Sword of Dawn

Page 270

A tall crystal cluster giant came to Heaton and made a hoarse and deep voice: "Most of them are cowards, with only a few exceptions."

Heaton turned his head slightly and glanced at the giant: "Kelode, is the resistance of Boulder City over?"

"It will end—we have occupied more than [-]% of the entire city..."

"That means it's not over yet," Heaton interrupted, "What's going on?"

"The so-called 'Queen of the North' is still fighting. She and her troops have controlled the castle area. Relying on the castle's magic tower and the increase of the magic net, the entire castle area is shrouded in a powerful snowstorm, making it impossible to approach. "

Speaking of this, the giant couldn't help cursing: "The damn magic net, it can run forever!"

"The magic net won't get tired, people will, that 'Queen of the North' will dry up sooner or later," Heaton said lightly, "find a way to consume the magic power of the blizzard and destroy them as soon as possible—they have resisted long enough."

"Yes."

"There's one other thing that concerns me more than those stubborn fools," Heaton went on. "I hear there's some trouble in the south?"

"Yes, some wandering intruders seem to be people from the southern border, and they are operating on the outskirts of our control area."

"...I don't want to be distracted, but I've had enough of those so-called 'Ceciles'," Heaton snorted coldly, "destroy them."

"Yes."

Chapter 0615 Breakout and Fire Support

The Iron Ranger troops led by Solderin set off before the first ray of sunlight emerged at dawn, and began to move towards the Gorgon River.

This team is already too close to the dangerous pollution area, and even crossed the edge of the giant wooden crossing-this so-called "crossing" is not a real crossing, but is located on the east side of the Holy Spirit Plain, connecting the Boulder City, the Inclined Forest Valley, the Asian A vast area including a large area such as Ertel Mountain - in this area, the Iron Ranger warriors have encountered the drudel giants many times, and found several villages or towns completely occupied by the drudel army, Coupled with the remnants of the Royal Army who were accidentally rescued, this task force has overfulfilled their exploration mission, and it is time to evacuate.

The real bombardment should be handed over to the follow-up large forces.

King Capital Knight Mitchell and his soldiers huddled in the armored infantry vehicle, feeling the roar and vibration of this steel beast driven by magic and machinery, a sense of majestic power came from the gears and The movement of the connecting rod made them feel inexplicably awed and at the same time at ease—even though they couldn’t understand how the Cecilians created these incredible magical devices, they still felt a steady stream of peace of mind. gushing out.

They are protected, protected by a solid frame, steel plates, and thick magic shields. The Cecils have cleverly combined these common substances and common spells, and endowed them with mysterious runic technology. The machine and the soul allow these steels to run on their own without the maintenance of a mage. Sitting in it, it is as safe as being in a moving fortress.

There must be some magical spirit driving the chariot, no doubt about it.

Maybe it's the machine spirit.

Knight Mitchell's thinking diverged, and he used "common sense" to try to understand the creations of the Cecilians, but finally found that he couldn't understand, so he turned his head and looked at the scenery outside through the crystal blocks inlaid on the armor of the carriage——the scene in the wilderness The scenery is constantly receding, the speed is much faster than the carriage.

"Are we going directly to the Gorgon River?" A Royal Army soldier sitting next to him looked at the Cecil soldier in black armor sitting across the carriage, and asked a little uneasy, "Over there Someone pick us up?"

The magic warrior in black light armor said casually: "Let's go south first, and then go west to the river bank."

Knight Mitchell nodded slightly, he thought this was quite the right choice.

Directly going west to the Gorgon River is of course the shortest route, but due to being deeply trapped in the polluted area, it is very likely that you will encounter a large army of crystal cluster giants if you move sideways rashly. The safest route is to move south first, away from the most dangerous place. The area will adjust its direction later, and it is said that the warships that came to greet them are still going north along the river at the moment, so the convoy going south is also heading to the meeting point as soon as possible...

It's just that this way of rendezvous requires the convoy and the warship to cooperate seamlessly, and they must arrive at the exact place at the exact time. Unless the time and place are negotiated in advance, it will be difficult to achieve... But judging by the indifferent look of the Cecils, they obviously don't want to I'm worried about this, and I don't know how to do it... Can any of those black-armored soldiers use the message spell?

Knight Mitchell guessed, but suddenly, a violent shock of the car body interrupted his thoughts. It was the shaking of the car at a sudden acceleration. Then, he heard a sharp sound coming from outside, and a moment later Another distant explosion came from behind.

He had heard the sound--it was this explosion that fell from the sky when he and his last soldiers were about to be overwhelmed by more and more druse giants, intercepting the follow-up reinforcements of the druse giants and saving them all. people.

That's what's called a "howitzer" - it wasn't equipped in the vehicle he was in to transport personnel and supplies, but there was one in each of the other two vehicles called "multipurpose combat vehicles" , its power is impressive.

The two Cecil soldiers in black light armor in the carriage reacted instantly. They got up immediately, one of them approached the observation port of the carriage to confirm the situation, and the other climbed up the ladder in the middle of the carriage, and began to manipulate the roof. The ray turret participated in the battle, and Mitchell Knight also reacted after a short period of astonishment. He rushed to another observation port and saw the terrible situation outside——

A large number of crystal cluster giants are attacking from all directions, the number is countless, and the arcane arc they created has begun to lick the ground not far away...

The moment he saw those monsters, the sense of security brought by the steel and shields was instantly weakened. Knight Mitchell forced his courage to maintain his composure, but several soldiers of the Royal Army were already praying in fear.

But Mitchell couldn't blame these soldiers—because they had experienced tragic failures and escaped more than once, and they had just come out of that hell.

At this moment, there was another shaking, and at the same time, there was a huge explosion sounded very close. This sound made several soldiers turn pale instantly: this is the sound of powerful arcane lightning hitting the shield!

Those monsters are getting closer!

The iron door separating the front and rear of the chariot was suddenly opened, and the high-level ranger with blond hair bent over and leaned in: "We seem to have entered an ambush - but the enemy doesn't seem to be used to our speed. There is still time to completely close the ambush circle."

It turned out to be an ambush! !

Knight Mitchell took a breath and spoke quickly: "Can you run away?"

"It's not easy, there are a lot of them, and the bite is tight," the high-ranking ranger said with a relaxed face. His calm and calm attitude was in stark contrast to the few soldiers of the Royal Army who had already fallen into tension and fear, but what he said was quite different. It's not relaxing at all, "With the stamina, speed and morale of those monsters, I'm afraid they won't be able to get rid of them for a while."

Mitchell's face was covered with a layer of gray, and he couldn't even understand how the high-ranking ranger in front of him could still be so relaxed in this situation: "Then... we are afraid that we are going to die here..."

Solderling smiled: "Don't worry, we are already close to the scheduled meeting point—about ten kilometers away."

Mitchell was relieved by the "deceitful" smile at first, but then he almost jumped up - it's still so far away! !

And he still clearly remembered that the convoy was not moving directly towards the Gorgon River, it was heading south!It is still quite a distance from the river bank!

The sound of continuous explosions and the sound of flames from the burner came from outside, mixed with the violent explosion after the arcane lightning hit the vehicle shield. It's the druse giants, and they're getting closer!

The area between the convoy and the Gorgon River was probably full of ambushing monsters. In this situation, how could this team, which was far away from the river bank and so far from the meeting point, survive safely?

Mr. Knight from the royal capital couldn't find a way to break through the siege in his limited battlefield experience. Even if the power of these strange chariots was counted, he didn't think everyone could swarm there. Surviving the siege of the Crystal Cluster Legion, however, Solderling did not intend to continue to explain—the high-level ranger just casually comforted him a few more words, saying that they had "excellent fire support", and then turned and left the passenger compartment.

After leaving behind the bewildered "passenger", Soldering quickly returned to the driver's seat at the front of the vehicle, and while signaling the soldiers controlling the tank to move closer to the river bank, he quickly opened the magic net terminal on the vehicle.

It turns out that laying waypoints along the way in the intelligence gathering process was really prescient.

The magic net terminal was activated, and a small holographic projection emerged above the dashboard of the armored vehicle. In the center of the screen was the bearded Byron and the busy battleship command platform in the background.

"We've already seen the signal flares you sent out," Byron said before Soldering could speak, "We'll be within the coverage area soon—don't die before that, just run south all the time!"

Solderin said quickly: "We are being pursued. You can fire after we pass the temporary relay point No. 16. Just aim at the relay point and blow it up. It's okay to blow up the relay point. I'll make up for it later... ..."

"So conservative," Byron found a pipe from nowhere, put it in his mouth without lighting it, and said with an expression of "I advise you to be more reckless", "Actually, you can fire a round of flares after 10 minutes. , and then I will recalibrate it according to the signal flare, this is the standard naval gun support process, and it can help you get more..."

A bright arc of arcane electricity struck from afar, shattering light on the shield of the chariot, and then the scorching rays of the return covered the direction of the attack. Soldering held the handrail on the roof of the chariot, While maintaining stability in the violent shaking, he responded to the mercenary knight on the opposite side of the communicator: "I'm afraid that you will blow up my entire team by the way-your naval gun!"

"My gunner's live ammunition performance is excellent, and the main gun of the Pioneer uses the latest sights and measuring rods. Give me a wisp of smoke, and it will never miss. I'm serious with you—won't you try it? "

Soldering couldn't understand how this incomprehensible guy has survived in the army and is still highly regarded by Gawain, but he finally chose to believe in "naval gun support"-mainly choosing to trust well-trained gunners And the most cutting-edge magic warship.

After confirming the fire support plan, Byron on the opposite side of the communicator was obviously happy. This mercenary knight, who had become the commander of the fleet and was becoming more and more fascinated by the cutting-edge magical warships, held a pipe and made a manly look with a smile on his face. Promise: "Don't worry, if my naval gun hurts a single bolt of your precious chariots, I will shave my head and go to Cecil City for two laps..."

The speaker has no heart,

The listener is interested.

In an instant, two veins popped up on Soldering's forehead, but the communication was over.

In the nameless fire suddenly raised by the Iron Ranger commander, the breakout convoy drove into a more gentle area, and the speed suddenly accelerated again.

Looking down from a high altitude, two multi-purpose chariots and two armored transport vehicles rolled up smoke and dust, and galloped across the wilderness. Countless crystal cluster giants were gathering from all directions, chasing after layers upon layers. The small fleet of arcane arcs and orbital howitzers criss-cross between the convoy and the pursuers, and the flames from the heavy burners lick the ground. On this battlefield of explosions and flames, the pursuit and the breakout The distance between the audience is widened again and again, but it is drawn closer again and again.

The speed at which the giant ran wildly was no less than that of a vehicle powered by a magic engine.

The chase seemed like it would last a long time, but suddenly, the top of one of the magic tanks opened.

An Iron Ranger warrior pointed the light launcher skyward, firing three flares.

Two red and one white flares rose high into the sky and exploded in the clear sky. The eye-catching smoke and flashes were clearly visible on the distant Gorgon River.

After the signal flare was fired, the speed of the four magic guided vehicles did not decrease at all, and even slightly accelerated again, as if they were about to leave this dangerous position quickly, and below the slowly falling trajectory of the signal flare was the crystal of the death of all things. Cluster Legion...

On the Gorgon River, two of the four live ammunition main guns of the cutting-edge magical warship "Pioneer" quickly and finely adjusted their respective angles. After a moment's delay, the surging energy from the power ridge was injected into the acceleration orbit.

Heavenly fire, falling from the sky.

Chapter 0616 The Blizzard in Boulder City

This terrible chase seems to soon devour this small team, whether it is the knights from the capital, or the soldiers who have been conscripted, a life recovered from the walls of the Boulder City after a short delay After all, he was gradually approaching the embrace of Death——Mitchell looked at the scene in the distance through the observation port at the rear of the carriage, and saw hundreds of cluster giants getting closer. These huge human figures with a height of three meters The momentum of the biological swarm charge even surpassed that of the royal knights, and the arcane lightning they released frequently spanned the entire battlefield and continuously hit the shield of the chariot...

Farther away, there are large swaths of rising smoke and dust, and each piece of smoke and dust means that a new wave of pursuers is rapidly approaching.

Then, a strange flash of light fell from the sky.

It was some kind of extremely fast flying object, even with the vision of an extraordinary person, it could barely capture a trace of its trajectory. It was surrounded by a light green gleam, flying from the direction of the Gorgon River, passing over the hills and wilderness, Fell into the smoke and dust in the distance.

In the next second, a terrifying explosion flash and even more terrifying thunder almost tore the eardrums of Mitchell and the soldiers.

Countless shattered limbs and crystals were thrown into the sky in the flash of the explosion. The terrible shock wave even pushed all the surface protrusions with a radius of nearly [-] meters. The ground was shaking violently. Even at such a long distance, Mitchell could It was clear that there were slight ripples on the shield outside the chariot.

Immediately afterwards, more flashes of light appeared in the sky, accompanied by some kind of sharp sound, falling in the distance one after another.

Boom!Boom!Boom!

The big explosions of landslides and landslides sounded one after another. Every flash and every explosion seemed to be a meteorite strike in the middle of the crystal cluster army. I don’t know how many monsters were turned into dust under this terrible attack. Can Mitchell There is only one thing that is certain - the pursuit of the cluster legion is falling apart.

The Cecil soldiers driving the vehicles and controlling the weapons obviously knew that this amazing "sky fire" would appear, and they didn't panic at all. When the first big explosion fell, the soldiers cooperated tacitly and entered the next step to get rid of the pursuit. In the first stage, they began to manipulate the weapons installed on the vehicle to clean up the chasing cluster giants, and dropped a large number of explosive magic props called crystal grenades behind the vehicle, and at the same time began to move in the direction of the Gorgon River.

During this whole process, Mitchell was most worried about those attacks falling from the sky that would fall on his head—they were so powerful that Mr. Knight was absolutely sure that even if one attack fell on the side of the convoy, his body would be destroyed. They were all distributed in a random area with a radius of [-] meters in an instant, but it turned out that his worries were unnecessary: ​​Those attacks obviously deliberately kept a safe distance from the convoy, and the latest one was hundreds of meters away.

Everything seems to have been rehearsed countless times.

Even the drosite giant, who is fearless of pain and lacks human emotion, will retreat under such an attack-this battle of pursuit and breakout finally ends in a beam of energy swept from the direction of the Gorgon River, that terrifying The beam of light cut across the battlefield, and continued to burn the ground with a buzzing sound, leaving behind a nearly molten trench tens of meters wide, and the crystal cluster giants who were afraid of the high temperature had to scatter and retreat.

After that, there will be no more waves on the road.

……

On the 35th of the Moon of Recovery, the inland warship "Pioneer", which was the first to go to the north, successfully completed the rendezvous with the advance team of the Iron Rangers. Relying on the support of powerful naval guns, the Knights of Byron eliminated a group of soldiers moving south from the giant log crossing. The cluster giants, and then the fleet temporarily docked on the river bank of the rich forest in the north of Pompeii. After using the close-in artillery to open up a safe landing field, the landing force and the advance team of the Iron Rangers established in the Lemburg area on the west side of the rich forest. base.

At the same time, the ground troops led by Gao Wen and Philip also advanced from the land to the fertile forest. After assisting the advance team to clear away the remaining crystal cluster legions on the periphery, the ground passage from the southern border to the theater was opened. From the fortress to Lemburg, the river and ground roads were finally unimpeded, and the supply line was formally established.

With the "Steel Ambassador" as the node, the temporary fence connected by prefabricated concrete walls and steel barricades winds and connects near the river bank. Heavily armed soldiers stare at the north from the sentries. A large number of reinforced tents and prefabricated houses are neatly arranged. Arranged sequentially in the base, the vehicles transporting supplies and personnel are constantly coming in and out of this frontline base, sending weapons, equipment and personnel supplies from the southern border here, and sending contaminated samples collected from the frontline and Some of the rescued refugees were continuously sent to the temporary laboratories and refugee camps in the rear, where they were very busy.

The magic car that Gawain and Amber were riding on drove into the base smoothly. Through the window on one side, they saw a half-collapsed castle not far away that was still emitting smoke and dust. Part of the broken city wall of the castle was part of the base wall. Connected together, on the uncollapsed structure of the castle, you can see that the towering crystal relay tower has been erected, and the signal gain device is slowly rotating under the drive of the mechanical platform, sweeping across the gray sky.

The half-collapsed castle is "Renburg", and its full name should be Rumbel-Kerry Castle. It is a fief directly under the royal family in the Holy Spirit Plain. The castle and the entire surrounding fertile woodland were once one of the important sources of income for the Moen family. , although the status of this fortress and surrounding territories has been reduced due to damage after the "Brumaire Civil Disturbance", it is still the most affluent land in the southeast of the Holy Spirit Plain.

But that was once.

When the troops arrived here, the crystal cluster pollution had spread into the fertile forest, and the lord here had most likely died on the northern battlefield. The remaining knights and soldiers stationed in the castle resisted for a few hours and then fled in all directions. , some of the civilians on the land were polluted by clusters, and some fled into the nearby wilderness—during the establishment of the landing site, the shelling of the Pioneer destroyed the lost castle and burned the polluted woodland. Now This affluent area has become one of the symbols of the disaster, reminding visitors of the war with its crumbling walls and the still lingering smell of burnt air.

The vehicle passed the isolation area on the east side of the base. Across a row of fences, a dozen or so ragged civilians were staring at the "steel monster" passing by not far away. They were still in shock, but not far behind them, more civilians were queuing up to receive food and medicine under the command of soldiers—maintaining an order based on numbness.

Amber glanced over the civilians waiting to receive food and medicine behind the fence, with sympathy on her face: "I'm afraid these people still don't understand what happened..."

"When the knight in the castle fled without saying anything, he left the whole area behind," Gawain said. "Philip has sent people to find survivors nearby and establish a quarantine area, but the society in this area Order has been severely disrupted, and it may be difficult to restore it in a few years."

Amber pursed her lips, but she knew that compared to the north where the situation was even worse, this place was already considered lucky—the cluster infected people who entered the Lenburg region were just wandering stragglers, and the damage they caused was not enough to completely destroy the entire The fall of regions, towns and a large number of refugees were mainly caused by the premature escape of the knights in the castle, which caused those monsters who entered this region to swagger into the city with little resistance-but correspondingly, escaped There are also a large number of civilians in the city, and the towns in the eastern part of Lunburg have not suffered much damage.

As long as the crystal clusters are annihilated and the refugees gathered, at least there is hope for reconstruction here.

After feeling emotional, Amber said: "Through blood and magical examinations, nearly a hundred infected carriers have been found. They still maintain a human body, but they have a divine energy reaction. According to your order, these people have been sent to the Quarantine camps in Pompeii."

"Let the person in charge over there keep close monitoring, and take care of them as much as possible while ensuring that the infection will not spread," Gao Wen confessed earnestly, and finally breathed out slightly, "As long as they haven't turned into monsters, you can Treatment cannot be given up."

Amber glanced at Gao Wen: "To be honest, I was quite worried about what would happen if you ordered to kill all the infected people..."

Gawain glanced at the half-elf: "You think I'm someone who can give such orders?"

"It doesn't feel like it, but you also said that to maximize the value - from the perspective of cost and safety, killing all the infected should be the most 'cost-effective'..."

"If you really want to do this, you can't figure it out," Gao Wen shook his head, "Even if people's lives and people's hearts are not considered, those infected who have been infected by the gods but have not mutated are precious samples. Personnel understand the means by which all things will die, and our hope of understanding this disaster and ending this disaster may lie in those infected. Pittman and Kamel have rushed to Pompeii, and it may not be long before they will Find the secret of the death of all things in those infected."

Amber raised her eyebrows: "You really are more calculating than me."

Gao Wen smiled and said nothing more.

In the face of such a disaster, he really has to calculate seriously, but he can't simply count human lives as numbers.He also needs to consider the future development after the war, the maintenance of social order, the gains and losses of people's hearts, the writing of the historian, and at the same time, he must also consider finding ways to fight disasters from the infected, and how to save more people. ——A ruthless commander may only count heads, but a ruler has to count more than that.

He raised his head and looked north through the crystal glass inlaid on the car door.

……

The cluster giant Cloade withdrew his gaze to the south.

The troops that had entered the Lemburg area - albeit improvised stragglers - were wiped out in such a short time.

Due to the distance limitation, he couldn't clearly "see" what happened to the teams responsible for the southward expansion, but from the limited signal, he could still perceive the explosion on hundreds of cluster giants at that moment The high temperature and scorching heat, as well as the bursts of thunderous illusory loud noises, this may be some kind of extremely powerful magic attack, and there is a high probability that multiple legendary-level mages have entered the battlefield...

Whatever the reason, this is something to be vigilant about.

Reminiscent of not long ago, another team ordered to destroy the invaders also suffered an incomprehensible violent blow and suffered heavy losses in a short period of time. Cloade thought that those Cecilians wandering from the southern border were not easy to deal with. I am afraid that we have already prepared for this war.

Although the legion is powerful, you must also be careful of powerful enemies from behind.

After this operation is over, it is necessary to return to Red Maple City to remind the Dean from the core of the church.

As for now, it is still time to focus on the battlefield in front of you.

Cloade raised his head, and the scene inside the Boulder City was reflected in his crystal eyeballs—this city was almost destroyed by the legion, and more than [-]% of the area was turned into ruins and wreckage, but a lingering blizzard enveloped it In the last castle area, the countless razor-like skates and the deadly cold air made it difficult for the dredge giants to move forward.

Master Heaton ordered the Legion to take its castle district within three days.

Cloade actually had a slight disdain for this order - although he recognized the absolute authority of the headmaster, he knew that the headmaster didn't understand military strategy, he was just a powerful dark druid, and his spells might be powerful , but he had never fought at all, and Cloade himself was once one of the best aristocratic officers of the Eastern Legion.