Mage? Magic Engineer!

"First Heavy Infantry Regiment, with the Giants as your core, spread out and advance eastward.

"Third and Fifth Guard Corps, on my command. Move to the vicinity of Village Two in the north. If fighting breaks out to the east, force a crossing at the ford and provide support.

"Cavalry Regiment, first ascend Hill 3. Subsequently, all artillery regiments will deploy to Hills 3 and 7, aim at the enemy positions to the northeast, and await orders.

"All other units, maintain concealment upon reaching your designated combat positions. No open flames. All Giants, begin assembly and calibration."

Thirteen hours had passed between detecting the Empire Army’s position and completing their deployment. Paul hadn’t slept a wink the entire time. The residue of an Energy Potion trickled from the corner of his mouth, and under the glow of a Light Technique, the whites of his eyes were shot with blood.

Pascal hadn’t rested all night either. In the latter half of the night, to execute Paul’s deployment, they needed to temporarily widen the ramp up to the high ground for the artillery and ammunition carts. Pascal had personally participated. To avoid making excessive noise or light, the Casters could only use the Earth Shaping Skill to slowly carve out a wider, sturdier road.

...

After finally getting all the artillery onto the high ground, Pascal returned to the command tent, yawning. He was startled by Paul, who was in a near-manic state. "You haven’t slept all night?"

"Sleep? If I dared to sleep now, a great many people would soon never wake up again, myself included." He exhaled a breath thick with the smell of blood. Paul’s chest was pounding; the powerful beat of his heart invigorated him. "I predict the enemy will make their move sooner than expected."

"Huh?"

"Now that we’ve dealt with those pesky Airships, the enemy can’t get a clear picture of our situation for the time being. The Empire’s garrison is under just as much pressure as we are. Their commander is getting impatient... According to our reconnaissance reports, the northern defensive line hasn’t changed, but the Empire Army to the east is redeploying frequently. He’s looking to seize the initiative.

"In that case, I’m ready to give him exactly what he’s hoping for!" Paul didn’t know who the opposing commander was, but in his eyes, that didn’t matter. The most important thing was to read his opponent’s intentions.

"Although the enemy can’t see the full picture of our army, their earlier reconnaissance has given them our general location. The Empire Army is probably thinking that while we’re attacking their northern positions, their eastern forces can strike at the flank of our main body."

The Empire Army’s northern defensive line was positioned between Sassan Main City and the National Guard. Against the National Guard of old, such a deployment would have been correct. But once the war began, the Empire Army quickly discovered that shells from the Valois people were targeting all their positions. The short, unfocused bombardments made it impossible for them to determine the main focus of the National Guard’s attack.

"They’ll be confused. Their deployment will be a step behind ours, and then they’ll expose the weak points in their line."

The Empire Army soldiers in their positions realized they hadn’t received any further orders, yet the vanguard of the National Guard was already drawing near. At several points where the artillery and firing lines were thinnest, thick smoke suddenly billowed up.

The smoke wasn’t poisonous; it was purely to obscure vision and mark targets. The unnaturally thick smoke drifted more than ten meters into the air. Under its cover, towering steel Giants rose one by one and charged straight for the weak points in the defensive line.

Sassan didn’t have a Long-term Forbidden Magic Device. Instead, Airships carrying impact-style devices began to lower their altitude in preparation.

The Mouse Speaker immediately sent a flock of birds surging toward the low-flying Airships, targeting their engines. Two of the Airships successfully lost power on one side and began to spin uncontrollably, clearly out of commission. Unfortunately, one device still managed to activate.

Instantly, a pillar of light descended upon the battlefield. All the Giants visibly stuttered. However, the mission Paul had assigned them was to charge and break through. Venting steam, the Giants didn’t fall. They continued to press onward, lumbering into the enemy’s positions powered by pure fire and steam.

"Now the Empire’s Military Mages won’t be able to use Casting to concentrate artillery fire..." Paul hadn’t even finished his sentence when three of the machines collapsed.

"What’s happening?" Pascal was extremely tense at this sudden development.

Paul lowered his Telescope and slapped his thigh. "Chain Bombs!"

Faced with the Giants, the Empire Army hadn’t tried to counter with equivalent technology. Instead, some bright spark had dug into the history books and brought back the Chain Bombs commonly used in past naval battles.

The cannons fired two shells in succession, connected to each other by a thick iron chain. They flew spinning, sweeping horizontally to strike the Giants’ legs. Chain Bombs didn’t require much accuracy. Once one wrapped around a Giant’s joints, it could easily cause massive deformation of the armor plating and damage or jam the transmission mechanisms.

"Who was it that insisted the Giants had to be humanoid? Drag them before a military tribunal!" Paul was furious, but he quickly calmed himself, gritted his teeth, and continued issuing orders. "Cavalry, charge according to plan! Reserves, engage the enemy.

"The two Guard Corps are to proceed with my initial orders: force the ford and intercept the enemy from the east! At the same time, the artillery will support the Guard Corps. Prioritize attacking the eastern Empire Army! The barrage will advance slowly with the Guard Corps’ movement and direction. Inflict maximum damage on the enemy forces!"

Whether they were still functional or not, the Giants were now deeply embedded in the Empire Army’s defensive line. The National Guard’s infantry seized the opportunity and the space created, pouring in to sever the once-intact northern line of the Empire Army. They laid down steel plates, allowing the cavalry to thunder through several breaches. The cavalry then split into two forces. One wreaked havoc behind the Empire Army’s northern defenses, while the other wheeled around, bypassed the northern line, and appeared behind the Empire’s eastern army group.

At that moment, the Empire Army’s eastern corps had artillery shells raining down on their heads, the elite of the Guard Corps to their front, and cavalry that had appeared from nowhere to their rear.

Meanwhile, the gaps in the defensive line were widening, showing a trend of being broken into segments and devoured piece by piece.

"It’s over... it’s all over..." The Empire Army commander’s face was ashen. He had wanted nothing more than to wait at ease for an exhausted enemy, digging trenches on the northern and eastern fronts and waiting for the attack. Firstly, he never expected the National Guard could break through the northern line so quickly. Secondly, he never expected...

The Military Mage beside the commander tilted his head as if listening. After a moment, he relayed, "A directive from His Majesty: Report the current battle situation at once. If the six eastern corps are advancing smoothly, then all forces deployed on the northern defensive line are to take the offensive and annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop."

’Secondly, he never expected that these Military Mages, with apparently nothing better to do, would develop communication technology to such an advanced degree that it gave the great His Majesty the convenience of commanding the battlefield remotely. And where was the General Staff? Why hadn’t the brain of the military connected to the front line before His Majesty did?’ The commander couldn’t understand it for the life of him, but he still had to obey the orders of the army’s theoretical supreme commander.

In one respect, however, the commander was mistaken. It wasn’t convenient at all for His Majesty the Emperor to transmit orders. His Imperial Palace had a Forbidden Magic Device, so every directive had to be written by hand, passed to a Military Mage outside the Imperial Palace, then transmitted via Radio Communication Skill to a relay Mage, and then amplified by a signal tower before reaching the Sassan battlefield.

The delay was approximately seventeen minutes.

But the length of the delay no longer mattered. The commander had already witnessed the utter rout. A twisted, humorless smile played on his lips. "Report? Report this to his great-grandmother!"

The Military Mage asked, his face expressionless, "Should I relay that as well?"

For some reason, malice surged in the Empire Army commander’s heart. A nameless rage burned through him. He swung a vicious punch at the unprepared Caster’s face. "F*ck you!"