Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 154 - 58 Bring up my Italian cannon

Chapter 154: Chapter 58 Bring up my Italian cannon

Mia, holding a dagger, teleported from the Shadow Realm and lunged at the nearest Knight Follower, executing a Rapid Stab. Her Weakness Ability enabled her thrust to avoid the ribs and precisely pierce the opponent’s heart.

Another figure jumped out from behind her, this time, it was Peggy emerging from Fire Island.

Before she even stabilized on the Main Plane, she had drawn her Hot Melt Blade and swung it forcefully at the remaining two Followers.

Sword Draw Slash!

The two Followers instinctively lifted their rifles to Block, but suddenly their noses tickled, and they couldn’t help but sneeze tremendously.

Extraordinary Ability "Plague" is designed to trigger pathogens within nearby enemies, causing stress-related reactions.

Since Peggy currently only possessed "Plague I," the initial effects were limited to sneezing and coughing. Yet, in a life-and-death struggle, this proved deadly.

These two sneezes caused their gun-raising Block to distort. Peggy’s Hot Melt Blade performed a Sword Draw Slash cleanly cleaving through rifles, splitting the two Followers in half.

The four peripheral Crusader Knights watched in fury; they couldn’t understand why a Samurai had jumped into the center and suddenly turned into three foes, but the complete downfall of their Followers was undeniable.

"Since you’ve come in, don’t even think about leaving!"

The Power Armor Knights turned in unison, Shields forward, charging forcefully to compress the three girls at the center.

They would rather endure Eleanor’s assaults from the outskirts than pierce the girls harshly with Long Spears.

Suddenly, Mia shouted and immediately dropped to the ground alongside Peggy.

Down...

The Knights had not yet reacted when they saw the only one standing in the center, Sigrdrifa, ferociously rotating with her dual Battle Axes.

"Tornado Slash ahhh!"

The Crusader Knights quickly lifted their Shields to hold firm, the Battle Axes intensely scraping against the Shields, emitting a grating sound with sparks, which made the Knights in Power Armors tremble under the force of the attack due to the weight on their arms.

"This guy is really reckless," Aske remarked from a distance, ordering through the communication channel, "Focus fire from a range, Mia, prepare to disengage!"

The thickness of the Power Armor on the back was much less than the front, so when the Power Armor Knights turned around, the three ranged attackers initiated their attack from behind.

The first to act was Thira, who spilled a bag of pebbles and skillfully compressed them into "shells" before launching them rapidly using Air Pressure and Gravity.

Watching as the shells shot over, Sigrdrifa and Peggy hurriedly teleported into Fire Island.

Mia, holding the Artifact Book, disappeared instantly into the Shadow and then emerged from a shadow outside the encirclement, taking an Instant Step in the opposite direction and bursting out over a dozen meters away.

At this moment, Aske had calculated the angle of sunlight, the height of the Power Armor, and the area of cast shadows—all factors sufficient for Mia to use her Shadow Ability to instantly break free from the encirclement.

To the Crusader Knights, this seemed like a cooked duck in the pot suddenly spreading its wings and flying into the sky, an unfathomable phenomenon utterly beyond their comprehension.

Just as they were about to pursue, the stones hit the Knights hard, the tremendous force denting their Power Armor nearly into a deformity.

Intuition struck! Miel aimed sharply at one of them and forcefully pulled the trigger.

Unlike Mia’s "Weakness I," the "Intuition I" Ability didn’t show her the opponent’s Weakness, but a sudden, inspiration-like flash of Spirit Light alerted her when to attack or if imminent danger was approaching, cueing her to take evasive action.

The sniper bullet hit the back armor of one of the Knights, where the Single-Phase Nuclear Fusion Battery’s thermal vibration cover, already cracked by the earlier stones, was located. The bullet struck precisely at the weakest part of the crack, instantly splitting the cover.

Hearing the gunshot from behind, Mia took another Instant Step, further distancing herself from the pursuing Knights.

Meanwhile, Medea produced a massive fireball, tossing it at the Knights’ backs.

Even though she only utilized the Flames I Ability, the weak fireball still hit the Knights, the High Temperature seeping through the battery cover cracks directly to the battery within, immediately triggering a violent explosion.

The closest Crusader Knights were almost instantaneously blown away by the explosion, the shockwave flipping the knights onto the ground, causing them to roll awkwardly away along with their weapons and shields, which were flung who knows where.

Eleanor charged forward with her rifle, while Mia, who had dodged the explosion from a distance, quickly turned back. Miel slightly raised her sniper rifle, aiming it at the downed knights.

Still, the fastest to charge was Peggy, her hands inverting the Hot Melt Blade held high above her head, forcefully thrusting it down onto a knight’s helmet. The high temperature of the blade soon melted and pierced through the metal surface, the red-hot blade plunging straight into the knight’s skull.

This was an inevitable phase of focused fire and finishing off, killing these downed knights one by one.

——————

"Sir Bronk’s team has gone silent," the communicator replied.

"Push Levin and Miranda’s teams forward!" Alfred gritted his teeth.

After a moment,

"Sir Levin, Lady Miranda’s team signals have also gone silent!"

"Damn! Damn!" Alfred, furious, slammed the desk, "You are Power Armor Knights! The enemy only has a mere nine people, and they have not been taken down yet?"

"All the nearby knight teams, charge at them together, wipe out that damned team for me!"

"Lord Alfred, if all the surrounding teams charge together, we will no longer be able to form an encirclement," the aide quickly reminded him, "Then the enemy can easily retreat from the encirclement."

"That’s right." Alfred instantly calmed down upon hearing this, revealing a disdainful smile, "The enemy commander must be banking on my impatience and rage, tempting me to make the mistake of a full commitment, thus allowing his team to escape from my grasp."

"Ha ha ha! Too bad, I’ve seen through it."

The aide listened silently, thinking, "Wasn’t it I who reminded you?"

"Keep up the same strategy, apply huge pressure on them!" Alfred continued issuing orders, "They won’t last much longer!"

Several hours later.

"Sir Goodliane’s team has also gone silent," the communicator anxiously reported, "Nearly half of the teams at the northern No. 1 front have been wiped out! The remaining knight teams are demanding an explanation, or they refuse to accept any more orders from you!"

Alfred: ......

Aide: ......

Isn’t this script a bit off? What happened to the enormous pressure? What’s this about nearly half of the knight teams being wiped out?

Staring at the swathes of silent signal points on the electronic command console, Alfred even had a terrifying illusion, as if he were a general of a vast ant colony confidently leading thousands of ants charging out, only to find a pangolin lying outside the cave, whose long tongue in one swift move...

Could it be that I have fallen for the enemy’s scheme again? Was it not me gradually applying pressure, but rather the enemy confidently enticing me to reinforce gradually, then calmly taking down these teams one by one?

Alfred was no fool and quickly understood the situation.

Not launching a large-scale attack was definitely correct, given that the Mages’ Heavenly Fire and Thunder were still bombarding continuously overhead. If we were to really gather four or five dozen knight teams here, before they even reached the enemy, the Heavenly Fire from the mountain top would have already decimated the large group of knights.

The real problem was the miscalculation of the enemy team’s strength! If the enemy was weak, then the tactic of adding fuel could slowly deplete their strength, eventually achieving the goal of completely annihilating them.

However, if the enemy’s strength was unusually formidable, then continuing with the fuel-adding tactic would be like delivering food right to their mouths!

Alfred finally confirmed this point and deeply regretted not realizing it sooner.

Given the enemy’s strength, using small troop skirmishes to probe was suicidal, but due to air superiority issues, a large troops deployment was also not viable. It seems I am only left with one option...

Alfred pondered for a moment and waved for his aide:

"Call in a mortar team."