The Twilight of Winter (Part II)
The Twilight of Winter (Part II)
God only knew why she was so interested in challenging demonic beasts. Obviously, she was not cut out for battle, but yet she was hardly frightened of the demonic beasts that scared most people. "Do it the same way you dealt with the first one. Leave your bravado behind. Your job is to draw the beast's attention and lure it here. Watch the height you fly at in case the beasts pounces up to strike you."
"I know. I know," Lightning said, brimming with confidence, "I've learned all the details from the fight against the first beast. Give me some credit. I won't let this one touch me at all."
While they were talking, the demonic hybrid beast was approaching the wall. It crossed the obstacle belt and sprung over the city wall towards the unguarded area. This time, the Militia members did not respond but stayed where they were deployed, waiting for the instruction from the hunter observers.
"Now the fight begins against the demonic hybrid beast!" Roland said in a deep voice.
Lightning, who was already on her way, stopped and looked back at Roland.
"What's the matter?" Roland asked.
"What you just said was..." Lightning thought for a while and shook her head, "A little strange... Anyway, forget it. I'm leaving."
Watching her fly away, Roland laughed awkwardly and asked Anna and Nightingale behind him, "Did it sound strange to you both?"
"Yeah." Both of them nodded.
[Well then... It seems that the bumptious line will keep its feature wherever they are,] thought Roland. "Off you go, and keep safe," Roland said.
"Same to you, Your Highness." Nightingale bowed and took Anna's hand before walking into the Mist.
The wind blowing against him, Roland stood with his hands behind his back, endeavoring to cast an impression of a big boss. Knowing that a lot of men watched him secretly during the break of the war, he kept standing firmly on top of the wall, letting everyone see the sign at any time that their prince would always stand with them. Since he could not fight in the war personally, this was the best he could do to inspire his men.
The attack of the demonic beasts this year was the strongest on record. According to Iron Axe, in previous years, there had been only one or two demonic hybrid beasts during the Months of Demons. This year seemed very unusual as the number of the intruding demonic hybrid beasts was up to four, and the war lasted longer. The demonic beasts constantly emerged from the Misty Forest and marched unceasingly towards the town in a pack of ten or so.
Fortunately, last month they had prepared enough flintlocks to arm the Flintlock Squad of 100 men, otherwise they would not be able to guarantee such an efficient killing speed. If they used crossbow bolts, it would be very hard to keep up the loading speed by now. In a protracted battle, the advantage of the flintlock that cost less labor was standing out. Of course, the high consumption of gunpowder did bother Roland, hence he was planning to unpack all the gunpowder reserves in the warehouse, more than 20 packs of them, to supply the Flintlock Squad.
On the other side, Lightning had approached the place above the demonic hybrid beast. She took a stone out of her pocket and cast it to the beast. The stone hit right on its head. The unexpected attack made the beast step back immediately before it saw that the attack was from the sky.
Lightning lowered her flying height to challenge the beast and flew by it, keeping close to the ground as she began heading to the center of the town. Though the beast could think, it seemed to the beast that the little flying girl was weak and non-threatening. So it pounced on her immediately, its wings spreading open to strike the air, and with only a few bounces, it glided forward almost 100 meters. Lightning flew higher at once and turned around in the sky, passing by some houses and turning in to another street.
Through the perplexing paths, she lured the enemy to the square in the center of the town where she would launch an attack on the beast with Nightingale and Anna as they had planned. Since the beast was sensitive enough to discover Nightingale even when she was hiding in the Mist, it was critical for Lightning to catch the beast's attention before Nightingale and Anna launched their attack.
The trick worked perfectly. Now the beast was clearly furious and mad, and its nature got the better of it. With mouth wide open, it kept leaping up to catch Lightning who, without any burdens, was far agiler. She went up and down to fool the beast and made it miss the target every time it attacked.
From the other direction, Nightingale had arrived the square, and unlike Lightning, she walked straight here in the Mist where no obstacles like houses and barriers would stand in her way. Anna's fire could reach as far as five meters, and in order to lower the chance of the beast cottoning on, they had to be as close as possible.
Having learned a lot from the mistake of dealing with the first demonic hybrid beast, now Nightingale was familiar with how Anna attacked. When they were 30 steps away from the beast, she sped up to the limit. Within a split second, the distance seemed to be cut down to one step and then they strode over it. It happened so fast that when Anna came to her mind, she found that their face was right by the beast's tail.
"Now!" Nightingale shouted.
As the white and black world faded away in the blink of an eye, Anna came back to the familiar square. A green fire burst out on her fingertip and enlarged into a fire cage that trapped the entire beast.
Nightingale retreated quickly to dodge the heat wave that made her painful.
Before the demonic beast could react, the fire that had reached a temperature high enough to melt steel, became a fireball, and finally, the beast crushed.
"Looks like they've made it," Wendy who worked as a guard in Nightingale's absence curled her lip and said when she saw the green flame far away. "It seems that I didn't have to do much work..."
"I'd hope that none of you step foot onto the battlefield if possible," said Roland in a faux-sprightly voice, keeping his posture with his hands behind his back. But he knew in his heart that without the help of the witches, the Militia would definitely reel from the demonic hybrid beasts, which were able to fly over the city wall.
Even Nana, protected by Baron Tigui, had come to the city wall and was busy healing the wounded soldiers. Roland was very gratified that the first time demonstrating the power of witches in front of the Militia had turned out so well. Nana, who was nicknamed 'Healing Angel', apparently boosted the reputation of the witches to a new level. Moreover, the victory Anna and Nightingale had achieved in the battle against the demonic hybrid beast also earned them cheers among the crowds.
He certainly understood that it was impossible for everyone to accept the witches, but as far as he was concerned, the current situation was already an improvement. After the initial interaction between the Militia and the witches, his following plan would be carried out more smoothly.
All of a sudden, the sound of gunfire became sporadic, and Roland noticed that the beasts were abandoning the city wall. [The enemies are in retreat?] Roland could not believe his eyes. At that moment, a shaft of sunlight burst through the thick clouds, shining on the battlefield, and then the second shaft, the third... soon the gray sky was riddled with thousands of shafts of light which bled one another to become a single most dazzling one. Suddenly, the land was brightened up.
"When the sun finally rose up again, it signaled the end of the Months of Demons"
After a short moment of silence on the city wall, the wave of cheers swept across the border defense line. One after another, the townspeople came out of their houses, and following the wave of cheers, they sang and shouted. Cheers for the long-awaited sunshine, cheers for surviving the winter, and cheers for their prince. All the cheers came together, echoing throughout the small Border Town.