Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

In Dain's view, his job as a night watch might be boring, but it was safe. Even if the enemy were to attempt a forced landing, they would only attack from the northern coast. Only if the Venetians had lost their minds would they attack the impregnable Red Sulfur Bay.

At this moment, Dain was just hoping that the next shift would come quickly to relieve him, as he was unbearably sleepy.

As he was about to doze off to the sound of the waves, a faint sound of footsteps came from behind him, and the groggy Dain asked loudly, "Who's there?"

"Relief for the watch."

"Hey, what time is it now? Why are you so late?"

The newcomer did not answer, only approaching closer.

When they were only six or seven steps away, Dain finally saw the other's face smudged with black, and he exclaimed in surprise, "You..."

Before he could finish speaking, the person raised their hand, and a flash of cold light passed, a steel spike pierced Dain's eye and protruded from the back of his skull.

The one who had thrown the steel spike was none other than Winters.

Having hit his mark with one throw, Winters did not stop there but used the Arrow Flying Spell to continue to shoot the other two steel spikes he held towards the sentry.

Now he was not concerned with conserving magical power, so he shot all three spikes in one go to ensure the kill.

After three sounds of bones being shattered, the veteran of the Tanilia Federation didn't even manage to cry out, only let out a stifled "uh" before slumping down softly.

Winters rushed over and caught the body.

After disposing of the sentry, he picked up two stones and tapped them against each other in a pattern of three short and one long, twice.

Upon hearing the signal, the other Venetians emerged from the shadows of the distant thicket and scurried low to the ground towards Winters.

Language barriers with the Herders made it impossible for them to execute any complex tactical commands.

So Winters simply split the team into two groups: he and Bard, along with the Venetians, would stealthily eliminate the enemy sentries along the coast, while Andre and Hestas, together with the rest of the Herders, would deal with the patrol team.

If the surprise attack turned into a frontal assault, then the Herders would be responsible for blocking reinforcements coming from the bastions.

"Did you bring my gear? My gear, give me my gear." The tension and excitement almost made Winters speak incoherently.

When the sentry had questioned him, Winters had almost thought the surprise attack had failed. The moonlight was too bright tonight, offering no place to hide, yet his plan had to be executed on the night of a full moon.

He had never expected that the few phrases of Tanilian he had hastily learned would actually be useful.

"Your gear is right here with me, right here, don't worry," Bard said with a smile, swiftly removing the standard spellcaster's kit he was carrying.

Bard himself had not expected that taking out the sentry would go so smoothly. No one could have imagined that a Tanilian covert scout would actually change shifts, revealing the location of the coast's watch positions with one change of guard.

Winters immediately took the kit, opened one layer of padding after another, and carefully extracted silver, black, and white powders, each contained in a glass vial.

These were the key elements for tonight's operation and the reason the plan was feasible.

Winters knew what the black powder was—the alchemists called it copper essence, obtained by grinding and refining pure copper.

The silver and white powders were also products of alchemy; the alchemists named the white powder as a combustion aid, while the silver metal was expensive and rare, known to alchemists as activated metal, also known as—aluminum.

The Tanilians had set up sentries along the coast to prevent the Venetians from landing by boat at night, but this sentry position was right next to the iron chains, which was why Winters had to take out this sentry.

Tonight, Winters would destroy these two artificial obstacles, the sea-blocking iron chains.

Winters first mixed the aluminum powder with the copper essence powder and then started stirring.

Both the fresh recruits and veterans of Veneta watched with awe as Montaigne Warrant Officer mixed the spellcasting materials; they all knew that this officer was a legendary mage, and in their eyes, magic was no different from witchcraft.

The iron chains that blockaded Red Sulfur Bay were made up of iron rings as thick as an arm, some of which lay on the shore. Winters intended to destroy the iron rings on the shore.

First, he took out a small iron plate prepared earlier, roughly forming an iron box with the plate and isolated a short middle section of the shoreline iron ring.

Then he poured nearly two kilograms of spellcasting materials into the iron box, burying the isolated section of the iron ring with spellcasting materials. Lastly, Winters added the combustion aid.

"The canvas!" Winters ordered in a low voice.

The soldiers beside him immediately propped up the canvas they had prepared in advance, shielding Winters thoroughly.

"Listen well, no matter what happens, never retreat," Winters repeated the order he had issued before the action because he knew the terrifying prowess of the spell, "Don't be afraid, there's nothing to fear."

Then he took a deep breath, held his breath, and entered the spellcasting state.

The spell he was about to use was one of the most powerful in the fire-based magic arsenal, the Iron Melting Technique.

Fire-based spells rely heavily on spellcasting materials; the caster's own power is like a source of fire, with the spell materials acting as fuel. The more spell materials there are, the greater the power of the spell.

Originally, the Iron Melting Technique was just one of the basic spells for the composite spell "Melting Flow Technique," and no spellcasters thought this technique had any other use. But Winters realized that with enough spellcasting materials, the Iron Melting Technique could burn through anything.

[Melting Flow Technique: A composite spell consisting of the Iron Melting Technique and the Arrow Flying Spell, with the effect of shooting out a stream of molten metal.]

Winters had never had the luxury of using two kilograms of spellcasting materials in one go to cast the Iron Melting Technique. He had no idea what kind of quantitative effect so much material would produce.

But there was no turning back now. Gritting his teeth, he poured all of his magic into the accelerant.

The spell required extremely high explosive force, outputting a sufficient amount of energy in an instant to activate the Iron Melting Technique.

It was only a second, yet Winters felt as if he had been drained of his essence.

A hissing sound began in the iron box, and Winters knew he had succeeded. He quickly took a few steps back, retreating behind the canvas.
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At first, there was just a hissing noise, followed by a glimmer of fire.

In the blink of an eye, a light burst forth from the iron box, a searing brilliance too intense for human eyes. Never had the sun itself emitted such scorching light.

Sparks flew in all directions as if Thor's hammer had struck the anvil.

The burning was so intense that it made a "whoosh" sound.

Even behind the canvas, every Venetian could feel the scorching heat. The high-temperature sparks pierced the canvas, creating numerous holes.

Winters felt fortunate to have prepared the canvas to block the light; the mere intensity of the Iron Melting Technique would have sufficed to draw the attention of the enemy within the battery.

However, even the thickest canvas could not hide the dazzling light, which shone through the canvas. Winters could only hope that no one in the battery noticed the commotion on the coast.

Fortunately, although the Iron Melting Technique was fierce, it lasted only a brief moment.

After a mere dozen seconds, the light rapidly diminished, dwindled, and died out.

As soon as the light disappeared, Winters ignored the scorching air, swiftly picked up the crowbar, pushed aside the canvas, and took a few steps toward the iron box.

Now there was no iron box to speak of. The entire iron box, the middle section of the iron hoop, and the spellcasting materials had all turned into a magma-like viscous liquid.

At this moment, the iron hoop, having been softened by heat, had lost its original properties and could no longer withstand the heavy force exerted by the weight of the iron chains. It was visibly being stretched bit by bit.

"Don't just stand there holding the canvas!" Seeing that the crowbar was now of no use, Winters turned his head, lowered his voice, and urged sternly, "Saws!"

Bard, who had prepared the saw in advance, also stepped inside the canvas tent. No extra words were needed; the two understood each other perfectly well.

Winters and Bard each took hold of one side of the large crosscut saw, typically used for sawing wood, and placed it atop the iron hoop.

Once, twice, three times.

After a few back-and-forths, the softened mid-section of the iron hoop was completely sawn through by the two of them.

That is the most interesting aspect of chain structure; breaking just one link can destroy the whole chain.

The previously balanced force structure of the sea-blocking iron chain was disrupted, and the chain began to plummet toward the seabed. As the chain itself was massive, the weight of it pulling downward made the chains on the East Bank of Red Sulfur Bay slide into the sea like an escaping serpent.

Winters and Bard exchanged excited glances, elation unmistakable on their faces. The Venetian soldiers looked at their Centurion with awe.

They had succeeded! One of the sea-blocking iron chains had been destroyed!

"Don't just stand there gawking," Winters looked around at his subordinates, "Follow me, there's another chain up ahead!"