Chapter 587: A Nameless Victim
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
"Magic reaction?" Earl Delta turned around and asked, "What's that?"
"Tell your knights to step aside now!" Brian had no time to think about etiquette and shouted at him.
He had barely finished speaking when a group of believers, in indigo robes, popped out from around the corner and rushed into the guiding knights. The force was so great that the horses were immediately knocked over and several knights found themselves pinned under their heavy mounts before they even realized what had happened. The other knights immediately drew their swords and began to fight with the believers.
The people on the street panicked and ran, causing many to fall and get trampled by the fleeing crowd. The sounds of people crying for help could be heard everywhere and the site was a complete mess.
"Tr... Treason!" The Earl was shocked, at first, and then he became furious. "Damn it! Kill all the rebels!"
But, a piece of flying slate shut him up.
It had been part of the pavement and more pieces of slate rose up in the air and swiftly headed toward a knight. It happened so fast that all anyone could see was a fleeting green shadow. The first person who was hit quickly started to bleed profusely from his joints and eyes. His armor immediately crumbled and it would have been impossible for him to survive.
After that, more pieces of slate flew around, even taking out some of the believers. The vertical pieces of slate were shattering peoples bones, while the horizontal slates were cutting them in half.
Before Earl Delta could even feel shocked, Brian quickly pulled him aside.
"Fire!" Iron Axe ordered.
Gunshots continuously rang out across the street.
The people who were still standing erect got mowed down like a wheat crop and once the gunpowder plume dissipated there was a littering of wounded knights and believers across the battlefield. For a short time, the field had been pure chaos, now there were bodies scattered everywhere, some of them were still gasping feebly while others moaned in pain, continuing to writhe on the ground.
"Where are the enemies?" Brian stared at the street corner without so much as blinking, as if he were facing a formidable enemy.
"Enemies... They all fell, didn't they?" the Earl asked bewildered, apparently in shock. He obviously had not expected that His Majesty's troops would be so strong. A dozen silver armored knights and unstoppable believers became disabled in almost the blink of an eye.
"It's coming!" Sylvie said in a hoarse voice.
As if responding to her warning, a woman appeared from around the corner, she was rolling up the street slates like giant carpet wheels and making them float in the air one by one.
Heavy gunshots rang out again. Most of the slate was torn apart immediately while one piece of slate spun and swept along the crowd like a thick, unmanned sword.
Oh, no! Brian's heart sank. From the way it appears, a flintlock isn't going to break down the rotating slate quickly enough. He didn't want to imagine what was going to happen when the soldiers were hit. They were not wearing armor like the knights and the casualties were going to be significantly higher. And, yet, they had no choice but to continue fighting.
Just after Brian had this realization, a purple light suddenly appeared in front of the troops.
It was a cage made of magic power and it enveloped the incoming slate, shrinking rapidly, stopping the rotating rock abruptly.
"Is this an enemy... or a witch?" Earl Delta stood in a daze.
It wasn't until all of the floating slate had finally fallen did the First Army cease-fire.
The cloud of heavy smoke from the gunpowder blurred their eyesight. The smell of sulfur pervaded the air, but no one dared to rub their eyes or even cough. Except for the sound of guns loading, the field was completely silent, for the moment.
"Was it Miss Sylvie?" Iron Axe asked.
"The Magic Power... It disappeared," she said slowly.
This meant that either the enemies had fled the battlefield or they had perished during the fight.
After the smoke dissipated, Brian could see what had happened.
A woman was laying on the pavement in a pool of blood, her thick, curly, dark green hair mixing with the sanguine fluid.
Brian loosened his grip on the terrified Earl's shoulder and walked towards the woman, her red and white priestess' cloth revealing her identity.
There were two palm-sized wounds penetrating the stomach and abdomen of the Pure Witch, from which dark streams of blood drained. Apparently, the bullet still had force after penetrating the slate and had torn straight through her body. The multiple slices on her arms and legs must have been caused by the ricocheting stones.
Even though her enemies had the God's Stone of Retaliation, she was still able to roll up the slates and use them as shields. This way she could attack the enemies with the remaining slates and keep her enemies at a distance. However, she had not expected the flintlocks to be that powerful.
Looking back now, she might have been shot during the first round of gunshots but she was still able to manipulate the slate. Her willpower had been remarkable.
"Is she really a witch from the church?" Delta moved closer, cautiously.
"Wasn't His Majesty clear in the pamphlet that was distributed in King's City?" Brian replied with annoyance. "The church not only poisoned the common people with the Berserk Pills, but they also train witches to serve them in secret. Only the innocent girls that were framed by the church stand on our side. Have you not heard any of this before?"
"Actually, I had heard this before, but it seemed unbelievable..."
This is just a small portion of the despicable acts committed by the church, and the nobles weren't much better Brian thought to himself, but he didn't say a word.
Edith was also shocked by this brief conflict.
This was her first time seeing the combat abilities of the flintlock troops. The whole process looked like a storm and all the soldiers needed to do was stand still. In this regard, His Majesty's troops were physically at an advantage. One could imagine that the larger the scale of warfare the more obvious the guns advantage would be.
There was no doubt that the traditional combat forms, where soldiers fought with thick armors and sharp weapons, had now shifted to a newer model.
Moreover, with those machines roaring day and night, they could keep producing these weapons in the western region. This made it easy to imagine how great a war potential His Majesty had in his domain.
It wasn't until Iron Axe had ordered the troops to keep moving, that Edith was able to recover herself.
However, her belief was firmer that her choice was the right one.
The First Army took a turn at the street corner and soon came to the church's front door. There were several bodies lying on the ground and judging from their clothing, most of them belonged to the patrol team.
They soon realized what had transpired. Just as the patrol ordered the blockade of the church, more than two hundred enchanted people were suddenly killed and the lords were swept away. Some of the believers stayed to wrestle with the patrol team, while others created chaos in the outer city, where some people were attempting to break through the gate. Fortunately, the First Army was less than 300 feet from the church and they were able to confront the Pure Witch. If they had been even 15 minutes later, the Pure Witch would have likely escaped during the chaos.
Brian immediately lead a team into the church, where they eliminated the remaining resisters.
Next was ransacking the place to find any documents, letters, or usable goods. According to his Majesty, taking anything of value was a requirement.
Then, under Sylvie's guidance, the soldiers used small packets of explosives to blow up the iron gate blocking the basement. The people that were present all strained their eyes to see what laid behind the slowly falling gate.
In nice orderly rows, there were over ten boxes of the God's Stone of Retaliation, and surrounding it were tidy stacks of gold.