"The approaches into the city are narrow. They may have the numbers, but the troops they can send in at once are limited."
I drew a series of red X marks across the map.
"We use the buildings as shields and hide. If tanks come in, we punch through their sides with the 88mm. If infantry comes in, we suppress them with machine guns and grenades. No matter how much they have division-level forces, in these cramped streets, the bottleneck means they can't project more than a single battalion's worth of firepower."
In theory, it was the perfect doctrine for urban warfare. On Earth, it was a tactic proven at the Battle of Stalingrad.
"We just have to grab them by the collar and refuse to let go."
I struck Rosenheim on the map hard with my baton.
"What happens if the distance between enemy and ally narrows to within fifty meters? They won't be able to call in that precious artillery support of theirs. If they fire, the shells will fall on their own heads too."
"C-close combat… You're saying we should draw them into a melee?"
"That's right. Building rubble makes excellent trenches and shields. Tanks in narrow alleys are nothing but coffin-like lumps of iron, and superior range and firepower become useless. All that remains is infantry against infantry—a bleeding war of attrition."
Brigadier General Dietrich's eyes wavered.
"But… our casualties will be severe as well."
"That's better than annihilation. And they have to fight an enemy called time as well. In the end, we are the defenders. If we hold out until reinforcements arrive, this is a battle we win."
I drove in the final wedge.
"Brigadier General. Heroes are not born in comfortable offices, but in the most desperate mud."
[Skill 'Charming Eloquence' stimulates 'Karl von Dietrich's' desire for honor.]
Dietrich swallowed dryly. A grim resolve settled in his once-terrified eyes.
"…Good. We'll do as you say."
He slammed his fist down on the table.
"Send the order to the entire brigade! We hold until reinforcements arrive! Bite onto their trouser legs and don't let go!"
*
The battle was brutal.
Shells fell all night long. Buildings collapsed, and trenches were overturned. But the troops of the 7th Brigade, including 2nd Company, held on with savage tenacity.
"Hanna! Position!"
"Twelve o'clock! Multiple mana signatures approaching! They look like special forces using invisibility magic!"
"3rd Platoon! Second floor of the building on the right flank! Mages! Shoot them down!"
Hanna's [Mana Detection] proved its true worth in the darkness. When she called out the direction, I confirmed it with my [Minimap], and the waiting machine gunner swept the area.
Drrrrrrt!
Blood sprayed in midair, and invisible figures came crashing down to the ground.
"Graaagh!"
But the crisis came from within.
"Ammo! We're out of ammunition!"
Major Hermann, covered in dust, rushed into the building we were in.
"Jaeger! We're out of acht-acht shells!"
"Already?! I told you earlier to raid the air force warehouse."
"That was all there was! Why would an anti-aircraft unit have piles of armor-piercing shells in the first place?! All we have left are high-explosive shells!"
Boom! Kwoooom!
The sound of cannon fire from afar was drawing closer and closer. Looking at the [Minimap], I saw a mass of red dots pushing in. This time, it was the real main force, accompanied by infantry.
"High-explosive shells won't even scratch those medium tanks! Without armor-piercing shells, we're just big targets!"
Hermann shouted urgently.
The situation was not good. The power of the 88mm came from its shell type. With high-explosive shells that had no penetrating power, we couldn't take out the Rene tanks.
But that did not mean there was no way.
'Status Analysis.'
[Target: 8.8cm Anti-Air High-Explosive Shell (HE)]
[Special Information: Fuse, explosive filler, casing, propellant]
And all around us lay the rubble of buildings.
'If I keep the casing and propellant of the HE shell as they are… and just change the warhead?'
It wasn't impossible. If it was transformation rather than creation, the mana consumption should be lower.
"Major, please buy me some time."
"Time? With no shells, how?!"
"I saw it on the way here. In the basement of that collapsed building over there… there were traces of an old army supply depot."
"A supply depot? In these ruins?"
"I'm not certain, but I think I saw boxes of old armor-piercing shells. I'll go check, so keep them in check with high-explosive shells in the meantime!"
Without waiting for Hermann's answer, I ran into the darkness.
"O-old armor-piercing shells? Hey! Captain Jaeger!"
*
I soon rushed into the collapsed building. Inside were empty boxes of high-explosive shells the airmen had used and abandoned earlier, along with a few unopened boxes of HE shells rolling about.
"Hoo…."
I opened one of the HE shell boxes. Blunt warheads ringed with yellow bands came into view.
'Material Conversion.'
[Skill 'Material Conversion (Lv.1)' is activated.]
In one hand, I held a high-explosive shell. In the other, I gripped a hard chunk of concrete and rebar that had been rolling across the floor.
[Transforming the target's properties.]
[High-Explosive Warhead (HE) -> Armor-Piercing Warhead (AP)]
With a faint vibration, the mana in my body drained away like an ebbing tide.
My head spun. As expected of Lv.1, the efficiency was poor. Still, it was far more manageable than when I had created something from nothing earlier. After all, there was already a base in the form of the propellant and casing.
Srrrk.
The yellow band vanished, and the warhead turned black and sharpened.
[Target: 8.8cm Crude Armor-Piercing Shell (Expiration: 23 hours 59 minutes)]
[Special Information: A warhead made from a mixture of high-density compressed stone and rebar components. Its penetration is roughly 80% of the genuine article, but it produces a large quantity of fragments upon impact.]
"Ha, haha…."
Seeing the state of it made me laugh. From the outside, it looked unbelievably crude. The surface was not smooth, but rough like it was pitted with pockmarks, and its color was less metallic shine and more the dull gray of stone.
But that didn't matter.
"Hey! Anyone there?! Over here! Come over here!"
Drenched in sweat, I shouted toward the outside.
A moment later, Gunther and several company members came running in, panting.
"C-Company Commander! You called for us?!"
"Yeah! Look here! We got lucky—the old ammunition depot was intact!"
Feigning excitement, I pointed at the boxes of ammunition I had converted. In the darkness, the detailed condition of the shells wasn't easy to see.
"Whoa! There really are shells!"
"You're a ghost after all, Company Commander! How did you find this?"
The soldiers cheered the moment they saw the shells. Suspicion? That was a luxury. They had bullets to fire right in front of them now; what did the source matter?
"But… Company Commander, these look a bit strange. The surface is really rough… and the color is kind of…."
One sharp-eyed soldier lifted a shell and tilted his head. I shrugged calmly.
"They're old. They must have been stuck in a warehouse for years. It'd be stranger if they weren't rusted."
"Ah, that's true! They must be from the Great War ten years ago."
"Quit talking and carry them! They'll explode just the same when fired!"
"Yes, sir! Hey, lift them! Hurry and take them to Major Hermann!"
*
"Open fire!!"
Kwoooom!
A dull cannon blast split the night sky. The special old armor-piercing shell I had procured left the 88mm muzzle and flew through the darkness.
Clang—! Puhk!
"Hit! Enemy lead tank stopped!"
Major Hermann cheered as he looked through his binoculars.
"Wahaha! It penetrates! It penetrates! It's tearing them to rags!"
With my heart pounding, I turned on [Status Analysis]. It had said the penetration was 20% lower than the genuine article, so it would have been disastrous if it ricocheted.
But my worries were unfounded.
Craaaack!
There was no problem at all punching through their side armor. On top of that, there was an unexpected additional effect.
"Huh? What is that?"
Immediately after the shell penetrated, something like a cloud of bluish dust burst out from inside the tank.
'Status Analysis.'
[Target: 8.8cm Collapsed Armor-Piercing Shell (Expiration: 22 hours 44 minutes)]
[Special Information: After penetration, the high-density stone warhead shatters into fine powder inside, killing the crew.]
Ordinary armor-piercing shells often punched cleanly through and out, but because my shell was made of defective material, it scattered inside like a shotgun blast.
Major Hermann could not close his mouth at the sight.
"T-that… could it be some new type of fragmentation shell? You said it was old, but its power is even more vicious!"
He looked at me with eyes full of admiration.
"Captain Jaeger… just where on earth did you find something like that? That's not in any Imperial Army manual!"
"…Didn't I tell you earlier? It was in the corner of the collapsed warehouse."
"Hoho, so modest! At a glance, it's clearly a prototype hidden away for special operations! I understand, I understand. It's classified, isn't it?"
Hermann began writing a novel all on his own.
"Don't worry. In the report, I'll simply write that they were locally procured armor-piercing shells. I'll remember this contribution of yours for certain!"
[Name: Heinrich von Hermann]
[Status: Blind Trust, Misunderstanding]
[Emotion: Convinced that Captain Jaeger has connections with Imperial Intelligence or special forces.]
…Well, it wasn't a bad misunderstanding. If you got right down to it, it didn't seem entirely wrong either.
But it was too soon to relax.
"Captain! Three o'clock! Infantry!"
The red dots on the minimap began to spread out.
"They're pushing in between the buildings!"
It was the expected sequence. Once their tanks were stopped, they used the armor as cover to send in infantry.
The 88mm was powerful, but useless against infantry crawling right up to our noses. From here on, it was my real specialty: infantry combat.
I checked the minimap.
A chill ran down my spine. Between the tanks and the buildings, countless red dots were multiplying.
It looked as if a swarm of red ants was covering the city.
"Graaagh!"
One of our trenches at the edge of the defensive line was erased in an instant. The crimson flames of a flamethrower lit up the darkness.
"They sure came in droves."
I pulled the charging handle of my submachine gun.
"Everyone, fix bayonets."
I gave the order in a low voice.
"It's time to welcome our guests."