Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 64: Cleaning the Battlefield
Just as everyone thought it was over and were about to breathe a sigh of relief, the body of the leading corpse boar suddenly twitched and then—unexpectedly—stood back up.
Its body was riddled with large gaping holes, oozing blackened blood and a yellow, unidentified viscous liquid. The right half of its head had its skin peeled off, and the eyeball had already fallen out.
Even so, it continued charging unrelentingly toward the city wall.
It was clear that the magic core of that corpse boar had not been destroyed by the series of explosions.
Four satchels of explosives launched from the trebuchets had only managed to kill two of the three corpse boars—one remained. This made it painfully obvious just how difficult it was to completely eliminate undead creatures.
Seeing this, Viscount Jarvis immediately gave the command:
“Rifle squad, regroup here!”
At the same time, he raised the musket in his hand and aimed at the target.
He was standing directly in the corpse boar’s line of charge—Viscount Jarvis intended to let it taste lead head-on!
The entire rifle squad quickly ran over and lined up on either side of the viscount, raising their muskets. The barrels were neatly aligned in a row.
“Aim for the head.”
Once the corpse boar entered effective range, Viscount Jarvis shouted decisively:
“Fire at will!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Gunshots rang out in succession.
The knights armed with crossbows were not idle either, unleashing volleys of sharp arrows at the undead creature.
Despite its thick hide and muscular body, the corpse boar could not withstand the power of lead bullets. After the first volley, multiple holes were blown into its head and the surrounding area. Of course, not all bullets hit their mark—some missed and whizzed past.
Then came the arrows, which riddled the creature like a porcupine but still couldn’t stop its advance.
During the second volley, one lead bullet struck it squarely in the forehead, piercing through the brain and successfully destroying its magic core.
The corpse boar froze in place, then finally collapsed into the snowy ground in front of the wall. At that moment, it was only about twenty meters from the city wall.
“Did we get it?”
“Yes! We did it!”
“Amazing!”
Seeing this, the people atop the city wall raised their weapons and cheered in unison.
The fact that such a difficult and massive undead creature was killed before reaching the wall greatly boosted everyone’s morale.
Letting out a quiet breath, Owen discreetly withdrew his magic. If the corpse boar had gotten any closer, he would have had to intervene.
Standing in front of him, Mappel also lowered her magic sword. The stern look on her face finally eased a little.
The entire ordeal had been nerve-wracking. Owen had nearly thought they wouldn’t be able to stop such a large undead creature.
This also highlighted several flaws in their current firearms. The smoothbore muskets had limited range and poor accuracy. They were suitable enough for targets close to the wall, but beyond that, their effectiveness was inconsistent and somewhat reliant on luck.
Now that they had access to a steam boring machine, Owen began wondering whether they could start manufacturing rifled flintlock guns.
He remembered Winston mentioning that rifled barrels could greatly increase shooting accuracy and range because the spiral grooves helped stabilize the bullet’s flight through spin.
However, Winston also warned that front-loaded bullets in rifled barrels had trouble maintaining a good gas seal, which could drastically reduce their power.
To ensure airtightness, the diameter of the lead bullets might have to match or be slightly larger than the bore of the barrel, which makes loading quite difficult. Slow loading speed on the battlefield is clearly a major drawback.
But it’s not without a solution—Mini bullets could be used.
These bullets are slightly smaller than the barrel’s caliber, with a hollowed-out rear filled with cork. When fired, the explosive gases from the gunpowder impact the cork, expanding the bullet’s base upon impact.
This expanded base presses tightly against the rifling, ensuring a proper gas seal and allowing the bullet to spin along the grooves for greater accuracy.
However, this introduces another issue: switching to rifled barrels would require more advanced manufacturing techniques for the bullets. That might lead to shortages in ammunition due to production constraints.
In contrast, making lead ball bullets is much simpler. All that’s needed is a metal mold clamp—pour in molten lead, let it cool, and one bullet is ready.
As Owen fell into deep thought, Winston’s voice echoed in his mind.
“That was quite a scare! Using a trebuchet to launch explosive packs is too slow—the preparation alone takes too much time. Now that you’ve built a steam-powered boring machine, why not manufacture a few cannons to deal with those large undead monsters?”
His suggestion snapped Owen out of his narrow focus on firearms—he had overlooked the glaring inefficiency of trebuchets.
Indeed, the trebuchet’s launching speed was far too low. It was clear they needed to replace it with cannons.
High-damage, long-range weapons like cannons could severely wound large undead monsters before they even got close to the wall, preventing structural damage to the defenses.
Fortunately, only three undead boars appeared this time. If there had been more, even four explosive packs might not have been enough to stop them.
Building cannons didn’t mean giving up on rifled guns either. He could still make a few rifles and Mini bullets as a contingency.
“Exactly. We’ll need to ask Jita to specially forge some boring tools for rifling the barrels.”
Owen replied.
The cannon production plan was decisively moved to the top of the agenda.
In addition, a team of elite individuals would be selected to form an artillery unit and undergo training in cannon operation.
Once Bianshu Town had both a gun squad and a cannon squad, they would have nothing to fear from the undead. Defending the northern walls would no longer be a concern.
After the three dangerous undead boars were defeated, Viscount Jarvis ordered the troops to descend below the wall and wipe out the remaining undead.
Lusha volunteered and jumped straight off the wall, drawing the attention of most of the undead.
Taking advantage of this, knights, lizardmen, and militia quickly descended from two less-populated sections of the wall using ropes.
Once on the ground, they swiftly organized into formations, launching a pincer attack from both sides to trap the remaining undead in the center and annihilate them.
When the last undead’s head was pierced by a spear, the battle was finally over, and cheers erupted once again.
Next came an even more important task—cleaning up the battlefield.
They needed to clear out all the corpses and bones at the base of the wall before the next wave of enemies arrived. Otherwise, the undead could use them as stepping stones.
A large pit would be dug nearby to bury all the bodies and bones on-site.
Handling the remains had to be done carefully—there could be undead creatures among them that weren’t fully neutralized, requiring a final blow.
They also needed to collect all the arrows that had been fired. Those that weren’t severely damaged could be reused. Although they had stocked a large supply before winter, saving resources where possible was still important.
Additionally, the barricades needed to be reset. Some had been badly damaged in the battle by the undead.
And the snow on the ground had to be cleared to some extent; otherwise, the barricades could become buried and ineffective.
To lighten the burden, Owen called for Fanny and Garcia, and the three of them used fire magic to melt the accumulated snow.