9 - M4

The night passed and when Merlin woke up again he immediately drove a puma out of the basecamp tho the place he had mentally named the highway of death that aptly went through the forest of death or it would once he was done burning down the trees that stood in the way, the Churchill crocodile had burned down about 15 meters of forest, Merlin drove the Puma through it and found that although not easy to pass it was traversable by wheeled vehicles

'It would be a good idea to change out the Puma's for tracked tanks soonish… I also don't know what the forest of death holds but I figure there's a reason for its name'

Merlin drove the Puma back out of the forest edge and out onto the plains before he sent a mental message to the Churchill crocodile to start moving deeper into the forest while burning down the forest in front of it, there were about 2 hours of flamer fuel in the tank behind the Churchill so he figured he could cheek on it after the training with Jane when he returned Merlin saw Jane was up and waiting for him

"I am back"

Jane nodded before she looked at the fire in the distance and asked

"Ready to train?"

"Yeah, let's start"

After the training Merlin and Jane rode the Tiger 1 over to the start of the highway of death where they saw the Churchill crocodile packed after it had emptied its flamer fuel tank, to Merlin's glee there now was a smoldering pathway about 500 meters long into the forest

"Very good…"

"Are you really going to burn a path all the way through the forest?"

"Yep, I don't see why not"

Jane looked like she was about to say something then she stopped, Merlin noticed this and asked her

"What is it?"

"... There are horrors inside this forest… I am not sure that the, what are they called, Puma's? Anyway I am not sure they can hold up to it since one was destroyed by a mere Centaur Sharman…"

Merlin fell into thought as he mumbled

"A mere Centaur Sharman huh… In that case, we're going to need more study tanks, maybe it's time for the star of the red army..? That or the workhorse of the US army..."

Jane looked at the side profile of his face for a bit before she asked

"Do you have a solution?"

"Yeah, bigger tanks"

Jane sighed before she asked

"Do you know how I got through the forest of death?"

"How?"

"By sacrificing about a third of our expedition force to the horrors of the forest and by sneaking through it avoiding the territories of the various magic beasts"

"But you didn't have tanks did you?"

"That's… No, I guess not… Just… Be careful, will you? I won't be able to survive without you… And don't believe for a moment that just because you beat the Centaur Sharman that your tanks are invincible"

"Noted"

This was something Merlin originally had thought, but now that Jane had said it he realized that he had been arrogant and that arrogance could very well have been his demise so he thanked Jane

"Thank you for the reminder, You might just have saved my life…"

Jane smiled and spoke

"Our life, remember if you die I die too"

Merlin nodded, then he thought for a moment before he asked

"Is it okay if we expand on the training program to twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening?"

"Sure, that's fine… Are you worried about something?"

"No, just want to be a little more prepared for what the forest can throw at us"

Jane showed a slight smile as her eyes flashed with approval, she was finding this young man more and more likable the more time they spent together…

A few days passed with Merlin hunting and inspecting the expansion of the highway of death that by now was about 2 kilometers long, so far they had not run into any very strong magic beasts, a couple of strong ones, sure especially the forest bear that was a class 3 magic beast from the day before and shrugged off the shots from the 20mm and 50mm Puma's like they were rainwater, only the 88mm from the Tiger 1 could penetrate its tough hide

"...I, or we are going to need something with bigger guns than the Puma's… But the tank need to be mobile too… System what does an M4 Sherman cost? The one with the 76mm, I forget its designation..."

[Ding! An M4A2 Sherman equipped with a 76mm as its main armament costs 205 points]

"That's cheaper than the normal M4?"

[Ding! the M4A2(W76) carries less ammunition, thus the reduced cost]

"I see… And how many points do I have at the moment?"

[Ding! 758 points]

"...Then buy 3 M4A2's"

[Ding! Order confirmed, 615 points deducted from the balance, 143 remind]

In front of Merlin 3 identical tanks materialized, the M4 Sherman was known as the workhorse of the US army doing the 2nd world war, a German Tiger 1 might be superior in every way over this tank, but fortunately doing the 2nd world war there was at least 10 M4 Sherman's per Tiger 1 with a total of 49.000 built (some after the war) the tank itself was a relatively medium weighed tank at 'only' about 38 tons, the tank itself is about 6 meters long, 2.6 meters wide and almost 3 meters tall, the front is curved and rounded and it has a roundish turret that houses a 76mm gun that fires Armor-piercing, High-explosive. High-velocity-armor-piecing rounds, the standard APCBC (Armor-Piecing-Capped-Ballistic-Capped) shell was preferable to use over the HVAP (High-Velocity-Armor-Piecing) shell due to the fact that the former was stuffed with explosives and would explode once it penetrated a target

"So say you have two types of arrowheads, one is a normal one and the other explodes once it penetrates a target, which one would you use?"

"Number two"

"I am sorry to tell you that's wrong"

"Then number 1?"

"Nope it's a trick question, it all depends on the target you are shooting at"

"Ah… I see so the normal is better at punching through armor and the other is better at softer, less armored, targets?"

"Yeah and the one that explodes on impact is best for the softest targets of them all"

"I see… This is kind of fighting…"

Merlin nodded

"Yeah well… They are tools of war"

Jane nodded and mumbled

"What kind of war would require these kinds of weapons…"

Merlin patted her on the shoulder

"The kind that I hope this world will never see"

"Me too… Then are we ready to move through the forest?"

"Hmm… With these 3 puppies and the Tiger 1… Hmm… No, not yet"

Jane sighed before she nodded as her eyes flashed with slight desperation and hopelessness as she thought about her family, Merlin saw this and didn't quite know what to do, so he didn't say anything for a while before he had formulated a slightly reassuring sentence

"As long as we are alive there's hope, we need to be careful since we only got one try at this"

Jane's frustration lessened slightly as she sighed before she nodded

"You're right Merlin, I am sorry for being so impatient"

"It's fine… If I had my family waiting on me on the other side I would be worried too…"

Jane looked off towards the forest of death for a bit before she started talking

"I am from an orphanage, so my family is rather large… All the big children work to support the orphanage me included… If I don't return soon I am afraid that slavers will start to target the orphanage, as they did in the past…"

"...I see in that case we have no time to spare, I'll go hunting at once---"

"I'll come with"

"---Sure, then let's take the M4's for a spin"

Merlin crawled up on an M4 and gestured for Jane to crawl up on the engine deck to him, she nodded and crawled up and stood next to him, then they sat down on the side of the engine deck before the M4's rolled out of the camp, a few minutes later they spotted a herd of bison like magic beasts, Merlin order the 3 tanks to stop before he stood up and walked over behind the turret and grabbed the .50 cal machinegun that was mounted on the roof of the turret on the M4, then he pulled the loading grip and spoke to Jane

"Cover your ears, this is going to get loud"

Jane nodded and covered her ears, then Merlin showed a smile as his tank commanders jacket was whipped around by the wind, almost like it seemed excited about the upcoming carnage

"Load HE… Fire when ready!"

3 thoudner claps sounded out as the 3 M4's fired their cannons into the herd of bison-like magic beasts, at the same time Merlin squeezed the trigger on the .50 caliber machine gun, a rain of lead showered the bison-like magic beasts, both in the form of shrapnel and bullets...