Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 561 Winged Demon Lizard
As the airship rumbled and tumbled down into the snow, the entire Ice Castle outpost suddenly became boiling.

Dozens of soldiers stationed in the underground fortress rushed out and dragged the three aerial scouts out of the damaged pod... Most of the six sets of airbags on the airship were damaged, and it was not easy to rely on the remaining airbags to retreat here.

The shivering scout trembled, "A large number of... winged, bird-like enemies appeared on the floating island. They approached rapidly and destroyed the airship with their spears... The pod was also severely damaged."

Thanks to the thin steel plate used as the shell of the pod, although the black crystal spear had amazing hardness and penetrating power, it only shattered the glass porthole of the pod and did not cause any substantial damage to the scout inside.

What really made them lose their combat effectiveness was the extreme cold caused by the loss of airtightness and the high-altitude and high-speed flight... and the overloaded magic power core directly burned out the alchemical communication device connected to it, making them lose the only way to warn the base headquarters and seek help.

"Shouldn't the aerial reconnaissance team be combined into one group of three? What about the other two airships?" Benny asked anxiously with his eyes wide open, but he already knew in his heart that the fate of the remaining two airships might not be good.

"They were more severely damaged than us. They had to make an emergency landing mid-evacuation... I guess they were..."

The signalman in the ice castle has completed the contact with the base and received a reply that reinforcements will be dispatched immediately to rescue.

But… Benny looked at the black dot in the distant sky that was gradually approaching and becoming more and more visible… He knew that they would probably have to go through an extremely dangerous battle before the reinforcements arrived.

"At the same time, send a distress signal to the other surrounding Ice Castle outposts! Have them come to reinforce immediately!"

"Captain... the nearest sentry post is over ten miles away! We're simply too late!"

"Stop talking nonsense! They're coming. Everyone, listen to my instructions! Enter the underground ice fortress and prepare for battle!"

Benny, holding his rifle in his backhand, quickly retreated to the underground bunker with his team members, and formed a volley firing formation from the narrow observation ports open on all sides. Without the support of heavy firepower such as machine gun teams and artillery, if they wanted to fight against the enemy who obviously outnumbered them, they could only rely on the solid fortifications... and the precise and experienced marksmanship of the veterans who numbered less than half as many.

"Captain! The enemy is less than one thousand meters away from us, and there are about two hundred of them..." The observer held up the telescope, and although his voice was trembling, he still completed the report conscientiously.

"Everyone, prepare to fire! How much ammunition do we have in stock?"

"Less than 300 rounds per person! Damn it! The last rotating garrison team took some spare ammunition with them, but didn't report it for replenishment in time after returning to base!"

This level of mistakes is common in the Ice Sea Garrison Corps - since there are no traces of evil orcs around the Ice Sea, and the magic lizardmen in the deep sea of ​​ice have never shown up, most of the soldiers sent here are in a one-to-two ratio of veterans leading new recruits... One veteran teaches two recruits, and through actual combat exercises, they are encouraged to grow quickly and successfully become formal soldiers.

The Northern Army's conventional combat regulations clearly stipulate that when soldiers conduct defensive military operations around their headquarters, the amount of ammunition a single person can carry is 300 rounds. Together with the same amount of ammunition stored at the sentry posts on a daily basis, this is enough for them to complete their assigned combat missions.

If they were facing a group of evil orcs rushing towards them, these ammunitions would be enough for them to shoot all the targets, and even after the battle, there would be some left to shoot those who were not completely dead.

But now they are facing enemies from the air...a damn flying monster with a pair of huge wings that appeared out of nowhere!

Such fast-moving aerial targets were simply beyond the capabilities of a freshly minted soldier, let alone hitting the target accurately… If they managed to shoot down even one enemy after emptying a magazine, they'd be considered lucky. "Everyone, attention! No one is allowed to fire without my orders!" Benny quickly changed his strategy and spoke calmly, "We have to rely on the Ice Castle's defenses to force them to land and engage us in close combat. Otherwise, we have no chance of victory!"

……

In the vast white ice and snow, the airship that landed near the ice castle was a conspicuous target. The Winged Demon Lizardmen who were approaching quickly against the biting cold wind did not need to identify it at all, as they could instantly find the man-made fortifications protruding from the ground and obviously higher than before.

These alien races that suddenly emerged from Floating Island No. 2 seemed to be aware that humans had powerful weapons that could penetrate soft armor and kill them directly, so they very consciously formed a very dispersed formation, constantly changing their positions in the air, and gradually approached their locked targets.

"Boss! Three hundred meters!" The observer dropped the telescope and accurately reported the target distance. "Are they going to throw spears?"

"Focus on the target!" Benny ordered without hesitation. "If they raise their hands to concentrate their weapons, everyone immediately drop to cover!"

Now all they can do is hope that the opponent's powerful spear attacks can be blocked by the solid ice bricks used to build the fortress above their heads.

"Two hundred meters! Watch out for the spears!"

"Everyone, get down!"

"Get up! Get up! Fire!"

After a short period of lying down to cover his wounds, Benny was the first to raise his head and roared the order to fire. Without stopping, he aimed at the target in the air and pulled the trigger, emptying half of the magazine in one breath.

Within a shooting distance of two hundred meters, the magic gun bullets were almost unaffected by any wind speed and gravity, flying straight towards the enemy. Benny could even see the light reflected from the scarlet crystal masks on the monsters' heads, as well as the pair of slender flesh wings behind them that spread out to a width of two or three meters.

Damn! It's as disgusting and terrifying as an oversized humanoid bat!
Fortunately, more than ten bullets were fired like water, and finally achieved a certain effect... A winged demon lizard man was unlucky enough to be hit by a bullet while twisting and turning, and most of his neck was torn apart in an instant. The huge impact force blew his entire head off, and he paused in the air for a second before falling to the ground, spitting out black and red blood.

There was a rustling sound from the ice bricks of the fortress above their heads, and ice fragments kept falling on every soldier. Needless to say, this was the result of the black crystal spears piercing heavily into the ice wall.

Fortunately, the fortress was built very solidly and finally helped them block the enemy's first wave of attacks.

"Cease fire! Wait until they hit the ground!"

Benny shouted while lowering his head to change the second magazine. When he raised his head again, a huge black shadow with wings spread out suddenly accelerated and dived in front of the fortress - it raised its hand suddenly, and a dazzling red light burst out from its palm, shooting towards the horizontally open observation port of the fortress.

"Get out of the way!" Benny subconsciously pulled away the observer who was about to raise his gun to fire back.

(End of this chapter)