Mage? Spell Engineer!.

Chapter 535 Winter Buds

The fire tried to consume everything, buildings, invaders, and defenders.
"Turtle" Hench watched everything from the North Shore Tower. He threw his telescope aside and angrily grabbed the collar of the person next to him.

No one except himself could have foreseen that Hench would deliver a powerful punch to the supreme commander of the garrison, Iltsov. Iltsov's cheek had become loose due to old age, but now it was fully deformed, and along with the blood, it showed Hench's strength.

The above happened in a flash. No one saw General Iltsov's expression when he was beaten. When the guards and other commanders pulled the violent Hench away, the old general's expression had returned to being calm. He just took out the silk scarf he used to wipe the sword and temporarily used it to wipe off the blood.

"Major General Hench, I must state that you agreed with me when I came up with the scorched earth city plan. In fact, we both have a consensus that we cannot leave anything for the Valois even if we retreat."

"You also know that it's time to retreat!" Hench kicked again, but unfortunately the target was out of range. He asked angrily, "Then why is the NA area already on fire? Huh?"

"Retreat? What retreat? All I can see is that we have the ability to set the whole city on fire, a large number of Valois have already sneaked into the south bank, and our responsibility is to stop the rampaging Eastern Front of the National Guard. So whoever considers retreating at this time is seriously derelict of duty. We should consider the current situation and use all conditions and opportunities to eliminate the enemy."

"Then you should also consider the people there! It was you who ordered the evacuation of the front line yesterday, and sent troops to block the docks and bridges to restrict the residents on the south bank from leaving! Do you want your Majesty's people to be buried with the Valois? Reinforcements from the Western Front will arrive soon, why can't we wait a little longer?"

"Wait? Do you trust the reinforcements so much? My decades of military experience tells me that a good commander always assumes that the reinforcements will not arrive! As for the idea of ​​being buried with the dead, it's even more ridiculous. Hench, where is your sense of honor and consciousness? Those people clearly sacrificed themselves for the entire empire."

"Bullshit! Bastard! Old man!" Hench cursed, "Is this what you call sacrifice? I want to explain the situation to His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Emperor? Okay, we can report to the emperor."

As the two commanders argued, the fire became even more fierce. The fire itself was not inextinguishable, but strange and dangerous ashes were floating all over the south bank of the city. Anyone who got stuck to the ashes would release huge temperatures and ignite everything violently.

On the streets, many people were wailing and rolling in pain. Wrapped in the blazing flames, it was impossible to tell who was a Valois and who was an Imperial. Their facial features were all melted and carbonized.
"This is large-scale magic or divine art! Damn it, the Empire actually used such means. Do they want the people on the South Bank to die with us?" Seeing a large number of pioneers and all the machines being engulfed by the flames, the front-line command post was in chaos.

Paul shouted to Pascal, "Gather all the spellcasters and divide them into two teams. You lead one team to organize the collective spellcasting. Come rain or shine, find a way to put out the fire!"

"What about the other team?"

"I'll lead the way. Find the Empire's anti-magic devices and restart them! How can ashes float first and then catch fire? Stop these tricks immediately."

"You are confused. Almost all the exposed devices have been destroyed by us."

"What else can we do? This battle shouldn't have happened in the first place!" Paul slammed the table hard, and then forced himself to calmly think about other countermeasures.

The abnormal fire burned for a day and a night. During this period, the National Guard, which had entered the southern part of the city and suffered heavy losses, fought along the river bank with the Imperial Army defenders. The National Guard's vanguard was trapped in the fire and could not return. Fortunately, the Imperial Army crossed the river to give the remaining troops outside the city time to react, otherwise Paul would not have had the opportunity to lead the elite to save the remaining main force.

"Strange, it is said that Major General Turtle is a guy who is good at fighting stupid battles, why would he take the initiative to attack? Is the intelligence wrong?" Pascal, who tried to get close to the city to put out the fire and was almost captured, was sweating profusely.

"That's why I said don't over-guess the actions of the troops based on the commander and ignore other preparations." Paul gathered the troops and turned his attention back to the south bank of Oward: "The fire is almost out."

The city was left with only scorched earth and ruins, with the ruins facing the intact buildings on the north bank across the river. The Valois had to believe that if they continued to attack the north bank, the crazy defenders would repeat the same tricks, ensuring that they would not get any intact results, and naturally there would be no supplies.

"Retreat quickly. The defenders here are not a concern, otherwise they wouldn't resort to such terrible and cruel means." Paul Lema exhaled a breath of white air: "But the elite troops of the Imperial Army on the Western Front are about to arrive."

"Is there anyone alive?"

"There's no time to treat the wounded. They'll just slow down our progress, huh?"

Soon, the troops around the fire ruins found that many of the survivors began to struggle to crawl out of the ruins. As they moved, their charred shells began to break, revealing pink flesh buds, intertwined together to form a melted shape.

More and more things crawled out. They were called this because it was impossible to tell whether these "living things" were soldiers or residents, Valois or Imperials, men or women, young or old, or even their facial features could not be discerned. Occasionally, a few holes with blurred edges could be seen.

And they were indeed moving, even faster and faster, some sprinting towards the National Guard, some diving into the icy river, washing off the dust and crawling into the north bank of the city.

"Bullets don't work!" The soldiers discovered that the bullets could penetrate these pieces of flesh, but soon the holes would be filled with granulation flesh. There were even more disgusting consequences - pieces of flesh with too many bullet holes or blown apart by shells would automatically disintegrate, and the ostentatious granulation flesh would cling to other monsters or even living people.

"Fireball doesn't work either." The mages discovered that these things had abnormal vitality. Coming out of the incineration plant, they would continue to form a charred shell on their surface when hit by a fireball, but as long as they were "not fully cooked", the flesh granules would drill out and the whole monster would continue to move forward.

Have about half of the city's residents and our vanguard troops become this kind of thing? Paul shuddered.

"Brother Ilzhov is really capable. He actually sacrificed half of the city to Mother. What a pity! I am here to offer the whole country to Mother!" Gregory burped and rushed to the scene from the imperial capital in the northeast. He saw the "grand occasion" on the south bank.

He was dissatisfied with the fact that his mount was moving too slowly, so he dismounted and walked to the front. He first rubbed a handful of herbs on the horse's nose, and then picked up his wine bottle and stuffed it into the horse's mouth.

After doing all this, the man and the horse galloped drunkenly under the winter and over the earth.

(End of this chapter)