Chapter 675 07.674: “Bad Land”

A sound similar to the neighing of a horse came from beside him.

Horatio turned his head and saw several Krieg Death Riders riding their horses towards them, riding a terrifying creature with bald skin, tall and strange body, neither horse nor tail.

Horatio had seen this famous creature in an atlas, and this was his first introduction to war horses and cavalry in the Warhammer world.

——Krieg’s Death Steed, the genetic modification of the Mechanicum and the chemical drug injection system made this monster carnivorous and ferocious, violent and brave. It is a war machine exclusive to the Krieg Death Troopers and a true “war horse”.

Horatio listened to the thunderous exhalation and wondered to himself: How much genetic similarity does this thing have with the Terra Horse? Is it 90%?

“Soldiers, what’s the situation at the position?”

The Death Trooper held his spear tightly in one hand and pointed to the distant position with the other. A dull voice came through the gas mask: “It was only a hair’s breadth away from being conquered, but the 1313th Regiment still killed all the enemies.”

[1313th Regiment? Is this the regiment I command?]
“Although the position is still in our hands, it is already in danger. We must rush to the position immediately.”

“Soldiers! Action!” Horatio quickly drew the power sword from his waist, raised it high in his hand, and shouted loudly.

The messenger at the side spread the order to the entire convoy through the radio. The Krieg soldiers in the military vehicles jumped off the trucks one after another and quickly formed a marching column, like a stream of gray water suddenly appearing in the mud.

Even though they were arranged in columns of five people, this dense marching column extended to 10 kilometers away.

To ensure safe passage, this 8000-man force, led by veteran officers nominated by the Kriegers, was divided into several echelons, with a certain distance between each echelon.

From a bird’s eye view, Horatio had an intuitive understanding of the size of the 8000-man army and the length of the march.

The total distance is 25 kilometers, and the last person needs to walk 11 kilometers to reach the trench.

Even if you jog all the way, it will take more than two hours.

But at this moment, there was no time to care about these. Horatio frowned, but because he was wearing a gas mask, others could not see his serious and worried expression.

He had to act immediately, otherwise the position his regiment was responsible for might have been lost before he reached the front line, and the change of defense would turn into a violent attack, which would be terrible.

Horatio took a deep breath, lifted his boot, and took a step forward.

puff!
The boots instantly sank into the mud that reached my calves. I had to lift my legs high to pull them out. The sticky mud was reluctant to leave the boots, and if I wanted to move forward, I could only pull it out with great effort, like pulling a carrot.

In contrast, Louise and the others who wore leggings simply stretched out their legs and walked in the mud, using their leggings to push away the mud in front of them, turning their ankles flexibly, and walking quickly forward.

The short boots of Kadia and the big leather shoes of the Kriegs are indeed very suitable in this trench environment.

“That’s right, Louise, I’ll have to think about changing my leggings and combat boots later.”

“No problem, Captain. I’ll help you and Inspector Hood arrange it in the next two days.”

Horatio turned his head and looked at Farida.

She was wearing a military prisoner’s coat and breeches, and long boots, and she moved in the mud like a clumsy penguin.

Those boots were quite majestic, intimidating but not practical enough.

At this moment, the boots stepped into the mud with a “swoosh”. When she pulled them out suddenly, the boots were sucked into the mud. All that came out was her slender calves in lace stockings.

“Be careful!” Horatio was quick to hold her.

Although she was wearing a gas mask and her expression could not be seen, her boots sank into the mud and she had to pull her feet out in such an awkward position that her face under the mask must have turned red with shame.

“Ah! The mud on this battlefield contains malice! Perhaps this place really deserves an extermination order. Even nature is trampling on the military discipline and majesty of the Divine Emperor!”

“That’s why I changed out of the military department’s standard boots not long after I came here with the Kriegs.” Seeing this, Military Inspector Clausewitz handed over a cane, which he passed to Farida through Horatio, asking her to use the cane to put on her boots again.

“Although boots are waterproof, they are far less convenient than leggings and leather shoes in the mud.”

The staff officer signaled to the two death cavalrymen, and the cavalrymen understood. Before dismounting, they took off their riding boots, hung them on the sides of their horses’ hips, and put on marching leather shoes and leggings.

“Two captains, you can ride the death horses for the second half of the journey. But be careful, these horses have bad tempers, and the cavalry will lead them.”

“Thank you, Staff Officer.”

When the cavalry led the death horse towards Farida, the horse suddenly became agitated, raised its front hooves high, and neighed.

“What…what happened!” Farida stepped back in fear and was almost hit by the warhorse.

Staff Officer Clausewitz also looked puzzled as he looked at the scene in front of him.

“Maybe it’s because you’re wearing perfume?”

“Yes… I do this every day on the ship. It is an important part of maintaining the temperament of the military supervisor.”

“The Death Horse is extremely sensitive to smells. If it smells something that doesn’t belong to the Krieg people, it will become extremely violent.”

“I understand… I will stop using it later.” Farida carefully stepped into the stirrup, but the horse shook violently, as if it was going to throw her off, and even the cavalryman who was leading the horse could hardly control it.

“That’s strange. It doesn’t seem to be because of the perfume.”

Suddenly, Horatio realized.

“She is an untouchable. Maybe that has something to do with it.”

The staff officer understood instantly: “So that’s how it is. This is a bit tricky.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Horatio said, holding out his iron hand and activating psychic attunement.

For some reason, he discovered early on that Iron Hand’s psychic attunement could suppress the discomfort caused by Farida’s Untouchability to people, while not affecting her ability to exert her own Untouchability abilities.

Sure enough, after Horatio performed psychic attunement, the warhorse gradually calmed down, no longer neighing or being restless, and even became a little too docile.

And so, Horatio and Farida, wearing muddy boots, mounted Krieg’s deathhorse.

Led by the cavalry, they slowly came to the front of the silent marching column.

The other cavalrymen stood in the front as human shields to protect the two new commanders who were the first to bear the brunt of the attack, while Louise led the Krieg infantry carrying Lucius laser guns and marched through the mud towards the front line of the battlefield full of dangers.

Bang bang! Bang bang bang!

On both sides, the Krieg artillery positions opened fire. The shells streaked across the sky with black mist and fell into the distance, playing a new round of war symphony.

At the front, the sound of lumberjack guns firing added a dense accompaniment to the artillery fire.

The two captains from the Imperial Navy had already experienced so many twists and turns before they even set foot on their positions, and their positions were even on the verge of collapse.

I don’t know how many difficulties and obstacles they will face in the future.

Horatio sighed silently, then took a deep breath of filtered air mixed with a faint smell of ammonia sulfide through his gas mask, ready to meet the challenge.

(End of this chapter)