NOVEL WEB Chapter 292: Flames of War
[After bringing your entire squad under Knocknaree's command, you did not ease up on training.]
[However, due to your rapid increase in strength, you could no longer accumulate victories against stronger foes within Knocknaree's army. You began to focus on improving the overall strength of the Northern Army.]
[Once you could no longer find joy in fighting within Knocknaree's forces, you turned your attention elsewhere after completing your daily routine drills.]
[In early March, Queen's Calendar Year 2018, due to the disappearance of the elven lord knight Gawain, infighting broke out among the elves of Manchester over control of the region. The internal conflict resulted in the near annihilation of Manchester's elves.]
[Upon receiving news of this, you swiftly deployed troops to Manchester. Rejecting the surrender of the few surviving elves, you decisively crushed them, enabling the Northern Elves to take over Manchester.]
[In March 2018, inspired by breech-loading firearms, you redesigned the Phantom Rifle, further optimizing its loading mechanism and increasing reload speed. This led to the development of the Phantom Rifle Type-III.]
Breech-loading rifles, as the name suggests, are loaded from the rear of the barrel. Their introduction marked a major breakthrough in human firearms history. Before this, muskets were muzzle-loaded with ramrods, a slow and labor-intensive process that significantly reduced rate of fire.
Due to this, during the 18th and 19th centuries, the prevalent battlefield weapons were muzzle-loading rifles. These rifles had low accuracy and long reload times, requiring soldiers to stand while reloading due to the long barrels. This made it impossible for soldiers to duck or go prone when under fire. To maximize combat effectiveness, soldiers formed dense formations to concentrate firepower and maximize the impact of bayonet charges. These tactics, later mocked as "line-up-and-shoot" warfare, also marked the final glory days of cavalry.
Infantry lines were shallow and easily broken by cavalry charges, which could flank or rear-attack thanks to superior mobility. However, breech-loading rifles changed everything. The dramatically improved reload speed allowed infantry to create bullet storms capable of halting any melee unit. As a result, cavalry numbers drastically dropped in armies, and by the end of World War I, cavalry was completely replaced by machine guns, rapid-fire artillery, barbed wire, trenches, and bunkers.
[Simultaneously with the introduction of the Phantom Type-III, the Northern Army also captured and organized over 2,000 magical beasts from eastern Edinburgh into a beast corps.]
[Nearly half of these beasts were quadrupeds, enabling the Northern Elves' cavalry forces to grow beyond 1,000—far exceeding the cavalry strength once commanded by the Bloody Lord.]
[Later that month, Norwich's lord, Spriggan, sent an envoy seeking an alliance with the Northern Elves.]
[After weighing the pros and cons, Knocknaree agreed to the alliance. As a gesture of goodwill, Spriggan provided Edinburgh with a large quantity of metal for weapon production, in exchange for design schematics of the Phantom Type-I.]
[With this influx of raw materials, Edinburgh's production lines quickly ramped up. Thanks to numerous factories, the Phantom Type-III was soon mass-produced and deployed to the Northern Elves' army.]
[In April 2018, Oxford launched a direct assault on Norwich, bypassing civilian areas and launching a fierce attack on Gold Vault City.]
[Spriggan requested military assistance from the Northern Elves.]
—There was little benefit in sending troops to Norwich.
Not to mention the risks of crossing a long front line and frequent ambushes from the Windfang Clan. Even if Knocknaree's forces reached Norwich, based on what Guinevere knew of Spriggan, he likely wouldn't risk letting foreign troops inside Gold Vault City or collaborate with Knocknaree's army against Woodworth's forces.
More likely, he would lounge in comfort within Gold Vault City, watching as reinforcements clashed with Woodworth to weaken both sides. Even then, for self-preservation, he probably wouldn't dare step out of the city.
[After discussing your opinion with Knocknaree as her strategist, you advised launching an offensive against Sheffield instead of Norwich.]
"Since Boggart is Woodworth's ally, why not strike Boggart while Woodworth is engaged with Norwich? That way, we prevent him from reinforcing Norwich—makes perfect sense, doesn't it?"
"Besides, if Edinburgh falls, the terms of the Woodworth-Boggart alliance become void."
"We're not refusing to help you, Spriggan. This is simply a flanking maneuver—a 'rescue by attacking Wei to save Zhao'."
[In response to Spriggan's plea for aid, the Northern Elves invaded Boggart's territory in Sheffield.]
[Faced with the empowered Northern Elves backed by a beast horde, Boggart chose to hole up and defend Manchester.]
[However, with magical beasts and Phantom Type-III rifles on the field, the Northern Elves quickly gained overwhelming superiority.]
[While giants, golem guardians, and puppet troops violently assaulted the gates, you led cavalry units equipped with Phantom Type-III rifles around the walls, using ranged dominance to annihilate any enemy trying to cast spells from above.]
[Boggart's defense lasted less than two days before the gates fell. You led elite vanguard troops into the city, and Boggart personally led his army to stop you.]
[Unfazed, you struck first with a Shield Toss, dealing a technical blow. The Rune: Blood Curse pierced his defense with ease. Badly wounded, Boggart was soon overpowered and driven to the brink of death.]
[Seizing the opportunity, you attempted to capture Boggart with a red Pal Ball.]
[Due to his high magical resistance, even in a near-death state, the Supreme Pal Ball only had a 0.12% success rate. And with your Luck downgraded to C due to "Chinese Martial Arts (Liuhe Spear) (Pseudo)", it took 700 Supreme Pal Balls to finally capture him.]
[Boggart set the record for most Pal Balls used before capture.]
[Defeating a superior opponent, your win count reached 90.]
[Sheffield was successfully taken.]
[However, news of Sheffield's fall did not stop Woodworth. Instead, he intensified his assault on Norwich.]
[In May 2018, after nearly half a month of defense with Gold Vault City and Phantom Type-I rifles, disaster struck Norwich. The "Shadow of Calamity" appeared again, attacking Woodworth's army within the city.]
[Facing massive losses, Woodworth, in a fury, personally confronted the "Norwich Calamity".]
[The battle lasted half a day. Though half of Norwich was flattened, Woodworth ultimately defeated the "Norwich Calamity" alone.]
[With his army in disarray, Woodworth stopped the siege and personally attacked Gold Vault City.]
[It didn't take long for him to break through the gates with brute force. Upon the city's fall, Spriggan immediately surrendered.]
"Wait! Woodworth! I surrender! I surrender!"
Spriggan raised his hands in panic, shouting:
"You win! Norwich is yours! I'll even be your slave! Just spare me! I can offer you something stronger than the Phantom Rifle—"
The weapon he offered was none other than the Phantom Cannon—based on the same principles as the Phantom series but modeled after human cannons.
Compared to humans, fairies lacked creativity. As a Drifter from Pan-Human history, Spriggan quickly realized the Phantom Rifles merely mimicked magical versions of human guns. Thus, it was possible to recreate cannons magically.
He had long planned to use the Phantom Cannon schematics as a bargaining chip for survival.
—Of course, Guinevere had long conceived of the Phantom Cannon design. He simply avoided deploying it because doing so might accelerate Fairy Britannia's warfare into modern iterations, and the fairies' incompetence would lead to their own ruin.
Unfortunately, Spriggan misjudged his kind's nature. He surrendered at the wrong moment.
[Though Spriggan offered a valuable bargaining chip, he was still torn apart by the bloodthirsty Woodworth.]
[With this victory, Woodworth's Fang Clan annexed Norwich. His legendary solo battle against the calamity won him immense respect. The elves of Norwich quickly accepted his rule.]
[The Windfang Alliance now became a tri-clan coalition.]
[Meanwhile, after taking Sheffield, you linked Edinburgh—Sheffield—New Darlington into a strategic line, allowing Bhavanshi to retake control of New Darlington.]
[While you remained in Sheffield to stabilize the region, Bhavanshi and Artoria were ambushed and captured by the fairy Lancelot while retaking New Darlington.]
[Fairy Lancelot declared that in three days, Bhavanshi and Artoria would be publicly executed.]