Bart's giant wolf retreated two steps.
The wolf moved on its own. Bart bought this mutated creature for twenty thousand gold coins at the black market. It had the bloodline of a Gold-tier monster and never feared anything before.
Now its fur stood on end. A low whimper came from its throat.
Fifty tanks formed a wedge on the snow. The low-frequency hum of the engines made the entire wasteland shake. The treads crushed the frozen earth. Ice turned to powder and rose as white mist.
The adjutant behind Bart pulled the reins of his horse. The warhorse spun in place, hooves scraping the ground. Its nostrils flared with frantic white breath.
"Lord Bart, what are those things?"
Bart didn't answer. Bart stared at the black iron blocks for five seconds, focusing on the magic runes on the hulls.
"Puppets," Bart said. "Alchemical puppets. They are large, but they are still puppets. They are slow and lack spirit."
Bart looked at the ten thousand heavy knights behind him. Steel armor gleamed under the grey sky. Enchanged warhorses stood in a perfect square. The sound of hooves hitting the frozen soil was rhythmic and steady.
"Order the mages to move forward. Fireballs and wind blades. I want to see how hard these iron shells are."
The order went out.
Dozens of mages ran to the front line. Staves rose. Elemental energy gathered at the tips. The chanting lasted less than ten seconds.
Fireballs and wind blades filled the sky.
Dozens of orange fireballs trailed flames toward the tank formation. Wind blades followed, the translucent edges cutting through the air with sharp whistles.
The fireballs hit first.
The first one struck the side of the lead tank's turret and exploded. Flame rolled across the armor and vanished. A black scorch mark appeared on the turret. A small patch of paint charred.
More fireballs hit the front hulls and side skirts. The fireballs exploded one by one, wrapping the tanks in orange flames.
The wind blades arrived. The translucent edges struck the composite magic armor with a screeching metallic sound.
A few white scratches appeared on the armor surface.
That was all.
Just scratches.
There were no dents, no cracks, and no visible deformation.
A mage in the square froze. The middle-aged man in grey robes fired three strengthened wind blades at the same tank side skirt. Three white scratches overlapped. The deepest one didn't even cut through the paint.
"Impossible... what is this material? My wind blades can cut three-layered enchanted steel. Why can't they even peel the paint?"
Bart sat on his wolf. The smile on Bart's face stiffened.
The magic barrage ended. The fire died down. The smoke cleared. Fifty tanks remained. None were missing. None had stopped. The wedge formation maintained its speed, advancing toward the 100,000 soldiers.
The sound of treads never stopped.
Rumble. Rumble.
On the gate tower, Lin Yuan took the cigar from his mouth and flicked the ash.
Lin Yuan walked down the stairs, passed through the inner city tunnel, and left the fortress through a side gate.
A tank waited for him outside.
Lin Yuan stepped on the side plates and climbed onto the turret. This was the lead tank at the front of the wedge. Lin Yuan stood at the commander's position. The wind blew against his face, fluttering his coat.
A radar projection unfolded to his right. On the blue light screen, red dots showed the enemy distribution. The heavy knight square was two kilometers ahead. Infantry held the flanks. Mages retreated to the rear.
Two kilometers.
The tanks moved at forty kilometers per hour. Three minutes.
Lin Yuan put the cigar back in his mouth and took a puff. The wind tore the smoke away.
"Full company volley."
Lin Yuan exhaled smoke and pointed at the heavy knight square.
"Target: the knight formation ahead."
Fifty tank turrets rotated simultaneously. Hydraulic systems hummed. The thick barrels finished aiming in three seconds.
Fifty 120mm smoothbore guns pointed at the square of ten thousand heavy knights.
Fire.
A sonic boom erupted.
Fifty guns fired at once. The combined shockwave pushed across the wasteland.
The wave swept the battlefield.
The front row of enchanted horses reared up. Their eardrums burst. The horses lost their balance and fell backward, taking their riders down.
Then the shells arrived.
Fifty high-explosive anti-tank shells crossed two kilometers instantly.
The first shell hit the center of the knight square.
The shell struck a knight's breastplate. Three layers of defensive arrays flashed blue and white.
It lasted 0.3 seconds.
The shell pierced the arrays, the steel breastplate, the rider's body, and the horse's spine. It slammed into the frozen ground.
Then it exploded.
The internal blast array detonated half a meter underground. A shockwave tore upward. Frozen soil and stones flew five meters into the air, mixed with iron shards and limbs.
Within a fifteen-meter radius, seven heavy knights and their horses were flipped. The three closest knights vanished. The shockwave shredded their armor and flesh into a red mist.
That was just one shell.
Fifty shells landed at once.
Fifty explosions detonated simultaneously, covering a three-hundred-meter wide area. Shockwaves overlapped. The ground sank half a meter. Red mist rose into the grey sky.
The front three rows of the knight square were erased.
The second volley came eight seconds later.
The auto-loaders finished. The barrels tilted up two degrees to target the middle of the formation.
Fifty more shells.
Fifty more explosions.
The knight square snapped in half. A thirty-meter wide gap appeared between the front and back sections. Only upturned soil and scattered iron remained in that space.
Bart's wolf spun in circles. Bart pulled the reins, the veins in his neck bulging. Bart looked at his knight square. Two volleys in less than twenty seconds.
The square was gone.
The formation shattered. Survivors fled to the sides.
"Charge!" Bart roared.
Gold-tier aura exploded from his body. The golden light evaporated the snow within ten meters.
"Everyone charge! Those iron boxes are mindless. They are slow. Get close, break the treads, and flip them over!"
Horns blew frantically.
The remaining knights turned their horses toward the tanks. The infantry moved too. Seventy thousand soldiers raised shields and spears, screaming as they surged forward.
The ground shook. The vibration of 100,000 men charging was louder than the cannons.
Lin Yuan stood on the lead tank, watching the tide of people.
Lin Yuan crushed his cigar and threw it away.
"All units, advance. Do not slow down."
The fifty tank engines hit maximum RPM. White steam shot from the exhausts. The treads accelerated. The tanks lunged forward.
Forty kilometers per hour.
Tanks and cavalry collided.
The first impact happened forty seconds later.
An enchanted horse hit the front armor of the lead tank. The horse's chest collapsed. The sound of breaking bones was drowned out by the engine. The rider flew over the turret and fell behind the tank.
The treads rolled over him.
The tank didn't stop. It didn't even bump. It was as smooth as rolling over a clod of dirt.
More horses hit the armor. They were tossed aside or sucked under the treads. The sound of metal crushing bone became a constant noise.
The tanks kept their speed.
The wedge sliced into the cavalry, splitting the charge in two. Riders were pushed aside. Panicked horses trampled each other.
The turrets continued to fire. Each tank picked its own targets. 120mm shells exploded in the crowd.
The infantry arrived.
Seventy thousand men hit the tanks. Spears poked at the front armor. They bent and snapped. Treads swallowed shields and the men holding them.
Bunkers on the fortress walls opened.
One hundred alchemical cannons began a creeping barrage. Shells flew over the tanks and hit the rear of the infantry. Fireballs exploded in rows, cutting off the retreat.
Three thousand heavy grenadiers emerged from the gate. They wore full plate armor and carried shotguns and high-explosive grenades. The grenadiers followed the tanks, clearing the gaps.
Infantry tried to bypass the tanks to attack the grenadiers.
The grenadiers stopped. They pulled the pins on their grenades and threw.
Grenades exploded in the crowd. Shrapnel flew. Infantry within five meters were torn apart. Those behind stepped over the bodies and were hit by the next wave of grenades.
The coalition couldn't move forward.
The tanks crushed the front, the cannons blocked the rear, and the grenadiers cleaned up the middle. The 100,000 soldiers were caught in a death trap.
Half an hour passed.
The red dots on the radar vanished quickly. 100,000 became 70,000, then 50,000, then 30,000.
The coalition's formation was gone. Soldiers dropped weapons and knelt. Riderless horses ran through the snow. Flags lay in the blood-soaked mud.
Bart was still alive.
Bart's wolf stood on a pile of corpses at the edge of the battlefield. Golden aura wrapped around him, the heat warping the air.
Bart stared at the lead tank and the man standing on it.
Black coat.
Bart drew his wide-bladed greatsword.
Gold-tier aura flowed into the blade. Light spilled from the edge. The wolf felt Bart's intent and crouched low.
Bart compressed his aura to the limit. The golden light shrank to within three inches of his body. It was dense enough to deflect shrapnel.
"Kill the leader, end the war."
Bart's voice was hoarse, but his aura carried the words across the field.
"Lin Yuan—!"
The giant wolf launched.
A streak of gold blurred across the battlefield. The speed was so high that corpses and debris were blown away in its wake.
Lin Yuan stood on the turret and watched the gold light approach.
Lin Yuan's right hand moved to the revolver at his waist.