Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 93: The Battle at Winter’s End (Part 2)
For such a request, Owen could only helplessly agree that rifled muskets were indeed superior to smoothbores. However, judging from the amount of ammunition consumed in each battle, if the entire musket unit were to switch to rifled guns, there would inevitably be a shortage of Mini balls.
And without ammunition, no matter how good the musket, it would be nothing more than an iron club.
If they tried to use the current round lead balls instead, they’d be extremely difficult to ram down the barrel—each musketeer might need a small hammer just to pound them in, which would be slow and exhausting.
If they deliberately made the lead balls smaller, the gap between the bullet and the rifling would render the grooves useless. The fired bullet’s speed and accuracy would suffer greatly—in that case, they might as well stick with smoothbores.
For now, the only option was to equip rifled muskets to elite marksmen like Viscount Jarvis and the sharpshooter unit, letting them have a greater impact on the battlefield.
To soothe Viscount Jarvis’s disappointment, Owen quietly revealed a bit of “inside information”: he was currently “developing” a new firearm—the breech-loading rifle.
This rifle wouldn’t just be rifled; it would also be loaded from the rear.
To solve the sealing problem of a breech-loader, they would need to mass-produce bullets encased in metal shells.
The blueprints for the machinery to produce these fixed metal cartridges had already been given to Jita, who would be in charge of building them.
Fortunately, the best material for making bullets—copper—was abundant in the mines that ran through the mountain range. Bianshu Town had no shortage of it.
Hearing about the new rifle immediately sparked Viscount Jarvis’s interest.
To be honest, after using muskets for a while, he had also begun to feel that muzzle-loading was far too time-consuming. If there were a faster way to reload, it would be far better.
A breech-loader that could be loaded from the rear… now that was convenient.
With such a weapon, the interval between shots could be greatly reduced, and sustained suppressive fire would make the enemy’s life miserable.
After reloading, Viscount Jarvis raised his musket, sighted through the rear sight at an undead monster—
—but just as he was about to fire, the target froze and collapsed.
Oh? Someone else had beaten him to it. The undead had been struck in the head by a bullet from the side, clearly fired by another sharpshooter with a rifled gun.
Interesting. Let’s see whose shooting is better. The corner of Viscount Jarvis’s mouth curled upward.
On the eastern wall, Maddie was also aiming through his rear sight, only to find his targets repeatedly stolen by other musketeers.
“Huh?”
He licked his lips and grinned.
A shooting contest, is it? He didn’t know who in the sharpshooter unit was challenging him, but fine—let’s see who comes out on top!
Since Viscount Jarvis had become engrossed in shooting, Owen had taken over battlefield command more than a month ago.
As the lord of Bianshu Town, Owen was technically the highest commander anyway. It was only because he’d lacked experience in leading troops that Javis had commanded in the beginning.
Of course, if special situations arose, Viscount Javis would still step in to help with command.
Then there was Bray—captain of the Second Holy Knight Squad—whose rich combat experience allowed him to assist Owen with strategic advice.
After so many battles, Owen had picked up a few lessons on command from Viscount Javis.
As the fighting dragged on, the number of undead steadily decreased—until new movement appeared in the north.
“Attention! More undead incoming!”
A scout shouted.
Viscount Javis looked up, his expression turning grave.
“They’re here at last.”
From the snowy horizon in the distance, more than fifty large undead monsters suddenly charged forward at full speed.
Apart from the corpse boars they had seen before, there were also corpse bison of roughly the same size.
Come to think of it, this was exactly how they broke through the city walls last winter, causing massive destruction to the frontier garrison town.
Holding a longsword glowing with white light, Bray wore a serious expression and immediately gave the order:
“Holy Knights, assemble!”
The gaps left by the assembling knights were instantly filled by nearby militiamen.
They absolutely could not allow this horde to crash into them. Owen likewise issued his command:
“Artillery unit, wait for the right moment and fire!”
The gunners adjusted their cannons toward the direction where the massive undead beasts appeared, setting the barrels at the highest elevation.
When the moment came, Blue swung his arm down.
“Fire!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The four cannons roared one after another, launching iron balls that fell a kilometer away, slamming into the cluster of monsters.
After firing, Blue ordered the crew to quickly clean the barrels and prepare the next round.
One corpse boar, struck squarely by an iron ball, toppled over on the spot, churning up snow. Its massive body was crushed so badly it couldn’t even get up again.
The subsequent shots also dealt heavy damage to the undead behind it—some large monsters had a leg smashed, preventing them from maintaining their charge.
It was precisely this kind of long-range firepower that could reduce the enemy’s numbers as much as possible.
Viscount Jarvis and the sharpshooting squad also raised their rifled guns, preparing to pick off the undead from afar.
After enduring a barrage of cannon fire, precise rifle shots, and the “greetings” of muskets and crossbows, most of the large undead monsters collapsed along their advance route.
Only six corpse boars broke through, drawing ever closer to the city wall.
Perhaps their thick hides had helped them withstand such firepower.
At that moment, Bray’s assembled Holy Knights formed a triangular formation, facing the direction of the charging boars.
Raising their swords, they prayed to the gods. The holy light on their blades turned into motes of starlight, rising into the air and then converging together.
Soon, a white sword of light over twenty meters long materialized—this was the Temple Knights’ exclusive large-scale magic: The Holy Sword.
“Fall!”
Standing at the front, Bray swung down his longsword, and the gigantic blade of light followed, striking straight ahead.
The leading corpse boar was cleaved in two on the spot, and the other five immediately scattered.
Bray then turned the massive light sword sideways, sweeping it left and right. In two swings, three more boars were slain, and the last two had their front legs severed, unable to threaten the walls.
The gigantic sword of light faded, and the large-scale magic came to an end.
Bray panted heavily—it was clear this magic consumed not only magic power but also great physical strength.
Immediately after, the musketeers raised their weapons and unleashed a volley, finishing off the last two boars.
They had successfully stopped more than fifty massive undead monsters from ramming into the city wall—what a brilliant feat!
The tragedy that struck late last winter would not be repeated this year. Seeing it all before him, Owen was overwhelmed with emotion.