Iron Powder and Spellcaster

"The sound of artillery?! Where is the artillery fire?!" Winters suddenly woke up, stood up on the swaying boat and looked back.

But the situation deteriorated so quickly that he couldn't even think about it. Loud chants were shouted on the shore, the dragged chains rattled, and a red and black line slowly rose from the seabed, forming a naturally drooping line. The arc blocks the waist of the gourd-shaped bay.

Winters couldn't help but cursed loudly, and the soldiers sitting in the boat also noticed the strange thing behind them, and they were in an uproar.

The iron chain blocking the sea divided the Veneta people into two parts. Chisulfur Island was pretending to surrender!

Turn around and go back? Turn to attack the second fort? Speed ​​up and go directly to the pier? what to do?

Everyone in the First Hundred who were in various boats looked at Winters. Even Bud and Andre were watching him. They were waiting for the centurion's order.

Cold sweat suddenly broke out on Winters' forehead. He had been obeying most of his life, but now he was suddenly asked to be responsible for hundreds of lives. He felt a little panic. Each of the three options had pros and cons, and he really didn't know which one was best.

However, the panic only took up one breath. Winters regained his composure, and his sense of responsibility overcame all uneasiness. No matter how stupid the command was, it was better than no command at all! He gritted his teeth, decided to give up the mission, and shouted: "Turn around..."

"Assault forward!" Contel's voice came from the boat nearby. The lieutenant colonel waved his arms fiercely and shouted over and over again: "Assault forward! Assault forward..."

His immediate superior took over the command, and Winters was a little glad that he didn't have to think anymore. He activated the amplification technique and spread Lieutenant Colonel Contel's order across the sea: "Assault forward!"

The soldiers waiting for the order seemed to be re-infused with their souls. Andre held the battle flag above his head and waved it desperately. Bud grabbed the extra oar and joined the rowing soldiers.

The helpless sailors also subconsciously obeyed Winters' magically amplified voice. The leading naval officer shouted angrily, but he was not a spellcaster, and his voice was suppressed by the sound of gunfire.

The larger the caliber of the artillery, the more laborious it is to load it. However, after eight heavy artillery roars, the hidden artillery fort did not remain silent, and the sounds of more light artillery began to sound. The Veneta fleet, recovering from the panic of the surprise attack, also began to fight back.

Winters now ignored the fierce battle behind him. A group of men armed with muskets and crossbows rushed to the shore and began shooting at the Veneta people in the boat.

The small boat with three warrant officers was at the front, flying a military flag. There were three other people on board wearing polished armor, which was the most exposed and obvious.

Most of the musketeers and crossbowmen on the shore noticed the small boat. Bullets were fired one after another, and everyone else on the boat lowered their bodies with all their strength.

Only Andre not only was not frightened, but raised the flag higher in a provocative manner and cursed the Tanirians on the shore.

It was not enough to just curse, as if he was worried that the Tanirians would not be able to hear his greetings because he was too far away. In his rage, Andre actually started to unbutton his pants and urinate towards the shore.

Winters pulled him down: "Are you crazy? Don't seek death!"

"Hahaha..." Andre laughed wildly and said to Winters: "The Tanirians are very bad at shooting and they can't hit me."

"You're crazy!"

"I tell you, you and I are not afraid! Soldiers are not afraid!"

Winters looked to the other five soldiers on board, Andre's boldness and disdain for the Tanirians rubbing off on them. They no longer tried to hide under the side of the boat, but leaned out and paddled hard.

"Cannon!" exclaimed a sailor on another ship.

I saw a large number of Tanirians working together to carry two light cannons close to the shore. The Veneta people's boat was less than 70 meters away from the shore, and the shotgun shells could turn the water into a hell.

"Now we are a target!" Andre punched his thigh angrily: "Paddle, paddle as hard as you can!"

Winters also saw the two cannons, but his breathing rate began to decrease and his thinking began to become clearer.

He subconsciously entered spell-casting mode and was extremely focused. However, he did not use magic, but took out the carrying equipment containing the magic materials.

The standard spellcasting material carrying equipment issued by spellcasting officers adopts a unified design, so Winters immediately found what he was looking for.

Several small containers with metal shells and glass interiors.

Now is not the time to worry about casting materials, Winters took out all four containers.

All the spells of Alliance spellcasters are essentially reverse-engineered spells of the court mages of the Mura Empire.

The "poison smoke technique" has caused militiamen in sovereign wars to suffer a lot. It has always been the Imperial Army's specialty to use poisonous smoke to kill the fortress defenders, use non-toxic smoke to block artillery fire, and then launch an assault to seize the fortress.

The Magical Warfare Department has not cracked the poisonous smoke spell so far, but the non-toxic smoke spell has been successfully reproduced.

After pulling out the stopper from the mouth of the metal container, Winters entered the spell-casting state and launched the fire-burning technique that he had not practiced for a long time against the material in the container.

First there was a plume of green smoke, and then increasingly thicker white smoke poured out of the container. The white smoke would not poison people to death, but it still choked the people on the boat and made them cough.

Winters, who was closest, should have felt the most uncomfortable, but as if he was unconscious, he repeated the process three more times.

Winters then grabbed the small barrel on the boat, put the four smoking metal containers in, and used all his strength to put the barrel into the water and push it to the shore.

Using standard spellcasting materials provided by the Bureau of Magical Warfare, Alliance spellcasters can reproduce the effects of the "smoke spell" of the Imperial Court Mage.

Winters had no idea what was in these metal containers, the contents of which were precious alchemical products. He only knew that releasing a fire spell on the substance in the container would generate thick smoke, and that was enough.

Swordsmen don't need to know how to forge iron, spell casters don't need to know alchemy, and users don't need to know the principles, as long as they can use them.

The full name of these metal containers is "Incited Portable Activated Alchemy Substance Smoke Generators," and officer casters simply call them "smoke bombs."

This is the Senas Alliance's version of the smoke spell. Although I don't know how the court mage's original spell is implemented, the effect is the same, which is enough for the Magic Combat Bureau.

The billowing smoke drifted toward the east coast with the wind, creating a smoke screen between the Tanirians on the shore and the Venetas on the boat, blocking the range of long-range weapons.

The small boat loomed behind the smoke, and the Tanirians on the shore could only fire randomly. The pressure on Winters' small boat dropped sharply.

"You should have used it earlier!" Andre punched Winters excitedly.

"I used all four smoke bombs from two bases at once. I didn't know what to use to hit the bastion for a while." Winters's eyes were red from the smoke, and he shed tears uncontrollably and said with a smile.

"Why haven't the artillery in the bastion fired yet?" Bard, who had been paddling, suddenly spoke.

The oarsmen exerted all their strength, and more than thirty boats slid briskly across the water of the bay. Winters visually determined that he was less than 400 meters away from the dock, and more than one pound of artillery had completely hit the boat.

Yet the bastion remained silent.

Winters' heart sank a little bit. The commander of the bastion was either terrifyingly calm, waiting to bring the Venetans closer and give them a harsh lesson. Either the Tanirians had sufficient troops and did not want to waste gunpowder.

It is also possible that they moved all the artillery to the newly built fort... Is this really possible?

Winters looked at the boat on which Lieutenant Colonel Contel was riding. When the commander led his subordinates towards the end of the world, what would he be thinking?

——Cut——

After the hidden second fort stretched out its fangs, the situation of the fort at the entrance of the bay occupied by Antonio's guards was also in danger.

The forts were designed primarily to deal with enemies from the sea, not to defend against attacks from land.

The Tanirians who originally obeyed and left the fort turned around and attacked fiercely. The outnumbered Guard enemies started a fierce fight in the fort. The flag bearers on the top of the fort desperately waved their flags to ask for help.

"What the hell is going on?!" Naresiao, who has always been a gentleman, grabbed the collar of the Red Sulfur Island envoy and uttered a rare curse word.

"I...I don't know either!" The messenger looked pale, sweating profusely, and looked horrified: "Misunderstanding, this is all a misunderstanding."

The furious Lieutenant General Naresho punched the messenger on the bridge of the nose: "Is this a fucking misunderstanding?"

Then came a harder punch: "Is this a fucking misunderstanding?!"

The messenger was almost knocked unconscious, blood poured into his trachea, and he kept coughing up blood.

"Your Excellency!" Antonio stopped the furious Naresio. At this moment, there was no trace of "I told you so" pleasure on his face, only calmness and restraint: "Keep him alive, there are more important things now. ! Divide the boats and let my soldiers go ashore and seize this fort quickly!"

The deck of the Glory was noisy. The adjutants ordered the sailors to return to their posts. The midshipmen ran to get gunpowder. Several cannons had already fired back. Choking smoke filled the surroundings of the Glory.

The entire fleet fell into chaos. Some ships wanted to turn around and leave but were blocked in the innermost area. Some ships wanted to fire back with artillery but were blocked by friendly ships.

Naresho was panting, staring at the deck at his feet and said: "No! There is no ship."

"What do you mean there is no boat?" Antonio also became a little impatient.

"The team sent to capture the bastion has taken away most of the boats. The remaining boats in the fleet can carry up to two hundred people. If the two hundred people cannot take the fort, the fleet will be trapped here!" Narexiao gasped! Jing Qi said: "The wind direction is wrong, the remaining small boats have to be used to pull the big ship out from here."

Afterwards, the admiral regained his usual commanding look: "Mr. Karaman!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Put down all the remaining small boats! Turn the big boat around and let's get out of here!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Let the galley go out first! Let the sailors of the White Eagle swim to the fort at the entrance of the bay!"

"Yes, sir!"

Karaman saluted and left the forecastle resolutely.

"Why not let the troop transport go to the beach?" Antonio resisted the urge not to question Nareshaw in front of his subordinates.

"No, St. Xili is a beach, and the shore here is full of rocks. The boat will sink before it reaches the shore, so you can only swim across, and you will be a living target!" Narexiao explained quickly.

Antonio was silent.

"The fort at the entrance of the bay cannot be defended either. There must be an iron rope there!" Naresio gritted his teeth and said: "The Tanirians spent a lot of money, and they definitely didn't just want to eat your centurions! If we don’t leave, the entire fleet will be locked in the bay! We must save the fleet!”

"Your Excellency General Serbetti!" Naresio used the superlative honorific for the first time to address Antonio, who was more than ten years younger than him. The admiral said sadly: "Your soldiers can't be saved, and my soldiers can't be saved." It can’t be saved. This is my responsibility, and I will never shirk it. But I have absolutely no selfish intentions now, and the fleet must leave here immediately."

Antonio understood that the admiral was right. The top priority should be to leave the ambush circle as soon as possible. As the leader of the legion, he must put the survival of the legion above everything else.

The commander of the Legion of Grand Veneta reluctantly agreed to the admiral's order to retreat.

Amidst the continuous artillery fire, the fleet began to rescue the sailors who abandoned the ship, turned around under the tow of the small boat, and prepared to sail away.

The Tanirians carried out dozens of arson boats converted from canoes, and Veneta's sailors jumped into the sea with daggers in their teeth. The two sides launched a brutal battle on the water.

In the fort at the entrance to the bay, bloody hand-to-hand combat continued.

Antonio watched as the First Hundred's boat rowed toward Red Sulfur Harbor, getting closer and closer to the dock.

The originally calm water surface in the bay began to become restless.

Winters on the boat also noticed this. The mood of the sea seemed to be changing, and the boat began to become bumpy.

"Is there something wrong?" Winters asked in confusion, looking at the increasingly restless water.

In full view of everyone, something incredible happened: the waves actually turned around and surged from the shore to the open sea.

The speed of the small boat approaching the dock suddenly slowed down, and it was swept back by the waves.

However, the abnormal things were not over yet. The sea surface in the shelter, which should have been calm, had waves that were getting higher and higher, and they were all rolling out to the sea from the direction of the pier.

"God! What is that!" a sailor shouted in horror.

The surging seawater in front actually formed a water wall with a height of three meters. The rolling waves surged and roared, rolling up thousands of white foam and hitting the Veneta people's boat.

Several large ships in the Veneta fleet one kilometer away from the small boat also lost control and were pushed and bumped together by the big wave.

After this big wave, even the water on the coast retreated three meters from its original position.

The sea surface inexplicably returned to calm, and the water rose to its original position again.

All the boats of the Veneta people capsized.

Winters was thrown into the sea. The brackish water made it difficult for him to open his eyes. The heavy armor and weapons on his body pulled him tightly, dragging him deeper.

The force of the water pressure became stronger and stronger, and the last air in his chest was squeezed out. He desperately told himself not to choke on the water, not to choke on the water, but a stream of seawater still poured into his nasal cavity, and then more seawater.

In the ruthless sea, Winters struggled to take off his helmet, fumbled to unlock his breastplate, and threw his sword and gun to the bottom of the sea.

But it was no use, he kept sinking.

He suddenly remembered: "Yes, I can't swim...then why should I struggle?"

In fact, he could no longer think. The extreme lack of oxygen deprived him of his ability to think.

When he stopped thinking, a pair of big hands grabbed his clothes and led him to swim to the coast.

Two new spells appear in this chapter, one is smoke and the other is (crossed out). As mentioned in the previous chapter, caster talents do not differ based on gender. That is, the probability of a spellcaster appearing among men is the same as the probability of a spellcaster appearing among women. Most of the male spellcasters in Senas have been trained as officers, but what about the female spellcasters? The answer is still in the previous chapters, most of the female spellcasters were trained to become alchemists. The Magic Combat Bureau has established two systems, the magic system and the alchemy system. Most fire spells rely on alchemical products as casting materials.

Thank you to the book friends who have voted for recommendations before, writersblock, Justice and Purity is Koala, and Ami. Thank you.