Chapter 58: Bring Forth the Italian Cannon!
Mia, dagger in hand, emerged from the Shadow Realm and lunged at the nearest squire, her Weakness ability guiding her dagger past the ribs and directly into his heart.
Another figure jumped out from behind her, Peggy emerging from Furnace Island.
Before even gaining her footing in the main plane, she drew her Thermal Blade and swung it forcefully at the two remaining squires.
Drawing Slash!
The two squires instinctively raised their rifles to block, but suddenly their noses itched, and they couldn’t help but sneeze violently.
The supernatural ability “Plague” triggered pathogens within nearby enemies, causing allergic reactions.
Since Peggy currently only had “Plague I,” it initially only triggered symptoms like sneezing and coughing, but in a life-or-death battle, this was fatal.
The two sneezes distorted their attempts to block with their rifles. Peggy’s Thermal Blade, with a Drawing Slash, cleanly melted through the rifles and sliced the two squires in half.
The four Crusader knights on the perimeter watched with wide eyes, unable to understand how one warrior jumping into the center had suddenly become three enemies. However, the complete annihilation of their squires was an undeniable fact.
Since you’re here, don’t even think about leaving!
The powered armor knights turned simultaneously, raising their shields and charging forward, intending to crush the three girls in the center.
They would rather endure Eleanor’s attacks from the outside and impale them with their spears.
Mia shouted and, along with Peggy, dropped to the ground.
They dropped…
Before the knights could react, they saw Sidlipha, the only one left standing in the center, swinging her two axes with all her might, spinning rapidly.
“Whirlwind Slash!!!”
The Crusader knights hurriedly raised their shields to block. The battle axes scraped fiercely against the shields, sending out sparks and a grating sound. To their horror, the arms of their powered armor, holding the shields, began to tremble under the force of the attack.
“This girl is really reckless.” Asker, observing from afar, commented and ordered through the communication channel, “Ranged, focus fire, burst damage! Mia, prepare to disengage!”
The back of the powered armor was much thinner than the front. Seeing the powered armor knights turn around, the three ranged attackers in the distance immediately launched their attacks from behind.
Thira was the first to act. She scattered a handful of pebbles from her bag, skillfully compressing them into a “projectile” and then launching it with air pressure and amplified gravity.
Seeing the projectile shooting towards them from afar, Sidlipha and Peggy, prepared in advance, quickly teleported into Furnace Island.
Mia, carrying the artifact book, instantly vanished into the shadows, then emerged from another shadow outside the encirclement. With a Flash Step in the opposite direction, she dashed more than ten meters away.
The angle of sunlight, the height of the powered armor, and the area of the projected shadows were all within Asker’s calculations, enough for Mia to instantly escape the encirclement using her shadow abilities.
In the eyes of the Crusader knights, this was a terrifying sight, as if a cooked duck in a pot suddenly sprouted wings and flew into the sky. This inconceivable phenomenon was completely beyond their comprehension.
They were about to step forward to pursue when the stone projectile slammed into them from behind, the immense force denting their powered armor.
Intuition flared! Miel quickly aimed at one of them and pulled the trigger.
Unlike Mia’s “Weakness I,” the ability of “Intuition I” didn’t reveal the enemy’s weaknesses to her. It only gave her a flash of inspiration, a sudden feeling, reminding her that she should attack at this moment, or that danger was imminent, reminding her to dodge in time.
The sniper bullet hit the back of one of the knights’ armor, where the heat-insulating and shockproof cover of the single-phase nuclear fusion battery was located, already cracked by the previous stone projectile. The bullet hit the most vulnerable part of the crack, instantly shattering the battery cover.
Hearing the gunshot behind her, Mia used another Flash Step, once again widening the distance between her and the pursuing knights.
Medea pulled out a huge fireball and threw it at the knights’ backs.
Although she only used the power of Fire I, this small fireball still hit the knights. The high temperature seeped through the cracks in the battery cover and into the battery inside, immediately triggering a violent explosion.
The nearest Crusader knight was instantly blown away, the shockwave knocking the knights to the ground, tumbling away, their weapons and shields scattered.
Eleanor charged with her spear. Mia, who had dodged the explosion in the distance, quickly returned, and Miel slightly raised her sniper rifle, aiming at the fallen knights.
Peggy was still the fastest. She raised her Thermal Blade high in a reverse grip and stabbed it downwards into a knight’s helmet. The high temperature of the blade quickly melted through the metal surface, the red-hot blade piercing directly into the knight’s head.
The ensuing focused fire and finishing blows effortlessly killed the downed knights one by one.
…
“Sir Bronk’s squad is silent.” The communicator reported.
“Send in Levin and Miranda’s squads!” Alfred gritted his teeth.
A moment later.
“Sir Levin and Sir Miranda’s squads’ signals are also silent!”
“Damn it! Damn it!” Alfred slammed the table in anger. “You’re powered armor knights! The other side only has nine people, and you still haven’t taken them down yet?”
“All nearby knight squads, attack together! Kill this damn team!”
“Commander Alfred, if all the surrounding squads charge together, we won’t be able to maintain the encirclement.” The adjutant hurriedly reminded him. “Then the enemy can just avoid the fight and easily escape from the encirclement.”
“That’s right.” Alfred immediately calmed down upon hearing this and revealed a contemptuous smile. “The enemy commander must be planning this, trying to exploit my impatience and anger, and lure me into making the wrong judgment of committing all my forces, so he can escape with his team.”
“Hahaha! It’s a pity, I saw through it.”
The adjutant listening next to him was speechless. It was clearly he who had reminded him, okay?
“Maintain this posture, keep the pressure on them!” Alfred continued to give orders. “They can’t hold on for much longer!”
A few hours later.
“Sir Guderian’s squad is silent.” The communicator said anxiously. “Nearly half of the Northern Front No. 1 has been wiped out! The remaining knight squads demand an explanation from you, otherwise they refuse to accept any more orders from you!”
Alfred: …
Adjutant: …
This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go, right? What happened to the immense pressure? What the hell was “nearly half of the knight squads have been wiped out”?
Looking at the silent signal dots on the electronic command console, Alfred even had a terrifying illusion, as if he was the commander of a huge ant colony, confidently commanding thousands of soldier ants to charge outwards, only to find a pangolin lying outside the cave, its long tongue flicking out and taking out a string of ants at a time…
Did I fall for their scheme again? It wasn’t me strategically applying pressure on them step by step, but them confidently luring me to send in reinforcements one after another, and then calmly devouring these squads one by one?
Alfred wasn’t stupid and quickly figured it out.
Not launching a large-scale attack was definitely the right decision. After all, the mages’ skyfire and thunder were still bombarding overhead. If he really gathered forty or fifty knight squads, before they even reached the enemy, the skyfire from the mountaintop would wipe them out first.
The real problem was their misjudgment of the enemy’s strength! If the opponent wasn’t strong, then sending in reinforcements in waves could slowly deplete their stamina and eventually achieve the goal of complete annihilation.
However, if the opponent was exceptionally strong, wouldn’t sending in reinforcements in waves be like sending them to their deaths?!
Alfred finally confirmed this and deeply regretted not confirming it earlier.
Since the opponent was very strong, using small squads to probe and attack was courting death. However, due to the issue of air superiority, he couldn’t use a large force either. It seemed that he could only…
Alfred pondered for a moment and waved to his adjutant:
“Bring a mortar squad here.”
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