Chương 69: Kill Another One

Leon's body went weak, and he almost fell to the ground. His partner, the powerful mage who admired him so much, had vanished completely before his eyes. On the ground, only a pool of minced meat and tattered mage robes remained; the only intact item was that large purple mage hat.

"Leon! Leon! What do we do? Continue the attack or retreat for now?! Leon!!" Maxi tried to wake Leon up and get him to issue an order, but Leon was, after all, only a sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth. Having had smooth sailing thanks to the protection of the Goddess of Life, when had he ever encountered such a situation? Now that his partner and ambiguous love interest Julie had turned into "Julie-paste," Leon's brain simply stalled.

He was dazed, but the musketeer Goblins, tempered by cruel military training, were not. Before Julie turned into paste, she had thrown out four Fireballs; two landed in front of the musketeer Goblin line, exploding in the ground, and two landed inside the line, killing or wounding about 20 people. Several musketeer Goblins with broken legs or feet screamed incessantly, but the other musketeer Goblins didn't feel a hint of fear; no one even spared a glance at the dead.

It could only be said that they had been refined by Li Qinwu. Losing this many people was just a drop in the bucket, barely a fraction of a "decimation"—who were they trying to scare? With extreme speed, they blew a breath into the ignition chambers to clear away residue, picked up the leather powder flasks hanging from their chests, primed the ignition chambers with powder, and closed the chamber covers.

They pulled out paper-cartridge fixed ammunition, bit open the powder packets with their teeth, stuffed the entire paper shell into the barrels, and packed them tight with ramrods. They took the match-cords, blew on them, and pressed down the match-holding hammers to put them into a ready-to-fire state, raising their guns and waiting for the shooting command. The entire process took about 25 seconds.

Li Qinwu felt this speed was too slow; if they evolved to flintlocks, they could save the time spent adjusting the match-cords, saving a second or two. If they used breech-loading, they could probably save another second or two. If they could master the firing pin, the percussion cap...

"Boss, ready!" Gobu-Spear raised his pistol. He had also been loading his pistol just now; generally speaking, once he finished loading, the soldiers would also have finished loading, serving as a reference standard. Li Qinwu looked at the Hero Party in the distance. Initially, because he feared the mage's Fireballs, he had divided the infantry into lines.

Now that the mage was dead, he wasn't afraid of excessive casualties from a single hit and could adopt the more concentrated and continuous fire of a three-rank volley formation. Li Qinwu ordered: "Change formation, three-rank fire! Once ready, fire continuously. Suppress them for me! Open the castle gates and release the Suicide Squad!!" Gobu-Spear put the whistle in his mouth and blew it according to a special rhythm.

The Company Commanders and Deputy Commanders in the army below heard the whistle and ordered the troops to change formation into three ranks. Once the formation was complete, the first rank of musketeer Goblins raised their guns and fired, then took the muskets handed up from behind and continued firing, projecting firepower continuously. The Hero in the distance was still in a daze.

It could only be said that the Hero, famous across the four human countries, was still just a young man; his mind was not mature enough, and he relied entirely on the Goddess's protection to conquer the world. Although everything had been smooth sailing, he was prone to underperforming when encountering extreme situations. Like now, the musketeer Goblins had completed a round of reloading and formation change, yet he was still standing there dazed. Fortunately, the big-shield tough guy Maxi was reliable enough.

He ran in front of the Hero and erected his large shield to resist the coming blow for him. The Elf Undine also ducked behind the two of them to take cover. Just as they completed their defense, a large number of bullets sprayed out. Maxi tensed his muscles to hold the shield; dozens of bullets slammed into the shield and shattered, sparks flying everywhere, making a series of tooth-gritting metallic twisting sounds. A large number of craters appeared on the big shield.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Maxi felt as if he had been hit by a magical beast; the impact of so many large-caliber bullets almost made the shield fly out of his hands. He could only shove the shield into the dirt and brace it with his entire body. Just as he finished the adjustment, the musketeer Goblins using three-rank fire rapidly fired the second and third rounds of bullets.

The shield rattled incessantly under the hammering, and the fierce firepower suppressed the three of them so much they couldn't even lift their heads. At this time, Hero Leon snapped out of his emotions like friendship and bonds. His eyes were bloodshot, wanting to avenge his partner, but reason told him to retreat for now and reorganize. He immediately shouted: "Maxi! We retreat to the forest first!!" The weapons used by these Goblins were too strange; they needed time to think.

"Everyone hide behind me, we will retreat slowly!!" Maxi shouted, holding the shield and shrinking back step by step. Bullets kept hitting the shield, making his retreat exceptionally slow, but if things continued at this rate, they would still be able to retreat successfully. However, at this moment, the sound of the constantly roaring muskets suddenly stopped—it stopped very abruptly! Leon, hiding behind the shield, suddenly felt a surge of heart-palpitations; a great terror was approaching!! What was it?!

Leon poked his head out from the side of the shield and saw five Hobgoblins had run to the flank at some point! There were another five in the other direction; they were being flanked on both sides!! These Hobgoblins had exceptionally developed lower limb muscles and were extremely fast; on the uneven farmland, they actually gave the feeling of running as if on level ground. They carried no weapons on them, but they wore animal-skin vests, and the animal-skin vests had a black cylinder tied to their chests.

"Run!! Run quickly!!" Hero Leon immediately issued a warning to his two partners. Although he didn't know what those black canisters were, the alarm from his sixth sense couldn't be wrong! The other two also trusted Leon implicitly; many past adventures had been resolved thanks to Leon's sixth sense, so the two of them started to flee without even thinking. Leon and Undine were fine; both were very fast, and with a few flashes of full-speed retreat, they entered the forest.

But Maxi couldn't do it that fast; he was wearing heavy armor and carrying a door-sized shield that could resist multiple rounds of musket fire. One could imagine how massive the weight was. Leon and Undine had already entered the forest; looking back, Maxi was still running in the field. Mainly because he was unwilling to discard the door-sized shield, he ran very slowly. Behind Maxi, ten self-detonating Goblins rushed toward him like the wind.

The distance between the two sides closed, and it looked like Maxi was about to be caught by the self-detonating Goblins.

"Cover him!!" Hero Leon drew his precious sword, chanted a spell, and swung a magical sword-light. The sword-light flew out and cut one self-detonating Goblin in half from top to bottom. Undine drew her bow and fired arrow after arrow; every arrow could kill a self-detonating Goblin with terrifying accuracy. But the self-detonating Goblins had undergone specialized training after all; their running speed was like that of an Olympic hurdler, and the distance between them and Maxi closed at a frightening speed.

Leon and Undine attacked with all their might, killing the self-detonating Goblins one by one until only the last self-detonating Goblin remained. The last self-detonating Goblin was quite clever; he ran directly behind Maxi, using Maxi's body to block the incoming attacks.

"Maxi!!" Leon gave a cry of grief. Maxi didn't know what the situation was and instinctively looked back, his eyes meeting those of the self-detonating Goblin who had run up behind him. This fellow's face was full of distortion, his eyes filled with fear; despite this, he still exerted all his strength to keep up with Maxi's pace. The distance was enough. Following the process he had practiced hundreds of times, this self-detonating Goblin jammed a "bottle cap" filled with match-cords into the "bottle mouth."

A violent explosion swept the surroundings, and Maxi's body was covered in thick smoke. That huge door-sized shield was tossed high into the sky by the explosion, then fell and stabbed into the ground like a tombstone. And on the handle of the shield, there still hung two thick arms encased in gauntlets.