Paz Scofield sat on his horse close to the tree line , his family's knights flanking him and then he heard it, it was like an explosion of thunder, " BANG! BANG! " and the armoured knights who was leading the probing force fell off his horse.
Paz could have called it clumsiness but he could see the blood mist from the injuries.
He hadn't even finished when he heard a distinct and familiar sound, it sounded like the sound that came out when he tore his mother's painting canvas as a child.
But this was no canvas, this was the MG 42 and it was quickly joined up by the Maxim machine gun.
The five hundred men who were still confused if how there leader could suddenly perish were mowed down by machine gun fire.
Blood sprayed everywhere, there was little time to scream as most people were dead before they hit the ground.
In the end, just four minutes later only about fifty wounded and battered Scofield soldiers made it back to the tree line.
Paz was a little bit shook about this outcome, he needed to change up his tactics as a frontal assault was now proven to be foolish.
" What are your orders young master? "A knight asked, Paz just realized that the objective had changed albeit unknowingly.
It was no longer to get capture Valum and bring Maximilian to justice, rather it was now to get past this watchtower safely without loosing more men.
There was also a tinge of greed in his heart, if the thing that just killed his men was a weapon, he would love to possess it .
" We'll divide the army into smaller groups, the first three groups would attack, front and both flanks. We'll divide their attention with this, we'll lose some men but in the end we'll capture the town. "
Three groups, five hundred men each swallowed up and approached the watchtower from three different sides.
When they entered the range, the machine guns continued their work and this time the rest of the soldiers joined in, making the area between 500m and 1000 meters an anti personnel area.
The reason for this is that it was unknown the kind of magical abilities they had and the majority of all magic abilities being effective at the range of ten to twenty meters to ten meters .
This was the first time that Paz had faced this sort of weapons, he had no idea how to counter it.
The most advancement his men made was three hundred meters and the reserves behind him, he was not sure that they were brave enough to make a play for this watchtower again and he wasn't sure that if he turned around to find another way, he wouldn't meet another watchtower waiting for him.
He decided to wait till the next morning to try again, a wise decision but in this case it was ultimately foolish because just thirty minutes after his decision, reinforcements arrived for the men manning the watchtower.
Horse drawn wagons carrying two hundred men and supplies arrived at the watchtower.
Lieutenant Bala, a huge grizzly man and although he was a newly minted officer, he was no stranger to the battlefield and he was in command.
The Sergeants who had were incharge of the tower immediately saluted their superior.
Bala now had operational command, the soldiers without being told were unloading new equipment; two maxim machine guns and five MG42 alongside this were thousands of rounds.
Early the next morning just before sunrise, Paz led his remaining forces, and crept forward slowly, hoping to catch the defenders off guard. When they reached around three hundred meters, they heard the dreaded sounds of ripping canvas .
Seventy two seconds, that was the amount of time it took for three thousand men to be annihilated, no one including Paz survived.
Lord Scofield has just been robbed of his heir .
That same evening Maximilian was at the watchtower , he congratulated the defenders and thanked them for their service .
Every scrap metal , ranging from the swords , armor and even shell casings. This was to be recycled and used to produce more goods.
" My Lord, when do we attack Scofield? " Kyle asked .
" We are not going to attack Scofield, at least not at the moment." Max replied.
He could see that Kyle was disappointed.
" You disapprove? "
" My Lord , we have the advantage. With just one thousand soldiers, we would lay waste to anything that Scofield would throw our way. "
" And then what do we do after that ?
What do we do when his allies attack us from all round or when the Duke accuses me of being a warmonger and orders that our weapons be seized.
What if I resist the Duke and in turn ganner attention from the imperial family, do you think that our army of less than three thousand would survive the onslaught with just these measley machine guns and rifles.
Even if I plan on destroying Scofield, which of course I plan on doing, it would be in such a way that would make the other think twice about crossing us. "
" I apologize for my short-sightedness my Lord , what are your orders. "
" We are going to build a wall Colonel. "
...
News of the battle had spread across the dukedom, even to the point of reaching the ears of the imperial family and now Maximilian was in their sights.
Duke Enoch, brother to the emperor and commander of the imperial legions stationed in the West, in the lands held by Caligula had just received news of the battle, it made no mention of Maximilian but it made mention of how fast the battle ended.
The weapon used to achieve such victory was still shrouded in mystery but one thing was certain, all the innovations of the recent months have been coming from the hands of Maximilian Scorpia.
Merchants have been speeding stories of how Valum was no longer a small town and of his the people who lived there no longer had to worry about food.
Those reports didn't interest him but someone or something who defeated an army of five thousand in just few hours was of interest to him and it was up to him to determine if this person was of use to the empire or a threat to its stability.