Chapter 49 Mixed Species
Roland rubbed his eyes in disbelief, what the h.e.l.l was this? Was this still within the scope of the biological variability of a demonic beast? What he saw was hard to describe with words, even monsters in horror films were not this absurd.
From afar, it looked like a giant turtle with two heads, but from close up, it was actually two wolf heads.
Roland thought, was this a test specimen from Dr. Frankenstein? It was almost as tall as the city walls, its body was 7 yards long, and it had a total of six legs which were stumpy and shaped like a rhinoceros’ legs. However, one foot was the size of at least one adult torso. The head … unlike the two-headed monsters in various monster films, they weren’t yelling at each other, biting each other, or trying to show who was the boss. Instead, they were just hanging down, and their eyes had a wooden glaze . It was like a zombie which was brainlessly moving forward.
However, the demonic beast’s most striking feature was the sh.e.l.l on its back. The sh.e.l.l’s surface was dark-brown and covered with algae, and it had a special hardness. It was just like a turtle sh.e.l.l, covering the turtle from the front to the back. If this monster could also shrink back into its sh.e.l.l like a turtle, it would be really hard to get rid of it.
However, Roland didn’t worry, a demonic beast this big had to be slow, so it was destined to be a target. Even if the firearms couldn’t penetrate its sh.e.l.l, it was still possible to shoot the heads that were sticking out. If it intended to hide in its sh.e.l.l, then they would have to turn it upside down with explosives.
“Your Highness, this is a hybrid species,” Iron Axe nervously leaned over and explained, “Now I can understand why the demonic beasts of different species work together. They seem to be under the control of the hybrid demonic beast.”
So it was like a lion which commanded sheep? Roland nodded. “So this is a completely different beast than the one you met last time?”
“It is also my first time seeing this kind of hybrid species. Although it looks bizzare, you can’t get careless. As long as it’s a mixed species, it will always be hard to deal with it.”
“It will soon enter the range of our archers, so try to first kill it with bows and crossbows.” ordered Roland.
At this moment, since it was still lightly snowing and a strong wind was blowing from the North, the weather wasn’t suitable for archery. However, two hunters of Iron Axe’s personal squad were still confident that they could kill the beast.
They climbed up the watchtower, tested the wind and then fired their arrows into the air.
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 sh.e.l.l. 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 sh.e.l.l 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 sh.e.l.l and splitting away some debris, even opening a small hole within the sh.e.l.l. 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 b.a.l.l.s 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 sh.e.l.l 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 m.u.f.fled 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 sh.e.l.l – 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.