A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 417 Progress Through Practice

Paul and Pascal's artillery battalion temporarily ceased fire, abandoning their futile attempt to break through the enemy's defenses.

Meanwhile, other mages hidden within the National Guard had already devised a way to break through:

Without warning, a giant hand made of earth and stones burst from the ground and slammed into the barbed wire and the first trench. Before the soldiers inside the trench even realized what was coming up, they were knocked unconscious and buried alive.

After the hand fragments, it successfully creates a ramp across the barbed wire, and the National Guard infantry cheer and charge toward the breach in the defense.

"Who is the commander below, and why is he sending his soldiers to their deaths?" Paul made another unexpected assessment, and his words were immediately proven true—cannons from the rear of the Imperial Army tilted their shells and slammed them into the breach, without even considering the defenders on their own side.

The bombardment wasn't merely intended to force the enemy to retreat; the presence of the giant earth and stone palm indicated the presence of a Valuwa mage nearby, at least a mid-level one. A high-value and highly dangerous target had been exposed and had to be eliminated.

Then the area that had been plowed by the cannonballs became the focus of the mages' attacks. Perhaps the artillery fire from the Imperial positions was not intended to kill the enemy mages, but defending against the cannonballs would at least wear down the enemy's defenses.

Rays and missiles danced wildly, accompanied by eerie fluctuations; various supernatural phenomena intertwined, causing ordinary people to instinctively step back and relinquish this "arena." At the breach in the defenses, spellcasters, who had remained discreet throughout, revealed their positions, instantly transforming the confrontation into a battle between the Imperial Magic Academy and the Tower of Stars.

The emphasis of the two sides' teaching naturally becomes apparent during the battle:

From the Imperial side, low-level Evocation magic poured forth, direct and violent. Like the other soldiers of the National Guard, the mages of the Tower of Stars lacked military training before the war, but their spellcasting was more extensive. Although they initially lacked coordination, they achieved various unexpected results.

The Imperial mage found that he could never hit his opponent, as if there was an invisible veil between them, deflecting his vision. Moreover, compared to straightforward and easy-to-understand fire, lightning, and ice bullets, the Valuwa mage "sent" incomprehensible silver stars and materialized runes. Their deadly effects only appeared upon hit, catching the Imperial mage slightly off guard.

However, the Empire's accompanying mages gradually gained the upper hand. Most of them were graduates of the Royal Academy and were required from the beginning to abandon chanting. Only a few spellcasters in the Valuwa army could cast spells silently, and many of them still needed to mutter to themselves. Although both sides needed to coordinate with hand gestures and spellcasting materials, it was this small difference that accumulated, allowing the Empire's firepower to gradually suppress the Kingdom's side.

At the same time, chanting lost its secrecy, and the original tradition was magnified into a fatal problem on the battlefield.

Finally, the majority of the casters were low-level spellcasters. The "cannon fodder" from the Royal Magic Academy and the Valuwa mages and apprentices who originally came from the "research institute" had a numerical advantage.

On the Imperial side, a mage crawled out of the trench; he was Captain Schmidt, who had captured Moncado Fortress with Richard. His spellcasting-incapable subordinates had moved away from the gaps where magic was flying, giving Schmidt and the other Imperial mages room to maneuver.

The low-level mage wiped the mud off his face, revealing the scar on his left side. The scar began to swell and turn pink, indicating that he was preparing to cast a spell.

A fireball flew towards him. Schmidt unleashed a [Force Field Wave], but the fireball crashed into it and collapsed, reforming into a human shape. A Valuwa mage, who had lost his hat, staggered and fell in front of the ditch. The scattered sparks transformed into specks of light, but there was no heat, no raindrops turning into steam.

Schmidt was initially startled by the change, but then guessed that the "fireball" he had seen earlier was an illusion—mages would usually dodge such missiles, so by disguising himself as a fireball and launching himself out, he could instantly bypass the defenses.

He had some quick wit, but hadn't he considered that the fireball could be intercepted? Schmidt found the reckless spellcaster hard to judge and drew his pistol from his waist, intending to take the prisoner.

The Valuwa mage, stunned by the [Force Field Wave], moved again. Still prostrate in the mud, he raised his head and met Schmidt's gaze, an enchanted dagger clenched between his teeth. Its blade was not metal, but an irregular crystal, a replica of a chipped stone tool.

Damn it, it won't fire when it matters! Schmidt pulled the trigger several times, but there was no response. There was barbed wire all around him. He didn't need hand gestures; there was only one spell he could cast the fastest.

Schmidt didn't hesitate any longer. He didn't want to personally verify the crystal dagger's effectiveness, so he stepped forward and grabbed the enemy. Such slender arms! As a soldier, his arms were strong and powerful, while his opponent, regardless of age or physique, looked like a student.

However, the enemy was glaring at him menacingly, his dagger gleaming with a dangerous light, about to be unleashed.

Schmidt lifted the Anti-Mage like a chicken, and in that instant, both of them became ethereal. After the captain dragged the mage into the barbed wire, the ethereal effect dissipated, and another scream echoed across the battlefield. The dagger lost its luster and fell into the mud.

Schmidt tried to pick up the dagger, but an explosion suddenly occurred behind him, and the blast wave slammed him into the barbed wire.

Just before the mages of Valois were about to collapse, the artillery battalion completed its second round of reloading and decisively opened fire.

With the initial firing calibration of the barbed wire defenses, the second volley of shells aimed to minimize friendly fire and maximize enemy casualties. The Empire's accompanying mages suffered a double blow of kinetic and thermal energy, no less powerful than their own magic, leaving them unable to press their advantage against the enemy mages.

"Great! If we can't reach the enemy's cannons, can't we still attack the front lines?" Paul cheered, patting the still-warm cannon barrel after confirming the battle situation.

At this point, both sides' mages had achieved their victories and defeats. Just as the battle was about to end, the war drums sounded on both sides, and the spellcasters retreated back into the crowd or trenches. The artillery fire of both the empire and the kingdom also came to an end.

The war drums weren't actually a signal for the spellcasters to retreat, but rather an order for ordinary soldiers to charge. Through the gap, the blue, white, and red-clad soldiers braved the hail of bullets and advanced fearlessly once more, shouting slogans to defend Valois as they plunged into the first trench.

Both Drouot and Paul, looking down from their vantage point, noticed a problem: the battle was too wide!

Even though many National Guard soldiers rushed to the first trench, the trench was only so wide, and the trench structure was a network, so the longitudinally connected trenches could not be connected to the end, but were arranged in a staggered manner.

In other words, for the National Guard to break through all five lines of defense, they would have to capture multiple intersections. These key positions provided the defenders with space to set up their weapons, while also severely limiting the number of attackers—at most, it was only two against two in the trenches, unless the Kingdom had some weapons that would give individual soldiers an overwhelming firepower advantage.

The mages, who had re-infiltrated the ordinary people, tried to turn the tide, but just like at the beginning, the spellcasters on both sides were entangled with each other, and whoever cast the spell would be the first target to be attacked. So even though the trenches were sometimes engulfed in flames and sometimes billowing toxic smoke, and there were attempts to destroy the trench structure, it looked lively, but the decision of the battlefield still rested on the ordinary soldiers fighting gun to gun and knife to knife.

On the one hand, these mages constantly probed and hid among ordinary people, lacking effective coordination and thus losing their decisive role. On the other hand, at this time, the spellcasters on the front line were mainly low-level and apprentices, while the high-level combatants were kept close by the generals of both armies to guard against sneak attacks from the high-level combatants on the other side.

To put it bluntly, the situation on the front lines is like two weaklings fighting each other. The anti-magic devices and giant constructs that appeared in the last battle are conspicuously absent; they've probably been sent back to the factory for improvements.

The only truly effective method was for the Imperial Army mage to unleash several Lightning Bolts at the barbed wire. The current didn't need to penetrate the air; instead, it merrily traveled along the barbed wire, successfully preventing the National Guard from breaching the defenses outside the gap.

Paul's eyes were practically glued to the binoculars as he meticulously recorded the entire process in his mind.

(End of this chapter)