The Magic Crystal Cannons Strike Back

"Platoon sergeant! Order every squad to spread out! At least twenty meters between squads! Space the men out too! Move! Move! Move!"

Sensing danger, Morin roared out the orders and waved his arms to make the soldiers around him spread out.

Platoon Sergeant Klaus did not understand why, but by now he trusted Morin almost blindly. He immediately blew his whistle and shouted the orders down the line.

The soldiers of 3rd Platoon sprang into action. Under the puzzled gazes of the other companies, they quickly formed a loose defensive line.

After giving his men their orders, Morin wanted Major Thomas to spread out the other units as well. With no time to think it through, he hurried to find Captain Hauser, who was directing the soldiers as they prepared their defenses.

"Captain! We can't bunch up here!"

Morin's voice was urgent.

"The enemy must have the coordinates of this hill. Their surviving artillery could blanket it with fire at any moment!"

Captain Hauser paused. He glanced at the busy soldiers around them, then at Morin's grave expression.

"You have a point, but we do need to prepare our defenses. This hill is important. The enemy is bound to counterattack!"

"I understand! But at least spread the troops out. If their artillery hits us, the casualties won't be as bad..."

Captain Hauser hesitated for less than two seconds before nodding firmly.

"All right! I'll warn the major now. But make sure your men are ready to fend off the counterattack!"

After warning Captain Hauser, Morin returned to 3rd Platoon. Once he saw that his men had spread out as ordered, he found a shell crater and lay down in it.

His heart was still in his throat. He could only hope his premonition was wrong.

Unfortunately, this time he was right about everything...

The soldiers of the 1st Battalion had just used the shell craters to put together makeshift defenses and were about to catch their breath when a strange shriek came from the distant sky.

It sounded nothing like the whistle of an ordinary shell. Sharper and more piercing, it was like the cry of some strange bird.

Then a dazzling blue sphere of light appeared out of nowhere above the hill and burst apart.

There was no earth-shaking blast, only a muffled boom.

Boom!

An invisible, terrifying force spread outward from the sphere. Countless shards of unknown material, glinting coldly, rained down and instantly covered a vast area at the center of the hill.

Boom!

Boom!

Two more muffled blasts sounded as identical blue spheres burst one after the other above different parts of the hill.

Morin's ears rang. Pressed flat against the bottom of his crater, he could clearly hear fragments thudding into the dirt around him.

He did not know whether any had struck him. All he knew was that, for the moment, he was alive.

After three airbursts, the hill had become hell on earth.

Shrieks and agonized cries rose all around, drowning out every other sound.

Dizzy, Morin struggled to his feet. Once he had confirmed he was unhurt, he looked toward the 1st and 2nd Companies at the center of the hill.

Mangled bodies and moaning wounded lay everywhere. Blood had stained the scorched earth dark red.

The devastation made it clear that both companies had been almost completely caught beneath the rain of fragments.

The last blast had also reached the 3rd Company and company headquarters.

On the System Map, the blue unit marker representing the 1st Battalion flashed wildly. Morin did not need to read the system's annotation to know it meant they were under attack and pinned down.

Morin quickly realized this had to be an attack from Magic Crystal Cannons.

Both the airburst's power and the accuracy of this "magitech weapon" from Britannia astonished him.

They didn't even fire a ranging shot. They went straight into a salvo at this hill, and every shell hit...

Airbursts and first-round hits... Now I see how Magic Crystal Cannons can hold their own against field howitzers...

While Morin marveled at that absurd accuracy, preparations for another volley had begun at a camouflaged Magic Crystal Cannon Position three kilometers away.

Royal Army artillerymen and magitech technicians carefully tended the Magic Crystal Cannons that had just fired, checking their runes and crystals for damage.

Above the position, at a height of just over two hundred meters, a figure in the robes of a Highland Mage floated motionless.

"Hill 127 suppressed. Preparing to switch guidance targets..."

"Roger. Temporary maintenance on the Magic Crystal Cannons is complete. Provide target information."

"Hill 125. Target: rebel infantry concentration. Shrapnel Magic Crystal Shells. Guidance will begin once loading is complete..."

The apprentice from the Highland Mage Corps gazed coldly at the place he had chosen as his next target.

To him, those were not merely enemies. They were his ticket out of apprenticeship and into the ranks of full-fledged mages.

Although he had long been an apprentice in the Highland Mage Corps, he knew that only after his promotion would he have the right to call himself a Highland Mage...

He was grateful for the Royal Army's inept artillerymen, too. If they had not been so poor at their jobs, failing to draw out the Magic Crystal Cannons' true power,

High Instructor Eldridge would never have sent apprentices like him to help guide their bombardment...

The bracelet on his left wrist vibrated. Someone wearing its counterpart on the ground was sending a message.

Highland Mages naturally had ways to communicate over long distances, but those spells generally came with many restrictions and were hardly flexible.

And with only so many spell slots each day, they could not afford to load too many communication spells.

That made these short-range magitech communication bracelets, cheaper than "communication stones," indispensable for guiding the Magic Crystal Cannons.

"Shrapnel Magic Crystal Shells loaded!"

"Understood. Beginning guidance..."

The apprentice fixed his gaze on Hill 125. He raised his open right hand, used the gap between his thumb and forefinger as a sight, and aimed. Magic power began to stir at that spot.

Soon the Magic Crystal Cannons on the ground roared again. Their shells streaked across the sky and began to fall after passing their highest point.

An unseen force then corrected their trajectories, sending them straight toward Hill 125. They burst in the air less than ten meters above it.

Meanwhile, on Hill 127.

Morin was amazed by the Magic Crystal Cannons, but he also knew that in a world with magic and magitech, plenty of things defied explanation.

Using the trajectories of the recent attack, the system had calculated the Magic Crystal Cannon Position's approximate location and marked it.

Morin immediately took out his binoculars and looked that way. He soon found the one that had escaped detection.

It was a camouflaged position hidden on a farm. Judging by the dead branches and wheat stalks scattered around the Magic Crystal Cannons, the camouflage must have been excellent. No wonder earlier reconnaissance had missed it.

But once Morin spotted it, the System Map displayed a unit marker at its exact location.

"Runner!"

Morin beckoned to a soldier nearby who was just as filthy as he was.

As the soldier ran over, Morin pulled a notebook and pencil from his pocket and quickly wrote down the hidden Magic Crystal Cannon Position's precise coordinates and a description of the terrain.

"Get this to Command Headquarters for the artillery as fast as you can! Tell them it's an enemy Magic Crystal Cannon Position that hasn't been taken out!"

The young runner took the note, nodded firmly, and sprinted toward the rear without a thought for his own safety.

"Organize the defense! Prepare to fight!"

At the same time, the surviving officers on the hill shouted themselves hoarse as they rallied the soldiers who were still alive but stunned with fear.

Below the hill, a dark mass of Royal Army soldiers had already launched a counterattack.

"Whole platoon! Report casualties!"

Morin's voice trembled. He knew 3rd Platoon could not have escaped without losses.

Platoon Sergeant Klaus and several corporals soon finished counting. Their faces were full of grief.

"Platoon leader! Second Squad is gone... Every last man..."

"First and Fourth Squads lost four men each! Third Squad has two lightly wounded! Fifth Squad has one seriously wounded and two lightly wounded!"

"The other squads were farther away. No casualties reported from them yet!"