A little later.
Inside the temporary command staff tent.
God of War Soren studied the sand table while several staff officers stood stiffly beside him.
After watching for a while, Soren withdrew his gaze and looked at one of the officers. "How are the left and right flanks progressing?"
The officer replied quickly, "Fairly smoothly. The left flank has reached the vicinity of Muro City in the Grey Rock Territory, while the right flank has just crossed the Cold Bone River. They have encountered almost no major obstacles and should be able to complete their objectives roughly according to plan."
Soren nodded after hearing this. "Good."
"However, General, compared to the progress of the left and right flanks, our central force has encountered serious problems. Its advance has been severely impeded," the officer continued.
"Hmm? Explain in detail," Soren said.
"Yes." The officer spoke gravely. "Ever since we began coming into contact with the routed troops, Shalin has been obstructing our central force. They have not launched any large-scale attacks. Their main method has been frequent small-scale infiltration, destroying a large number of our camps and seriously delaying our march."
"Infiltration and sabotage? We can't stop them?" Soren frowned.
The officer shook his head with a bitter smile. "At present, we truly can't. Because we had to reinforce the left and right flanks, and the troops from the rear have not arrived yet, our central force currently has only sixty thousand men.
Following your orders, in order to prevent large-scale spell attacks from Shalin's Wizards, our marching forces have been spread out relatively thin. This has clearly given Shalin an opportunity. They always manage to find gaps in each unit's defenses, infiltrating our center and even our rear to carry out sabotage.
Most importantly, they are deploying Black Riders—their Magic-armored