+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

  Near La Veridad City

  December 10, 1538 CE

  Hans was right now looking at the new [ACT] skill he had unlocked. It was another useful closed skill. And specifically, due to his class, it was related again to Shadow Magic. While he had some complaints about the fact that he still had no open skill, it wasn’t like the two Shadow Magic adjacent closed skills that he had were bad.

  Well, it certainly is something.

  Hans sighed as he closed the magazine of his MS22 SMG. He had already used up sixty AP to enchant an entire magazine of his submachine gun. They were, right now, once again taking up drills for close infantry fighting. This time around, it was going to be him, Captain Strobel, and Captain Weibel, alongside the 1st Anti-Demon Unit’s B Company participating.

  Their enemy? The Viceroy herself. Considering how powerful she was, she was practically a minor demon in her own right. At least, in terms of strength. Hence, she was the closest thing out there that could realistically simulate a good opposition force. It was Hans’ idea, and the Viceroy took it quite well.

  “Do we really need to use proper weaponry against you?” Hans asked, still skeptical. “When I said we’ll be doing wargames, I was expecting something more…performatory.”

  “I wanna assess my strength as well, Lieutenant,” the Viceroy proudly said as she readied her boots. She seemed way too confident of herself as she picked up her staff. Behind them, Captain Weibel shook his head, also equally skeptical.

  “Madame, you do know our boys will be using live ammunition? Enchanted ammunition too,” Captain Weibel said. “This is way out of line, and it’s risky.”

  “What spells are you even going to use?” Captain Strobel asked as he placed another bullet in his wheellock pistol. “What does it look like?”

  She groaned, annoyed by their relentless comments.

  “I swear, you all are way too cautious about everything when we need to break things and be aggressive. That’s how a good fighting force is born,” she aimed her staff at Hans. “Here, have a good look.”

  Hans was immediately struck by a purple-colored light. He felt all of his muscles lock up, and quickly, he collapsed on the dirt face first. Naturally, both Captain Weibel and Captain Strobel were spooked by it, almost jumping away a bit. Hans on the other hand only felt the pain of his body falling flat on the ground.

  And all he could do was scream expletives.

  “Asshole! You asshole! Why me?! Why is it always me that has to be the demonstration prop?!” Hans shouted, almost eating the dirt. “Can you please do this to Ebert or Jonas out here instead? They deserve it too!”

  “Ufufu, apologies, Lieutenant,” the Viceroy said. “I just wanted to show that my ways are harmless. The magical attack that I will only be using for this wargame is that. A paralyzation spell.”

  “Well, the Imperial Mage Corps sure is scary,” Captain Strobel gulped, before laughing. “Hey, I think he already learned what’s going to happen.”

  “Oh…” The Viceroy shook her staff a bit. It glowed for a second, and Hans regained control of his body. “There! Again, apologies. At least you’ll be ready when it happens to you again.”

  Hans groaned as he picked himself up. He took his gun, which had fallen on the green grass as he stood up. Then, he patted his uniform of dirt and dust. He was lucky he didn’t faceplant on manure. Had that happened, he would have been truly furious.

  Whatever. Get used to it. This woman is too strong and careless of her power. Hans tried to control himself internally. She’s a bit out of touch. We can’t do anything about it.

  “I see then,” Hans said, as his voice turned neutral. “So our goal is to drain down your AP reserves before all of us in the field are paralyzed?”

  “Exactly!” the Viceroy said, nodding. “This isn’t just an opportunity for all of you to place your new tactics in action, but also, for me. I get stronger and stronger the more I use and place myself in strain. I expect to push my attributes a bit from this exercise.”

  “Is that so?” Hans crossed his arms. “You know, if you consider this a training exercise for yourself, you’re damned crazy.”

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  “Damn right, I agree with this guy,” Captain Weibel nodded. “You’re crazy.”

  “Yeah, you’re crazy,” Captain Strobel followed. “But whatever. Let’s do it then.”

  +++

  “Pull your asses out of here! I’ll cover you all!” Hans shouted at the men behind him. It was a platoon of Captain Strobel’s men. All of them were lying down on the ridge they had set up earlier. In the distance, the Viceroy was utterly demolishing their ranks. Dozens of soldiers were already paralyzed on the field.

  On the other hand, her magical defenses deflected the enchanted rounds being pelted at her by B Company. At this point, due to doctrinal changes, the lowest fighting unit in B Company was a duo. One man and his buddy. This was to further disperse themselves in combat.

  Unfortunately, it was proving to be slightly disastrous. Not a single formation of troopers was able to even stop or delay the Viceroy from her rampage. She’d charge into foxholes or trenches manned by a few troopers, then paralyze them. Behind them, the rest would fire, reload, and retreat in an almost panicked manner.

  The men behind Hans had already responded. They gave their final scattered volleys against the Viceroy. Each of their guns glowed a slight red color whenever they fired it. And their enchanted bullets caused visible ripples on the Viceroy’s shield whenever it was struck. Unfortunately, it seemed that the enchantments on their ammunition were weak.

  I can’t even see any signs of her being tired from this.

  He cursed their suppliers. He stood up, aimed his SMG at her, then opened fire. All of his bullets were designed to drain her AP. His shots were controlled, precise, and deadly accurate. Each three bullet bursts struck her shields as she zigzagged on the fields at nearly superhuman speeds.

  Before Hans emptied his magazine, she had already aimed her staff at him. Hans immediately ducked under the cover of the ridge. A few scattered shots struck her as jumped high. Then, she looked down at Hans with a predatory glint as he felt his back touch the ground.

  He squeezed his trigger one last time until it was empty. All of it struck her shield. She dropped down on the ground, before uttering a slightly winded comment.

  “Your new skill,” she said. “It drained a lot of my AP without even hitting me directly.”

  She aimed her staff at Hans. It glowed an ominous purple.

  “Unfortunately, I do not lose. You’re out of the game, Lieutenant—”

  A slash of a blade interrupted the Viceroy. It was Captain Weibel. His saber was glowing, and he finally challenged Lady Viviani into an audacious melee.

  “Is that so?” Captain Weibel asked as he swung his saber directly at the Viceroy’s staff again. It seemed that her sword staff however could hold well. She began using the blades on the end of her weapon to push back on the IYC mercenary. And she was striking rapidly. “Shit, you’re actually fast!”

  “What did you expect, Captain?” the Viceroy asked, smirking a bit as she sent his weapon flying. Then, she aimed her staff at him. “You lost.”

  “That’s so unfair—!”

  A quick pulse, and the IYC mercenary face planted on the dirt. The man could only curse at his defeat while the Viceroy turned her attention back to Hans—who was now running valiantly from battle.

  Come on, come on! Why is she on me again?!

  He slapped another magazine on his MS22, before jumping on top of one of the trenches that was directly in front of him. He briefly turned back to the Viceroy’s direction to open fire with his submachine gun. Unfortunately, she sped past through his mundane bullets like it was nothing. In seconds, she dashed to his right and sent a pulse of paralyzing spell on him.

  He crumbled on the field, utterly defeated.

  “Apologies, Lieutenant!” the Viceroy shouted as she ran back to the rest of the battle. “I’ll get back to all of you later when I win!”

  “Damn it, the new tactics failed like ass!” Hans cursed, his face planted firmly on the ground. He could only tiredly sigh. “I guess it’s up to Ebert if he can reorganize B Company for this.”

  The distant cracks of gunfire and spells were already starting to wane. But, they could still hear the gleeful enjoyment from the Virtus noblewoman who was utterly dismantling them. Hans sighed further.

  “I guess not…”

  +++

  It took them an entire day of continuous wargames until they finally managed to tire out the Viceroy enough that she called an end to their collective suffering. Hans, Captain Strobel, Captain Weibel, and the various officers of B Company were now gathered inside a meeting tent.

  All of them had their uniforms dirtied and ruined. All were shaking in vitriol at the unfair defeats and humiliations they suffered from a single woman. Most importantly, Hans could only give a resigned sigh.

  “So, it was zero to three,” Hans said. “Three victories for you, and none for us.”

  “Well, I feel slightly more confident of myself now,” the Viceroy nodded as she innocently ate a box of sweet biscuits in front of them. On the other hand, all of them were merely standing like defeated dogs. “Gentlemen, why are all of you so utterly depressed?”

  “Well, dudes getting beaten by a lady,” Captain Weibel awkwardly mumbled. “...I suppose the Imperial Mage Corps do deserve some of their feared reputation.”

  “We are battlefield monsters, Captain,” the Viceroy said, shrugging. “Just because my colleagues choose to be utterly useless cowards, does not mean we’re weak either. Besides, a single company from this regiment tired me out badly. Imagine if it’s the entire regiment. I feel like I’ll be down for a good few days.”

  She massaged her shoulder a bit as she breathed heavily.

  “AP exhaustion sure does take its toll,” Captain Weibel said, as crossed his arms. “But, it’s not like the same isn’t true for us. We’re all tired.”

  “But, at the very least, we’ve assessed that the infantry alone can deal quite a lot of damage now,” the Viceroy smiled. “Remember, we had no mechs. No mages. No artillery. I fought today only against a company of determined musketeers.”

  “Yeah, that’s true,” Captain Strobel nodded. “If only we had some proper cannonballs of canister shells, you’d be pink mist on the ground already—”

  “Oi, oi, calm down there mate,” Captain Weibel warned, holding him back. “It’s just wargames. Don’t get too worked up from losing. Sure, things happened, but it was all in good sport.”

  “Things happened? I don’t think it was just a thing,” Captain Strobel blurted out, frustrated.

  He ate manure once when he got paralyzed. Hans sighed on the side. Of course, he’s utterly humiliated.

  “I do apologize about that…oopsie,” the Viceroy said, seemingly remembering what she committed to all of them.

  “Nah, don’t worry about it,” Hans shook his head. “This was a good exercise. We’ve seen how badly the infantry will fare when facing an extremely strong individual. We’ll have to make a lot of adjustments.”

  “Namely, we’ll need better enchanters for our ammunition,” Captain Strobel said. “What’s your assessment anyway, Lady Viviani?”

  “Hmm. From what I’ve noticed, those who used skills on their weapons instead of enchanted bullets seem to have caused a lot more pressure on me,” she mumbled. “Not that I blame whoever poor sod is in charge of enchanting the ammunition they’re sending us. That must be such a tiring endeavor for his workforce. Those mages must be protesting the idea of even daring to enchant thousands of bullets.”

  “Yeah, that’s that,” Hans said. “I’ll get a letter sent to them about the strength of the enchanted munitions. If they have to raise the prices for a better one, then they better damn do it. We need something better. This isn’t enough.”

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