Chapter 285 - 279: The Black Wizard’s Offensive
Chapter 285: Chapter 279: The Black Wizard’s Offensive
It has been a full three hours since the complete collapse of Zone 17.
A light screen lit up in the dim room, projecting a swath of crimson.
It was a black tsunami of nearly ten thousand Magical Beasts.
Without the small breakwater that was Zone 17, the torrent became like poisoned water from a breached dam. It swept up the territory’s native Magical Beasts, pouring down across the varied terrain.
The vast majority of them were drawn to the Forged Fire Fortress, roaring as they surged eastward.
But on the tactical map, a particularly dense red stream branched off. Like a shark that had smelled blood, it abruptly veered seventy degrees and plunged straight south.
Target: the northern flank of Zone 18.
[WARNING. Data received from northern reconnaissance nodes. Enemy cluster size: 2,145. Estimated time to contact: forty minutes.]
[High-energy reaction. Red high-risk unit detected at the front of the target formation. Peak Magic Power: 4,800.]
The optical feed zoomed in.
It was a Giant Horned Rhino.
Its entire body was covered in dark purple bone armor. With every step, the ground beneath it cracked and spread like ripples.
Behind it, over two thousand Magical Beasts of all kinds were arranged in an unnatural arrowhead formation. There was no chaos, no crowding; even the frequency of their steps was highly synchronized.
’They really think highly of me,’ Allen sneered to himself.
’Magical Beasts couldn’t possibly have this kind of tactical discipline.’
’It must be that Second-level Black Wizard micromanaging them from the shadows.’
’After stepping on Green’s ashes, he immediately targeted me.’
’This is a test. I imagine he won’t make things easy for me on the western front’s main battlefield either.’
[KRRRRT—]
On the western side of the tactical map, a piercing alarm blared.
[Western defense sector, 200 kilometers out, red high-risk unit detected. Peak Magic Power: 5,100. Target: ’Abyssal Fire Bone Dragon.’ Accompanying beast pack size: 1,500.]
Allen opened his eyes, his pupils reflecting two piercing red glows: one from the south and one from the west.
’Pressure on two fronts.’
’Just as I expected. The Black Wizard used those "living surveillance probes" scattered across the wasteland to figure out the troop deployment in Zone 18.’
’They know my defense line is stretched thin, so they chose a critical moment to detonate both fronts at once.’
"Jarvis, prioritize the lead unit."
[The five Freedom Gundams on patrol in the west have completed charging and are about to engage the enemy.]
"Send Units 1 and 2 from the workshop to the northern front," Allen said, his voice completely flat. "They are to go to the underground armory and retrieve two ’Big Boys’."
[Command confirmed. ’Big Boy’ inventory remaining: 4.]
Allen stood up, walked to the tactical map, and placed both hands on its edge.
"What’s the status of the Seventh Defense Legion?"
[They have reached the thirty-kilometer buffer zone on the northern front. Fortifications are complete.]
The view switched to the northern battlefield.
Gloomy gray clouds hung low over the Gobi Desert, where Allen’s Seventh Defense Legion was already in formation. All the Golems from the half-finished Sixth Legion had also been deployed.
The distant horizon began to squirm.
A black tide washed over the ground. The Giant Horned Rhino charged at the very front, its massive body crushing rocks.
Following behind it were dense swarms of Crystal Shell Giant Scorpions, Sand Lizards, and Iron-Mane Wolves.
The vibrations from the ground were relayed back to the workshop via sensor nodes, making even the floor of the Meditation Room tremble slightly.
Fifty kilometers.
Forty kilometers.
[Enemy has entered visual range of the Seventh Defense Legion. Permission to open fire?]
"Wait longer," Allen said, his expression flat.
The black tide continued to advance.
The roars of the Magical Beasts could now be clearly heard through the audio sensors.
Thirty kilometers.
[Targets have fully entered the preset kill zone.]
Allen clenched his fist.
"Detonate."
Two things were buried beneath the thirty-kilometer buffer zone on the northern front.
First, every conventional explosive Allen had emptied from the armory.
Second, over four thousand tons of raw Fire Elemental Crystal Stone ore, mined from Mine No. 20 over the past three months.
Normally, Fire Elemental Crystal Stones would be purified, mixed in proper ratios, and loaded into shells inscribed with Runes to create Magic Missiles and other bombs. But Allen had neither the time nor the production capacity for such refinement.
He chose the most crude and wasteful method.
Dig pits, pour it in, and bury it with remote detonators.
He wasn’t aiming for maximum efficiency or conversion rates, just raw explosive yield.
BOOM—
Even sound was left behind.
The display on the light screen was instantly washed out in pure, brilliant white.
The very earth was overturned.
A ten-kilometer stretch of the earth was violently ripped upward, as if by an invisible giant’s hand.
Immediately after, thousands of tons of Fire Elemental Crystal Stones set off a chain reaction of explosions underground.
Dark red flames mixed with molten magma and sand, transforming into a fiery sandstorm a hundred meters high that surged into the sky.
It was like a miniature volcano had been ignited on the Gobi Desert.
Two thousand Low-Tier Magical Beasts didn’t even have time to scream. The Sand Lizards and Iron-Mane Wolves at the core of the explosion had their flesh instantly vaporized and their bones turned to ash the moment they touched the superheated flames.
The Crystal Shell Giant Scorpions, slightly further away, had their hard shells shatter like potato chips under the terrifying shockwave, their innards liquified by the concussion.
Half a minute later, the smoke began to clear.
The once-flat Gobi Desert was gone, replaced by a ten-kilometer-long, twenty-meter-deep trench of molten rock and scorched earth.
The air was filled with the pungent stench of burning and sulfur.
Of the two thousand Magical Beasts, ninety percent had been vaporized.
Only a few scattered individuals remained at the center of the explosion, writhing in agony on the scorched earth, their bodies engulfed in flames that could not be extinguished.
But the corrupted Giant Horned Rhino did not stop.
It let out an earth-shattering roar as its earthen-yellow shield flared brightly. It had actually withstood the sea of fire and the shockwave, smashing through the wall of flames like an out-of-control locomotive!
More than half of its bone armor was shattered.
Its speed had greatly diminished, but it led the two hundred-odd surviving Magical Beasts behind it in a direct charge toward the silently waiting formation of the Seventh Defense Legion.
From the sky, two blue-white meteors fell.
The two Freedom Gundams didn’t use a "Big Boy"; the beast was already wounded, and every Crystal Bomb saved was one they’d need later.
SHIIING—
Two high-frequency vibrating "Meteor" Ship-Slicing Blades snapped out.
One Gundam attacked from the right, plunging its blade straight into the beast’s abdomen. The other Gundam circled to its rear flank, engines at full power, and used the momentum of its dive to viciously stab its Ship-Slicing Blade into the creature’s back, sinking it to the hilt.
Simultaneously, they both twisted their blades.
The maddened Giant Horned Rhino’s body stiffened for a moment, then collapsed with a crash, killed cleanly and efficiently.
Purgatory Magic Missiles and Magic Eye Type II aerial fortresses engaged the remaining Magical Beast pack from a distance.
In the end, only a few dozen ordinary Magical Beasts reached the formation’s front line, and they too were killed one by one by the Peacekeepers.
[Northern front’s first wave has been neutralized. Seventh Defense Legion casualties: 0.]
There was no joy in Allen’s eyes.
’Four thousand tons of raw Fire Elemental Crystal Stone ore. At the market price in Forged Fire Fortress, that was worth almost a million Magic Stones.’
’This way of fighting isn’t sustainable.’
But Allen didn’t care. As long as he could protect the workshop, crushing the Magical Beasts with money was the most cost-effective tactic.
"Western front status."
[The Abyssal Fire Bone Dragon has been slain. Two Freedom Gundams sustained minor damage and are returning to base.]
The two-front crisis was resolved.
But Allen knew this was just an appetizer.
On the tactical map, the pressure on Zone 18 amidst the red tsunami had multiplied. With the fall of Zone 17, the northern front had completely lost its buffer, and logistics had become even more difficult.
[Commander, the zone’s maximum stress model has been updated.]
Jarvis’s data stream scrolled rapidly across the light screen.
[Due to the exposure of the northern front, defensive area has increased by 40%. Current ammunition consumption rate has increased 1.5 times. Estimated time until logistical collapse has been moved up to: forty-seven days from now.]
’Forty-seven days.’
’I still need another month and a half to finish inscribing the fifth Core Matrix and advance to a Second-level Wizard.’
’There’s no more room for error.’