Boom!!
At that moment, when Halbert turned around, a huge explosion occurred at a distance.
Both Halbert and Nevelli turned stiff, their body turned to the direction of the explosion with hardened expressions.
"That's..." Feeling tongue-tied, Nevelli grasped in a stupor.
A building began collapsing.
"Those fuckers recreated it I guess. Artillery loaded with magic shells." Halbert stared at the destruction of the building near one of the teams stationed around the city.
'They are using all the soldiers in the city as an experiment to check the performance of their artillery....!' Halbert clenched his jaw.
The creation of the magic artillery would without a doubt cause mass destruction in the future.
'If they bring up its performance in the future, the central is screwed. Sigh...in the end, our enemies are humans too. I had some speculation in the past, and now, they have come true.' Halbert took action quickly and activated the walkie-talkie while getting down the building.
"Team R1 and R3, launch a faint assault and lure the enemy to the traps. Team R2 assists through long-range means, aim for the war horses!"
""Understood—!""
The sound of gunshots could already be heard from Halbert's position. And the battle cries to increase their morale was indistinct in the noises.
"There was no launching noise! I have never seen or heard of such an artillery weapon!" Nevelli's mind entered a state of panic and couldn't get a hold of herself.
"Go get the truck ready, Make sure that the container is attached, pant-pant." Halbert breathed roughly reaching the ground floor.
"huff, but w-why? Wouldn't it just slow us down or are you saying...."
"Yeah, I will bring along some of my comrades with us." He didn't plan on leaving behind all of them.
Halbert breathed unstably, feeling the cold air freezing his lungs. With no access to mana, he was just a normal human, unlike the other soldiers.
Most of the soldiers here could utilize mana, giving them the ability to resist the cold.
Taking his attention off Nevelli, Halbert looked at the sky, 'They aren't launching magical shells spontaneously, so they have at least not mass-produced it yet. And it takes a while to load another shell and the accuracy is not that good either or it might be a matter of experience for the one adjusting the aim.'
Halbert gathered all the crucial information in his head in the blink of an eye. His analytic talent made him unstoppable in this aspect.
"Squak! R1 reporting to C0. The enemies are in the planned position, requesting permission to move on to the second phase."
Halbert quickly connected and ordered: "Permission granted, good luck."
Cutting the line, Halbert connected to another line again: "Galven, start after Team R1 signals you."
"Understood."
Click!
This marked the end of Halbert's supervision, he had no intentions to meddle anymore.
As long as all the squadrons followed Halbert's plan, no problem would arise in the short term.
.....
On the battlefield, the newbie soldiers were already on the brink of total annihilation.
The magic spells of the mages were the first to arrive. A clean rally of flames exploded through the sky, landing around the soldiers.
Getting hit by it means being gravely burnt or even dead depending on the location of the initial impact.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Fire! Keep firing! Don't stop! Don't falter! We have to lure them into the formation as much as possible!" The leader of the squadron was keenly aware of his task and did everything to complete it.
Galven watching from a distance, hiding within a long building shook his head.
'Their marksmanship is very bad, hitting those magic spells with their mana-infused bullet can disperse them. But they aren't even trying, sigh, I won't be able to take all of them down with me, I guess.' Given gazed at the mages standing in the distance, preparing to launch another rally of spells.
Bam! The ground trembled out of nowhere.
That very instant, suddenly the ground below the road caved in, taking all the soldiers both enemies and allies down with it.
'That's the signal. Tch-tch, he always comes up with plans that go beyond everyone's expectations. Even against these unbeatable soldiers, he thought of such a countermeasure.' Galven clicked his tongue before taking out the switch from his pocket.
The sewer system, no matter which country, they construct it below the roads so as to not have to ask every landowner permission to build one from below their houses.
The explosives were already placed there before the empire attacked, following Halbert's command.
Halbert's word at that time rung into Galven's ears-
"If we can't kill the enemy, we just gotta bury them, that would be their graveyard." Halbert's smile containing cold confidence never left him.
The things Halbert asked for the central executive were tons of explosives, though they are useless against the empire soldier.
His wish was granted, but all the explosives were old models. Someone had to access it from nearby as the signal range was too limited.
Squak~
"Captain, thank you for always taking care of me in the past years. See you on the other side." Galven whispered Into the communicator before pressing the button.
Tink~ boom!! Boom!!
Multiple explosions occurred around the caved-in road, causing huge buildings to come falling right at it.
.....
'Let's meet on the other side too...I will be there soon.' Halbert heaved a long sigh hearing Galven's usual voice.
With all the commotion in the distance, he knew that the plan succeeded.
'Even if those soldiers survive, they will most likely get injured or die from the lack of oxygen. The mages would be occupied there by now.' Halbert waited patiently beside the truck.
After half an hour, a group of soldiers became visible through the snow.
"What...." Halbert's expression froze looking at the twenty or so of his comrade's return.
The fact that most of them survived made him more and more uncomfortable than happy. The empire had not put up much resistance to the sudden retreat of enemies. They were part of the R2 team.
"Captain! I think something is strange-"
"Ah, They got me. Man, I had not considered artillery before." With a resigned look, Halbert looked into the sky.
His men were used as bait, exposing the location of the leader with ease. The one leading the empire's main forces was not to be looked down upon it seems.
Before anyone could react to Halbert's words, the sky turned blue, burning away the snow covering the sight.
Strangely, the blue shell appeared to be moving at a slow pace in Halbert's eyes.
'Is this prickly feeling what they call mana? I can't move my body in the slightest though...'
Even moving his eyes from the sight before him was impossible. It was truly a strange sight, but one thing was for sure, he would die the moment the blue shell reached him.
'Can this be considered me as having avenged my family?' Halbert smirked in his mind.
The reason he joined the army was because of the death of his parents. Hatred and revenge were what drove him to his current position.
'But...revenge doesn't matter anymore.' Halbert's eyes became even more emotionless, appearing almost like an endless abyss. They were the eyes of the dead.
At some point, Halbert just wanted to keep slaughtering the soldiers of the empire. That became the sole objective of his existence, he wanted to burn away in the flames called war.
It doesn't matter what means were used in the process.
Arson, destruction of private property, and violence, Halbert used all of this to fight in the middle of the battlefield.
The madness took over Halbert's mind unknowingly as he fought the empire every day.
'I just wanted to continue killing more of them, they are what gave meaning to my existence. They are what made me feel alive more than anything. But, this is the end I guess.'
No part of Halbert's body moved, leaving aside one.
Without anyone noticing, Halbert's face was etched with a huge smirk. He was smiling at his death, it let him experience the same hopelessness he once felt when he couldn't protect his family.
'Ah, I really wanted to take one last bite out of those empire bitches.' His dark pupils glowed in golden light before vanishing.
The magical shell landed in between the soldiers, engulfing them all at once. It happened in an instant.
.....
That's him, right?" The superintendent beside the commander of the empire's main force questioned.
"No doubt it was him. The devil of humanity, he has caused almost 100,000 of our soldiers to die this far. But today, we have avenged them! Spread the information!" The commander decided to use this to increase the morale of his soldier.
Surprisingly, he had casualties among the 3,000 soldiers he sent to assault the city.
Receiving the report, the commander could only curse in his mind.
'That vile being...!'
This army was just a fraction of the real main force, which was attacking the central right now. But it was still a loss for so many soldiers to die.
'May his soul never leave the hell...' The commander wholeheartedly prayed.