Screams echoed across the battlefield, but they were soon drowned out by the even denser sound of gunfire.
Twenty maxim heavy machine guns were ruthlessly harvesting lives on the battlefield.
The momentum of the charging Roland cavalry came to a screeching halt.
The cavalry following behind pulled their reins in terror; their warhorses reared up, letting out frightened neighs at the bloody scene that had suddenly appeared ahead.
But once a cavalry charge has begun, how could it be stopped so easily?
Those in the front row wanted to stop, but those in the back were still rushing forward fiercely.
The entire charging formation instantly turned into a chaotic mess.
Countless knights and warhorses collided, tumbling over each other and trampling one another.
Amidst this chaotic scene, the twenty heavy machine guns did not stop for a single moment.
Rows upon rows of cavalry fell like wheat being mown down.
Most of the men and horses were torn apart by the dense hail of bullets, and blood soon stained the soil of the Blackwater Valley red.
Severed limbs and wreckage were everywhere, turning the area into a hell of bloody chaos and widespread wailing.
"Im... impossible..."
Arthur Merlin's lips trembled, completely unable to utter a full sentence.
His mind went blank.
He could not understand what kind of weapon that was.
"Father..."
He turned his head with difficulty to look at his father, Taiwen Merlin.
Taven's expression had already turned extremely grim.
The muscles on his face were twitching violently, and his knuckles had turned white from gripping the hilt of his sword too tightly.
Beyond the unexpected shock, even more anger made his body tremble uncontrollably.
"Mage Corps!"
Taven let out a roar, drawing his saber and pointing it at the twenty maxim heavy machine guns of the Black Rock Tribe.
"Destroy them for me!!"
In the sky, the magic that had long been prepared finally poured down at this moment!
Burning giant rocks, trailing long tails of flame like doomsday meteors, whistled as they smashed toward the Black Rock Tribe's positions.
Large swathes of fireballs formed a massive net of flames that descended upon them.
An aura of destruction rushed toward them!
The warriors of the Black Rock Tribe turned pale instantly as they looked at the cataclysmic sight above their heads.
"Raise shields!!"
The shield-bearers in the front row let out hoarse roars, bracing their massive tower shields firmly above their heads, attempting to use their flesh and blood to provide a small space for their comrades behind to survive.
But everyone knew in their hearts that against area-of-effect magic of this level, shields made of ordinary iron were no different from paper.
Panic began to spread through the army ranks.
However, there wasn't a trace of panic on Wu Liang's face.
He looked up at the death descending from the sky, and a cold arc curled at the corner of his mouth instead.
They finally couldn't help but reveal their trump card?
This was the moment he had been waiting for.
"Akomann, tear through the Mage Corps!"
Wu Liang's voice was calm and clear, cutting through the noise of the battlefield.
"Understood!"
Upon hearing this, a terrifying battle intent instantly erupted in Akomann's sharp eyes.
She suddenly pulled out the long saber at her waist, pointing the blade straight at the sky.
"Ember Fire Legion!"
Akomann's long saber pointed toward the sky, its blade reflecting the dangerous light of the gathering magic in the dim light.
"Ember Fire Legion! Follow me... charge!!"
"Roar!"
Behind Akomann, a full thousand elite warriors of the Ember Tribe let out a world-shaking roar simultaneously.
Each holding a specially made long saber, they launched a charge toward the hundred-man Mage Corps on the flank.
"Stop them!"
Taiwen Merlin noticed this unit breaking away from the main position and immediately roared out an order.
Hundreds of imperial infantry immediately formed a defensive line, attempting to intercept the Ember Fire Legion's charge.
"Boom—!"
"Rumble—!"
The first burning giant rock smashed heavily onto the ground in front of the Black Rock Army's formation, exploding into a massive crater; mud and gravel mixed with flames splashed frantically in all directions.
Then came the second, the third... a dense rain of meteors covered the entire position.
Massive fireballs poured down like a torrential rain.
"Hold firm!!"
The shield-bearers in the front row used all their strength to brace their shields above their heads.
"Boom!"
A fireball smashed into a tower shield and instantly exploded.
That tower shield, made of fine iron and hardwood, twisted and deformed under the high temperature; the soldier holding it let out a scream as both man and shield were blown away, his body engulfed in raging flames.
The power of magic was far beyond what flesh and blood could withstand.
Within the army ranks, screams rose one after another.
Wu Liang stood on the command platform, his posture as upright as a pine tree.
"Firepower coverage?"
Wu Liang gave a cold laugh and suddenly waved his hand.
"Artillery Battalion! Bring out those iron bucket cannons for me!"
At his command, dozens of soldiers behind the Rifle Battalion moved quickly.
They pulled back a large tarp, revealing rows of strangely shaped weapons underneath.
They were thick iron buckets, each as wide as a water pail, fixed onto wooden bases, with their muzzles pointing toward the sky at a fixed angle.
These were the simple Flying Thunder Cannons that Suina had tinkered with based on Wu Liang's suggestions!
Its principle was simple and crude: use a large iron bucket as a barrel to launch specially made explosive packages like cannonballs.
"Load!"
At Wu Liang's command, the soldiers worked in pairs to shove massive explosive packages, tightly wrapped in oilcloth, into the thick barrels.
That was the nitroglycerin high explosive newly developed by the Military Workshop; each explosive package weighed a full twenty kilograms!
"Target, the enemy Mage Corps position!"
"Three, two, one!"
"Fire!"
The soldiers used torches to light the fuses protruding from the rear of the barrels.
"Sizzle—!"
The fuses burned, making a piercing sound.
The next second.
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"
A series of dull and massive sounds came from the rear of the Black Rock Army's formation.
Dozens of huge black bundles, trailing streaks of white smoke, soared into the sky from those crude iron buckets.
They traced a high parabola, crossing the entire battlefield and whistling accurately toward the heads of the hundred-man Mage Corps in the distance.
The mages of the Roland Empire were fully focused on maintaining their magical output, not noticing these explosive packages falling from the sky at all.
In their view, those savages had been completely suppressed by their magic, and the collapse of the line was only a matter of time.
"Hmm? What is that?"
A sharp-eyed mage inadvertently looked up and saw dozens of black dots growing larger in the sky, a look of confusion appearing on his face.
His companions beside him noticed as well.
Just as they were filled with confusion, those black explosive packages had already fallen into their crowd.
"Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!"
In an instant, it was as if dozens of thunderclaps had exploded simultaneously in the center of the Mage Corps' position!
The terrifying explosions kicked up overwhelming waves of air and flames!
The ground shook as if a violent earthquake had occurred!
The shockwaves generated by the explosions spread frantically in all directions with an unstoppable force.
The layer of magical shields on the mages, which was better than nothing, was as fragile as a soap bubble in the face of this world-destroying power, shattering at the slightest touch!
"Ah—!"
The shrill screams couldn't even travel far before being drowned out by the even more violent sounds of the explosions.
Dozens of mages in the core area of the explosion, along with the Guard knights beside them, were blown off their feet in a mess.
The mages on the periphery were also thrown over a dozen meters away by the violent shockwaves, coughing up blood as their internal organs were shattered by the vibrations.
The entire Mage Corps position was instantly transformed into a sea of fire.
The meteor rain and fireballs in the sky, having lost the casters' maintenance, lost their aim and failed to cause damage to the Black Rock Army's position.
The entire battlefield was stunned by this sudden and incredibly terrifying explosion.
In the distance, Taiwen Merlin and Arthur stared blankly at the soaring flames and billowing smoke, their minds completely blank.