An excellent commander must first possess a keen sense of smell.

There was no doubt that Lonely White Field was a commander with such a quality. As time ticked by, he quietly took out his pocket watch, the dial coated with a soft luminescence—it had been a quarter of an hour.

A sense of alarm was gradually rising in his heart.

The information coming through the integrated communication channel made him realize that the enemy was not acting according to his predictions:

"This is squad one, we've found no trace of the enemy."

"They haven't followed us either."

"We have no enemy sightings on our side."

"It seems like they have lost contact with us?"

The Blood Oath Alliance wouldn't let them go so easily. Lonely White Field closed his pocket watch and sensed a whiff of danger.

The enemy had gone to great lengths just to let them go? Clearly, this logic wasn't consistent. He could have comforted himself, but—

"Wishful thinking will not yield positive outcomes."

He shook his head, casting out the thought from his mind.

How should one analyze the current situation under adversity? He had only learned one tactic from the enemy: exhaustion method.

List all the most plausible reasons and then eliminate them one by one. It seemed chaotic and complex, but in reality, the most efficient and logical probabilities were always one or two.

Because excellent commanders often have converging ways of thinking, and with the constraints, the so-called myriad changes on the battlefield are, in reality, variations on the same theme.

The only thing he feared was uncertainty in conditions and in the enemy.

But now, with the enemy and time, space and distance all fixed, they should have already appeared if they followed his line of thought.

Unless—

Lonely White Field went through all the conditions again, his expression changed slightly as he drew a line on the map and raised an eyebrow: "Squads two and three, watch your backs!"

"What?"

A confused voice came through the communicator, which quickly turned into frightened screams:

"There are people behind us!"

"It's the Blood Oath Alliance, how did they get behind us!?"

"They've discovered us."

"Retreat," Lonely White Field's heart sank uncontrollably, "Head north, don't look back."

"Captain, there are people here too! We're surrounded!"

The voice on the communicator was replaced by a burst of noise, followed by the buzz of lost connection.

There was a moment of silence on the channel.

"Captain, what do we do?"

People looked at each other, somewhat uncertain. They were Rain Listener's elite, but compared to the brigades of the real Grand Guilds, they were only marginally stronger than average Chosen.

On a lopsided battlefield, their vulnerability was exposed.

"Don't panic," Lonely White Field responded with gravity.

He re-examined his judgment and realized where the problem lay.

Perhaps the enemy had another Combat Artisan, or possibly that one was outstanding, with more than two vantage points on the battlefield.

He hadn't considered All-Domain Vision yet, but he inwardly cursed at how sly they were; the enemy had intentionally misled him into making a wrong judgment, evidently having thoroughly understood him already.

This time, the Blood Oath Alliance had truly come prepared.

And the counterattack from a position of disadvantage often leads to fatal consequences from a misjudgment.

However, Lonely White Field felt little self-reproach. The battlefield was about deceiving and being deceived—there would always be a loser. He wasn't a genius; he was just more tenacious than the average person and knew how to learn from his failures.

But he wasn't optimistic in his heart.

"We should still cover for each other and retreat. No other arrangement this time, try to break through separately,"

he thought. If the enemy wanted to consume them, it would have to present several times their number.

If they could, then at least they could confirm that the Blood Oath Alliance had deployed the entire Anlan Brigade here.

If not, then too bad. Once they had left, naturally, the main force of Rain Listener would return to this place.

This wasn't really about planning tactics anymore; it was more like leaving last words. What remained was to leave it to fate.

If they were lucky enough, they might escape by fluke; if not, it would be a meeting at the Resurrection Temple.

However, there were not many resurrection points in the Green Dragon Mountain Range, and resurrecting in the Resurrection Temple might not be safe.

"Understood."

"Understood, Captain."

Brief affirmations responded in the communication channel before it fell silent.

Lonely White Field put away the Communication Crystal and glanced in the direction where the people of the Blood Oath Alliance might be in the darkness, and also silently left his location.

He knew he was also not safe, the enemy very likely considered him one of the primary targets, but that was fine. He actually wanted to see who the enemy was.

But just then—

An incredulous voice came through the communication channel:

"Captain, there's something strange here..."

In the air above—

Kaka was calmly switching between the perspectives of the Clockwork Fairy.

"Position A23, 18, 11, target one person, preliminarily determined to be an archer, he's watching that clearing in the forest. Key, if you move right you can avoid his direct line of sight."

"Snail, the target you're chasing has turned west, there's a dense shrubbery over there, it seems they want to use the terrain to break contact, you better intercept them before they get there."

"The enemy has split into three to four small groups to retreat northward. However, they did not choose the best route, I've marked the nearest approaches on the map for you, you should be able to intercept them all in order."

In the communication channel of Anlan, one command followed another amidst the rustling sounds.

After giving the last order,

The young man lifted his wind goggles and stood silently atop the rocky peak, overlooking the entire valley with his dark, heavy gaze.

All around was so quiet that only the whistling wind could be heard, everyone remained silent, the Six Shadows frowned at their partner, somewhat puzzled.

That decadent fellow, and this genius combat artisan who seemed to look down on everything.

Which one was the real enemy?

Meanwhile, in the valley below.

Xia Sheng couldn't help but glance back in the direction of that guy.

She quietly listened to the voice in the channel and suddenly felt that he wasn't as annoying as she thought; maybe when someone's abilities and skill level exceeded a certain threshold, she could no longer harbor jealousy.

There was only a faint envy, but it was not for Kaka, but rather for Six Shadows. She thought that to be a teammate of such a person, one must also be exceptionally talented, right?

There was silence in the channel, no one had ever experienced this kind of combat before.

It felt like entering a map-reveal command in an old strategy game, as if the deities were presiding, overlooking everything, with the enemy's every move under control.

The two sides were not much different in strength, but at this moment, the victor was clear.

No one spoke—

because it was the first time people felt such power, a combat artisan was truly as strong in a battle as the rumors described.

The so-called core of the battlefield was no exaggeration.

The 'prey' was not far behind that piece of linden forest.

Xia Sheng looked towards the quiet forest—in her vision, it was just pitch-blackness, as if there was nothing there.

The opponent was excellent; if not for this unfair fight, she thought she might spare a higher evaluation for the adversary.

But at this moment, all she needed to do was wait quietly for the unwary to fall into the trap.

A moment later, the target's traces appeared in her vision.

A young man and a woman, the young man an Iron Defender, while the girl carried a longbow, a ranger.

The two were extremely cautious, but their caution was more or less meaningless at this moment, as Xia Sheng and her people held their breath, without even showing their heads.

They only needed to wait for a command.

"Left front, Iron Defender, twelve meters."

And as Kaka reported a set of data,

Xia Sheng felt the Plain Colors Painting by her side stand up, the other was a Sharpshooter, pure Archer's third-tier profession.

Although generally, more people would opt for paths branching from the Ranger, Xia Sheng knew without a doubt that Plain Colors Painting was a genius, he had an unusual penchant for shooting.

According to him, he could hear the path of a feather arrow in the air.

Plain Colors Painting was quite satisfied with the targeting directions given by Kaka.

From the selection of the target, he understood that the opponent's practical experience might be richer than they had imagined.

Because a normal person might choose the ranger as the first shooting target, but as an Agility System Profession, the ranger likely has talents similar to Intuitive Dodge.

Since the Iron Defender is heavy and slow to respond, without its protection, the remaining ranger who moves much slower compared to a Nightingale, is actually pretty hard to defend oneself in solo combat.

For a Sharpshooter with weaker mobility, the priority choice of targets is an important topic.

He stood behind a hornbeam, letting the dense leaves cover his expression, holding his breath, raised the bow, but did not shoot immediately, instead, he raised two fingers first.

The first arrow would be Armor-Piercing, and the second would use a Refraction Arrow to mark the opponent's position. The brigade always fought as a whole; everyone here was an elite, with very little personal heroism.

Of course, if possible, Plain Colors Painting would also fire a third Entangling Arrow, but he thought the chances were not great; he knew well the caliber of Rain Listener's people.

Everyone nodded and tapped '1' in the squad channel to show they were in position.

He slowly drew the bow, aiming for the Iron Defender's neck.

The bowstring was endowed with a silent spell by the Fairy Silk, and the supporting pulley assembly and winch were also the quietest model, but there was still a faint sound when drawing the bow.

This slight noise in the Rain Listener's ranger's eyes appeared as a point of red light.

She turned her head towards that direction.

There were always background noises in the forest, like the tiny sounds of small animals passing through the bushes, the wind, the chirping of insects and birds, noise aggregated into momentarily flickering dots of light, and only a few outlined the source of the sound.

For example, right now, she saw a bat labeled in the Summoners System with a red outline flying over her head.

She rubbed her eyebrows, probably thinking she was too nervous.

It was at this moment that Plain Colors Painting behind the dense forest released the bowstring.

And at the same moment, a buzzing sound suddenly came through the air.

Under the watchful eyes of Anlan's squad, a golden orb flew down from the treetops, suddenly intercepting in front of their Sharpshooter, drawing a beautiful arc to the left and right.

"What the hell is this thing!?"

Plain Colors Painting was greatly startled.

The scene was too abrupt; as if the opponent had anticipated his reaction, arriving just before he let go, in the moment of distraction, the arrow slipped from his fingers, burying itself in the bushes ahead.

...

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