A strange silence descended upon the battlefield. Gunsmoke still billowed, and the smell of blood was acrid, but the gunfire and shouts had ceased.
On the high ground, the Saxon infantry and the International Brigades fighters gripped their weapons nervously, watching the impending clash of steel on the slope below. On the other side, the defeated Royal Army and Britannian infantry also paused, turning back to watch their ace unit. This killing field, which had just belonged to the infantry, was now the exclusive stage for the Armored Knights.
The leading Armored Knight of the Order of Garter Knights seemed unconcerned by being surrounded, instead taking a step forward. It raised its right hand and fiercely struck its left Kite Shield with the ornate Armed Sword in its hand.
“Clang! Clang! Clang!”
The crisp, loud metallic sound echoed over the battlefield, like a declaration of war before an ancient duel, and even more like unconcealed provocation.
“Quite the ritual they have going,” Morin muttered from the high ground through his binoculars.
However, the white Armored Knight’s welcome was the simple and brutal ‘response’ of the Teutonic Knights.
“Boom!”
Ludwig was the first to open fire on the showy Britannian Armored Knight, without a moment’s hesitation. The eleven other Teutonic Knights’ Armored Knights joined him, aiming their ‘Little Cannons’ at the enemy in the center simultaneously.
Boom-boom-boom-boom—!
Eleven direct-fire cannons erupted almost at once. The shells screamed as they flew, instantly enveloping the area occupied by the Order of Garter Knights. The fierce explosions were relentless, the ground trembled, and dirt and smoke billowed skyward, completely swallowing the four white figures.
However, just a few seconds later, the four white Armored Knights burst out of the smoke. They formed a tight diamond formation, ignoring the shells continuously bombarding them, and charged directly toward the position of Ludwig and Wilhelm. Morin, who had his eyes firmly locked on them, could clearly see a constant, rippling Shield effect enveloping the body of each white Armored Knight. The Teutonic Knights’ shells exploded with circles of blue ripples upon impact with the Shields. Clearly, some kind of protective magic was at work.
But this protection was not absolute; it had a defensive threshold. Under the continuous bombardment of twelve handheld cannons, the ripples around the leading Order of Garter Armored Knight grew increasingly violent, and the Shield’s color dimmed. Finally, after another shell hit, the Shield silently shattered like broken glass. Subsequent shells struck its white armor unimpeded, gouging out scorched holes and briefly stalling its charge.
The damage inflicted by the ranged fire was limited only to ‘breaking the Shield.’
As the distance closed to a hundred meters, Ludwig was the first to discard his handheld cannon. The other eleven Teutonic Knights’ Armored Knights likewise dropped their heavy ranged weapons, drawing various close-combat implements from their backs or waists. Some carried traditional greatswords, others massive two-handed battle axes, and some carried menacing flails… But most carried heavy spiked maces specifically designed to shatter armor.
The Armored Knights with the black and white cross livery roared their engines, brandishing these barbaric weapons, and charged toward the Order of Garter Knights. Simultaneously, the Knight Attendants on both sides enveloped the flanks and brutally clashed.
Boom—!
The instant steel clashed with steel in a head-on collision, every spectator felt their heart skip a beat. The scene was overwhelmingly shocking. Massive metal creations forged through Magitek and industrial technology were smashing and hacking at each other in the most primitive, savage way. Every collision sent dazzling sparks flying, and every swing carried an air-splitting roar.
Morin quickly noticed the difference between the two sides. The Order of Garter Knights’ Armored Knights had sleek, rounded exterior armor, and their movements were elegant and swift. No smoke streamed from their backs, suggesting they were purely Magitek creations. In contrast, every Armored Knight of the Teutonic Knights had two black smoke-belching exhaust pipes protruding from their backs. Their movements were visibly more mechanical, full of broad, powerful motions that embodied the brutal beauty of heavy industry. It was like a carefully crafted custom machine being surrounded by a group of tough, mass-produced machines—a contest between pure Magitek and Magitek-Internal Combustion Engine hybrid technology. The Internal Combustion Engine, which was the challenger in Morin’s previous world, had become a form of ‘new energy’ here. Furthermore, due to the difference in fuel (likely the Luminite Ore), the output of this world’s internal combustion engines was clearly much higher than the first generation engines Morin knew, enabling them to drive these large ‘Iron Cans.’
Watching the fierce battle, Morin quickly understood why the Teutonic Knights chose to fight with a three-to-one numerical advantage. There was a visible difference in performance between the two sides’ Armored Knights. Without relying on sheer numbers and specialized weapons, the outcome of this battle would likely have been entirely different.
Once the Armored Knights crashed into each other, the fighting instantly turned white-hot. The Teutonic Knights abandoned all superfluous movements, maniacally smashing their armor-piercing cold steel weapons against their opponents’ armor. The Garde Knights, despite their more refined equipment and greater mobility, managed to take down two Teutonic Knights in the initial skirmish. However, their relatively traditional Armed Swords were clearly better suited for attacking weak points or carving a path through infantry ranks. In this Armored Knight civil war, the Armed Swords were visibly ineffective against the Spiked Maces, which were explicitly designed to break armor.
The swords’ cutting edges often left only white scratches on the thick armor of the Teutonic Knights, while the opposing Spiked Maces could genuinely smash the Garde Knights’ exterior armor plates, leaving terrifying holes.
The scales of the battle began to slowly tip amidst the brutal attrition.
One Order of Garter Armored Knight, after parrying several consecutive attacks, had its left arm Shield completely cleaved off by a battle axe. Immediately after, two Spiked Maces struck its chest armor from both sides simultaneously. Amidst the sickening sound of twisting metal, two cavities were smashed into the chest plate, which had been engraved with an intricate crest. The white knight staggered backward, its movements visibly sluggish.
Ludwig seized the opportunity. He drove his machine to violently shove aside his opponent, raising his Spiked Mace high and slamming it down fiercely onto the cockpit of the damaged Garde Knight. With a dull crash, Ludwig’s Spiked Mace completely crushed and deformed the Garde Knight’s cockpit. When he pulled the mace out, fragments of flesh and blood were visible clinging to it. The elegant white Armored Knight struggled and shook twice, before helplessly kneeling down on one knee, then falling completely silent.
(End of Chapter 36)