I Planned a Su*cide Mission and Got Kicked Out of the Party

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Jenis ran up toward the cannons, checked the status of the firearms, and lowered the angle of the cannon to face the coast. Upon confirming Jenis’s okay sign, Jeongjae raised his arms high and dispelled the net magic.

The moment the clinging, sticky net was released, the Kraken whipped its tentacles again, urging the great ship to advance forward. Jeongjae quickly retreated from the beach and hid behind Jenis, who was busy maintaining the cannons.

“Will the enemy really move as we wish?”

“If they don’t, we’ll have to force them to. Listen well, Jenis. We need to make the enemy gather as much as possible along the beach. To do that, we have to pick off the stragglers so they feel it’s safer to cluster together.”

“Should I snipe the scattered enemies with mana arrows to force them toward each other?”

“If my guess is right, the Orcs will launch a large-scale charge, filling the beach due to their instincts. How many can the understanding hold at maximum?”

“If we assume as the professor said that they fill up, we can barely gather about two to three thousand at once.”

“Then our goal is to turn three thousand enemy troops into ashes with a single bombardment. The ultimate aim is to scare them into retreating by inflicting such damage. No matter how brave the Orcs are, they will be terrified to see thirty percent of their forces massacred in a single strike.”

“But what if they don’t retreat? What if the remaining seventy percent show determination to seize this territory?”

“Then we’re finished.”

Jeongjae said without a trace of a smile. Jenis’s complexion turned pale. After all their hard work, if the enemy still didn’t flinch, would that be it? Could even the might of the continent’s greatest Grand Mage not handle such overwhelming numerical inferiority?

“Fight with the resolve to reach the end, Jenis. If more enemies keep coming even after a single bombardment passes, we’ll really have to abandon this beach and retreat.”

Jeongjae took out a scroll of Vanflit from his possession and held it tightly. He somehow gathered just enough mana to activate the scroll. However, after he activated it, even he couldn’t predict what would happen next.

To continue fighting after that, he would either need to somehow replenish his mana or sacrifice his own life force. But Jeongjae knew well enough that his life wasn’t cheap. Rather than cutting down his own lifespan to defeat the three enemy legions, it would be far more beneficial to lead the survivors in retreat and plot revenge for the Empire later on.

He would survive. At the very least, he would ensure he would live. Jeongjae asked Jenis, who was still conserving enough mana, to cast an amplification spell for him.

Jenis created a small amplification magic circle and helped him with it. After clearing his throat, Jeongjae began issuing commands to the vassals in a language only humans could understand.

“In the next 15 minutes, a large-scale landing of the enemy forces will occur. Therefore, all vassals must take up arms and prepare. Repeat: All vassals must prepare for battle!”

Jeongjae’s shout echoed loudly throughout the territory. The vassals responded to his call by busily wielding weapons and moving in every direction.

“The guards stationed at the beach corners should not let their guard down. Until now, the enemy’s attack has yet to reach us, but there is a risk that the guards will encounter the enemy in this attack. A two-wave attack of fire ships is scheduled, so protect the vessels. If necessary, have the ships launched and retreat to the territory.”

At this point, it was likely that the command reached the guards protecting the fire ships at the beach corners. Five enemy ships had already docked at the coastline and were finishing preparations to disembark. Jenis sighed deeply, placing one hand on the cannon and loading a mana arrow with the other.

“This enemy charge might not be fully repelled from the shore. If there are any enemies we can’t handle that slip through, the vassals must take care of them directly. Keep a close eye on the battlefield and remain vigilant!”

“Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Woooh!”

The cheers coming from the territory sounded more like excitement than fear. Jeongjae felt a bitter taste in his mouth as he realized that more than half the voices among that cheer were of the sturdy ladies and young women rather than men ready for battle. Most of the eligible fighting men were in the Imperial army or at the fire ship mooring site in the eastern corner.

“The region will be alright. As long as we don’t send back too many.”

“That’s a dilemma. If we want to eliminate as many enemies as possible, we’ll have to bear with letting some fast ones pass us by.”

“I’ll do my best to minimize that. That’s my job, after all?”

Jenis boasted as she showed off her glowing mana arrow on the back of her hand. Gradually, the enemies began to reappear from the coastal side. The first number that appeared was about 200 Orcs, not significantly different from before.

Jenis calmly closed one eye and shot the mana arrows at the Orcs popping up in front of her, taking them down. Seeing the Orcs running larger while trampling the now-meaningless obstacles filled her heart with renewed anxiety.

“Don’t worry. It’s not necessary to kill all of them. Just focus and keep your mind on doing as much as you can.”

Seeing Jenis’s back trembling, Jeongjae offered advice. Jenis nodded without looking back.

“Got it! If there’s no need to cool the cannon now, I’ll step away!”

“What are you trying to do?”

“I can’t push them back with just arrows!”

Removing one of her hands from the cannon, Jenis clasped both hands to her chest and unleashed a transparent mana barrier in front of her.

The Orcs charging up front suddenly collided with the newly appeared barrier, toppling over one by one. Their reaction was like that of a person colliding with a suddenly appeared bulletproof glass while rushing forward in a hurry.

This barrier might not inflict critical damage on the Orcs, yet it produced the result Jenis desired. The following Orcs couldn’t maintain their speed and crashed into the front row, causing the newly disembarked Orcs to keep running in and disperse, leading to an increasing concentration of their ranks.

As the objective was somewhat achieved, Jenis withdrew the mana-consuming mana wall and began firing mana arrows at the fallen Orcs. The traffic congestion caused by the Orcs once triggered was not easily resolved, and the five ships anchored at the coast were soon joined by another five, then ten, and twenty more as troops poured from ship to ship onto the beach, growing in years.

The back row pushed against the front, and the front was hurriedly driven back. Those first batches that had disembarked were initially running somewhat sparsely, but now they were tangled together like cars densely packed on a highway during a vacation season.

“Perfect. This is the optimal situation!”

Jeongjae exclaimed in awe. Jenis chuckled softly, grinning as she mocked the foolishly charging Orc horde. Even though they appeared to be a thousand strong, Jenis showed no signs of fear on her face.

Jeongjae didn’t hesitate any longer. Given the Orcs’ instincts, they wouldn’t abruptly stop their advance just from a bombardment. That was undoubtedly good news. The more Orcs jumped into the mass bombardment, the more the enemies would be reduced to ashes on this shore.

Jeongjae hurled the vanflit scroll into the air and began chanting.

“Today, a black rain will fall upon this beach.”

The cannon’s muzzle glowed red-hot. Despite having only a bit of gunpowder, and no cannonballs loaded, the field gun prepared itself to fire on the enemies.

“Unlimited bombardment magic, Vanflit.”

As the scroll vanished in the air, a deafening bang echoed across the entire beach.

No, it wasn’t just a single bang. It wasn’t a simple ‘bang’ but rather a ‘kuwahwaa,’ and that wasn’t just ‘kuwah’, but ‘kuwahwawaawabwah’.

It’s pointless to try and describe it; no matter how many ‘wa’ you inserted between ‘ku’ and ‘hah’, capturing the sound made by this crude siege gun starting its roar was impossible.

It was a sound like an entire modern artillery battalion simultaneously unleashing fire on a target. Jenis had to muster all her mental strength to place both hands on the muzzle and crazily sprinkle cooling magic on it. She had to invest all her mental power just to keep up with the cannon’s overheating pace using her supercooling magic.

While Jeongjae tried to move the cannon around as much as possible, aiming for the enemies as long as consciousness lasted, smoke and explosions made it impossible to see anything on the shore.

In that moment, each second during the bombardment felt longer than usual. One minute of bombardment felt like one hour.

No matter how strong a heart one possessed, facing the bombardment from that single cannon would send anyone into shock. Jeongjae felt his consciousness slipping away under the dual pressures of mana exhaustion and the deafening roar.

He struggled to hold on to his consciousness while continuing to supply mana to the cannon, but during those one, two, and three minutes of barrage, it felt like a long time, both to the enemies facing the God of Destruction and to Jeongjae, who had become the God of Destruction himself.

One minute felt like one hour, two minutes felt like four hours, and three minutes felt like ten hours.

Jeongjae personally felt the sensation of time stretching. He could still occasionally see the enemies sporadically moving between the confusion, so he had to keep the bombardment going.

The beach no longer looked like a beach. Anyone looking at it would have no doubt called it the crater of a volcano that had just begun to erupt. The sea was covered by the black rain created by the bombardment, and even the Kraken stepped back in fear by about 10m.

The vassals’ reactions were equally noteworthy. Even the townsfolk who had cheered when Jeongjae and Jenis sank ten enemy ships fell into panic upon witnessing an assault that could only be described as the God’s own wrath.

Even though it was an ally’s attack. At the very least, none among the vassals had failed to grasp the meaning behind Jeongjae’s words: ‘Learn by watching his fury.’

The wrath of the Grand Mage was, to the common people, equivalent to the wrath of a god.

All of this came from the shock and terror created by a single cannon.

Three minutes and twelve seconds after the bombardment began, Jeongjae began to groan, drooling slightly from his mouth, his eyes glazed over as he screamed.

“This, this is how we Koreans fight, you bastards!”

“Get a grip! Professor! Park Jeongjae! Come to your senses!”

Jenis grabbed Jeongjae’s face and spoke urgently. As Jenis’s cooling magic flowed into his face, Jeongjae snapped back to attention, startled, pulling his hands away from the cannon.

“Ugh! That’s cold!”

“Pull yourself together! What should we do if you lose your sanity using such dangerous magic?!”

The moment Jeongjae pulled his hands away from the cannon, the unlimited bombardment magic stopped. Jenis also removed her hands from the cannon barrel, looking thoroughly exhausted. The bombardment had persisted for a staggering three minutes and eighteen seconds.

If judged on power alone, the bombardment was capable of suppressing tens of thousands of army troops without magic protection.

Jeongjae couldn’t even manage to express his gratitude to Jenis and collapsed backward, unable to muster the strength. Jenis was also not in a position to support him. She too had nearly exhausted all the mana she could use for this cooling magic.

As the black rain of battle gradually settled, what could barely be called a beach revealed itself slowly. Jeongjae trembled, powerless to even move a finger, watching the situation on the shore.

If only the enemies would now retreat. If this bombardment could instill enough fear in the enemy to abandon their attack today.

Then they could win. Otherwise, there were no calls left for victory.

As the smoke cleared, the first sight visible was the lifeless bodies of Orcs, scattered and reduced to ashes. It seemed there were about three thousand corpses. Adding that to the losses before the bombardment indicated that the enemy had lost roughly forty percent of their force.

Attacking the enemy’s defensive positions and losing forty percent of their troops without any gains would classify the operation as a failure, leading them to withdraw as per common sense. But could common sense apply to them? Would the Kraken realize that ‘something was lacking in preparation’ and back down?

Jeongjae could barely lift his neck to survey the situation on the shore as he lay down.

“Ah.”

A groan of despair slipped from Jeongjae’s lips. The enemies were disembarking. An entire regiment of Orcs, fully intact and ready, which had been held back by the Kraken’s timely restraints, were confidently disembarking from the ships. Jeongjae felt a desire to cry. If there had been any tears left in him, they would surely be flowing now.

Seeing this, Jenis almost looked like she would cry too, but upon glancing at Jeongjae’s state, she mustered herself up thinking she shouldn’t crumble as well and moved toward him to help him up.

“Let’s go, Professor. Head into the village. There are plenty of buildings there, and if you count our vassals, we’re about evenly matched at three thousand to three thousand. We can potentially fight. We still hold the advantage in defense.”

“The vassals might be able to fight, but I… I…”

While Jenis spoke hopefully, the outcome was painfully obvious. Orcs are a race wider than the muscular adult men. The remaining vassals were mostly untrained women and children.

The end result was slaughter. Annihilation. Total defeat. If Jeongjae had any tears left to shed, they would certainly be flowing now.

“Get up! Just withdraw for now. Even if we can’t fight, we have to at least help everyone else escape!”

Hearing those words, Jeongjae mustered all his strength to get back on his feet. Jenis was right. If they had done as much as they could, and if they could no longer fight, they had to gather their strength and at least flee. They had to withdraw…

Just at that moment.

“Don’t take a single step back from that spot! Do you hear me? Don’t you dare move from that spot!”

A booming voice echoed, piercing his ears. So familiar, and yet reproachful to the extent that it was welcome, Jeongjae forgot about his exhaustion and leapt up, turning around.

The sound of hoofbeats drew nearer. The rider rushed the tired horses so much that he could practically hear their panting breaths.

Looking up toward the sky behind him, a single flag fluttered. A green background adorned with a white laurel wreath. For some reason, it was soaked in blood, yet it was undeniable that the flag of Eramenia was drawing nearer.

“Vassals, warriors, and wizards! Once again, I say to you, do not take a single step back. Prepare only to advance forward!”

The rhythm of hooves approached right to the front of the beach.

With a swishing sound, the bloodied green flag dropped to the ground. The horses came to a halt, and an elf, appearing to be soaked in blood as if he had just rolled through a battle, leaped off the saddle.

Margaret approached Jeongjae and Jenis, offering her apologies first.

“I’m sorry for being so late. No, I hope it wasn’t too late.”

“Damn it, you really are late!” Jeongjae shouted in protest, but the bright smile on his face contradicted his words. Confirming that Margaret was not in a bad condition, Jeongjae shrugged lightly.

“But it seems you had your reasons, so I’ll let it slide for today.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it. Is there still a chance?”

“Oh, it seems there just might be.”

Jeongjae responded. Jenis stood there, dazed, blinking her eyes without realizing what was happening.