Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 111: Suppression
Facing the enemy’s relentless gunfire, the Bone Warriors suffered their first setback. Not only were they unable to charge forward, but many were killed, forcing the survivors to retreat in disarray back into the village.
“Quick, shut the gate!”
As they ran back, the captain frantically shouted to the gate guards:
“Hurry up!”
Once the last Bone Warrior had withdrawn, the gate was slammed shut again.
Seeing this, Rusa, who was commanding at the front, felt deep admiration. The three-stage volley fire tactic produced an unimaginable level of suppressive firepower. It seemed the lord had already perfected the use of muskets.
The other lizardmen tribes were left gaping in shock.
Weren’t the weapons of the Sinking Sand Tribe just fitted with bayonets for stabbing? During their previous actions, they had actually held back, concealing such a devastating attack method.
Watching the musketmen in the rear ranks reload so smoothly, the three other tribal chiefs secretly thought: So this is why the chief of the Sinking Sand Tribe is so confident? The weapons provided by humans are truly terrifying.
Inside the village.
Having barely escaped the hell outside, the captain let out a long sigh of relief.
Just then, Zar stormed over in a rage and scolded him harshly.
“Useless trash! Under your command, so many Bone Warriors were lost, while the enemy didn’t suffer a single casualty!”
The Bone Warrior unit had only 500 men in total. It wasn’t that, like the Blackwind Tribe, they were few in number due to lack of skilled fighters—rather, it was because there were only enough sets of that special equipment for 500.
But scolding further was a waste of time. In the end, Zar impatiently waved his hand.
“Get out of my sight!”
“Yes…”
The captain, looking utterly dejected, slunk away with his tail between his legs.
Turning back toward the gate, Zar was seething with anger, but he had no choice but to calm down and think carefully.
Luckily, only a hundred Bone Warriors had been sent to probe just now—otherwise, the casualties would have been disastrous.
The enemy’s attack power was extremely fierce, making a frontal breakthrough very difficult. The best tactic would be to spread out the attacking force, reducing casualties while quickly closing in on the enemy.
But here, that was impossible—the terrain around the village dictated it.
There was only this one gate as the entry point, and the enemy only had to focus their fire there.
Damn it! Where did they get such powerful long-range weapons? Long-range… that’s it! I need to fight back with long-range weapons too.
With that thought, Zar turned to another captain and ordered:
“Get our archers in formation. Prepare for arrow fire!”
“Yes, sir!”
The captain nodded and quickly left to command the archers, lining them up in four ranks behind the gate.
“Raise your arrowheads higher! Shoot farther!”
Zar commanded.
The captain repeated the order, then raised his arm to give the signal.
“Draw—release!”
As his arm dropped, a series of whooshing sounds rang out. Arrow after arrow shot upward, arcing gracefully over the wooden walls toward the enemy’s side.
However… all of them traced perfect parabolas and landed far short, not a single arrow reaching the enemy lines.
It had to be said—the Blackwind Tribe’s bows were utterly pathetic. But there was a reason for that.
In tribal warfare, lizardmen rarely favored bows.
Their bodies were already covered with thick scales, so arrows fired from a distance had trouble penetrating that natural armor.
At mid-range, a thrown spear had far more power than an arrow. And at close range, bows were all but useless.
The lizardmen only need to put on a set of sturdy armor to defend themselves well against arrows.
The Bone Warriors of the Black Wind Tribe were a good example. The bio-armor they wore had excellent defensive capabilities, making arrows almost completely ineffective against them.
This was exactly why lizardmen had no interest at all in developing archery technology. Their bow-making craft was extremely primitive—the range and power were very limited, utterly inferior to bows or crossbows made by humans.
“How’s the situation?”
After a round of shooting, Zar raised his head and asked the scout in the watchtower about the battle outside.
The scout above nodded, leaned closer, crouched by the short wooden wall, carefully stuck his head out for a quick glance, then immediately shrank back.
Because of what had happened to the priest earlier, the scouts had all been terrified, each one fearing that the next head to be blown off would be their own.
Then, the scout returned and shouted loudly:
“Chief, the enemy is too far away. Our arrows can’t reach them!”
“Damn it! Looks like we’ll just have to charge out and fight head-on!”
Upon hearing this, Zar cursed furiously.
Now he had no choice but to have all the warriors, especially the Bone Warriors, pick up shields and force their way through the enemy from the front.
Zar, who had once led the Black Wind Tribe to conquer all the other tribes, had always carried himself with pride.
Yet now he was being beaten into hiding inside the village by those very tribes he had defeated before—this filled him with rage.
So he turned to a logistics captain and barked:
“Bring out every shield from the warehouse. We’re going to fight them to the death!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a deafening boom erupted outside.
The village gate was blasted open. A massive iron ball came flying through, crashing into the soldiers behind the gate. As it bounced forward, it dragged a long trail of blood across the ground.
With just that one strike, more than thirty Black Wind tribesmen died on the spot—the grim consequence of crowding behind the gate.
“What… what happened?”
Zar stared dumbfounded at the shattered gate, completely stunned.
…
Outside the village.
When the Black Wind Tribe still failed to make any new move, Lusha turned to Kerman.
“Bring out the big one.”
Kerman gave a solemn nod and withdrew.
Moments later, five strong warriors of the Sinking Sand Tribe pushed a cannon slowly up to the rear of the battle line.
Only lizardmen with great strength could push such a heavy cannon. Humans would need horses to pull one.
The other tribes’ people looked on curiously as the Sinking Sand Tribe hauled forward the massive lump of black iron, completely clueless as to what they were planning.
Ever since witnessing the cannon’s power last time, Lusha had strongly requested Owen to lend them one.
After lengthy discussion, the matter was finally agreed upon.
But waiting until winter was over to transport the cannon into the Mysterious Forest would take far too long.
In the end, it was decided to move it early—ten strong lizardmen were chosen from the Sinking Sand Tribe to bring the cannon and a few shells into the Mysterious Forest during winter, then hide them in a secret place.
Because of the forest’s damp environment, additional measures were also needed to keep the cannon dry.
Originally, Owen had intended to use the cannons against large undead monsters. With one less piece, their firepower could have been insufficient.
Fortunately, with a steam boring machine capable of drilling, producing cannons wasn’t too difficult. The real challenge lay in the materials—steel ingots.
To make up for the loss of one cannon, Owen had no choice but to spare time at the smithy, using magic to assist in refining steel with the steel-making method.
Once the cannon was set down, the five warriors of the Sinking Sand Tribe skillfully followed the steps they had been taught to operate it.
At that very moment, the Black Wind Tribe loosed a volley of arrows from behind the gate—laughably, they all fell short.
The cannon’s angle was lowered, its muzzle aimed directly at the Black Wind Tribe’s village gate.
“Fire!”
At Kerman’s order, a thunderous roar shook the sky.
The lizardmen from the other tribes all flinched at the blast, then stared in shock at the Black Wind Tribe’s village—its heavy wooden gate had been effortlessly smashed apart.