The two arrows seemed like they had grown eyes. They rose to the highest point and then, under the influence of wind and gravity, fell at an almost vertical angle onto their target.
Just as envisioned, the arrows bounced off the shell. In Roland’s brain it even sounded like a ricochet.
Seeing this, the hunters hurriedly inserted their next arrow on their strings, and let loose a second wave.
Finally, this volley received a result. This time, the impact area was in the front part of the monster, so one arrow precisely entered into the head of a wolf while the other arrow was entered the neck of the other head.
However, the demonic beasts didn’t roar in anger or speed up its charge, it just stopped for a short pause, tucked its head into its shell and then continued to slowly move forward.
This change left everyone stunned.
With this the demonic beasts just looked like a tank, its body was as low as possible above the ground so that even a better shooter wouldn’t be able to land an arrow.
“Take your guns,” Roland ordered.
Now, the target was only fifty feet away from the wall. Even if the guns weren’t carved rifled flintlocks, he didn’t worry that they would miss.
Carter and Iron Axe immediately went near the edge of the wall, laid the barrels of their guns on the horizontal frame of the wall, aimed, and fired.
While a burst of white smoke was drifting away from the rifles, Roland could clearly see the bullet hitting the shell and splitting away some debris, even opening a small hole within the shell. However, the mixed species seemed to be unaffected, as it continued to maintain its original speed.
It seemed that this layer of armor belonged to the strength category of biological carbon’s intensity, thought Roland. Unfortunately, the lead balls were still too soft, so they were easily deformed and were not suitable to penetrate thick armor. So, those four rifles alone to break the mixed species’ armor was quite unrealistic, so the only option left was to use explosives.
Iron Axe agreed with the Prince’s judgement, he immediately ordered his deputy to get the explosives as fast as possible, because the demonic beast had already reached the walls. They didn’t feel the earth tremble like it did when the demonic beast stomped toward the wall.. Instead, it unexpectedly began to smash its shell against the wall again and again, just like a high-frequency rotary hammer. Suddenly, stone chips began to fly everywhere and a number of cracks spread along the bound cement at a rapid speed.
Rough walls were highly resistant to compression, but the tensile and shear resistance performance of the walls were very poor. That meant that the wall’s ability to withstand the shock of vibration was almost zero. The people standing on the walls could feel a strong vibration, and soon, a shrill sound of friction was delivered to the ears of all the people standing on the wall. With this, the wall had begun to give up under the mixed species’ attack.
However, its impact hadn’t stopped. Instead, it started to move again, and soon the whole front half of the beast’s body was embedded into the walls.
The militia standing on the part of the wall with the cracks had already fled, and the invisible Nightingale grabbed Roland by his waist and jumped down with him from the top of the wall — if at this moment someone was staring at the prince, he would see the prince’s feet hanging above the floor, just like a ghost.
When Van’er arrived carefully carrying a package of explosives, he was surprised to see that there was already a nine foot-wide hole within the wall, and the demonic beast had already stepped through the wall but was still maintaining its previous speed of slowly moving forwards.
“Hurry!” Iron Axe shouted, “light it and put it at the foot of the demonic beast!”
Although Van’er’s hand were shaking, his mind unexpectedly became clear and every detail of his training with the explosives emerged within his mind. It was a different version of explosives than used during the training. To reduce costs, the explosive was now placed inside a wooden box filled with debris from the mine. At the same time, the ignition design was also optimized, it used a flint and copper wire type ignition. If this failed, the kit also contained normal ignition leads. He hurried to tear away the oilcloth and opened the bag, where he then got to see a copper string. When he exhausted all of his body’s strength to pull the string, he could hear a sizzling sound coming out from the box and white smoke began to rise up — this was the sign of a successful ignition.
To slow down the burning time, the lead wire was soaked in salt, only needing the time of 10 breaths to explode. When Van’er saw white smoke rising up from the box, his world turned quiet around him. He had already witnessed the power of this thing, if it exploded in his hands, he was afraid that not even any pieces of his own body would be left.
Nine breaths.
Van’er could hear his own heartbeat, as if it wanted to give him a countdown. Step by step, he went in front of the demonic beast, placing explosives under the beast.
Five breaths.
Now that it had built up so much pressure, nothing could stop the explosion now.
Three breaths.
Van’er turned and ran.
Two breaths.
Once breaths — he could only hear a muffled sound. Van’er felt the shockwave and the world became noisy again.
He turned around and could see a lot of white blasted up from under the shell — that was the snow shot into the air from the explosives, at first glance it looked like a diffused misty flower. The demonic beast finally stopped, but before it fell, it crashed into the ground, as if it couldn’t afford to hold up its heavy carapace any longer. Then, black blood surged out from under the carapace, soaking the ground around it.
“Oh oh oh —!”
Seeing this, the crowd suddenly burst out in cheers.
Van’er fell down to the ground, only now discovering that his clothes were soaked with sweat.
It was finally over.
When everyone thought this, the sound of the horn resounded throughout Border Town again.
Once more, a horde of demonic beasts was marching toward Border Town, trying to destroy it.
Chapter 50 Wall of Flames
“Do you feel better now?”
Anna patted Nana on her back to comfort her. Anna’s stomach was also turned upside down, but in the end she was still able to swallow it down.
When the wounded man was carried in, he was still conscious and was constantly repeating, “Help me, help me …” seeing the expression of despair and begging within his eyes left the people around him feeling heartbroken. Seeing the man’s intestines hanging outside from his belly, Nana couldn’t hold back and threw up.
Even so, she still insisted on treating him. After placing the intestines back into the belly of the patient, Nana laid her hands above the wound, closed her eyes and began to heal the patient’s wounds.
“Ah …” After the healing Nana let out an exhausted sigh, leaned against Anna’s shoulder and whispered, “Today was the first time that the horn was blown, do you think that His Highness is alright?”
“I do not know,” Anna shook her head, she wanted to go over there to see the situation at the walls with her own eyes, afraid that Roland could be in trouble. She was even a little envious of Nightingale, her ability to act without being noticed was very convenient.
At this moment, a booming sound could be heard from the direction of the wall and everyone could feel the earth slightly trembling.
Brian jumped off from the bed he was sitting on and began walking somewhat restlessly through the room.
“Young man, you have to relax.” said Sir Pine, while calmly wiping his sword, “A knight isn’t allowed to lose his cool before he enters a battle, this will only make bad things worse. Moreover, this situation is still far from bad.”