Chapter 197: The King of the Land
by xennovel“Screech—”
Amidst the exclamation of countless Falai soldiers, a sharp, piercing air raid siren tore through the sky above the Austin camp, startling countless migratory birds.
“It’s an airship!”
“Has Infir gone mad? Daring to send airships over here?”
In an instant, the prisoner camp was in chaos, with jeers, discussions, and curses intertwining, creating an uproar.
“Boooo—”
The assembly horn blared, accompanied by officers’ hoarse shouts, echoing throughout the camp.
Numerous Falai soldiers rushed out of cover, weaving through trenches, racing to their defensive positions.
“Nine o’clock direction! Anti-air guns at 47° angle ready!”
“Heavy machine guns at 34° angle! Those damned airships dare to dive-bomb, shoot them all down like fireworks!”
Under the relentless orders of their commanders, soldiers at various firepower points frantically got to work.
Altitude and direction controls whirled madly, gun barrels swiftly adjusted to point skyward.
High-explosive shells were loaded into the barrels, the clang of breech closures resounding across the battlefield!
At this moment, all Falai soldiers held their breath, waiting for the floating airships to get closer and turn them into fireworks.
The officers at the Falai command post clenched their fists excitedly.
Who would have thought there’d be a battle after being abandoned to the rear? They could still earn merits!
At this point, no one paid attention to Armand, still tied to the railing.
Armand looked up in shock, seeing heavy clouds part as airships decorated with menacing blood-red eyes and fangs emerged.
Against the backlit view, those sinister designs seemed to come alive, cackling like demons, heralding terror! These were not Empire airships.
The Empire did not have such models!
As a mid-level officer in Infir, Armand instantly recognized these airships with giant underslung pods as not conforming to thermodynamic principles; they were not Empire airships.
Who are they?
Could they possibly be… the Wal Dynasty’s air force?
But how did they fly over the vast, desolate upland?
As this thought popped into Armand’s mind, these grotesque airships suddenly opened their massive underslung pods like terrifying ghost mothers, giving birth to grimacing ghost infants.
The ghost infants cackled eerily as they dove toward the ground!
“Damn it, it’s a high-altitude bombing!”
“Cover!”
“Cover!”
The falling objects, appearing as black dots in view, caused hysterical roars from the Falai officers.
If floating airships still served any military purpose, it was high-altitude bombing—conducted at 3000 meters, a height difficult for anti-air guns to reach.
However, this tactic had a high war cost and low returns, nearly on the verge of being phased out.
Because flying high meant poor accuracy; hitting targets precisely required divine intervention.
After a round of bombing, the land might seem like hell, but in reality, important strategic targets often remained unscathed, especially for bunkers.
Better to use a heavy artillery barrage for pinpoint bombing.
“Infir indeed are heretics! They don’t even care about their soldiers!”
The Falai officers hiding in cover sneered.
It was foreseeable that after this bombing wave, Falai soldiers might be unscathed, while Infir prisoners would suffer heavy casualties.
The Falai officers realized this.
Armand realized it too!
While Falai soldiers huddled in cover, he could only furiously yell at the adjacent prisoner camp.
“Spread out! Spread out!”
However, without cover, what meaning is there in spreading out? A thick sense of despair and grief welled up in Armand’s heart.
“No, no, these aren’t bombs!”
While shouting, Armand stared at the sky, his pupils rapidly dilating.
As those falling objects neared the ground, their forms gradually revealed.
They weren’t bombs at all, but—steam cars! Yes, although they looked bizarre and were covered with riveted armor, he still immediately recognized them as steam cars.
Were they insane? Airdropping steam cars? What steam cars could withstand a drop from this height?
Looking incredulous, those plummeting steam cars suddenly reduced speed strangely when they were within a hundred meters of the ground.
Then, in a seemingly effortless impact, they slammed into the ground.
“Boom!”
One after another, steam tanks crashed onto the more than ten mile-long Osman front line. While they still dented the ground, the impact was within the steam tanks’ tolerances.
One landed right near Armand!
Armand, utterly dumbstruck, watched.
“Rumble…”
Steam tanks roared, spewing plumes of white steam.
The drive wheel spun crazily, setting the load and guide wheels in motion, driving the metal tracks, and rolling across wide trenches, vertical walls, deep water, swamps, barbed wire, and sandbag cover. They rampaged fearlessly across the Falai front in a berserk charge!
“Fire! Fire! Open fire at will!”
Falai soldiers behind sandbag cover were stunned!
After a moment, they reacted and, under their officers’ orders, laid down a storm of metal with their heavy machine guns!
“Clang clang clang!”
Bullets capable of tearing werewolves to shreds hit the 60 mm special magic riveted armor, only to have half their energy dissipated by the slanted armor.
The bullets ricocheted unwillingly.
“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The rapid-fire cannons on the tanks roared, shooting flames from their barrels, with rounds shrieking like evil infants crashing into the Falai heavy machine gun positions.
“Rumble…”
In an instant, amid the exploding flame mushrooms, metal fragments and pieces of flesh flew in all directions across the battlefield! “Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Several rapid-fire Falai cannons opened fired on the tanks.
“Rumble!”
With the slanted armor dispersing the force, rapid-fire rounds only left fist-sized dents on the riveted surface without any further effect.
Exposed rapid-fire cannon positions were quickly targeted by the tanks!
With summary data from the Internet Prophecy Divine Spark, every exposed rapid-fire cannon, machine gun, and grenade launcher was pinpointed and marked, displayed on virtual screens to all tank crews.
Naturally, every tank immediately blasted these targets! “Rat-a-tat-tat…”
Thundering cannon fire drowned out the roaring machine guns on the steam tanks.
They were indeed the real reapers! Wherever steam tanks rolled, life fell like grass before them. Even the strongest werewolves faced only crushing defeat from steam tanks, like invincible iron beasts.
This was pure slaughter!
“No—”
“Mother! Save me!”
“I want to go home!”
“God, save me—”
Falai soldiers broke down, with more dropping weapons, running madly, or cowering, trembling in cover.
Yet stopping resistance only brought a more tragic fate.
Screams, wails, and pleas echoed across the Osman front!
“Rumble!!!”
Raging steam roared, magic steam engines bellowed, rapid-fire cannons spewed death, and machine guns unleashed stormy barrages that reaped lives.
Metal tracks crushed sandbagged corpses, leaving an overpowering stench of gunpowder and steel domination upon the battlefield! At this moment, flesh was frail; steel was eternal!
Armand was completely terrified.
Physical pain and weakness gradually faded.
He stood there, blankly watching all this, in a way he’d never imagined, unfolding before him, subverting his decades-long military training and worldview! Amidst unending artillery fire, his soldiers ripped through the metal fence, freeing him.
They huddled in nearby trenches, shivering, their minds blank.
After an unknown time, a tank suddenly straddled their trench, then stopped abruptly.
At that moment, Armand and the soldiers’ hearts lept into their throats!
In their tense fear, they could even see limbs caught in the metal tracks.
“Squeak!”
The massive metal clump groaned with mechanical friction.
But what greeted them wasn’t a rotating gun barrel; it was an open round hatch.
An Infir soldier poked his head out, climbing up.
Half-suspended off the tank, he smiled warmly, extending an inviting hand.
“I am Morris of Infir Commonwealth Boat-01 Task Unit 0174. Care to join us in leveling the Falai Dynasty?”
Armand was stunned at these words.