When steel meet flesh

"Fire! Fire! Don't let them get close to our position!" Baugulf looked at the number of the French charging their position, faces turned pale. With his rifle gunning down another French, he proceeded to command his squad to maintain the pressure. "Throw the grenade! Quick! Don't let them get near us!"

And as his sentence ends, a German in the squad grabs the grenade which is hanging around his belt and throws it far ahead, landing on the land which is filled with charging French. And what follows, is the cry of pain and agony from strong-minded men and teens.

There, a young French soldier's right leg was affected by the explosion, destroying anything that is below his right knee. Crawling on the ground leaving a bloody trail, he cried out loud for a field medic to save him. Meanwhile, three others were hurt by the shrapnel. Some just cut through their faces a bit and fly far away, while an unlucky one has the shrapnel piercing his eye, resulting in him rolling on the dusty ground due to the intense pain.

A veteran German not far away witnessing his suffering, with empathy fired his rifle at the rolling soldier. And as the bullet entered into his fragile head, the soldier's suffering finally ended.

Sometimes, the one who can treat a person's pain isn't a doctor, but a trusty rifle.

In the German trench, Diedrich fired his rifle mindlessly again and again, gunning down any french soldier who dared to come close to his position. Besides him is four empty clips that he had used, Baugalf meanwhile has finished up seven already with his advanced training and experience.

'Bullet after bullet, life after life, a bullet for a life is a good trade, isn't it?' Diedrich while he guns down another French, has a sudden quote in his mind, a sarcastic one.

Repeating the process above once more, Diedrich is mentally and physically tired. Although it's only been 20 minutes, Diedrich had already penetrated two brains and hit the torso of five unlucky soldiers. Yet, it seems like they are endless.

Many French soldiers realizing the heavy firepower have prone down in the now barren land, finding cover from anything. Trees, terrain, corpses, anything that could save their life or withstand a bullet. Occasionally returning fire, some German too has been killed or wounded. The trench could only protect them from so much after all.

For Diedrich squad, they had already suffered four casualties from the start of the battle till now. One from the artillery, another three from enemy fire. Thankfully though, the other three just had a mild wound, which is being shot in the limbs. An amputation should be all it needed to save their petty life.

The machine gun emplacement near him is spitting flashes non-stop, the barrel turning red due to the intense heat release. German soldiers arming it have to change the heating barrel with wet clothes from time to time to prevent it from exploding. Besides them are two piping hot barrels which are lying down near the emplacement, left alone to cool down and be reused later.

With the MG suppressing a large area of the battlefield, the French are forced to prone down on the cold ground which smells of steel and blood, as all those who didn't have already been given a one-way ticket to hell. Diedrich is glad that he isn't on the offensive side now. Watching a French being shred to pieces with many holes on his body, it's a painful way to go.

As Diedrich fires another bullet, another French soldier falls down again, his soul has left the lifeless body. The barren land filled with the corpses of many from the offensive can certainly be considered hell for the French. The French have already left around 800 dead body on the field in this short engagement, suffering heavy losses. However, they had now managed to approach close to the German trenches due to pure numbers and suppressive fire from their side.

And now, their time has come, as the damn German in front of them is getting closer and closer. Reaching just 50 meters away, the assault begins.

"CHARGEEE!! Repel the invader!" And with a French officer shouting out with his lung, the rest of the French soldiers begin charging with their bayonet in the front. Many are cut down by the screaming German's machine gun and rifle, but many more manage to get through too.

In his trench, five French soldiers managed to jump inside. With their bayonet already in position, one of them immediately stabs a German soldier in the chest. As the bayonet penetrates his fragile body into his organ, the German's mouth begins coughing blood and eventually loses his consciousness. Right after that though, he was immediately avenged by Baugalf who shot a bullet through the soldier's head, ending his life immediately

Just when he finishes his shot, A French soldier who notices his opening immediately charges his bayonet into Baugalf. Aiming for the chest, the French do as he was trained in the boot camp to kill the long waited enemy. However, not everything goes as he planned.

Noticing the enemy behind him, Baugalf takes a quick turn and immediately ducks down, avoiding the thrusting bayonet. Proceed to bring up his handy military knife, he stabs it deep into the soldier's heart. Looking into the soldier's bitter eyes, Baugalf enhances his strength on his knife and eventually pulls it up, leaving him falling down silently.

Meanwhile, Diedrich has his hand full too.

Fighting him is a French who is around the same age as him. Staring into each other, the French with anger and rage for his fallen comrade charges into him. Thus, Diedrich adrenaline pumping, dodge the sharp bayonet by jumping to the right and aim his rifle at him.

Realizing Diedrich isn't going for a fair fight, the French dashes himself to Diedrich's position again.

"Bam!" With the first shot missing the target, the bullet flies through the black sky, Diedrich panicking, pulls the bolt of his rifle in a hurry to fire another shot. Eventually though, he had to give up the idea of it as the French begin thrusting his bayonet.

Followed by the sound of sword cutting air, Diedrich manages to dodge the attack at the cost of his stance. Losing his strength due to the stability lost, he had to drop the heavy rifle in his hand to stabilize his footsteps.

With it, the rifle drops at the ground near Diedrich. And without time to grab the rifle back, he had to improvise.

Throwing his hand on the still thrusting rifle, Diedrich looks into the shocked French's eye and try to rob him of his rifle.

Thus, both of them begin exerting strength over it, trying to turn the bayonet with its sharp edge toward each other's throat. Through the silence yet tense atmosphere, the two soldiers spend minutes fighting for control and the other life.

And just as the fight continues, the French soldier accidentally steps into a small hole on the ground with his left foot.

With that, a trail of blood flies through the air, as the victor is determined. A body drops down on the ground, with blood continuing to pour out of the body's throat.

"Ha,ha,ha..." Taking in deep breathe, Diedrich emerge victorious from the combat as the Goddess of luck is with him this time.

Looking at the French soldier on the ground who is still holding his throat to stop the bleeding, he can almost picture himself as the victim. The despair look of the pity French leaves a long lasting memory in him.

And thus, the last enemy in the trench is finished off, for a while

Diedrich's squad after suffering many casualties finally managed to finish cleaning up their position from the enemy. But they were so focused in their trench, that they ignored the still ongoing war.

Now, even more French has appeared in front of them again. With numbers above ten, another bloodbath is going to happen again, but this time it will be their blood that is pouring out. And just when the soldiers begin pouring in the trench, the MG emplacement who Diedrich just deliver ammo to begin suppressing the enemy. With a rain of fire, the enemy in front of them begins falling left and right. And eventually, their morale breaks.

"Run! Run! Their firepower is too strong! This is a suicide mission!" One of the soldiers after witnessing his friend's death by the MG again cannot take it anymore and begin running back to their trench, which eventually starts a domino effect.

Witnessing their comrade running, the fear inside their heart is enlarged. With the desire to survive another day, one by one, soldiers begin dropping their weapons and run towards their own trenches, ignoring the shouting officer.

Now, brave men minutes ago who are fighting with determination are running away like cowards. As some French Officer who tried to maintain the offensive through shouting order was shot by the German, the barren land turned peaceful again.

And with that, thousands of soldiers coming from both sides lie dead now on the field known as Sarrebourg. With German still firing at the fleeing French, having no mercy for their enemies. With much more dying with their backs facing the German, the French have suffered a total of around 3000 casualties just now, while 600 from the German side.

Looking at the fleeing French, Diedrich finally takes a deep breath and lays down his rifle. His hand fills with the blood of a French soldier who he kills just now splashing upon his clothes and face. But for now, he survived. His squad who is still with him hours ago, has only five men left, with Baugalf and him included.

But it seems like the offensive isn't finished yet.

"BANG! BANG! BANG!" With a short interval between each subsequent sound, large explosions begin to appear across the German trenches especially in places with heavy MG or large concentrations of infantry.

And above the French trenches, is a small group of black dots flying towards their position.

The enemy mage is here.