Bear School Astartes-Chapter 630 - 633. Cognitive Bias

"This isn’t right! Why are we encountering such an attack!"

In the convoy, the stunned commander was yanked down by the Warlock beside him, clutching his helmet and shouting frantically.

On the battlefield, no matter how powerful the attack, it should be traceable.

This is based on a certain logic.

To launch a powerful attack, you must have sufficient preparation.

If you want to fire a ballista, then transporting and assembling it cannot happen quietly.

During this process, traces will always be left behind, and if your enemy is indeed qualified, with the strength to compete against you, they won’t be unaware that you have a powerful war machine, at least they would notice some clues.

Consequently, they would adjust their tactics or simply bring out a war machine of their own for confrontation.

Similarly, if the opponent employs a Great Mage on the battlefield, then this Great Mage must have interacted with the opponent’s people and interests and would have recently been absent.

Therefore, the enemy would immediately adapt their intelligence system to include this Great Mage as a factor in combat considerations.

But here... no one told him there were ballistas in the woods!

A battle that is completely unforeseen and unexamined in advance is the most terrifying nightmare for any commander.

Thus, after firing a total of ten crossbow arrows from the ballista, the situation proceeded just as the Niflgaard command had anticipated.

A terrifying enemy, moving with lightning efficiency, cleaving through the air like a shadow.

Then, charging into their ranks when the first heavy infantry line couldn’t fully organize.

The ferocious and efficient killing speed was exposed nakedly in broad daylight for all to see.

The towering figure, and the large terrifying sword in his hand, each swing splattering a literal ’wave of blood’.

With no complex architectural environment, a straight road allowed even Lann’s movements to become straightforward strikes.

Thus, faster than previous times, the collapse of seven hundred men took only ten minutes.

Then a tightly coordinated small elite force, led by Lincoln, burst out of the woods.

Their quality was generally very high, after all, they were the last remaining organized defenders of Sintra.

Under Lann’s leadership, they experienced one unimaginable victory after another.

Victory instills confidence, and these victories were not simply left for anyone to pick up by following Lann.

They were always dealing with the Niflgaard people, and even if the Niflgaard soldiers were in disarray, their individual quality was indisputable.

Even when their structure was shattered, the Niflgaard’s deserters still had a numerical advantage over Lincoln’s forces.

Every battle was akin to a group hunting down a much larger, emotionally hysterical group of professional warriors, slaughtering them all.

And these former Sintra soldiers honed themselves in each of these outnumbered pursuits and annihilation battles, forcing themselves to keep up with Lann’s incredible pace.

They didn’t expect to match Lann’s fundamental skills in the short term, leaving them no choice but to improve tactics, execution, coordination, and other aspects.

In such a high-demand, high-standard, high-pressure combat environment, Lann even noticed these soldiers starting to organize tactical seminars themselves.

For them, who were members of a conventional feudal army just months ago, this kind of self-educating and progressive model was an organizational formation ahead of its time!

Beneath the progress in organizational form, their combat prowess improved in a very logical, yet vastly unconventional way.

Lann gave no orders, yet over sixty men ’seeped’ into the disordered Niflgaard formation like mercury.

Then, like a gradually tightening fishing net, they systematically eliminated their ’catch’.

The battle was entering its closing stages.

And indeed, as Lann and Lincoln expected before the battle commenced, within this company, many people simply watched the downward spiral of the situation without any intention of getting involved.

Instead, upon sensing danger, they left without looking back.

These must be ’battlefield observers’ or similar roles.

In fact, their indifference to the battle, along with their departure, was a significant reason for the army’s collapse in morale.

To the Niflgaard command, acquiring intelligence about Lann was more valuable than several hundred, even thousand meticulously equipped soldiers.

Unlike the usual fast-paced battles, this time Lann seemed indeed affected by those magical artifacts.

He didn’t immediately locate or decapitate this group’s command structure.

On the contrary, while the rest of the ’Ember’ team was swiftly taking down scattered deserters, nearing the end...

He finally approached the commander of this unit.

"Clang!"

The heavy and swift greatsword cleaved down, clearing all the soldiers standing guard before Lann in one swift move.

However, just as the commander’s eyes were about to pop out of his sockets, a layer of azure Chaos Magic Shield appeared in front of the sword’s edge!

The dark, heavy sword blade sent ripples through the azure shield, but fortunately did not break instantly.

This allowed the commander to grasp at it like a lifeline.

"Warlock! Get me out! Warlock!"

Beside the commander, a man on horseback raised his arm towards this side, biting down with difficulty.

While maintaining the Magic Shield, a blazing Fireball shot towards Lann’s side.

The Demon Hunter’s cat eyes flicked slightly, his toes kicked at the ground, propelling a dead Niflgaard corpse into the air, directly intercepting the Fireball.

With a ’boom’, the solid armor and the warm flesh inside exploded into blood and meat, splattering everywhere.

Lann was close to the explosion point. His towering body was blown away by the shockwave.

But before the commander’s face could show relief for escaping.

In mid-air, before landing, Lann’s feet were already pushing off constantly from the ground. Like a car during a turn that doesn’t even slightly slow down, he ’whooshed’ forward again!

Bringing with him an oppressive force that made breathing difficult.

The heavy greatsword, thrust in front, broke through the Magic Shield’s endurance limit, and the dark, heavy sword tip pinned through the commander’s chest, the armor issuing several cracking sounds of breaking bones.

Dispatching the commander swiftly, Lann barely paused, his figure veering sharply, lunging towards the Warlock’s location.

The Warlock, seeing that the person he was supposed to protect couldn’t survive, quickly dropped another Fireball, blowing Lann away again with the shockwave.

Then, entwining his mount with the wind, he fled at great speed.

Once he was gone, after clearing the battlefield, Lincoln walked over to where Lann had been blown away by the Fireball’s shockwave.

Looking at the Demon Hunter lying on the ground, the half-grown boy scratched his cheek.

"Sir, that guy has run far away."

"Oh."

Originally seeming powerless and suppressed against the Warlock, only breaking through defense with brute force at the end, Lann now smoothly rose from the ground.

He patted the nonexistent dust off his Grandmaster-level armor, showing no sign of the two Fireballs having left him in a sorry state.

"Was your performance a bit overly dramatic?" Lincoln cautiously asked. "Will they believe it?"

"Of course they will, because it all aligns with logic from beginning to end, right? Besides, deep down they want to believe ’the Warlock is useful against me’. Who wants to face an unsolvable enemy?"

Lann twisted his neck, watching the Warlock who had already run out of normal sight.

"That’s human nature, isn’t it? When circumstances favor oneself, considering unfavorable possibilities is quite painful. Just as well, I also need them to believe, ’The Warlock can handle, at least deal with me’."

Lann smiled down at Lincoln.

"Such cognitive dissonance will be very useful in the future."