Chapter 59: Artillery Barrage
“Mortars?” The adjutant was taken aback.
All mortar units were to continuously bombard the Olympus Tree on the mountaintop. This was a direct order from King Boniface himself.
Using public resources for private purposes like this wasn’t right, was it? Would he be the scapegoat later…
“What? Do you have a problem?” Alfred narrowed his eyes, a dangerous glint in them.
The adjutant, well-versed in the ways of the workplace, immediately shook his head: “No problem! It’s just that the mortar units are directly under His Majesty’s command, I’m afraid they won’t easily obey the commands of a mere adjutant. Could Commander Alfred please provide a written order?”
“Naturally.” Alfred said calmly, waving his hand and writing a note, then signing his name.
The adjutant took it and saw that it roughly said, “The Northern Front has encountered infiltration by enemy elite troops, and the front-line knight squads have suffered more than half their casualties. Requesting fire support from the mortar units.”
This… elite troops, yes, and the front-line knight squads suffering more than half their casualties, also yes, but there was no direct causal relationship between the two, okay! Wasn’t the reason for the heavy losses because of your bizarre tactic of sending in reinforcements piecemeal?
The adjutant admired Alfred’s subtle wording. Every sentence seemed to be true, but it could be interpreted in a way that was completely opposite to the facts.
Even if it was discovered later, you couldn’t accuse him, because it was you who misunderstood, not him who lied.
The adjutant shook his head with a sigh, thinking that he was still too young and naive, not as experienced as Commander Alfred.
Well, he still had to learn.
With the note, the adjutant found the commander of the mortar units in the rear. This veteran Crusader, nearly forty years old, was sweating profusely.
The reason was simple: all the artillery was dispersed and operating independently, so the commander had to give orders to each small squad separately, commanding them to maintain mobility while firing, and try to avoid the flames and thunderbolts projected from the mountaintop.
“Commander Erich!” The adjutant immediately handed over the note. “A request from Commander Alfred of the Northern Front, requesting fire support from the mortar units!”
Commander Erich’s eyes widened in surprise upon reading the note.
The Northern Front knight squads had suffered more than half their casualties? I remember that your Northern Front has more than six hundred knights! More than three hundred have already been killed? Is the opponent an elite force composed of demigods?
“I’ll send a mortar unit to you immediately.” Commander Erich said seriously. “The northern defense line must hold! Otherwise, our scattered artillery lads will be attacked from both above and the surrounding area!”
“Yes, sir!” The adjutant saluted.
On the other side, after several hours of continuous fighting, the members of Azure Longsword were gradually becoming exhausted.
“The enemy encounter rate is starting to decrease.” Eleanor said breathlessly, leaning her spear on the ground for a short rest. “Is it because we’re starting to enter the enemy’s rear?”
“It’s probably because they’ve suffered too many losses.” Thira looked around vigilantly. “Watch out for snipers and assassins.”
“They won’t.” Medea corrected her. “They know I have psychic abilities, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to send someone to sneak attack us. Unless…”
Before she could finish speaking, a sharp whistling sound came from afar.
“Teleport!” Asker shouted immediately. Everyone, without thinking, activated their spirituality and entered Furnace Island.
Only the artifact book was left on the spot. Under the continuous bombardment of several mortar shells, it was blown away by the shockwave and finally landed on the ruins with a thud.
Still intact.
A few minutes later, a figure teleported from Furnace Island. As soon as she entered the main plane, she opened an umbrella, intending to teleport into the Shadow Realm if the situation turned bad.
This was the method Asker taught Mia: during the day, hold up an umbrella, and with the shadow cast by the umbrella, you can enter the Shadow Realm anytime and anywhere to avoid attacks.
If the umbrella was destroyed by an attack and the shadow disappeared, immediately teleport back before taking spiritual damage. This would give you about 2-3 seconds of invincibility, because your body was traveling between two planes and wouldn’t be harmed by attacks from the main plane.
Players called this the “Invincibility Frame” trick.
Asker had many more of these cheap tricks in his memory, and he planned to teach them to the girls later.
After crouching under the umbrella for a while, Mia confirmed that there were no more mortar bombardments and hurriedly returned to Furnace Island to call everyone out.
At the Crusader front line command post, after learning that the mortar units had fired a large number of shells at the latest coordinates, Alfred laughed heartily.
“Aren’t you very capable? Huh? Killed almost half of my knights?” He said vindictively and waved to his adjutant. “Go, send a knight squad over there and bring the bodies of that squad here. I want to use their commander’s skull as a chamber pot.”
The adjutant was speechless and could only have the communicator contact a squad on the front line, relaying Alfred’s order.
“Are you kidding me!” Sir Marlero on the other side said angrily. “Nearly half of my comrades have been sent to their deaths by your stupid orders! Now you’re trying to trick my squad too!”
“No, Sir Marlero.” The adjutant explained, bracing himself. “The mortar units have bombarded the enemy squad several times, there are probably only corpses left there now.”
“If you can retrieve the bodies of the culprits, it will be beneficial to your squad’s merit calculation.”
“Really?” Sir Marlero hesitated. If it was just retrieving corpses, there shouldn’t be any danger.
Considering that this enemy squad had killed nearly half of the front-line knights, the bounty on their heads should be very high.
After asking the squires around him and confirming that several mortar shells had indeed landed in the distance just now, Sir Marlero hesitantly agreed.
So the squad set off towards the coordinates. When they were still two hundred meters away from their destination, they unfortunately encountered the members of the Azure Longsword mercenary group.
On the other side, the exhausted adjutant sat next to the communicator, listening to the communicator’s constant complaints.
Most of the Crusader squads on the front line now refused to obey Alfred’s orders, calling him an “idiot,” and even his direct communicator was affected.
Every time the communicator contacted a knight squad, he would be scolded by the other party, which put a lot of pressure on him.
I’m just a messenger, why should I bear the brunt of the lower-ranking knights’ resentment?!
The adjutant deeply sympathized with the communicator, sharing his pain.
Just as the two were complaining to each other, an emergency communication suddenly came in.
The communicator had just answered when he heard Sir Marlero’s furious and desperate shouts from inside:
“Viscount Longfellow! I’ll fucking kill you! Your whole family can go to hell…”
Then a scream came from the other side, and the communication was cut off.
The adjutant stood up with a straight face. He was Viscount Longfellow, who had just been cursed at in the communication. His heart was in turmoil.
“It’s okay.” Adjutant Longfellow patted the communicator’s shoulder and then went to find Alfred.
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