Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 92 How can your Misty Steps also produce smoke?
As the sky turned from pitch black to a hazy gray-white, and a faint light shone through the distant horizon, barely enough to make out the outlines of objects.

A sentry on the outskirts of the town of San Lorenzo de la Parrilla yawned and rubbed his eyes.

He always felt something was wrong.

Last night when I was on guard duty, the gentle slope in front of me was still flat, with only some sparse shrubs.

But now, something seems to have appeared on that gentle slope, as if it had been turned over by goblins, leaving it pitted and uneven, with several long, dark mounds of earth.

“Hey, Pedro, come here and take a look.” He nudged his companion.

"What are you looking at?"

"Look ahead, isn't it different from what I saw yesterday?"

The sentry, known as Pedro, poked his head out, squinted, and stared for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out.

"The light is too dim, you can't see clearly, you might be seeing things."

"Impossible!" The first sentry shook his head. "I'm sure things are different there!"

Unable to reach an agreement, the two eventually decided to call their platoon leader, a second lieutenant in the Kingdom Army.

The lieutenant was woken from his sleep and walked impatiently to the front line.

"What's all the fuss about?"

"Sir, look over there!" the sentry pointed into the distance.

The lieutenant looked in the direction he pointed, but at first he couldn't figure it out.

He cursed and slapped the sentry who had disturbed his sleep twice, but after the sentry insisted that something was wrong, he went back to get his binoculars.

When he pointed the binoculars at the gentle slope again, it was getting a little brighter, and the sight that appeared in the lens instantly banished his sleepiness.

Through the magnification of optical instruments, he could clearly see that there were several bags connected in a line on the gentle slope.

Those are sandbags!

He looked behind the sandbags again and could barely make out a few winding trenches!
"My God!" The lieutenant's face turned deathly pale. "Enemy trenches! They... they've dug them right up to our faces! Everyone, get to position! Prepare for battle!"

He immediately ran to the rear of the position and found a messenger.

"Quickly! Go and inform the battalion commander!"

After saying that, he took a military horse from another messenger and galloped along the outer defense line of the town.

He needed to see for himself whether this was an infiltration from a specific direction or a full-scale approach.

The result left him feeling utterly disheartened.

In addition to the rear, Saxon trenches appeared on three sides of the town!

Two of the trenches were about 200 meters away from their positions.

In the direction directly opposite his own defensive zone, the enemy's trenches had been dug to within two hundred meters!
Soon, the battalion commander of the Kingdom Army infantry battalion stationed in the town was also urgently awakened.

When the battalion commander, a major, rushed onto the battlefield in disheveled clothes and saw the traces of earthwork so close at hand, his mind went blank.

As a veteran, he knew very well what this meant.

This means that the enemy possesses extremely high levels of organization and discipline, enabling them to complete such a massive project overnight right under their noses.

This is definitely the elite force of the Saxons!
"Fire! Open fire!"

The major snapped out of his daze and roared at the surrounding soldiers:
"Where's the heavy machine gun?! Open fire with the heavy machine gun!"

However, after he gave the order, although sporadic gunfire rang out on the position, it quickly stopped.

Because neither the riflemen nor the machine gunners could find any targets to shoot at.

The soldiers of Morin's 1st Company dug the trenches very deep, deep enough for a person to stand in.

So when they were hiding in the trenches, in the dim light of dawn, apart from the piled-up sandbags, there was not a single person in sight.

The town's defenders' futile firing served no purpose other than revealing their positions and wasting ammunition.

"Damn it!" The major kicked over an ammunition box in anger.

He knew he couldn't wait any longer.

"Go, bring Major Garcia from the Magic Crystal Cannon Battalion here! Quickly!"

Not long after, an officer with the same rank of major, but wearing a different uniform, came running up, panting.

He is Garcia, the commander of the magic crystal cannon battalion that is responsible for the defense of this place.

"Alvaro, what happened?" Garcia asked, puzzled, looking at the tense atmosphere on the field.

Without a word, Major Alvaro, the infantry battalion commander, shoved the binoculars into his hands.

"look by youself!"

Garcia took the binoculars with a puzzled look, and when he saw what was happening in the distance, his expression froze instantly.

"How is this possible?"

"Don't ask me how that's possible!" Alvaro grabbed his arm anxiously. "Where's your cannon? Can't you just blow those damn trenches flat?"

Major Garcia looked troubled upon hearing this.

“Alvaro, as you know, our magic crystal cannons are not guided by mages, and it takes a long time to calculate coordinates and calibrate for accurate shooting.”

"This is no ordinary mortar; we can't just fire the shells like pepper!"

Upon hearing Garcia's words, Alvaro felt a headache coming on.

Actually, this town was previously guarded by a mage apprentice trained by the Kingdom's own army, who was specifically used to guide the magic crystal cannons.

But for some unknown reason, the Britannians suddenly began to exert intense pressure on the Kingdom's high command, ordering them to withdraw all mages—both highland mages and those accompanying the Kingdom's army—back to Madrid.

Just as the two battalion commanders were arguing, it quietly arrived at seven o'clock in the morning.

After glancing at the time at the same time, an ominous premonition arose in both of their hearts almost simultaneously.

A sharp, whistling sound, as if tearing through the air, suddenly came from the distant horizon.

Everyone instinctively looked up.

"boom!"

A shell, seemingly from nowhere, exploded with a deafening roar about 60 or 70 meters in front of the town's outer perimeter, sending up a muddy wave mixed with black smoke.

The sudden explosion startled all the Kingdom soldiers on the position.

Immediately following was a second whooshing sound.

"boom!"

This time, the shells landed even closer, less than thirty meters in front of their position.

Before they could react, a third shell arrived, this time flying over their heads and landing behind the position.

In the makeshift trenches, the soldiers of the Kingdom Army no longer cared about any battle preparations; they all covered their heads and huddled together, none daring to show their faces.

Major Garcia, an artilleryman, turned deathly pale upon hearing the three explosions, some near and some far.

He suddenly realized that the enemy's field shooting had ended. "They've got us sandwiched! Take cover! A volley is coming!"

He let out a desperate roar, grabbed Major Alvaro beside him, and tried to drag him into the nearby bunker.

However, before he could finish speaking, a continuous rumbling sound came from afar.

Immediately afterwards, countless shells, accompanied by the shriek of death, rained down from the sky.

The barrage from twelve 77mm field guns rained down like a storm on the position southwest of the town of San Lorenzo de la Parrilla.

The explosions were continuous and deafening.

The earth trembled violently, and black plumes of smoke shot into the sky, casting a shadow over the newly lit sky.

The shells of the 77mm field gun were indeed no match for the large-caliber howitzers of later generations, and were completely insufficient to turn the entire position into a sea of ​​fire.

However, for the Kingdom's hastily dug, rudimentary trenches with virtually no anti-artillery fortifications, this level of bombardment was sufficient to suppress them.

Every now and then, one or two shells would fall into the trench, and each explosion would send large amounts of soil and mutilated human tissue flying into the sky.

Meanwhile, in the parallel trenches that the 1st Company had constructed to launch the assault, Morin looked at the enemy's position through binoculars placed on sandbags.

He even vaguely saw a royal soldier being blown away by the blast wave, arcing through the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

"If only we had 150mm heavy artillery! With this rudimentary position, we'll be done for after the bombing is over."

Morin sighed inwardly, then lowered the periscope.

The artillery preparation time was only fifteen minutes, and more than half of it has already passed.

He turned to look at the nineteen assault team members behind him who were already ready.

These were all elite soldiers he had carefully selected from the entire company during recent training.

Whether it's shooting skills, grenade throwing ability, or tactical maneuvers, they are the best in the company.

This included himself and nine others, who were equipped with artillery-type P08 pistols with 32-round drum magazines, which they had obtained from the munitions department.

The other ten men continued to use Gew.98 rifles.

Each person had four spherical grenade storage clips hanging from their waist.

"Assault team, check your equipment!" Morin whispered.

With soft clicks and clatters, the soldiers performed a final check of their weapons and ammunition.

After everyone had finished their checks and looked at him, Morin glanced at his pocket watch again. There were less than two minutes left before the artillery preparation was over—if this field artillery battalion was punctual.

"Commando, follow me!"

At Morin's command, he was the first to roll sideways out of the trench, and then, like a cheetah, he crouched low and charged forward.

Nineteen assault team members followed closely behind. After leaving the trench, they quickly dispersed and, using the uneven terrain, sprinted forward with all their might.

Meanwhile, the two MG08 heavy machine guns at both ends of the parallel trench where the assault began also started firing long bursts at the defending troops' positions.

"Da da da da."

The scorching bullets, like two whips, lashed across the Kingdom Army's positions, suppressing any attempts to raise their firing positions.

Especially the enemy's two heavy machine guns.

The 180-meter attack distance, under the cover of artillery fire and the suppression of heavy machine guns, was not as far as Morin had imagined.

He led his assault team and quickly rushed into a shell crater only twenty meters away from the enemy's position, and quickly dug a temporary foxhole with an entrenching tool.

Under the threat of death, the commandos dug the trenches faster than anyone else, without needing any prompting from others.

Not long after the foxholes were dug, the distant artillery fire abruptly stopped.

The final round of shooting has ended.

A brief silence fell over the battlefield, with only the smoke of gunpowder still lingering over the defending troops' positions.

Morin cautiously poked half his head out, focusing all his attention on the trench in front of him.

Then he directly activated the new spell in the spell slot that he had only fully mastered two days ago.

[Second Ring Spell - Shadow Step]

The next moment, a thick cloud of white mist exploded out of thin air around him, completely engulfing his figure.

The commandos lying next to him only felt a blur before their eyes.

The white mist enveloping the company commander instantly traversed a distance of twenty meters in the blink of an eye, appearing directly in the enemy trench in the distance.

A long, wall-like plume of smoke stretched between the assault team and the enemy trenches, following his movement.

"."

All the commandos who witnessed this scene were stunned, their minds blank.

They were utterly astonished by the sight of this magic, their mouths agape, hardly believing their eyes.

Damn it?

The company commander just passed away like that?

After a brief period of shock, their tactical instincts were activated after this period of tactical training.

Without needing any further orders, the nearest corporal suddenly realized what was happening.

"Charge! Charge after the smoke wall!"

He roared and was the first to leap out of the foxhole, charging towards the enemy trench along the still-lingering smoke wall.

He then casually tossed two grenades into the trench.

The others also seemed to wake up from their daze, and they all got up and followed in his footsteps, rushing towards the death line that was so close at hand.

On the other side, Morin felt a sudden dizziness, and the intense spatial distortion made his stomach churn.

He hadn't expected that the spell's description of 'moving 20 meters quickly' would be something like being thrown over by an invisible hand in an instant.
When he regained his footing and control of his body, he found himself standing firmly in the defenders' makeshift trench.

The trench was a scene of devastation, and a few surviving Kingdom soldiers were struggling to their feet from the shockwaves of the shelling.

When they saw this uninvited guest, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and was radiating a faint magical aura, everyone was stunned.

After a half-second of stunned silence, their survival instincts made them instinctively raise their rifles.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Several gunshots rang out in the narrow trench.

However, the bullet, which was powerful enough to pierce a human body, exploded into bursts of blue sparks the moment it hit Morin's body, and then bounced off without even tearing his uniform.

[1st Ring Spell - Mage Armor]

Seeing the horrified expressions on the faces of the Kingdom soldiers in front of him, Morin did not give them a second chance to fire.

He raised his P08 artillery pistol and, without hesitation, frantically pulled the trigger at the enemy in front of him.

(End of this chapter)