Re: Jager [Mecha Isekai/LitRPG]

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

The Peacemaker revved up forward, as gunfire from Adelyn's mech behind supported him.

The lesser demons ahead of them, two of them humanoid, three of them animal-like, all panicked, as Hans' mech sped through their magical spells as if they were nothing.

Time to use you well—[SMOOTH RESPONSE III]!

Activating his mech's shields, alongside [EYE OF PARANOIA I], Hans practically zipped like an untouchable menace in front of the demons. His double coaxials, all firing plasma rounds at the demons, added to the deadly array of attacks being hurled at the scattering demons.

The humanoid demons tried to cut and attack Hans, but their swords and speed meant nothing. He was but a convenient bait for his ally behind him after all.

"Adelyn, knock these buggers off my six, will ya?" Hans cheekily asked.

"I'm on it!"

Shot after shot of Adelyn's powerful main gun blasted the demons on Hans' wake. Each time they were hit, their bodies seemed like they would disintegrate from her attacks. The non-humanoid demons, which were attempting to sandwich Hans on the other hand, found a different threat keeping them from finishing their maneuvers.

A friendly battalion was supporting the two, and from a long range, their spells and musketry seemed enough to harass the demons badly. Blood flowed freely on the battlefield, as the demons struggled to touch him, while Adelyn and the friendly battalion closed in while dishing out their firepower.

Within five minutes of constant back-and-forths and breakneck maneuvers, the first shots from a nearby hill where friendly horse artillery were set up began to open up. Their attacks further disrupted and damaged the demons attempting to kill Hans.

In the haze of battle, Hans briefly looked at one of the humanoid demons. Her body had so many holes in it, alongside a blown-off shoulder, that he was somewhat bewildered that she could still keep up.

But, suddenly, a shot from Adelyn's main gun sliced off the demon's head, allowing Hans to move with more freedom.

"Shaved off one of them!" Adelyn said.

"Good shot," Hans smiled, as he dodged another flurry of fireball spells coming from the opposing animal-like demons. "Try to distract the ones on the side of these three. I'll take the center."

"It's so hard to keep up with you—"

"Just try your best."

"Hmph."

As Hans sped forward, one of the enemy's spells struck his shield. It caused a powerful explosion that could have surely ripped Hans' mech apart, but instead of doing that, the blue barrier from [SMOOTH RESPONSE III] did its job well, and he came out of it unscathed.

With his mech's legs screeching, the Peacemaker suddenly jumped high into the sky, while Adelyn continued pouring plasma round after plasma round at her targets.

Hans on the other hand prioritized the demon at the center of the formation he was charging at. The demon was strange, resembling that of a massive disfigured lion. It roared, sending another fireball at Hans' mech, but it missed.

Then, his double coaxials replied, pinning the demon on the ground as his bullets burned and suppressed it from moving. With perfect timing, his mech's forward razors deployed themselves, slicing the demonic lion in half, before his rear legs pushed forward, the blades briefly slicing grass before he disengaged it.

"Well, that was a close one," Hans thought, as the Peacemaker, covered in demonic blood, drifted to turn back on the last two animal-like demons. He stopped for a second, watching as his allies continued tearing through the demons like they were nothing.

He pulled back his mech a bit, before joining in, expending shot after shot of his regular MPAT rounds at the panicked foes. By the time they were done four minutes later, five lesser demons were dead on the fields.

Hans found himself grinning a bit as he looked at the notifications.

That should be roughly enough to replace the AP I consumed, and produce enough munitions and fuels to maximum without problems.

His allies, most of them still a bit shaken by the battle, advanced in groups, checking in on the remains of the fallen demons. When the confirmation of their deaths came, the troops practically cheered because of the easy and safe victory.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The YEF won, killing five demons, in exchange for not even a single life.

And so, with those results, Hans, Adelyn, and their allies returned to the YEF's main siege lines in Serenus, ready to rejoin the battle against the pope and his ilk.

+++

+++ Colonel Ebert Strobel +++

There were still many great problems that the YEF had to deal with at the moment.

Ebert assigned teams in his engineering company to General Kohler's mining detachments, and they were indeed advancing pretty well into enemy lines underneath the earth.

But there were already reports of major complications.

Fort Patricia—the fort directly in front of the bastions and curtain wall of the southern section of Serenus—was their main target. It stood there ominously, using its raised structures as an effective deterrence to advancing YEF troops because of the artillery on it.

YEF sappers on the surface slowly inched forward as cannonballs, musket rounds, and artillery shells were lobbed at them by Fort Patricia's guns. That was a major problem because the sappers were essentially creating their assault trenches.

They were going to be forward positions dug heavily so that soldiers could be deployed closer to Fort Patricia with reduced casualties. That, and once they assaulted the walls, the wounded, tired, and reinforcements could be rotated in and out not in the open but in the protective cover of the assault trenches.

That took time. Even with the sappers utilizing veteran earth mages, they were taking hours just to dig hundreds of meters of trenches, not to mention fortifying them enough so they wouldn't cave in from the fort's cannon and spell attacks.

If they could disrupt Fort Patricia's defenders by detonating a mine underneath its walls, not only would it be more open to an attack, their sappers would be able to dig faster that way.

But they're counter-mining us.

"Fourteen of our men are dead," one of his officers gloomily reported. "The tunnel they made caved in when the enemy detonated some explosives."

"That's one of our teams gone," Ebert frowned. "How many do we have left?"

"Four more are tunneling, sir."

"Good. Keep it up."

Ebert dismissed his officers and returned to his duties at the frontline. For hours, he directed his artillery and his men. Mostly about which targets they should prioritize, alongside where to dig, and most of all, where to position the wooden forts they were making in the defense section assigned to him.

The contravallation, the outward-facing earthworks and fortifications were something supremely important in siege warfare. Because of demons now slowly arriving to poke at their defense lines, it was necessary to create structures that prevented them from breaking in and thus, relieving the siege.

Secondarily was the circumvallation, which was inward-facing earthworks and fortifications they were making to prosecute and advance the siege. The Imperial Capital garrison after all not only held at least forty to fifty thousand troops ready to break the siege, but also, held an unknown number of lesser demons and three calamity demons.

It was therefore imperative not just to speed up the siege, but also to make sure that if the enemy attacked, both from the inside and outside, the YEF would hold the line well and prevent them from breaking the siege.

Unfortunately, we're getting stretched thin.

He could see that right now as he directed his men. While they were indeed digging and constructing fortifications everywhere in the sectors assigned to them, he couldn't man them all. They had a plan for this though, because there were thousands of troops from the loyalist turncoats who joined the YEF entering the siege every hour, but still…

We have to delay the enemy further from attacking us.

He knew Adelyn and Hans were already dispatched outside of the siege area to do just that. But he feared that it may not be enough, and that they would be caught off-guard by demons coming from the rear attacking them while they're digging in and moving soldiers into their defense posts.

They simply had so many headaches today, that Ebert's face was now a permanent grimace, and his men could see it quite clearly.

But, we have to keep going.

They weren't going to lose when the final victory was so damned close.

+++

+++ Unknown +++

Fort Patricia

Another set of flashes erupted from the hill that the enemy occupied.

The soldier watching it could only blink as the shields of Fort Patricia wavered, and a barrage of explosions tore through their walls. While the angled slopes of the bastions helped stave off some of the enchanted cannonballs, explosions struck the curtain wall, and he felt as if things were coming to an end.

"Stand up!" their commander bellowed from behind. "The walls held! We shall respond at once!"

As usual, when the soldier raised his head to look at the areas struck by the enemy's cannonade, they were still standing. Smoke from the powerful explosions came out of it, other sections were even on fire, some were cracked and others had a small hole—but they stood.

It didn't fill him with any sort of assurance that they could win, but still, this was the last stand of mankind wasn't it? The soldier gripped his musket hard, as he looked at the distance.

It was already reloaded, so they were instructed to open fire at the enemy's trenches, which were slowly creeping forward.

He took aim, not really seeing anything well due to the smoke and fires around him, but he managed to open fire when the signal was given. The white smoke from his gun temporarily blinded him as he ducked and reloaded.

Gods…is this really it?

He heard someone scream as another volley of the enemy's cannonade struck the walls. The enchantments of Fort Patricia's walls made it very difficult for the enemy's firepower to easily crack it, but still…humans were only humans. He watched as some of his comrades on another section of the wall were torn to pieces by the shockwaves of the explosions.

"When the hell's that damned barrier going up?!" A panicked soldier asked beside him. "At this rate, they'll hit us and kill everyone here!"

"Shut up. Reload your guns and keep fighting!" Their commander replied, pointing his pistol at the scared soldier. "You, speed up. I want another volley fired at the enemy in fifteen seconds."

"T-this is pointless—!" the soldier complained, but he was shot instead.

The soldier couldn't believe it, his eyes wide after his comrade's blood splattered on his uniform, but their commander continued barking orders.

"No one here will show cowardice. The pope commanded us to defend mankind, did he not? Then stand up and fight!"

Gripping his musket shakily, the soldier stood up again as commanded, and opened fire with his comrades in another desperate volley. Then they fired another volley, then another.

The smell of smoke filled his nose, while his face turned dirty as gunpowder settled on his face.

The enemy didn't relent either. Each shot from Fort Patricia was met with at least three shots from the westerners. It was gruesome, but soon, the soldier found his moment of reprieve when the barrier spell that protected the fort came back.

But he knew it wouldn't last long.