Chapter 66: Townsman A Overruns the Forts

A week had passed since I joined the unit. As expected, my treatment improved once I started delivering such massive results.

To date, the list of Imperial units I’d driven to total destruction included ten battalions, thirty-one companies, and forty-seven platoons. If you included the even smaller squads, I’d lost count of how much work I’d put in.

For the record, "total destruction" in this context meant I’d rendered them combat-ineffective, not necessarily that I’d confirmed every single soldier was dead. In other words, survivors could theoretically crawl back to base, reorganize, and deploy again as a new unit.

But realistically, if a massive explosion suddenly erupted around you out of nowhere and you looked around to find your friends, superiors, and subordinates all turned into silent corpses... how many people would actually be able to stand on a battlefield again after that? If it were me, I’d be traumatized for a good long while. Even being told to return to the same location without some kind of countermeasure would be a nightmare.

And of course, since I’d achieved such spectacular results, I was now being asked to hit even tougher targets. So far, things were going smoothly.

"And so, Allen, I want you to support the capture of Fortress City Cardacia."

"Understood. Consider it done. What’s the plan?"

"Hey! You! What’s with that attitude?! You’re just a student here on mobilization! Mind your manners toward a superior officer!"

Well, it was inevitable that a guy like this would show up. And I got where he was coming from. I mean, you wouldn't exactly expect the garrison commander of some fort to be the head of the entire Bruzeni Regional Army. Still, it felt weird to switch back to polite speech at this point, so I just rolled with it.

"It does not matter," the commander said, waving him off. "Besides, Allen is a B-rank Adventurer. You saw those results yourself. Furthermore, Allen is a member of House Ramslett, dispatched by royal order. He is not under our command."

"But—"

"Enough, be quiet. Besides, I want to finish this before the weirdos arrive from the Royal Capital."

Apparently, "weirdos" referred to the high-ranking knights and generals from the capital who were supposedly on their way now that war had been declared.

"...That is certainly... I understand."

Dealing with some noble lord who’d only make things worse by ignoring every request would just be a nuisance.

"Right then, I’m off!"

I launched the Vytol Custom and flew in the designated direction until the massive silhouette of a fortress city came into view.

I see. The city was protected by triple walls and a water-filled moat. Each wall looked to be at least thirty meters high, and the moat was easily ten—no, maybe twenty meters wide. Furthermore, to the west of the city, three formidable forts stood in the way of the Centlaren Army.

Our forces were currently laying siege to one of them. However, they seemed to be struggling with the height of the walls; magic and arrows were keeping them from getting their battering rams and scaling ladders into position. Their struggle actually made my job easier, though—it meant I didn't have to worry about friendly fire.

Approaching from the sky as usual, I started dropping bombs. Every one of them landed inside the fort, though my aim was admittedly haphazard. Precision targeting against specific soldiers on the walls wasn't really an option.

It turned out my bombing operations up until today had been more effective than I'd realized. The enemy soldiers fell into an instant panic. Their counterattack lost all cohesion, and some even started fleeing in an "every man for himself" frenzy. While they were distracted, the battering ram reached the gate and the ladders hit the walls. Confident that the first fort would fall, I moved on to the next.

Since the friendly units hadn't reached the second fort yet, I took the liberty of carpet-bombing the place. I must have dropped two or three hundred bombs. Anyone caught outside was probably annihilated. These bombs were designed for shrapnel and blast waves, so they weren't going to punch holes in stone walls, but they definitely shattered every window in the place. The buildings themselves remained standing, just as I’d expected.

Then came the third fort. I wanted to try something different here. I Transmuted a new type of payload—one that drained a significant chunk of my mana. It was a stout glass container, which I sent plummeting toward the target.

It shattered against a building, splashing a colorless, transparent liquid that immediately ignited with a roar.

Bingo. A DIY incendiary.

I breathed a sigh of relief when it actually worked in the field. The liquid inside was essentially gasoline. I wasn't sure if it could actually power an engine, but it vaporized at room temperature and burned like a dream. Real gasoline is usually dyed pink or orange to make it identifiable, but my Transmuted version was perfectly clear.

For the fuse, I used sodium and water extracted from salt. Since sodium ignites when it hits water, it acted as a trigger. Honestly, it was a total hack job that a professional chemist would probably laugh at. But I lacked the technical expertise and the time for proper R&D, so I just applied basic chemistry knowledge.

My tests showed a high rate of duds, though. Honestly, it wasn't much better than dropping a lit torch and praying the flame didn't go out on the way down. The chemistry was finicky—it only ignited if the vaporized gas was right there when the sodium-water reaction occurred. There was definitely room for improvement. Personally, I’d prefer a more sophisticated mechanism, but...

Anyway, back to the battle.

The Imperial soldiers were understandably panicked by the sudden explosions and fire. As they rushed to put out the flames, I mercilessly rained more gasoline-bottles down on them. Once a fire is going, splashing more fuel on it turns the place into a literal hellscape.

I kept at it until I ran out of glass material for the bottles. By the time I decided to head back, the fire was so intense that extinguishing it was a lost cause. Mission accomplished.

On my way home, I passed our ground troops. They’d already taken the first two forts and were marching toward the third—the one I’d just turned into a bonfire. They were raising their swords toward me as I flew over.

Ah, I see. A salute.

I banked the aircraft in a wide circle to return the gesture, then zipped back to base ahead of them.