Kyle and his army had only packed enough provisions for the trip, as he hoped to purchase more from the imperial forces in the region. Using a mana comm, the army cartography unit had pointed his troops towards the frontline.

  Manacomms were energy hungry but effective communication devices that required mages to power them with mana. Kyle’s appeared to be a small opaque green crystal framed in rune-inscribed gold.

  Occasionally, while on the march, they would pass by units of conscripts or legionnaires heading to the frontline. His units wearing no armor and simple camouflaged uniforms occasionally drew snickers or incredulous stares. The tank also drew many stares. It only broke down twice during the two-week journey, both of which were quickly repaired by Kyle.

  Eventually, the city of Pirezohn appeared behind some hills. Squat and reliable stone walls, arcing fields of shielding, and the lights of spells arcing across the sky.

  Kyle had brought along 5 field radio sets. Each one was on a horse-drawn cart, spread along the formation. Among three thousand men, it certainly helped to relay commands. Kyle had obviously connected it to his armor.

  The men were still equipped with rifled caplock muskets, and Kyle’s plan for moving forward was a break-action rifle. Simple, relatively easy to make, and more reliable than a bolt action. Semiautomatic guns were still at least 5 months away from reality due to their increased complexity.

  Kyle’s men would sweep around the wall of the city, and engage any of the robots they found. Kyle’s officers, inexperienced as they were, would organize the movement.

  ———

  Lines of the camouflaged men marched in lockstep across the cratered field next to the city wall. With the spiral eye flag of the league draped over his armor, Kyle stomped across the ground in front of his men. Legionnaires and adventurers alike looked down from the walls, both in admiration of the orderly and well-trained march and incredulity at the men’s lack of armor.

  A wave of robots was scuttling towards the fortress-city at that very moment. Projectiles en-masse flew from the wall and impacted amongst the machines. Some lost a limb and stumbled before continuing, while others were hit squarely on their center of mass and fell to the ground lifelessly.

  Kyle had drilled his army on a few simple commands. With a loud clap above his head, the officers amongst the men began to issue orders.

  “Ranks, ready arms!” The men uniformly pointed their guns at the slightly-distant spider bots. “Pick your targets! FIRE!” With a thunderous report, nearly a thousand rifles fired as one.

  The impact on the force of bots was immediate. Any bullet that hit an angled surface had a limited impact, occasionally pinching through, but any flat surfaces were riddled with holes instantly. A good 20% of the swarm of robots fell lifeless to the ground.

  “Block two! FIRE!” The second group of men fired, and the robots took even more casualties. They were still nearly 100 meters from the line, and the third block easily had enough time to fire.

  By the time all the blocks had fired and the first block had fired twice, the formation of the spiders had been mostly destroyed. Kyle easily bashed in the bodies of a few heavily damaged survivors.

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  With another massively loud clap, the army swung around the wall of the city. Arrayed in front of it, the legions inside as well as the large number of mercenaries and adventurers marched out of the gate. Riding out on a horse, the officer who had conscripted him months ago greeted him.

  “Hail and well met there, Lord Kyle! Good to see you again! I don’t think I ever gave you my name, I’m Cagliar Potraclos!” “Good to see you too, my man. Tell me, how has the front been?”

  The Cagliar looked out at the lines of men marching towards the relatively distant forces of the Iron Scourge. “All right, I suppose. We have held, although cities further north have not. Your support is quite timely.”

  The combined forces of Kyle’s men and the CLXIII Pirezohn Legion marched to meet the enemy.

  ———

  Carkh sat on the commander's seat of the tank. Although his education in commanding a tank had been short, Kyle had assured him this battle would mostly be safe for him. The roar of the engine and general metal clanking sounds echoed as the tank pulled ahead of the lines of infantry.

  Kyle’s men formed a long line behind an equally long line of melee fighters in a shieldwall. The tank stopped. With the pull of a lever, the main gun fired an explosive shell into a group of the ranged acid-spitting spiders. With a distant thump, the core of the group was shredded with explosive force and shrapnel.

  The men surrounding the tank cheered, even though few of them understood how it did what it did. In the distance, the robots reorganized around a single much larger spider, this one covered in black tubular protrusions.

  ————

  Kyle was wary of the robots, even if their lack of ranged weapons outside of their artillery made them weak. They had managed to deal real damage to his armor the last time he’d interacted with them, so their melee capability was surely immense. If they could close with his lines, they may wreak havoc.

  The larger spider in the distance, a huge creature the size of a two story house, seemed to be the focal point of their renewed push. It was covered in obvious gun mounts and flak cannons, covering all angles of approach. A limited shield protected it from the few long range spells slung at it.

  Coming into their range, the artillery spiders launched purple and green bolts of magic at his lines. However, before they could land, fingers of light reached up and detonated the projectiles prematurely. The mages brought by the Legion were acting as a sort of Active Protection System for the collective army.

  Kyle took out his railgun and moved away from his men. With its characteristic hum, it launched a bolt of plasma at the distant formation of artillery spiders. Shockingly, the shield they put up held for a single shot. A follow up round from the tank landed squarely on the glowing bug with crystal growths in the middle, shredding it.

  The magic bug had clearly been forming the shield, and with its absence, a second bolt of plasma shredded the entire formation.

  With another command, his men all started rounding fire at the titanic spider. Hundreds of bullets pinged off or burrowed into its armor, and many of its gun mounts and other magical items were destroyed in the withering hail of gunfire.

  Eventually, the sheer amount of focused gunfire sent the thing careening to the ground. It crushed a few of the now-fleeing spider bots on its way down. As one, the corpses across the field started smoking, especially the titan. Must be an anti-espionage measure. Enemies can’t study the bodies.

  With a boom, the tank rocked backwards on its treads and lobbed a shell at the titan. It was a near thing, but the shell impacted the spider on its side. Secondary explosions followed the detonation, and the titan was shredded.

  Riding up to him once again, Potraclos and his guards pressed through the lines of men. “I don’t know what magic allows your men to wield such destructive force, but I am thankful nonetheless.” “Don’t count your chickens yet, we only killed a couple hundred here. More lay in wait to the north of here. We will deal as much damage as we can, but I must return to my lands soon. There are plans that must be put in action.