Chapter 63: Our Side's War Behemoth Enters the Field

There was no violent explosion, no dazzling flash of fire.

That green ray of light, like a drop of ink falling into water, rapidly spread across the armor of the armored knight.

Wherever the green light touched—be it the sturdy steel armor or the complex internal mechanical structure—it rapidly dissolved and crumbled at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Inside the cockpit, William didn't even have time to utter a cry of astonishment before he and his mecha were engulfed by the eerie green light.

Just a few seconds later, when the green light dissipated, the "Siegfried Type 1," which had been frozen in an attacking posture, had its entire upper body—including the cockpit and both arms—completely eradicated.

Only two shattered mechanical legs stood forlornly in place for a moment, before collapsing limply to the ground with a heavy crash.

For the umpteenth time today, the entire battlefield fell into a profound silence.

Everyone was utterly stunned by this bizarre and terrifying spectacle.

Eldridge, the senior mentor of the Highland Mage Corps, had finally eliminated the last unit on the battlefield that posed a significant threat to him, at the steep cost of severe injuries and a priceless forbidden spell scroll.

"Cough... *cough cough*..."

He coughed violently, spitting out another mouthful of blood, then leaned on his fractured staff and unsteadily struggled to his feet.

His mage robes were tattered, stained with blood and dust, and his once magnificent and elegant curly hair was now completely disheveled, making him look wretched to the extreme.

Yet, upon his pale face played a sickly, frenzied smile.

He looked around, gazing at the dumbfounded Saxon soldiers and the Britannia soldiers who were likewise paralyzed by fear.

Then, he slowly bent down and picked up a sidearm dropped by an unknown Britannia officer.

Gathering every ounce of his remaining strength, he pointed the sword forward, aiming directly at the direction of the Saxon garrison's position, and let out a final, hoarse cry.

"The enemy... has no forces left! Charge! For the glory of Holy Britannia! Charge!"

His voice shattered the deathly stillness of the battlefield.

After a brief moment of shock, the soldiers of Britannia and the Kingdom erupted into cheers like a roaring tsunami.

Their greatest threat—those Saxon armored knights who could trample through infantry formations with impunity—had been completely wiped out!

Victory seemed within arm's reach!

"Charge!"

"Kill those Saxon savages!"

Led by their officers, the Britannia soldiers regained their morale and surged forward like a tidal wave once more, launching a final, all-out assault toward the town hall.

This time, the Kingdom soldiers who had originally been assigned to clean up the battlefield were also driven by their officers to charge right behind the Britannians.

In an instant, the entire street was nearly choked with charging soldiers.

On the other side, the Saxon soldiers, seeing the enemy launch their charge, did not even wait for orders before opening fire.

Rounds of rifle bullets streaked across the battlefield, accompanied by the tracer fire of two heavy machine guns, sweeping directly into the advancing Britannia soldiers.

Although the soldiers in the front ranks were continuously cut down, the rest of the Britannia soldiers continued to press forward in waves, using uncleared debris and flower beds along the street as cover to fire back.

The soldiers of the Northumberland Flintlock Regiment believed that as long as they could successfully reach the enemy line and engage in hand-to-hand combat, final victory would be theirs.

Inside a building on the flank of the street, Morin called out to the surviving soldiers, preparing to use the structure to make a stand, rescue Ludwig, and then retreat toward the main position.

Just then, however, the system prompt sounded unannounced in his mind.

[Saxon Imperial Air Force - "Zeppelin-class" Armored Airship - L30 has arrived...]

[Please prepare to provide attack guidance...]

Hearing the prompt, Morin instinctively raised his head to look at the sky.

The sky remained covered in a thick layer of clouds dyed gray-yellow by smoke, obscuring everything from view.

However, Morin noticed that a new military unit icon had indeed appeared on his "minimap," looking much like the "war behemoth" icons in games he used to play.

Simultaneously, amidst the chaotic ambient sounds of the battlefield, Morin heard another sound.

A low, deep drone was echoing from above the cloud layer.

"Wooo—hummm—"

The sound grew closer and louder, sharpening until the earth itself seemed to tremble slightly in its wake.

Everyone on the battlefield—whether charging Britannia and Kingdom soldiers or the despairing Saxon defenders—unanimously raised their heads to gaze toward the source of the sound.

Even Eldridge, the crazed senior mage, furrowed his brows, the wild laughter freezing on his face.

Immediately afterward, before the shocked eyes of everyone, the heavy gray-yellow cloud layer was violently torn open as if by an invisible giant hand.

A colossal shadow, large enough to blot out the sky, slowly emerged from the rift in the clouds.

It was a massive rigid airship.

Its overall design was similar to the "Zeppelin airships" from the world Morin hailed from before his transmigration, yet its scale was visibly a size larger.

The most prominent difference lay in the gondola beneath the gigantic integrated gasbag.

In Morin's memory, Zeppelin airships typically featured three separate gondolas beneath with distinct functions.

However, beneath the colossal airship hovering in the air before him was a single integrated "gondola" spanning nearly two-thirds the length of the gasbag.

Or rather, this massive structure could hardly be called a gondola anymore; it resembled something akin to a warship's deck.

To Morin's utter astonishment, mounted across this deck were a total of four twin-gun turrets—two at the front and two at the rear.

Though Morin could not identify the exact model, it was blatantly obvious that barrels resembling naval artillery would not have insignificant calibers...

Aside from these, there were numerous structures resembling machine-gun turrets and bomber bomb-bay hatches.

Painted on the side of the airship's colossal white gasbag was a large, striking emblem—a magnificent black eagle with outstretched wings.

It was the unmistakable insignia of the Saxon Empire!

"It's... it's our airship!"

"It's a Zeppelin! A Zeppelin airship!"

Following a brief, breathless silence, the Saxon lines erupted into earth-shattering cheers filled with ecstatic joy and disbelief!

Hope!

At the very last moment when everyone had sunk into despair, hope descended from the sky.

"No... impossible..."

Eldridge tilted his head back, staring blankly at the divine behemoth manifested before him, all the color draining from his face in an instant.

As a senior mentor of the Highland Mage Corps, he was naturally well aware of this weapon of war fielded by the Saxon Empire.

Yet he had never anticipated that such an armored airship would appear here?!

"Didn't the intelligence department report that the Saxon airships were all deployed at the border in a standoff with the Gauls?!"

"Did they even bother to gather proper intelligence?!"

...

On the other side, just as Morin was being awed by the colossal war machine, the armored knight housing Ludwig popped open its cockpit.

Seeing this, Morin immediately ordered the remaining soldiers to provide covering fire, then leaped down from the rubble to the side of the fallen armored knight, helping Ludwig climb out.

"Colonel! Look, it's our armored airship!"

Morin patted Ludwig's shoulder in excitement, the sensation of cheating death momentarily overriding his composure.

"Cough, *cough*... I see it. Easy on the shoulder..."

Supported by Morin, Ludwig retreated to the shelter of the armored knight while hissing in pain as sharp stabs of agony wracked his body.

He felt as though several of his ribs might be fractured, making strenuous movement impossible for the short term.

Realizing his physical condition was too poor to stand on his own, he tightly gripped Morin's hand and instructed him:

"Morin, I need you to help me complete the final attack guidance."

"Attack guidance?"

"Yes! Ordinarily, the armored knight itself would be used for direct guidance, but as you can see, this machine is out of commission... However, there is a flare gun and several signal flares inside the storage box within the cockpit, meant for emergency provisional spotting! I need you to retrieve them and fire a signal flare right above the heads of the Britannians!"

Morin instantly understood Ludwig's intent.

Powerful though the armored airship appeared at present, given the technological level displayed in this world, providing close-air fire support was no simple task.

Especially amidst urban combat where friendly and enemy forces were heavily intermingled, an off-target strike could easily inflict catastrophic friendly fire.

Therefore, the signal flares mentioned by Ludwig were likely the critical key to executing precise fire guidance.