Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

The next moment, a Tanilian soldier's powder keg suddenly exploded. The force of the explosion did not only blow a large hole in the waist of the soldier carrying the keg, but also injured the soldiers around him, and even Winters was pushed against the gate by the blast wave.

This was Winters's first original Spell, an improvement on "Axel's Hair Burning Spell." During the fight on the landing day, Winters realized that if the fire spell could ignite the enemy's hair, it could also detonate the gunpowder on their bodies. After several attempts, he found that the spell was unexpectedly effective.

An entire keg of gunpowder detonated in the narrow gate, like a bomb was thrown in. The interior filled with gun smoke, and blood, flesh, and intestinal content splattered on the walls and ground, with those not yet dead screaming in horror.

The explosive blast hit Winters in the chest like a sledgehammer, making his chest feel stuffy. But he struggled to stand up, spat out a chunk of flesh that had flown into his mouth, picked up a spear from beside him, and stepped back into the smoke.

It wasn't until that moment that the other Venetians and Herders caught up with Winters. The Vineta soldiers and Hurd slaves who broke into the blockhouse gate trembled at the sight of the gruesome scene, with nobody daring to step into this corridor of blood and flesh.

"Fuck! What are you staring at? Kill!" Bard came to his senses, cursing extraordinarily, and ran into the blockhouse with a curved knife.

With an officer leading, the others also mustered their courage and charged into the interior of the blockhouse, shouting.

The blockhouse only had a dozen or so defenders, and Winters had killed half of them at the entrance; the remaining defenders lost the will to fight and hid shivering in concealed, dark corners, but they were all eventually found by Winters's men.

The Tanilian soldiers who were still alive were dragged out from cabinets, baskets, and storerooms and pushed into the open space in the center of the blockhouse. Some cried and begged, while others closed their eyes and began to pray.

Both Vineta soldiers and Herders surrounded the prisoners.

"We have no one to guard them, kill them all," Winters ordered the execution of the prisoners impassively, as he found a clean towel to wipe the blood off his face.

The Herders could not understand what Winters was saying, and the Vineta soldiers were at a loss.

Seeing this, Winters said nothing else, snatched a spear and stepped next to the prisoners, grinding his teeth and saying, "This is for my soldiers nailed to stakes... I haven't forgotten a single one."

After he spoke, he swiftly and cleanly stabbed a prisoner to death.

The other prisoners scrambled to flee, only to be pushed back by the Venetians and Herders nearby.

Bard, also expressionless, grabbed a prisoner's hair and drove the curved knife into his collarbone, executing a prisoner.

Once the two officers took the lead, the other soldiers clenched their teeth and acted against the remaining prisoners, and none of the Tanilian people inside the blockhouse were left alive.

"Two of our men are injured but not dead. No Herders died... except for those two," Bard and Winters reported the casualty situation: "One of them fought to the death to open the door, and the other destroyed the warning bell... Had it not been for them, we'd likely be getting shot at on the coast right now."

Winters turned his back to Bard, said nothing, and started loading a matchlock gun found in the blockhouse.

"Time is running short, you'd better get to the beach with the signal flares. Leave the rest to me," Winters said without turning his head, "If we both go down, who will deliver the message to the legate? Go now."

Bard sighed, but didn't leave.

Winters sighed too, put down the firelock, turned around, and said helplessly, "I know killing prisoners isn't good, but if given another chance, I'd do the same."

"I'm not opposed to executing the prisoners, after all, we truly have no spare people to guard them," Bard sincerely said, "I just hope you won't obsess over revenge, and you shouldn't blame yourself for the decimation of the century team."

Winters remained silent.

Bard stood at attention and gave a military salute, Winters also stood up and returned the salute solemnly, then Bard turned and left.

Bard led two Vineta soldiers away from the blockhouse and headed towards the southern beach.

Winters used up the remaining material for the Iron Melting Technique in one go, and the chain across the entrance of the bay was cut on the East Bank and sank to the seabed.

Winters saw the brave Hurd who fought to the death to open the gate. He finally understood why the Tanilian couldn't close the door, as the Herders had jammed the door hinge with his body.

His tribesmen retrieved his body and laid it flat on the ground. There were three knife wounds in his abdomen, and half of his body was almost crushed.

Winters saluted the body of the fallen Herder, and the soldiers of Vineta did the same.

"Do not grieve for him, for he's already waiting for us by the Styx," said Hestas calmly. "He departed as a free man to the Styx, and we will join him as free men."

The old Shaman squatted beside the body, placing a silver coin into the palm of the deceased, and began to sing the Herder's song to calm the soul.

Amidst the Herder's quiet chorus, Winters led the remaining soldiers and Herders away from the bunker, advancing toward the artillery fort in the middle of the bay.

An ambush a few days earlier, though it had failed to completely destroy the Vineta's avenging fleet, had brought an unexpected bounty.

One seafaring strategy involved blocking enemy harbors by scuttling ships, trapping the enemy's fleet inside.
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Such a blockade prevents ships inside the harbor from getting out, but also stops outside ships from getting in.

Three sunken Vineta warships lay across the channel into the bay, creating a swath of artificial reefs. Even without the chain blockades, ships passing through these reefs could smash their hulls, and even capsize or sink.

For this very reason, the council of Red Sulfur Island believed Red Sulfur Bay to be as impregnable as a fortress. Even without the two chain blockades, the sunken ships and the pair of artillery forts were deemed sufficient to repel the Venetians.

If the Venetians stubbornly forced their way in and more of their warships were sunk, they would only serve to completely block the bay.

However, tonight was unlike any other.

A near full moon hung in the sky, hindering Winters' surprise attack. But it would compensate the Venetians in its own way.

Tonight was the seventeenth of the lunar month, the time of the spring tides!

Since nightfall, the tides within Red Sulfur Bay began to surge and rise. According to Bard's calculations, the tide would reach its monthly peak between one and two o'clock.

By then, even the sunken ship reefs could not obstruct the Vineta fleet's warships. Once the two iron chains were destroyed, the Vineta Fleet would drive straight through, heading for Red Sulfur Harbor.

Kalman claimed he could smuggle Winters off Red Sulfur Island, using a secret smuggling route known to traffickers, taking two people at a time.

But Kalman told Winters only to undermine the unity of the Venetians from within. He didn't expect Winters to use this smuggling route to establish contact with the Vineta Fleet.

Once the fleet at sea, poised and ready, received Bard's signal, they would immediately rush into Red Sulfur Bay.

Winters could now find a safe place to hide, waiting for the Vineta Army to conquer Red Sulfur Harbor and return. His mission was already complete; in the original plan, he just needed to destroy the two chains.

But he understood there was still one thing he could do—destroy the cannons in the East Bank's artillery fort.

The defenses of Red Sulfur Bay consisted of two artillery forts; the West Bank fort guarded the entrance to the bay, while the East Bank fort covered the middle section.

The West Bank fort was beyond his reach, but if he could destroy the East Bank fort, many Venetians would be spared.

Winters himself didn't know what was driving him. It wasn't for military honors or a sense of glory; this war had no honor for him.

After much thought, the only reason he could convince himself was, "If those cannons can be destroyed, many Venetians will be spared."

Perhaps he just couldn't bear to see any more Venetian corpses.

"Our target is the artillery fort on the East Bank," announced Winters Montaigne, Warrant Centurion and acting Commander of the First Century, rallying the last of his soldiers: "We are outnumbered, and our only hope for victory is a fierce and swift assault. Before the enemy can react, we'll storm in, destroy the cannons, and immediately withdraw."

"You have already done so much for Vineta, but we must fight for Vineta one more time." He looked over the soldiers who had followed him in sneaking around Red Sulfur Island. Under the bright moonlight, everyone's eyes shone brightly. Without further ado, he drew his saber: "Follow me!"

Ahead lay the artillery fort of Red Sulfur Island.