1044 March 26th, 2020 CE

0822 Start 56th, 196 AE

Abellinum

Back outside the city, her staff was bickering. 

“Won’t the humans do the same thing again?”

“Can’t we just shoot at all the buildings to prevent it?”

“That’s a waste of ammunition.”     

“Can’t we just go around to take the bridge?”

“The terrain is too rough.”

Ara sighed and looked around at her staff. Her division has been stalled and she has lost 3 tanks. 

“When are the rest of the Central Army going to get here?”

“We will have to contact them to be sure but it's most likely In a couple of days, madam.”

“Then we will have to wait a couple of days.”

“Lieutenant General, why do we have to wait a couple of days?!”

“Our panzers are not going to work out. We need infantry to clear the city..”

Usually, a magipanzer division would come with infantry, artillery, and various other types of units in it but these specially created divisions, the blitzpanzer divisions, did not. This was because the field marshals wanted to focus on speed for their new tactic called blitzkrieg. They removed everything that could possibly slow down the panzers. The field marshals had sorely underestimated the humans who they thought would just flee in terror once they saw the tanks. 

“Infantry… pfft… Lieutenant General is something wrong? You have always felt confident in our panzers.”

“The panzers are excellent but not in cities. The roads constrict their movement and we can have at most only two panzers side by side. As it seems, ambushes can be anywhere. Continuously charging in and losing tanks is not going to work. We can try to commit our entire force to overrun them but the casualties will be significant.”

“Then why not go through the original entrance again? Blow away the rubble and charge in. They will never expect this. We’ll even use our medium tanks.”

“... we can try that tomorrow… it's getting late today. Set up camp.”

 

Throughout the night, Leonid and his men stayed vigilant. They had their weapons ready and they had posted rotating guards in case of any enemy attacks. Outside of the city, Ara and her staff were finalizing plans for tomorrow. 

0042 March 27th, 2020 CE

0321 Start 57th, 196 AE

Five medium tanks, also called the Knight tank, in a straight line approached the rubble that had been blown onto the streets and the Stallion tanks yesterday. 

“Fire!”

Adjusting to high explosives, the 75mm cannon on the Knight at the front of the line opens up. The rubble is blown away and there is smoke covering the front.

“Forward!”

Suddenly an explosion occurs on the tank and on the ground around it. 

“Commander, we’ve been hit!”

The Knight stops.

“No damage. Reload and wait for the smoke to clear.”

The smoke cleared before another shot hits them.

“Anti-tank guns in front! Open fire!”

In front of them are what seems to be three anti-tank guns.

The Knight’s first shot destroys the one in the middle. 

 

Leonid viewed the battle with his binoculars

“The 75mm artillery is not doing anything to the enemy tank… get the 155mm in position.”

 

The Magusian infantry crewing the 75mms bravely continued to pummel the Knight tank with all they had. Even resorting to using their guns and magic once their artillery was blown up. Among the men were some capable of destroying a Machian Industro IIs. To no avail, they were cut down by the Knight’s machine gun and main cannon. The upper front glacis plate armor of the Knight tank is 80mm thick with an angle of 55 degrees. This means that anything trying to penetrate the front armor will have to go through at least 139mm of armor. The 75mm artillery with high explosive magishells used by the Magusians will not do much to the Knight tank. 

Magusian cannons are very different from Elven magicannons. Magusian cannons use normal shells that are packed inside with mana as explosives. Elven magicannons use extremely dense mana as the shells. The Elven magishells can be molded into either armor-piercing or high explosive. 

 

The Knight tanks continued rumbling forward with the rest of the division behind it. As the first Knight tank crossed a four-way intersection, a massive explosion occurred on the left side of it. The four Knight tanks behind it came to a stop. The commander of the Knight behind the Knight that was fired upon tried to radio it. No response came back.  

<<<”Lieutenant General, we are pulling back. The Knight in front of our formation is destroyed.”>>>

 

A 155mm artillery had been in a lucky position. The lower side armor of a Knight is only at most 50mm thick with no angle. The 155mm was positioned at the road that was cutting through the main entrance road in order to surprise anything that came down the main entrance road. Although being artillery, it easily went through the side armor of the Knight and exploded in it which killed the crew. 

A few minutes later

Ara sighed. Another tank lost. 

“We are staying outside the city for now. Contact the infantry corps and ask them when they will arrive.”

0524 March 27th, 2020 CE

0542 Start 57th, 196 AE

The rest of the Elven Blitzpanzer Divisions had arrived outside the city of Anbellium. They formed together as the 1st Elven Blitzpanzer Corps. Their commander, General of the Panzers Tanyl Sarxina, would arrive with the Central Army. 

“Lieutenant General Belra, nice to see you again! I’m surprised you are not inside yet.”

Ara narrowed her eyes as she looked at her greeter.

“Lieutenant General Biphine...  how nice to see you again... “

Lieutenant General Folre Biphine of the 6th Elven Blitzpanzer Division smiled.

“Never expected you to be so scared of going into a city.”

“The humans have it well defended.”

Folre laughed

“Humans defending? Let me show you how it's done, dear Ara. You women have no courage.” 

Ara grumbled.

“As if you will fare any better.”

The commander of the 9th Elven Blitzpanzer Division, Lieutenant General Fylson Waesnon, looked at them and shook his head. 

Ever since the three of them had met after being tasked with this mission, Folre and Ara have been on very bad terms. 

 

Many days before the start of the invasion

Afvalin, Elven Nation

Ara entered the room and saluted.

“Nice to meet you, sir, I’m Lieutenant General Ara Belra. I will be in charge of the 11th Elven Blitzpanzer Division.”

Lieutenant General Biphine’s smile that he had when meeting Lieutenant General Waesnon and General of the Panzers Sarxina dropped at this moment. 

“A woman?”

Ara looked questionably at Folre

“What?”

Folre turned toward Tanyl

“General of the Panzers, this is utter ridiculousness. A woman in charge of this important mission? How did she even get this high of a rank… sucking up to some superior?”

“Now now Lieutenant General Biphine, Lieutenant General Belra is quite a distinguished panzer strategist. She has even written some books about it herself.”

In the Elven military, women were accepted. However, this didn’t mean that they were approved by everyone. Of course, not many women had joined. This meant that high ranking female military officials were rare. Most women were low ranking soldiers and only served for a short time as an adventure. 

 

0530 March 27th, 2020 CE

0545 Start 57th, 196 AE

Abellinum

Lieutenant General Biphine had discussed his plans with his staff and has now set off with his division towards the city.

“Stupid. Fylson, you going to try anything?”

Fylson didn’t really care much about their rivalry. He is focused on accomplishing the mission with as little casualties as possible. 

“I will see what happens.”

A few minutes later

Explosions occurred in the city as the 6th Elven Blitzpanzer Division dueled with what remained of Leonid’s Second Battalion of the 151st Infantry Regiment.

 

In what used to be Colonel Donatus’s headquarters in the tavern, Leonid pointed at a crudely drawn map of the city. 

“Bring up more of the 155mm! Position them right there! Go! Time is of the essence!”

Leonid had split the city up into three sectors. The western part of the city was under Captain Minervalus, the center was under Captain Sevso, and the east was under Captain Vocula. Each sector had at most 18 75mm artilleries and 6 155mm artilleries. Other than the magidynamite, the artillery was the only other proven weapon that could take out the enemy tanks. Now, all three sectors were reporting attacks. This was a clear indication of an all-out enemy attack. 

Their remaining planted dynamite took out some tanks at first. After that their 75mm artillery had easily taken out a few more of the enemy tanks but then bigger tanks like the one they had faced a few hours earlier for the first time had shown up. 

 

Having planned an all-out attack to overwhelm and overrun the humans, Folre sent companies of Stallions through all entrances that were facing towards them. 

 

The thin front armor of the Stallions, at only 30 mm, made it easier for them to be taken out by the 75mms guarding the roads. However, with multiple companies rushing in, the Stallions were able to take out some of the enemy 75mms. An intense battle on the roads occurred as shells flew. Disabled 75mms were abandoned as Stallion tanks exploded left to right from hits.  In the end, the Stallions had to pull back because of the mounting losses. 

 

The report got to Folre.

“Inferiors with their dirty tricks! Send in the Knights!”

0553 March 27th, 2020 CE

0556 Start 57th, 196 AE

The Knights moved forward and this time the remaining 75mms were completely ineffective and were pushed aside.

 

Seeing that the 155mms were their most precious weapons since they had been able to take out the bigger enemy tanks, they were placed on roads that intersected the entrance roads. This allowed the buildings to hide the 155mms and allowed the 155mms to surprise the enemy tanks. 

 

On one of the entrance roads, a platoon of Knights started to pass a four-way intersection. An explosion to the right side of the first Knight disabled it. Another Knight tried to go left of the disabled Knight to use it as cover whilst slowly traversing its turret to the right towards where the shot came from. An explosion to their left causes some damage. However, the Knight was able to fire off its gun towards the artillery on the right. A second shot from the left disabled the Knight.

 

155 mms had been placed on both sides of the road that intersected the entrance road. This was to ensure that no enemy was able to cross. The commander of the Knight that was trying to destroy the 155 mm to the right made a fatal mistake thinking there was nothing to their left. 

 

The remaining Knights could have pushed through but at the expense of more mounting losses. They turned back. 

0612 March 27th, 2020 CE

0606 Start 57th, 196 AE

Ara was leaning against her Stallion outside the camp as Folre’s Knight rolled up. Folre exited his tank and walked past Ara.

“So how did that go for you Lieutenant Colonel Biphine?”

“Shut up.”

 

In the end, Folre lost 16 Stallions and 7 Knights. The higher-ups would probably be extremely unhappy. The tanks that the Blitzpanzer Divisions were equipped with were the Elven’s best in-service tanks. 

0938 March 27th, 2020 CE

0749 Start 57th, 196 AE

Near the Verona River

Colonel Donatus got out of his command car. After riding for more than a day, his regiment had finally crossed the Verona. There he found soldiers and tanks posted. He walked up to a soldier who saluted him. 

“Who is the highest commanding officer here?”

“Captain Forianus, sir!”

“Take me to him.”

 

Kaeso entered the tent where Captain Forianus was supposed to be. There he saw a man looking at a piece of paper.

“Captain Forianus?”

The man didn’t look up.

“Whom am I speaking with?”

“I’m Colonel Kaeso Donatus of the 52nd Infantry Regiment.”

With that Captain Forianus jolted up and saluted.

“Sorry, sir! Captain Spurius Forianus!”

“What is your unit doing here?”

“We are supposed to guard the bridge.”

“Wasn’t their orders to blow it up after my unit came through?”

“Uh… oh yes… there were but they were scrapped. We got orders not to blow it up.”

“...why!?”

“The First Army is mobilizing much faster than expected. With this, we don’t need to blow up the bridge.”

“Get me in contact with your superior immediately!”

1248 March 27th, 2020 CE

0924 Start 57th, 196 AE

Abellinum

Leonid looked at his beleaguered men. They have been reduced from the beginning of 300 to around only 240 left. They have lost 15 75mm and 4 155mm. If another all-out attack came they should still be able to hold. However, if a third one occurred, the probability of repelling it was questionable. 

“Men, do you know what is behind us? The Verona is!  Our brothers in arms are preparing for a counter-attack there. If we fail, our country falls! Remember that! The captains and I have agreed to stay here to the end! Are you willing to stay with us?” 

Cheers rose out.

“AYE!”