Sword of Dawn

Page 482

……

On the northwestern border of Typhon, in the front line of Winter Wolf Castle, the air is still filled with a pungent smell, and the waste energy generated after the release of large-scale spells is wandering between the plains and river valleys.

A few days ago, a heavy snow covered the scorching battlefield for a short time, burying the land that was destroyed and burned by the artillery fire and the burst of magic power. It was a mess—the war machines made of steel and the soldiers in a frenzy did not appreciate the winter snow scene. After a high-intensity battle, another piece of land was burned to the ground.

The Cecilians retreated temporarily, and Typhon's subsequent troops began to clear the scorched earth.

A Typhon officer wearing black light armor and a heavy overcoat walked on the still scorching battlefield, the ground under his feet was muddy and icy cold.The Cecil's explosives overturned almost all the soil layers on the hill, and there were ugly black soil and broken stones everywhere, and black and red, not yet Congealed blood, or mixed with mutilated human remains, only a few corners of the entire hill can still see a little bit of white snow that has not disappeared-those whites are mixed in the black and red background, which is eye-catching and somewhat dazzling degree.

The smell in the air is so pungent and disgusting—the officer has been on the battlefield for a long time, but the smell permeating this battlefield is something he has never smelled in other places. It is not only bloody, but also more pungent nose thing.

Soldiers were busy around him, some were arranging and recycling supplies that could be used, some were collecting corpses that could still be collected, some took out the prayer books they carried with them, and spoke to their respective The gods prayed and requiemed the soul. The officer frowned, stepped past the soldiers who were cleaning the battlefield, and continued to move forward.

Finally, he stopped beside a boulder that was blackened by gunfire—it might not be a boulder, but a destroyed fortification building—a dying person was lying there, like a curled and wriggling sludge lying in the snow and blood.

The officer squatted down and looked at the Typhon soldier who was struggling to breathe. Judging from the remaining clothing marks on the opponent, he should be a member of the 11th Regiment of the National Knights, a lower-ranking knight—this soldier He fell down in the dirt, and he couldn't even see how many wounds he had. He could only see a lot of blood sticking him and the surrounding land together.His mortal wound was a huge torn gash in the chest and abdomen, which may have been caused by a flying fragment of a shell, or it may have been caused by a sharp flying stone. Whatever the cause, it had obviously cut off the soldier's vitality.

In fact, if it was a "normal" human being, it would have died by this time.

The officer lowered his head, and his gaze swept across the opponent's wounds. Among the filthy blood, he saw some squirming granulation and tentacles-these disgusting hyperplastic tissues were stretching in vain, as if trying to He closed the wound again and tried to gather back the lost blood, but these efforts were doomed to be in vain. Judging from their increasingly weak peristalsis, this "divine power" had obviously come to an end.

Maybe he sensed someone nearby, or maybe it happened to catch up with the light, the next second, the soldier who fell on the ground and was about to exhale his last breath suddenly opened his eyes, his muddy and crazy eyes were filled with terrible blood. Red, but still barely able to see the figure in front of him, a weak voice came from the soldier's mouth: "Sir...Sir..."

The officer looked at him and whispered something he used to say these days: "Hold on, the medics are coming."

"No...no need..." The soldier seemed to be whispering, his head was shaking imperceptibly, "The Lord is calling me, he is already calling me..."

The officer looked at the soldier expressionlessly, and listened to the muffled murmurs of the dying man, without words of comfort or further encouragement.

The soldier's murmur became more and more blurred and deeper, but suddenly, a little light appeared in those blood-red eyes, and his last strength seemed to gather again, and he stared at the soldier intently. The officer beside him asked over and over again like crazy: "Have you witnessed it? Have you witnessed it... have you witnessed it..."

The officer looked at him and said slowly, "Yes, I have witnessed it."

The soldier suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, as if his last wish had been fulfilled, the light in his eyes quickly dimmed—whether it was a crazily distorted light or a human radiance, it quickly dimmed.The deflated chest squeezed out the last breath and let out a sigh: "I feel... a little cold..."

After a moment of silence, the officer stood up, and the accompanying assistant mage stepped forward and reported to him after a brief inspection: "The soul has dissipated, and the activity of the heart, lungs and brain have stopped."

"Burn it," the officer nodded, "Remember to take back the ID card."

He raised his head and looked at other places in the position. He saw more auxiliary mages entering the position, and not far away, a large magic circle for concentrated incineration had already started operating.

……

Winterhold stands among the mountains, just like its name suggests, it is a fortress as white as ice.

When the weather is clear, from the tower at the highest point of Winterhold, you can see the fortress of Winterwolf Castle in the distance.

The owner of this fortress is the powerful battle mage Earl Palin Winterhold - he and his family have been rooted in the northern mountains for hundreds of years, guarding here as an important backing and support for the defense line of Winter Wolf Castle, After the fall of Winter Wolf Castle, the battlefield was pushed into the territory of Typhon, and Winter Castle, which was originally on the second line of defense... has now become the core node of the front line.

In a room on the third floor of White Castle, the Earl of Winterhold is standing in front of a clean white wall surrounded by precious magic crystals, and the wall is coated with a layer of magic coating that flows like mercury. , as the surrounding crystals lit up little by little, scenes from afar gradually emerged on the quicksilver-like plating.

That was the image sent by the mage's eyes at each node of the Winterhold defense line through the communication tower. Although it was slightly distorted, it was still possible to distinguish the distinctive mountains, rivers, and woodlands.Palin Winterhold waved his arms, constantly switching between the pictures displayed on the wall, confirming the situation of the nodes in the defense line.

Suddenly, the Earl of Winterhold stopped patrolling the node. He turned his head slightly, listening to a report sent by a lower-level mage through the communication technique, and then he looked at the magic wall in front of him. After a simple sign gesture, Immediately, a new picture appeared on the wall.

That was the scene somewhere in Winterhold Fortress——beside a brand new platform, a black magic train with Typhon's coat of arms was gradually slowing down and stopping.

——Despite the absence of a large number of Cecil technicians, thanks to the efforts of the Empire's own team of mechanics and scholars, several important industrial and military railways are still operating normally. Trains are one of them.

Palin Winterhold stood there, quietly watching the picture on the wall, watching the train come to a stop, and watching the soldiers and officers stepping onto the platform from the train.

He sighed slightly.

Another batch of enthusiastic and excellent corpses stepped out of the troop carrier.

Chapter 1006 Bone Crusher

Palin Winterhold came to the high platform of the castle. From here, he could see the direction of the barracks in the inner city at a glance - the imperial flag with black background and red stripes was flying high there, and fierce and aggressive soldiers were standing between the camps. activities, and farther away, you can see mage towers standing in the inner city, and the mage's eyes on the towers are constantly monitoring the entire area.

He raised his head again and looked to the far west—but today's gloomy sky and mist in the air blocked his sight, and he couldn't see Winter Wolf Castle, which is now in the hands of the Cecilians, and of course he couldn't see either. To the more distant Changfeng Fortress.

Is Andersa safe in the land of the Cecilians?

The Earl of Winterhold sighed softly, putting aside his meaningless worries for the time being, and then used his magic power to communicate with several mage towers in the inner city, and confirmed that none of the mage's eyes had found anything abnormal.

The main task of these mage's eyes is not actually to guard the direction outside the fortress - what they are really guarding is the knights stationed in the fortress and several additional barracks outside the city.

Those barracks are full of knights and soldiers full of fighting spirit, as well as pious and fanatical priests and battle priests. They are the main force of this war—and the biggest consumable.Since the start of the war, the strength of the troops in the Winterhold area has increased to more than six times the normal level, and there are still new soldiers and priests rushing to the front line from the rear every day, making this narrow battlefield more crowded and more dangerous.

From Palin Winterhold's point of view, what the magic train brings from the rear every day is not troops, but fresh corpses.

And different from ordinary "corpses", these "corpses" gathered in Winterhold are very easy to lose control. They are full of fanatical thinking impulses, and their nervous system and external perception have mutated into something that looks like a human being. They seem to be ordinary human beings on the outside, but inside... they have already become some kind of twisted things that even dark magic cannot penetrate.

But in this front-line place, these dangerous and twisted polluters still have a way to control-just restrain them according to the strict rules of war, let them vent the frantic pressure in the spiritual world in time, or administer a large dose of mental calm A similar drug can suppress their destructive impulses or slow down their mutation speed, at least temporarily.

This is a dangerous state of balance, every day is like walking on a knife's edge, and Palin Winterhold's task here is to maintain this fragile balance on the knife's edge, and within the threshold of the situation getting out of control... with the highest Efficiency and the best way to consume these fresh "cadavers".

He feels like a technician who controls the combustion kettle in a burning rock acid chemical factory. Every day, he accurately calculates the fuel and alchemy combustion aids that are put into the fire. When the furnace door was opened, he was thrown into the blazing flames of war. He maintained the heat of these flames here, so as to gradually clean up the pollution suffered by the empire, ascertain and weaken the strength of the Cecilians, collect data on the battlefield, and adjust the balance the balance of...

He knows that everything he does has a great meaning, but he still finds it all disgusting.

War wasn't supposed to be like this - and he wasn't supposed to do it.

"It's colder here than I thought," a voice came from the side, waking the Earl of Winterhold from his thoughts, "but it's hard to say which one is more unbearable, Aldernan or here— —The cold here is like a blade, hard and sharp, and the cold in Aldernan is like a swamp, damp and suffocating."

The Earl of Winterhold turned his head following the sound, and nodded to Earl Claremont Dart who was standing beside him—this Aldernan nobleman came to Winterhold along with today's troop carrier. , he is the commander of the support army, and in fact... he is also one of the "consumables" brought by the magic train.

"This winter is colder than previous years," said the Earl of Winterhold. "It is difficult for soldiers from the central and southern regions to adapt here. However, compared to the northern border of the Cecilians, the environment here is considered milder. "

"Soldiers..." Claremont Dart repeated the word softly, his eyes looked into the distance, and swept across the barracks flying the imperial flag, "Earl of Winterhold, these are outstanding young men, really Outstanding... They should all have a bright future, they should not have died in this cold winter."

Palin Winterhold was silent for two seconds, and slowly said: "Facing the malice of the gods, mortals are so fragile. Our motherland needs to be reborn from the ashes, and what you see... is the price of the flames. "

"I only saw meaningless consumption and a long seesaw, but I couldn't see any effective counterattack—whether it was a counterattack against the Cecils or a counterattack against the gods," Claremont said in a deep voice, " Tell me, is it really meaningful to keep burying soldiers and priests who are mentally polluted in this narrow battlefield like this? Is this cutting blood and poisoning, or is it a waste of life?"

The Earl of Winterhold looked into Claremont's eyes, and nodded slowly after a long time: "I choose to trust His Majesty's judgment."

"...that's a good reason," Earl Claremont smiled, took a deep breath of the cold air from the north, then turned around, and slowly walked towards the exit of the high platform, "I'm already standing here anyway Already... save me a good seat."

Palin Winterhold watched Claremont walk away slowly, and he narrowed his eyes slightly. In his mind, he had already begun to calculate the value that this "conservative opposition nobleman" could bring here, and the benefits he brought. Where should the support army be consumed?

……

Winter Wolf Castle—On the defense line of the Shadow Swamp, the cold wind is rolling over the rolling hills and the low forests along the frozen soil. Some loose snow is blown up by the wind, swirling and hitting the relay piles on both sides of the railway , and inside the shimmering rail shield, the heavily armored and majestic armored train Iron Throne, the Python of the World, is moving forward along the railway line at cruising speed.

The repulsion generators on both sides of the train flashed with the brilliance of the runes, and the mechanical device at the junction of the repulsion point and the carriage adjusted the angle slightly, slightly speeding up the train, and the snowflakes that were blown up by the wind from afar passed through harmlessly. The shield was drawn into the bottom of the whizzing car, and on another parallel rail some distance from the train, there was an iron scepter light armored train serving as an escort, running side by side with the "World Serpent".

At the rear of the iron scepter's guard gun carriage, in the engineering carriage responsible for maintaining the rails, a war technician just finished adjusting the valves and screws of some equipment. Looking out of the window at the snow-covered plain, he muttered softly, "The damn snow has finally stopped... I haven't seen a few sunny days since the middle of the foggy month."

"It's not necessarily a good thing when it's sunny... Those Typhon people may be more active than before," another war mechanic shook his head beside him, "They have come to destroy the railway more than once, although most of the time it has no effect ...but it is said that last time they almost succeeded in blowing up Line 7."

The war mechanic who had spoken before curled his lips and did not continue the topic. He came to the side of the carriage and looked at the snowy world outside more seriously—covered armor, narrow windows, and all windows were covered with a layer of steel. Of course, Wang's military train will not have any good sightseeing views, and all he can see is a vertical, narrow landscape, in which listless groves and snow-white hills are all the same. It is receding quickly, and in the sky farther away, you can vaguely see iron-gray shadows floating in the skylight.

That should be a sign of another snowfall - this damn winter.

"What's wrong?" The partner on the side asked casually, "What did you see?"

"There are dark clouds in the sky, and the scale is not small, I'm afraid it's going to snow again," the war technician muttered, "Judging from my experience, it's probably a blizzard."

"You are a machine repairer, and you have experience in judging astronomical phenomena?" The partner curled his lips disdainfully, and turned his head to look at the window on the other side of the carriage—outside the narrow and thickened glass window, the Iron Throne, the giant of the world, The huge body of the python is crawling on the track not far away, rumbling forward.

……

In the tactical section of Monty Python, the frontline commander Maryland is standing in front of the command seat, concentrating on looking at the many marks on the map. On the desktop in front of him, communication devices, drawing tools, and organized data files are in order. .

After a while, Maryland suddenly raised his head and looked at the adjutant beside him: "How long will it take to arrive at the combat location?"

The adjutant immediately replied: "Arrive in the shooting range in 10 minutes after three - leave the shooting range in 10 minutes after four."

Maryland nodded: "Well, the time is just right... Notify the arsenal section, start pre-filling the rainbow generator with cooling water, and the power ridges at both ends will warm up in advance - we will soon enter the warning range of the Typhon people, they The recent response speed has been much faster than before.”

"Yes, sir."

Maryland's attention returned to the map in front of her, and among the winding or straight lines on the map, Typhon's and Cecil's respective control areas were intertwined like a dog's teeth.

Three or ten minutes later, the Iron Throne · World Python will enter a specific shooting area. During the approximately 10 minutes of travel, this train will use the on-board rainbow cannon to attack a certain edge stronghold on Typhon's side. Launch a powerful bombardment—but in fact, this distance is a little far away. The rainbow light beam should only be able to burn down some of the enemy's outer walls and outbuildings to a limited extent. There may even be few casualties, but this is not important.

The sudden rainbow strike is enough to make the Typhon people on the entire defense line highly nervous. They will conduct large-scale mobilization to deal with the possible official attack, and will send a large number of reconnaissance troops to try to determine the next move of the Iron Throne Are there more armored trains and convoys on the line and nearby? After they get busy... The Iron Throne World Python will return to the station in the Shadow Swamp, where Maryland will reward herself with a cup of fragrant coffee. Soak in a hot bath if you can - while thinking about when the next armored train will leave and where the next real frontal strike will start.

As for the data collection and research on Typhon's military operations during this process...he will work with the staff team.

This is what he has often done recently, and it is also one of the tactics he and General Philip jointly formulated-its core idea is to give full play to the maneuverability of the Cecil Mechanical Legion and to strike with a large amount of firepower in a short period of time Relying on several railway lines in the Winter Wolf Castle-Shadow Swamp area and the temporarily built forward railway, with the three armored trains No. The harass-push-harass-push.

The new Hongguang main gun of the armored train is powerful and has an ultra-long range. When the shooting angle is suitable, it can cause a huge blow to the enemy at a very long distance. Relying on this, the armored train and its escort vehicles are constantly patrolling on the railway. , randomly harassing Typhon's fixed strongholds near the limit range, the enemy will have to mobilize frequently, get tired of fighting or avoid attacks, and if they just abandon those strongholds and keep a distance from the Iron Throne in the plains for mobile combat, then the Iron Throne The tank squadrons carried on the throne will immediately enter the battlefield for mobile harvesting, or simply withdraw and drain the energy of the enemy.

If the Typhonians retreat as a whole during this process, then the engineering crew accompanying the armored train will immediately start to move - laying the "advance railway", further expanding the range of activities of the Iron Throne, and setting up temporary stations and energy sources. The transfer station provides mana supplies for tanks and infantry—if the Typhons sit idly by, the Cecil Legion can build a large number of criss-crossing defensive nets and strong fortifications in the new occupied area within a week.

And if the Typhons don't want to watch this happen, then they can only counterattack Cecil's occupied area at a huge price.

Initially, Maryland would choose to fight those fearless Typhons head-on, but after realizing that those huge legions of transcendental beings with constant morale and no fear of life and death could cause huge damage to the mechanical legion once they put their lives together Afterwards, he chose another plan: if the Typhons counterattacked, fight them for a while, and retreat as soon as the result is obtained.The movement speed of the mechanized legion on the railway line is beyond the reach of conventional infantry. The Iron Throne and its affiliated corps that implement "harassment-advancement" will soon be able to retreat to the artillery positions and permanent fortifications. The only thing the enemy can do is What is meant is to destroy those unfinished fortifications and the temporary "advance railway".

This loss was almost negligible for Cecil's engineer unit.

This kind of advance can be endless-if it wasn't for the order from the imperial capital, Maryland felt that it could rely on this improved version of the "steel advance" tactic to flatten the entire defense line of Winterhold step by step before the end of Brumaire, even Pushing all the way to Aldernan...

But the imperial capital finally issued an order... At least at this stage, the empire has no plans to attack Aldernan.

Maryland exhaled softly.

That's fine, after all, there are polluted areas... The shadow of the out-of-control gods hangs over Typhon's land, and it's not a good idea to go too deep.

Chapter 1007

The roar of the rainbow main cannon and the magic cannon finally gradually subsided, and the vibration caused by the power ridge in the high-load mode also quickly subsided as the load decreased. , the sound of machinery running normally and vehicles rolling over the track replaced the previous sound of gunfire.

Maryland left the command seat and came to the window on one side of the carriage. Through the strengthened crystal glass window, she looked towards the distant plain. With a little red light.

A moment later, there was the roar of another train running from behind. The Iron Scepter, which had slowed down and followed in order to create a shooting window, slowly accelerated, and gradually caught up with the World Python driving ahead. Before the two cars converged, , rhythmic lights flickered on their respective car bodies to report safety to each other.

"Aerial reconnaissance did not find large-scale enemy activities, and the on-board sensors did not detect abnormal magic power fluctuations," a technical soldier reported loudly from behind the communication station, "The escort train applied to speed up to confirm the condition of the road ahead."

"Permission," Maryland nodded, "remind the boys and girls in that car to keep their eyes open and beware of the destruction of the railway by those Typhons - they have learned to place arcane neutralizers and passive triggers next to the railway line big bomb."

"Yes, General!"

Maryland nodded, and looked out of the east window again. In the sky obliquely above, he saw two small black dots flashing through the clouds, and behind the black dots was a faintly visible halo of magic power.

That was the air company escorting the Monaco, the Dragoon Reconnaissance Squadron.This air force provides protection for the front-line railway, and is also responsible for scouting the enemy's movement in the outlying area of ​​​​Winterhold and carrying out bombing missions on some Typhon strongholds. When the Iron Throne is on a sortie mission, the main responsibility of the air formation is to protect the armor Train, beware of air raids from those Typhonians.

This was Cecil's response after a Typhon air formation raided the armored train not long ago and almost caused huge damage.

From Maryland's point of view, the Typhon's air force is not strong. Although there are a large number of old-fashioned combat griffins and flying mages, they lag behind the dragoon fighters by a whole level in terms of combat capabilities. The real tricky thing should be approaching Winterhold. Afterwards, Typhon’s air defense force—the powerful Typhon Empire built a large number of mage towers in the border areas. In the era of new warfare, those tall towers were powerless against clustered chariots and giant cannons with amazing ranges, but Their long-range lightning and light beam arrays pose a great threat to the relatively fragile and short-lived dragoon troops.

In a certain rash bombing operation, several Dragoon fighter planes were shot down by the lightning and lasers covering the sky.

This made Maryland, which has always had the upper hand since the beginning of the war, had to seriously measure the war capabilities of the Typhon people several times, and summed up some experience-air superiority can indeed determine the direction of a war, but it should not be underestimated In spite of the threat of ground air defense firepower to air forces, in actual combat, outdated weapons may still pose a huge threat, especially when the enemy knows how to learn and adapt.

The communicator not far away rang.

Maryland came to the communicator. After activating it, an image of a dragoon soldier appeared in the sky above the projection crystal. The opponent was in the cockpit. In the background, the clouds outside the cabin and the dragon wing driver extending from the edge could be seen faintly.

"The area is safe, sir," the dragoon soldier in the communicator reported the reconnaissance situation. "In addition, we observed the gathering of clouds, and it seems that another snowfall is coming."

Maryland glanced out the window subconsciously, from his position he could only see a limited amount of sky, and in the direction of the Typhon's control area, he could indeed see an iron-gray cloud gathering—the dragoons in the sky could Obviously more details are seen.He retracted his gaze and nodded to the soldiers in the communicator: "Bad weather may affect the flight, please pay attention to safety."

……

The machine made of steel and crystal soars in the sky, the howling cold wind sweeps back along the tangent of the shield and the edge of the dragon wing drive, the fine water vapor and dust in the airflow are disturbed by the force field released by the anti-gravity ring, A wonderful "ring" was formed around the aircraft, and under the protection of layers of shields, steel, and crystals, the pilot in the cockpit had just finished communicating.

"Snowfall is really frequent in the north this winter," he said to the mechanic and bombardier sitting behind him, "It's only been a few days since the sun cleared."

"This reminds me of when I was riding a griffin," responded the comrade sitting in the rear control seat. The courage and skill to challenge the wind and snow, but also the patience and experience to appease the griffin after returning."

"Yeah, my father used to have this kind of skill - he was the most outstanding griffin rider in the Solandore area at that time. He once successfully drove the griffin to send the lord's letter to the manor outside the city in a snowstorm. I was rewarded afterwards. Unfortunately, before I had time to master his superb flying skills, the era of the Griffon was over..."

"Ah, your father is a great Griffon Rider...but I'm even more curious about what an important letter it was, and it had to be delivered in a blizzard..."

"Ah, that's a bloody love letter, from the lord to his mistress—my father was pissed off when he knew what he was getting, and had to obey orders, but when he looked at the manor After seeing that mistress' lover, his mood improved..."

The comrades sitting in the back row were stunned for a moment, then reacted and couldn't help laughing, so the flying machine made of steel was filled with a happy air.

The pilot couldn't help laughing. At the same time, he was paying attention to the data on the dashboard and the scene outside the cockpit. He saw that the iron-gray cloud in the distance was thicker than before, and it was getting closer. The surface of the cloud was tumbling and surging. As if a storm was brewing inside, he couldn't help clenching his hands holding the joystick tightly, and said with a frown, "Damn... It looks like the clouds are coming towards us..."

"Are the clouds gathering and moving so fast?" The mechanic was a little confused, "The anemometer shows that the wind speed outside is not that high..."

"The sky is unpredictable, anyway, let's be more vigilant," the pilot muttered, his eyes couldn't help but be attracted by the tumbling clouds, and in a daze, he seemed to see thousands of troops moving in the clouds, but no matter how focused he was, When I looked, I couldn't see anything, "...Did you see it just now? I always think this cloud is a bit weird..."

"I didn't see anything?" The mechanic looked out through the side observation window in doubt, "Did you be dazzled by the reflection on the clouds?"

The pilot frowned, and having experienced the disaster in the Holy Spirit Plain, he quickly made a decision: "...In short, let me report that this war is very evil, and seeing nothing can be regarded as a hallucination—maybe the people in the rear What the experts can analyze."

The mechanic agreed with this, and the pilot turned on the communication device in the corner of the control seat again. While their attention was attracted by the clouds outside the cockpit, in a corner that neither of them noticed, the Several runes in the mental protection system lit up spontaneously—the light was so faint that it was almost indistinguishable to the naked eye, but it was slowly pulsating like breathing.

……