Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 223 Demonized Weapon, Kid!
As soon as the enemy retreated, Morin did not hesitate and immediately ordered a pursuit.

This time, however, he learned his lesson.

Before issuing the order, he glanced at the system map again to confirm that a large number of friendly troops had poured in through the breach and were approaching his direction.
Very good, this time we won't be fighting alone in a deep-sea battle.

"Ludwig, keep bombarding them! Don't let them escape!"

Morin moved closer to Ludwig's armored knight, patting the knight's leg armor and shouting.

Since there is no mature wireless communication method, the two can only communicate using this primitive method at this moment.

Morin was also curious about how Ludwig, inside the armored knight, could hear his own voice amidst the noisy battlefield environment outside.
"give it to me!"

Ludwig and another armored knight raised their assault guns again.

"Boom! Boom!"

Two more high-explosive shells landed precisely in the retreating Brittany.

The blast wave sent several soldiers flying like rag dolls, slamming them against the wall with a thud before they slid down softly.

Panic spread like a plague among the Britannian soldiers. They completely lost their will to fight and wished they had two more legs. They scrambled and crawled away towards the back of the street.

"Infantry, follow! Maintain formation! Advance under alternating cover!" Morin shouted the order.

Two companies of Saxon soldiers, under the cover of armored knights and squires, began their pursuit with a steady yet imposing manner.

The whole scene resembled an unequal hunt.

The Brittany was routed, while Morin's troops, like a well-coordinated group of hunters, followed at a leisurely pace, reaping lives with precise firepower.

The pursuit quickly led them to the banks of the Somme River.

A wide river appeared before them, while on the opposite bank in the southern city, the fire caused by the crash of the L24 armored airship was still raging.

Thick black smoke obscured half the sky, shrouding the entire southern city of Amiens in an apocalyptic scene.

The air was filled with a pungent smell of burning and blood.

Morin's gaze swept quickly across the riverbank, finally settling on the massive steel railway bridge.

It lies across the Somme, connecting the north and south banks of Amiens, its cold structure occasionally revealed amidst the smoke of battle.

"First and second platoons!" Morin pointed to the riverbank. "Get to the riverbank immediately! Search along the bridge piers! See if there are any explosives! Stay hidden, and watch out for snipers and mages on the other side of the river!"

"Yes!" the second platoon leader responded, and immediately led his soldiers, crouching low, to rush toward the embankment on the riverbank.

According to Morin's understanding, no country currently possesses such advanced technology as radio fuses.

Therefore, in most cases, detonating explosives still relies on the most primitive fuse.

But Morin dared not be careless, after all, they were facing the people of the Brittany Empire.

Who knows if those highland mages in Brittany might pull off some weird trick of using magic to detonate something remotely.
Having arranged everything, Morin, under the cover of Ludwig and another armored knight, led a company of soldiers and charged directly towards the head of the railway bridge.

The Britannians clearly knew the importance of the bridge, and they hastily built a 'bridgehead' at the bridgehead using sandbags, abandoned wagons, and various other debris.

Three heavy machine guns, their dark muzzles protruding from behind the sandbags, were pointed at the bridgehead and the streets on both sides.

"Cover!" Morin shouted in a low voice.

The infantry behind him immediately dispersed, using the buildings and ruins near the bridgehead as cover, and engaged in a firefight with the defenders in the bridgehead bunker.

"Ludwig, it's your turn to perform!"

"Look at me!"

Ludwig, controlling his massive war machine, charged forward with great strides.

The Britannian soldiers in the bridgehead were terrified when they saw the steel giant charging towards them.

They frantically pulled the trigger, but the bullets hitting the armored knights did nothing but send up a shower of sparks.

Ludwig didn't even bother to use his shield to block.

He rushed to the sandbag bunker, raised his massive mechanical leg, and kicked it hard.

"boom!"

With a loud bang, the bunker made of sandbags and debris collapsed as if it were made of paper.

The Breton soldiers inside were knocked off their feet by the flying sandbags and planks. Before they could react, the Saxon soldiers following behind them had already rushed up with submachine guns.

"Da da da da."

After a burst of gunfire, the resistance in the bridgehead was completely quelled.

"Control the bridgehead! Establish a defensive line! Wait for the other two groups to arrive and join us!" Morin rushed forward and quickly issued the orders.

The soldiers immediately sprang into action, dragging away the enemy corpses and using the collapsed bunkers to rebuild a defensive position facing the south bank.

Morin walked over to Ludwig and Klaus, who had just arrived:

"Ludwig, Klaus, listen up! When you see my signal, immediately lead your men across the bridge. Don't hesitate!"

Both of them were stunned.

"Commander, what's your signal?" Klaus asked, puzzled. "What signal? You...you're not coming with us?"

"I'll go first," Morin said casually.

"What?!" Ludwig and Klaus exclaimed simultaneously.

"You're going alone?!" Ludwig's voice distorted through the loudspeaker. "Morin, are you crazy?! Don't you even know what's going on on the south bank?! There are definitely enemies on the bridge! Aren't you just sending yourself to your death?"

"That's right, Battalion Commander!" Klaus exclaimed anxiously. "This is too dangerous! It would be safer if we charged in together!"

"No, going all at once would be too big a target."

Morin shook his head and analyzed:
“There are definitely Britannian soldiers defending the bridge. If our main force goes up the bridge together, they will definitely blow it up at all costs! But if they don’t see anyone crossing, they certainly won’t blow it up so quickly. Don’t forget that there are still quite a few troops they haven’t had time to evacuate from the north side of the city!”

"But."

"It's nothing!"

Maureen interrupted them:
"I'll use invisibility to get past them! As long as I can reach the other side and take out the person responsible for detonating it, this bridge will be ours!"

Ludwig and Klaus both fell silent.

They knew that Morin was a spellcaster and had witnessed his incredible abilities.

But the idea of ​​someone crossing a heavily guarded bridge to resolve a bomb threat right under the noses of the enemy mages and soldiers sounds like a fantasy.

"The success rate is too low," Klaus still felt it was unreliable.

"Don't worry, I'm confident." A confident smile appeared on Morin's face.

He didn't give the two men another chance to dissuade him, and then turned around and took an MG14 light machine gun that had just been reloaded with a drum magazine from a machine gunner in the company next to him.

Although this thing is considerably heavier than a submachine gun, the sustained firepower provided by its large ammunition belt will be extremely useful in the upcoming operation. "Wait for my signal!"

Morin said one last thing, then picked up the light machine gun that seemed disproportionate to his size and ran towards the railway bridge without looking back.

"battalion commander!"

"Morin!"

Klaus and Ludwig could only watch helplessly as his figure disappeared into the smoke at the bridgehead.

Just as Morin's figure was about to be fully exposed to the enemy's view on the bridge, he activated [Invisibility] with his already practiced gestures and incantations.

A faint magical aura flashed across his body, and the next second, his entire body, along with the MG14 light machine gun, vanished into thin air as if it had merged into the air.

After losing sight of Morin, Ludwig and Klaus could only pray silently, hoping that Morin would indeed reach the other side safely, just as he had said.

At this moment, Morin was speeding across the railway bridge at an astonishing pace.

He felt his body was full of power, and carrying the MG14 light machine gun, which weighed more than ten kilograms, was as easy as holding a fire poker.

He ran with incredible speed, so fast that even he himself was somewhat surprised.

"Is it the enhancement from the spell, or has my physical ability improved?" Morin wondered to himself as he ran.

Since transmigrating, especially after becoming a spellcaster, he could clearly feel his strength, speed, and reaction ability steadily improving in an unscientific way.

This feeling is like a character in a game constantly leveling up and allocating skill points.
Although the reason is unknown, this improvement has not brought any harm so far.

The massive destruction caused by the L24 armored airship on the south bank now provided Morin with the best cover.

Thick smoke was blown by the wind to the north bank, enveloping the entire Somme River and the railway bridge, making visibility extremely poor.

The Brittany soldiers on the bridge were clearly bewildered by this sudden turn of events.

They hid in twos and threes behind makeshift shelters made of sandbags and sleepers, nervously watching the movements on the north bank. No one could have imagined that an invisible grim reaper was speeding past them.

Morin carefully avoided the several bunkers on the bridge; he could even clearly see the tense expressions on the faces of the Britannian soldiers hiding behind them.

After passing through the long bridge, the bridgehead on the south bank of the Somme finally came into view.

Instead of rushing over, Morin slammed on the brakes and dodged behind a pile of debris behind the last piece of cover at the bridgehead.

He poked half his head out and, before the [Invisibility] spell wore off, began to carefully observe the situation on the south bank.

The bridgehead on the south bank was much more chaotic than that on the north bank.

Messengers and officers were running back and forth everywhere, and large numbers of Brittany soldiers were being organized and continuously reinforced the bridge, trying to push the Saxons back.

Among these chaotic soldiers, two distinctive figures immediately caught Morin's full attention.

The two men were dressed in dark mage robes that were completely different from the other soldiers, and it was easy to tell at a glance that they were mages from the Highland Mage Order.

They were standing on an open area not far from the bridgehead, and the surrounding soldiers were intentionally or unintentionally avoiding them, creating a small vacuum.

One of the older mages was holding a fist-sized, glowing crystal that pulsated slowly like a heart.

The crystal flickered, emitting an eerie red light, like a breathing lamp.

Another, seemingly younger, mage stood beside him, nervously speaking to him from time to time while gesturing with his fingers.

A prompt also appears in the "Intelligence" tab.

[Type 2 Magic Crystal Detonation Device: Can detonate magic crystal bombs at long distances through magical resonance]

"Damn, it really was a mage who detonated it!"

He didn't see any fuses on the bridge piers when he was on the north bank, so the only possibility is that it was detonated by magic.

If that mage were to crush or activate that crystal, the entire railway bridge would probably be blown to smithereens in an instant.

We must not let them succeed!
Morin took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

If we rush out and open fire now, we can definitely catch them off guard.

But the other party is a mage after all, and who knows if they have any life-saving spells or magical items on them.

If we fail to kill them instantly and they manage to react and activate the crystal, then it's all over.

We must ensure that nothing goes wrong.

Morin quietly shrank back behind the pile of junk and began to buff himself.

He first focused his mind and condensed a protective force field made of pure magic on the surface of his body.

[Mage Armor]

Immediately afterwards, he summoned an invisible magical shield in front of him that could deflect attacks.

Enhanced Spell Effect - [Shield]

Even after adding these two layers of insurance, Maureen still felt it wasn't enough.

He glanced at the MG14 light machine gun in his hand, and a new 'idea' popped into his head.

Since his spellcaster level increased to 4, he has unlocked a new spell.

This spell hadn't had a chance to be used in previous battles, but now seems like the perfect time for it to make its appearance.

Morin extended his left hand and placed it on the cold receiver of the MG14, silently chanting an incantation.

Second-Circle Spell - Enchanted Weapon

A surge of pure magical energy flowed down his arm and into the cold weapon.

On the MG14, streaks of pale blue magical light flashed by, as if infusing the machine gun with a soul.

A visible blue halo condensed at the muzzle of the gun.

Morin could sense that this machine gun was no longer an ordinary object.

Each bullet it fires will be imbued with magical damage that has greater penetrating power and destructive force.

"Come on, let me show you the power of a magical girl... no, a magical machine gun!"

After preparing himself, Morin suddenly stood up from behind the pile of debris, steadily holding the MG14 light machine gun that glowed with a blue light in his hand, its dark muzzle aimed at the two mages who had already noticed the unknown magical fluctuations behind them.

As spellcasters, they are exceptionally sensitive to the flow of magic.

"who?!"

The younger highland mage apprentice was the first to react. He turned around in horror and saw a sight he would never forget.

A Saxon soldier, carrying a strangely shaped machine gun, was standing not far away, pointing it at them.

The next moment, the machine gun spewed out a terrifying blue flame!
(End of this chapter)