Magic Industrial Age.

Chapter 530, Part 528: The Devil's Astonishing Combat Power (Bonus Chapter 9)

February 23, 316 of the New Divine Calendar, early morning, Verdun battlefield, third defensive line.

Thousands of meters apart, the two armies faced each other, the atmosphere almost frozen.

Even the Crown Prince, the newly appointed Crown Prince, was too angry to speak at this moment.

Who would have thought?
How could the coalition forces be so shameless?

An entire army of hellish forces was somehow unleashed upon the human world.

Even the powerful could see the black smoke billowing from the burning steel city seeping into the Herka world through the spatial rifts.

They spread across the skies above Verdun, like cancer cells, infecting the realm belonging to this plane and causing immense damage invisibly.

This is an expansion of the will of hell, and it is extremely aggressive.

In comparison, the reaction of the dimensional consciousness is much slower, like a slow-moving old man who hasn't even felt the pain after being bitten by a mosquito.

However, under the dense power of hell, this area has become semi-hellish, and the hellish legions within it can naturally unleash even greater power.

In a sense, if this kind of thing happens more often, it means that the aging and decline of the Herka world will accelerate!

Of course, that happened a long time later.

Given the current situation, the longer the situation drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for the empire. Therefore, the empire launched an attack without hesitation.

The first mover is still to bombard the ground with artillery fire!

At the artillery position, shells were loaded into the breech, and the loader activated the magic runes, causing magical lights to illuminate various parts of the heavy field guns in turn. Then, at a command, all the breechblocks were pulled.

Boom boom boom boom!
A tremendous roar shook the earth and sent dust flying.

That is to say, modern field artillery is equipped with a recoil brake; otherwise, the entire gun barrel would have to roll backward, which shows its terrifying recoil.

At this moment, the air ignited by magical energy rapidly expanded, propelling the cannonball out of the breech with a series of flashes.

Its enormous thrust was undeniable; all that could be seen were shells trailing fire, leaving streaks in the air, tracing graceful arcs as they crashed into enemy positions.

Since the Empire tasted the benefits of bombarding the land, this has almost become the norm.

Whether it works or not, let's do it once. At the very least, it will demoralize the enemy.

It's not that there are no countermeasures, but frankly speaking, the results haven't been very good.

However, this time, the Hell Demon Legion taught all the human commanders a lesson.

Almost the instant the cannons fired, the demon legion reacted. At each command, the Baba demon archers raised their longbows and pointed them toward the sky.

Then, one by one, the demon mages unleashed a torrent of magic, which landed on all the arrows.

Then, the sound of arrows whistling through the air came from behind.

With the aid of magic, they exhibited an extremely terrifying range, remaining powerful even at a kilometer away.

Then, the arrow and the cannonball met and collided in mid-air!

Boom boom boom!

As a result, bursts of fireworks erupted in the sky above the center of the battlefield, and countless fragments were ejected from the detonated shells, but they all landed in empty space, causing no damage whatsoever.

This scene left countless people speechless.

This scene also ignited the empire's artillerymen's anger. They quickly loaded shells, fine-tuned the muzzles, and continued firing.

As a result, the number and density of shells flying into the sky increased.

However, within the Hell Legion, the number of demons wielding bows and arrows is also increasing.

Even if they don't have the marksmanship of professional archers, this kind of mass shooting requires sheer numbers.

If you have enough strength, you can draw a powerful bow or crossbow and then shoot the arrow.

Even if the time is too short and the demon mage doesn't have time to cast spells, as long as the numbers are dense enough, they can still intercept the cannonballs.

Of course, the killing power and range of arrows are ultimately inferior to those of cannonballs, and there will always be some that slip through the net.

Many shells broke through the blockade and were about to hit the Hell Legion's formation.

But at that moment, teams of demons conjured fireballs and threw them into the sky in unison.

The destructive power of the Hellfireball goes without saying; it's more than enough to detonate these shells.

However, when everyone thought that the shrapnel from the exploding shell would cause some demons to be killed or injured,
Then another command was given, and the arrayed demons uniformly raised their magical shields.

As a result, the fragments landed on the shield, either being bounced off or having their kinetic energy reduced, rendering them harmless upon landing.

The Empire's artillery tactics have never been as embarrassing as they are today; with full firepower, the enemy has not suffered a single casualty.

But this is the extraordinary world; when powerful individuals gather in sufficient numbers, the overwhelming effect of magical weapons disappears.

Of course, this was unacceptable to the empire, so the buzzing of magical flying machines could be heard from the horizon.

The Empire's air squadron charged in menacingly, led by the same red lightning bolt—the Red Baron.

The Hell Legion reacted immediately; a group of Dreadnoughts spread their wings and took to the sky. Their wings were neither the most common bat wings among demons, nor bird wings, but transparent and thin, three pairs in total, vibrating at an extremely fast speed.

This allows them to easily perform flight techniques such as hovering, inverted flight, and rapid changes of direction.
In terms of sensitivity, it far surpasses ordinary flying units, and even far surpasses the first-generation magic-powered flying machines.

Their weapons were also relatively uniform, made from the trunks of the Hellfire Tree, and looked somewhat like tridents, but were not melee weapons.

In a sense, this is a special kind of magic wand. Although it does not have the full range of functions of a human wand, its amplification of fire magic is quite considerable.

As for their fighting style, it can be said to be quite simple: they wield this magic staff and shoot out beams of 'hellfire lava rays'.

This hellish magic primarily uses high temperatures to melt and flames to scorch; a direct hit is enough to melt iron.
Furthermore, the range varies from several hundred meters to one thousand meters, depending on the amount of magic power supplied.

If pushed too far, they can continue to supply magic to maintain the spell, thus achieving a wide-area damage in a fan shape.

Their initial engagement with the magical flying vehicles resulted in heavy losses for the Imperial Flying Squadron.

The flight paths of the first-generation aircraft were too fixed, making it difficult to perform many evasive maneuvers, and their flight speed was not an absolute advantage.

When faced with the sudden stops and changes of direction of the Fearless Demon, they are very likely to lose sight of their target.

In a moment of distraction, the enemy disappears into the blind spot, and then a 'lava ray' shoots out, piercing through the aircraft and igniting its interior.

As a result, the aircraft either lost control, leaving flames and black smoke trailing behind, and crashed into the ground;

It either explodes in mid-air, disintegrating and falling into pieces.

As for the attack from the magic-powered flying vehicle, the bullets fired by the two heavy machine guns were quite powerful and caused some damage.

However, the Dreadnoughts are all extraordinary species, and defensive magic is something they can use with ease.

With defensive force fields in place, as long as you're not locked onto by a heavy machine gun and hit repeatedly, you can escape with your life.

Relying on their agility, they truly inflicted enormous damage on the flight squadron.

Without a doubt, this was the most devastating battle since the advent of magic-powered flying machines.
The only one capable of inflicting effective damage is the Red Baron.

This legendary pilot demonstrated his formidable abilities at this moment, pushing the performance of his vehicle to its limits.

The red magic-powered flying vehicle is a special model that can erect a magical shield, making him immune to attacks from 'lava rays'.

Its agile movement rivals that of a demon, with various hovering, changing direction, and sharp turns all done at will.

Even more astonishing was his masterful control over the two heavy machine guns, weapons clearly designed for suppressive fire, which he used with the precision of pinpoint fire.

In addition, he used specially made armor-piercing rounds, which had an amazing killing effect.

He was responsible for almost all the deaths and injuries of the horde.

However, later on, after the demons realized what was happening, things didn't go well for him either.

The Fearless Demons work in groups of three.

To deal with the Red Baron, nine teams worked closely together, using the 'fan-shaped hell ray' to continuously squeeze the Red Baron's room to maneuver.

They chased him relentlessly, leaving him with nowhere to run and in a truly miserable state.

As for the bombers following behind the flight group, they were now stuck in a dilemma.

If the battlefield at the front is not cleared, they are just sitting ducks if they enter.

After hesitating for a moment, they prepared to turn and leave, but the dreadnoughts were not happy about it and immediately split up and chased after them.

The first effective damage to the Hell Legion in this battle so far came from bombers.

A bomber had its wing damaged by a horde of demons and, seeing that it could not escape, the pilot rammed the bomber directly into the Hell Legion's position.

Although the devil tried to stop it, its massive size and weight made it impossible to stop.

After the bomber crashed, the shells on board detonated, and the chain of explosions wiped out an entire squadron of the Hell Legion.

Even the devil's personal defensive magic proved weak and ineffective against an explosion of this scale.

Even so, no one in the Imperial Command was happy; the casualties caused in this way were definitely not what they wanted to see.

In the end, it was only through the intervention of the Empire's fourth-tier Calamity experts that the rampage of the Terror Demons was halted, protecting the Empire's air squadron and bombers as they returned to base.

It should be said that the only benefit of the Hell Legion's intervention on the battlefield is that the Allied forces' Scourge and Legendary units would absolutely not dare to make a move at this time.

Colluding with hell and slaughtering one's own kind can be done in secret, but it must never be brought into the open.
Otherwise, they would be drowned by all the spittle.

This allowed the empire's powerful figures to act freely without any scruples.

At this moment, behind the battlefield, inside the command post, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone stared at the magic mirror, observing the battlefield situation, their faces grim.

After a moment's hesitation, a chief of staff stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, perhaps we should postpone the attack?"

The newly appointed Crown Prince of the Empire suddenly turned his head, his eyes bloodshot, staring at the Chief of Staff as if he wanted to kill him.

But she still managed to suppress her anger and said, "Tell me your reasons!"

(End of this chapter)