Emperor of Steel

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The Volga Republic’s Gigants were crossing the frozen river and almost approached the defense wall. Following them were the cavalry and the infantry, in a clear cut formation.

The soldiers of the Fortress, who witnessed their movement were shocked to perform anything.

It was because no one had ever even imagined that the enemy would make a move so quickly.

It was surprising for Luke too.

However, he soon tried to calm himself down.

They have been practicing and preparing for the last three months, presuming that there would be a border dispute soon.

“Activate the Gigant Magic Circle! Prepare the artillery to fire!”

When Luke gave out the orders, the wizards began to memorize the spells. The artillery’s were hurriedly filled in with gunpowder, and shells were loaded into the canons.

“The enemy would arrive at 200 meters!”

“Wait! Do not proceed with the attacks just yet!”

The soldiers were nervous and hasty to attack, but they were stopped with the orders of Luke.

“The enemy Gigants would arrive close in on 100 meters!”

“Wait!”

The sword of the enemy’s Gigant reflected the sunlight into the soldiers’ eyes on the defense wall.

It was as if the enemy Gigant was going to come up the hill and break down the wall and rush right into the Fortress.

“The enemy will close in on 50 meters.”

“This is it! Start the attacks at once!”

The moment Luke’s command fell, the wizards memorized the final spell of the magic circle, the artillery was lit with the wick.

Kwakwang! Grrrr!

Tearing up the sky and the land, with roars from the sky, and the heat from the ground.

Explosion Mine and the other large-scale magic circles were launched in unison.

Dozens of Volga men, who were rushing in for the lead, smashed into the ground or were pushed back.

In the same manner, the Gigant’s approaching had suffered a whole lower body damage, the following Gigants had minor damages too like ankle and knee breakouts.

“This, this…!”

“Don’t stop, go ahead!”

The troops of Volga paused for a second, but with the orders from their commander, they began to charge once again.

However, it was the fierce shelling that had welcomed them when they reached the hilltop, right below the Fortress.

Pupong! Bang!

“Retract the barrel!”

“Hurry and reload!”

The officers managing artillery on the defense wall cried out.

The large-caliber artillery of the Gigant was as powerful as the large canons.

If properly hit, the Gigant’s sword and gloves could be neutralized.

However, because of the large amount of gunpower being stuffed, the shells were large and heavy to load.

Luke thought of an unprecedented way to make up for the shortcomings.

It was by allowing the Gigants on the defense wall to help reload the shells, they were able to reload the shell faster than they could imagine.

At first, the proud riders of the Empire; the knights of the empire revolted greatly.

How could people of such skill perform a lowly task?

However, Luke who had full control over the knights because of the confrontation forced them to do it, and the effect of it was being demonstrated in the battle.

The continuous bombardment of the Volga Gigants was subsequently destroyed.

“Kuk! When did such defense plans get installed on the Torlot Fortress!?”

A wizard with a magnificent robe, watching over the attack from the base, bellowed, being impressed with their enemy.

He was Meister Tyron, of the Republican Magic Tower.

Though he was a wizard, Tyron was so good at the military insight that he was put in charge of leading the wizards and to set up the merits during the Republican revolution.

Which was why he was asked to keep an eye on the Torlot Fortress battle too.

Tyron had mobilized the warlocks from the Dark Moon Magic Tower to pierce into the enemy territory in the early hustle.

By using them, he froze the San river in a moment and got to cross the river.

Before the enemy could even defend their own Fortress, he had planned to rush in and occupy the Fortress, however, they faced with an unexpected problem.

No, it wasn’t to the extent being considered as a problem, but it was a bit hard as they had suffered damage to their Gigants.

“The recent fortress commander doesn’t seem to be a regular guy. To push us like this.”

Although what he wanted to achieve was lost, the war wasn’t still lost in the Volga’s side.

There were numerous ways to occupy the Torlot Fortress, and only one plan of them had failed.

That too, it was just an act which made him stumble over as the damage on Gigant had accumulated.

Pooong!

A horn cried from the land beyond the San river.

White smoke rose from the back of Volga’s Gigant.

The enemy was hiding in the thick smoke, so the Torlot fortress stopped their attacks. It was because the aiming process would get troublesome if they couldn’t see.

‘Are they retreating?’

Thought Luke as he noticed the enemy’s movements.

In the early stages of war, the enemy had suffered unforeseen damage to the Gigant troops.

Luke naturally assumed that the enemy commander would have ordered them to retreat.

‘The problem is with the artillery unit rather than the Gigants of the enemy.’

Luke stared at the enemy who was in the smokescreen.

Enemy troops shrouded on the riverside, one would get tired by just looking at the quantity of them.

Among them, the best one was the artillery troops who were gathered on the other side.

The artillery units were large in size and possessed a wide variety of guns, including the large-caliber and the small; as well as the rapid-firing and the motor ones.

‘Volga seems to have put more emphasis on the artillery rather than their knights.’

Unlike the Baroque Empire and the other kingdoms, which emphasized on the knights’ templar, the Volga seemed to have emphasized on the artillery troops.

Although the role of the ordinary soldiers had been reduced due to the large amount of Gigants and artillery units on the battlefield, the greatest reason Volga tilted towards it was due to the various checks the other kingdoms had when it came to selling Gigants to the Volga.

There were times when the Volga Republic had thought of numerous ways to overcome the situation.

Among them, were the plans to introduce large-scale firearms such as guns.

However, the plan had soon come to a halt.

With the low number of Gigants, the infantry unit would have to fight directly, and the firepower from the canons and guns couldn’t cause any serious damage to the Gigant.

And as a result, the Volga Republic worked very hard to improve their canons.

They not only used them for the defense but also developed them for a variety of attacks.

They even used the Gigants which couldn’t be used for the war; for the purpose of towing or loading the large shells.

“Oh my God! Those men tried to block the attack and bring out their canons?”

“If they start shelling, the fortress would fly away in seconds!”

Seeing more than 200 canons outside, the Imperial soldiers turned nervous.

Luke spoke to them, to calm them down,

“Don’t be scared! Only a few of those canons would be able to hit the Fortress directly!”

Torlot Fortress was situated directly on the hill.

The large-caliber artillery from the Gigants could do direct fire, but they would be unable to attack upwards.

If there was any threat, it was the medium-sized canons with the adjustable angles and motors.

The motor-based ones were particularly dangerous because they could even shoot the large shells.

Buon!

Along with the sound, a stream of smoke rose from the Volga army camp.

The shell, which soared high in the sky took a curve and went several tens of meters away from the Fortress.

And then, another shell was fired, but it was closer this time.

‘Are they measuring the aim?’

As Luke had expected, the third shell fell right into the Fortress.

Fortunately, there were no soldiers who had been injured as the shell fell into the parade ground, and the shell was just a boulder.

The problem came after that. The Volga Republic artillery began to move in unison.

The Volga’s artillery controlled the direction and the angle of fire along with the gunpowder. And they began to fire twenty feet into the air, right at the Fortress.

“Incoming!”

“Everyone get down!”

And right before the soldiers and knights could avoid it.

Luke suddenly manifested magic on the falling shells.

“Fire Bolt!”

Arrows and balls of flame began to go in and hit the shells which were falling towards the Fortress.

Bang! Poong!

The magic properly hit the shells in the air and the ones which had missed the trajectory flew to the other side, the enemy grounds.

Anna who was witnessing that spoke not realizing it,

“Kya! That was so cool! Lord!”

“You’re the best!”

“Commander Luke! Woohooo!”

Anna, as well as the other knights and soldiers in the Fortress, burst into cheers.

Unlike the Imperial army, which was full of hope, the Republic army couldn’t understand what had just happened.

Someone or something had just intercepted their twenty shells all at once!

“Can you do that too?”

The Volga Artillery officer asked a warlock from the Dark Moon, who answered by just shaking his head.

It was virtually impossible to hit the shells coming in with acceleration and stop their drop.

The trajectory and magic manifestation had to be calculated correctly and they realized that there was one monster who could actually do that!

Moreover, it wasn’t just one shell but several of them!

However, the warlock didn’t get flustered.

It was common sense that what had just happened could be a plain coincidence, and it wouldn’t happen again.

“Do not panic and keep shooting. Even if he could, how many hundreds of shells can he stop? He won’t be able to.”

The artillery officer nodded his head at the words of the warlock and waved the red flag.

The shells of the Volga had begun to fly once again.

‘They’ll keep doing this?’ Thought Luke.

Luke too fired the Fire Bolt and intercepted the shells which were flying towards their Fortress.

Philip shouted at the army, who was busy admiring the scene instead of doing their work.

“What the hell are you doing? Don’t stand still and attack the enemy when they aren’t in a state of attacking us!”

Understanding his words, the artillery began to take aim and fired at the Volga artillery.

The Fortress was on the hill and Luke’s hit rate had been high. Thanks to the drills that Luke made the soldiers perform, they were able to work properly.

As soon as a dozen shells were released; the Volga units went surprised and the warlocks turned busy trying to defend the units and the army from the falling shells by using a defensive spell.

In the end, Meister Marquis Tyron gave them the orders.

“Gigant troops, get ready!”

“Infantry troops follow the Gigants!”

While both troops had heard the orders, the Gigants which had been standing still, began to charge forward at once.

The battle, which had been difficult since the beginning, was not going to be easy as both sides showed no signs of withdrawing.