After noticing the prompt on the system map, Morin’s heart sank.
“Is this finally the encounter with the Gaulish Mages?!”
He didn’t have time to think. He bellowed at the top of his lungs to the friendly forces still fighting the Gaulish soldiers around him:
“Everyone pay attention! The Gaulish Mages are coming up!”
His roar was quickly drowned out by the deafening sounds of gunfire and shouting, but the soldiers of the Instruction Assault Battalion closest to him heard it.
They almost reflexively continued firing while adjusting their positions, instinctively widening the distance between one another.
“Kahn!” Morin yelled, turning his head toward the 1st Platoon Leader of the 1st Company, who was emptying a magazine from his submachine gun nearby.
Kahn looked back at the sound and saw Morin giving him a hand signal—a signal they had agreed upon before the offensive.
His face instantly grew tense, but he immediately pulled a break-action signal gun from his backpack.
With a slightly trembling hand, Kahn fumbled for a red signal flare in his pocket and jammed it into the breech.
Before the attack, the ‘Blade’ Assault Group and the rear had confirmed the meaning of the signal colors for this operation.
The standard white signal flare was used to indicate their position for surrounding troops to converge.
The green signal flare meant the unit had broken through the Gauls’ defense line and completed its designated objective.
As for the red signal flare, it signified extreme danger, meaning they had encountered an unmanageable enemy, such as large numbers of Gaulish troops or… Mage Units.
The artillery in the rear, upon seeing the red signal flare, would immediately launch an indiscriminate fire coverage onto the area where the flare originated.
This meant they, too, risked being blown sky-high by their own artillery shells.
Kahn looked at Morin. Morin was staring intently at him, without a trace of hesitation in his eyes.
“Execute the order!”
Kahn no longer delayed. He violently aimed the signal gun at the sky and pulled the trigger.
“Chew—Bang!”
A dazzling red fireball, dragging a long trail of smoke, shot up into the sky, which was colored gray-yellow by the gunpowder smoke, then burst open, emitting an ominous red glow.
Almost every Saxon soldier who saw the signal flare felt their heart tighten.
“Anti-magic combat readiness!”
Morin roared again, this time to the surrounding Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers.
“Anti-magic combat readiness!”
“Anti-magic combat readiness!”
The officers and NCOs of the 1st Platoon of the 1st Company of the Instruction Assault Battalion immediately relayed Morin’s command.
While moving, the soldiers warned the still-baffled friendly Assault Troops and quickly dispersed entirely, forming three-man teams to occupy favorable terrain.
They then simultaneously pulled hand grenades from their waist pouches, ready to throw at any moment.
Just then, five extremely fast figures charged out of the rolling gunpowder smoke ahead.
Their appearance seemed to momentarily silence the chaotic battlefield.
These five men were completely different from the surrounding Gaulish soldiers in their loose blue uniforms.
Their uniforms were also blue, but tailored more tightly, worn over complex bandoliers and leather equipment, making them look sharp and professional.
Most striking were their fully enclosed helmets, which completely encased their heads.
The front of the helmet featured an expressionless, dark gold metal mask, with only two narrow slits left for the eyes, making it impossible to see their gaze inside, conveying only a non-human coldness.
They were one of the Gallic Republic’s ultimate trump cards: the Combat Mage Unit, the ‘Sentinel’.
The ‘Sentinels’ moved with extreme swiftness—a swiftness that was not achieved by the Britannian Highland Mages casting various acceleration spells on themselves.
Instead, every step was full of power and coordination, an agility and vigor that exuded from their core, which no ordinary soldier could possess.
As Morin watched these few ‘Sentinels’, the term ‘enhanced soldier’ inexplicably popped into his mind.
These guys felt nothing like the traditional spellcasters wearing Mage Robes. They were more like the super soldiers from sci-fi movies from before his transmigration.
“Could this be the magic-side’s super soldier?” The thought flashed through Morin’s mind.
On the other side, several General’s Guard soldiers and two Knight Squires, who had closed ranks due to the earlier ground-splitting incident, immediately noticed these enemies with a completely different demeanor.
“It’s the Gaulish Mages! Open fire!” a General’s Guard soldier roared.
Two ‘Plate Armor Supermen’ carrying heavy machine guns did not hesitate. They immediately swiveled their muzzles and pulled the triggers on the five ‘Sentinels’.
“Daa-daa-daa-daa-daa—!”
Two streams of fire composed of large-caliber bullets instantly tore through the air, sweeping toward the ‘Sentinels’.
However, facing the hail of bullets capable of reducing ordinary men to bloody pulp, the five ‘Sentinels’ advanced rather than retreated.
Just before the bullets were about to hit them, their bodies suddenly seemed to lose weight, their speed abruptly increased, and they instantly scattered, evading the sweep with an uncanny gait that was impossible for humans.
Immediately after, the figures of two of the ‘Sentinels’ suddenly vanished from everyone’s sight.
[Fifth-Circle Conjuration Spell – Steel Wind Strike]
The next second, the figure of one of the ‘Sentinels’ appeared behind a General’s Guard soldier like a ghost.
A flash of sword light, shimmering with Magical Aura, cut through the air. The General’s Guard soldier’s specialized plate armor, which he was proud of and which could withstand rifle bullets, was sliced open from back to chest along with the man inside, as if it were made of paper, without any resistance.
Blood and fragments of internal organs sprayed from the massive wound.
The massive man, over 1.9 meters tall, collapsed instantly without even a chance to scream.
The figure of the ‘Sentinel’, having completed its strike, vanished once more.
Almost simultaneously, the other ‘Sentinel’ appeared behind the two Knight Squires.
It was the same flash-step, the same sword swing.
“Sssshhk—!”
A harsh metal-on-metal scraping sound rang out. The Magic-powered Armor on the Knight Squire, forged from Arcane Alloy, was actually sliced open, and a burst of magical sparks erupted from the damaged armor seam.
“Ah!”
The Knight Squire inside the armor cried out in pain. His heavy body stumbled and half-knelt on the ground. The interior of the Magic-powered Armor’s faceplate flashed with an alarm’s red light.
In the span of just one breath, the figures of these two ‘Sentinels’ flashed and crossed the battlefield five times.
Each appearance was accompanied by the collapse of an elite Saxon soldier.
Whether it was solid plate armor or Magic-powered Armor, they were all fragile and utterly defenseless against the flashing, Magical Aura-laden longswords.
When the last flash-step ended, the two ‘Sentinels’ appeared almost simultaneously behind two Saxon infantrymen, then casually swung their swords, sending two helmeted heads flying into the air.
The entire process was blindingly fast, so much so that most of the surrounding soldiers barely saw what happened.
They only saw their most elite General’s Guard and Knight Squires inexplicably falling in large numbers within a few seconds.
A fear born of the unknown instantly spread through the hearts of the Saxon soldiers.
The ‘Sentinel’ who completed this round of slaughter did not stop.
He stood still, his hands rapidly moving in a strange rhythm as he chanted a brief yet obscure incantation.
[Fifth-Circle Conjuration Spell – Cloudkill]
In an instant, in the densest area of the Saxon soldiers, a swirling, yellow-green spherical cloud, several meters in diameter, appeared out of thin air.
The dense mist seemed to be alive, rapidly churning and spreading, engulfing all the Saxon soldiers who couldn’t dodge in time.
“Cough, cough… Ah! My eyes!”
“Help… I can’t breathe!”
The soldiers covered by the dense mist screamed in agony.
They frantically clawed at their throats and faces, then collapsed onto the ground, twitching, with black blood flowing from their noses and mouths. They quickly fell silent.
This hellish scene made the surrounding Saxon soldiers’ scalps crawl and their limbs turn cold.
Meanwhile, another ‘Sentinel’ unhurriedly walked behind the Knight Squire, who was half-kneeling due to damage to his power system. The Sentinel took off the Berthier Carbine strapped to his back and raised it.
A faint glow flashed across the rifle’s body.
[Enchant Weapon]
He aimed the muzzle at the connection point on the back of the Knight Squire’s helmet, preparing to execute and utterly end the life of this Saxon elite.
But just as the ‘Sentinel’ was about to pull the trigger, a burst of rapid gunfire attacked him from the side, striking his body fiercely.
“Clang, clang, clang!”
Bullets impacted his [Wizard Armor], kicking up a streak of blue sparks, but failed to wound him in the slightest.
This ‘Sentinel’ reacted extremely quickly. Almost at the exact moment his [Wizard Armor] was about to be broken, he cast a [Shield Spell].
He immediately abandoned the execution, sidestepped, and instantly cast the pre-prepared [Fireball Spell] toward the direction the gunfire had originated from.
A basketball-sized fireball, burning fiercely, instantly formed at his fingertip, then whistled through the air, trailing a long wake.
“Get down!”
The suppressing fire had come from a light machine gun team of the Instruction Assault Battalion.
The moment they saw the ‘Sentinel’ raise his hand, the machine gunner and the assistant gunner, following Morin’s strictly mandated ‘Anti-Magic Combat’ regulations, instinctively abandoned shooting.
Ignoring the scorching barrel, the two men scrambled, rolling and crawling into a partially collapsed trench nearby with their relatively light MG14 light machine gun.
Almost at the exact moment their bodies hit the ground, the fireball exploded with a roar directly above the position they had just occupied!
“Boom—!”
The massive explosion sent a wave of heat, mixed with mud and shrapnel, slamming into their backs.
Both men were dazed and dizzy, their ears ringing. Although they felt burns on their backs, they were at least not killed instantly.
Seeing that his attack had failed, the ‘Sentinel’ was preparing a follow-up strike when an anomaly suddenly occurred.
The Knight Squire, whose power system was damaged and who was previously half-kneeling in front of him, suddenly moved again.
He forcefully activated his Magic-powered Armor, trying to swing the heavy War Hammer in his hand, but found that due to a fault in the Magic Circuit, the armor could no longer support him lifting the heavy weapon.
But the Knight Squire did not give up. Instead, using his own physical strength, he swung the purely steel-constructed power fist of his armor, smashing it fiercely into the chest of the nearby ‘Sentinel’!
The punch came too suddenly, perfectly catching the ‘Sentinel’ during the ‘casting recovery’ of his [Fireball Spell].
Moreover, the opponent had clearly not expected this ‘dying’ enemy to be able to counterattack.
The ‘Sentinel’ had no time to dodge or defend. He was hit squarely in the chest by the powerful blow.
“Bang—!”
A dull, heavy sound.
The ‘Sentinel’ was flung backward over ten meters, like a ragdoll hit by a high-speed lorry, finally slamming heavily into a section of a destroyed communication trench and kicking up a cloud of dust.
“Well done!”
Seeing this, the surrounding Saxon soldiers erupted in cheers.
“Finish him! Go finish him off!”
The two closest Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers immediately reacted. Without hesitation, they charged toward the communication trench, rifles aimed.
According to the ‘Anti-Magic Combat’ regulations established by Morin, one must never take chances when dealing with a unit like a Mage.
As soon as the opponent goes down, they must be approached immediately and finished off to confirm their complete death.
However, to the surprise of both the rushing soldiers and the Knight Squire in the distance, before they could even reach the area, the fallen ‘Sentinel’ stood up from the communication trench.
Although the punch had clearly inflicted a significant injury, he did not seem to have lost his combat effectiveness.
The first thing he did after standing up was raise his rifle and accurately take aim at one of the charging Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers.
“Bang!”
A spray of blood mist erupted from the soldier’s helmet, and he fell backward.
Next, without even checking the result, the ‘Sentinel’ took a ghost-like step forward, instantly closing the distance to the other soldier attempting to raise his rifle to shoot.
He drew the military knife from his waist, flicked his wrist, and a cold gleam flashed.
The soldier’s neck was instantly sliced open. Blood spurted out like a fountain. He clutched his throat, staring in disbelief at the demonic figure before him, then collapsed helplessly to his knees.
The entire sequence was fluid and fast enough to be suffocating.
Having killed the two men, the ‘Sentinel’s body once again burst with terrifying speed, turning and rushing toward the half-kneeling Knight Squire.
However, just as he was about to reach the Knight Squire, a severely wounded General’s Guard soldier, who had been lying among the corpses, suddenly surged up!
The novel has already been fully translated up to the last updated chapter. You can access it on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair