Chapter 88 Winter Twilight (Part 2)
“Don’t be so hasty, now isn’t the time to act,” said Roland. He could only sigh when looking at Lightning who was eagerly flying around.
God only knows why she is so interested in fighting against that demonic beast. It’s obvious that she isn’t the fighting type. But, compared with ordinary people this little girl doesn’t even show the least bit of fear.
“Just follow the same pattern we used when dealing with the last one, don’t try to be brave, you’re just a lure so that it will focus its attention onto you. Always maintain a high degree of awareness! Even though it cannot fly, when it jumps up, it’s still a very serious threat!”
”I already know about that,” Lightning spoke with a voice full of confidence, “It isn’t my first fight with something like this. Rest assured, I already know my limit. This time, it won’t even be able to touch my clothes.”
During their talk, the mixed species had come even closer to the wall. It had already crossed the barriers, and leaped in the direction of the unguarded area, trying to climb the wall. But this time, it was ignored by the militia members. They just kept defending their own sector, always waiting for the Hunter Captain’s next stab command.
“Then, we begin the special operations mission against this mixed species!” shouted Roland.
Hearing this, Lightning who was already flying out stopped for a moment and looked back to Roland.
“What’s up?”
“That phrase of your’s…” Lightning thought it through once more, then shook her head, “It seemed slightly strange. Well forget it, I’m off.”
Seeing the little girl’s small figure flying quickly away, Roland turned towards Anna and Nightingale and asked embarrassed, “Did you also thought that it was strange?”
“Well,” they both nodded.
All right… it seems even in this place these two lines were strange, “You both can go now as well. Be careful!”
“Your Highness, take care,” Nightingale bowed to Roland, then she took Anna’s hand and pulled her off into the fog.
Roland put his arms behind his back, standing straight while facing the wind, trying to imitate how a BOSS would look like. He knew that many soldiers, when they had the time to catch their breath, would secretly glance at him. Because of this, even though his feet were already numb, he stood stoically at the highest point of the wall, clearly visible to everyone – demonstrating that the Prince was always on their side. Since he couldn’t put himself into combat, this way he could still serve to inspire them.
This time, the intensity of the demonic beast attacks had exceeded all attacks previous. According to Iron Axe, during last year’s Month of Demons, there would always only appear one or two mixed species. But this year, there were already four attacks of them on Border Town. The duration of these attacks was also unusually long, even now, groups of twelve or even larger would emerge from the forest, always continuing to dash towards the city wall.
Fortunately, the flintlock production has increased in the last month, and I’m now able to send out a team of one hundred armed with flintlocks. Without them, I would have never been able to guarantee such a high killing speed. If we had to use crossbows, I’m afraid killing all of them would have been very difficult.
In the long run, the advantage of guns, which needed less physical exertion, will become even more apparent.
Of course, the large consumption of gunpowder was enough to give Roland a headache, he had already ordered more than twenty packs of explosives from the warehouse, which tore a huge hole in his reserves, so he was already thinking about rationing gunpowder.
At the same moment, Lightning was already flying around the mixed species’s head. She fished a stone from her pocket and threw it at the beast’s head. The stone accurately hit the target’s head, startling it so that it jumped forcefully back, only to discover that the attack actually come from the sky.
To provoke it further, Lighting flew always at a low altitude and directly in front of its head, slowly luring it towards the town center. Although the mixed species certainly had the ability to think, but seeing this annoying little girl flying around in front of it, it didn’t feel any threat. So it immediately pounced up, opened its wings, and in a few jumps it quickly crossed more than a hundred meters. Lightning seeing it prepare for a jump, immediately flew a bit higher and turned around, always keeping a few cottages and a street between herself and the beast.
In this way, after seven or eight turns around, she was finally able to lure it to the town center, which was the ambush location on which Nightingale and she had previously agreed on. As a former lion, its sense of smell was naturally very sensitive, it should even be able to discover Nightingale even when she was in her world of fog. Because of this problem, they had to pull the demonic beast’s attention away from them, before Nightingale and Anna could start their surprise attack.
For this kind of job, Lightning was perfectly suited. She was able to enrage the mixed species so much, that it jumped around like a maniac, with an opened wide mouth, always trying to get at this annoying fly. But Lightning who didn’t have to bear any weight, was always a small distance away from it, always flying up and down teasingly, making each jump fruitless.
At the same time and from another direction Nightingale also arrived at the town square – compared to Lightning, in her world of the fog she could ignore all houses and fences, always moving in a straight line towards her goal. Since Anna’s flame was only able to cover up to ten steps (5 meters), she had to get close to the mixed species, so she closed on it from behind, hoping to not be discovered.
When they had to face the mixed species for the first time, this part was very troublesome. However, now it was already their second run against this kind of mixed species and Nightingale had already gotten fully familiar with Anna’s attack. So when they still were thirty feet away from the beast, she raised her speed to the limit, covering the distance in an instant, as if it was in only a single step. When Anna was able to see again, she discovered that the mixed species’ tail was already directly in front of her face.
“Attack, now,” cried, Nightingale.
Around Anna, the black and white world swapped away like a wave. Within the blink of an eye, she was back to the familiar towns square. Directly releasing her green flame from the tip of her finger and expanding it into a great fire cage, covering the whole demonic beast.
Facing this flame, Nightingale had to hurriedly retreat, even only feeling the heat wave, was already enough to make her feel like she was burning.
Enclosed by the cage of fire, which was even able to melt steel, the mixed species did not have any time to struggle, it instantly turned into a ball of flame and crushingly fell to the ground.
“It seems they were already able to solve the problem,” Wendy informed him when she discovered the green flame in the distance. In the absence of Nightingale, it was her turn to protect Roland, “It seems like I won’t get any part in the play…”
“If possible, I would like it if it could stay this way,” Roland answered, still maintaining his straight stance, pretending like he was riding along an easy road. Having said that, he still knew, that without the help of the witches defending the town, the jumping mixed species would have thrown the militia once more into chaos.
But today, even Nana had come to the walls, giving fast treatment to the injured soldiers. Her father was always at her side, protecting her. Today was the first time that Roland publicized the power of the witches in front of all the militiamen, and he was very pleased. Within the ranks, the love for their angel Nana rose to new highs, but when Anna and Nightingale killed the mixed species together, the crowd also began to cheer loudly.
Of course, he clearly knew that not everyone wouldn’t mind them, such a situation like with the militia was very rare. But when they were fully accepted by the militia, he would still try to get them accepted by the whole town.
Suddenly, the sound of gunfire began to taper off, and Roland noticed that the demonic beasts began to evacuate the wall. Are they finally retreating? He couldn’t believe his eyes. But just at this moment, a beam of light broke through the thick clouds, covering the ground, followed by a second, then a third… Soon, tens of thousands ray of lights broke through the holes within the clouds. Then all the light beams merged into one, becoming dazzling and unable to look at. The earth had suddenly brightened up.
“The day when the sun rises again is the end of all evil.”
There was a short moment of stillness on the wall, but then, a wave of cheering swept across the wall, towards the direction of Border Town. Gradually, the townspeople came out of the houses and also started to cheer. Welcoming the long missed sunshine, celebrating their surviving of the winter, or in order to thank the Prince. In the end, all the cheering merged into a flood, resounding throughout the entire Border Town!