Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 383 - 256: Suppression (Part 1)_2

Chapter 383: Chapter 256: Suppression (Part 1)_2

"The night here is a bit cold, are the people here accustomed to gatherings at night?" Malin looked at the commander of the assault team, a middle-aged man who was a Baron. In the Farol Principality, a Baron is the lowest rank of the nobility, unable to pass down their title (for their personal use only), typically only soldiers with military achievements who are promoted to command a squad are granted such a title.

He had a big beard and gave a bitter smile as he shook his head when he heard Malin ask, "Mr. Malin, please don’t say that; we Farolians never like to go out at night without good reason, so there must be something wrong with this village."

"Then we can start our operation." Another, younger mage spoke up, ignoring Malin and turning to the senior mage acting as the commander, "Instructor, since those guys are all there, we can approach and then have them undergo inspection."

"We’re just going to walk up to them and have them undergo inspection? What if they scatter, or if they resist?" The Baron asked with some doubt.

"If they scatter, then they’re definitely Chaos cultists, and if they resist, then they’re well-trained Chaos cultists. At that time, we’ll just suppress them outright." The young mage said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Malin didn’t interject. In this situation, it wasn’t his place as a military priest to speak up, though he did take note to keep his distance from this guy when necessary—who knows how he might stupidly get himself killed.

In Malin’s view, the best approach would be to form up and approach, then call the villagers out of the village—if they are Chaos cultists, they would probably charge. Against the formation of soldiers and mages, even nine hundred people charging in a disorderly crowd would not be likely to break through the soldiers’ lines.

Moreover, there were five mages—four mages plus Malin himself.

If they still got overrun, Malin would just have to kill these four foolish mages first and then turn the revolver on himself.

"Mr. Malin, what do you think?" Surprisingly, the old mage asked Malin.

Looking into his clear, desireless eyes, Malin was somewhat taken aback; he felt the old mage wanted to test him, maybe because he’d been seen in the company of some bigwigs, but then he realized—the mages of the Mage Tower must surely have their intelligence networks, and Malin’s name would definitely have been recorded internally at the Mage Tower.

Since that was the case, Malin stopped holding back and shared his ideas. The old mage smiled and nodded, "Good, Mr. Malin’s idea coincides with mine. I’ve used Eagle Eye to observe these Chaos cultists’ gathering and noticed that they are mostly drinking, which does not confirm their identity. But considering these drunken fools are unlikely to have any combat strength, let’s go with Mr. Malin’s method. Baron, please have your men form up and stop at a distance of two hundred meters from the village. I’ll draw their attention."

Once the old mage finished speaking, he glanced at his young apprentice, who looked at Malin with some surprise and, without arguing, stepped back behind his instructor.

The Baron started to assemble the troops, and on Malin’s suggestion, the soldiers spread out with a distance of fifty centimeters between each other, advancing in a line towards the village.

The crossbowmen were in the center, the spearmen on either side, and the sword and shield soldiers on the flanks. If the enemy charged, the crossbowmen could shoot a few rounds first, then the spearmen would gather in the center to form up while the sword and shield would protect the spearmen’s flanks, with the crossbowmen spreading out to the sides to shoot at the rear once the Chaos forces and frontline began to engage. The mages would provide ample spell coverage for them and the front line of defense.

Malin would also release Fio to support the close combat, as the eldest of the three, Fio should also learn to go on his own two legs and hammer people.

"They’ve spotted us in the village," said the young mage’s female companion, raising her hand as an eagle landed on her arm, when they were still about three hundred meters from the village. She looked at the old mage and said, "Instructor, they’re charging out."

"That’s perfect, I’ve seen them now... oh, they really are quite disheveled. Baron, tell your crossbowmen to start shooting properly! I’ll cast the Illumination Spell."

"I’ll do it." As Malin spoke, he took out the signal flare from his waist and fired an illumination shot into the sky—a flare with the Feather Fall Technique that, once launched, would slowly fall for about two minutes, lighting up the open ground in front of the formation.

"Ghouls!" the young mage screamed.

"No, they are traitors!" the old mage shouted loudly, "Leave them to us mages to deal with! Your crossbow arrows can’t penetrate their shells!"

Malin had already seen the traitors clearly; these Chaos Believers on all fours had completely lost the appearance of humans. Their bodies were covered in tattoos, their hair scraped off, joints twisted, to call them human... that was an insult to humanity, so Malin drew his Revolver, .45 caliber, Quicksilver Bullets flew out of the barrel, crossed the space between the two, and finally drilled into the forehead of the largest traitor.

The latter’s sprint immediately turned into a disaster, as it tripped over its companions behind it after falling, more than a dozen traitors were tripped up by the body of their frontmost companion all at once. Malin immediately raised a row of stone spikes on the sandy ground in front of them—these turned-sand-into-stone spikes would normally make these Chaos Believers simply detour a bit, but at this moment, rolling over, the traitors impaled themselves on the sharp spikes.

"Not bad handling, and, you’re lucky," the old mage commented while flicking his hand, a halfway chanted spell shifted a syllable mid-flight, then a basin-sized Fireball flew out, turning those still struggling traitors into a side act in a self-service barbecue.

"The traitors have some very strong self-healing abilities, they must be dealt with using fire or acid, but your spikes pinned them down, that was a very good choice." After completing his spellcasting, the old mage nodded with a smile, "You cast your spells quite well, it’s such a shame, how good it would have been if you were with our Mage Tower."

"There are not so many ’ifs’ in life, old man, those Chaotic Believers are coming." Malin said with a smile, then cast an expanded fossil-into-mud spell. Because it landed on sandy ground, the effect was outstanding; dozens of Chaotic Believers leading the charge plunged headfirst into the mud, and if no one pulled them out, their only end would be to ’drown’ in the mud.

It was a very unpleasant way to die, may they rest in peace.

As Malin sighed, he also cast a sensory enhancement spell on the crossbowmen—this would allow them to see farther and clearer for a moment.

At this time, the old mage’s apprentices had also started casting their first round of spells.

The young mage cast two Fireballs, quite an achievement for his secondary ring mage status.

The female mage cast two Lightning Chains, which near the sea was a fairly good choice, though generally only suitable for use from a distance like this; if they were closer, electrocuting oneself was not impossible.

The young mage chose the Fire Wall Technique, which he cast on both sides of the mud area, a good choice—Chaos Believers, pressed for time, rushed into the seemingly feeble firewalls after circumventing the mud area, setting themselves ablaze significantly before they started to realize the lethal nature of these firewalls, so they continued to skirt around the sides, while the subsequent Chaos Believers noticed the hardened mud and stopped their detours, starting to charge from the center.

Why harm your own legs if there’s a shortcut to take?

They wouldn’t think that it was Malin who had canceled the spell.

The Baron’s men started to change formation.

And Malin began preparing a new spell, Lightning Orb, he named this spell a mundanely grandiose name—Wall of Lightning.

The Lightning Chain stretched between two flying Lightning Orbs in tandem would give those Chaos Believers choosing to come through the middle a very unforgettable memory.