NEC Chapter 126: Asymmetric Battle, The Stunning Debut of the Magnetic Combat Vehicle

The mercenary group members who had formed a shield-and-spear formation stared blankly at the bizarre spectacle before them.

The charging wave of the orc army seemed to be severed at the waist by a giant scythe! The front ranks of orcs and wolves fell, rolled, and shattered in masses under the metal storm! The cavalry in the rear, driven by massive inertia, had no time to turn and met the same death storm, tumbling together with their fallen comrades ahead.

The mere few hundred meters of distance became like a deadly chasm.

Doyle and Geddy were extremely grateful at this moment that the Night’s Edge mercenary group hadn't entertained thoughts of abandoning formation and fleeing, otherwise those strange contraptions with power a hundred or thousand times greater than dwarf firearms would probably have let their group enjoy a taste first.

"They... they were prepared for orcs from the beginning. Those thick-tubed fellows never even entered the fortress..."

When the front ranks of orc cavalry fell into this bloody death trap, the orc wolf cavalry reserves remaining on the hilltop, after experiencing brief agitation, surprisingly didn't retreat but also launched a charge.

Unlike the previous wolf cavalry, they had already gripped their javelins early, borrowing the momentum of their charge to boldly initiate long-range bombardment.

Javelins were the orc tribes' favorite ranged weapon.

Most green-skinned brutes disliked using bows and arrows, considering it "sissy" behavior.

This habit might stem from ancient grudges between elves and orcs, when those pointed-eared bow-wielders had waged long, endless wars with orcs over grasslands.

Though elven archers were also muscle-bound and broad-shouldered, orcs always felt that slender arrows couldn't match their wild temperament.

Only thick javelins that could produce sharp air whistles, vibrating as they crossed most of the battlefield through the sky, were orcs' favorite ranged weapons.

Of course, there was another theory that orcs could only count to single digits, since their main counting method was using fingers.

Some orcs had four-digit hands, causing their mathematical ability to plummet by twenty percent.

Bows and arrows... a quiver held too many arrows for orcs to count clearly, so javelins were more suitable.

Unlike the Bonebreaker Tribe, the Fang Tribe's javelins were thicker and longer.

The spear shafts were made from quality ridgebark tree trunks, repeatedly soaked, dried, and processed until they became solid spear shafts, fitted with iron spearheads that could fly over three hundred meters when driven by cavalry charge momentum.

Though they might not understand physics, orc craftsmen had learned front-weighting techniques through centuries of experimentation, knowing how far a spear would fly just by hefting it.

Of course, captain-level orcs had greater strength and even longer range.

A strong orc captain, rising and falling with his wolf's charge, bone chains symbolizing glorious battle achievements bouncing on his neck, tensed all his muscles and let out a piercing howl, using all his strength to hurl the javelin he'd been gripping.

The long spear shaft cast a rapidly flying shadow in sunlight, carrying tremendous kinetic energy as it slammed hard into sandbags piled at the front of Vast Sea positions, sending dust flying.

Now the value of trenches finally showed.

Against any ranged attack weapons or spell attacks, trenches were important protection for infantry safety!

This orc captain unsurprisingly became the target of concentrated fire, lifted directly into the air by dense bullets.

Especially Little Kaga, whose marksmanship had become increasingly refined, used a dual-purpose machine gun to give this big guy a burst. The orc captain was torn into several pieces in mid-air before even falling from his wolf.

At this point, victory and defeat were decided.

The most formidable orc chieftain, braving gunfire to desperately charge Vast Sea positions, ate a ground-to-ground missile.

This chieftain inflicted the only damage to Vast Sea defensive forces in the entire battle, sandbags blasted up by violent javelins hit a human warrior's shoulder, causing a large bruise.

From beginning to end, Doyle and the Night’s Edge mercenary group members behind him stood petrified, staring dumbfounded at this hellish scene.

Vice-captain Geddy had the best eyesight and saw most clearly.

The veteran's sword-gripping hand kept shaking and shaking!

His understanding of war and death was completely crushed at this moment!

The orcs' proud charge became a one-sided, bloody slaughter before firepower from another dimension.

Of course, this also relied on orc cooperation.

In terms of fighting spirit, orcs were truly formidable, of over three hundred wolf cavalry, fewer than five percent fled; all the rest died on the charge route.

The centaurs unsurprisingly completed pursuit and killing of fleeing orc cavalry. From those already-broken orcs, Chen Mo learned the general circumstances.

Orcs had indeed received word from Seven-Radiance Garland, and Seven-Radiance Garland had indeed gotten a friendly response from the Fang Tribe chieftain.

However, which tribe didn't have some restless opposition faction?

The orc great chieftain operated differently from human succession, it wasn't hereditary but elective.

Every six years, the thirteen major tribes and over forty medium and small tribes under the Fang Tribe would gather to jointly select the next six-year chieftain.

After selection, the new chieftain would delineate everyone's grasslands and distribute some wealth, then each tribe would return home to tend their flocks.

The current Fang great chieftain had served four consecutive terms, was advanced in years with diminished ambition, only enthusiastic about trading with humans to accumulate wealth for descendants.

All expectations rested on his own tribe producing another great chieftain or two, naturally causing strong dissatisfaction among other suppressed major tribal leaders.

Thus arose this armed parade.

Initially, orcs hadn't planned to completely tear their faces, just making a symbolic circuit to extort some wealth and demonstrate their presence, using this to attack the old chieftain's "weakness"!

"Look, the great chieftain 'bows and scrapes' to humans, we are the true defenders of orc tradition!"

But Vast Sea Territory's hard-line attitude forced opponents to appear even harder, deciding to charge and teach these ungrateful fellows a lesson.

From the battle process, it was clear that even until preparing to charge positions, orcs still somewhat considered the great chieftain's instructions, not throwing javelins immediately.

For Chen Mo, this conflict with orcs was merely a small interlude during his long wait.

Some ammunition was consumed, troops were trained, and a striking crimson mark was added to the monotonous desert time.

But for Night’s Edge, this was destiny's great moment.

Commander Doyle resolutely expressed acceptance of this Vast Sea lord's recruitment, going to that place that currently had no mercenary guild but would soon build one, becoming the first registered mercenary group.

The deposit loss at Emerald didn't matter, Lord Chen Mo said he'd compensate.

Past team credit zeroing out overnight was fine, who hadn't started from white group status?

There might be many member losses, but that was okay, temporarily Vast Sea wouldn't have overly difficult missions, or rather, Doyle had a feeling that following this lord, what he'd actually do was assist.

Being able to establish connections with a lord was already his rare fortune, and being able to establish connections with a powerful lord was simply a heaven-sent opportunity from the goddess of fate!

Doyle and Geddy conferred and announced this decision, from now on they'd follow the Vast Sea lord through wind and rain, through fire and water, unto death without regret!

A few days later, they were extremely grateful for making this timely and correct choice.

The Vast Sea lord, a necromancer with only stellar dust level ability, had summoned across dimensions a powerful steel behemoth.

After Lord Chen Mo activated the Sacrificial Altar and sent his problems and ideas back to East Xia, it undoubtedly immediately triggered a general mobilization of East Xia's think tank and relevant physics experts.

In the response to Chen Mo, the supervising leadership lavishly praised Chen Mo's imaginative, unconventional problem-solving approach, though they also tactfully offered a small suggestion.

Permanent magnets weren't quite suitable.

Why weren't they good? First, these things were easy to attract but extremely difficult to remove.

Second, such powerful magnetic fields would cause massive interference to friendly equipment, requiring constant vigilance during operation.

So they'd use electromagnets instead, though power-consuming, they were controllable!

East Xia spent about three days working around the clock with sparks flying, completing construction of this special-type "magnetic combat vehicle."

The magnetic combat vehicle's core consisted of sixteen groups of high-temperature superconducting electromagnets arranged in a Halbach array. This complexity was mainly to give magnetic attraction clear directionality, avoiding serious effects on sides and rear.

Called high-temperature superconducting, it actually operated in ultra-low temperature environments, with rare earth barium copper oxide packaged under liquid nitrogen materials as the superconducting core structure, capable of carrying current density far exceeding traditional conductors and generating extremely powerful magnetic fields when energized.

To maintain superconducting working temperature, it was equipped with a closed-loop micro Stirling super-cooler, ensuring main energized areas maintained stable temperature at 77 Kelvin, minus 196 degrees Celsius.

It wasn't that temperature couldn't be higher, but each degree increase required greater pressure intensity compensation, creating additional weight burden that wasn't cost-effective.

The vehicle structure was brutally simple, just a bulldozer-like contraption with the electromagnetic array held high in front while the rear was packed with battery groups and driver's compartment.

To prevent enemies attracted by strong magnetic force from damaging the magnetic structure, the electromagnet front was made into an encompassing composite inner armor.

The composite armor's first layer was artificial single-crystal diamond coating, emphasizing surface hardness and anti-cutting, anti-piercing capability; the second layer was high-strength boron carbide ceramic composite plate, absorbing violent impacts and dispersing energy; the third layer was ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber composite material, providing excellent anti-collision and anti-fragmentation capability.

The armor structure used honeycomb corrugated plate design, maximizing weight reduction while ensuring rigidity and strength.

This wasn't the end. Though weight limitations prevented stacking ultra-thick outer armor, they could supplement locally.

East Xia made a simple framework at the magnetic vehicle's front end, forming a four-meter-wide semi-arc structure where additional protection could be crammed.

They couldn't completely stuff iron blocks, as this would affect magnetic field line penetration, so Vast Sea Territory interspersed some cast iron plates in the framework while stuffing large amounts of wall bricks, making total outer armor thickness reach sixty centimeters.

That was enough, any thicker would affect magnetic attraction distance.

As part of Blood Fortress's once-impregnable walls, these wall bricks were inherently hard and specially processed. Though eroded for ages, they could still withstand a professional's simple attacks for a round or two.

Thus, after local modification, the magnetic vehicle's front end resembled holding an enormous elongated bumper filled with thick iron plates and stone protective layers.

Testing showed that even Dark Knights couldn't substantially damage this mobile fortress-like outer armor structure without using refined-grade or higher weapons.

Though the vehicle was packed with ultra-high power density solid-state battery groups, most of the battery system's capacity fed the "greedy" electromagnets, leaving pitifully little power for the drive system, which would stall on slightly complex terrain or inclines.

Insufficient power? Cattle and horses made up the difference.

Vast Sea Territory deployed an entire push-cart group led by Simple Bull, responsible for using pure muscle power to push the vehicle forward.

How effective was this thing?

It could only be said that East Xia's targeted device was somewhat over-targeted.

July 6th, perfect sunshine, gentle breeze. Chen Mo checked the almanac on his tactical watch: auspicious for breaking ground, dismantling, moving house, relocating graves...

What were they waiting for then?

The magnetic combat vehicle was slowly pushed into position. As switches opened, current flowed through superconducting materials, activating electromagnetic coils, instantly releasing magnetic field strength reaching 15 Tesla within a roughly 60-degree fan-shaped range ahead of the vehicle.

Though magnetic field strength would decay severely over distance, this wasn't a problem, enemies would "actively" rush over!

The cattle-and-horse group only needed to sway the vehicle left and right, push forward a bit more, then sway left and right again.

Those ruin guards originally manifested from various armors and weapons were unsurprisingly firmly attracted to the vehicle's front armor, shrieking shrilly, struggling forcefully, gesticulating wildly, punching and kicking...

But it was meaningless, they'd only attract more and stack thicker.

Ruin guards' bare-handed attacks could only leave shallow white marks on ancient city bricks or break off some stone chips.

Weapons? Under this level of magnetic field, could they still wield metal weapons?

As the armor surface became covered with ruin guards, subsequent arrivals had even less ability to attack, with "their own people" cushioning below.

When encountering occasional enemy ranged units, they'd either tilt the vehicle head to avoid magnetic field influence while sniper rifles behind took them down with one shot, or have the mercenary group's mages act with simple attack magic to dispose of ruin guards.

Troop advance speed depended entirely on the cattle-and-horse team's pushing speed.

Soon, the front armor's surface formed a thick, wide "guardian wall", layer after layer of continuously attracted ruin guards covering the "magnetic combat vehicle's" front section completely.

Countless ruin guards intertwined together, clawing and tearing at each other, with hundreds of hands and feet waving within just a few square meters.

This scene was enough to make any trypophobia sufferer gasp and bristle with goosebumps.

Kaga at the rear command position held a megaphone, shouting at the top of his lungs, "All units attention, take positions, prepare for release processing!"

He didn't use communicators because warriors on the vehicle's left and right sides within possible affected areas didn't dare carry even iron fragments, and East Xia currently lacked spare transport capacity for all-engineering-plastic walkie-talkies.

The combat vehicle slowly stopped, control groups cut power, and ruin guards tangled at the vehicle front clattered down, piling into a writhing small mountain.

The sound of metal friction merged into one incredibly harsh noise.

Attack groups already in position immediately advanced, precisely throwing white phosphorus incendiary bombs into the "mountain's" center! Blinding white light accompanied by terrifying heat instantly erupted, igniting those twisted energy bodies!

Guards on both sides formed arc defenses, finishing off escapees with guns and blades, while mercenary mages also joined the fun, tossing area-damage magic like exploding fireballs.

Kaga and Simple Bull, exhausted from pushing the cart, finished smoking at the vehicle rear, carefully extinguishing the butt and tossing it into the rear garbage bag.

Not out of civility, but really spooked by this damn elemental manifestation, what if cigarette butts manifested something? They'd be laughed to death by colleagues.

Checking front progress and dusting off his rear, Kaga raised the megaphone again, "Continue, continue! Cleanup crew stays to handle this, we advance!"

A major expedition into Blood Fortress ruins had apparently become a hiking activity.

Cleanup crews with pushcarts transported cart after cart of blackened, deformed metal debris from the ruins, dumping it into pre-dug pits outside.

When sunset's afterglow dyed the desert golden-red, the expedition team finally finished the day's work. One-third of Blood Fortress's second layer area had been cleared.

Carrying a cart of struggling ruin guards, the team withdrew from the fortress.

This final cart didn't require wasting ammunition, ruin guards would rapidly lose the force maintaining their existence once taken from the fortress area, dissipating like smoke into air.

Without this boundary mechanism, the entire desert would probably be running with these things.

A grand dinner, ample rest, and the next day brought another boring walk.

Lord Chen Mo, who remained in the camp outside the fortress remotely observing progress, received flowery, comprehensive, all-around praise from mercenary group commander Doyle, vice-captain Geddy, and various mercenary group leadership.

"Our mercenary group has operated in this region for eight years, never hearing of any team that could see the third layer walls. Lord, your power is incomparable, your wisdom unfathomable, your great radiance sufficient to illuminate the entire desert!"

Chen Mo learned for the first time that Doyle could speak so eloquently.

Geddy's words were relatively plain, "This is truly a great operation. I think this is the greatest expedition I've witnessed in my lifetime!"

Other mercenary group members weren't behind in flattery.

"My life's greatest fortune was doing this one thing right, accepting the lord's summons and coming here to become your subordinate!"

"Lord, witnessing and participating in such a miracle is my lifelong honor! I can't wait to set foot on Vast Sea Territory's land and see what magical place it is under your governance!"

Frankly speaking, Chen Mo now somewhat understood why certain monarchs liked flatterers, the emotional value was simply too fulfilling.

In three days, Vast Sea Territory's forces cleared the entire second layer range.

On the fourth day morning, the magnetic combat vehicle with replaced battery groups slowly entered Blood Fortress's inner city.

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