Karl slowly lowered the Monocular Telescope in his hand. The cold bronze tube seemed to still carry the bloody stench of slaughter from the distant battlefield.
He stood atop the command platform, the frigid wind whipping his cloak and carrying the sounds from every front—still chaotic even after distance had filtered them: the thunder of guns and cannon, faint shouts, the neighing of warhorses... Yet to his ears now, all that noise had become a clear stream of data.
On the left flank, toward Village No. 5, Duke Schmidt's troops were still locked in a bloody battle with Asgeir's Sauron forces. Though the fighting was fierce, the line remained firm, and the enemy had failed to break through. On the right flank, Lyon's cavalry had just won a glorious victory, crushing the main force of the Sauron central cavalry and even forcing out Harald's royal court guard, inflicting heavy losses upon them. The eastern threat had essentially been eliminated. Our cavalry had regrouped and held absolute initiative. Most crucial of all, however, was the battlefield at Village No. 2, slightly left of the center.
Svein... Karl silently repeated the name of that opponent. This fierce Sauron general truly was tenacious. Under the savage assault of the Carnford Army's main force and continuous artillery bombardment, he was still barely maintaining his line amid the ruins of Village No. 2, waging brutal street fighting and contesting every house.
But the price of this "holdout" was appallingly high. Through the telescope, Karl could see the Sauron banners within Village No. 2 dwindling, the gunfire of resistance and the area it covered contracting, while the blue tide of Carnford steadily advanced.
More importantly, Svein had already sent messenger after messenger to the central army, urgently pleading for reinforcements. This was uncommon among Sauron generals