There was no need for calibration or course correction. What the blocking force had to do was fire as many shells as possible in the shortest amount of time!
Everyone brought all the skills they had mastered in daily training into full play.
Although the separate-loading ammunition design reduced the rate of fire to a certain extent, the elite artillerymen still maintained the three cannons at a level of four rounds per minute. The slight gap between the gun crews created a sense of continuous firing. The booming sound echoed repeatedly in the mountains, like a summer thunderstorm.
"They're firing, goo!" Maisie couldn't help but hug Lightning's head.
"Mm," the latter responded softly, but felt a twinge of worry for the First Army. They must have seen the destruction of the disguised position. Even so, the blocking force still chose to carry out the mission to the end, obviously determined. Therefore, she also had to fulfill her responsibility and complete this reconnaissance mission properly.
Although the number of cannons was not large, the momentum was not bad at all—perhaps the enemy had never expected that the God-Making God would also be counterattacked by humans. When sporadic shells fell around the town, many devils could be seen scattering in panic. Obviously, in addition to a large number of troops, there were also a large number of low-level devils stationed in this mobile fortress.
In addition, Lightning vaguely saw human figures in the red mist.
This also confirmed the General Staff's previous speculation that the devils were deliberately transferring the population of the controlled area. However, she didn't have much regret. Graycastle's propaganda and evacuation had lasted for more than half a year. Most of those who still insisted on staying in Eternal Winter were vassals of the nobles, and those nobles were the most resolute opponents of Roland. They would rather fight against their own kind with weapons than resist the rule of devils.
In Miss Edith's words, all they had left in their eyes was their own tiny bit of interest, even if it meant selling out the future of the race.
As the God-Making God continued to advance, the shells fired from the artillery position could already reach the central city, but because the concentration of red mist was quite high, it was difficult for Lightning to further observe the results of the shelling.
Sylvie was now on the Seagull, and she could call on her to help at any time, but it was very likely that there were sentinel Eye Demons hidden in the devil city. Once eye contact was made, the Seagull's position would be exposed. Now that the blocking battle had continued to this point, the unease in Lightning's heart had not dissipated. She always felt that the devils' long-planned offensive would not end so quickly.
Just as she was hesitating, the God-Making God suddenly began to rotate slowly.
Another towering stone pillar was aimed in the direction of the artillery position—
Lightning's heart sank. The moment she had been worried about had finally arrived. Relying on a few fortress cannons and the Seagull alone was simply not enough to stop the enemy's lobbing attack, and the air knights were still fighting the Terror Beasts in a melee. A fatal blow to the position was unavoidable.
"Maisie, I'll leave the reconnaissance to you," she gritted her teeth and said.
"Goo?"
Lightning didn't explain further. She tossed the pigeon on her head high into the air, then dived down and accelerated to the speed of sound halfway—the ground troops were not equipped with Listening Charms, and she was the only one who could bring the warning message in time!
Thousands of meters passed in an instant, and on the other side, the huge stone pillar also rose into the air with magical radiance!
"Everyone—quickly take cover!" Lightning slowed down and swept over the position, shouting as loudly as she could, "The enemy has noticed us! The stone pillar is coming soon, quickly find a place to hide!"
"It's Miss Lightning..." Cat's Claw blew a whistle right after, "Everyone, leave your gun positions immediately! That's an order, leave your gun positions immediately!"
The gunners who received the order turned around and ran towards various shelters as quickly as possible. At this time, the shadow of the stone pillar had already appeared in the center of the position.
After waiting for all the personnel in sight to evacuate, Cat's Claw ran towards the nearest hidden sentry post. At the same time, the blue-glowing pillar slammed into the fortress cannon with the force of ten thousand jun! The violent impact caused the mountain to tremble, and the cannon that was directly hit was reduced to scattered parts.
However, this time, the stone pillar did not roll on the position, but instead smashed a large gap in the ground—that was because part of the trenches and underground shelters had collapsed.
"Cough, cough..." Cat's Claw coughed as he crawled out of the snowdrift. The feeling of violent tremors spreading throughout his body through the soles of his feet was definitely not pleasant. For a moment, he felt as if his internal organs were about to shift. But fortunately, apart from his legs still shaking, he was fine.
"Take a headcount of the casualties, and then withdraw from the position according to plan," Cat's Claw grabbed a soldier at random and instructed, "Pass my words down!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Yuzu Pi, where are you? Cough... Answer if you hear me!" He had just raised his head and shouted a few words when he heard the crisp sound of machine gun fire beside him.
What's going on?
Could it be that the enemy has attacked the hilltop?
Before Cat's Claw could figure out what was going on, Lightning's warning sounded again.
"Be careful, there are devils hiding in the stone pillar! That's the enemy's real offensive!"
Hiding... devils?
Cat's Claw quickly took off his rifle from his back, twisted off the safety, and ran towards the planned retreat point—the artillerymen spent most of their time behind the defense line, so they rarely carried guns. However, this time, considering the risk of close-range blocking, not only were guns issued to every soldier, but two musket teams were also brought in as guards.
The first to react were obviously the experienced musketeers.
After the flying snow mist subsided slightly, Cat's Claw found that several machine gun squads had already blocked the area from the foot of the hill to the center of the position with crossfire.
And the enemy was a kind of small spider devil that had never been seen before.
They crawled out from the open interior of the stone pillar and pounced on the defense line in the face of the rain of bullets—these spider devils were only half the height of a person. They looked similar to the heavy armor spider devils that had appeared in the Northernmost Port. Their heads and forelimbs were covered with quite thick black stone slabs. They would not suffer much damage even if they were hit by one or two bullets head-on, and their movements seemed to be quite agile.
In addition, it could also spray stone needles like ordinary spider devils for long-range attacks, but it needed to open its head armor before firing, which gave the soldiers a chance to strike a fatal blow.
After Cat's Claw joined the musket team, he set up his spear and joined the interception battle. Although it was unclear how many of these monsters were hidden inside the stone pillar, this downhill road was the only entrance and exit in the plan. Comrades who were still able to move would naturally gather here, and whether it was to rescue the wounded or wait for reserve support, it was necessary to defend this checkpoint.
"Pay attention to the condition of your gun barrels, don't keep pulling the trigger!"
"Ammo, we need ammo here!"
"Anti-devil grenades, ready—fire!"
The surrounding shouts and the sound of machine guns were connected into one piece. Several spider devils on the position had completely stopped moving.
After Cat's Claw emptied a magazine, he replaced it with a new clip. He noticed that although these deformed beasts were much more resistant to beating than Mad Demons, they still had some difficulty moving in the face of dense firepower—the black stone armor on their bodies could not completely resist the penetration of bullets. If they were exposed to the firepower, cracks and damage would soon occur. If one bullet was not enough, then ten or a hundred. For a well-equipped blocking force, it was not difficult to do this.
Moreover, the storm-like strikes could greatly suppress the opponent's ability to move. The main protection of the small spider devils was concentrated on the torso, head, and forelimbs. When running fast, they would expose the vulnerable unarmored area inside, so they could only move forward slowly in the face of the barrage, which gave the anti-devil grenades an excellent opportunity to fire.
After figuring out the enemy's characteristics and patterns, using machine guns to block their movements and then using grenades to kill them with one blow became an efficient and economical combat method.
However, the biggest weakness of this type of spider devil was behind—
A woman with short golden hair swooped down from the air, moving like a ghost over the heads of the enemies, and fired her dual pistols fiercely at the spider devils. Presumably to ensure agile movements, the rear of the spider devil was almost undefended, not much different from the Mad Demons. Even pistol bullets could easily tear open that thin layer of skin and stir the center and nerves into a mush.
Every time she succeeded, there would be a burst of enthusiastic cheers in the defense line.
For this agile figure, most people were simply too familiar with it.
That was their proud Miss Lightning!