91 The Beasts Have Come to Harass! (1/2)

With the corrupt noble families entering a period of silence, the matters of the capital have calmed somwwhat. However, at the western frontier, the soldiers were facing a big problem with the beasts.

”Arghh... dammit! What do these beasts want from us!? If they want to fight, then let's fight! Why are they only taunting us from afar? What purpose are they trying to accomplish by harassing us like so?” A soldier on duty hollered out his pent-up frustration to the wind.

Over the last several days, the beast's movements had been very unpredictable and attacked the Great Wall at least once a day. There was no consistency and their attacks came at irregular intervals with the shortest being 6 hours apart.

The storm was not kind to them as the rain rendered their firearms useless. Firearms required the use of black powder in order to work, and black powder was made from saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal. Of the three ingredients, saltpeter was water-soluble, thus how the rain rendered them useless.

The only good news was the beasts had was weary of their firearms since the first confrontation. They did not know of their black powder problem and only taunted the soldiers from afar.

”Haih, I would like to know too, Jerry...but whatever the case is, I'm just glad this damn storm is subsiding.” Harry sighed as he lit a cigarette and took a big puff.

”Huh...oi, oi, where did you get that ciggy? Pass me one.”

Although there was a shift rotation for watch duty, no one would be able sleep with a peace of mind when the beasts are harassing them so often and setting of alarms. With how fierce and fast these new generation beasts could scale their walls; everyone developed a natural fear of losing the wall if they were too slow to rush into position once the alarm rang. The soldiers were all red-eyed and always on tenterhooks as a result.

”Tch, you're not a real brother, Harry.” Jerry grunted.

”You can have one of mine, Jerry.” Another soldier on watch duty offered.

”H-how did you also get your hands on ciggies…? No… never mind. Thank you, Tim.” Jerry thanked before turning back to Harry and said, ” You see this? This is a real brother.”

Although Jerry wondered how they could smuggle the cigarettes pass the checkpoint, he decided not to think into the matter too much. He wasn't much of a thinker and more of a doer, otherwise he would have chosen to join the military. He placed the ciggy in his mouth and glanced over into the distance as he prepared to light his ciggy when his expression froze, and the ciggy dropped out of his mouth.

”Quick, sound the alarms! The beasts are back to harass us!” Jerry hollered at his fellow brothers-in-arms. There hadn't been any direct confrontation with the beasts in the last several encounters, but just the sighting of them was enough to alarm anyone. If they let their guard down, who could they blame if their wall was overrun?

From the direction of the Wildlands, the shadow figures of many beasts came into view once more. Their numbers were appeared to be in the ten thousand, about fivefold the previous numbers, but what was concerning, wasn't their numbers.

Behind the shadow figures of ten thousand beasts, a fainter figure was seen and to say the least, was a 20-meter tall colossal figure, towering over the others. The sighting of a such a colossal beast alarmed even the general marquis.

Within 5 minutes, the wall was lined up with troops at the ready. The General Marquis wore a heavy expression. In the end, the beasts still chose to attack the Great Wall and not the southern wall. He had erred in his judgement.

Why in Gaia did he give away an airship? Hendrick Graham was feeling regretful, but unfortunately there was no medicine for regret. He shook his head and refocus on the threat in the distance.

The beasts did not charge towards the wall like a mad disorderly mob, instead they were marching orderly and rhythmically like a well-disciplined army would. Their shadowy figures gradually became clear as they drew closer.

Many gasps of surprise were made on the wall and even the general marquis himself widened his eyes in alarm. The vanguard had mimicked human means and were equipped with heavy armor to counter their firearms!

”Prepare the cannons! We can't let those armored beasts get closer!” Hendrick Graham roared out his command.

”General, none of the cannons may work! Please give us another order!” A high-ranking soldier immediately advised him.

”If it doesn't work then you better make it work! Otherwise you all better prepare yourselves to be part of the next bloody war!”

”Y-Yes, General!”

Indeed! If their firearms and cannons don't work, then they must pit themselves against these physically powerful beasts with their melee weapons and abilities! There was no other way! The soldiers quickly got to work, moving and angling the cannons. Damp wooden crates of cannonballs were unsealed to load the cannons and the cannons were soon ready to fire!

”Fire!”

Hendrick did not wait for the beasts to make the first move. Perhaps the results could be disastrous if they don't take the initiative. The soldiers quickly lit the fuse and fired the cannons at his command.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Not every cannon went off successfully, but the ones that did were deafening, with fumes trailing out of their large muzzles. In the distance, the vanguards of the beasts were hit and exploded. Broken pieces of searing flesh, metal and soil blasted in all directions with clouds of black smoke rising to the skies. Hendrick watch the scene with a frown. The result was far from satisfactory!

”Reload and fire at will!”

Boom! Boom!

The second round of bombardment initiated, but the results were far from the same!

The colossal figure in the back flashed forward and deflected all the cannonballs with its tail... or rather tails! Its actions were completed effortlessly like mere child's play and the cannonballs were flung back into various places.

”Watch out!”

BOOM!!! The cannonballs smashed into the vicinity of the soldiers and exploded. Chaos was ensured as the soldiers were brought into a state of confusion and panic.

”Ugh…Is everyone alright!?