Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 337: Outpost Observations
When the whistle of the enemy attack sounded, the entire valley outpost fortress instantly seemed to boil over.

Michelle rushed out of the barracks tent, and followed the large crowd to the top of the fortress with a nervous look on his face. He looked around to find a suitable position to fight and cast spells, but found that every corner of the wall was full of soldiers holding magic weapons, and there was no place for him to stand.

The soldiers stationed at the outpost were already familiar with this scene and did not need too much instruction from their superiors. Everyone knew what they should do next. In the trenches on the riverbank outside the fortress, the troops lying in ambush to meet the enemy were already in position in advance.

As in every winter, the soldiers on the fortress walls are on alert and responsible for early warning and observation. Once they discover traces of a large group of evil orcs on the other side of the glacier river, they will immediately blow the whistle. The troops responsible for blocking the enemy on the front line will immediately pass through the criss-crossing trenches and tunnels, quickly reach the riverbank and slope outside, and greet the enemy crossing the river from a high position.

The white cold mist on the frozen river had not yet completely dissipated, and a large group of black shadows could be vaguely seen approaching. Daf squeezed to the top of the wall and tiptoed to make a rough estimate. He found that there were about a thousand evil orcs, which should be the entire strength of a complete small tribe. If it were two or three years ago, this would be an absolutely difficult battle. The soldiers on the riverbank outside the fortress had to fight and retreat, and suffered certain casualties to delay their advance, while the soldiers in the outpost needed to continue to alternate shooting to barely repel them.

But now it is different. After two or three years of development, the pioneering territory has undergone earth-shaking changes.

A soldier from the artillery crew lifted the tarpaulin, revealing the magic-powered cannon that had been installed on the wall in advance. He repeatedly checked the barrel and the gun mechanism to confirm that they were not frozen by snow and ice, and then began to load ammunition according to the procedure.

Michelle saw Dave passing by and quickly grabbed him. "Captain Dave, what is my mission? Are there any signs of spellcasters among the enemies? Do I need to reach the outer defense line as well..."

Dave, holding a rolled tobacco leaf in his mouth, squinted his eyes and smiled. "Mr. Michel, you can just stay on the wall and observe. Why do you want to go to the moat outside the city? You don't know how to use the magic gun..."

Michelle was stunned for a moment, rubbing his hands and mumbling, "I'm a spellcaster... If we encounter an evil orc priest, I'll definitely need to deal with it, right? I heard the enemy has the magic to refine giant corpse puppets."

A gun crew leader heard Michelle's concerns and came closer and said with a smile: "We used to be unable to deal with those huge corpse monsters, but since we got this thing... hehe." As he said this, he patted the smooth metal barrel with joy, as if he couldn't let it go.

"In short, you just stay here and don't move around. Be careful not to be accidentally injured by the magic gun. After the battle, I will arrange for soldiers to collect the complete corpse materials for you!" Dave patted the young necromancer's shoulder and walked to the other side of the wall with a tobacco leaf in his mouth.

Michelle was left feeling extremely embarrassed because she had nothing to do.

Not long after, the soldiers on guard in the watchtower discovered that the enemy began to slowly cross the river. After more than a month of continuous extreme cold and low temperatures, the river surface in the valley outpost area, which had originally been slow-flowing, had long been completely frozen, and could easily withstand the tall and strong evil orcs crossing the river on foot on the ice.

When the soldiers on the city wall could clearly see the hideous-looking evil orcs on the ice of the river, the bombardment began.

The air wave blew up the snow on the parapet below the muzzle, and the low buzzing sound made Michelle, who was standing nearby, feel a slight dull pain in his ears. Suddenly, a cloud of ice debris with a bloody mist rose from the ice surface of the wide river in the distance, and the evil orcs who were sparsely lined up to cross the river fell to the ground, leaving a conspicuous huge blood flower at the place where the shell landed.

"There's a giant creature on the other side!" The artillery observer pointed behind the enemy team. "It must be a giant corpse monster!"

The artilleryman quickly and skillfully turned the capstan, raised the muzzle and adjusted it to the target direction, then loaded and fired again. Compared to just randomly measuring the distance and firing according to the shooting scale, accurately attacking a single target still requires a certain amount of experience and skills.

Therefore, this shell did not hit the giant corpse puppet directly, but instead just brushed past its side and fell behind it. However, it also released a large amount of energy beams at the moment of explosion, piercing half of the target's body into a sieve.

Almost simultaneously, another artillery group fired a shell, luckily striking the crumbling corpse monster, blasting it into a pool of bloody mud. "What a powerful attack weapon!" Michelle gaped, stunned, her face agape. She could faintly sense the magical fluctuations emanating from the muzzles of the two magic-powered cannons beside her.

"Could this be the Spellcaster Union's...new alchemical weapon used to combat demonic invasions?"

……

The evil orcs who had crossed the river halfway broke out in a commotion and began to rush towards the other side quickly, dispersing and interspersing flexibly, making it impossible for the artillery team to find a suitable opportunity.

Next it was the turn of the troops responsible for blocking the enemy on the riverbank and slope. In order to ensure the accuracy of their shooting, they waited patiently until the enemy rushed across the frozen river and was within a distance of 50 meters before they began to fire.

The shooting noise of the magic energy gun is far less than that of the magic power cannon. You can't hear any sound at all when you stay on the wall of the fortress. You can only see that the evil orcs who rushed to the nearby suddenly fell down in a large number, as if they were swept by a huge invisible scythe of death.

At this moment, several huge clouds of white mist suddenly rose from the frozen river surface, and several huge corpse monsters as big as hills broke through the ice directly from the bottom of the river and climbed up the river bank with roars.

"Tsk... these guys only know how to use this trick. They must have entered the water from the unfrozen river upstream, then arrived here downstream to ambush in advance."

Michelle squinted his eyes and looked at the riverbank, and finally saw the appearance of these giant corpse monsters clearly.

"God bless you! A stitched corpse puppet of this size... I'm afraid it would require the corpses of a large number of magical creatures to stitch together and refine." He lay on the wall parapet with some envy, muttering quietly, "If only I could get my hands on one..."

Suddenly, someone grabbed the collar from behind, and Duff's voice came from behind, "Be careful not to fall off the wall! Mr. Michel!"

Michelle nodded repeatedly, then pleaded anxiously, "Captain Dave, after that large attack weapon smashes the corpse puppet... could you please allow me to collect some of the corpse fragments, uh... for use in my magical research?"

Dave grinned and asked in confusion, "Oh? Is this thing worth studying?"

He rolled his eyes and said with a grin, "Then I'll find a way to get you a complete one!"

Before Michelle could react, he saw Duff holding a tobacco leaf roll in his mouth, pulling out a brass long sword from his waist, and suddenly jumping down from the battlement of the city wall. Behind him, several soldiers who also held long swords followed suit.

"Wow! Commander Dave is taking the bloodline warriors to have some fun with those big guys!" A soldier whispered jokingly.

(End of this chapter)