Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 55 Street Fighting Mage
"All highland mages, follow me!"

His cold voice echoed throughout the camp.

The other two highland mages and two mage apprentices dared not be negligent in the slightest and immediately followed behind him.

Looking at the two young mage apprentices, Eldridge was reminded of the apprentice who had been killed by an enemy trap in the small building.

These three apprentices were all promising talents personally selected by him, and he has always personally guided them.

He believed that with their talent, they would one day achieve the same level of success as him, further strengthening his ranks within the mage order.
Eldridge's purpose in sending his apprentices to Aragorn to assist in the war was to give them some training and add experience of fighting for the Empire overseas to their resumes.

This is very helpful for the advancement of apprentices in highland mages.

However, they had never even seen the enemy's face before one of their apprentices was killed in an explosion.

This is a huge loss for Eldridge, who has put so much effort into them.

Thinking of this, he turned his head slightly to look at his two apprentices and said a reminder:

"Stay alert and be careful. Don't be as careless as Brad. In an emergency, you can withdraw from the battle immediately, understand?"

"Yes, mentor." ×2
As the five highland mages prepared to depart, the newly replenished battalion of the Northumberland Flintlock Regiment also joined the fray under Colonel Henry's orders.

The Brittany expeditionary force was prepared to use overwhelming numerical superiority to completely crush the resistance within the city of Seville.

On the other side, just as Morin was preparing to use 'micromanagement' to wipe out a Britannian platoon based on the distribution of both sides' units on the system map, a warning popped up on the system map for the first time ever.

[WARNING! High-threat units are approaching! Quantity: 5!]

He immediately zoomed out of the map and saw that among the red enemy unit cards, five special unit cards representing spell units were suddenly appearing and approaching.

One of the icons was also marked with a purple 'high risk' label.

"Damn, it's the highland mages! Have they arrived at the front lines?"

Morin's worst fears came true.

The Britannians were clearly driven to desperation by this series of losses, and they immediately sent their spellcasters up.

Before he could react, he saw the five icons arrive in Seville's city center at an unimaginable speed.

Among them, the high-risk marker icon representing Eldridge, the high-ranking mentor, rushed into the interior of Seville at an absurd speed, almost in a straight line.

Morin immediately guessed that he must have used the same flying spell he had seen outside the city before.

"What does he want to do?"

Morin stared intently at the map, trying to guess the other party's next move.

The next second, he saw Eldridge's icon stop near the tallest church in the city center.

Then, the badges of a squad at the church turned gray.

Immediately afterwards, a violent explosion and ground tremors came from afar.

"Boom——!"

A soldier on lookout duty quickly approached Morin, his face filled with terror.

"Platoon leader! Something terrible has happened! The church bell tower... the bell tower has been bombed! A huge fireball fell from the sky and flattened it!"

really!

That clock tower was the most important high point and observation post in the city, overlooking most of the city and providing valuable battlefield information for the defending troops.

But it has now been removed.

This high-level mage wants to knock out the guards' eyes and ears first!

"His next move is likely to be decapitation!"

Maureen immediately realized the other party's intention.

Once the high ground is lost, the garrison command's perception of the situation inside the city will be greatly reduced.

A high-level mage who can fly can easily bypass layers of defenses and launch a devastating attack on the brigade headquarters.

"Get to the brigade headquarters immediately! Find a way to inform them that the enemy has a high-level mage attempting a decapitation strike! Tell them to evacuate immediately!"

Morin shouted to the messenger beside him.

"Yes!"

The messenger dared not delay and rushed out immediately.

On the map, the other two highland mages and the two mage apprentices were scattered and landed on different attack routes.

They were clearly preparing to use their magic to support the advance of the ground troops.

Although this is not in line with the usual practices of the Highland Mage Order, it has happened nonetheless.
The battle within Seville instantly intensified to an unprecedented level.

On a street guarded by the International Brigades, a highland mage descended from the sky and landed among the soldiers of the Northumberland Fusiliers.

He didn't even look for cover, just stood arrogantly in the middle of the street.

"Open fire! Kill the one in the robe!"

The International Brigades soldiers hiding in the buildings on both sides now knew that the Britannian highland mage was not invincible, so they boldly focused their fire on him immediately.

However, all the bullets were stopped by a semi-transparent blue shield half a meter away from his body, creating ripples. "Damn it! That shield again!"

Andrei, who saw this scene through his binoculars from a distance, was so angry that he slammed his fist on the window frame.

The mage ignored the incoming bullets; he simply raised his hand and chanted a few syllables towards the building with the most concentrated firepower.

The next second, a fireball the size of a human head formed in front of his palm and then flew out with a whoosh.

"boom!"

The windows of the three-story building were blown open instantly, and the violent explosion and flames engulfed the entire room.

A squad of International Brigades soldiers inside were engulfed by the expanding flames before they could even scream.

The same scene was playing out on another street guarded by Saxon soldiers.

The two mage apprentices became the core of the entire attacking force.

The defenders kept firing from inside the building, even throwing grenades and Molotov cocktails, trying to focus their fire on the two spellcasters.

Despite the continuous fall of friendly infantrymen around them, the two mage apprentices remained unharmed.

Whether it was rifle bullets, shrapnel from grenade explosions, or the flames from Molotov cocktails, everything was blocked by that seemingly fragile blue shield.

Obviously, in urban warfare, it is difficult to achieve the firepower density of hundreds of rifles firing at the same time, so this mage armor is not as easy to break as before.

The highland mage apprentice cast [Life Perception] on the building whose windows were constantly emitting flames, and then, in a calm tone, reported the location of the garrison to the Brittany officer beside him.

"The building on the left, six on the second floor, five on the third floor."

This most basic spell, developed in ancient times for exploration, has become a deadly cheat code in urban warfare.

"Riflemen, suppressive fire! Heavy armored team, prepare for assault!"

Having received accurate intelligence, the Brittany officer immediately issued orders.

The soldiers of the Northumberland Fusiliers began to unleash a barrage of fire on the windows of the building.

The marksmanship of these elite soldiers far surpassed that of the previous Kingdom soldiers.

Although they all used bolt-action rifles, their rate of fire was extremely high, and the dense barrage of bullets suppressed the defenders hiding behind the windows, leaving them no chance to retaliate for a time.

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"

"I want to go back."

A barrage of bullets pierced through the windows, sending dust flying from the walls inside the room, the sound of bullets clattering filling the entire space.

The suppressed Saxon soldiers had never experienced such a terrifying scene before. Several of them were so terrified that they lay prostrate on the ground, trying to crawl towards the door.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, several heavily armored soldiers wearing full plate armor charged forward despite sporadic bullets.

With their two-handed greatswords, they easily smashed open the sealed doors and windows, and then, together with the infantry behind them, stormed into the building.

Soon, intense gunfire and screams erupted from inside the building.

Meanwhile, another group of heavily armored soldiers braved a hail of bullets coming from other directions and began using their tools to forcibly dismantle the barbed wire and roadblocks on the streets.

Seeing this, a 77mm field gun hidden in the ruins at the street corner was brought out by the artillery team deployed there.

Relying on the gun shield to continuously block the incoming bullets, the gun crew members nervously loaded the high-explosive shells, and then immediately fired with direct aim. The explosion instantly covered the area.

Several heavily armored soldiers who were working were instantly knocked to the ground and killed.

However, their deaths did not instill fear in others.

More heavily armored soldiers with cold eyes moved up from behind and continued their work.

They were like a group of emotionless war machines, using their own flesh and blood to clear the way for the troops that followed.

For the Britannian soldiers who had once crushed other imperial armies with the 'thin red line', they were clearly far superior to the previous kingdom's army in terms of both technical and tactical skills and fighting spirit.

This suddenly increased the pressure on the defending forces.

Morin saw on the map that several friendly positions around the 3rd rank were being forced to retreat.

The defenses are being torn apart little by little.

"Platoon leader! The international brigade on the left flank is about to collapse! They're requesting reinforcements!"

"The second row on the right also sent a message: a highland mage has appeared in front of them, and they have suffered heavy casualties!"

The messenger kept bringing bad news, and Morin's expression grew increasingly grave.

He glanced at the map; the red arrows representing the enemy were flanking the 3rd rank's defensive zone from both sides.

If we don't find a solution soon, the position of the 3rd rank will soon become a salient, and we'll be surrounded and cut off.

"Can't wait any longer!"

Morin made a decisive decision.

He grabbed his rifle and shouted to the two remaining platoons of reserve soldiers beside him, "Follow me! We're going to put out the fire!"

After saying that, he led the less than twenty soldiers out of their temporary hideout, weaving through the buildings, and headed toward the left flank position where the pressure was greatest.

(End of this chapter)