Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
The maxims of battle dictated that practical functions were the most important on the battlefield. Something like a beautiful outer appearance wasn’t even worth considering.
While a humanoid mecha may seem awesome, its attack methods were actually rather simple. Since it imitated the attack patterns of a human, it was easy to predict and defend against, and since it needed to maintain its balance while walking, a great amount of development resources and parts would be spent on balancing the mecha.
This was doubtlessly a critical amount of waste, especially when the technology was still immature.
But then what type of combat mecha was the most efficient?
“It needs plenty of space for firearms, so the best way is to have many individual sections that can contain more weapons and parts!”
“Let’s abandon the walking mechanism that’s just a waste of resources. As long as it can kill, it’s fine even if it crawls on the ground.”
“I feel that it needs as many individual parts as possible so that it can even let go of broken parts, reorganize itself, and still be able to do battle. This way, our logistical ability will go up an entire other level.”
“If the enemy consists of mages, then the larger the combat mechanism, the bigger the target. This absolutely can’t be too big, yep, the most important part is to not be too tall.”
After gathering each other’s opinions, the maniacal engineers abandoned all common sense and created this fearsome combat beast—Train King, prototype zero!
The name undoubtedly came from Roland. The shape of the connections between its parts reminded Roland of a train.
And now, what currently appeared in front of everyone was such a metallic monster. This metallic monster had many parts connected to each other just like train carriages, and its metallic legs, which imitated that of insects, firmly pierced into the ground. This giant centipede-like metallic monster attracted everyone’s attention the moment it appeared.
“Train? Isn’t it just a centipede?” Hemet’s astonishment was virtually identical to Roland’s the first time he saw it. Yep, when this combat mecha was constructed in reality based on its blueprint, its original train-shaped outer appearance became more like that of a metallic insect. It was basically a metallic centipede prancing about on the battlefield!
And so, taking into consideration the possibilities on the battlefield, its designers, who had already abandoned all common sense and aesthetics, were also inspired from this. They directly abandoned the inconvenient method of using wheels and instead gave it metallic blades as feet, which would be more suitable for a wider variety of terrain types. Each “foot” was a blade that could attack by itself as the Train King’s entire body was filled with weapons from head to toe.
Hemet’s astonishment was soon received by a display of combat effectiveness. The centipede monster climbed past the castle wall at high speed while spraying flammable oil from pipes on both of its sides, and with a spark, all the castle walls it passed by turned into seas of fire.
Those seas of fire along its path caused the beastmen to begin shrieking in agony, but only when it reached its destination, stuck its metallic feet into the ground, and transformed into a steel barrier, did it show its true form.
All its train-carriage-resembling parts opened up to reveal the newest Gnome Cannons in each of them. As a divine artifact that belonged to the cult that believed in “as many cannons as possible,” the Train King used its actions to show off what the phrase “more cannons equal more power” truly meant.
“Odd-numbered engineers! Fire your cannons!”
*Boom! Boom!*
The entire battlefield outside the western castle door transformed into a sea of fire. Countless beastmen were gifted explosions as each cannon shell landed.
But at the same time, the beastmen vanguard that was already on the castle wall was approaching the Train King. They wore vicious grins and let out angry roars as they intended to use their own fresh blood to battle with this hunk of steel. They wanted to let those weak humans know just what true and reliable strength was supposed to be.
They had the self-confidence that as long as they were able to get into close-combat range, the engineers controlling the cannons wouldn’t be an adversary at all. They only needed an instant to break this expensive toy into pieces.
But since Dimlet had a reputation for demonic intelligence, how could he possibly leave in such a glaring weakness?
“Close-combat mode, activate! Blades extend!”
In an instant, all the metallic feet of the centipede rose up again, as its sharp ends transformed into sharp blades for the purpose of slaying the enemy! The sharp blades then began spinning crazily at a high speed!
That wasn’t all...
“Even-numbered engineers, ignite your flamethrowers!”
This time, the train carriages opened up to reveal shocking amounts of high-powered flamethrowers operated by sweaty engineers who had been waiting for this precise moment.
“Fire! Maintain the flamethrowers for twenty seconds!”
“Ahhh!”
The flames that could shoot to a distance of several dozen meters created a corridor of despair. Although there were a few incredibly strong individual beastmen who made it past the flames, the rotating blades would unhesitatingly deliver a killing blow.
“Ahhh! Those damned humans...”
Now, the beastmen attackers were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either they could be impaled on the blades or be turned into barbequed meat.
And killing was only one of the Train King’s purposes. Its mega-long mechanical body itself was one of the best barriers and makeshift castle walls, so the incredibly fatigued defending army could finally find some time to breathe and rest.
After this movable steel wall started acting as a battlefield barrier and cleaned up everything before it, it took the opportunity to send out large amounts of scalding-hot steam through its ventilation pipes.
The Train King’s energy consumption was far too heavy. Just a few short minutes caused all its parts and engines to overload and overheat, with engineers tossing cold water at the overheating engines as an emergency cooling method.
The beastmen noticed this short cooling-off period. Just as they were hesitating about whether or not to charge forward again, an even scarier scene was awaiting them.
“Gun squads, fireball squads, prepare!”
The most despairing scene was now in front of them. The engineers lifted up their guns, and the magic swordsmen actually jumped on top of the Train King’s carriages and started preparing their magic. The brilliantly flashing fire birds started gathering numerous fireballs that perhaps weren’t all that high in level, but who would be able to dodge several hundred fireballs being fired at once?
*Pew!* *Pew!* *Boom!*
Every fireball and deadly gunshot added onto the beastmen’s despair as they faced this new generation’s firepower and technology. The short, approximately twenty-meter distance between them and the humans were akin to the difference between life and death, and the regret of “just one more step” accompanied them to their deaths.
The continuous explosion of each fireball drew all the attention on the battlefield as more and more areas were cleared of beastmen. As the rulers of the battlefield and with the mages gathering together, the deadly force was drastically improved.
Finally, the beastmen tribe leaders were unable to stand for this any longer.
Under the tribe leader Kagra’s lead, a large number of harpies covered the castle walls, resembling the clouds. Along with them was the dragon knight who had luckily escaped last time; the green dragon Osmanya and his Wolf Tribe Dragon Knight Rider Kakaji had returned. The beastmen army had gambled everything on this battle and sent out their few remaining aerial troops.
“Shoot down that dragon knight!”
If this combat beast had any other weaknesses apart from its unresolvable lack of ability to fight for an extended period of time, they would be that it was far too focused on ground units and that it lacked anti-air capabilities.
Reyne instantly figured out the weakness of the harpies. They lacked physical strength since most of their throwing spears were made of wood. Even though they could kill humans easily enough with wood spears, they lacked the ability to threaten the steel-bodied Train King. As for aerial spells? Did they really have the focus necessary for casting spells while flapping their wings and not falling out of the sky? If they actually had such skills, they might as well be archmages to begin with.
“That dragon knight’s the only threat; kill him!”
The current Princess Knight was no longer simply the commanding officer at the western castle door. Although she hadn’t been promoted yet for her numerous accomplishments, battlefield achievements were far more effective than any rank or title on the battlefield. In truth, she was already the leading commander in charge of the entire Red Maple Castle defense line.
But currently, nobody was able to carry out her orders. That green dragon knight was far too cautious and flew so high in the air that no arrows or magic could reach him.
According to that dragon knight’s past tactics, whenever a combat situation got tense, he would attack in an aerial ambush, with his dragon’s poison mist being abnormally fatal. Perhaps his single efforts weren’t critical in affecting the overall combat situation, but he would definitely give serious blows to the defending army’s morale. This time, it was obvious that his target was the Train King.
It was also obvious that he intended to use the harpies as a smokescreen to create another opportunity for an ambush in the chaos.
All these days of battle had also inflicted heavy casualties upon the humans’ griffin knights. Those that could still fly were already participating in battle, as after so many days of warfare, both the sides were fighting based on mostly willpower and stamina.
“Argh!”
But this time, the green dragon knight’s ambush was blocked.
“Timier!”
That’s right, a gigantic bone dragon suddenly flew up from the castle and shot like a cannonball right at the green dragon, causing the green dragon to lose its balance in midair.
But immediately afterwards, the bone dragon that was riddled with injuries fell right back down again. As the overall aerial commander, Timier had always fought at the front of his soldiers and both he and his bone dragon were now in bad condition. Just making such an attack had taken all their effort.
But while that beastman dragon knight was still catching his balance, death came looking for him, as the Princess Knight was now behind him.
Although she was one of the few who had an aerial steed, Reyne wasn’t self-confident enough to believe that she could win a direct battle against such a strong dragon knight, but finding the right opportunity during battle for an ambush was one of her strongest skills.
“Die!”
There was no such thing as luck on the battlefield. The chaotic situation would always prove who was truly stronger or weaker. The dragon knight Kakaji didn’t even have time to turn around and see who it was before Reyne’s longsword came slashing down.
The head that went flying was dripping blood in midair and an expression of disbelief was frozen on its face. The powerful Kakaji died just like that with his eyes, which were glaring angrily, still filled with shock.
“Rargh!”
The young green dragon Osmanya started howling painfully as it discovered through the contract that its master had died and received its master’s pain. But it didn’t suffer for long, as Reyne’s bloody hands pulled out the spear on her back and gathered a cyan colored aura. The Dragonslayer Spear from the Dragon Slayer Bastlar was then suddenly struck into the green dragon’s head!
“Awoo!”
The green dragon howled pitifully as it helplessly flapped its wings, but its counter, the Dragonslayer Spear, kept piercing deeper into its brain, and it could only meet its unavoidable demise. With the dragon blood spraying everywhere, Reyne completed her own achievement of slaying a dragon!
“Dragon Slayer Reyne!”
“Princess Knight!”
In everyone’s eyes, whenever the Northlands met with danger—just like countless times in history past—a young ruler stood up for their sakes.
The joyous cries of the human soldiers helped the young female knight completely shake off the impression of a delicate flower. Now, the Princess Knight’s name was known to all as a true knight.
Reyne jumped back from the green dragon in midair and her Frozen Nightmare steed caught her. She herself could barely believe what was happening as she watched the green dragon fall out of the sky.
“Father, I did it! I’m no longer a useless flower princess; I can protect my own tribe and the Mist Country as well now.”
For some inexplicable reason, Reyne suddenly thought of the man who wasn’t on this battlefield at this moment.
“If he knew about this, would he praise me or lecture me on my recklessness?”
“I think that His Highness Roland would probably lecture you first, then nonchalantly find some reason to reward you. But, I doubt it’s the type of reward that you want.”
Her Frigid Nightmare’s words caused Reyne to blush. She suddenly found how inconvenient it was for her mind to be connected to her Frigid Nightmare.
“Danger’s coming! Be careful!”
There would always be inconveniences attached to being famous. Another dragon knight was attempting to ambush her, and even across all this distance, Reyne could feel the bone-piercing hatred.
But even Reyne didn’t expect that her mouth would arc upwards in a smile with the danger right in front of her. She was licking her lips in anticipation and enjoying the stimulation from being on the verge of death in battle. She was enjoying this war.
But she was also filled with doubts in her heart at how she felt excited and more clearheaded for no apparent reason as the battle progressed. The beastmen’s death cries would honestly make her feel pleasure in her heart, as if she was born for battle and this slaughter was helping her awaken her sleeping talent.
She enjoyed this place, she enjoyed hearing her enemies’ cries, she enjoyed seeing fresh blood flow. That mysterious excitement made her feel like she was burning.
Even if all of that could be explained as the excitement of a newcomer to the battlefield, the fact that her own strength was obviously increasing could not.
“Forget it, let’s stop thinking about it; it’s a good thing anyways... That idiot over there—is the burning-hot oil still not ready? Toss it down to me and burn those beastmen to death!”
During the intermittent breaks between battle, the knights excitedly gossiped with each other about what they saw, admiring the fact that their princess was indeed a descendant of the Mist as she changed so much in battle. But in the eyes of a few who showed concern, there were obvious changes in Reyne that weren’t so apparent on the surface.
A blood-red light kept flickering in Reyne’s eyes. The souls of the dead weren’t able to enter the cycle of reincarnation, and were instead sucked into Reyne’s body as they wailed before death. With Reyne’s continuous “feeding,” huge black wings that mortal eyes couldn’t perceive grew larger and larger on her back.
In this darkness, there was one pair of worried eyes that looked at her. This person’s expression was filled with an obvious hesitation. Perhaps it may be unnoticeable to other people, but those black wings were more obvious than anything else in Elisa’s vision.
“She’s also a demonic descendant? Damn it. Roland, it’s just as you expected; Reyne is a demonic descendant as well. This is the worst possible outcome. Looking at her fierceness and natural talent in consuming souls, she has to be at the very least the descendant of a Demon Overlord. It’s quite obvious now; both living descendants of the Mist are the descendants of Abyssal Prince Karwenz.”
“Karwenz! What have you done?”
In a distant labyrinth, I roared out in anger as I was filled with rage from hearing this news, but my summoned spirit version of Karwenz only shook his head in innocence.
“What? I didn’t do anything! I’m just helping you attack people!”
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