Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

In this situation, much like two rats fighting in a sand burrow, there wasn't much to say—the fiercer one would win.

Two Herders immediately hurled their javelins. In the narrow corridor, there was almost no room to dodge. Propelled by the muscular strength of the Herders, the javelins pierced through human bodies as easily as a hot knife through butter.

Yet when one Tanilian fell, another immediately took his place, with spear points like a forest advancing towards the Venetians and Herders.

Seeing reinforcements arrive, Winters understood he had found the right spot. He shot a steel spike at the enemy commander, which missed the head and hit the chest, but made a crisp sound—the target was wearing armor.

The spears advanced, and there was simply no room to wield short weapons. The Venetians and Herders were forced to retreat.

If they retreated any further, there would be nowhere to go. Winters grabbed a barrel lid close by and squeezed to the very front. With clenched teeth, he used the barrel lid to deflect spear points upwards, charging forward towards the enemy amid the forest of spears.

In the violent melee of long spears, soldiers would sometimes crawl under the shafts to reach the dead angles of the long weapons and attack the enemy—this kind of battle was known as "rat warfare."

What Winters did was exactly that; although the long spears left several wounds on his body, he finally managed to barge below them.

Without hesitation, he thrust his curved blade fiercely into the enemy's soft belly. The long spear men, taken by surprise, hurriedly dropped their spears and drew daggers to defend themselves.

But once the spear formation broke, the other Venetian and Herder soldiers immediately charged in.

The scene was extremely chaotic and bloody, with people in the back pushing those in the front, the latter squeezed tightly like in a vice, with even no space to swing their weapons.

Pressed from above, Winters could not tell who or how many were in front of him; he just kept stabbing, twisting, stabbing, twisting in the direction of the enemy, with gritted teeth. Continue reading stories on empire

Finally, the Tanilian soldiers' morale collapsed, unable to bear the bloodiness of the fight any longer. The Tanilians in front wailed, begging to flee, and those behind them turned deserters outright.

The commander of the bastion, furious, tugged at the soldiers attempting to escape, personally killing two of them. However, everyone wanted to flee, and he could no longer control nor stop the rout.

As the bastion commander was about to kill a third deserter, Winters knocked him over with a body check. Straddling the bastion commander, Winters stabbed at his chest with the curved blade, but the screeching sound followed by the blade sliding off reminded Winters—the man was wearing armor.

Blocking the commander's arm as he tried to counter-attack, Winters slammed the butt end of the curved blade hard against the bastion commander's face, "Just because you're wearing armor, you think I can't deal with you?!"

The bastion commander's head was impaled on a spear, but inside the bastion, the Tanilians still heavily outnumbered the others.

"Sir! There are only two barrels of gunpowder in the armory," reported a Venetian soldier frantically to Winters.

"Take it out and start a fire," ordered Winters, not having time to wipe the blood from his face, "Spread out the fires. Don't let the Tanilians regroup!"

Following Winters' orders, everyone began to clear the bastion's first floor while starting fires.

The main structure of the bastion was rammed earth, but there was also a considerable part made of wood. With the assistance of gunpowder and pitch, the wooden structures quickly ignited, and the inside of the bastion was suddenly filled with smoke.

Gold, following Bard's instruction, held up the head of the bastion commander on a spear and shouted at the top of his lungs in Tanilian dialect, "Defeated! Defeated! There's a fire! Captain Kidd is dead! The captain is dead! Run for it..."

After clearing all the enemies on the bottom floor of the bastion, Winters shouted, "Andre! Lead us to the gun decks!" The roar of the heavy guns from the top of the bastion increased Winters' impatience.

This was a two-tier bastion, and to ensure a clear field of fire, the heavy guns were on the third tier, at the very top of the rammed earth building.

But there was no answer.

"Stop shouting. It's just the two of us; who knows where the others have scattered off to," Bard said with a bitter smile.

Winters suddenly realized a problem; he shouldn't have set the fire. The swirling smoke and fierce flames not only destroyed the Tanilians' cohesion but also his men's.

Winters' orders couldn't be conveyed to his soldiers scattered throughout the bottom floor, and he was forced to use amplification magic to bellow, "Everyone! Attack upwards! To the gun decks!"

"Let's not lose each other," Winters said, not bothering about the effectiveness of his command, as he and Bard groped their way towards the upper floor.

On the second floor, the smoke was thicker, choking them as they struggled to breathe.

Amidst the chaos, they finally reached the top of the bastion.

Because it was the uncovered top of the rammed earth building, the smoke was not as thick. The thirty-two-pound heavy guns were positioned here, and at the side of a thick and imposing bronze cannon, several gunners were busy reloading.

Winters and Bard, wielding their curved blades, charged up, and the gunners scattered like birds and beasts.

Standing beside the cannon, Winters looked at the gun's touch hole, which to his surprise, was spiked shut!

"Andre didn't lie, this cannon was spiked shut," Bard said, puzzled, "But how exactly is this cannon fired then?"

At that moment, the sound of the heavy cannon firing came from the other side of the wall.

The two exchanged glances, Winters gripping his curved blade tighter, "Let's go!"

Sticking close to the wall beside the watchtower, Winters and Bard reached the corner and carefully peered around it.