Chapter 56: Volume 2 Chapter 17 – Desperate Assault (Part 2/3)

Kaede looked through her binoculars at the distant battle being waged. The snow which continued to fall obscured her vision. But thanks to a combination of a Snow Sight spell and her familiar-enhanced vision she could see almost a kilopace out from her vantage point atop the makeshift bastion.

The structure was built from packed snow and elevated her off the ground by two paces. A combination of landscaping spells and good old shovel work had created the foundation, which Weichsel's mages then transmuted to create a solid ice exterior. A thin layer of dirt and snow was added to give traction for those who stood on top.

Weichsel's army had built over a dozen of these along the seven kilopace-long defense line, and Pascal had stationed Kaede on the extreme right flank.

Between the bastions was a snow-and-ice parapet half a man's height, which provided cover for Weichsel's soldiers as they formed up behind it. Protruding from the parapet were wooden and icicle stakes, while in front of the parapet was a wide but shallow ditch filled with mud and slush.

Waist-deep communication trenches criss-crossed across the front, including many which extended out from the main defense line to forward positions where lookouts and skirmishers were deployed behind another, narrower ditch.

It was impressive just how much fieldworks the Weichsel army created in three hours' time. It helped that every battalion had a squad of pioneers. Versed in the art of battlefield engineering, the pioneers had quickly laid out fortification plans and directed the soldiers of the combat and support companies to turn them into reality.

It's like the Roman Legions' ability to construct marching camps, Kaede thought.

Now, as the Skagen army launched probing attacks along the line, these fieldworks played a pivotal role in slowing the enemy's advance. Kaede watched as a force of a thousand Northmen skied their way up to the first shallow ditch. However they couldn't cross this obstacle without their skis driving into the mud and getting stuck.

Some of them conjured icy ramps across the ditch. Others kicked off their skis to close the remaining hundred paces of distance on foot, which slowed them considerably as they had to wade through the knee-deep snow.

"BY RANKS!" She heard a voice cry out from the adjacent battalion. "VOLLEY!"

A wave of arbalest bolts flew out behind several area dispel spells. It was followed by a second, and then a third volley, as Weichsel's soldiers unloaded their weapons one row at a time. The missiles rained down upon the front lines of the Northmen infantry attack, stripping away wards before the steel bolts punched through armor and into flesh.

Dozens of men fell before the Skagen infantry could form a shield wall. The thick snow made moving in formation difficult. However the Northmen nevertheless pushed forward through the withering barrage.

That's the courage it takes to fight in a battle...

Kaede couldn't help but feel ashamed of last night, when she cried out in terror after being caught in a drake's fire breath for the first time. Pascal had given her far more wards than even the average mage, and the drake's breath weapon had left her mildly cooked at most.

--Yet I had screamed like a little girl, the familiar berated herself.

The fact she was a petite girl now was no excuse.

The problem was that Kaede had never faced a scenario where everything felt overwhelming. Sure, she had taken part in the rooftop fight against Mantis Blade assassins back at the academy. But raising her weapon against a few men was... a big difference from marching into a deluge of spells and arrows on a battlefield.

Kaede watched as the Northmen shield wall advanced in company-sized blocks. Their mages had inscribed anti-projectile Repulsion Field wards onto their shields, which made lightweight missiles change vector at the last second and 'bounce off'. Weichsel's officers responded with a steady stream of Dispel spells, each time creating an opening for a new arbalest volley to penetrate and kill.

Noticing movement in the distance, Kaede swung her binocular further north. A group of horses had pulled five sleds up to a distance of five hundred paces away. As the crew detached the horses and led them away, Kaede noticed that two of the sleds had ballistae mounted on them, while the other three featured the throwing arms of catapults.

"<Pascal, enemy light artillery.>" She called for his attention through the familiar bond.

"<Rune-throwers,>" Pascal immediately recognized as he peered through her gaze.

Two ballistae finished loading first and soon released their javelin-sized bolts. One of them flew across the air and soared straight into the torso of a mage on her bastion.

"GAHHHhhhhhhhh!"

The rune-enchanted projectile punched through his wards before penetrating his armored chest. Its momentum then carried him off the structure's edge. The soldier screamed and flailed as he crashed into the snow below, impaled into the ground by the shaft that skewered his torso.

Two nearby medics rushed over to examine the fallen trooper. But by then the body had already stilled into an unmoving corpse.

He had been standing right next to me!

Kaede's mind virtually froze as she slowly turned back around to face the enemy. Her body trembled as she felt the shock of his death coursing through her. That ballista bolt could easily have claimed her life instead of his. All it would have taken was a fraction of a degree's difference in aim!

"<Kaede, order the lieutenant to take out that battery. Firemist combination spell.>"

Pascal's forceful voice rang through her mind, dragging her back into the present.

"L-l-lieutenant, command from HQ," the familiar stammered out before taking another breath to steady herself. She pointed a finger towards the snowy distance. "Eliminate that artillery battery. Firemist combo."

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The lieutenant was a young nobleman who appeared to be in his late 'twenties'. His binoculars were already directed towards the enemy when he nodded: "Understood."

He then turned towards his squad of dismounted Noble Reiters:

"Extended range spells. Gas them. I'll ignite."

The others nodded back before switching their aura magic stance to one more suitable for high-output, low-precision spellcasting.

"Aura Bombard!"

Kaede didn't even have to focus to feel the gentle pressure in the air as their magical auras expanded. Her sensitivity to magic was definitely growing as a result of being Pascal's familiar.

"Extension, Firemist Condense Field!" Ten of them called out, their extended gloves sending arcing rays of crafted ether towards their target.

"Extension, Ignition!" The Lieutenant then followed suit.

The first ten rays flew across five hundred paces of open terrain and scattered into the upwind air like leafy veins. They left no visible effect, except for a faint clash of mana against some shield bubble from a defending mage.

Kaede's keen hearing then picked up shouts that she didn't understand. A pitched cry soon trailed behind them -- which apparently meant 'run'.

They barely had enough time for more than a few steps...

As the final spell shot in, the very air over the artillery battery exploded like a petroleum reservoir. Flames and burning air poured out in every direction. The force of the blast pulverized the siege engines like twig models, hurling out pieces of men and machine as though toy blocks thrown by a tantrum-stricken child.

By transmuting impurities in the air into dense cloud of methane and other highly flammable gases, then followed with a simple fire spell, Weichsel's mages had learned to imitate the nature of a coal dust explosion. Its power was equivalent to that of a modern tactical thermobaric weapon -- the fuel-air bomb.

Even from several hundred paces away, Kaede still felt the heat wave of such a powerful blast.

 

----- * * * -----

 

"Kraken on the left flank! It emerged from the lake!" Pascal heard a signal officer cry out within the command center.

"A kraken!?" The young lord was stunned as he turned to exchange looks with an equally bewildered Brigadier Bernard.

He had never seen a kraken before. However the gigantic sea monster which looked like an oversized squid could be found on every flag of Skagen.

"The Lotharins let it through?" Bernard asked. "They control the estuary!"

"They won't know if it travelled through while submerged," Pascal replied.

"Reposition 2nd cavalry towards the left. Send four battalions to the flank!" The Brigadier immediately ordered. "That monster is the symbol of Skagen! It might very well be the prelude to a major attack!"

Second cavalry is the better half of our reserves! Pascal thought before he objected. "Sir, this might be a diversion. A kraken can hardly--"

He hadn't even finished before Kaede's voice interrupted him.

"<Pascal, there's-->"

She was still speaking when an observer screamed from just outside the cabin door:

"DRAKES! INCOMING!"

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