Fertile Plains, ahead of the No. 9 Forward Station.
“Target northeast six degrees four minutes, distance 6500, area one fang, requesting artillery coverage.”
Silvie lay on Maisie's back, looking down at the ground not far ahead – many patches of grass on the ground had been overturned, and the scattered soil was still very fresh, probably within the last two or three days.
“Relayed.” Sylvie received a concise reply from Savia via the Listening Sigil, “Artillery strike begins in five minutes.” She added at the end, “Please be careful.”
Silvie couldn't help but look towards Tarra; at this altitude, she could now see the ruins of the Holy City with her naked eyes. Although it was still more than fifty kilometers away and looked as small as a fingernail, it gave her a feeling of being close at hand. The collapsed outline of the city was mixed with the forest, like a forgotten miniature sculpture.
Although it was beyond the observation range of the Magic Eye, she could still feel a bright red star twinkling. As long as it didn't move, it meant they were still temporarily safe.
“Yeah, I know.”
She put away the sigil and patted Maisie's broad back, "Let's fly a little higher."
"Awoo!"
The terrorbeast Maisie howled and spread her giant wings of nearly ten meters, taking off into the wind – now her size was almost that of two ordinary terrorbeasts, a behemoth among terrorbeasts, not even inferior to the mutated one ridden by Kabradah. But considering that when she turned into a pigeon, she was still a giant pigeon, Silvie felt relieved.
After climbing about a hundred meters, a muffled rumble faintly came from behind.
Then, several columns of dust suddenly rose from the ground in front of her. The ripples could be clearly seen around the columns, and grass clippings flew everywhere they went, as if turning the solid ground into a shimmering water surface. No matter how many times she admired it, this scene was pleasing to the eye.
Then came the second and third rounds of thunder...
The calibrated artillery battalion could accurately fire shells into the area she marked – because it was difficult to specifically measure the area of the strike area in the air, rough estimates were usually used instead, and one fang was equivalent to the size of the Neverwinter Castle district, about 16,400 square meters, and also one of the places she was most familiar with.
Under the cover of artillery fire, Silvie soon saw severed limbs flying out with the dust columns.
A 152mm howitzer shell was enough to create a crater about one meter deep, and the depth of the devils' hiding would not exceed fifty centimeters, even in the land corroded by the Red Mist. If it was ordinary ground, it would at most just cover their heads. If a shell happened to land on their heads, not even a complete corpse would be left.
Of course, it was not necessary for a howitzer shell to hit them directly to kill a devil. The circles of radiating shock waves were the real killers, especially for targets buried underground. The body closely attached to the soil meant there was no buffer, and the impact within twenty meters of the epicenter would be fatal.
This kind of fighting, which did not care about the specific location of the enemy, but bombarded the entire area, His Majesty called it "sweeping the floor."
After five rounds of artillery strikes, a hundred or so ambushing devils crawled out of the soil and began to flee backward.
“Enemies have appeared, identified as Furies, requesting progressive shooting along the original angle,” Silvie reported.
“Roger.”
Suddenly, she seemed to feel something and looked up towards Tarra. The red star suddenly became much brighter and flew quickly towards the position.
She immediately took out another Listening Sigil, "Lightning, come back quickly! The Slayer is moving!"
Maisie also turned around at the same time and quickly evacuated the airspace.
Half a quarter of an hour later, the three of them returned to the First Army's air defense protection circle, and the Slayer also entered the direct line of sight of the Magic Eye. Silvie saw the human-like blue-skinned devil circling twice in the artillery strike area, then staring coldly at the three of them in the air, his expression full of killing intent.
During this process, the artillery battalion never stopped firing.
It was angry, but powerless, Silvie realized. Even a powerful Slayer could not stop
The whistling shells hunted its kind.
In the end, it could only leave the fleeing Furies and turn away.
Silvie suddenly felt the pressure lessen a lot.
“It’s gone, awoo. Shall we go over and scout around again?” Maisie asked.
She glanced at Lightning, who was clenching her fists, and finally shook her head, "Let's stop here for today. I still need to save some magic for the evening. And the area within five or six kilometers around has been swept, which is enough to ensure the safety of the engineering team for the next few days."
...
Back at the underground command post of Station No. 9, Silvie colored a piece of land on the map green - that was the area cleared today.
And such green areas almost surrounded the railway line.
“Hard work,” Nightingale walked over with a cup of black tea, “It seems that Lady Edith's exile plan is working.”
Silvie took the tea and smiled, "Yes, it seems so so far."
Such encounters were not the first time.
In fact, since approaching within 100 kilometers of Tarra, the danger of her forward reconnaissance had greatly increased – using the Magic Eye to penetrate the soil to observe made it difficult to pay attention to the enemy situation in the air. Within that distance, devils could stay in the air for a long time while carrying multiple gas tanks.
Therefore, the staff headquarters formulated a targeted "Exile Plan," dividing the reconnaissance area into several layers. 0-2 kilometers was an absolute safety zone, every corner of this range had been scanned by the Magic Eye, and was constantly under the vigilance of the station, making it unlikely to be ambushed. Within this distance, air defense squads could leave the trenches to provide a wider protection circle.
2-10 kilometers was the screening zone, all within the range of the fortress artillery. It was also the main airspace for Silvie and Maisie. After clearing, it could be considered relatively safe, and marked in green on the map.
10-50 kilometers was the danger zone, only Lightning was here for reconnaissance, the purpose was to find those enemies hidden in the clouds and give early warning, which was equivalent to buying time for Maisie and Silvie to retreat. Only Lightning had the ability to instantly get rid of the enemy's pursuit within this distance, even if the opponent was a Slayer, it was impossible to catch up with a witch who could reach supersonic speeds.
Facts had proved that the Exile Plan was quite effective. The reconnaissance team could completely decide when to attack, while the enemy could only passively intercept. Without the cooperation of ground troops, it was difficult for terrorbeasts alone to cause damage to the armored train stationed at the front line.
Turning the screening zone into a safe zone step by step, pulling out the nails set by the devils, and exiling the most threatening Slayer outside the battlefield, allowing it to have a body of strength but unable to catch the tail of the reconnaissance team - that was the core concept of the plan. If it could cause the opponent to lose their minds and charge the front line head-on, that would be even better.
The only regret was that the Slayer had not shown any signs of losing control so far.
“By the way,” Silvie looked around, “Where is the Northern Pearl xiaojie... where is she?”
“She received His Majesty’s order and returned to Neverwinter City with Iron Axe on the Seagull,” Phyllis replied with a smile, “I think that time has come.”
The final pre-war meeting to discuss the decisive battle plan!