Rhodes woke up to the sound of artillery, and as the young man opened his eyes, he saw his cousin already by the campfire, applying new gun oil to his firearm.
Pulling out the pocket watch in his chest—this was a prize Rhodes had won the last time he excelled in fixed target shooting: "Have I only slept for four hours?"
Upon saying this, the young man let out a mournful yawn, threw off his blanket, shook his legs, and then sat down next to his cousin: "Has everyone else gone?"
"Rest time is only five hours, they left an hour before us, they’ve long gone. After we leave, this place will be ventilated for ten minutes, and then new people will come to sleep," Sudel said while reassembling the parts of the firearm one by one.
Rhodes glanced at the two opened canned goods by the campfire, the scent of meat emanating from them whetted his appetite, he took out his spoon and then tried a can: "It’s hot."
"Cool it down before eating, don’t act like an immature child," Sudel shook his head as he fixed the last part in place, set the firearm aside, then took a sip from a flask a bit away from the campfire: "Today, the Chaos offensive hasn’t stopped, mages have already rotated twice, you better put your bayonette and Holy Water in the most convenient position, without the support of the mages, we can only rely on ourselves."
"I’m not worried about that. As Lord Malin rightly said, we infantry can only outrun ourselves, we are naturally surrounded," Rhodes took up his firearm, familiarly disassembled the parts and arranged them neatly, then began the daily maintenance.
"Yes, we are naturally surrounded, any Chaos creature can outrun us, on this terrain, we definitely can’t outrun any creature, we can only form a defensive line for self-protection," Rhodes’ cousin said while watching him, which made the young man curious: "Why are you looking at me?"
"I’m watching you care for the parts. I really can’t learn how you do all this without looking at the parts."
"I don’t know myself, Lord Malin says it might be a talent, but I feel if I have a talent, then I’d rather have a better shooting talent," Rhodes said somewhat unwillingly, which made his cousin smile, Sudel sat aside, took up the meat can, and scooped a delicious piece made of beans and meat with his spoon. The fatty meat was very thick and had been cooked soft before canning, coupled with preservatives spices, although the taste couldn’t match that of fresh meat, without such cans, even the King probably wouldn’t be able to eat meat in such circumstances.
And now, these young people who have come from towns could eat meat under such harsh conditions.
After caring for his firearm, Rhodes starts eating his own can of food, which wasn’t too hot after moving it away from the fire, the young man quickly finished the can, and packed it back into his bag.
"Let’s go." Although it wasn’t time yet, Sudel still got up, so Rhodes also stood, and the two brothers left the resting area one after the other, moving towards the front line along the trench.
With the movement, they came out from behind the plank that covered the trench, Rhodes looked up at the sky—the snow was getting heavier.
This is the North, where sunny days are a rarity all year round, humans or Chaos, are just young people being oppressed by the weather.
"Today is a north wind, we are lucky, Chaos’ projectiles won’t go far," Rhodes said, feeling the wind direction was a good omen.
Moreover, the sound of artillery was more frequent than yesterday, in this minute alone, Rhodes heard over forty rounds of artillery fire, which are generally used to strike Chaos mass charges, in front of the cannons, common Chaos demons are nothing to be concerned about.
And those Chaos demons that could withstand the cannon fire usually die faster—mages and priests would target them first, and it’s said that a type of long-barreled, large-caliber cannon has been brought in last night, this type of cannon can shoot directly at targets, using armor-piercing bullets inscribed with blessed Array engravings, it’s said that even Champion Level Chaos demons can be penetrated by a single shot.
The soldiers’ morale remained high—with the troublesome foes dealt with, they could only hope that the cannon fodder of Chaos could make it through the gunfire and bayonettes, it’s just too bad that they couldn’t make it.
If it were Rhodes, he felt he would be in high spirits too—it’s just target practice, those Chaos beings walk in the snow and mud just like targets, what else is there to worry about.
Rhodes even felt that if he were a Chaos commander, he would definitely order a retreat, because there’s nothing good to fight for anymore, this area was like a bottomless pit, no matter how many soldiers are thrown in, it’s futile.
From Lord Malin’s perspective, if the war is hopeless from the start, then don’t start the conflict.
So Rhodes was in a dilemma—he hoped Chaos would give up the attack, yet at the same time, he wished they would crash head-on into the defensive line and perish.
It’s a pity, indeed, a situation where one cannot have the best of both worlds.
Just as Rhodes thought, by noon, only some ragged walking corpses missing arms and legs were left for Chaos to use for the charge, not to mention Rhodes, a veteran who had fought for half a month, even the recruits who seemed to have just been sent to the battlefield realized—effectively, they had won.