John and William stoically shook hands and parted. Each of them took the straight path that led from the middle of the hundred-metre wide battlefield to one of the two towers that oversaw the many obstacles. Solid stone walls, shattered trees, pathways, slopes, small labyrinths, and a selection of other such elements were scattered about. For the most part the two halves were symmetrical. Something that John was especially aware of once he had climbed the command tower.

The sight was oddly familiar. Sure, the angle wasn’t entirely correct, but it did resemble the view of a strategy game like Age of Empire or a MOBA like Dota 2. The latter rang especially true due to the map design. John had to suppress the urge to move the Mandala Sphere around like a camera. That had been deemed an unfair advantage and was therefore banned for this specific exercise.

On the other side of the battlefield, under Lord Brighton’s watchful eye, the soldiers of the Order entered the battlefield. Like John’s own formations, they were separated into squads of ten. They moved in that typical, triangle formation that he had observed twice before. Their leaders were the variety of knights that had typically stood in the second row, wearing armour that, in their form, resembled the plate mundane people could have worn, rather than the thick chunks of metal the true elite of the Order covered themselves with. Of course, that mundane shape was compromised by the glowing magic filling the metals used. White, gold, silver and red, those were the four colours the armour and tabards displayed. Their emblem, the stylized golden rose, was always present in some shape, more pronounced the higher up the chain of command someone was. They were all armed with shields and one weapon of their choice, mostly swords, with hammers and then spears following as the primary choices.

Turning his eyes to his own side, John saw Fusion’s forces step into the boundaries of the battlefield. Their equipment was modern, especially in comparison to the knights. Soldiers of the federation had a combat uniform of a dark blue colour, with the appropriate camouflage patterns. Their armaments were sleek pieces of Baelementium, snugly sitting in the various hoisters across the uniforms. Each soldier had a main armament of their choice, also typically a sword, with axes and spears following in frequency, and a dagger as a side arm. Fusion soldiers were also afforded various one-time use tools under normal circumstances, taken aside in this specific instance. Their Baelementium weapons were already an advantage.

Underneath each uniform was a bodysuit that offered the majority of protection. They weren’t even in the same ballpark of quality as Rave’s previous combat suit. They were also far better than what people could afford on their own. The entire set of armament, uniform and Baelementium weapons had previously only been given to officers. The Tier 5 upgrades of the Guild Hall had changed a lot in that regard.

There was the question if they could keep up the level of equipment in an actual war situation, where equipment broke. That wouldn’t be tested today.

As for what the officers got nowadays to distinguish themselves from the rank and file, the answer was a third weapon that was specifically aligned with their soul type. It made usage of Innate Abilities a tad easier.

Levels on both sides of the divide were roughly matched. Due to the function of the Training Hall, the normal soldiers were all at level 25. The officers were varying, hovering around 35. The Order’s fighters did not have such a neat spread, varying anywhere between level 20 and 40, suitable to rank. If taken in summary, they came out about equal.

All in all, they had equalized conditions as much as they could. Obviously, there were differences that couldn’t be eliminated, related to military doctrine of each organization. The Order was obviously more focused on melee engagements, direct combat and sustaining damage. Fusion was more of a jack of all trades military.

‘I’ll have to keep that in mind and have my people avoid direct confrontation,’ the Gamer thought. He halfway expected someone to weigh in on that consideration, but he was alone in his pondering. Everyone else had isolated their thoughts and watched from one of the two podiums at the side. It was less about their council and more about the additional perspectives. Lorelei made sure no cheating occurred. Momo flew out to the middle of the battlefield and checked that everyone was in their assigned starting positions.

While the final checks of fairness went over, John sat down on top of the command tower. It was just a flat stone surface, accessible via a ladder. Quick and effective to build, more than enough for the exercise. The extra metre in height wouldn’t add much of an advantage and John wanted to be comfortable.

‘Not like I will lose this anyway,’ John allowed himself the arrogant thought. There was no crocodile to growl at him for it. ‘The main issue here is that the Order has more live combat experience than my troops. That can be circumvented.’ He raised his phone to his lips. “Mic check. Alpha, do you hear me?” the Gamer asked.

“Alpha squad hears you loud and clear.”

“Good. Beta?” he went through the five squads in order, then nodded towards Momo. All was ready on his side. The fairy maid raised her voice.

“Ehm… alright… everyone is ready, so I guess… five… four… three… two… one… go!”

It was an awkward start of the battle, but John didn’t care much. “Alright, here is our general strategy,” he immediately started his explanation. “Avoid direct confrontation, unless I give orders to the contrary. They are better equipped and have more experience in melee. We’ll diminish their strength first and then swoop in for individual victories. Do not overcommit to finish someone off who is down. Alpha, take the centre. Your job is to be the visible bait. All other squads, hide in the area. Create cover if you need to. Deny as much vision as you-“

His stream of orders was interrupted by three of the five enemy squads charging right down the clear, central path. Reckless as that was, it was also smart to do so before John got any chance to modify the terrain in advantageous ways. Whether he knew it or just followed his usual fighting style, William tried to get Fusion’s soldiers tangled in the kind of battle John most wanted to avoid.

This was entirely within the expectations though.

“Everyone, enter the obstacle area to the west,” the Gamer instructed. The squads were distributed along the entire side of the rectangle on John’s end, so that strategy forced several of them to run quite a distance. “Beta, inconvenience them. Just slow them down enough so that Epsilon can enter the woods. Keep running. All squads, prepare to turn on my command. We’ll overwhelm them.”

One of the most obvious discoveries people had made when it came to modern warfare was that an army that understood the aim of its commander performed better. Many generals made the mistake of treating live combat like the boardgames they went through to hone their tactical instincts. Particularly once warfare covered entire landscapes, doctrines and shared stratagems became exceedingly important to ensure the ordered action of any professional force. This was not trench warfare, neither in size, scope, nor brutality. Fundamentals remained constant even on this small scale. Soldiers that knew the spirit of an order could improvise to keep with it, had higher morale because they were included, and would not be confused when the next order suddenly contradicted the previous one.

Discipline for the troops was important. Generals that spoke to soldiers as humans and not chess pieces just as much.

One of the soldiers of the Gamma squad detached from the rest of his unit for a few seconds, just enough time to use their magic to create a cloud of sand. It was useless on its own, but the inconvenience John had ordered, the Beta squad had provided in the shape of a strong gust of wind. This wind now carried the sand into the advancing trio of enemies. It was an additional inconvenience and fully in the spirit of John’s order.

“Good. Don’t fall behind,” John swiftly delivered a compliment and a criticism. This was exactly what he wanted to see, but he also couldn’t encourage improvisation too much. Glory seekers were always a threat to proper order. All had to be balanced. “Slow down, give the enemy a chance to keep up. Hide when you are more than five metres in. Gamma, guard the forest flank. Alpha, pincer the enemy. Focus on immobilizing the enemy.”

All of John’s troops were now on the border of the obstacles, the soldiers of the Golden Rose in hot pursuit. Fusion’s squads didn’t have to slow down much to let the Order catch up, flat dirt was always easier to run on than a mixture of skatepark and jungle terrain. They made it to the border as well. All according to plan.

“Turn!” John yelled into the microphone. A bunch of war cries came back, the entirety of Fusion’s squad amping each other up as thirty of them suddenly descended on the thirty that had charged in. The odds were equal in that initial clash. It could even be said to be in the Order’s favour, as their raised shields did well to ward off the cascade of magic and blades. Another ten, however, did as John instructed.

They flanked the main force of the Order, wrapping around the left side and defeating several enemies by virtue of outnumbering them two to one. On the right side of that front, where numbers were equally matched, the Order was in the advantage. The difference in losses, however, was firmly in his favour. Before long, the left side would completely collapse, freeing up more of Fusion’s soldiers to fully encircle the enemy, and that was that. No shield, no physical one anyway, could cover 360 degrees.

The main worry were the 20 other soldiers of the Order, but John knew exactly where they were even if he couldn’t see them.

The charge down the middle had to be accompanied by the remaining two squads covering the obstacle zones at the sides. William’s plan must have been to trust on the individual superiority of his troops to rush headfirst into full engagements. If John had ordered all of his troops to meet the Order’s in the middle, he would have gotten encircled by the two free squads. If he had distributed them equally like Lord Brighton had, Fusion’s squads would have lost individually. If he had tried to keep a token force in the middle and to win the sides, the centre would have broken and his forces at the side pincered.

Having gone through these scenarios, John had decided to move all of his troops to one side. The Order squad covering the east was too far away to reinforce the central force before they took considerable losses. The western squad could be delayed by just one of John’s own. Difficult terrain was to Fusion’s advantage since their equipment was lighter and less cumbersome.

However, even if the eastern squad was too far away to reinforce swiftly, it wasn’t so far away that it would never arrive. “All capable of immobilizing spells, ready them. After I give the signal to retreat, fire them. Then reinforce Gamma,” John readied everyone and waited to see the eastern enemy squad. They showed themselves swiftly, causing John to grin in a relieved fashion. He hadn’t seen any troop movements at the start of the battle that would have allowed William to surprise John with two squads in the western obstacle area. Paranoia had still suggested that possibility. It would have gotten difficult if William had taken that particular gamble.

The Lord-Protector of the Golden Rose was too straight-laced to invest in a strategy like that though.

“Retreat,” John ordered, when he caught the first movement in the eastern half. Water spells were unleashed on the remaining nineteen of the original thirty of the central force, alongside earth control that softened the ground. Loosened earth turned into mud, which made the armoured foes too slow to chase after the Fusion forces, who had only lost three of their forty members, as they hastened deep into the obstacle area. The other ten Order soldiers broke out of the woods, but hadn’t even made it to their allies by the time all of Fusion’s forces were in the western area.

With that first engagement, John had won already. It would have been suicide for the eastern forces to charge right after all of Fusion’s and it was abandonment not to do it, as they could now defeat the western squad fighting one against five. The latter was what happened, William must have opted to consolidate what he still had and try to exploit whatever opening John may give him.

John had too much experience in strategy games to give up a resource advantage once he had it. With twenty-one enemies out of the way and a total of two more losses on his side, mounting to a total of five, the Gamer transitioned his manpower advantage into a position advantage. The Order retreated into the eastern half of the map, but John had already sent one squad to guard the middle section. Effectively, the Order was confined to a quarter of the battlefield, outnumbered, and possessing no ranged attacks.

They tried to break it with a valiant charge at one point. John let them. It was easier to nap at their heels, pick off one or two, then corner them in a different segment of the map. They had nowhere to go and sitting still behind their shields would eventually lead to their downfall.