attack , as the nearmost Aquahose Kingdom fort was also only half a days March from fort Magma. 

A delayed attack would mean that reinforcements could arrive at any time. Although Rudra did not know the exact relationship between Aquahose and Nineclouds kingdoms , but since Hazelgroove was a common enemy , he expected the other two forces to co-operate and resist the invader together. 

Because if fort Magma fell to Hazelgroove kingdom , it would also spell doom for Aquahose Kingdom , as the enemy would gain a base for operating against their kingdom as well. 

Hence a big challenge presented itself before Rudra , who was thinking this problem Shakuni style. The greatest mastermind was not only a master manipulator but a master strategist as well and fort Magma was his chance to shine.