Chapter 1450: Taquila Street Battle
Days later.
South of the Fertile Plains, Tower Station No. 10.
Balshan lay prone outside the turret, telescope raised, watching the silhouette of the ancient city shimmer in the distance. She had read the dispatches about the Northern Expedition — knew that what she was looking at had once been Taquila, the famous witch city, that the demons had thrown everything they had at it and been turned back by the First Army. History had a way of feeling abstract until you were lying flat on steel plate with cannon smoke in your lungs looking at the place yourself.
One minute. Thirty seconds. Ten seconds.
She covered her ears.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
The 152mm Longsong Cannons of the Artillery Squad opened up from behind the line — a sound that was less heard than felt, transmitting through the ground into the vehicle’s frame until her arms went faintly numb. There was no comparison to the short-barrel mounted on the tank. They were different instruments entirely.
“Team Leader, haven’t you gotten used to the cannon fire yet?”
Bay spoke from the front of the vehicle, cross-legged on the driver’s seat, a ration canister in his hand. The battlefield reeked of demonic beast rot and scorched stone. He ate as though he were seated at a table.
“That won’t do.” He shook his head with the authority of a man sharing wisdom. “You need to train your ears to filter out unimportant noise. That’s how you maintain focus.”
“Your hearing is just poor.” Balshan lowered the telescope without looking at him. The driver and cannoneer were veterans — that was beyond dispute — but the Vehicle Commander was the team leader, and in terms of years lived, she was almost certainly the senior person present. “The only thing I need to hear is anything abnormal from the Sigil of Screaming. Not cannon booms. Not you.”
“Team Leader.” Bay looked wounded. “That’s a little harsh. I always imagined witches would be more like Angel Nana—”
“Five years ago, witches were the devil’s minions.”
“Uh—” He paused. “People won’t warm to you if you keep talking like that.”
“I think Team Leader’s fine,” Shure said from the turret.
Both of them turned.
The cannoneer blinked at the attention. “She’s direct and capable. No military background, and she’s adapted to the battlefield in less time than most veterans. Best Vehicle Commander we could have asked for. What? Did I say something wrong?”
“No.” Balshan shrugged. “Though you missed nine out of ten shots during training, you’re not completely useless.”
Shure looked pleased.
“Alright, enough of this.” Bay switched topics with the practiced speed of a man who had learned when to retreat. “By the way — back at Tower Station No. 9, who was the person waiting outside the camp? He had a First Army uniform. A medal on his chest. Is he a friend of yours?”
“Why do you ask?”
“A medal isn’t easy to earn.” Bay was slightly embarrassed. “I thought he might be worth knowing.”
“I know him.” Her voice slowed. “He’s not as impressive as the medal suggests. Without me, he’d have been food for the beasts.”
“Wow. Your standards are—”
She covered her ears.
The salvo landed like a fist closing. Bay, unprepared, flinched visibly at the reverberations.
Three green flares arced into the sky.
Attack signal.
“Your focus doesn’t seem that focused either.” Balshan patted the steel plate beside the turret. “Convoy 12 — move out.”
Bay dropped the canister without ceremony and was in the driver’s seat before it hit the ground. Shure folded himself into the cramped turret and ran through his checks. Whatever they were in quieter moments, at the signal they became what they were built to be: no hesitation, no carelessness.
Balshan raised her telescope.
Through the lens, she could see the artillery’s work — demonic beasts spilling from the ruins, streaming north in broken lines. Behind the tanks, the First Army had fractured into dozens of small teams, advancing steadily along the armored tracks. The formation was not designed for hybrids. It had been redesigned for something harder.
The further they had pushed into the Fertile Plains, the more blade beasts they had found — once every two or three days at the edge of the advance, then several per day as they drove deeper. Invisible, patient, capable of coordinated ambush in ways that no demonic beast managed. Cannon fire scattered the beasts; it did not scare the blade beasts. Every stronghold along the railway line had taken work. After paying for the lesson, the First Army had rebuilt its doctrine around the armor: tanks forward, infantry following in the cleared ground, Sigil of Screaming and Sigil of Resonance doing the sensing work beyond the short-barrel’s effective range.
It had worked, mostly. But the Taquila ruins were something new. The most complicated ground they had fought over that was not open wilderness.
Half an hour later, Convoy 12 rolled into Taquila.
Convoy 9 and Convoy 17 flanked her on either side. Their assignment: clear the main avenue to the western square and retake the two First Army fortresses established there in the last campaign.
Balshan studied the city as they advanced and felt her scalp prickle. Stone buildings rose on every side — dense, close, full of angles and alcoves and floors stacked on floors. The Sigil of Screaming’s effective range was dramatically compressed by the mass of material around it. What she could do was listen for magic power signatures; what she could not do was pin their locations to a point on a mental map. The city swallowed sound and direction both.
“How did you take this place the first time?”
“Straightforward.” Shure’s voice echoed slightly in the turret. “Remove the Red Mist towers and the skeleton troops, and the demons withdrew on their own. Have you found the enemy?”
“Not yet. But they’re in here.” She signaled to the infantry trailing their tank: closer. The gesture created a gap between Convoy 12 and the other two vehicles, which could not be helped.
The gray cement fortress materialized at the far end of the avenue — the First Army had been forced to abandon it in the retreat, but solid construction was solid construction. The enemy had left it standing.
The Sigil of Screaming’s tone sharpened.
She frowned. The frequency was wrong for a blade beast. Too low, too sustained, like something large rather than something fast.
She glanced at Amy, commanding Convoy 9. Amy shook her head once: equally lost.
By the time they drew level with the fortress, the hum had grown loud enough that Bay looked up from his instruments.
Balshan made the decision quickly: she dismounted, activated the Sigil of Resonance, and moved ahead on foot. Whatever was generating this signature, she wanted to see where it pointed before she brought the other vehicles into range.
The glow appeared almost immediately — thin and clean, a directed light emerging from the Sigil’s stone and pointing to the middle of the square ahead.
There was nothing there.
She held still and looked again, more carefully.
The bricks. Several had been lifted — not broken, not shattered by impact, but pried, as though something had worked from below. Around the disturbance, black corrosion had seeped into the surrounding stone in branching patterns.
Underground.
The thought had barely finished forming when the soil beneath the displaced bricks heaved. The ground split, and from the rupture came a thing built of ribs and stretched flesh and blood, hauling itself upward into the square light — and as it emerged, it exhaled, vomiting a cascade of transparent bodies that spread and flattened and became nearly invisible against the pale stone, trailing only glistening mucus to mark where they moved.
The Sigil of Screaming screamed.
Blade beasts. All of them. Dozens of them, already spreading outward from the creature at the center.
She had found the enemy.
Chapter 1450 - Taquila Street Battle
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Days later.
South of the Fertile Plains, Tower Station No. 10.
Balshan lay prone outside the turret, looking at the silhouette of the ancient city a distance away. She had once read a report in the weekly newspaper about the Northern Expedition. She knew it was once the famous witch city in history, Taquila. In order to conquer it, demons went to great lengths, but were ultimately sent retreating by the First Army.
And now, they were here to defeat new enemies, so as to recapture Taquila.
One minute… Thirty seconds… Ten seconds…
As she counted silently in her head, she covered her ears.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The cannon’s booming sounded behind her. The continuous reverberations transmitted to the vehicles through the ground as she felt her arms turn slightly numb. They were the 152mm Longsong Cannon of the Artillery Squad which were raining metal on the target. Compared to the short-barrel cannon on the tank, they were on two completely different levels.
“Team Leader, haven’t you gotten used to the cannon booms?” The driver, Bay, turned his head and quipped. He sat cross-legged in the front area of the vehicle, and even in a battlefield strewn with corpses and the stench of rotting demonic beasts wafting through it, he continued consuming his meal. “That won’t do. You need to learn how to let your ears filter out the unimportant noises. Only then can you constantly maintain your focus.”
“To me, you just have a poor sense of hearing.” Balshan cast her sight away emotionlessly. Although the driver and the cannoneer were veteran soldiers with rich experience, according to the rules, the Vehicle Commander was the leader of the team. Besides, in terms of age, it was even possible that she was older than the both of them. “The only thing I need to listen out for is any abnormal sounds from the Sigil of Screaming, not the sound of cannons or your nonsense, get it?”
“Team Leader… What you said is a little harsh.” Bay smacked his lips. “I thought a witch would be sweet and adorable, just like Angel Nana…”
“Five years ago, witches were the devil’s minions, the embodiment of evil.”
“Uh— No one will like you if you act this way.”
“What nonsense. I think Team Leader’s pretty good,” Cannoneer Shure interjected. “She’s straightforward and capable. She has never had any military experience, but she’s able to adapt to the battlefield in such a short amount of time. She’s the best choice of being Vehicle Commander.”
Both of them looked at Shure.
The latter was stunned. “Why? Did I say something wrong?”
“No.” Balshan shrugged. “Although you missed nine out of ten shots during training, you don’t seem completely inept.”
The cannoneer revealed a look of pleasure.
“Enough, enough. Let’s not talk about this any further.” Bay hurriedly switched topics. “By the way, Team Leader, back at Tower Station No. 9, who was the person waiting outside the camp for you? He seemed to be wearing a First Army uniform as well. Is he your friend?”
“Why are you asking about this?”
Bay said, a little embarrassed, “I saw a medal hanging off his chest and wish to get to know him. Being awarded a medal isn’t an easy task. He must be someone impressive.”
“I do know him, but he’s not that impressive. Without me, he would probably have been food for the demonic beasts.” Balshan feigned indifference, but her tone slowed down significantly.
“Wow, your standards are way too high…”
Before he finished his sentence, she covered her ears again.
It was another deafening salvo.
Bay, who wasn’t prepared at all, curled his lips from the rumbling boom.
And after these booms, three green flares flew into the sky—a signal for attacking.
“It doesn’t seem like your focus is that focused either.” Balshan patted the steel plate by the side of the turret. “Convoy 12, set off immediately!”
Bay didn’t provide a rejoinder. Instead, he threw the canister in his hand away and rushed from the driver’s seat to the back of the vehicle. Shure also went into the cramped turret and prepared for battle. Regardless of how it was typically, none of them showed any sense of carelessness at critical moments.
Balshan raised her telescope and saw that under the assault of the artillery, many demonic beasts were fleeing from the ruins and heading north. And turning to look back, the First Army had split into dozens of tiny teams and were advancing steadily behind the tracks of tanks.
Such a formation clearly wasn’t used to deal with hybrids.
The deeper they were into the plains, the more blade beasts they would encounter. It went from one every two to three days to several in a day. Due to the difficulty in detecting them with the naked eye, they were harder to deal with compared to the typical demonic beast. Without a doubt, the strategy provided by the upper echelons of the military was effective. Sigil of Screaming and Sigil of Resonance would discover the targets beyond the
range of short-barreled cannons and then annihilate them. However, the enemy appeared to be nothing as simple as pure wild beasts.
They knew how to conceal themselves and launch a surprise assault on the troops. Cannon fire was able to frighten away the demonic beasts, but it was unable to frighten away the blade beasts. As such, recapturing the railway’s strongholds took quite a lot of work for everyone. After paying a certain price, the First Army rapidly established a battle strategy with armor troops at its core. Originally, the flintlock troops would treat tanks as scouts, but now, they learned how to rely on them to clear out the enemy.
And the Taquila Ruins in front of them was, to date, the most complicated battlefield that wasn’t in the wild.
Half an hour later, as one of the vanguards, Convoy 12 drove into Taquila. To Balshan’s side were Convoys 9 and 17. According to the plan, they were responsible for clearing the main street that led to the western square and reacquire the two fortresses that were established there.
After studying her surroundings, Balshan could not help but feel her scalp tingle. Many stone buildings made the situation in the city extremely complex. Even the Sigil of Screaming’s detection range was greatly reduced. She now had to rely on listening to various magic power sources, but was ultimately unable to determine the target’s exact location.
“How did you guys take down this place previously?”
“Simple. As long as you get rid of the Red Mist towers and those skeletons, the demons would naturally retreat,” Shure replied. “Have you found the enemy?”
“Not yet. But I am certain that there are many monsters hiding in this city.” After saying that, Balshan gestured to the soldiers behind her, requesting that they stayed closer to the tank. This also resulted in them opening a gap with the other two convoys.
Shortly after, a gray cement fortress appeared at the end of the street. Although the First Army was forced to abandon it, the solid construction was
not damaged by the enemy.
At this moment, the sound of the Sigil of Screaming intensified clearly.
Balshan frowned. That wasn’t the sound a blade beast should have.
She looked towards the Vehicle Commander of Convoy 9, Amy. The latter shook her head, indicating that she was confounded as well.
And when they drove past the fortress, the sigil’s hums were so loud that even Bay could hear it.
For precautionary reasons, she made the two vehicle convoys stop temporarily. She planned on heading to the square alone and bring along the Sigil of Resonance which had been activated. Even if the target wasn’t a blade beast, she wanted to see where the source of magic power pointed.
Soon, a glow appeared out of thin air, pointing to the middle of the nearby square—but there was nothing there.
Could it be that she had encountered a new type of invisible enemy?
That’s not right. Balshan quickly discovered that the bricks on the surface of the square seemed to have been pried away. There were signs of black corrosion in the vicinity.
That thing was hiding underground!
The moment she had that thought, the soil underneath the bricks suddenly rose. A monster formed of ribs and flesh and blood crawled out from underground, spewing out a pile of “transparent bodies!” If not for the sticky mucus that remained on those things, Balshan wouldn’t have been able to detect them.
Almost at the same time, the Sigil of Screaming released a loud warning. She suddenly came to the realization that all those things were blade beasts!