Er Mu - Release that Witch

“I see the enemy!”

“Fill in the ammunition!” Van’er ordered with a firm voice while shaking his head, pushing all of the distracting thoughts to the back of his head.

The people within the compartment suddenly became busy; they had already gone through the following steps so many times, that they could now fill the cachet and artillery shell into the chamber even if their eyes were closed. Under the circumstances that they didn’t need to reset the cannon into the starting position or to adjust the shooting angle, the artillery group could easily shoot once every twenty breaths.

His Highness Roland and Iron Axe had already planned and put the strategy for the battle long ago. Moreover, it was similar to Border Town’s previous defense battle, so Van’er could fluently recite it from memory. Therefore, the moment they saw Miss Lightning wave the red flag, they immediately tore down the window’s cover plate and opened fire. The two cannons nearest to the river bank were filled with bullet canisters intended to wipe out the deck, while the rest of the cannons bombarded the hold of the ships with their solid shells.

He calmly waited for the arrival of the red signal.

…

Lotus no longer needed an observation mirror to keep a lookout, she could see that the fleet of the Fake King had already neared the ambush place.

Compared to the three-masted or four-masted seafaring sailing ships, these ships were notably much slimmer, had no tall rigging or fences, and with their low hull, they looked as if they were at the same level of the river. In addition to their bulging sails, they were also pushed forward by sailors on both sides of their decks, who were slowly pulling the helms in their hands.

Even now, His Royal Highness still hadn’t issued any new orders.

She could not help but become somewhat anxious; standing at their observation point located at the top of a high hill. Even though they could overlook the whole battlefield from here, it was still far away from the river. Without Lightning or Maggie by His Highness’ side, sending new instructions to each team would waste a lot of time, and even if they were only a little late, Lotus was afraid that there wouldn’t be enough time to stop the fleet from passing through the Redwater River fork.

Seeing that the leading sailboat was about to pass by the soil houses, Lotus couldn’t help but want to open her mouth to inquire, but at that very moment, a loud bang suddenly rolled over the river. As if this were the signal to attack, more than a dozen thick smoke clouds mixed with a blazing flame came spouting out of the soil house, sending an unending oppressive and earth trembling sound across.

In the end, what exactly had happened?

When Lotus turned her eyes back to the river, she could hardly believe what she was seeing, She didn’t see any fight between knights or mercenaries, however, on the deck of the first sailboat, it looked like a boiling pot had just exploded. Wood chips, disabled limbs, and severed arms splashed everywhere in all directions. More than half of the scullers had been killed or injured in a flash, and as the bloody mist cleared up, it had smeared the deck a bloody red.

After losing half of its moving force, the speed of the vessel quickly slowed down, while the thundering explosion sound hadn’t stopped for even the slightest moment. Not long after, several shadows cut the tall mast at the center of the ship in half; it shook twice before falling to the ground with a loud bang, burying two knights who had just climbed out of the cabin under it.

The sailboat was pushed by the water current and slowly began receding, while the other ships fanned out while trying to avoid it. After hearing the cacophony of sounds, lots of people rushed out from within the hold of the ship, only to helplessly look at the leading ship which had already sunken into hell, seemingly not knowing what they should do anymore.

Then the horrible attack fell on the second ship.

The bloody mist emerging from the now crowded deck became even more raging, and Lotus could see, that after another round of rolling thunder, those enemies who originally stood nearest to the river bank had been completely broken apart and had given birth to many scarlet red empty spots. Those people who were still alive, gave out heartbreaking screams as they tried to push their intestines back into their body. While other lucky survivors immediately jumped into the river to try and escape, no longer willing to spend another breath in the hell on top of the deck.

Finally, Lotus understood what His Highness had meant when he said that they would not be able to get through, but… how had his men been able to do this?

Compared with Lotus who could only survey the scene from an elevated and distant position, Sylvie’s view was much more vivid.

Through the thick walls of the soil houses, she could see the soldiers busy themselves in an orderly manner, everyone was repeating the same single motion, but all seven to eight people became one complex whole and moved like clouds and flowing water. The paper bags and iron balls stacked at the back of the compartment, were continuously fed into a thick and robust iron pipe, which then erupted with the sound of thunder.

Taking a closer look, Sylvie noticed that the soldiers first lit a rope that was at the end of the iron pipe. The jumping sparks then entered the interior of the pipe and directly ignited the previously loaded paper bag. In the following split second the light became so bright that she was unable to bear keeping her eyes open, the sparks quickly expanded into an orange-red fireball, filling every room in the pipe. With no further place left for it to go, the still growing flame then pushed against the iron ball, ejecting it outward as if a giant hand had thrown it out!

Within the blink of an eye, the iron ball turned into a shadow rushing in a straight line towards the ship sailing on the river. Its strength was so great, that it directly drilled through the planks leaving a fist sized hole in the side. Although its speed slowed down a lot the iron ball’s power could still not be underestimated. When it hit one enemy that was trying to climb out of the cabin it immediately tore him in two.

It was Sylvie’s first time witnessing such a scene — that without the blade of a sharp knife or the edge of a sword, depending on just one of those plumb iron balls, it was possible to tear a person in two.

Due to witnessing the scene from too close, it even felt as if the blood and guts had splashed all over herself. The still not stopped iron ball then hit several more people, not only cutting off their four limbs but also shattering their heads. For a moment, the cabin was full of flowing filthy blood, and red and white internal organs.

Sylvie suddenly felt her stomach rolling over and over, and stomach acid came rushing straight along her throat.

“Blergh…” The scene in the hold of the ship suddenly faded — under her chaotical emotional state she was no longer able to keep on using her ability. Sylvie forcefully interrupted the connection to her Eye of Truth giving up to the impulse to throw up instead.

“What happened?” Lotus was startled, so she immediately came over to support her then worriedly asked, “Are you okay?”

The Prince also noticing her discomfort turned around and handed her a handkerchief, “If you think it is too bloody, then don’t look at it. At least don’t use your ability to look at it from a close range. For now, first go and take a break.”

“Thank you…” Sylvie took the handkerchief and wiped her mouth. “I’m all right.”

This is probably the “incredible invention” Maggie and Lightning had spoken of, but back then we hadn’t listened enough to it or we didn’t pay any attention to it. After all, without personally witnessing it, such an incredible weapon is really hard to imagine.

She once more looked towards the battlefield, to see that Timothy’s fleet had begun approaching both shores — apparently, they have already noticed by now, that this kind of violent wind and rainstorm is coming from the soil houses at the shores that are disguised as earth slopes. However, the other side still isn’t aware that the military fortification arranged by His Highness Roland has far more to offer than that.

Comparatively far away from the V-shaped line of defense, were some more bunkers that were hidden with vines and weeds. Which had a length exactly the same as the length of the fleet column. If they landed at any point, they would just fall into another pincer attack laid out for them from the beginning, the only way to avoid this would have been if they had turned the bow around and withdrew without even the slightest hesitation.

The soldiers in the bunkers were all holding identical long and round iron instruments, these didn’t shoot out round iron balls but rather a single sharp but tailless arrowhead. It didn’t seem as if it had the same unstoppable power as the iron balls, but when it hit the target, it still turned any armor useless before drilling deep into the flesh of a person’s body.

Sylvie guessed that the enemy had planned to launch a counterattack after going ashore and lining up, however, the soldiers within the bunkers never even gave them the opportunity to do so — just as with the previous attack, they also didn’t need to show their faces this time. Instead, they aimed at the target with their weapons, easily pulled the trigger, then sent off a rain of arrowheads; similar to a summer storm splashing down on the enemy.

Confronted with this kind of rapid-fire, without even being able to swing their own weapons, the enemy was unable to resist for long before the frontlines totally fell apart. The people who had already left the ship all turned around, wanting to return aboard, while the people still aboard were waiting for the others to flee. The body of the ships substantially began to sway, until the gangplank was no longer able support their weight and fell into the water drowning many of them, while some other people trying to climb the wall of the ship were also killed off, which turned the whole scene into utter chaos.

“It’s time,” After waiting until this moment, the Prince put down his observation mirror, turned toward Iron Axe and ordered, “Take the reserve and clean up the battlefield, if the lead knights were lucky enough not to be killed during the battle, arrest as many as you can. I want to ask them some questions.”

“Yes,” Iron Axe answered as he saluted.

He then looked at Sylvie, “Go with Iron Axe and ensure that no one can slip away.”

Sylvie nodded, and followed after the First Army Commander as they moved away from the observation hill. She suddenly understood why His Royal Highness Roland would dare to openly protect the witches here in the corner of the mainland… With such a dominant force in his hands, it isn’t known whether the Church will be able to beat him even if they sent out their God’s Punishment Army. If Lady Tilly can also get her hands on these weapons, maybe there will come a day when us witches will be able to return to our homeland.

***

As he looked down at the paralyzed sailboats standing at the river shore, Roland finally let out a breath of relief.

The moment the enemy had decided to land and launch a counter attack was the moment they were fated to lose the battle — merely relying on poles and paddles to turn around the bow would have been a very slow process, even more so under a constant artillery attack which might have been the reason the opposition hadn’t turned around and withdrawn. They might have thought that instead of suffering a beating without the slightest chance to hit back, it would be better to hurriedly reach the shore so that they could organize the team for a counter offensive.

However, it would be difficult to completely sink a wooden sailboat by relying on the field cannons’ iron balls which weighed a mere 12 pounds. Even if the hull had been covered in holes, it still wouldn’t be enough damage and the ship would still remain floating. So, while they might have suffered heavy losses as they turned around, they would’ve at least have been able to save one or two of their ships, but, by choosing to land, their whole fleet was doomed to be wiped out.

Compared to the last surprise attack at Longsong Stronghold and Border Town’s defense battle, the enemy wasn’t even able to start an attack at all this time — the pills were usually controlled and held onto by the commander until it was time to attack. Therefore, they were unable to respond quickly enough when the ambush began.