Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 287 The Twin Walls Shatter, the Army Collapses, and the Magic Legion Surrenders

The Marquis of Monroe is dead.

"The Twin Crystal Walls," a name that once shone brightly on the Crystal Plain, symbolizing courage, wisdom, and glory, has since become nothing more than a handful of historical dust.

It's not that Han Hai was unwilling to hold back; the blame lies with the fact that the previous Grand Knight Mio's performance was too dazzling. He braved fierce firepower capable of tearing through steel and charged to within a few hundred meters of the tank formation. After being stopped in place, he even managed to withstand a missile with his psionic energy.

Therefore, when an opportunity to directly eliminate the enemy's supreme commander is presented, the frontline commander has no reason not to unleash the full force of their firepower.

This shows full respect for high-level professionals.

And so, in that desolate land entangled in thorns, the torrential rain of steel and fire arrived as scheduled, tilling the land repeatedly.

Along with the Marquis of Monroe, most of his personal guard also disappeared.

These are the future knights of the kingdom, the foundation of the territory's officers. From among them, many Mios and many Eris may emerge, becoming new city lords, dukes, viscounts, and earls, supporting the territory's glory for the next ten or twenty years.

But the pendulum of fate stopped at this moment.

Marquis Monroe valued the Vast Sea Territory highly, so he brought a large number of elite troops. This defeat was tantamount to wiping out most of the professional warriors in the territory in one battle.

According to one of the surviving guards, the Marquis seemed to have uttered a hoarse and desperate cry for surrender before he died, but this has become a completely unverifiable mystery.

Some people believe it's plausible because everyone has a gene for fearing death, especially those in high positions of power; others think it's unlikely, arguing that those who survived were just cowardly guards finding an excuse for their cowardly submission.

But it doesn't matter anymore. He's already dead, what else can happen?

Lord Chen Mo then jokingly remarked to the territorial officials who had advised him to temporarily retreat: "I remember you guys were so confident before, saying you would put the Marquis's head on the top floor of the Jingguan Tower so I could get to know it."

"Now, it's time to show me your amazing skull reconstruction skills!"

The crowd looked at each other in silence.

The largest human remains found at the scene were no bigger than a fingertip, and it's unknown whether they belonged to a marquis. What's the point of trying to reconstruct them?

Making a model out of random sand is no different from restoring the original!
However, amidst the deep craters plowed by artillery fire and the scorched sand dunes, there stands an extremely conspicuous exception—a pair of red "Stones of Revelation."

Despite being bombarded by artillery shells and missiles, they remained completely unscathed, without even a crack.

Perhaps because it had been soaked in the blood of layers of guards and marquises, the "Stone of Revelation" had become exceptionally crimson, a red that was somewhat bewitching, somewhat dazzling, and seemingly even somewhat breathtaking.

So much so that when it was confiscated as spoils of war afterward, Chen Mo had a fleeting thought of sending it back to Dongxia so that his family could study its materials, composition, and working principle.

But after thinking about it carefully, I didn't dare.

It's best to be a little cautious about things that involve the gods of this world, so as not to cause any trouble for your family.

However, this did not prevent him from immediately finding a "reasonable" outlet for his venting. He made a deep note of the Misty Moon Divine Court in his mental notebook.

Look how Qingkong Holy City supports Lvsong; isn't that like giving them a cheat code?
What if the Marquis actually believes it? All my elaborate arrangements will have gone to waste.
And look at Rainbow City, how did you provide me with any support? With this attitude, no wonder you can't compete with others.

To hold someone accountable, we must conduct a grand and public inquiry!

Oh, right, I need to tell Farrell to send me a dozen of those "Stones of Revelation" first!
That's right. Lord Chen Mo's understanding is that since I can only do divination once every seven days, I can prepare seven and use them in rotation. Wouldn't that allow me to do divination once a day?

When used in conjunction with the Eastern Xia almanac, it becomes an invaluable reference for action in another world, complementing each other perfectly.

As for the remaining five sets of "Stones of Revelation", they are just enough as spares to deal with the divination needs of unexpected events!

Of course, seeking to exploit the temple is a matter for later. The most important task at present is to seize the golden opportunity presented by the enemy's loss of command and the resulting instability across the board, to launch a resounding pursuit and expand the gains in all aspects.

At this moment, with the chief knight's blood spilled on the battlefield, the marquis's fate unknown, and the last order received by each unit being a full-speed retreat, the main force of the Zircon Territory, which was approaching the Vast Ocean Territory, instantly lost all morale and fell into an irreversible rout.

Formation? Command? They're gone.

The few remaining cavalry units turned their horses around and accelerated their retreat, while the infantry followed staggering behind.

The magic chariot force, which had been sheltered within the central army formation since the start of the battle and had yet to play any role, was now in an unprecedented state of chaos and embarrassment.

Just now, a messenger brought the Marquis's final military order, demanding that the mage legion "destroy the terrain"!
Zer, the leader of the magician legion, was completely bewildered.

Where was it damaged? How was it damaged? To what extent was it damaged?
In the past, the military orders issued by marquises would always have specific attack directions, attack frequency, attack intensity, attack duration, and even attack effect requirements... They would never be so vague!

How can he possibly carry out a military order that doesn't provide any further explanation? Is he supposed to just guess?
You know what, Master Zhe'er actually guessed a bit of it.

Because he had been observing the battlefield through his reconnaissance eye, Zhe'er could vaguely understand some of the Marquis's intentions. The Marquis was clearly aware of the power of the enemy's strange steel tank force and was trying to create terrain obstacles to block the enemy's pursuit route.

However, the mage legion faced an insurmountable problem.

The mage legion was positioned in the middle to rear of the entire army. Judging from the casting range, if the mage legion cast spells in place, the spell's coverage area would most likely include their own infantry and cavalry who were retreating in disarray from the direction of Hanhai City within the isolation range of "terrain destruction"!

It's unclear how many enemies were killed, but there were definitely losses on our own.

However, if the mage legion "selflessly" moves forward and approaches the battlefield to carry out the order of terrain isolation, or bravely waits in place until the fleeing soldiers in front have retreated to a safe distance before using magic, it may mean that their own troops will become the rearguard.

If the Marquis were still alive, the mage legion would dare to do such a thing, because their lord loved to use cavalry to charge into the enemy's ranged and magical forces, but he would never stand idly by and watch his mage legion be charged into the enemy's face, and would definitely arrange enough troops to provide cover.

However, at this moment, the Marquis, along with his personal guards, was caught in the enemy's brutal attack. Amidst the billowing smoke and dust, their fates were unknown!
On the battlefield, all of our troops were retreating and fleeing. The central army, which had been ordered to retreat, was fleeing; the rear army, which had been ordered to provide cover, was fleeing; and the front army, which had been ordered to hold the rear, was also fleeing.

Would Zhe'er dare to gamble that someone would cover for him? No way!
The Marquis has already personally demonstrated the lesson of going against the tide!

We have no choice but to retreat!

With a pale face, Zel gave the order, and the mage legion began to laboriously change direction.

As a typical example of a strategy that emphasizes offense over defense, mages are never considered infantry in the mainstream warfare tactics of the continent. They are usually only composed of two types of units: either paired with magic chariots or with flying mounts.

The mainstream is to pair flying mounts with magic chariots. Flying mounts not only have high requirements for the mounts themselves, but also for the mages. For example, the Storm Mage Corps of the Qiyue Dynasty consists entirely of muscular male mages who can pull up and dive from the back of a griffin to cast spells in mid-air.

The requirements for magic chariots are much lower.

These special vehicles, designed and manufactured specifically for magicians to cast spells, are known as "Arcane Rides" in the north and figuratively called "Mobile Mage Towers" in the south. They are a powerful combination of engineering and enchanting skills.

Its design is quite unique, generally consisting of four-person chariots, though a few countries also use five- or six-person chariots. The entire vehicle is divided into three sections: front, middle, and rear. The front of the chariot is a wide, sloping surface with openings for observation and spellcasting, allowing the mage it carries to safely unleash magic directly forward.

Obviously, the more mages a magic chariot carries, the wider the spellcasting area needs to be, and the more bloated this "mobile mage tower" becomes.

Inside the front armor of the vehicle, there is usually a medium-sized composite magic circle, which provides basic magical protection for the vehicle itself and also provides the mages inside with a suitable amount of magical energy support during battle.

The central section of the chariot is for the horses. That's right, the horses pulling the magic chariot are not located at the front of the vehicle like in a traditional carriage, but are protected in a special compartment in the middle of the chariot. This design minimizes the risk of these main "drives" being damaged on the battlefield, ensuring the continuous mobility of the magic army in large-scale battles.

At the rear of the chariot is the rest area for the mages. The four-man chariot is divided into four relatively independent compartments, each equipped with a warm and comfortable bed, ensuring that the mages can get enough rest and meditation during the march and be ready to enter battle at any time.

The main body of the chariot is made of composite plate armor mixed with silver core and arcane crystal powder. Its physical defense is relatively average, but it has a very good resistance to various magical energy attacks.

The vehicle body is usually streamlined or diamond-shaped, and it is typically equipped with a triple protection system, consisting of a deflection field, elemental resistance, and a protective barrier from the outside in.

The outermost deflection field is a low-power shield that remains active once activated. It is specifically designed to deflect and deflect incoming arrows, catapults, spears, or other projectiles. Combined with the front body armor, it forms an excellent defensive line against enemy physical ranged attacks.

The middle layer of elemental resistance is designed to counter magical attacks and is usually activated manually when a mage or offensive magic circle appears on the enemy battlefield.

The innermost layer is a protective barrier that can only be used once in a war. It consumes a huge amount of energy and has a very short duration, but it can protect against a devastating attack on the "Arcane Mount".

Now, the first thing Zel needs to do to lead his magical army in retreat is to turn these ornate but cumbersome iron turtles around.

Because the mage's chariot is neither front-wheel drive nor rear-wheel drive, its steering mechanism is complex and inefficient. To achieve small-radius turns on the battlefield, the driver can only rely on carefully maneuvering the warhorse, maneuvering and turning little by little.

If you need to turn the chariot 180 degrees, it's easier to just have the horses inside turn around on the spot.

In most cases, this is how the magic chariot crews retreat. After all, turning the warhorses around while keeping the chariots upright has another advantage: the most heavily armored front of the chariot always faces the enemy. This is because, to control cost and weight, the chariot's defenses on the other sides are extremely vulnerable to attack.

The riders hurriedly entered the middle of the chariot, began to untie the harnesses from the shafts and the horses, and then, in the extremely confined space, laboriously pulled the restless warhorses to turn them around, before reattaching the harnesses in the opposite direction.

More than forty magical war chariots slowly and clumsily completed the battlefield turn, a process that took nearly seven minutes.

Once the above procedures were completed, the retreating cavalry had flowed across the mage legion's positions like a torrent, further exacerbating the mages' anxiety.

The arena was filled with chaotic shouts from the chariot magic team leader and the chariot drivers.

"Get out of the way, move along, move along!" A young mage leaned out from the side and shouted hoarsely at the vehicle in front.

"Didn't we just receive a military order to use magic to hinder them? Why are we turning back?"

"Ignore that order!" someone shouted urgently from the side. "The legion commander has ordered a retreat! Everyone retreat!"

"The Marquis is gone! The Marquis will never come back!"

“Run—!!!”

It's already started running!
Zer poked his head out of the spellcasting hole and looked around in panic.

What came into his view was a hellish scene, with clouds of yellow sand mixed with orange-red smoke constantly exploding everywhere. Every time the enemy's terrifying area attack landed, it would instantly wipe out all life in an area, while the Zircon Territory soldiers who were lucky enough to survive around the explosion point would run away like frightened mice.

Beside the slowly rolling chariots of the magic legion, defeated cavalrymen desperately spurred their horses past.

The cavalrymen were truly terrified. These former warriors, now pitiful wretches, had dropped their spears and abandoned their sabers. Some had even thrown away their food and water bags, all in an effort to run faster, faster, and get away from the cold, brutal massacre behind them.

And then there were the infantrymen fleeing in panic, their faces pale, their eyes vacant, following the chaotic retreat of the crowd. Some veterans were even shedding their heavy armor as they ran, their escape speed far exceeding that of the magic chariots.

Some people, as they run, seem to have exhausted all their strength and energy. They stumble and fall to their knees, unwilling to get up again. They bury their faces deep in the sand like ostriches, as if this will make them forget everything.

In the arena, only a very small number of Monroe family hereditary retainers or blood relatives were still trying to carry out the Marquis's final order to "form ranks and block".

These loyal officers, holding their coat of arms, waved them frantically, trying to draw their remaining personal guards to their side and form a flimsy defensive line to fulfill the marquis's final instructions.

Their loyalty and bravery earned them a merciless barrage of fire from the Han Hai army.

The intermittent roar of tank cannons, the intermittent firing of machine guns, the excited shouts of the soldiers of the Hanhai, and the continuous cries of the enemy—these chaotic sounds combined to create a huge and noisy stage sound effect, drifting across the battlefield with the winter wind.

A few minutes later, the first batch of tanks roared to life, their tracks crushing the hard ground littered with corpses and shattered weapons, and entered the shifting sands, catching up with the fleeing enemy flanks.

The large number of infantrymen who had been following the tanks finally had a chance to prove their worth.

Some of them used long wooden spears to whip those ostrich-like guys, and drove them together with other enemy prisoners who had given up in despair, forming a crooked line, and headed towards the prisoner-of-war concentration area. Others began to collect the spoils of war, constantly throwing them into the huge baskets dragged by the sand beetles following behind the tank formation.

Like Dongxia, the rule in Hanhai Territory is that spoils are turned over to the public, which ensures the discipline of the pursuing troops to the greatest extent.

Even the glittering silver coins scattered on the ground by fleeing enemies could not stop the pursuers for even a moment.

These giant sand beetles, besides carrying spoils of war, also carried heavy fuel tanks and ammunition boxes, maintaining a steady speed behind the tank formation, ready to supply fuel and ammunition to tanks that were withdrawing from the pursuit or stopping for resupply.

Inside the fixed compartment on the beetle's back, there were also some young mages dressed in the standard sand-proof suits of the Vast Ocean Territory, with the moon wheel emblem embroidered on their chests. Every now and then, they would replenish the tank with a "stabilizing force field" to minimize the frequency of mechanical failures.

However, the malfunctions continued unavoidably, and after only a few hours of fighting, tanks kept having to withdraw from the pursuit.

In the end, less than two-thirds of the tanks followed, surrounding the mage legion with artillery fire.

Seeing the continuous "explosive attacks" falling on all sides of his vehicle group, but never directly on his head, Zhe'er could easily understand what this meant.

He remained blankly motionless for several minutes, pale-faced, unable to make a decision.

Finally, a shell, whether intentionally or by mistake, landed in the array of magic chariots, instantly activating the "protective barrier" of the two chariots on the left and right, and a blinding light shone in the desert.

Zel finally closed his eyes in agony and used his magic beacon to send out his final command.

"Allow battlefield autonomy! Allow voluntary disengagement!"

This was tantamount to announcing the immediate disbandment of the magic legion, delegating the power of life and death decisions to the mages of each chariot themselves.

Then, as the "flagship" of the entire magic legion, this magnificent "arc chariot" bearing the legion's flag came to a stop.

Zhe'er, along with the magician, the charioteer, and the guards, disembarked, lined up, faced the carriage, and raised their hands, placing them on the open space on the carriage body.

Unable to outrun or win a fight, Zer was the first to surrender.

Magicians are physically weak, so surrendering isn't shameful.

According to the Marquis's past practice, as long as his life could be saved, he would definitely be ransomed.

Oh, by the way, the Marquis might be gone...

The mage pressed his forehead against the cold, hard interior of the magic chariot, the chill penetrating from his forehead straight into his heart.

(End of this chapter)