Chapter 976 — Non-Directional Burst
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
A strange, bitter smile touched her lips—the last time she had marched in this direction, it had been to start a war.
...
The vast surge of magic from the direction of the eastern plains instantly triggered the border detection system's alarms. A shrill ringing shattered the small hours at Border Camp No. 22; this defense node, set between the Paramell Highlands and Longwind Fortress, snapped awake in an instant, and the commander and soldiers garrisoned there were left almost bewildered by what was about to happen.
"Detecting a magic fluctuation of enormous scale!" reported Gao Luodao, the soldier in charge of the monitoring system. His eyes were wide, fixed desperately on the data streaming back from the magic detection device. "From the southeast... closing fast!"
An observer hurried from the monitoring room and rushed to a platform near the perimeter wall. In the dawn light slowly brightening across the sky, he engaged the composite filter of the lookout apparatus and pressed his eye to the lenses ground from artificial crystal.
A twisted, searing, colossal cloud of energy had already taken shape in the distance, skimming low over the ground and flying fast toward the camp. Beneath that cloud could be seen the faint flicker of great shields and the first tips of banner lances—black banners with red patterns rising and falling along the horizon's edge like strange fish leaping across the water's surface.
"Heat cone in sight!" the observer Gao Luodao called out. "The cone has formed!
"Enemy markings observed... Typhon! It's Typhon's Iron River Knights!!"
When the camp commander heard this report, his face held nothing but blank astonishment.
Typhon? Attacking out of nowhere? At a time like this?
Had those Typhon bastards all gone mad? Was there even a shred of logic behind any of this?!
A subordinate's shout came from nearby: "Sir! Your orders!"
The commander raised his eyes swiftly to the distance, then without a moment's hesitation gave his command: "Overload the shields—batteries one through four, charge and aim. Everyone to the walls. The moment the enemy enters the firing identification zone, open fire. You—go notify Longwind Fortress. The Typhon have started a war!!"
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers sprang into action, and the camp commander clenched his fists hard. When he looked again toward the southeast, the face of this veteran—who had survived the battle of Bedrock Fortress and the divine calamity on the Holy Spirit Plains—wore nothing but resolve.
The heat cone had formed, the Typhon knights had begun their charge; there was no longer any possibility of communication, confirmation, or reporting—there was simply no time. Since the enemy had chosen to strike without declaring war, then holding this camp was his duty and his soldiers'.
There was something strange behind all this—the commander had indeed sensed it. The Typhon actions defied all logic; sending an ace knight order to hurl itself suicidally at a defense line without mage support was sheer folly. Even if that ace order could tear a gap in this camp, what then? Could they fight their way through the entire Longwind defense line?
Yet at this moment, no one could explain that strangeness—the enemy had come.
Surging energy churned between crystal and metal. The fixed magic-cannon adjusted its angle through the precise turning of gears and bearings, its muzzle raised high, pointed at the knight order charging in the distance. After the briefest of delays, the thunderous roar of the shell accelerating and bursting from its rails erupted—and a pale cyan stream of light tore away the last shred of darkness from this winter dawn.