Chapter 61: Eldridge? An Attack Helicopter!

Eldridge’s expression at this moment was as gloomy as dripping water, and his eyes were filled with murderous intent.

Clearly, the heavy losses suffered by the Sacred Britannia Empire’s expeditionary force and the Order of the Garter had completely enraged this senior instructor of the Highland Mage Corps.

The final straw that broke this senior mage's sanity was that he had just found the bodies of his two apprentices.

To make matters worse, they had been brutally bayoneted to death by mere infantrymen whom he regarded as nothing more than ants...

This also meant that in the span of a single day, he had lost three meticulously nurtured apprentices.

Even within the Sacred Britannia Empire, the number of newborns with magical talent was decreasing year by year, let alone those with true potential.

Those selected to become mage apprentices of the Highland Mage Corps were absolute cream of the crop among such promising talents.

One had to understand that the Highland Mage Corps might only recruit a few eligible mage apprentices every few years... Eldridge had only been assigned these three exceptional apprentices thanks to his numerous tours of duty in the empire's overseas campaigns and two significant magical improvement achievements.

Given the magical talents they had displayed, coupled with the resources provided by the Highland Mage Corps and Eldridge personally, as long as no mishaps occurred, they were practically destined to become master mages in the future.

For Eldridge, nurturing senior mages would also increase his political capital and elevate his status within the Highland Mage Corps even further...

Yet now, a mishap had occurred, and the people were simply gone.

......

On the other side, the moment Morin caught sight of this senior mage, his heart sank to rock bottom.

Although he had previously led his soldiers to successfully eliminate two mage apprentices, that was only because the enemy lacked combat experience and panicked when infantry closed in on them.

As for the fellow before him, he was a genuine senior mage, a "high-threat unit" certified by the system, and an entity capable of turning the tide of an entire battle single-handedly!

On the battlefield, everyone noticed this uninvited guest.

The intense fighting came to a brief standstill.

Upon catching sight of Eldridge’s figure, the Britannian soldiers erupted into earth-shattering cheers, their morale boosted immensely.

Meanwhile, the Saxon soldiers turned pale, their eyes revealing an undisguised, profound fear.

"Just a mage! And he's already been repelled by us once, what is there to be afraid of? Keep firing!"

Captain Hauser bellowed at the top of his lungs, attempting to steady the troops' morale.

Without hesitation, Morin raised his rifle, aimed, and fired. Seeing his action, the soldiers of the 3rd Platoon around him also raised their weapons and shot at the mage in the air.

However, Eldridge seemed to have no intention of paying attention to the infantry on the ground; his gaze was locked dead onto the three "Siegfried Mk.I" units that had been ganging up on the last enemy.

Although the Highland mages' conventional combat doctrine—hiding behind layers of protection to hurl area-of-effect spells—meant that neither Eldridge nor other mages had any experience in close-quarters combat against armored knights,

this did not prevent this thoroughly enraged senior instructor from viewing these iron behemoths as his primary targets for elimination.

Before that, however, he did find the gunfire echoing from the nearby buildings rather grating.

Without even landing, Eldridge hovered straight in the upper air above the street and raised his left hand, which was adorned with several ornate rings.

He then pointed his index finger directly at the building where Morin and the others were located. Immediately, the ruby ring on his index finger flashed, and a spell was cast instantaneously!

A fireball, a size larger than a basketball and burning with dark red flames, materialized out of thin air before his index finger, then slammed with a whistling roar toward the building Morin and his men had just been firing from.

"Watch out! Fall back!" Morin only had time to issue a warning.

"Boom—!"

Unexpectedly, perhaps due to poor marksmanship on Eldridge's part, the fireball did not fly directly through a window as both he and Morin had anticipated, but instead crashed against the exterior wall of the building.

Nevertheless, the fireball spell triggered by the ring was visibly much more potent than the ones cast by the mage apprentices.

The violent explosion instantly blew a huge crater into the bullet-riddled wall, and the terrifying shockwave directly collapsed half of the roof.

Debris and bricks rained down like a storm, forcing Morin, Hauser, and the others to retreat ignominiously into the neighboring building, abandoning the firing point they had established with such difficulty.

However, this was merely the beginning.

Having driven Morin and the others back with a single blow, Eldridge’s next target was the armored knights in the center of the street.

He raised his hand once more. This time, he was holding a spell scroll he had just drawn from his robes.

With a slight injection of mana to activate it, Eldridge tore open the exceptionally precious spell scroll—crafted by the legendary archmages of the Highland Mage Corps—without the slightest hesitation.

Immediately afterward, a gigantic, translucent, semi-materialized force sword radiating a pale purple glow materialized out of thin air before him.

[7th-Circle Spell — Mordenkainen's Sword]!

A conjuration spell created by ancient legendary archmages and renowned among the mage community!

"Go!" Eldridge pointed forward.

The force sword, possessing a will of its own, charged toward a "Siegfried Mk.I" with lightning speed.

The pilot of this armored knight had naturally been on guard for a long time, and the moment the force sword struck, he initiated a lateral maneuver to evade it.

Regrettably, he still underestimated the absurd maneuverability of the force sword generated by this high-circle spell.

"I can dodge artillery shells, I'm not afraid of..."

This thought had just flashed through the mind of the armored knight's pilot.

Yet, the pale purple force sword drew a graceful arc in the air, as if locking onto the armored knight, slightly altering its trajectory before accelerating straight toward it.

"Zzzzt!"

A teeth-setting, dull thud sounded.

With a simple, unadorned straight thrust, it fiercely pierced right through the "Siegfried Mk.I" closest to Eldridge!

The pilot of that "Siegfried Mk.I" didn't even understand what had happened before he and his cockpit were pierced right through by this unbreakable force sword, leaving a transparent gap.

All movements of the armored knight ground to an abrupt halt, and then it crashed heavily to the ground.

"What the actual hell..."

Morin, who had been aiming his rifle when he witnessed this scene, couldn't help cursing out loud.

He had to admit that the combat power of these senior mages far exceeded his imagination; wasn't the ability to instantly obliterate an armored knight a bit too absurd?

This kind of combat style—suddenly flying onto the battlefield, hovering to attack infantry inside buildings, and then destroying armored knights with a homing attack method—was starting to look increasingly familiar to Morin...

"Isn't this just an attack helicopter loaded with Hellfire missiles?!"

On the other side, scoring a hit on the first try allowed Eldridge to secretly let out a sigh of relief, after all, this was his first time engaging in such close-quarters combat.

With his initial success, a cruel, cold smile crept onto his face. With a flick of his hand, the hovering force sword launched another attack.

This time, its target was Ludwig's command unit!

The force sword completed one last nimble loop in the air and then slashed downward from a tricky angle!

"Lieutenant, look out!" William’s panicked scream rang out through the external speakers of the armored knight.

Ludwig’s reaction was by no means sluggish. Realizing that dodging was impossible, he immediately raised his shield to attempt a parry.

However, the sharpness of the force sword far exceeded his expectations.

With a crisp "Clang!", that heavy shield, thick enough to withstand artillery fire, was cleaved cleanly in two by the force sword before the blade slammed into the ground.

Yet this parry did alter the force sword's flight path; retaining its momentum, it slashed fiercely into the legs of Ludwig's command unit!

"Crash!"

Accompanied by a piercing screech of snapping metal, the thick mechanical legs of Ludwig's "Siegfried Mk.I" were cut clean through.

The massive machine lost its balance and tipped heavily backward, crashing right beside the ruins Morin and his men had just fled from, kicking up a sky-full of dust and smoke.

"Lieutenant Ludwig!"

Morin, Captain Hauser, and the others cried out in dismay.

In an instant, the battle situation took a drastic turn for the worse!

The absolute three-on-one advantage was instantly wiped out by the intervention of the senior mage Eldridge.

One "Siegfried Mk.I" was destroyed on the spot, and Ludwig's unit had its legs severed, completely losing its combat capability.

The only "Siegfried Mk.I" still standing on the battlefield was the one piloted by William, Ludwig's adjutant.

"Bastard!"

Inside his cockpit, William’s eyes were bloodshot as he let out an enraged roar.

Watching his commanding officer and comrades fall one after another, the overwhelming grief and fury temporarily made him forget his fear of the senior mage.

Just as Eldridge was preparing to once again control the [Mordenkainen's Sword] hovering in the air to deal a finishing blow to Ludwig, William made an unexpected move.

He abandoned the "St. George Mk.III" that was already at the end of its rope, and instead manipulated his armored knight to break into heavy, pounding strides, charging straight toward Eldridge in mid-air like a maddened bull!

"Go to hell, you damned spellcaster!"

Eldridge clearly had not expected this Saxon tin can to dare initiate an active attack against him.

A flash of bewilderment crossed his face.

Your two teammates were just obliterated by me in seconds, yet you still dare to provoke the majesty of a senior mage?

Eldridge let out a cold snort, his thoughts shifting as he prepared to manipulate the force sword to dispatch this reckless fellow as well.

However, William’s movements were far faster than he had anticipated.

The heavy chassis of the armored knight erupted with astonishing speed at that moment.

Just as Eldridge's force sword was turning its direction, William's "Siegfried Mk.I" had already closed the distance right in front of him.

Moreover, the senior instructor's lack of combat experience led him to severely misjudge the situation.

Had he simply gained a bit more altitude, or tried to maintain some distance instead of standing still to cast spells, the outcome of this battle might have been entirely different.

Unfortunately, Eldridge, wholly concentrated on controlling the force sword, foolishly hovered at a height of just three or four meters.

The speed of William’s armored knight charge was far quicker than he imagined. Wielding unstoppable momentum, its massive mechanical fist delivered a simple, brutal punch, smashing fiercely into Eldridge, who had no time to dodge!

"Bang!"

A muffled, deafening crash echoed.

Eldridge was like a pedestrian struck by a high-speed carriage; he was sent flying straight out of mid-air by the punch, looking like a kite with a broken string.

An "attack helicopter" that could only hover was thus elbowed right out of the sky by the armored knight.

The layer of blue mage armor he constantly maintained had already been somewhat depleted by Morin and his men's attacks; facing the iron fist now, it shattered on the spot like an eggshell, dissolving into tiny blue light particles that dispersed into the air.

Eldridge traced a pathetic parabola through the air, crashing heavily into the group of Britannian infantry behind him and knocking over a large swath of soldiers.

"Pfft—"

A mouthful of fresh blood spewed from Eldridge's lips.

He felt as though his internal organs had been dislodged and every bone in his body was about to fall apart.

The pain radiating from his chest and abdomen told him he had certainly broken several ribs.

Yet, after all, he was a senior mage; prolonged exposure to magic and magic-crystal ores had reinforced his physique, making him far tougher and more resilient than an ordinary person.

Although his armor had been shattered and he was severely injured, Eldridge did not die on the spot; he struggled frantically, attempting to pull himself back up from the ground.

"Well done, Adjutant William!"

Seeing this, Morin punched the air in triumph and immediately shouted to the soldiers around him: "Quick! Rescue Lieutenant Ludwig!"

He, along with Captain Hauser and the others, rushed toward the toppled "Siegfried Mk.I," attempting to force open the cockpit and pull Ludwig out.

Yet, in their haste and anxiety, they overlooked another fatal threat on the battlefield.

That sole remaining "St. George Mk.III."

Upon seeing that two of the three enemies ganging up on him had been eliminated by his side's mage in the blink of an eye, and that the senior instructor had been knocked flying by the last remaining enemy, the pilot of this armored knight froze for a split second before lifting the armed sword in his hand.

He didn't care about the condition of the downed Eldridge—or rather, the relations between Britannia's knight orders and the Highland mages were never that close to begin with.

Therefore, his fierce gaze was now locked onto the motionless "Siegfried Mk.I" lying on the ground and Morin's group swarming around it.

"Die, Saxon scum!"

The pilot of the Order of the Garter let out a grim laugh, manipulating his armored knight—which now only had one arm left—while clutching a massive armed sword, and began walking step by step toward them.

He intended to deliver the coup de grâce to that damned "Siegfried Mk.I" first, and then grind all those annoying infantrymen beside it into pulp, one by one!

"Watch out! The enemy is coming!" a Saxon soldier screamed in terror.