Colonel Bod Gates frowned as he scrutinized the battlefield.
The smoke screen released by the enemy before the battle had long been blown away by the wind. From the top floor of the church bell tower, he overlooked the bridge, village, roads, fields, the billowing smoke, flickering flames, spears adorned with chunks of flesh and blood, warhorses dragging the corpses of riders in a frenzied run... every detail of the battlefield was laid bare.
The sounds of gunfire and cannons filled the air, and the messengers waiting on the stairs, unable to resist their curiosity, tiptoed to the window ledge to peer outside.
Through the smoke, he saw thousands of humans placed in a fold of the vast earth, fighting desperately, a spectacular, bizarre, and astounding sight—yet that was all.
But in Colonel Bod Gates' eyes, the battlefield was an open book.
