The "Spell Jaeger" closest to Morin felt his scalp explode the instant he heard the sound of reloading.
He whipped around, the Lee-Enfield rifle in his hands pointing by feel toward the direction of the sound, and his finger pulled the trigger.
But he was still a bit slow...
Or rather, that Saxon officer wandering in the smoke reacted faster than him.
Two dark barrels pierced the thick white smoke, almost pressed against this Jaeger's forehead.
"Boom!"
There was no suspense.
The destructive power released by the 12-gauge slug buffed with [Magic Weapon] at this distance was devastating.
That Jaeger's head instantly disappeared. Without even letting out a scream, the headless corpse fell backward stiffly. The blood spraying from the neck cavity dyed the surrounding white smoke an eerie pink.
However, the gunshot exposed Morin's position.
"Over there! Three o'clock direction!"
"Pops's" roar sounded from outside the smoke.
Immediately following, the three "Spell Jaegers" nearby didn't hesitate at all. They didn't even need to clearly see the target; relying solely on the unique roar of that double-barreled shotgun, they locked onto Morin's bearing.
They raised their muzzles, their movements neat and uniform, and directly pulled their triggers at the smoke area that had just flashed with firelight.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three bullets shot into the smoke.
These "Spell Jaegers" were completely different from those "traditional mages" of the Highland Mage Order who stayed in mage towers all day researching profound arcane arts. They were marginalized people eliminated by the mainstream magic community, which ironically left them without the burden of so-called "mage dignity."
In that enclosed country estate in Norfolk County, they spent years researching those low-tier general spells that wouldn't trigger the "Spellplague," and combining them with modern firearms.
[Magic Weapon] was one of their core spells.
Morin was not the only smart person in this world; these Britannians had begun attempting to enchant firearms years ago.
These three .303 caliber rifle bullets shot from the barrels were each wrapped in a faint blue magical radiance.
This enchantment not only corrected the trajectory but also endowed the bullets with extremely strong penetration and additional magical damage.
Coupled with constant exposure to magic all year round, these Jaegers' five senses far exceeded ordinary people. These blind shots were terrifyingly accurate.
Just as Morin wanted to turn around and shift his position, three heavy impacts came from his chest and abdomen.
"Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!"
That was the sound of bullets impacting the force field shield.
The transparent [Mage Armor] originally enveloping Morin's body vibrated violently under the impact of these three enchanted bullets. The blue ripples flashed frantically, and then, like shattering glass, completely disintegrated into countless specks of light and dissipated.
The huge impact force made Morin grunt. He staggered backward two steps, his back slamming heavily against the slippery dirt wall of the trench. Although his flesh was not penetrated, the nauseating feeling of his internal organs being shaken still made him knit his brows tightly.
This feeling was too familiar.
Months ago on that railway bridge in Amiens, those two Highland Mages he strafed with the magically modified MG14 machine gun probably felt like this too. It was just that this time, it was his turn to swallow and taste this flavor.
Morin spat out a mouthful of blood-tasting saliva, his eyes becoming increasingly sharp.
This bunch of guys were not a small fry. Their combat literacy and understanding of magical applications made him feel they were even trickier than those high-tier mages.
From some perspectives, their combat method actually fit the fighting style of the "Magitech Soldiers" in Morin's mind.
It's just that Morin was trying to popularize this technology to turn more ordinary soldiers into Magitech Soldiers.
While the other party directly selected a group of people from the mage community to undergo military training...
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Morin forced down the dull pain in his chest and quickly made a few gestures with one hand in front of him.
[Shield]
Immediately after, he added another [Mage Armor], putting another layer of protection on himself.
Having done all this, Morin, while using Mage Hand to quickly load new slugs into the shotgun, hunched over and moved rapidly through the smoke. On the system map, a red high-danger marker was moving quickly not far ahead of him.
That was another isolated "Spell Jaeger."
Morin originally wanted to take advantage of the smoke not yet dispersing to charge over and take out this guy too.
But the opponent was obviously a veteran too.
Hearing the rapid footsteps coming from the smoke, that Jaeger had no intention of turning back to confirm or exchange fire. He directly turned and ran, his movements crisp and clean, without the slightest hesitation.
He was converging toward the position of "Pops" and the other Heavy Armor Sergeants.
"Such fast reactions?"
Morin was somewhat surprised and slowed his steps slightly.
At this time, the smoke began to gradually thin out.
At the other end of the trench, the situation of the three General's Guard soldiers previously buffed with [Bull's Strength] by Morin was not optimistic at this moment. Although the smoke generated by Morin's [Misty Step] extinguished the flames on them, the previous burning still caused considerable damage. And those three Britannian Heavy Armor Sergeants opposite had stood up again at this time.
They pulled out glass vials containing dark red liquid from the leather storage pouches at their waists, directly crushed the necks of the vials, and poured them into their mouths. That was some kind of alchemical potion.
After drinking the potion, the auras of these three men visibly became violent. Their originally somewhat sluggish state was swept clean, and even the injuries they suffered earlier seemed to be suppressed.
They weren't in a hurry to attack, but very disciplinedly retreated to the sides of those few surviving "Spell Jaegers," forming a solid human wall.
This turtling tactic was very disgusting.
They protected the mages in the middle; as long as Morin dared to show his head, what greeted him would be the focused fire of several enchanted rifles.
Morin hid behind a half-collapsed foxhole, watching this scene through the observation slit, his fingers tapping lightly on the stock of the shotgun. "Trying to force me out?"
He glanced at the system map.
The mortar detachment of the 1st Battalion was currently frantically supporting the friendly forces on both flanks. Their ammunition was bottoming out, and calling for mortar coverage at this distance carried too high a probability of friendly fire.
Especially since those three General's Guard soldiers and Moritz were currently less than twenty meters away from the enemy.
Those "Spell Jaegers" obviously saw this too.
"Suppress the one with the hammer! Force that Saxon officer out!"
"Pops's" cold voice sounded opposite.
Several Jaegers immediately turned their muzzles and unleashed a barrage of precise bursts at Moritz's location.
"Clang-clang-clang!"
Bullets hit the cover and plate armor in front of Moritz, sparks flying.
No matter how good the quality of Moritz's plate armor was, facing the continuous strikes of such enchanted bullets, it wouldn't last long.
Morin took a deep breath.
He couldn't wait anymore.
He abruptly leaned half his body out from behind the foxhole, the double-barreled shotgun in his hands pointing at the gap in the human wall.
However, just at the instant he showed his head, the "Spell Jaeger" opposite who had not fired his gun suddenly tore open a scroll emitting strong magical fluctuations.
That was a Tier-3 spell scroll—[Dispel Magic].
"Buzz"
Morin only felt his body lighten.
The [Mage Armor], [Shield], and even the passive effect of the [Arcane Ward] he had been maintaining that enveloped him were all forcefully stripped away at this instant.
That feeling was like someone suddenly stripping you naked in winter, leaving your whole person unreservedly exposed to the air.
This was the first time since his transmigration that Morin had been countered by someone using this method on the battlefield.
Right now, he had no protection on his body; he was just an ordinary person of flesh and blood.
"Now! Kill him!"
"Pops" roared, the rifle in his hands firing at the same time.
Simultaneously, another Jaeger also threw out a clump of sticky spider web, trying to completely pin Morin in place.
Bullets whistled over, and spider webs blotted out the sky.
But there was no panic on Morin's face; not even his gaze fluctuated a bit.
At the instant the spell effects on his body disappeared, Morin's mental energy violently triggered the already constructed Tier-3 spell model.
[Blink].
This was a spell usually used by mages to escape for their lives or adjust positions, but in Morin's hands, it was an offensive spell.
Just at the instant the bullet was about to drill into Morin's forehead, his figure suddenly became illusory and transparent, then completely disappeared from the real world. That fatal enchanted bullet passed through the afterimage he left behind and hit the dirt behind him.
That huge spider web also landed on empty air, pasting over the empty entrance of the foxhole.
The real world in Morin's eyes disappeared.
Replacing it was a grayish Ethereal Plane.
There was no color here, no sound; everything around looked like faded old photos.
As for why he didn't choose the Tier-4 [Greater Invisibility] just now...
It was mainly because being invisible in the narrow trench, he would still be hit by stray bullets and affected by area-of-effect spells.
But in the Ethereal Plane, attacks from the Material Plane were ineffective.
[Blink] allowed Morin to enter the Ethereal Plane once every six seconds during its 1-minute duration, and Morin indeed did not waste any single second.
Regarding the combat effectiveness currently displayed by the "Spell Jaegers," Morin was still relatively approving, so he also gave the opponent sufficient "respect." He rapidly put another [Mage Armor] back on himself, and this time, he used a Tier-3 spell slot for an Empowered casting. A layer of force field armor thicker than before re-formed on his body.
The 6 seconds passed in a flash.
In the real world, "Pops" and the other Jaegers were vigilantly searching the location where Morin disappeared.
Suddenly, that heart-palpitating magical fluctuation appeared again.
"The other side! He's on the other side!"
A Jaeger yelled in terror.
Morin's figure appeared without warning 3 meters away from the position he had just disappeared.
"Boom! Boom!"
The two loud bangs of the double-barreled shotgun almost overlapped.
The distance was too close.
And Morin's reaction was basically faster than everyone present, so no one had time to respond.
A Heavy Armor Sergeant who was holding up a shield protecting his teammates had a large hole blasted directly into his breastplate by a slug. His whole body fell backward, knocking down the comrades behind him along with him.
And the other bullet precisely found a Jaeger who had just thrown the Web spell.
That Jaeger didn't even have time to turn around before his torso suffered severe trauma, dying on the spot.
Having succeeded with one strike, Morin had no intention of lingering in combat.
Before "Pops" turned his muzzle, his figure flickered again, escaping back into the Ethereal Plane.
At the same time, a burst of dense gunfire also came from the rear of the trench.
"Da-da-da-da-da-da"
That was the unique continuous firing sound of the MG14 and MP14.
The main force of the 1st Battalion of the instruction unit finally arrived to support at this critical moment.