Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 397 Street Fighting
Benny leaned against the makeshift shelter and clearly heard footsteps coming from the corner of the street ahead.

The rubbing of metal armor... It was a knight, but he was not riding a warhorse.

He raised the magic gun in his hand and aimed it at the position where the enemy was about to appear not far away - this was the only way for the Fengyuan Knights to go from their base to the Duke's Palace. After they took over the outer city, they directly split into two groups and blocked the enemy's possible reinforcements in different areas of the inner city.

From the moment they arrived at Fengyuan City on the ironclad ship, the siege and assault progressed extremely rapidly. The battle had only lasted for less than an hour and a half, and the Fengyuan City dock, outer city, and city guard base had all fallen into the control of the Northern Frontier Army.

Benny's combat team was responsible for intercepting the Fengyuan Knights who were trying to reinforce the Duke's Palace. He never thought that he would be able to kill an enemy with his own hands so soon, and that he was a fully armed orthodox knight. However, when he saw the man who was hit in the chest by his bullet fell on the ground with his back, his brain lost all thinking ability and he could only numbly repeat the stiff action of raising the gun and shooting under the command of the team leader.

"Don't be distracted! They are coming again!" Suddenly, a gun barrel appeared beside him. Benny turned his head and found that it was his team leader Newman.

"I heard their movements. These guys are trying to sneak past our blockade..." Benny looked focused, but his words were a little weak. "It's too dark. I can't see how many enemies there are."

Newman patted the recruit's shoulder and said in a half-teasing, half-comforting tone, "Logically, this shouldn't be your first time killing someone. Of course... if in your mind, evil orcs aren't even considered human."

Benny shrank his neck and didn't dare to argue for himself. It's true that during the practical training of new recruits, he accidentally shot and hit an evil orc who almost rushed to the trench. But when cleaning up the battlefield afterwards, he didn't dare to get close to the corpses. He hid behind and vomited for who knows how long.

He hesitated for a moment before asking, "Team Leader, the injured comrades who were sent to the rear...will they all survive, right?"

The team leader narrowed his eyes and his tone turned cold. "Perhaps. No one can guarantee 100% survival in war. You have to do your best to make as few mistakes as possible to avoid getting yourself killed and dragging down your comrades."

Benny nodded. From the initial nervousness and panic to the current numbness and confusion, he finally understood the meaning of Commander Wayne's words during the recruit training: "Only after experiencing real life-and-death battles can you become a qualified soldier."

……

"Attention! They are coming!" Team leader Newman suddenly shouted in a low voice and decisively pulled the trigger. With the help of the fire that broke out when the magic bullet hit the enemy's armor, the soldiers saw the enemy rushing out from the corner of the street in the darkness - seven or eight people holding huge shields made of fine steel and slowly pushing towards them. One of the shields had a cracked corner, which should be the result of the team leader's shot just now. Benny could even see the terrified face of the young knight behind the gap in the shield.

They now knew clearly that even the solid shields made of fine steel could not withstand the magic guns in the hands of the Northern Army soldiers.

But he still resolutely carried out the order, fearlessly advancing with his shield raised.

The team leader's shooting pointed the direction for the other soldiers. Benny immediately raised his gun, aimed at an enemy hiding behind a shield, and opened fire decisively.

The bullet hit the shield and penetrated it unhindered. The knight behind the shield immediately screamed, and then fell to the ground with a bang. The enemies on both sides quickly closed in and quickly filled the gap left by the dead.

More and more soldiers began to fire freely, shooting down these desperate shield-bearers one by one. In the dark and empty streets, the only sounds could be heard: the enemy's orderly footsteps, their slightly frightened breathing, the thuds of them falling to the ground after being shot... and the sound of the Northern Army soldiers firing non-stop in silence.

"Are they just going to come up here and die in vain?" Team leader Newman began to feel that something was wrong. The shield bearers in the front row had already fallen down, and people kept coming up from the back to continue carrying the damaged shields... Who were they risking their lives to protect?
Before he could think of an answer, the shield bearers, whose numbers were gradually dwindling, finally advanced to a position less than 200 meters away from the Northern Army's firing position. Then they threw down their huge shields and quickly dispersed to both sides, revealing a row of dark shadows behind them.

"It's the Knight of Fengyuan!" Benny widened his eyes in surprise, and then he realized that the four hooves of the warhorse under the opponent's crotch were tied with thick cotton cloth to cover up the crisp sound of the horse's hooves when it was running. He relied on the towering shield in front of him to silently advance to a position very close to his own side.

Clang!
They drew their swords in unison, and the leading black-clad, silver-armored knight roared, "For His Excellency the Duke! For Fengyuan City! Follow me and charge!"

The sturdy, well-trained warhorses didn't even need to trot ahead to gather strength. Under the skilled control of their knights, they instantly leaped to attention and charged like a catapult towards the Northern Army's firing positions. "Salvo! Salvo! Empty your magazines!" Several Northern Army team leaders and captains shouted in a flurry, rising from their cover and firing recklessly at the knights ahead.

Benny was so frightened by the mass charge that his body became stiff. Even after he ran out of bullets, he still held the trigger tightly, completely forgetting the required action of quickly changing the magazine. He could even vaguely see the steam coming out of the enemy's horse and the cold light of the metal armor in the rain of bullets and fire.

A knight who rushed to the front raised his hand and threw the javelin in his hand with a silver light flashing. With a puff, it pierced the shoulder of a recruit next to Benny. The force was so great that it even nailed the unfortunate guy directly to the ground.

Blood gushed out of the soldier's shoulder wound, and bright red blood foam oozed out of his mouth and nose as he howled at the top of his lungs. Benny was so scared that he could no longer maintain his half-squatting shooting posture. He sat down on the ground with his teeth chattering.

An old soldier quickly emptied his magazine, slung his rifle over his back, and rushed forward in two steps. He broke the spear barrel that was pinning the soldier with his bare hands, grabbed the man's collar and quickly dragged him backwards.

The distance of over a hundred meters was almost covered in an instant by the desperate charge of the Fengyuan Knights. More and more soldiers who had emptied their magazines but had no time to reload were hit by javelins thrown by the enemy.

"The enemy wants to trade our lives for ours! They want to break through the encirclement!"

"Retreat! Retreat! Retreat to the second line!"

"Wounded, drag the wounded away!"

Benny felt his belt tighten, and before he could react, Team Leader Newman grabbed him by the back of the waist and led him stumbling backwards. The only thing he could remember now was that he must not drop the gun in his hand.

"I'm not going to die here, am I..." Just as a trace of fear arose in Benny's heart, Newman immediately stepped on his back and pressed him to the ground.

Then he heard a burst of dense gunfire without any gaps between the second line of defense behind him...

The next second, from the enemy team that rushed forward, there was a series of sounds of flesh and blood being shattered and bones being broken, as well as the sound of armor cracking that was so sharp that it made one's teeth ache.

Bullets passed over Benny's head like raindrops, carrying a strong airflow, and a strong smell of blood hit his face.

The intensive shooting lasted less than a minute. When Benny was pulled up from the ground by the team leader again, he was shocked to find that the enemies who were about to cross the first line of defense had disappeared at this moment.

All that was before his eyes was a bloody scene as horrific as hell. Countless broken limbs of living people and war horses were spread all over the ground, with broken flesh piled up in the thick blood covering the insteps of the feet. Not even a complete body of the dead could be pieced together.

Team leader Newman stepped over the sandbag shelter, picked up a relatively intact steel sword from the pile of flesh and blood, and shook off the flesh residue on it with a grin.

Benny felt something churning in his stomach. He bent over and retched a few times, but found that he could not vomit out anything except acid water.

"You bastards from the machine gun squad, if you had come half a minute later, we would have had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with these damn knights!" an old soldier captain yelled.

(End of this chapter)