Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 287 A crushing defeat

Earl Feigen could not understand how the other party could throw such a terrifying spell with such great destructive power into his army from a distance of nearly a thousand meters.

He had seen spellcasters casting magic countless times in the past, whether it was a scorching fireball the size of a head or a sharp, extremely cold ice blade. From the time the spellcaster chanted the spell to the time it flew out and hit the target, the longest attack distance was no more than two or three hundred meters.

The charge of the knight phalanx is limited by the battlefield terrain and the physical strength of the horses. It is not possible to increase the charge speed to the maximum from the beginning. Military commanders with battlefield experience will generally give the order to drive the horses to trot forward from a distance of one thousand meters, and then gradually accelerate when they are about five hundred meters away from the enemy, until they finally enter the stage of a one-hundred-meter high-speed charge.

Therefore, Earl Feigen believed that assembling a phalanx of knights one thousand meters away should be an absolutely safe distance. Neither the spellcasters hiding among the enemy soldiers nor ordinary bows and crossbows could threaten his knights. At the same time, they would have sufficient time and distance to engage the enemy to launch a cavalry charge.

Who would have thought that it was the extremely low efficiency of the knights' formation that made them a complete sitting duck for artillery.

The six magic-powered cannons emitted a buzzing sound of shooting almost at the same time. A stream of hot air flew out from the muzzle at high speed, carrying the magic energy shells. The moment they left the barrel, their speed was so fast that it was invisible to the naked eye. Then, in the blink of an eye, they exploded directly in the enemy knight's army formation a thousand meters away.

Almost the moment the canned shells filled with liquid magic power hit the ground, violent energy beams shot out from the iron cans, emitting bursts of shrill whistling sounds. The heavily armored knights of Earl Fegen's family who were standing closest to the landing point of the shells had almost no time to react. Both the knights and their horses were shot into sieves, their armor and flesh being directly pierced, and the horses under their crotch were even gutted on the spot, with hot internal organs spilling all over the ground.

The people and horses fell to the ground, and the gravel and dirt flew all around, frightening the horses outside the explosion range. Many knights who had no idea what was happening were thrown off their horses. More people kept shouting and pulling the reins, trying their best to calm the restless horses.

Since it was the first volley, half of the six magic energy shells missed the target and fell into the dense forests on both sides of the enemy's target formation. Commander Pierce was so angry that he turned around and stared coldly at the soldiers of the artillery battalion.

Lynx felt a chill on his back and quickly completed the shell loading and aiming procedures again as quickly as possible, and the second round of shelling began.

Even if the flesh and blood body is wrapped in solid steel armor, it is forced to expose its fragility and softness under the merciless bombardment of magic shells. Once it is within ten meters of the impact point and explosion range of the shells, it is almost impossible to escape a tragic end. The limbs that were blown into pieces by the extremely penetrating energy beams are scattered on the ground, and there are bursts of blood mist that suddenly splash out and continue to rise. Everyone can only faintly hear the hissing sound of some kind of air flow, as if an invisible ghost is wantonly shuttling through the army and madly plundering everyone's lives.

Another round of terrifying magic attacks came. In his panic, Earl Feigen finally connected the white lights that appeared in the enemy camp in the distance and the sudden hissing sounds in his own army with the inexplicable long-range attacks.

That wasn't a long-range cluster spell cast by a large number of spellcasters! It was some kind of incredible magical weapon!
The range far exceeds the distance that magic and bows and arrows can reach, and is almost equivalent to the giant catapults that can only be seen in siege operations. Moreover, there seems to be a period of time between attacks, and it cannot shoot indiscriminately without stopping.

Thinking of this, the Duke immediately ordered his knights to blow the horn of attack - he could not wait for his own troops to assemble into a neat phalanx before launching a charge. He had to close the distance with the enemy as soon as possible to make those magic catapults lose their long-range attack effect.

As for how to deal with them later, it depends on the team of knights of the Inquisition and priests of the church who reacted immediately after being attacked and sneaked into the mountains and forests on both sides to attack the enemy. I believe that they will pull out those despicable spellcasters who are hiding in the distance and secretly manipulating magic weapons one by one and impose divine punishment on them mercilessly.

But Earl Feigen overestimated the combat discipline of the knights in his own army. After the attack horn sounded, except for the knights of his own family who obeyed the order, the other knights from the vassal nobles were still in chaos and did not listen to orders. Some heard the horn but could not ride their horses forward, but still pulled the reins and struggled with their restless mounts. Some could not find the noble lords they were loyal to, and drove their horses around in circles in confusion. A small number of people witnessed the tragic scene of the army being inexplicably attacked, and actually turned their horses' heads and retreated to the rear.

In addition, the mercenaries in the rear had not yet figured out the situation, and rushed forward as soon as they heard the horn, making the whole scene chaotic for a while.

……

Standing on tiptoe, Bobcat saw the enemy in the distance slowly advancing towards him. He immediately followed the commander's instructions, reloaded the shells, adjusted the firing angle, then adjusted the height of the cannon mount and moved the muzzle downward.

Another short bird whistle sounded in the sky... Through the holes in the shooting sight, one could clearly see the metallic luster of the knights' armor reflecting off the setting sun.

The third round of artillery fire began. After the low humming sound ended, the artillery crew didn't even bother to observe the results of the hits, and immediately began to repeat the new round of shooting process.

They don't need to worry about the hit rate at all. Countless experiences gained from live-fire training tell them that at a distance of about 500 meters, the hit rate of the magic-powered cannon's flat-fire can reach almost 95%, and there is no possibility of missing.

In the six-man artillery crew, the four artillerymen responsible for assisting observation and vigilance immediately took off the magic guns on their backs, removed the metal shield placed on the gun carriage and dug into the soil, bent their knees and half-crouched to hide behind the shield, pointed the muzzle of the gun at the enemy not far away, and provided cover for the two comrades who were operating the gun.

These were just required movements in daily training. In reality, they were not often put to use, because there were more than 500 battle-hardened Northern Army soldiers in front of the artillery battalion position, eager to get started.

The order to fire volleys was almost immediately given to the soldiers crouching in the trenches. The energy beams from the magic guns sprayed white light like raindrops towards the enemy. When the knights who had completed the acceleration charged to a distance of 300 meters, they were instantly covered by this magical rainstorm. Both the men and horses burst into blood and fell to the ground in an orderly manner like wheat being cut.

The knights who were in the rear and had the luck to avoid being covered by the magic barrage had no time to slow down their horses and could only continue to sprint. After finally approaching the enemy formation, everyone had only one idea in their minds - as long as they broke through the weak defense line made of sandbags in front of them, the civilian soldiers hiding behind the defense line who didn't even have armor, and the evil magic weapons in their hands would be useless.

With the warhorse galloping at high speed, the distance of 300 meters can be covered in an instant. The knight, who had roughly figured out the enemy's attack method, cleverly lowered his body and desperately used the spurs equipped on his heels to poke the warhorse's abdomen to increase the speed to the maximum.

But this short distance, which could be reached in ten breaths, somehow became an unreachable chasm. The almost uninterrupted barrage of magic guns completely destroyed the fighting spirit of this group of elite knights.

In the last hundred meters, the shooting penetration of the magic gun was brought to the extreme. Each energy beam shot could almost penetrate two or three enemies charging in front and behind at the same time. The knight officer who was rushing at the front of the team was almost shot into a sieve together with his horse. He fell heavily to the ground with his horse without a sound.

The charging knights inevitably collapsed.

The fear of death and the deterrent effect of evil magic weapons made them ignore the lords they were loyal to, turn their horses' heads and scatter in order to escape from this area that seemed like the arrival of the god of death.

The wave of defeat completely swept away the noble coalition that Earl Feigen had worked so hard to put together. The mercenaries who had originally come to plunder the battlefield were even more vulnerable. Seeing the knights in front of them were defeated in an instant, they immediately threw away their weapons and armor like birds and beasts, and scattered into the mountains and forests on both sides with shouts.

The situation soon became completely out of control. The crowd squeezed back and forth and fled. Anyone who was pushed to the ground would be immediately trampled to death by the horses. But no one had time to care about others. Escaping to the rear or to the hillsides on both sides was a good option. They only regretted that they could not grow two more legs to run faster.

But soon they fell into despair again, because a large number of neatly lined enemies appeared in the mountains and forests on both sides at some point. They seemed to appear out of thin air on their escape route, wearing strangely colored clothes that almost completely blended in with the surrounding environment. They shot freely at the group of collapsed deserters without mercy. Every time the bright white light came out of the muzzle of the gun, it would silently reap a living life.

……

The two spellcasters who had been using flying magic to float above the battlefield were none other than the "Eye of Illusion" Kim Gavin and the "Astrologer" Melissa Peña, who were stationed in Jackdaw Town. They keenly spotted a team of Inquisition soldiers that had circled to the side and rear of the battlefield, and immediately issued a warning to the Northern Army soldiers below.

Then the two of them looked at each other, and then swooped down towards the group of sinister church charlatans with a sneer on their faces.

The Bloodline Warrior Special Operations Team on the ground who received the warning also reacted almost instantly. They followed the direction of the high-level spellcaster's attack in the sky at an extremely fast speed and pounced on the group of church enemies who possessed extraordinary powers like themselves.

Next, it will be a life-and-death battle between the extraordinary people.

(End of this chapter)