CHAPTER 308: CHAPTER 210: HUNTER

From the hot air balloon, Christine was dumbfounded as she witnessed Roland and his team killing Shank.

She even felt a cold chill down her back.

She had long known about Roland’s flexible combat technique, but she hadn’t expected Sif to be the same.

Watching Sif fiercely stab at the enemy’s nether regions with her three-meter-long spear, Christine felt a little uneasy.

She silently vowed to reinforce the armor in certain areas in the future.

That area is not only a male weakness; even the Saintess couldn’t withstand a stab there.

She observed Sif’s battlefield performance clearly, strong and agile, but with the Goddess’s blessing, she could fully handle...

If it were one-on-one, she had at least a fifty percent chance for victory, but Sif had Roland.

She genuinely envied Sif a little.

Roland, with quick thinking, threw out a shield, and Sif could absolutely trust Roland without the slightest doubt, instantly making the best choice.

Christine silently bowed her head, enviously clenching her fist at this kind of tacit understanding.

She raised her right hand and coldly said, "Begin the all-out attack!"

The messenger behind her didn’t hesitate and issued the general attack orders to each unit according to her deployment.

It’s too bad, if only I had a few more hours.

Christine sighed silently.

The day was about to break, and the light cannon ammunition was almost depleted.

Once it’s daylight, the enemy will surely discover the plight of Hansa’s new army being short-handed, and then it’s troublesome.

If they could behead the enemy’s main general, there’d still be a sliver of chance. Unfortunately, she had no strong warrior under her command who could kill the main general within the enemy’s ranks.

Even Master Anthony would find it difficult.

Rune cautiously set up the command center in the Helentz City Hall.

Though a small number of guards were hiding in the tunnels, they were powerless to counterattack, and flag signals couldn’t be conveyed to them either.

Christine regretfully shook her head.

Could such a level of victory be considered paying off the debt?

Tonight’s victory was certainly not enough, but she still had a chance. As long as she could defeat the enemy’s main force and then grit her teeth to pursue, there was an opportunity.

As everyone knows, when both sides maintain their formations, casualties won’t be too many; it’s only when one side collapses that the slaughter begins.

She had to force Rune into a collapse.

Rune’s advantage lay in numbers and occupying a favorable position. Besides that, he was at an overall disadvantage in terms of morale, equipment, and organization.

Though the numbers were twenty-five thousand to seventy thousand, the advantage was still hers!

Christine calmly issued her orders and continued to observe the battlefield situation.

The first ray of dawn slowly unveiled from the East, and Christine yawned.

These past few days, she had been sleeplessly pondering the enemy’s movements, utterly unable to sleep.

She posed a calm and composed image to others, but was actually so nervous that she suffered from insomnia night after night, even losing a small tuft of hair, which broke her heart.

Once this battle is over, she’ll need to rest for a few days to recover.

The most exhausting part wasn’t the body; it was the mind.

It was a battle they couldn’t afford to lose; even the slightest mistake was unacceptable, and under such pressure, her mental stamina was somewhat exhausted.

Just as Christine was yawning, she glimpsed a few shadows darting out from a straw stack.

That was actually an entrance to the tunnel?!

At a place only a few tens of meters from the City Hall, the figure of Helentz Castle’s guards appeared.

They were not many and seemed somewhat disheveled, but the weapons in their hands were...

Christine rubbed her eyes, grabbed the binoculars, and stared at these nighttime assailants, focusing on the weapons in their hands.

She couldn’t identify the model of these weapons, but she knew what they were.

They were Ancient Era weapons discovered while excavating ruins.

In this era where technology largely relies on archaeology, excavating ruins often yields unexpected findings.

Seeing a young man awkwardly set a lightweight, portable cannon on his shoulder, Christine’s eyes widened.

"Whoosh!"

A shrill sound cut through the sky as a strange shell was fired.

"Boom!"

A violent explosion blew the City Hall apart, bricks flying, and shattered windows aplenty.

Although Rune wasn’t blown up, the sudden explosion made him realize this place was absolutely unsafe.

Rune’s escape speed was not slower than Sven the Seventh’s.

Covered by a few guards, he scurried out in disarray.

Bloodied, Rune was dizzy and disoriented, being dragged by the arm towards a safe place by the guards.

He didn’t even notice that a dark muzzle was already aimed at him.

The two golden stars on his epaulet were glaringly bright.

...

"It’s the Vice Admiral!"

Tom, holding the large-caliber rifle, held his breath, forcibly suppressing his excitement.

To assassinate a Vice Admiral, what an achievement—would it be enough for a promotion? With the Lord Governor’s generosity, at least he would get promoted to Major, right?

Thinking of this, Tom’s spirits lifted.

He held his breath, memories rushing back to the scene a few years ago when his father first took him bear hunting.

His father, along with his uncles, were all hunters, renowned for hunting all kinds of large predators.

To ensure the fur of large predators remained intact, his father and uncles always aimed at the eyes of the prey.

Little Tom, too, honed his shooting skills with his father and uncles.

Though the single-barrel shotguns they used had a very short range, their power was tremendous, and their shooting accuracy was much better than flintlock guns.

The shotgun his father used had even been excavated from a ruin, a top-quality piece, accurate to a hundred meters. He was the best hunter in his hometown, worthy of that shotgun.

However, Little Tom’s happy life didn’t last long.

The shotgun was coveted by a noble and borrowed for hunting.

During the loan period, a demonic giant bear troubled the village again, and his father’s hunting team went out once more to hunt the bear.

What seemed like an ordinary hunting operation turned out to be Little Tom’s final parting with his father and uncles.

His father’s body was never recovered, only a piece of his clothing.

After his father’s death, the grief-stricken Little Tom found the noble’s manor, trying to request the shotgun to avenge his father.

However, the noble returned a gun that looked similar but was very ordinary.

Little Tom surely knew his father’s relic was swallowed by that damned Baron, but he was powerless.

If he dared show the slightest resentment, the noble might kill him to silence him.

Luckily, his acting skills satisfied the arrogant noble, and he managed to keep his life.

Afterward, he wandered many places and, on the brink of starving to death, was unexpectedly noticed by a passing Knight at a recruiting station, giving him the chance to serve Governor Roland.

He thanked Knight Jacobs for promoting him and thanked Governor Roland for giving him a chance to earn merit.

Was the Baron so great?

Once he gained merit and a title, he would personally kill the one indirectly responsible for his father’s death!

Flames of fury flickered in Tom’s eyes as he pulled the trigger, just like when he first shot a gray wolf as a child.

"Bang!"

The gunshot echoed, the bullet precisely hitting Rune in transit, a headshot.

Tom breathed a sigh of relief; this shot had a bit of luck involved.

Before he could celebrate, he was grabbed by Jacobs and ran frantically toward another tunnel entrance.

His smile bloomed in the morning light.

Haha, this time he’d surely earned merit!