The time, place, and method of the attack were all chosen impeccably.
There is only one day left to the destination, and theoretically it is within the control of friendly forces. In addition, the huge attacking force has been successfully repelled before. Except for the chariot team who fastened their seat belts and was in standby mode, the entire train was
In a relatively relaxed state. First there was a violent earthquake-like vibration, and then the huge inertial impact caused by the sudden stop of the train almost made everyone fall to the ground. The lights in the car were switched to emergency red, and the windows on both sides of the car popped up.
Lift armor plate.
"Stoker? What happened? Report the situation immediately!"
Amidst the wailing and complaining, Roland immediately pressed the communication button and asked loudly to the dedicated line connected to the front of the car, but only a "rustling" noise came back from the loudspeaker.
(…What’s going on?)
The uneasy feeling quickly expanded in my chest, and a strange feeling that I had experienced before filled my brain along the sensory nerves.
"Your Excellency Roland, Mana——"
The flower mantis turned sideways and screamed. On the instrument panel opposite him, the hand showing the mana concentration index almost overlapped with zero.
"It's the 'Spinning Wheel'! Everyone, get ready for battle!"
Recalling the data he encountered during the entrance test, Roland took a breath of air. Without any time to explain, he immediately issued instructions to the Marine Corps. At a time when the important foundation for magic has disappeared, they are the most important force.
However, the situation once again deteriorated before his orders could be carried out.
"Radio contact is cut off, switch to backup frequency! No. There is strong interference around and cannot be restored!"
"The temperature and humidity inside and outside the car are rising. This is——"
"'Mist'."
Roland squeezed out the name of the technique through clenched teeth, and looked at the increasingly thick milky white water vapor outside through the observation slit of the armor plate, frowning Roland's eyebrows.
The attackers had obviously observed the previous battle. After blocking Mana, they then blocked the radio and vision, making it impossible for the rear to grasp the situation here and to dispatch reinforcements in time. In the thick fog with visibility less than 1 meter, the troops got off the vehicle.
It is difficult for the rear company to line up the whole team, let alone aim and shoot at the invisible enemy.
The advantages of muskets against magic are range and rate of fire. But in this situation, flintlock guns cannot function properly at all.
"Copy guy!"
Within one second, the "SS Eagle" high-powered pistol, oval grenades, 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, 40mm grenade launcher, 9mm submachine gun, and general-purpose machine gun with a 75-round drum magazine were all flipped from behind the mural of tables and chairs.
Come out. Although the insect killers have their own unique skills, it does not mean that they do not like automatic weapons: Scorpion is loading a 32-round drum drum into the imitation AA-12 shotgun in his hand.
, in addition to shotguns, there are also high-explosive bombs mixed inside. Anyone who invades the carriage will not be able to leave safely in front of this thing; the giant needle ant's skirt is covered with oval grenades. The huge "SS Eagle"
The pistol reflected a chilling cold light; the flower mantis loaded grenades and smoke grenades into the grenade launcher. The beetle held two general-purpose machine guns, with bullet belts hanging diagonally on both shoulders, and a red headband tied on his forehead.
This group of guys, with this kind of firepower configuration, it won’t be a problem to fight 10 of them...
Roland secretly complained. Favna on the side was playing with a .45-caliber imitation Magnum 29 revolver. The dragon princess seemed to have found a good toy, tossing and turning with the gun that was said to be used to "fight dinosaurs."
, completely dismissive of the 88) on the side. Most likely because he looked down on the stupid and thick appearance, which is fine, but it is really unbearable to use this kind of weapon in the train.
The personnel and equipment are intact, there is sufficient food, drinking water, and ammunition, and there are no problems with the armor plates. It should not be a problem to hold on to the train until the reinforcements arrive. The other party would not have thought of such a thing, and they should have formulated countermeasures. The front of the train was inexplicable just now.
explosion, and "
The activation of the "Spinning Wheel" can ignore the armor protection and instantly destroy the "Special Type 2 Internal Fire Boat" only through magic. But the speed and density of the mana gathered at that moment should not be able to achieve that effect. In this way
, what is it that can instantly destroy the front of the car at a very small cost——
The thick white fog outside the window flowed to the corner of the field of vision, and Roland's face instantly turned pale.
laugh--
A long scream followed by white steam spurting out from every gap in the carriage. As the visibility slowly increased, the death scene became increasingly clear.
There was not a single living person left standing in the second carriage. The Marines who were originally preparing to "surprise" the intruders were all lying on the ground, with a strange red color on the surface of their swollen bodies, and their necks were bloody and bloody.
The man was clutching his throat, and the air was filled with a smell similar to boiled meat.
Several spider silk-like water pillars hang down from the edge of the car door. Ignoring the laws of physics, the water pillars wrap around the door handle like biological tentacles and pull upward with force.
With a click, the car door opened, and a man shrouded in a black robe walked in with a smile.
"The effect is better than expected. Well, the taste is a little stronger."
"The water before... water..."
"It's a water vapor explosion, remember it well."
"Why not use that instead of using such a troublesome method?"
If someone heard this conversation at the scene, they would definitely find it incredible, and then call the hospital - the kind that houses the mentally ill.
The man in black was talking to himself, and he was talking as if two people were discussing a problem. From the looks of it, he was a severe schizophrenic patient who needed institutionalization and treatment.
"Please, can you please think through your thoughts before asking this question?"
A frivolous voice sounded, and he said as if he couldn't bear it:
"The so-called 'water vapor explosion' is also a type of explosion. Don't think that steam is a form of water, so it will not affect flammable substances. I used mist to increase the humidity of the air, making some muskets useless. But
Gunpowder barrels have strict moisture-proof measures. The instant burst of high-temperature and high-pressure water vapor can completely trigger a chain explosion of gunpowder barrels. Then sending the fool singing 'oon' to the moon - this is not romantic at all. I
Don’t want to try it.”
"It's not about romance!"
"Yes, this is a matter of efficiency."
He responded cheerfully to the serious rhetorical question, and his satisfied gaze swept across the floor of the carriage.
As expected, 100C steam filling a room will not detonate gunpowder, but the accumulation of large amounts of steam in a confined space can turn the room into a gas chamber, which is as dangerous as the steam squeezing oxygen out of the room and burning the skin and respiratory tract.
In less than a minute, the victim will die of painful suffocation.
This is not just magic. It is different from the traditional magic of manipulating water. Turning water into a blade to cut the opponent, drowning the opponent, or creating an illusion of mist to confuse the enemy. This is a full understanding of the characteristics of water in different forms.
Finally, a new application method with the main purpose of improving efficiency.
"Efficiency, efficiency...you really learned this word from those guys."
"Well. This is one of the core principles. However, what I learned the most from Alfheim is to 'create an environment that is most beneficial to yourself', like this -"
With a wave of his hand, the white mist that filled the car quickly gathered towards the ceiling of the car. The cooled water droplets dripped down and were about to splash on the floor. However, the water droplets quickly merged with each other in mid-air to become a full 50 cm large one.
After the water ball split out several tentacles to fix the water ball body in front of the man, the water ball split into several tentacles again, twisting and turning as if it were alive.
"Automatically detect enemies."
The man in black gave an order, and eight tentacles advanced along the edge of the carriage. Narrow spaces such as door cracks and armor observation gaps were useless to these randomly deformed water tentacles. Soon, eight pictures appeared on the sphere, and the tips of the tentacles appeared on the sphere.
The movements are completely synchronized, and several of the pictures are not intuitive optical images, but human-shaped red, blue, and green blobs.
"Okay, let's see where the little mice are hiding."
Staring at the scene on the surface of the water polo, the man licked his lips excitedly.
############
"Water vapor explosion?"
Regurgitating unfamiliar words, Favna asked in confusion:
"It's just evaporating and boiling water. How can it destroy a motorcycle with heavy armor protection?"
"It would be better to say that precisely because of that layer of armor, the destructive effect is actually enhanced."
Turning on the safety of the pistol, Roland explained worriedly.
"After water turns into water vapor, its volume is 1,700 times its original volume. A large amount of water in a confined space turns into water vapor in a short time, resulting in a huge pressure from the inside to the outside. I am afraid that the enemy has prepared a passive plan on the track.
Technique, when the front of the car passes over the magic array, the magic is activated immediately, quickly heating the water in the water storage tank and boiler at the front of the car. In the thickly armored and sealed front of the car, the steam has nowhere to go, so—"
"Bang——"
Valrhona imitated the sound of the explosion and then asked:
"There should be at least two prisoners. One is responsible for maintaining the 'spinning wheel' and creating a mana vacuum zone; the other is responsible for annihilating the guards in the car and kidnapping hostages."
"That's how it should be."
Roland nodded. The option of "killing all the train passengers" had been ruled out from the beginning. If the enemy really wanted to do that, there was no need to specially blast the front of the train, just detonate the ammunition compartment. Precisely because they wanted to capture the hostages alive, the priority was to stop the train.
Get off the train, and then use "Mist" to block the movement of the convoy.
The crisp and clean way of action was obviously better than that of the previous attackers, and this way of using magic also made Roland concerned. However, this was not the time to dwell on these details.
"The train has a total of 55 carriages. There are 12 carriages at the beginning and the end that are full of marines. Excluding the command carriage, ammunition carriage, dining car, entertainment carriage and the special carriage at the rear, the 18 carriages in the middle carrying important passengers should be the target of the opponent.
.Next, will the enemy launch a surprise attack and inspect each carriage or use other means to conduct investigation..."
"It would be nice to bring the spider with you at times like this."
The flower mantis on the side interjected, and a sharp gaze came from the side, making him shrink his neck.
"Sorry, I forgot that Scorpion is here too..."
"Anyway, I'm just an Obasan who likes to dismember bodies. There's no way I can compare with a beautiful girl with sexy pussy."
Lowering his eyelids, the corners of Scorpion's mouth curved into a dangerous arc. Looking at that extremely dangerous smile, cold sweat broke out on the forehead of Flower Mantis.
Ignoring the sight of the surrounding people, Xia stretched out his hand and pressed against the wall.
Exoskeleton creatures have their own unique sensory systems, such as the compound eyes of dragonflies and mantises, the hormonal pheromones of ants and bees, the flagella of cockroaches, etc. However, there are very few that can achieve wide-area perception like spiders, and
Scorpion happens to be one of them.
Few people know that although their appearances are very different, spiders and scorpions are actually close relatives of the same family of arachnids. The two have many similarities in their living habits. For example, they are both good at setting traps and waiting with bated breath for prey to come to them;
For another example, they are all very good at sensing changes in the surrounding environment.) The special sensing organ, which grows at the base of the fourth pair of feet on the inside of the abdomen, is dedicated to sensing vibrations.
Spiders and scorpions are the same in terms of "sensing external conditions through vibration", but scorpions have no spider silk and can sense surrounding vibrations with their bodies alone. A killer named "Scorpion" has also transplanted this ability, using only his skin
You can feel subtle vibrations and identify sounds. Press your hand on the wall of the car, and the sounds of voices, moving footsteps, and the sound of ventilation ducts operating are transmitted through your palms. Among the many sounds, a few subtle sounds attract your attention.
"The sound of water?"
The sound as clear as a stream moved against the wall of the carriage. What was unbelievable was that at least 4 of the 8 vibration sources came from the ceiling. The progress was not coherent, but stopped from time to time, or sneaked into the carriage room.
Move on in a while.
"It's almost like searching."
Xie let out a light tsk, and behaved like a living thing in response to the flow of water, ignoring gravity. She was not too surprised. After all, the other party was an experienced magician, and any unreasonable behavior was not worth making a fuss about.
.However, this detection method is indeed a bit tricky.
"Master, do you know any of the water-type manipulative spells that can be used for detection?"
"Water detection... The several known spells are all used underwater and are measured by sensing changes in water pressure. The ones used on land... wait, are you sure the other party is using water-based spells to detect the carriage?"
"Although it is silent, the friction and vibration cannot be hidden from me. There are 8 finger-thick water columns constantly seeping into the carriage, exploring and moving forward. There are still 11 carriages away from us."
"I see, the curvature of water is manipulated to transmit images, and there may be additional techniques for vibration detection and thermal sensing..."
That's right, this is the "Water Demon" technique that is still in the theoretical stage. Its appearance here is somewhat concerning, but this is not the time to dwell on such an issue.
The enemy's magic operation skills are quite advanced and their strategies are very sound. If you counterattack rashly, you will only be led by the opponent, and if you wait, you will only be slowly ravaged by the opponent.
In that case——
The young man raised his head with a confident smile on his face.
"Just play hide and seek with him." (To be continued...)