At the rear of the kingdom's battle line, Marshal Duoluo watched the players in the distance launch their brainless charge. He sneered and gave a flat order:
"Artillery, fire."
"Fools who don't know life from death."
The kingdom's army had thoroughly integrated Napoleonic doctrine by now. In a single phrase, their core tactic boiled down to: "First bombard with artillery, then charge with cavalry, and finally let the infantry sweep up."
Upon receiving the command, Artillery Corps Commander Datou bellowed, "Aim for the enemies across the river! Blow them all to hell!"
Immediately, the mathematically trained ogres began calculating parabolic arcs. Using their massive, hulking bodies as gun mounts, they continually adjusted their angles, while a few veteran cannoneers simply relied on raw instinct.
Three or four ogres worked in unison around each colossal cannon, displaying calm efficiency and thorough discipline without the slightest disorder.
Around each dark, gaping muzzle, carved reliefs shaped like the gaping jaws of a great dragon lent the weapons an even more imposing majesty.
"Fire!"
"Fire at will!"
As Datou hoisted his battle standard and let out a mighty roar, cannon after cannon thundered, rocking the entire Okagral snowfield with deafening claps of thunder.
The Dragon Roar Great Cannons—the fruit of several years of research by the Kingdom of Cinders' armament bureau, a synthesis of magical tinkering and industrial engineering—finally revealed their terrifying might across the Great Anzetta Waste for the very first time.
Heavy shells weighing hundreds of jin gleamed with a metallic sheen as they traced graceful parabolas through the air.
Ear-splitting screeches tore across the sky.
Teutonic Knight, who had charged forward in high spirits and was just about to step onto the timber bridge, looked up. Staring slack-jawed at shells larger than a grown man descending from above, his mind went blank.
After a stunned silence, only two words squeezed out of his mouth:
"Holy crap."
"You f***ing call this—a medieval war?!"
Before the words had even faded, a black cannonball crashed down right beside him. Detonating with a monstrous roar, the blast hurled Teutonic Knight dozens of meters through the air.
Blood and shrapnel sprayed in every direction. Scraps of his mangled flesh even flew toward the opposite riverbank, granting his wish in a rather grim fashion.
Poor Teutonic Knight had fallen before he could even taste battle. He had not experienced a medieval clash at all before being obliterated by a falling artillery shell.
"What is this, Trisolarans clubbing cavemen?!"
"What the hell is that?!"
"Why do they have cannons?!"
"I'm reporting the Kingdom of Cinders for hacking!"
"They're using cheats, how the hell are we supposed to play? I'm switching sides!"
The coalition's player vanguard was blasted into complete disarray, their screams rising one after another. Nearly every shell inflicted over a dozen casualties.
Under the kingdom's merciless bombardment, the players' charge appeared utterly laughable.
"Gods above!"
"What on earth are those?"
"How could they possess such weapons? Is this divine retribution?!"
Fear swept through the coalition ranks as soldiers muttered and trembled in sheer terror.
Craters pocked the earth one after another. The baptism of artillery fire left the flat snowfield scarred and ruined. Never before had warfare altered the landscape so violently. In the eyes of common soldiers and petty nobles who knew little of the wider world, it seemed like nothing less than the wrath of the gods.
Grand Duke Leo stood with a solemn expression, leaning on his sword.
"I know of such things. Cannons."
"Yes, but their power has grown far more horrifying," Trischka replied with deep concern.
"Still, we are not without counters."
The bombardment continued unabated. The hail of shells reached deeper into the coalition lines, striking their rear echelons and inflicting heavy casualties. If the ogre artillerymen were given enough time to zero in their aim, these massive shells weighing hundreds of jin would slaughter the densely packed troops.
Under the cover of the artillery barrage, the Kingdom of Cinders' drake cavalry and Redscale Conquerors launched their charge, crossing the great river and preparing to smash into the coalition's front line.
One timber bridge after another spanned the icy waters.
At the command of the high-ranking aasimar, celestial creatures took flight. Archons of justice raised silver swords, projecting shimmering, translucent barriers over the coalition lines. The wards held firm against the devastating shells, sending golden ripples spreading through the sky.
They even launched a counterattack. Avorals beat their wings, loosing volleys of feathers imbued with holy power across the river to pierce the wicked hearts of the monstrous troops.
"Do not fear!"
"Remember, we fight for justice!"
"Those monsters are merely bluffing! It's all hollow bluster!"
Trischka rode back and forth along the battle lines, shouting at the top of his lungs.
The miraculous intervention of the celestial host gave a massive boost to the coalition's morale, rekindling hope in the hearts of the soldiers.
Wyverns and chimeras roared, spewing torrents of flame as they soared toward the enemy positions on the opposite bank. Clashing with celestial creatures in the skies, torrents of crimson and white collided, turning the sky into a chaotic aerial battlefield.
In terms of sheer numbers, the flock of wyverns and chimeras blotting out half the sky held an overwhelming advantage. Yet the celestials hailing from Mount Celestia had been bathed in divine radiance since their inception, and their individual strength was far more terrifying.
Mantou and his wyvern, Noodles, roared in unison as they prepared to execute a Dragon Roar Charge. They dove toward the coalition ground forces to execute an airstrike—a maneuver that had rarely failed them.
"Go, Noodles!"
Yet the moment he entered his dive, long before reaching attack altitude, arrows imbued with tracking magic soared into the air, riddling him full of holes. Feathers ablaze with radiant light converged on him from all directions.
"Holy crap, I'm going down!"
"What can I say?!"
Mantou, looking like a pincushion, howled at the sky. He and his wyvern plummeted to the earth, his vision instantly cutting to black as the respawn interface popped up.
As Mantou crashed, an accelerated version of "See You Again" abruptly played. While it leaned heavily into dead internet memes, it would make for great video footage nonetheless.
"Mantou, OUT!" a fellow Redscale Conqueror shouted in excitement.
An atavistic wyvern spewed scorching flames, charring an avoral to a crisp.
Yet an instant later, a cloud giant's massive fist came crashing down from behind, and a justice archon's silver sword pierced the wyvern's scalding, violently beating heart.
"Awoooo—!"
A shrill death wail tore through the clouds, but that was merely a corner of the aerial battlefield.
Amid brilliant flares of magical light, blood, severed limbs, mangled corpses, and singed feathers rained continuously from the sky, occasionally crushing an unlucky mortal on the ground. The brutal dogfight left the ordinary soldiers below trembling in sheer terror.
Yet their own battle was only just beginning.
Ogre shieldbearers and land drake cavalry had already advanced across the river. Their heavy shields and armor turned aside the storm of arrows, allowing the kingdom's front line to push forward like an indestructible, shifting wall of steel.
Facing such monstrous juggernauts, the coalition infantry were like fragile mortals standing before a crushing mountain, easily ground into paste.
"Evil fiends!"
"I am your unbreakable shield! The bulwark of justice and order!"
Fortunately, towering, heavily armored shield archons stepped forward to the vanguard. Raising massive shields that shone with sacred radiance, they braced themselves to hold back the kingdom's relentless advance.
*Boom! Boom!*
Deafening clashes of metal and thunderous impacts echoed across the snow.
Armored guardians swung massive four-meter greatswords with immense force, cleaving clean through an ogre's tower shield and hacking through thick, dragon-scaled flesh to cut down the ogre behind it in a single strike.
"Aaargh!"
The hulking ogre roared in agony before collapsing like a felled tower.
In a war of this scale, mortal lives were treated like cheap grass. Death struck everywhere without pause. Corpses piled high inside trenches, and blood dyed the virgin white snowfield a vivid, ghastly crimson.
Chapter 316