Mage? Spell Engineer!.

Chapter 518 Under the Sky

Since the Empire's airships received "safe buoyancy gas", they have been put into use more actively.

After the Imperial Army penetrated deep into enemy territory and unexpectedly engaged in a fierce firefight with the National Guard, the airship force accelerated its sailing in bad weather and was deployed to the front line of the battle, attempting to replace the role of artillery and inflict a devastating blow to the enemy from the sky.

Unfortunately, their plot will not succeed.

All the airships requisitioned from the central port area took off. Most of them had not even been modified for militarization, but they were equipped with the most dangerous weapons - spellcasters.

When the two sides met, an imperial airship was destroyed without warning, and the military mages still on the ground immediately realized that Valois's colleagues were on the airship.

If in the current battlefield, spellcasters choose to hide in order to prevent being marked as key targets, then the sky may be an exception for the time being. The airspace is a level that ground troops cannot reach. Obviously, neither the Imperial Army nor the Valois have the experience to deal with it and the corresponding anti-aircraft weapons.

After realizing this, the Imperial airships urgently descended in altitude, stretched out ropes and wandered around. At the same time, the public channel of [Radio Communication] began to call on the accompanying mages to move to the airships immediately to protect themselves and attack the enemy.

The flying spellcaster simply took off into the air, and sure enough, Valois's colleagues had been waiting for him for a long time.

Mages who were chasing each other were patrolling beside the airship. Those who could maneuver freely in the air were certainly not ordinary people. They threw deadly spells at each other. More low-level mages and even apprentices relied on the airship platform to provide protection, as well as to protect and enchant all the weapons on it.

For a moment, the airships of both sides seemed to be fighting a naval battle of old times. The slow movement speed of the airships was just like a large sailing ship whose speed was limited by the wind, and their firepower - whether it was the weapons carried by the airships or the projectiles and rays from the mages - was most ferocious from the side.

Therefore, the famous "T-shaped tactics" can be seen in the sky, with a team of airships cutting across and attacking the bow of the enemy ship fiercely.

When viewed from the ground, all the airships would emit brilliant light when they met each other sideways, with scorching red light, dangerous and mysterious blue-purple energy, and various shields deployed, making the sky where the rain had not yet dispersed flicker frequently.

And Valois's airship suddenly accelerated and flew towards the Imperial airship.

The Imperial airships that were targeted by the enemy were not afraid. They had discovered that these big guys of the Valois were ultimately civilian vehicles, and their speed and turning flexibility were not as good as the Imperial standard armed boats.

The crew members, who were already fighting furiously, did not want to maneuver to evade. Instead, they pulled up the shields outside the skin and readied their magic, with an attitude of "who is afraid of whom?" They even accelerated their maneuvers towards the enemy ship, trying to seize the "T position".

"Wait! Evade quickly! Go up or down, damn it!"

When the Empire's airship successfully seized the T position and was about to launch a salvo of fire at the oncoming airship, someone noticed that the Valois men were jumping off the airship one after another. Some had parachutes, while others cast [Feather Fall] on themselves. The mage with magic-enhanced vision even saw the enemies coming out of the airship giving him the middle finger while jumping.

The Empire's airships were updated very early, so they subconsciously overlooked one point: the airbags of the old airships were filled with high-explosive lightweight fuel.

It just so happened that none of Valois' "air bombs" had been detonated during the confrontation. Perhaps they had also updated the protection method to make the airbag protection safer and more reliable, but there was no doubt that the death air courier that was speeding towards them must have lifted these measures.

"There's still some distance, hit them down! Quick!"

At the moment when the commander of the Imperial airship shouted, a flash of light suddenly appeared all over the body of the "self-destruct boat" from front to back. In the blink of an eye, the distance between the two boats was suddenly shortened a little.

"Just a little bit", so deadly. The first brilliant fireworks in the air battlefield burst into life, and the rapidly spreading gas instantly engulfed the two aerial beasts. They were completely entangled, both burning, deforming, and falling.

Several more airships crashed one after another. The airbag of one of the Valois airships was pierced, but there was no one to take the blame, so it exploded.

But no matter what, these civilian airships have played their best role. Without their sacrifice, the enemy's aerial beasts would have wandered, patrolled, and dropped bombs unscrupulously above the soldiers' heads. Now they are burning together, consuming the casters at the same time.

"Really? Okay." At the front, Major General Hench received the final report from an airship. It discovered from high altitude that an army that did not look like the Valois was approaching the battlefield. Leading them was a large group of cavalry whose equipment seemed to be very retro, and following them were soldiers dressed mainly in bright red, which was particularly conspicuous.

"It's the Istani army." Richard Hench looked at the map and predicted where the newly joined forces might be deployed on the battlefield.

Too long, our battle line is too long. He didn't expect that the National Guard would fight at the same time on a battle line of more than 200 kilometers, which put great pressure on the logistics of the Imperial Army. When he pushed the marker representing the Istani to the front line, his pupils suddenly shrank.

Their target is of course the royal hunting grounds and the border between the two rivers!

The Valois were still firmly pinned here. Although the troops had been rotated twice, Galisia had already deployed a total of ten corps around this key point, and now four and a half corps were continuing to resist. Similarly, the Imperial side had increased the number of corps to three in the east and two in the west on both sides of the "wedge", but unfortunately they had been unable to break through.

The new forces joining the battlefield will act like a "hammer", giving support to the "wedge" embedded in the Empire's front line. If this wave of impact cannot be resisted, the Empire's front line may even collapse from this focus!
Cautious Hench immediately turned his gaze to other parts of the map, scanning the Imperial Army's markers one by one, but he discovered in despair that all the combat forces had been fighting the enemy to a standstill, and there was no more mobilized corps or reserve forces to support and reinforce this place.

The imperial army had reached its limit, but the Valois, as the masters of this place, were doing their best to entertain the uninvited guests. Wounded soldiers were constantly being replaced from the front line, and new soldiers were constantly rushing to the battlefield from the capital in carriages and trucks that appeared inexplicably.

Even if this strategic focus does not collapse, the starting point of collapse may appear at any time on the 220km front line.

Then you can only retreat actively
Richard Henchy came to the bitter conclusion that once he retreated, there would be no chance of reaching here again.
He thought seriously for a moment, but the situation did not allow Hench to think further. He took the map he had marked and found the highest commander: "General, please give the order to retreat!"

The old general glared and said, "Boy, give me a reason not to shoot you."

Hench was not afraid: "The battle has continued until now, and there is no doubt that we cannot achieve the set goal. In this case, we should stop the loss in time. If we continue, and let the Valois and our soldiers all die on the damn river bank, then what about the enemies in the empire? Do we really want to fight to the point where there is no soldier left?"

After that, he immediately reported the intelligence of the Istani troops' movement and his own terrible idea. Seeing that the commander was still hesitant, he gritted his teeth and said, "Then, on behalf of the Supreme Staff, I will order you to organize an orderly retreat! Gather our troops and don't let them entangle on the long front line!"

He showed his medal and Helmut's letter: "At this time, I can represent the Supreme Marshal, and I will bear all the responsibilities alone!"

The battle on the Lane River lasted for a day and a night. At dawn on the second day, the artillery fire gradually became sparse. Everyone on the battlefield was extremely tired. In theory, they took turns to go to the front line, but who could sleep well at this moment and here?

Under the Starlight Torch Tower, Kano, who had been sitting there all night, received a message: "Is the battle about to end?"

"Yes. The Imperial Army has begun to retreat."

"Then let's start preparing." Under his instructions, the prototype starship "Aurora 1" was ready for launch.

(End of this chapter)