Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 80 The Wave

   "The sound of artillery?! Where are the guns firing?!" Winters was suddenly startled, stood up on the rickety boat and looked back.

But the situation was deteriorating so fast that he couldn't even think about it. The sky-shattering horn was shouted on the shore, the chain being dragged rattled, and a red and black line slowly rose from the seabed in a naturally sagging shape. The arc stopped at the waist of the gourd-shaped bay.

   Winters couldn't help but scolded, and the soldiers sitting in the boat had already noticed the strangeness behind them, and there was an uproar.

  The sea-blocking iron chain divided the Veneta people into two parts, and the Red Sulphur Island was cheating!

   Turn around and go back? Turn to attack the second fort? Speed ​​up the direct pick-up terminal? What should I do?

   All the 100th men in each boat looked at Winters, even Bud and Andre were watching him, they were waiting for the order of the centurion.

   Cold sweat broke out on Winters' forehead instantly. He had been obedient for most of his life, but at this moment he was suddenly made responsible for hundreds of lives, and he felt a little panic. Each of the three options had pros and cons, and he really didn't know which was the best.

  However, panic only took up one breath, Winters regained his composure, his sense of responsibility overwhelmed all anxiety, and even a stupid command is better than no command! He gritted his teeth, decided to give up the mission, and shouted: "Turn your head..."

   "Burst forward!" Comteier's voice came from the boat next to him. The lieutenant colonel waved his arms violently, and repeated over and over again: "Rush forward! Shock forward..."

   The immediate boss took over the command, and Winters was a little fortunate that he didn't have to think anymore. He activated the amplification technique and spread the order of Lieutenant Colonel Contaire across the sea: "Attach forward!"

   The soldiers waiting for the order seemed to be reinfused with their souls. Andre raised the battle flag above his head and waved desperately, while Bard grabbed the extra oars and joined the rowing soldiers.

  The helpless sailors also subconsciously obeyed Winters' voice amplified by magic. 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 reload, but after the eight roars of heavy artillery, the concealed artillery did not go silent, and more light artillery sounds began to sound. The Veneta fleet, recovering from the panic of being raided, also began to fight back.

   Now Winters couldn't care about the fierce battle behind him. A group of men and horses armed with muskets and crossbows rushed to the shore and started shooting at the Veneta people on the boat.

   The small boat that the three warrant officers took was at the forefront, carrying the military flag. There were also three people on board wearing polished and polished armor, which was the most exposed and obvious.

  Most of the musketeers and crossbowmen on the shore noticed the boat, and the bullets were fired one after another, and the others on the boat were all bowed down.

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

   It's not enough to just scold him, as if he was worried that the Tanirians would not be able to hear his greetings because they were too far away, Andrei started to unbutton his pants and urinate on the shore.

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

   "Hahaha..." Andre laughed wildly and said to Winters, "The Tanirians' spear skills are so bad that they can't hit me."

   "You're crazy!"

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

   Winters looked at the other five soldiers on board, and Andre's boldness and contempt for the Tanirians infected them. Instead of trying to hide under the sides of the boat, they stick out and paddle hard.

   "Cannon!" The sailors on the other ship exclaimed.

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

   "We're a target now!" Andre angrily punched his thigh: "Row, row!"

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

   He subconsciously entered spellcasting mode and was extremely focused. However, instead of using magic, he took out the carrier that contained the spell-casting materials.

  The standard spellcasting material carrier issued by the caster officer is of a uniform design, so Winters immediately found what he was looking for.

   Several small containers with metal shell and glass liner.

   When it wasn't time to feel distressed about the casting materials, Winters took out all four containers.

All of the    Alliance spellcasters' spells are essentially reverse-engineering of the spells of the Muro Empire court mages.

   "Poison Smoke Technique" once made the militia in the Sovereign War suffer a lot. Using poisonous smoke to kill the bastion defenders, using non-toxic smoke to block the artillery fire, and then launching an assault to seize the fortress has always been a good trick of the imperial army.

  The Ministry of Magic Warfare has not yet cracked the poisonous smoke spell, but the non-toxic smoke spell has been successfully reproduced.

   Pulled out the stopper at the mouth of the metal container, and Winters entered the spellcasting state, and launched a fire technique that he had not practiced for a long time against the substance in the container.

   First there was a wisp of green smoke, and then thicker and 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 to cough.

  The closest Winters was supposed to suffer the most, but he seemed to be unconscious and repeated this process three times.

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

   Through the standard casting materials provided by the Magic Warfare Bureau, the casters of the alliance can reproduce the effect of the "smoke technique" of the imperial court mages.

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

  The swordsman does not need to know how to strike iron, the caster does not need to know alchemy, the user does not need to know the principle, as long as he can use it.

   The full name of these metal containers is "Inspired Portable Activated Alchemy Substance Smoke Generators", and military spellcasters simply call them "smoke bombs".

   This is the Senus Alliance version of the smoke spell. Although I don't know how the original spell of the court mages is implemented, the effect is the same, and it is enough for the magic war bureau.

   The thick smoke drifted to the east coast with the wind, and a smoke screen was drawn between the Tanirians on the shore and the Venetas on the boat, blocking the range of the long-range weapons.

   The boat was looming behind the smoke, and the Tanirians on the shore could only fire indiscriminately, and the pressure on Winters' boat plummeted.

   "You used it early!" Andre punched Winters excitedly.

   "I used all four smoke bombs from two bases in one go, and I didn't know what to use to hit the bastion for a while." Winters' eyes were red with smoke, and he smiled wryly with uncontrollable tears.

   "Why haven't the artillery in the bastion fired yet?" Bud, who had been paddling in silence, suddenly opened his mouth.

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

   Yet the Bastion remained silent.

   Winters' heart sank little by little, the commander of the bastion was either calm and terrifying, waiting to bring the Veneta people closer to a severe lesson. Either the Tanirians are strong enough and don't want to waste gunpowder.

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

   Winters looked at the boat where Lieutenant Colonel Contaire was riding. When the commander led his subordinates towards doom, what would he be thinking?

  —cut—

  After the fangs of the second concealed fort were extended, the situation of the fort at the entrance to the bay occupied by Antonio's guards was also in jeopardy.

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

  The Tanirians, who had left the cannons in obedience, turned their heads and attacked fiercely. The enemy guards, who were outnumbered, launched a fierce battle in the cannons. The flag-bearers on the top of the cannons desperately waved their flags for help.

   "What the **** is going on?!" Nareshaw, who has always been a gentleman, grabbed the collar of the messenger of Red Iwo Island and uttered a rare swear word.

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

   The enraged Lieutenant General Nareshaw smashed the messenger's nose with a fist: "Is this a **** misunderstanding?"

   followed by a more ruthless punch: "Is this a **** misunderstanding?!"

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

"Your Excellency!" Antonio stopped the furious Nareshaw. At this moment, his face did not show the slightest 'I said it before', only calm and restraint: "Leave him alive, now there are more important things Dispatch my soldiers ashore and take down this artillery base quickly!"

  The deck of the Glory was noisy, the adjutants ordered the sailors back to their posts, the midshipmen ran to get gunpowder, several of the cannons had fired back, and the choking smoke filled the Glory.

  The entire fleet was thrown into chaos. Some ships wanted to turn away but were blocked in the innermost part. Some ships wanted to fire back with artillery but were blocked by friendly ships.

  Nareshaw, panting, stared at the deck below and said, "No! There is no boat."

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

"The team that was sent to occupy the bastion just now has taken away most of the boats. The remaining boats in the fleet can carry up to 200 people. If 200 people can't take down the cannon, the fleet will be trapped here!" Nareshaw gasped. "The wind is not right," said gruffly. "The rest of the boats must be used to lead the big boats out of here."

   Then, the Vice Admiral returned to his usual commanding appearance: "Mr. Karaman!"

"Yes, sir!"

   "Put down all the remaining boats! Tow the big boat to turn around and we're out of here!"

"Yes, sir!"

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

"Yes, sir!"

  Karaman saluted and left the forecastle in a resolute manner.

   "Why don't the troop transports wash the beach?" Antonio resisted not questioning him in front of Nareshaw's subordinates.

   "No, St. Ciri is a beach, and the shore here is full of reefs. The boat will sink before it reaches the shore, and you can only swim over it. That's a living target!" Nareshaw explained quickly.

  Antonio was silent.

"The artillery base at the entrance of the bay can't be defended either, there must be an iron rope there!" Nareshaw gritted his teeth and said, "The Tanirians paid their blood, definitely not just to eat your centurion! If we don't leave, the entire fleet will be locked in the bay! We must keep the fleet!"

"Your Excellency General Serbia!" For the first time, Naresho used the highest honorific to address Antonio, who was a dozen years younger than him, and the Vice Admiral said sadly: "Your soldiers can't be saved, and neither can my soldiers. I can’t save it, this is my responsibility, and I will never shirk the blame. But I have absolutely no selfishness now, and the fleet must leave here immediately.”

  Antonio understood that what the Vice Admiral said was right. The top priority should be to leave the ambush circle as soon as possible. As the commander of the Legion, he must put the Legion's survival above everything else.

The corps commander of    Da Vineta with difficulty agreed to the Vice Admiral's order to withdraw.

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

  The Tanirians carried out dozens of canoes transformed into arson boats, Veneta's sailors jumped into the sea with daggers, and the two sides launched a brutal fight on the water.

  In the cannon at the entrance of the bay, **** hand-to-hand combat continued.

  Antonio watched as the boats of the 100th sailed toward the port of Red Sulphur, getting closer and closer to the dock.

  The water surface in the bay, which was originally low in wind and waves, became restless.

   Winters in the boat also noticed this, the mood of the sea seemed to be changing, and the boat began to get bumpy.

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

  Under the eyes of the public, an incredible thing happened: the waves actually reversed direction and rushed out from the shore to the sea.

  The speed of the boat that was approaching the pier suddenly stagnated, and was swept up by the waves and could not advance or retreat.

   However, the anomalous things are not over yet. The waves in the safe harbor should have been calm, and the waves are higher and higher, and they are all rolled out from the direction of the pier to the sea.

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

   The surging sea water in front of him actually formed a wave of water walls that was three meters high. The tumbling waves galloped and roared, rolling up thousands of foam and hitting the boat of the Veneta.

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

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

  The sea surface was inexplicably calm again, and the sea water surged back to its original position.

  The boats of the Veneta capsized.

   Winters was thrown into the sea, the brackish water made him unable to open his eyes, and the heavy armor and weapons on his body pulled him tightly and dragged him deeper.

  The power of the water pressure is getting stronger and stronger, and the last air in his chest is about to be squeezed dry. He tried desperately to tell himself not to choke on water, not to choke on water, but a puff of seawater poured down his nostrils, and then more seawater.

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

   But it was useless, he was still sinking.

   He suddenly remembered: "Yes, I can't swim... Then what am I struggling with?"

   In fact, he can no longer think, and the extreme lack of oxygen deprives him of his ability to think.

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

   Two new spells appear in this chapter, one is Smoke and the other is (crossed out). As mentioned in the previous chapter, spellcaster talents do not differ by gender. That is, the probability of a spellcaster appearing in males is the same as the probability of appearing in females. Most of Cenas' male spellcasters are trained to be officers, but what about female spellcasters? The answer is still in the previous chapters, most of the female spellcasters were trained to become alchemists. The Magic Warfare Bureau has established two systems, the Spell Department and the Alchemy Department. Most fire spells rely on alchemical products as casting materials.

   Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, writersblock, justice and purity are the recommendation votes of Koala and Ami, thank you.

   (end of this chapter)