Chapter 227: You Must Attack This Taunting Target First

Thinking this, Morin did not hesitate. He immediately dove into a narrow alley beside him and running toward the depths of the South City.

As he ran, he quickly glanced at the system map. Sure enough, the two red unit tokens representing the Seventh-Circle Mages immediately abandoned their focus on the bridgehead when they saw him move. They took a small squad of elite infantry and pursued him along a parallel street.

“Damn it! They really are coming after me!” Morin cursed under his breath while accelerating his pace.

He glanced back and saw Klaus was preparing to lead the 1st Company soldiers to follow him into the alley for protection. Morin immediately cast [Sending] toward Klaus’s position.

“Klaus! Listen! Do not bring men to follow me! Your mission is to hold the bridgehead! Hold it even if you die!”

“Also, find a way immediately to get me explosives! As much as possible!”

“The street nearby, yes, the main street we were preparing to assault—plant explosives in the buildings on both sides! When finished, immediately fire a flare to notify me!”

Klaus, standing at the alley entrance suddenly heard Morin’s voice suddenly echo in his mind. He was startled, freezing in place. Although he didn’t understand why the Battalion Commander was doing this, he completely trusted Morin. He immediately stopped and turned to execute the orders.

A full-scale, city-wide manhunt targeting Morin alone had just begun.

Morin ran ahead, with the two Seventh-Circle Archmages and infantry pursuing him from behind. Driven by adrenaline and his excellent physical condition, Morin felt no fatigue. He moved like a nimble cheetah, swiftly traversing the complex urban jungle of South Amiens. His familiarity with the city’s layout was as if he had grown up there… the system map was his greatest asset.

The two Archmages pursuing him, however, grew increasingly unnerved.

“How does that Saxon barbarian run as fast as a rabbit!” Archmage Angus cursed, panting heavily as he pursued. The two of them, the formidable Seventh-Circle Archmages, had cast acceleration spells like [Expeditious Retreat] on themselves and had even outpaced the infantry following them. But their age was catching up, and years of study in the Mage Tower had left them lacking in physical training. Their speed through the complex terrain was far slower than the slippery young man ahead.

The distance between the two parties was widening. Often, by the time they heard the sound of gunfire ahead and the accompanying infantry breathlessly caught up at a street corner, they would only find the bodies of Britannian soldiers Morin had killed, while Morin himself had already slipped into another unfamiliar block via some unknown alleyway.

“We can’t let him lead us by the nose like this anymore!” Master Albert stopped, his face grim as he sensed the location of the detonator crystal. He knew that on the ground, they would likely never catch this Saxon barbarian who inexplicably knew the Gallic city’s terrain so well. He exchanged a look with Angus; both understood the other’s intent.

“To the sky!” Master Albert gritted his teeth, pulling out two [Fly] scrolls from his pouch, handing one to Angus. “I refuse to believe he can fly!”

They tore the scrolls without hesitation. A light magical energy instantly enveloped their bodies. The next second, they abandoned the infantry and soared into the air, planning to quickly resolve the target from above using the simplest and most brutal method.

However, they seemed to forget that the sky currently had another master. Just as they ascended, breaking free from the cover of Amiens’ buildings and preparing to lock onto the fleeing ‘rat,’ a massive shadow quietly enveloped them.

The L29 Armored Airship! The War Behemoth that had been circling the battlefield. Its observer immediately detected the two suddenly ascending targets with strong magical fluctuations.

“Enemy Spellcasters detected! Number two! Bearing 1-2-5, Altitude 200! Prepare for anti-air interception!” The alarm on the airship instantly blared.

Before Albert and Angus could react, the numerous MG08 Machine Gun Turrets on the airship had already rotated their muzzles, aiming at them.

“Da-da-da-da-da!”

Countless bullets wove a net of death in the air, raining down on the two men.

“Damn it! It’s the Saxon Armored Airship!” Master Albert’s face fell. They had been so consumed by Morin’s presence that they had forgotten the airship had been circling and fighting overhead the entire time. He and Angus dared not linger. They immediately cast [Shield Spell] on themselves, frantically dodging the hail of bullets and quickly descended back into the cover of the buildings’ shadows. Flying low between the narrow streets and towering buildings was obviously much more difficult for them than flying in open air, and their speed was severely reduced.

“Contact the others! Order them to cut off this direction from the ground! We must pin him down!” Albert issued commands through his communication wristband to the other Highland Mages fighting elsewhere in the city.

Meanwhile, at the railway bridgehead, Klaus and the others ran into a problem after retrieving the wounded and helping Ludwig get his Armored Knight out of the immediate danger.

“Explosives… where am I supposed to get that much explosives?” The Quartermaster in charge of logistics, who happened to be transporting ammunition forward, said worriedly after hearing Klaus’s request. “We just broke through the outer line. The engineer units and main supplies are still far behind. We only have enough explosives available right now to demolish one or two small buildings, nowhere near the scale the Battalion Commander needs.”

Klaus frantically scratched his head. Without explosives, the Battalion Commander’s plan couldn’t be executed, and Morin would have taken the risk for nothing.

Just as he was at a loss, the two squads of soldiers Morin had sent earlier to dismantle the bridge pier bombs returned, carrying several heavy wooden crates and gasping for breath.

“Company Commander! We found it! We found the Magic Crystal Bombs the Britannians placed on the critical structure of the bridge piers!” the Squad Leader reported excitedly, wiping sweat from his brow.

“Magic Crystal Bombs?” Klaus’s eyes instantly lit up as he looked at the dangerous, magically glowing crystal bombs in the crates. A bold idea formed in his mind.

He immediately ran up to the Logistics Officer: “If we don’t have enough regular explosives, will these Magic Crystal Bombs work? A Magic Crystal Bomb is still a bomb, right?”

The Logistics Officer was astonished by Klaus’s outlandish idea: “W-will that work? As far as I know, Britannian Magic Crystal Bombs are not the same as our military explosives! Their power is far greater than conventional explosives, and they are highly unstable. What if…”

“There is no what if!” Klaus interrupted him. “This is the Battalion Commander’s order! Do exactly as I say now! Desperate times call for desperate measures!”

Relying on his blind trust in Morin, Klaus quickly issued the command. The soldiers of the Instruction Assault Battalion sprang into action. They began cautiously placing the dangerous Magic Crystal Bombs inside the buildings along the main street Morin had designated. Simultaneously, they went door-to-door driving out the terrified Gallic civilians who hadn’t managed to evacuate and urging them to seek refuge at the relatively safe Amiens Cathedral further away. The Cathedral had become the only neutral zone within Amiens City.

Having completed all this, Klaus took a deep breath and pulled out his flare gun again. A brilliant red flare into the sky.

Morin, who was desperately running at the other end of the city, saw the familiar red firework in the sky. He immediately opened the system map and confirming the location of the street where Klaus was. On the map, the street was already marked with a massive red blast radius. Even the type of explosive was clearly labeled: conventional military explosives, and High-Energy Magic Crystal Bombs.

“Well done, Klaus!” Morin’s heart filled with joy. He knew Klaus and his men had managed to utilize the Magic Crystal Bombs dismantled from the railway bridge.

Master Albert and Archmage Angus naturally saw the flare as well. Using the tracking mark, they confirmed that Morin who carrying the detonation crystal was rapidly moving toward the flare’s location.

“He’s circling back to the riverbank? What is he trying to do? Link up with friendly forces?” Angus was puzzled.

“No matter what he intends, he is dead.” Master Albert sneered. He immediately used his communication wristband to order all the Mages converging on the area to aggressively intercept him at the location of the flare, ensuring the target had no way to retreat.

Meanwhile, the 4th Company and the Battalion Headquarters unit, led by Kleist and Manstein, finally crossed the railway bridge and arrived on the South Bank.

“Where is Morin? Where did the Battalion Commander go?” Kleist immediately grabbed a 1st Company soldier and asked anxiously the moment he reached the South Bank. When he learned that Morin had charged into the city alone and was being pursued by two Britannian Archmages, he felt his vision swim and almost collapsed.

“What?! The Battalion Commander alone?! How could you let him take such a risk!” Kleist was frantic. Just then, Klaus, who had finished placing the explosives, returned with his men. He saw Kleist and Manstein and quickly recounted the current situation and Morin’s orders.

When Manstein, who had been quietly listening, heard Morin’s request to plant explosives inside the buildings, his eyes suddenly flashed with understanding. He remembered a novel concept Morin had discussed with him during tactical debates: terrain kill.

“The Battalion Commander wants to lure the two Mages into a trap and destroy them with explosives all at once!” Although he was unsure why the Britannian Archmages were so maniacally obsessed with chasing his Battalion Commander, he knew their only course of action now was to cooperate with Morin’s insane plan at all costs.

With this thought, Manstein looked up at the L29 Armored Airship approaching overhead. A bolder idea formed in his mind. He violently rushed to the back of a Military Truck belonging to the Instruction Assault Battalion. The truck bed held the precious large radio transceiver.

“Signals Officer! Quickly! Connect me to that airship in the sky! Now!” Manstein commanded the Signals Officer who was setting up the equipment.

A few minutes later, communication was established. Manstein snatched the microphone, using his fastest pace to inform the airship of the ground situation, Morin’s predicament, and his plan.

“…That’s the situation! I request that you cover our Battalion Commander no matter what! Extract him from that damned city block!”

Silence lasted a few seconds on the other end of the radio.

“Which Battalion Commander are you referring to?”

“Captain Friedrich Morin, Commander of the Imperial Guards First Instruction Assault Battalion!”

“It’s him?” Schneider, the Captain of the L29 Armored Airship, was visibly stunned. “The lunatic who parachuted into Liège Fortress?”

“Yes! It is him!”

“Interesting…” Schneider grinned. “Alright, if it’s this lunatic who needs support, then we will use a lunatic’s method to help him!”

He put down the microphone and gave orders to the pilot beside him.

“Adjust course, head for the street where the red flare just went up! Full speed ahead! We are going to retrieve that lunatic!”

The colossal hull of the L29 Armored Airship arced in the sky. The roar of the eight giant propeller engines shook the heavens. Captain Schneider stood on the wide bridge, looking down at South Amiens like a chessboard. His eyes were sharp, fixed intensely on the block where the flare had erupted. The observers on the lower deck soon spotted the figure sprinting through the street.

He was far too conspicuous…

“Observer! Continuously report the target’s position!”

“Yes, Captain! The target is rapidly approaching the predetermined area! We have spotted at least five enemy targets with strong magical fluctuations in pursuit around him!”

“Five?” Schneider’s brow furrowed. “The situation is worse than we thought.” Rescuing one man from an encirclement of five Mages? He had never imagined a mission like this… But thinking of the young Captain who had created a miracle at Liège Fortress, an inexplicable impulse surged in Schneider’s heart. A lunatic deserves a lunatic’s rescue plan.

“Pilot! Lower the altitude! Descend to the absolute minimum safe altitude!” Schneider issued a command that shocked every crew member on the bridge.

“Captain! That’s too dangerous!” The First Officer immediately protested: “Flying low over the city, if we are hit by ground fire or a Mage’s attack, we have no room to maneuver!”

“What are you afraid of? Our Magic Shield is operational! Execute the order!” Schneider’s voice was firm and unyielding: “I want to show those Britannian Mages what the Saxon Imperial Air Force is all about!”

(End of this Chapter)