Chapter 334 (1/2)

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.”