Chapter 334: Heart Stopper
After scaling up a corner of the city wall, Andrea was immediately greeted with an astonishing scene.
All she saw was a row of soldiers, dressed up as militia, standing on top of the wall grasping a strange, stick-like weapon in their hands—those are probably the firearms Ashes was talking about. Following the approach from the group of demonic beasts, flames as well as dense smoke erupted out from it, causing the sound of continuous explosions to echo in her ears.
That ought to be a type of weapon similar to the crossbow, but she couldn’t see the bolts that were shot out by the other side, probably due to the large cloud of smoke and dust. The demonic beasts that were charging at the very front of the pack acted as if they had been ruthlessly smashed by something. Their bodies coming to a halt as they began to fall onto the ground in quick succession.
Even so, the soldiers didn’t observe the aftermath of the battle, nor did they load up a new bolt. Instead they continued to fire at the enemy with a speed that was a bit quicker than her fitting an arrow to the bowstring.
“Is this the frightening weapon you spoke of?” Andrea felt her lips slightly drying out, turning somewhat coarse. “Its rate of fire is definitely fast, but the accuracy is somewhat…”
“Before these people were recruited into the First Army, they were all miners, farmers and hunters.” Ashes interrupted her speech. “The time they spent using this weapon is just shy of six months.”
One normally required at least 5 years of time to groom a well trained warrior, and even more time was needed to train an archer. Even crossbows, which required the least amount of training, still required one to train for at least half a year. Even with training, it would only prevent situations like farmers placing a bolt upside down in panic. As for actual combat? Only God knew whether they were capable of hitting anything. In most cases, they were only brought along to increase one’s prestige.
Andrea couldn’t help but swallow her saliva. She was extremely familiar with these kinds of practices, as her clan had nurtured their fair share of outstanding knights. Because of that, she naturally understood the significance of soldiers being combat ready with roughly 6 months worth of training. With an ample supply of weapons and rations, Roland could potentially assemble a massive army within a short time period. Furthermore, there was no need to worry about the troops being routed at the first contact during close quarter combat. Even an elite group of cavalrymen would have a hard time coming close amidst an onslaught of attacks with no intermission.
This had nothing to do with the courage or willpower of the militia, but rather, tremendous strength bestowed to them by their weapons.
“Do you know something else about the firearm?” Tilly asked Sylvie after contemplating it for a moment.
The latter nodded her head. “I’ve examined it inside and out countless times. It’s definitely similar to a crossbow, but the arrowhead that is shot out is tiny and has neither a shaft nor tail feathers. The difference lies in the arrowhead not relying on the elasticity of a bowstring, but rather the propelling force of a black, fine powder when it explodes—It can raise the velocity of the arrowhead to extreme speeds instantaneously..”
“A black, fine powder?” Tilly asked. “What is that?”
“It’s probably a byproduct of alchemy.” She shook her head. “I am not clear about its specific composition either.”
“It must be very expensive.” Andrea said. “The things that alchemists create have never been anything cheap.”
Ashes curled her lips. “Really…From how they’re firing it, it totally doesn’t look like they’re using anything costly.”
“Hold on, something’s approaching.” Sylvie, who was in the process of sizing up the battlefield, was slightly shocked. “My goodness, that’s also a demonic beast? It’s almost as tall as the city wall! From the looks of it, it’s a huge turtle, and it’s carrying a huge carapace behind its back.”
Andrea immediately came to her senses. “Carapace? I am afraid these guns won’t help much. As long as I am within 10 feet of it, even the city walls would not be able to withstand my magic arrows. Ashes, cover me.”
“Sigh, alright.” Ashes helplessly removed the claymore behind her back. “For the record, you’d better not tarnish the good name of Lady Tilly.”
“There’s no need for you all to go,” Sylvie said, in an attempt to stop them. “They still have—”
Andrea didn’t hear the latter half of what the opposite side was saying. She only heard an earsplitting boom that sounded like lightning exploding right beside her ears. Turning her head back, she saw flames erupting out from the pipe-shaped metal objects erected all around the city wall that happened to coincide with each other. This time, she had faintly caught the trajectory that the arrowheads took as they flew—they were like a series of shadows. Like a thunderbolt that leaves no time for one to cover their ears, they flew into the distance where the recently appeared monster was.
After a number of breaths, snow pillars that were several feet tall began to spring up near the side of the creature. After the snowflakes that were disturbed and flying around had all floated down, the ugly and massive demonic beast continued to advance at a fixed speed—It was evident that this attack had not managed to hit the target.
But even so, it was enough for Andrea to feel extremely shocked… That distance had already surpassed the range of the longbow and the heavy crossbow. “This is…”
“His Royal Highness calls it field artillery. Simply put, it’s an enlarged firearm.” Sylvie relaxed the hands that was covering her ears. “Its might is much stronger than the firearm, and its range had been increased by quite a lot. This was what he used to easily rout Timothy’s militia fleet at the bifurcation point of Redwater river.”
The luck of the demonic beast didn’t manage to last for long. During the second wave of bombardment, two rounds had accurately struck its carapace. Andrea saw it extremely clearly; along with the muffled sound of the collision, there was a layer of mist that began to riseup from the bumpy carapace. Two holes had directly exploded at the side that was close to its head, causing black blood and viscera to spurt out from it, splattering all over the ground.
Not long after, the battle ended. Pieces of demonic corpses laid in front of the city wall. The warm, flowing blood created a haze of white mist above the snow-covered ground. While the soldiers had began reparations, she was still processing the incident, unable to find an opportunity to show off her skills from beginning to end.
“Looks like my estimation was off.” Tilly smiled helplessly. “He didn’t need any assistance from the combat witches.”
“The last time I came to this small city, this type of weapon wasn’t widely accessible, and only the Knight Commander could possess them. But now, he had actually produced many of it…” Ashes sighed. “Perhaps this is exactly the reason why His Royal Highness dares to publicly support the existence of witches, despite being under the heavy pressure of the Church.”
Andrea didn’t respond. If it was during normal times, she would definitely ridicule Ashes. However, the current her only felt abnormally depressed in her heart. She didn’t even have the strength to to muster an argument.
When they returned to the castle, His Royal Highness, Roland still continued to prepare a sumptuous lunch for the witches.
Seeing the dishes laid out before her in brilliant colors, Andrea felt even more stifled in her heart.
The upper class nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn were very particular about the taste authenticity in their food. They were willing to spend gold royals and energy to buy precious and rare ingredients, and use the most authentic way to cook them. In her eyes, food that was sprinkled with all kinds of spices and sauces—such as the one in Greycastle, was a very raffish means of preparation. Seasoning only existed for the sake of covering up the natural defects of the food; Adding more simply signified how poorly it tasted.
But unfortunately for her…every plate of food on the table was extremely delicious.
Like these plump and juicy charcoal grilled mushroom, where exactly did His Royal Highness find them from? The juices that were flowing out from just the slightest bite were practically capable of filling up one’s entire mouth.
And then there was this bowl of green vegetable soup. From its appearance, it seemed like an extremely unremarkable bowl of clear soup, but once one took a sip of it into their mouth, a fragrant and flavorsome taste could be felt. It was almost like an entire chicken, some pork ribs and kelp, were thrown into a pot and left to simmer.
The most unique food was the dessert after the meal—Ice cream bread. It consisted of ice cream, whose milky aroma filled the room, wedged between two pieces of bread. After taking a bite from it, she was lost in its cold and soft texture and was unable to remove herself from it. The fact that it was “winter” didn’t prevent her from eating slice after slice of it.
Blast it, I thoroughly lose even in this aspect!
Looking at Ashes, who was flashing a provocative smile towards her, Andrea found herself being unable to come up with a response for the first time in her life.