Four Split Personalities

"Stupid woman, quick reaction, huh."

"Ugly hikikomori, same to you."

The two traded what could only be described as affectionate greetings before simultaneously closing their friends lists and nonchalantly issuing the first clear order to the elite forces of their allied armies following them —

"Count the current area’s population, one minute."

...

At the same time, in Mithril City, on the west grand street, a certain attic room

"It seems the situation has stabilized."

Cleo•Illumina silently squatted on the balcony railing, murmuring softly, his face which had been tense for hours finally relaxed. He then undid the top button of his collar and let out a breath.

The young Dark Elf who had changed out of the standard Bard’s robe slowly stood up, adopting a cooler looking pose with his hands behind his back on the railing. He was draped in an exquisite cape adorned with many black feathers that appeared costly, wore a loose-fitting majestically-tailed mage robe, and each of his hands sported a pair of emerald rings on the index and thumb, with a blade extending from a ring on his right middle finger. He also wore a leather mask with a long beak that at first glance bore a strong resemblance to the ’plague doctors’ who were active in medieval Europe.

"It looks like I worried over nothing..."

Cleo, connected to as many as eleven ravens through the alchemy mask on his face, hummed in annoyance, remotely monitoring the fiercely hot battleground miles away, which had been a white-hot battle from the very beginning and continued to heat up to almost lethal levels.

With Cleo having the perspectives of over a dozen ravens, there were almost no blind spots left in his surveillance. He could see much clearer than the common Griffon Knights and Magicians, and unless he encountered someone like Motan who liked "game hunting," he rarely faced any safety issues. After all, on such battlefields, few would specifically target birds in the sky. Additionally, avoiding stray magic or arrows was straightforward; as long as he didn’t push his luck too far, it was an extremely safe and comfortable reconnaissance method.

Thus, Cleo was able to watch the entire battle live from within Mithril City and even prepared to rush to the battlefield for close-range reconnaissance at a moment’s notice if his "Raven Scouting" was countered. However, because both the Lord’s Allied Forces and Marshal’s legions had not considered those birds in the sky worth noting, he had remained comfortably in the city thus far.

The situation of the battle had become increasingly clear...

At this very moment, both sides had already suffered over ten thousand deaths, with the number of severely wounded likely to double that count. Both the armies of the eight great lords and the warriors under Marshal were chaotically engaged, with the so-called ’frontline’ almost non-existent, except for the relatively stable eastern section of the main battlefield where the Violet Family and the Crystal Wolf Family were situated. All other places had almost become combat zones, and upon close inspection, each area was in complete chaos.

However, if one looked past the individual battle zones and considered the situation as a whole, the battlefield was surprisingly clear and easy to understand. In a world where most soldiers possessed supernatural strength, it was very difficult for commanders to maintain orderly exchanges of fire, formations, and retreats after the battle began. As Commanders, ensuring overall control and having soldiers clearly and firmly execute strategic intentions was sufficient; battlefield chaos was fundamentally trivial.

So, from a side perspective, this highlighted how distinct "Hei Fan" from Misha County was, able to make all forces under the joint army orderly and united as if with a flick of the wrist. Despite the advantage of not having a brainy Mutant, his "Talent" to command every warrior, every type of profession, and even every different personality was still terrifying.

Clearly, neither the commanders of Marshal’s three legions nor the numerous commanders of the Lord’s Allied Forces were capable of such control, nor did they need to be.

From Cleo’s current ’compound eye view,’ the strategic intent of the Lord’s Allied Forces remained very lucid. Even as a novice in military affairs, after watching for so long, he could make a reliable judgment that "they are trying to use a war of attrition to gradually wear down the enemy’s living forces, further expanding their numerical advantage, like a snowball rolling down to crush the opposition."

Marshal’s three legions, however, despite having a clear advantage in numbers, coordination, and unified allegiance, which should translate to greater flexibility and execution, remained in a consistently passive defense. Indeed, they had a significant disadvantage in numbers, but maintaining a defensive circular formation aimed primarily at defense only brought them closer to defeat. Whether the Sword of Baphomet Knight Order, the Ice Curtain Mage Group, or the Mercury Guard, none had changed their formations since the battle began, a detail of considerable interest to Cleo.

From the multiple perspectives he had, the Lord’s Allied Forces at this moment resembled a fierce Falcon continuously flapping its wings, tearing at the enemy with its beak and the sharp points at the base, middle, and tips of its wings.

On the other hand, their enemy was like a crab. The Sword of Baphomet Knight Order, acting as the crab’s pincers, tried to alleviate the pressure at the front as much as possible, while the body comprised the Mercury Guard and Ice Curtain Mage Group. The former acted like an iron wall spread out on the perimeter, protecting the casters behind, while the latter continuously fortified their lines with solid ice and water wave shields conjured by Joint Spellcasting, showing little desire to attack.