Witch Troupe and the Undead

After all, in this state, the witch is no longer bound or restricted by her physical body, and can mobilize magic power and innate abilities beyond imagination—of course, in this state, every bit of magic power consumed is equivalent to deducting from the upper limit rather than consuming renewable value.

"Hehe~ Then I can't help you much." "No, no, no, you've already helped her a lot." The black cat said seriously, "It's just a pity that her 'sister' isn't mature enough yet~" Otherwise, the magic of the essence of creation would be enough to create a suitable body for her.

"You seem completely unconcerned. Have you grown tired of life?"

“Of course, this…” the Grand Duke pointed to his neck, “What do you think is the difference between living and dying?”

"That's true, but are you sure that king has the ability to destroy those in the cellar?"

"How will we know if we don't try? Anyway, I've given him plenty of reasons to act. Now it's just a matter of whether the Stoll family's resources are deep enough. If not..." The Grand Duke shrugged, "then at least those old guys will have to find a way to train a new batch of people and clean up this scorched earth again. They'll probably be disgusted."

Chapter 220 Every beginning and end needs an explosion

At the border of Catherfieldshire, the Rangers had occupied several villages along the border and controlled the railway bridge and a large warehouse for unloading cargo, as the Emperor had ordered the commanders to preserve Catherfieldshire from serious destruction as much as possible, preventing the soldiers from carrying out the era's favorite activity: burning villages.

"This locomotive is so strange..." Among a group of intricately carved locomotives, a strange one suddenly appeared, covered in patches and armor plates, attracting the curiosity of the resting cavalrymen. In particular, the other locomotives moved on their legs, while this one moved on wheels.

"Stop looking, hurry up and unload all this stuff." Bag after bag of flour, barrels of smoked meat and sausages, and various supplies, the most abundant being various arrows and loose metal plates for repairing armor.

Duke Frost seemed a little slow to react; his recruited mercenaries arrived late, but they managed to rendezvous with several of his barons and set up camp at an ancient fortress north of Fountain.

This fortress ceased to be used for military purposes many years ago, and is now merely a rest stop and tourist attraction. It is backed by a low hill with natural springs, and the train tracks pass down the hillside, giving rise to a small town.

The town's outer walls and the main city walls of the abandoned fortress are connected, forming a three-layered structure with three interlocking rings and varying heights.

Unfortunately, although this unintentionally formed terrain structure was advantageous for defensive operations, the fortress had been abandoned for too long, and the town had leveled the slopes on the side of the fortress in order to increase tourism. As a result, the attackers did not need to fight their way up layer by layer. They could simply beat the low outer walls of the town and directly rush over the tall outer walls of the fortress into the inner fortress.

Therefore, Duke Fresso's troops did not intend to resist in the inner fortress. Not to mention that the walls had been severely eroded by the wild magic. Although they had been repaired for tourism revenue, simple repairs and reinforcements for defensive purposes are two different things.

Those newly installed stones and bricks are really just bricks, and in order to restore them to their original state, they haven't been enchanted. They might not even be as durable as the temporary wooden fences on the outer fortress that have been treated, when facing a magic cannon.

Not to mention that the largest and most important castle itself was severely damaged, and there was basically nothing inside. Apart from the well and spring pool, the other defensive facilities were also basically useless.

Therefore, the Duke's troops could only be stationed in the relatively intact outer fortress and town, relying on each other for support. However, the outer fortress walls had collapsed in many places, and now temporary fences and hedges were constructed using enchanted planks and specially cultivated wood.

Neither the emperor's army nor the grand duke's commanders thought this was a place that could be defended from a strategic position. They could only say that it was more suitable as a military camp than a flat plain, and it was more of a stronghold for attack and interception.

"The Frost family is truly determined to fight this war," Roach and his convoy, traveling along the Greystone River, witnessed this scene. "Hopefully, this war will end soon."

If the emperor swiftly suppresses Grand Duke Floruso's rebellion, many of the chaos and problems in the empire will improve. After all, even a grand ducal family cannot withstand the suppression of the imperial army, so the remaining minor nobles should consider how long their ancestral castles can last, or face execution.

However, if the emperor fails to resolve this matter in time, other provinces of the empire will soon fall into rebellion as well. The Frost family is not the only noble family dissatisfied with the rule of the Stoll family. Since the previous emperor, in order to transform the combined empire into a truly centralized empire, the emperor has done a lot of things to weaken the feudal lords and undermine the nobles.

"Master Roach, what are you still looking at?" After explaining, Rhine saw Roach, Livia, Alessina, and Leslie staring intently at the ranger camp and felt very strange and curious. What were they looking at?

"Hmm?" The blonde little witch looked up, her large emerald eyes beneath her light golden eyelashes showing a hint of confusion as she looked at Roach. Her expression and eyes conveyed the same message: "Why hasn't it exploded yet?"

Although she couldn't understand the mechanical structures and ingenious ideas that Roach had come up with, she could sense the violent, frenzied, and potentially explosive magical power within the core furnace every time it was in operation, power that seemed ready to burst forth from any crack at any moment.

"Hiss, I'm curious too~" Roach stroked his chin. How did these guys ensure that this vehicle hadn't exploded yet? At the front-line station, two alchemists were maintaining the engine. Roach's vehicle was clearly underpowered, and the carriages had indeed been reinforced, making it suitable for transporting soldiers.

"Line up, get on the train." Infantrymen in crimson uniforms entered the carriages in batches. The furniture that Roach and his men had originally owned had been removed. The train was heading to a camp closer to the front lines where the battle was about to begin.

The attackers set up a temporary station and attack camp near the fortress, and various magic cannons and weapons were being installed. The interlocking steel defensive shields formed a mobile fortress.

As the empire's regular army, these infantrymen were equipped with uniform standard gear: a red cloak that was neither new nor old, a steel breastplate with rust spots but mostly intact, and underneath, chainmail that reached their knees. Their hands and legs were equipped with leather arm guards and leg guards. Except for the leg guards, which had been simply enchanted, all of these were ordinary armor.

The leg armor enchantment is "Fatigue Relief," which reduces physical exertion and fatigue buildup during long marches. It is an inexpensive, standard military enchantment.

The infantry weapons are divided into three groups, which is unimaginable on Earth. Even the physique of heavy infantrymen on Earth may not be able to carry three whole groups of equipment like an armory.

A long halberd was placed on the weapon rack in the carriage for use in formation defensive combat; a heavy steel shield and a matching one-handed greatsword. This greatsword was the standard length of a one-handed sword, but wider and thicker. It is estimated that few people on Earth would have the arm strength to use it, unless the hilt was lengthened to make it a two-handed sword.

Finally, there was the ranged weapon: a steel-reinforced crossbow with 25 bolts. Here, they were just standard infantry. In contrast, the heavy infantry, who couldn't squeeze into the doors at the back of the carriage and had to be placed in a flatbed carriage to get on, were truly mobile tin cans.

The outermost layer is half-plate armor, the middle layer is layers of heavy scale armor, and the innermost layer is chainmail. In addition, there is a silk coat to protect against arrows, and a close-fitting leather vest that is enchanted and has a chilling effect, which can alleviate sweating and heat buildup during intense battles.

The helmet is a closed helmet with only a goggles with small holes. It is equipped with "underwater breathing" so that you can breathe without lifting the visor. The weapon is the same kind of sword that Alessina uses, or rather, a square, rectangular, heavy iron plate with a hilt that extends to the length of a short spear.

This 55-kilogram thing can smash iron armor like it's a piece of sheet metal. Any armor that isn't enchanted with sturdiness or toughness will be flattened into a flat can in one hit. It can be used as a blade to slash or as a blunt weapon to smash.

These heavy infantrymen were paid second only to knights, and required a physique of at least Extraordinary II to serve. They were few in number and mainly used for attacking city gates and strangling enemy soldiers. Naturally, they could not climb the city walls using normal ladders, but could only approach the walls using the huge well towers similar to those in China on Earth, and then charge directly up the walls.

"These are the best magic crossbows from the Burke Works. You all better watch out, these things are more valuable than your whole family's lives!" the sergeant yelled at the laborers as they carried boxes of disassembled magic crossbows into the carriage.

After improvements by the Royal Academy, the efficiency was significantly improved compared to Roach's initial design, reducing the time to approximately 6-7 seconds to charge a single shot with the equivalent kinetic energy of a heavy crossbow bolt. Furthermore, the ammunition was modified, replacing all-metal bullets with a type of extremely hard, cone-shaped crystal ammunition researched by the Imperial Academy.

This ammunition is hard but brittle, requiring enchantment to prevent it from shattering directly on armor like glass. Its aftereffects upon hitting a human are extremely brutal; during testing, it was enough to shatter the entire abdominal cavity of a tall and robust giant antelope (a monster with a shoulder height of over 1.5 meters).

It can be said that apart from cost, the only excellent ammunition with no defects—high lethality, high braking force, and moderate armor penetration—is that the injection cost is high and the production time is long.

Therefore, most of the time, the infantry were given the cheapest kind of ammunition produced by the Burke workshop with wooden and metal tips. As for its power, it was really no different from that of an ordinary crossbow—except that it had a longer range and could carry more ammunition than a crossbow without expending a lot of physical strength.

"Alright, sir, everything's loaded." "Everyone get ready, no whispering on the train." The sergeant boarded the carriage with satisfaction. The two trains started moving together, one carrying supplies and ammunition, the other carrying soldiers.

"It's probably going to explode~" Roach rubbed his chin, watching the train gradually disappear into the distance. Livia nodded in agreement, as she also sensed the increasingly obvious and intense magical reaction.

"Whoosh!" The train crossed the bridge, and Roach's car was clearly superior in acceleration compared to the pedestrian vehicle.

"Approaching station, preparing to slow down." The pedestrian train quickly reduced its speed, and the alchemist on Roach's train pulled the brake lever to disconnect the power furnace and transmission system, but the train was still moving forward at high speed. "What's going on!?"

"Brakes! Brakes failed!" Even without the operator saying anything, everyone could see the dense sparks shooting out from under the wheels. Although they had braked, without the control of the rune disc, the expanding flame magic of the transmission system had burned through the flame retardant plug and was spreading wildly throughout the system. The front of the car was turning red-hot at a visible speed.

"Jump!" The two alchemists exchanged a glance, decisively activated their protective gear, and jumped out, landing on the platform. The soldiers inside the carriage could only stare in disbelief as the camp platform vanished from their sight in an instant.

"Whoosh!" "Bang!" Several parts exploded from the front of the vehicle. Roach's pressure relief valve had worked, but everyone, especially those inside the carriage, felt it would have been better if it had just exploded, because...

"Whoosh!!!" A torrent of flames shot out from the front and roof of the train, which, like a rocket, rushed over the rails that had been cut by the Grand Duke's army and shot sharply into the sky along the twisted and deformed rails, just like a rocket.

The carriages lurched and crashed into the equally stunned Grand Duke's fortress with a "crack!" The connection between the locomotive and the carriages broke off, and the locomotive slammed into the outer wall of the ancient fortress like a cannonball, sending stones and metal flying everywhere.

The flames continued to erupt, spinning like a rotor on the ground, scattering the fire in all directions and quickly setting the tents and some of the supplies ablaze.

But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that the pressure relief valve, which was supposed to be working, completely failed due to the impact. The fire elemental magic released by the phlogiston blocks inside the sealed furnace had nowhere to go, and ultimately it turned into... "Boom!"

"It really exploded..." Livia nodded. It seemed that her judgment was correct. It had indeed exploded, and the outer fortress of the small fortress was completely blown away by the explosion.

As the soldiers inside the carriage struggled to crawl out of the damaged vehicle, they were met with a scene of flowing inferno and the screaming, burning Grand Duke soldiers. At the same time, some of the Grand Duke soldiers also noticed that there were some Imperial infantrymen at the scene of this suicide bombing attack.

"Enemy attack!" The sound of the horn echoed through the clouds. The disoriented infantry could only rummage through the ruins and wreckage to salvage usable equipment and struggle to hold off the attacking Grand Duke's army.

"What exactly is this...?" The general in the military camp looked at his staff with a blank expression. When was this suicide attack planned? Why didn't he, as the commander-in-chief, know about it? However, since the enemy was already in chaos, it was not the time to investigate who made the plan or how it was kept from both the enemy and our commanders.

"Cavalry, charge!" The Imperial cavalry charged out of the camp toward the gaping hole torn open by the explosion and the carriages, and the Grand Duke's army noticed this as well. "Magic cannons, fire!"

The crisscrossing light lances rained down on the battlefield like a storm, along with light orbs generated by various elemental cannons. The cavalrymen nimbly split into groups of lances and charged through the chaotic battlefield, dodging these artillery positions.

"Thud!" The extended spear pierced the armor of the leading cavalryman's horse, the shaft snapping instantly. The immense force sent the Grand Duke's infantryman, who was holding the spear, flying backward. However, the unfortunate cavalryman also fell from his horse as his horse was instantly pierced through the heart.

However, more cavalrymen had already ridden their horses over the burning low fences and broken walls, charging into the camp and engaging the Grand Duke's infantry in fierce combat. Imperial soldiers who had crawled out of the wagons also formed semi-circular formations under their cover.

"Get out of the way!" A heavy infantryman, finally catching his breath, struggled to his feet, dragging his heavy greatsword through the twisted carriage. "Get out of my way, all of you!" The heavy infantryman shoved aside his comrade in front of him and swung his super-heavy sword outwards.

With their equipment, there's no need for any tricks or skills; just swing with all your might. As long as you hear a metallic sound like striking a bell or hammering iron, you know you've hit the target.

One of the Grand Duke's soldiers, who was attacking, was struck in the chest. His breastplate instantly turned into a thin iron disc. The soft armor, filled with cotton and lined with cotton, could not cushion the impact at all. Everyone heard the crisp sound of ribs breaking amidst the clang of metal.

"Pfft!" An Imperial soldier stepped forward and thrust his heavy sword down hard, killing the struggling wretch. He then picked up the weapon and threw it to his comrades who were still rummaging through the ruins and wreckage for weapons and equipment.

Both sides were using standard Imperial equipment, so there was no issue of unfamiliarity. The only problem was that the Grand Duke's side had magic crossbows imported from the southern port, while the Imperial army's magic crossbows... were still at the camp station. The trains transporting these expensive weapons were stopped normally, so the logistics units couldn't get them to the battlefield on the other side.

"All troops, advance!"

"Sir, our ladder is not ready yet!"

"Damn it, forget about the ladder, we'll climb over that pile of rocks!" Because of the insufficient number of troops, the troops that entered the Grand Duke's camp quickly ran out of steam. If they didn't get support, then such a good situation would be completely wasted.

Thus, after less than a day of stalemate, the Grand Duke's army and the Imperial army descended into chaos and all-out slaughter due to an unexpected explosion and a runaway train. The Grand Duke's army retreated towards the town and attempted to use the town's walls as new cover, while the Imperial army, after scaling the rubble left by the collapsed walls, charged down into the Grand Duke's ranks from a higher vantage point.

Chapter 221 What is a "Strike Assault Flamethrower Tank"?

Although the Grand Duke's army was caught off guard, the Imperial Army was also not prepared for a real attack. The most obvious signs were that their siege equipment was either waiting to be unloaded at the station or had not yet been assembled.

Thus, after the Grand Duke's army retreated into the town and inner fortress, the Imperial army could only stare at the high walls. Moreover, the fires burning on the front of the wagons also became a problem for the Imperial army. They had to extinguish the fires before they could deploy their formations to attack the city.

The town gates have been sealed with stone blocks, and two metal mesh gates have completely blocked both city gates. However, this has also caused the Grand Duke's army to lose control of the outer fortress area and lose nearly half of its long-range ammunition reserves.

"Whoosh!" The crossbow bolt grazed the scalp and struck the steel shield with a loud bang. "Retreat! Retreat!" Imperial soldiers in red battle robes dragged their tired bodies and wounded comrades back, while the Grand Duke's army on the city wall cheered. It was a miracle that they could turn the tide even in such a disadvantageous situation.

Of course, this also means that the self-destructing locomotive was just an accident, not a premeditated tactic, which caused the Imperial Army to react too late. The light cavalry they sent out failed to enter the town and control the city gate in time, allowing the Grand Duke's army to retreat smoothly into the town.

Furthermore, the infantry that followed had just unloaded their equipment and were resting. They were rushed into battle without even having time to put on their armor, and suffered heavy casualties from being mowed down by ranged weapons. Before the engineering equipment was fully assembled, a few ladders that had been hastily assembled were burned down, leaving them only able to stare blankly at the towering city walls.

Since monsters exist in this world, especially in civilized areas, while threat-level and disaster-level monsters are rare, they do exist. Therefore, city walls are very much in line with the style of a fantasy world—tall and thick, requiring firearms and artillery to bombard them for a while—after all, the effects of powerful elemental mystic arts in this world are no less than those of ordinary firearms.

"Phew~" The exhausted infantrymen returned to their makeshift camp, took off their helmets which were slightly deformed from being hit by stones, exhaled a breath of hot air, and then pulled out the arrows stuck in their bodies one by one.

The breastplate, chainmail, and silk tunic blocked most of the arrow damage. Even the few that penetrated the flesh were tightly wrapped in silk, allowing them to be pulled out directly. The silk embedded in the flesh also served as a good dressing and a bleeding sealant.

After removing their armor, the medics carried several wooden crates into the tent. The Empire had already established professional medic duties, but these medics usually only treated those with moderate to severe injuries. The remaining lightly injured, unless they were wounded on their backs or in places they couldn't reach, had to find their own way to treat their injuries.

The main reason is the shortage of manpower, and the fact that the people in the other world are much stronger than those on Earth. The kind of injury that would require a period of rest on Earth, such as being shot with two arrows, can be almost completely healed by the time the medics are free to help with herbal medicine and bandages.

Most of the infantrymen had bruises the size of copper coins and a few arrow wounds. They helped each other apply medicine to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, then pulled out the arrows that were embedded in their flesh one by one, applied ointment, and then bandaged them.

These were all regular soldiers, the kind of people from respectable families, born into middle-class or upper-class families such as farmers, millers, blacksmiths, and butchers, not ordinary serfs, or at the very least, the sons of hunters and grooms.

In other words, they not only have the means to purchase a significant amount of potions and equipment at their own expense, but they also have the financial resources to receive more professional training at the Warriors Guild's training camp. This includes basic battlefield first aid and bandaging techniques, the ability to correctly distinguish and use magical potions and various herbal remedies, and of course, a range of combat skills such as armored combat and the use of armor-piercing weapons.

However, on the other hand, the military expenditure of this group is completely different from that of the temporarily recruited peasant soldiers and town guards. For one thing, although the triple armor is not as expensive as on Earth, it is not cheap either.

"Nearly four hundred people were killed or wounded, half of whom died during... well, during that car chase." The clerk walked into the tent, holding statistics on the battle that had just ended. He didn't know how to describe the strange, exploding train engine and the carriages that twisted in mid-air and flew towards the enemy's position.

"So, that means nearly two hundred people died inside the train carriages alone?"

"To be precise, eighty-six died inside the carriages, twenty-nine were wounded and crawled out but were executed by the enemy, and the rest were surrounded and killed in the battle." If the Grand Duke's camp hadn't been in such a chaotic state at the time, the number would probably have been much higher. Even so, only about one in ten survived and returned to the camp.

"Hiss~" The commander rubbed his head. Four hundred men were lost on the first day. As mentioned before, these were not town guards recruited from thugs and retired adventurers, nor were they "patrol cavalry" recruited from captured mountain bandits and outlaws, nor were they the country bumpkins who could easily gather hundreds of men by just wandering around the countryside. These were all valuable professional soldiers.

For professional warriors from privileged backgrounds who could afford the training and advancement in martial arts, and who had the money to buy better equipment and potions, losing more than four hundred at once was already a considerable casualty.

"Notify the rear troops to speed up their march. We don't have enough manpower left." If the Grand Duke's army hadn't been caught off guard and lost half of its supplies, they would have been lucky to avoid being wiped out. They really were just the vanguard. The elite main force only had a little over 600 men, and now 400 of them are gone. It would be good if the remaining peasant soldiers and conscripts could even maintain the siege.

Of course, if that car chase was planned and didn't result in the deaths of over eighty people, the situation would be much better. These elite young men, while not necessarily able to take on ten men at once, could at least easily take on two or three private armies of the Grand Duke's army, as long as they didn't encounter the royal guards or elite mercenaries.

"So, what exactly happened to that car?"

"Um... the alchemists are still studying it" and can't understand it at all. They even suspect that the car is essentially a bomb made of a car model. They didn't see any limiters or anything like that on it. It seems that the purpose of the car's power module is to explode and to be propelled by the explosion.

In short, within the alchemical creation science of this world, the structures and creations most similar to this thing are—the Bursting Magic Cannon and the Alchemical Bomb.

"So, it wasn't a spy who planted the bomb, but the train itself was a bomb?" The commander was a little confused. "That's utter nonsense!!!" According to his subordinates, the train was requisitioned from a group of people, and they had driven it safely all the way from the old line. The train was carrying an imperial delegation. It couldn't possibly be a giant bomb at all.

Putting aside the fact that the other party's motives were not strong, the question is how they even managed to come here in such a large bomb. Moreover, if they hadn't been stopped by the quartermaster, they might have even entered the capital in this large bomb.

Therefore, he still firmly believed that there was a high probability that a spy had sabotaged the train's structure and transformed it into a giant bomb. After all, some alchemical creations are very stable under normal circumstances, but once the key components are removed, they become super bombs. Otherwise, the Alchemist's Tower would not have to be alone in one place with the Arcane Association. Because the arcane mages also occasionally pull off some big things, the two of them would not have any major issues if they stayed together, and they would even complement each other.

After all, many of the big things that sorcerers do do require alchemical bombs and those lethal alchemical potions to deal with. Conversely, if an alchemist accidentally causes an explosion, only the sorcerer's barrier ritual can withstand it.

"However, even if there were spies, it's impossible to investigate now. Those on the train are either dead or missing, and the remaining few know nothing about it, and many were seriously injured."

In other words, even if there were spies, they probably escaped in the chaos, making it impossible to determine whether the missing persons were buried under collapsed buildings, escaped, or hid in the Grand Duke's camp after completing their mission.

While the Imperial Army debated whether the bombing was orchestrated by spies or a surprise car attack, the bewildered Grand Duke's Army finally had time to examine the train.

"To actually use a precious magic train as a large-scale siege weapon? That's really..." The Grand Duke's army commander was an elderly lord, the Earl of Fonhill, Catherfieldshire. He felt that the battles he had fought in the past were completely different from the battles he was fighting now.

In the past, everyone would bombard each other with magic cannons and then engage in magical combat. Only the side that gained the upper hand would launch an infantry siege, using magic cannons and arrows to suppress the firepower on the city walls, damage the structure of the city walls, or destroy the defensive barrier crystals erected on the walls. Finally, they would carry long ladders and push well towers, and perhaps with the help of some expensive magic puppets, to carry out the city wall attack and defense battle.

Now, when no one was prepared, a train carrying a large number of soldiers suddenly flew up and crashed into their own camp. With a massive magical explosion, it forcibly tore through the city wall's anti-magic structure and defensive barrier, allowing the carriages filled with soldiers to rush in and then break out from the carriages, slaughtering everyone in the burning and exploding camp.

If the Imperial Army hadn't sent such a small number of troops, this wave could have wiped out his entire legion—who could withstand this thing!

The explosion instantly stunned a large portion of the nearby knights, while the tactical sorcerer (military mage) was still struggling in bed from the intense magical shock, and more than half of his defensive magical artifacts were shattered.

Furthermore, considering the subsequent effects of the spinning, fire-breathing jumps caused by the uncontrolled decompression of the magic core in the military camp, the old lord felt that this thing should be given a separate name. It was impolite to simply call it the "train engine." At the very least, it should be called the Assault Blaster Flamethrower Tank.

He felt that if this weapon could be mass-produced, and two or three could be fired into the Imperial Army camp at once, it would not be necessary to use the flying assault vehicle full of soldiers to break the morale and formation of the Imperial Army. The traditional and simple knight charge would be enough to solve all the subsequent problems.

"It was probably Princess Freya's idea. I heard that this princess..." The staff officer pointed to his head, his meaning clear without saying a word.

“That’s true, it does seem like her style.” As a nobleman from Catherfield County, which is close to the capital, he had heard about the princess’s thought process to some extent.

"It's a pity that if it had been a mature and prudent general, rather than that princess, who orchestrated all of this, we could already be waiting for our families to send the ransom." The old count smiled.

If the enemy hadn't unnecessarily added an assault wagon and expected these disoriented, unlucky men to take the camp, but instead, an old-school general like him had chosen to ambush two or three hundred light cavalry and dozens of knights behind the wagons during the assault, taking advantage of the chaos to rush through the gaps torn in the wagons and deliver a decapitation blow to the panicked command system, the war would have ended right at the start.

A day later, Imperial reinforcements arrived one after another, and Grand Duke Frost was also gathering the remaining forces and supporters. At the same time, he also received a report that a major battle had suddenly taken place on the front line when no one was prepared.

"A powerful flamethrower tank?" Although the Grand Duke had no feelings for the old things and traditions of his family, he had indeed seriously studied alchemy because of those old guys. So, when he saw this name, what came to mind was completely different from what was reported.

Since it's an assault vehicle, it must be armored, right? So it should be a heavily armored war chariot, with a huge armored shield added to the ordinary two-wheeled carriage in my mind.

Then there's the assault, which means it's very fast, so one pair of wheels wouldn't be enough, so two pairs of wheels are needed. It can also breathe fire, so a dragon head sculpture that breathes fire was added to the armor cover. And I heard that it was filled with a lot of soldiers inside, so it must have been propelled by manpower combined with steam power.