Chapter 504 (1/2)

Chapter 504: The Battle of King’s City (Part 2)

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

A few seconds after the flames blazed, Weimar heard a dull thunderous sound.

It came from a far distance away. Although its tone was not high, it was nevertheless powerful. He saw that right next to the shack, a pillar of earth rose up in tune with the sound.

“What just happened?”

“Was the snow powder ignited?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. It seems to have been done by that ship.”

“What a joke. It’s about a mile away.”

The knights were busy discussing among themselves. Weimar frowned and wondered. “Could it be that… the enemy has noticed something strange about the ground?”

According to the intelligence gathered from various channels, the rebel king possessed extremely powerful snow powder weapons which were superior in both range and accuracy to anything the King’s City blacksmiths were able to knock up. Hence, from the beginning, Timothy had decided not to engage in direct combat, but instead to use the snow powder barrels as ambush so that Roland’s weapons would be rendered useless. The things that released fire at the front of the ship were likely to be enlarged versions of the weapons. They were able to load more snow powder and shoot a more powerful projectile. The only issue was that they were much more difficult to manufacture than handheld weapons. Already, despite Timothy putting all of the city’s blacksmiths to work throughout the winter, the devices they were able to create were not even as good as trebuchets.

After a short while, the flames appeared once again, followed by the same thunderous sound. This time, the earth pillar attached itself firmly to the shack and flew up, causing mud to splotch all over the roof of the shack.

Weimar’s guess was proven correct. Clearly, the enemy had conceived a plan to get to the shack, which meant that they knew about the snow powder hidden near to the pier! As such, Timothy’s ambush tactic failed. Weimar quietly thought to himself, “Perhaps they do have a chance to touch the city wall.”

After this battle, it would become evident whether the snow powder weapons were more powerful or the walls of King’s City were sturdier.

Just then, a booming sound was heard from the battlements…

It was louder and more sonorous than anything the knights had ever heard, as though thunder clapped right beside their ears.

A small hill began to arch upward in the space in front of the pier. Dirt and stones were hurled into the air before smoke and fog burst out of the dirt, forming a visible cloud-shaped gaseous mass. Violent quakes swept through the land, and in an instant, the top of the city wall began to sway terribly. Weimar instinctively crouched his body, but Scar suffered a foot sprain and fell to the ground beside him.

After reaching its maximum height, the flying soil began to fall like torrential rain. Yet, it did not make any noise when it hit the ground. Weimar’s ears buzzed for a while, and it took some time for him to regain his senses after the tremors.

Damn it, that fool didn’t wait for the flag signal to ignite the snow powder!

The ground, which was originally flat, now looked as if it had been chewed upon. Bumps and hollows were everywhere, while hot and white smoke emitted from the loose black mud, filling the air with the smell of gunpowder.

Weimar leaned one side of his head out from behind the battlement. He saw that in the distance, the fleet began to move once again. The ships formed a straight line as they headed toward the pier. The decoy militiamen were either paralyzed on the pier, or had dropped their weapons and fled in various directions.

“Who was responsible for the ignition?” Scar, who was angry from embarrassment, held a guard by the collar and interrogated. “I’ll wring his head off!”

“It was a person arranged by His Highness.” Weimar snapped. “Watch the enemy carefully. They’re coming on shore any time now. Prepare to raise the blue flag.”

“I hope the fella hiding in the warehouse will be able to complete his mission,” he thought.

However, there was no movement in the pier area at all, and the enemy’s crews were able to land the shore easily.

*******************

Allen Alba was busy maintaining his rapier when the thunderous booms sounded and shook the earth. The violent explosions and tremors almost caused him to drop the rapier out of shock.

Though he knew in advance that this would happen, he did not expect the sound of exploding snow powder to be so loud and terrifying.

After all, it took place at least two miles away from where he was. “How does it feel like on the scene?” He wondered.

Using his hands, he soothed his mount which had turned restless. Then, he kept his rapier in its sheath and beckoned toward the cavalries behind him. “When the gate opens, you’ll follow my charge. Don’t hold back your horses’ energy. They have no way to retreat!”

From the uncertain response he received, it was apparent that few among the horsemen had recovered from the thunderous shock waves.