Nickney, having been slapped in the face, had no intention of staying here any longer.
He was willing to use himself as bait to lure the enemy into his ambush because he had considerable confidence in his plan.
Now that there was clearly no hope, he would not stay behind with his troops and fight to the death.
The moment he sensed something was wrong, Nickney decisively notified the troops closest to him and had them prepare to retreat.
As for the other troops, Nickney had them continue as before, looking as though they were withdrawing while actually remaining ready to react at any moment.
Nickney guessed that the troops surrounding him had to be watching his movements. If he revealed even the slightest flaw, the enemy would surely rush at him directly rather than wait for the encirclement to take shape.
So he could not reveal any flaws.
But Nickney had not expected that Gu Xi had not noticed nearly so much.
Gu Xi was not that meticulous.
Most of the time, he only noticed Nickney's problems afterward, realizing something was wrong only when trouble was practically upon him.
If Nickney had ignored everything and led his troops charging outward, Gu Xi's encirclement would not yet have formed, and Nickney's chances of escaping would have risen considerably.
But now Nickney was secretly making these preparations.
That instead caught Gu Xi's attention.
"Something seems off. Have they become disconnected?"
Gu Xi looked at the distant Nida Person troops. He felt that their formation seemed to have split into two parts, yet it also seemed not to have split at all.
He wanted to find someone to ask, but when he turned his head and looked around, he found that there was not even anyone beside him whom he could question.