Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 589 Reinforcements
"Zizi - Commander - Zizi - calling for naval gunfire support - Zizi -"

The alchemical communicator in the command room received intermittent signals for help from the front line. The frequent energy interference indicated that the advance battalion's defense line was under fierce attack from the enemy.

Vaughan's face was gloomy. He stood there silently, his eyes fixed on the busy soldiers on the deck.

"How long will it take for the guns to cool down?"

The adjutant replied with a serious expression: "Sir, we can launch a second round of bombing in as little as three minutes!"

The signalman removed his headset and reported, "Commander, the advance battalion has requested not only artillery support but also reinforcements! Far more Lizardmen have appeared on Floating Island No. 3 than we anticipated. The airship squadron's decoy plan hasn't been entirely effective... The enemy seems to have discovered our medium-range bombing strategy."

Their response was, naturally, to attack the defense line frantically regardless of losses, attempting to break through and cut off the source of the Northern Army's bombing.

The city hall and the military...still overestimated the spellcasters' combat power against the demon lizardmen. With only a hundred or so combat mages facing tens of thousands of alien monsters, no matter how powerful their individual strength was, it was impossible for them to achieve a unilateral crushing situation.

The invasion war launched by a race whose individuals all possess extraordinary abilities against humanity is no longer the "regional conflict" between humans and demons in the past that only involved the struggle for resources. Even His Majesty himself... has been misled by the ideas of officials who are spellcasters, who account for a very high proportion of the kingdom's high-level officials, and still holds the stereotype that spellcasters will be the leaders of this war.

No! I shouldn't question your majesty's decision like this!

Vaughn shook his head irritably, suppressing the doubts buried deep in his heart once again, and reached into his arms... and touched something with a smooth surface but extremely hard.

Before leaving for the battle, His Majesty summoned him to the castle alone and personally handed him a "Soul Crystal."

Vaughn had no idea where this thing came from, and His Majesty had never mentioned it to anyone else... He only said that it was the result of his current private research and had not yet been officially published.

His Majesty only briefly explained its specific effects.

[When the situation gets tough, use the power of your bloodline to activate it. Try to issue commands to the dormant alchemy beasts on the bottom of the shallow-water heavy gunboat to control them and attack the enemy...]

The dormant alchemy beast at the bottom?

Vaughn was completely baffled. The military was solely responsible for the supply of shallow-water heavy gunboats. Most areas of the gunboat's bottom hold were completely enclosed, storing a large amount of liquid magic energy required for the ship's navigation, with only a few pipes directly connected to it to extract energy for use.

He had never heard that there were additional alchemical beasts stored in the bottom compartment.

"Sir! News has come back from the front lines: Winged Ones have raided the artillery positions behind the defense lines, resulting in nearly a hundred casualties... Requesting the dispatch of the remaining airships to transport the wounded back to the gunboats!"

The advance battalion on the blocking front has only 500 soldiers, and the reinforcement battalion that set out after daybreak has not yet arrived at the front line.

On the two shallow-water heavy gunboats, apart from the two artillery battalions responsible for operating the artillery for continuous bombardment, only the third battalion remained to build the last line of defense on the river bank.

They did reserve seven or eight airships, but they were only used to deliver ammunition and supplies to the front battlefield for emergency response.

Vaughn clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, then decisively ordered, "Follow me to the deck and issue a notice to the entire army... I want to activate the alchemical beast troops that His Majesty has entrusted me with!" Where... where did the alchemical beast troops come from? Without the energy-gathering array to transmit energy, the liquid magic energy they reserved was only enough to propel the gunboats. How could there be enough left to activate the alchemical beasts?

The signalman looked confused, but still strictly followed the commander's orders and quickly issued instructions to all officers and soldiers of the two gunboats.

……

When Vaughan quickly reached the deck, all the soldiers on standby turned their eyes to him, staring at him with sharp eyes, except for the artillerymen who were still diligently operating the ship's guns to fire at the designated locations.

He took out the "Soul Crystal" from his arms, which had countless tiny runes engraved on its surface and looked like a small magic stone. The next second, he injected his blood power into it without hesitation to activate it.

Boom!Boom!Boom!
Vaughn found it difficult to describe the strange feeling he was feeling at the moment. He could clearly hear his heartbeat... but it wasn't just his own. Deep below the deck, in the ship's most core energy storage room, there seemed to be countless... countless hearts beating in sync with his own.

The ship suddenly began to vibrate slightly at an unusually coordinated frequency, as if the magical power core in the engine room was overloaded.

Immediately afterwards, Vaughn heard a burst of tiny and chaotic sounds, as if tens of thousands of multi-legged insects were rapidly moving their limbs, waking up from their slumber... and gathering towards him.

"What the hell is this!" An adjutant suddenly raised his foot and screamed at the ground.

Vaughn looked down and discovered that a "spider" only the size of a finger had crawled out from the gap between the deck and the side of the ship. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the insect had a strange metallic luster all over its body, reflecting a silvery-white color under the sunlight.

This is a "mechanical bug" cast from metal and assembled together!
Could this be the alchemy beast His Majesty mentioned? Such a small alchemy beast?

Before Vaughn could recover, the sound of insect limbs scraping against metal intensified. Many soldiers on standby in the second-floor cabin suddenly rushed onto the deck, shouting in fear, "There are strange insects on the ship!"

Wait! He seems to understand!
Vaughn clenched the "Soul Crystal" in his hand and closed his eyes again... In an instant, tens of thousands of tiny spiders from the cracks in the deck poured out like a spreading tide, each paddling their limbs and piling up, surrounding the target they had given the order to.

The half-orc officer opened his eyes again, but his pupils had turned a strange silver-white.

"I will personally lead this batch of alchemical beasts to the advance blocking front to provide support..."

……

Harvey raised his head from the lab table and rubbed his sore eyes with difficulty... An energy-absorbing beetle crawled out from the crack in the ground, cautiously poked its head out for a moment, and then moved its legs to climb onto the table.

"Okay, I understand..." Harvey suddenly spoke, as if muttering to himself in the air, causing the two guards guarding the door of the underground laboratory to look at each other in confusion, but they did not dare to speak.

Harvey wiped the sweat from his forehead with the hot towel hanging on the alchemy beast's arm. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to order, "Follow me back to the office and inform the military and the city hall... and the two chief ministers."

He paused, then smiled bitterly, "Tell them... the battle at Great Bear Lake may be getting a bit intense. We need to hold a meeting immediately to consider sending emergency reinforcements."

(End of this chapter)