I only wanted to retire, but I ended up becoming an extremely popular character.

Colonel Xavier stood on the rooftop platform of a stone building on the east side of Watchtower Square.

The view from here is expansive, offering a clear view of the entire Imperial army's attacking echelons, the Holy Defense Line on the west side of the square, and even the faint outlines of the streets further back.

Occasionally, stray bullets would whistle past Xavier, or shells would explode on the street not far away, seemingly from nowhere.

An Imperial lieutenant approached Xavier and gave a detailed report on the current battle situation: "Report, Colonel Xavier! According to the battle plan, under Major Winona's surprise attack on the Holy Kingdom's rear, Major Steele has successfully broken through the left flank of the Holy Kingdom's third line of defense. Currently, the vanguard is engaged in combat with the Holy Kingdom's army."

"But the 'Black Sheep Sacred Beast' Legion responded promptly, and two officers of the rank of major sent by the other side are organizing troops to block the offensive of Major Winona and Major Steele."

Colonel Xavier's expression remained unchanged: "Have you seen Olga, the division commander of the 'Black Sheep Saint'?"

"We haven't seen him on the battlefield yet!" The lieutenant paused slightly to confirm that there was no information related to Olgat in the intelligence.

Colonel Xavier frowned and immediately issued an order: "Listen, pass the order down immediately. First, have the 56th Army reinforce the breakthrough on the left flank. Do whatever it takes to consolidate and widen the gap. We must withstand any possible counterattack from the Holy Kingdom."

"Second, order the 'Imperial Blade' Legion to launch a fierce attack on the Holy Defense Line from the front, and make sure to contain the enemy in front of us. We must not allow them to divert troops to support the left flank."

"Third, send out the 'Grenadier Corps'! Make sure they open a gap on the right flank of the Holy Defense Line."

"After the 'Grenadier Corps' completed its fire suppression, the 39th Corps was ordered to launch an attack on the right flank of the Holy Defense Line."

"We must thoroughly break through and tear apart the right flank of the Holy Kingdom's third line of defense."

Colonel Xavier turned to the lieutenant waiting beside him: "Lieutenant, repeat my orders!"

The lieutenant accurately repeated Xavier's orders.

Go!

Xavier waved his hand, and the lieutenant immediately saluted, turned around, and strode away to relay orders to the various units.

Upon receiving orders, the Imperial 56th Army Corps immediately moved toward the breakthrough point on the left flank where Major Steele was located.

Instead of directly engaging in brutal close combat with the Owl Bear at the center of the breach, they quickly occupied advantageous positions on both sides of the breach, establishing defensive positions facing outwards.

Almost simultaneously, the Holy Kingdom launched its counterattack as expected, attempting to plug the gaps in the defenses.

With their newly built positions and firepower, the soldiers of the 56th Army Corps engaged in fierce fighting with the enemy forces, successfully halting their advance and steadily expanding the area of ​​control on both sides of the breakthrough.

After receiving orders, the main force of the "Imperial Blade" legion launched a new round of fierce attacks on the Holy Defense Line.

With the support of their own artillery fire, the "Imperial Blade" legion pressed forward with a denser formation and a more resolute posture.

The pressure on the front of the Holy Land defense line suddenly increased.

The commander of the Holy Kingdom's garrison was forced to fill the front line with reserve forces, and dared not spare any troops for other matters.

Colonel Xavier's objective of containing the Holy Kingdom's army has been achieved.

At the same time, in order to crush the Holy Kingdom's right-wing defenses.

The "Grenadier Corps" of the "Imperial Blade" legion was deployed to the battlefield.

This is a special unit composed of Sikana warriors.

The Sikana tribe is a tribe that still lives in a primitive state and does not have any advanced technology.

However, the Sikana people are generally tall, with adult males often exceeding three meters in height. Their arm span is far beyond that of ordinary people, and when their arms are naturally hanging down, their fingertips can easily touch the middle of their calves.

A few exceptionally gifted individuals can even have their arms reach down to their ankles.

Therefore, they were also called the "Long-Armed Tribe" by the Empire.

They live in remote, primeval forests where social development is relatively lagging.

After the Empire offered generous rewards and material assistance, many warriors of the Sikana responded to the Empire's call and joined the "Imperial Blade" legion.

Become a "Grenadier" in the "Imperial Blade" legion.

A longer reach means a longer lever arm. At the same angular velocity, that is, the speed of arm rotation, the linear velocity at the end of a longer lever arm will increase proportionally.

This unique physiological structure gives it unparalleled throwing ability.

The Empire's military recognized this advantage.

These Sikhana warriors underwent rigorous and even brutal special training after joining the "Imperial Blade" legion.

Ultimately, they were molded into one of the most formidable assault forces in the corps—the "Grenadiers."

The grenades they threw were not the kind found on Earth, but rather a special type of shell known as a "mother-and-child shell."

Its structure is similar to a miniature version of a cluster munition on Earth.

Several small bombs are tightly packed inside a large main bomb body.

Upon landing or being triggered in mid-air, the main bomb explodes, scattering smaller bombs over a wider area, causing area damage to personnel and lightly protected fortifications within the region.

The group of Sikana warriors stood in neat formation on the rear lines of the Imperial army.

Next to each of them, there were three open, heavy wooden crates piled on the ground, containing specially made cluster shells.

Cluster shells are several times larger than ordinary shells in both length and circumference.

Their mission was simple: to drop these shells as accurately as possible deep into the defense lines of Saint el-Saint-Baptiste, especially into areas with dense personnel, firepower, and fortifications.

For this type of area-effect weapon, the impact point does not need to be too precise.

Once the main bomb explodes within the target area, it will naturally scatter smaller bombs over a wider area, causing widespread damage.

Once they've finished throwing out the three large boxes of cluster munitions beside them, they can call it a day and hide behind the army lines.

Colonel Xavier wouldn't have the heart to use the Sicana as ordinary infantry; that would be too wasteful.

After all, for the "Imperial Blade" legion, every loss of these Sikana people is a loss until the next imperial conscription.

At the commander's order, these tall soldiers bent down in perfect unison and picked up the first heavy cluster munition from the wooden crate.

They took a step back, stretched their incredibly long arms backward, twisted their waists and abdomens, and threw out with great power.

Amazingly, the cluster shells thrown by the Sikana grenadiers were almost as fast as those fired from artillery.

This is thanks to their naturally long arm span and the rigorous training they underwent later in the "Imperial Blade" legion.

The extremely long lever arm, at the same angular velocity, gives the projectile an initial velocity far exceeding that of an ordinary person.

Speed, precision, and area-effect damage make their throws almost an absolute firepower suppression of enemy positions.

Before the whistling sound of each shell piercing the sky had even landed, the next one was already out of reach.

Cluster shells flew through the air in deadly arcs before landing precisely on the Holy Kingdom's fortifications, firing positions, and densely populated areas.

As the shell landed, the main body exploded with a bang, and a large number of sub-bombs that were thrown around detonated a second time over a larger area. Fragments and flashes swept across the Saint Petersburg defense line like a metal storm.

In this devastating barrage, a cluster munition traced a famous arc and landed squarely on a command node along a section of the Holy See defense line.

A captain from the Holy Kingdom was standing here, surrounded by more than a dozen soldiers from the Holy Kingdom.

The shadow of the shell rapidly magnified in everyone's pupils.

In the blink of an eye, there was no time to evacuate.

No matter how fast the ordinary soldiers were, they couldn't outrun the shells falling from the sky.

The ordinary soldiers had almost accepted their impending death.

With that captain's strength, if he only wanted to protect himself, he could have easily escaped to a distance and left the core of the explosion by using his reaction speed as a "Hakuja".

But the moment that shell landed, with its terrifying coverage, none of the soldiers around him would escape.

At the critical moment, he did not back down.

The captain of the Holy Kingdom suddenly drew his sword and soared into the air like an arrow, resolutely blocking the trajectory of the cluster shells!

"Iron Wall—!"