Days later.South of the Fertile Plains, Tower Station No. 10.
Balshan lay p.r.o.ne outside the turret, looking at the silhouette of the ancient city a distance away. She had once read a report in the weekly newspaper about the Northern Expedition. She knew it was once the famous witch city in history, Taquila. In order to conquer it, demons went to great lengths, but were ultimately sent retreating by the First Army.
And now, they were here to defeat new enemies, so as to recapture Taquila.
One minute… Thirty seconds… Ten seconds…
As she counted silently in her head, she covered her ears.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The cannon"s booming sounded behind her. The continuous reverberations transmitted to the vehicles through the ground as she felt her arms turn slightly numb. They were the 152mm Longsong Cannon of the Artillery Squad which were raining metal on the target. Compared to the short-barrel cannon on the tank, they were on two completely different levels.
"Team Leader, haven"t you gotten used to the cannon booms?" The driver, Bay, turned his head and quipped. He sat cross-legged in the front area of the vehicle, and even in a battlefield strewn with corpses and the stench of rotting demonic beasts wafting through it, he continued consuming his meal. "That won"t do. You need to learn how to let your ears filter out the unimportant noises. Only then can you constantly maintain your focus."
"To me, you just have a poor sense of hearing." Balshan cast her sight away emotionlessly. Although the driver and the cannoneer were veteran soldiers with rich experience, according to the rules, the Vehicle Commander was the leader of the team. Besides, in terms of age, it was even possible that she was older than the both of them. "The only thing I need to listen out for is any abnormal sounds from the Sigil of Screaming, not the sound of cannons or your nonsense, get it?"
"Team Leader… What you said is a little harsh." Bay smacked his lips. "I thought a witch would be sweet and adorable, just like Angel Nana…"
"Five years ago, witches were the devil"s minions, the embodiment of evil."
"Uh— No one will like you if you act this way."
"What nonsense. I think Team Leader"s pretty good," Cannoneer Shure interjected. "She"s straightforward and capable. She has never had any military experience, but she"s able to adapt to the battlefield in such a short amount of time. She"s the best choice of being Vehicle Commander."
Both of them looked at Shure.
The latter was stunned. "Why? Did I say something wrong?"
"No." Balshan shrugged. "Although you missed nine out of ten shots during training, you don"t seem completely inept."
The cannoneer revealed a look of pleasure.
"Enough, enough. Let"s not talk about this any further." Bay hurriedly switched topics. "By the way, Team Leader, back at Tower Station No. 9, who was the person waiting outside the camp for you? He seemed to be wearing a First Army uniform as well. Is he your friend?"
"Why are you asking about this?"
Bay said, a little embarra.s.sed, "I saw a medal hanging off his chest and wish to get to know him. Being awarded a medal isn"t an easy task. He must be someone impressive."
"I do know him, but he"s not that impressive. Without me, he would probably have been food for the demonic beasts." Balshan feigned indifference, but her tone slowed down significantly.
"Wow, your standards are way too high…"
Before he finished his sentence, she covered her ears again.
It was another deafening salvo.
Bay, who wasn"t prepared at all, curled his lips from the rumbling boom.
And after these booms, three green flares flew into the sky—a signal for attacking.
"It doesn"t seem like your focus is that focused either." Balshan patted the steel plate by the side of the turret. "Convoy 12, set off immediately!"
Bay didn"t provide a rejoinder. Instead, he threw the canister in his hand away and rushed from the driver"s seat to the back of the vehicle. Shure also went into the cramped turret and prepared for battle. Regardless of how it was typically, none of them showed any sense of carelessness at critical moments.
Balshan raised her telescope and saw that under the a.s.sault of the artillery, many demonic beasts were fleeing from the ruins and heading north. And turning to look back, the First Army had split into dozens of tiny teams and were advancing steadily behind the tracks of tanks.
Such a formation clearly wasn"t used to deal with hybrids.
The deeper they were into the plains, the more blade beasts they would encounter. It went from one every two to three days to several in a day. Due to the difficulty in detecting them with the naked eye, they were harder to deal with compared to the typical demonic beast. Without a doubt, the strategy provided by the upper echelons of the military was effective. Sigil of Screaming and Sigil of Resonance would discover the targets beyond the range of short-barreled cannons and then annihilate them. However, the enemy appeared to be nothing as simple as pure wild beasts.
They knew how to conceal themselves and launch a surprise a.s.sault on the troops. Cannon fire was able to frighten away the demonic beasts, but it was unable to frighten away the blade beasts. As such, recapturing the railway"s strongholds took quite a lot of work for everyone. After paying a certain price, the First Army rapidly established a battle strategy with armor troops at its core. Originally, the flintlock troops would treat tanks as scouts, but now, they learned how to rely on them to clear out the enemy.
And the Taquila Ruins in front of them was, to date, the most complicated battlefield that wasn"t in the wild.
Half an hour later, as one of the vanguards, Convoy 12 drove into Taquila. To Balshan"s side were Convoys 9 and 17. According to the plan, they were responsible for clearing the main street that led to the western square and reacquire the two fortresses that were established there.
After studying her surroundings, Balshan could not help but feel her scalp tingle. Many stone buildings made the situation in the city extremely complex. Even the Sigil of Screaming"s detection range was greatly reduced. She now had to rely on listening to various magic power sources, but was ultimately unable to determine the target"s exact location.
"How did you guys take down this place previously?"
"Simple. As long as you get rid of the Red Mist towers and those skeletons, the demons would naturally retreat," Shure replied. "Have you found the enemy?"
"Not yet. But I am certain that there are many monsters hiding in this city." After saying that, Balshan gestured to the soldiers behind her, requesting that they stayed closer to the tank. This also resulted in them opening a gap with the other two convoys.
Shortly after, a gray cement fortress appeared at the end of the street. Although the First Army was forced to abandon it, the solid construction was not damaged by the enemy.
At this moment, the sound of the Sigil of Screaming intensified clearly.
Balshan frowned. That wasn"t the sound a blade beast should have.
She looked towards the Vehicle Commander of Convoy 9, Amy. The latter shook her head, indicating that she was confounded as well.
And when they drove past the fortress, the sigil"s hums were so loud that even Bay could hear it.
For precautionary reasons, she made the two vehicle convoys stop temporarily. She planned on heading to the square alone and bring along the Sigil of Resonance which had been activated. Even if the target wasn"t a blade beast, she wanted to see where the source of magic power pointed.
Soon, a glow appeared out of thin air, pointing to the middle of the nearby square—but there was nothing there.
Could it be that she had encountered a new type of invisible enemy?
That"s not right. Balshan quickly discovered that the bricks on the surface of the square seemed to have been pried away. There were signs of black corrosion in the vicinity.
That thing was hiding underground!
The moment she had that thought, the soil underneath the bricks suddenly rose. A monster formed of ribs and flesh and blood crawled out from underground, spewing out a pile of "transparent bodies!" If not for the sticky mucus that remained on those things, Balshan wouldn"t have been able to detect them.
Almost at the same time, the Sigil of Screaming released a loud warning. She suddenly came to the realization that all those things were blade beasts!