Escalation

There were more interesting things said that night. Sitting on a cot in a remote tent, Sunny had silently absorbed them all. There was a somber expression on his face.

'Troublesome.'

Each clan was planning to test the other during the retreat back to the siege capitals… which had not come as a surprise. From this point forward, the hostilities between Valor and Song were only going to escalate. If anything, this first confrontation was shaping out to be rather tame. 

Neither of the sides was fully committing their Saints to the ambushes, preferring to bide their time and turn the conflict into a war of attrition. There were valuable assets that both clans kept under layers of protection — in terms of the ruthless economy of war, trying to take these assets off the board was not cost-effective at this point in time. 

Luckily, Nephis seemed to be one such asset, as well.