Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 80 Escape
Like a flame reigniting in a extinguished furnace, Winters regained some consciousness.

He could vaguely sense that he was being dragged, as well as the feeling of floating, the waves, and cries for help.

With another pair of hands, two people supported Winters and dragged him from waist-deep water onto the rocky beach.

One of them quickly cleared the water from Winters' nose and throat, patted his back hard, and then began pressing on his chest.

The seawater remaining in his trachea was expelled. Fortunately, he had not been drowning for long and his breathing instinct was still intact. Air re-entered his lungs and, through the alveoli, capillaries, and arteries, was propelled to all his organs with his weak heartbeat.

With oxygen supply restored to his brain, Winters' thoughts, like a nearly extinguished flame, reignited and resumed functioning; he regained consciousness.

After struggling to open his eyes and regain his sight, he was met with a familiar yet unexpected face—a face with a gap-toothed man: "...Gold, is that you?"

Before the two could exchange pleasantries, a loud shout came from afar: "Here!"

Then came a series of gunshots, shouts of killing, and screams.

"The Tani are coming!" someone nearby shouted in terror. "The Tani are coming! Run!"

Winters struggled to his feet, telling himself he had to stay calm. The situation didn't allow him time to dwell on it; he needed to quickly ascertain the facts.

I quickly surveyed the area. Beneath my feet was a sandy beach, and about twenty meters ahead was the boundary between the woods and the rocky shore. To my right, I saw the bastion and the pier—that was Chiliu Harbor. Behind me, the water.

He realized that the small boat had been capsized by the high tide, and Gold had rescued him. Based on their relative positions, he should now be on the western shore of Red Sulfur Harbor.

Gunshots and shouts of killing came from the right front, which meant that the people clearing out the remaining soldiers came from Chiliu Port!
Winters grabbed Gold's arm: "Into the woods!"

He stood up and shouted to the others on the beach, “Into the woods! Go into the woods!”

Staying on the rocky beach would make us easy targets; we must first find a way to shake off these pursuers.

Winters stumbled and ran toward the broadleaf woodland by the shore: "Follow me! Everyone, follow me! Into the woods!"

Besides Winters and Gold, there were a dozen or so soldiers and sailors who had managed to escape on the rocky beach. The command structure had been destroyed, but the bewildered Venetians subconsciously obeyed the orders of the "officer uniform".

Whether sailors or soldiers, all the Venetians turned and retreated into the woods.

A voice with a heavy Tannrian accent came from the distance on the right: "Don't let them get away! Five Venettes for every prisoner!"

Inhuman screams echoed from the same direction: "Help! Help me!"

Winters fled into the woods, where the resilient branches lashed at him like whippings, but he gritted his teeth and endured the pain as he fled deeper into the woods.

Upon entering the woods, visibility was obscured by the vegetation. Unable to discern each other's positions, all that could be heard were rustling sounds throughout the trees, interspersed with occasional gunshots and cries of agony.

No one in the Venetians dared to stop and distinguish friend from foe; they had lost their command and direction and were only concerned with running for their lives.

"Where to run? Red Sulfur Harbor is on the northeast side. The pursuers started from Red Sulfur Harbor and are searching from north to south. There are no enemies on the south side right now." Having figured this out, Winters stopped and used amplification to shout in the Venetian dialect: "[Veneta dialect] South! South! To the left!"

Before he could run south, a sudden, tremendous force struck his waist, knocking Winters to the ground.

An excited voice shouted, "Here! Here! I've caught an official!"

The two rolled around in the mud in the forest. The Tanilian tried to use all his strength to pin Winters to the ground, but Winters struggled to fight back and tried to get up.

This is a fight devoid of any honor or etiquette, with one side driven by bounty and greed, and the other fighting for survival.

The Tanilian was not as strong as Winters, but he clung tightly to Winters from behind, refusing to let go no matter how much he was hit, only shouting, "Here!"

Body structure dictates that a person's backward force is far less than their forward force; if grabbed from behind and around the waist, even if Winters were stronger, he wouldn't be able to free himself.

Whether he threw a punch or an elbow behind him, he couldn't muster any strength, and the shouts of the Tanirians only attracted more pursuers.

Winters suddenly realized this wasn't a competition; there were no rules. He stopped futilely swinging his fists and instead began groping along his opponent's arm, searching for his fingers.

Found it! The other person's fingers were tightly gripping Winters' waist. Winters slipped his hand through the gap between the other person's fingers and his own clothes, firmly grasped the Tanilian's two fingers, and used all his strength to pry them back.

After two sharp cracks, the Tanilian screamed and released his grip. Freed, Winters turned and pinned the Tanilian beneath him, his hands gripping the man's neck tightly.

But the Tanilian did not quickly lose his ability to resist. He struggled desperately, making low, intermittent sounds in his throat. He dug a stone from the ground with his right hand and hurled it at Winters.

Winters felt a sharp pain in his head, followed by numbness, and he released his grip on the other man's throat.

The Tanirian, finally able to breathe again, groaned and took a deep breath.

Before he could even exhale, a rock about the size of his head slammed into his head.

With a terrifying cracking sound, the Tanilians twitched and then became still.

Winters still held onto the stone, and with a burst of strength from his waist, he lifted it behind his head again and swung it in a circular motion before smashing it down.

Once, twice, three times.

The other person was already dead. Exhausted, Winters finally let go of his hands and stood up, panting heavily.

This small mud puddle in the woods looked as if a bloody sacrifice had just taken place, with red and white splattered everywhere.

"Help! Help!"

The cries for help were in Veneta's accent.

Winters removed the dagger from the now-dead Tanilian man and crawled out of the mud, heading towards the source of the sound.

——Cut——

Lieutenant Colonel Contair's situation is now extremely precarious.

A dozen or so Venetians fled south until they were stopped by this low cliff. The ground ahead suddenly rose two or three meters, and the cliff face was made of limestone with no place to hold on.

Giant waves from the northeast capsized the Venetians' small boats, and Venetians were washed ashore almost everywhere on the western shore of the bay, some alive and some dead.

Lieutenant Colonel Conteil was one of those who survived being washed ashore.

He immediately gathered the other surviving Veneta soldiers around him and led this small group of remnants into the forests inland from the island.

"Lieutenant Colonel, we can't run anymore, or morale will collapse. While we still have the strength, let's turn back and fight them." Andrei found Lieutenant Colonel Kontair, carrying a wooden stick.

Lieutenant Andrea Cellini, leading a few soldiers, met up with Lieutenant Colonel Contaire's small group during their escape.

“We don’t even have weapons. Fighting head-on is a dead end.” Contel, hands on his knees, gasped for breath. “Let’s head southwest to the coast. Find a way out to sea and get back to the fleet. There’s still a chance to survive.”

Including the two officers, the group of fourteen men didn't even have a single piece of metal. Those who refused to discard their armor and weapons drowned at sea, and those who fled only cared about having too much stuff on them.

The soldiers were so eager to throw away anything they could, except for Andrei, who picked up a thick branch from the woods to use as a stick. "Let's rest for a while in this clearing, then we'll head west along this cliff and find a gap to climb over." Lieutenant Colonel Contel, drenched in sweat, was clearly exhausted; senior officers who spent years on horseback had little stamina left.

Upon hearing the lieutenant colonel's order to rest there temporarily, the soldiers plopped down on the ground, exhausted from their escape through the forest.

"Don't sit! Stand up! If you sit down for a rest, you won't be able to run anymore." Andrei, carrying a wooden stick, walked among the soldiers, ordering them not to sit: "Stand up, all of you stand up."

Exhausted, the soldiers paid no heed to anything else; the officers' authority meant nothing to them now. They simply sat on the ground with their heads down, neither answering nor obeying orders.

Andrei was so angry he gritted his teeth, but even with his fiery temper, he dared not force the soldiers at this moment.

The sound of twigs snapping came from the woods, and the sound quickly drew closer. A figure ran out of the dense forest and into the small clearing.

He wasn't wearing a Venetta military uniform; he's a Tanilian!

The Venetian soldiers hadn't expected the pursuers to be so fast, and the Tanilian man hadn't expected to encounter so many Venetians.

The two stared at each other for a second.

"Kill him!" Andrei grabbed a stick and charged forward.

At the same time, the Tanirians turned back into the dense forest, shouting as they ran, "They're here!"

The small, thin Tanilian was as agile as a monkey, and he disappeared in a flash. Andrei chased after him for a couple of steps, but seeing that he couldn't catch up, he stopped in frustration.

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Andrei urged loudly, dragging the soldiers up from the ground one by one.

However, just as he warned, if you don't rest after strenuous exercise that severely depletes your energy, you'll be fine, but once you sit down to rest, your body will be completely exhausted.

The soldiers staggered to their feet and walked slowly, too exhausted to run even though they knew their pursuers were behind them.

"Rest a little longer, just a little while longer, even just a little while longer will do." The demon's voice whispered in the soldiers' minds.

"I can't run anymore, I'd rather die than run anymore! Let them kill me!" One soldier simply sat back down on the ground, sinking into despair and self-abandonment.

Andrei could no longer contain his anger. Enraged, he raised his stick and roared, "I'll beat you to death right now!"

The soldier who had sat back down was startled and scrambled to his feet.

However, it was too late; the Tanirians had already caught up with them.

About a dozen Tanilians emerged from the dense forest and surrounded the small remnant force led by Kuntel and Andrei.

The Venetians had a numerical advantage, but they had no weapons and not even enough stones for each person.

Although the Tanirians carried sailors' knives and short spears, they were outnumbered and dared not make the first move.

The two sides remained locked in this stalemate, with the Tanirians gradually compressing the Venetians into a small space on the edge of the low cliff, until the Venetians, with their backs against the cliff, had nowhere to retreat.

The fighting was sparked by two more Tanilians carrying matchlock guns running out of the woods.

When he saw two enemies carrying ranged weapons running towards him, Andrei realized that he could no longer delay and should make his move as soon as the Tanirians appeared.

"Follow me! Kill!" Warrant Officer Andrea Cellini roared, wielding a wooden club as he charged toward the tallest Tanilian man.

The Tanilians surrounding them hadn't expected these trapped beasts to dare to fight back. When they saw an officer wielding a wooden club rushing towards them, the Tanilian strongman was so startled that he stood frozen in place, instinctively raising his scimitar to block.

Years of swordsmanship training had made Andrei instinctively use the wooden stick in his hand as a longsword. He knocked the opponent's weapon away with one blow, then swung the stick back and struck the opponent's right ear hard. Blood immediately gushed from the opponent's nostrils, mouth, and eyes, and the opponent's body collapsed limply to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Andrei had taken down the burly Tanilia man.

The Tanilians were awestruck by the officer's bravery, while the Venetians, inspired by his courage, charged towards the enemy, stones in hand and shouting.

However, the worsening situation made Andrei increasingly desperate, and seven or eight more Tanirians gathered around at the sound of the commotion. He saw that there were more and more Tanirians in this small clearing.

"Come on! Come and kill me!" The young warrant officer roared in despair, searching for another opponent, but the Tanirians avoided him, and a small vacuum appeared in the chaotic battlefield.

A muffled gunshot rang out.

Andrei closed his eyes, but finding no particular pain, he immediately opened them again.

At the foot of the low cliff, Lieutenant Colonel Contel collapsed to the ground, clutching his stomach.

A Tanilian man who appeared to be a leader reached the edge of the clearing and immediately noticed the conspicuous officer on the battlefield. Following his continuous shouts of orders, several Tanilians armed with spears surrounded Andrei.

If stones were useful, humans wouldn't have switched to iron to kill each other.

One by one, the unarmed Venetian soldiers, armed only with stones, felled. Seeing this, Andrei roared in despair, grabbing the spear thrust at him and smashing it along with the spearman's head.

The other spearmen were too afraid to approach him, but two arquebusiers at the edge of the clearing had already aimed at him.

"This Veneta guy looks to be under twenty, doesn't he?" The leader of the Tanilians thought to himself as he looked at the young officer on the battlefield. "He's a brave man, but it's a pity he's a Veneta guy."

The next second, he felt a surge of heat at the back of his head, and then his consciousness vanished.

The captain beside him collapsed to the ground with a thud. The musketeer next to him was bewildered and quickly knelt down to try to wake the captain, but the captain had already stopped breathing.

Another sound came from the dense forest. The musketeer looked in the direction of the sound and his legs went weak. He could barely even squat down.

A man dressed in a Venetta military uniform emerged from the dense forest. The uniform looked as if it had been washed with mud and water, and the surface was covered with bloodstains. Traces of solidified white liquid were even more noticeable.

Before the musketeer could even cry for help, the newcomer raised his hand, and the gunpowder flask at the musketeer's waist exploded instantly, the powerful impact blasting the musketeer in two.

Before the other musketeer could understand what was happening, his powder flask exploded, leaving a huge gash in his abdomen, as if a giant beast had bitten off half of his stomach.

The fighting on the battlefield was interrupted by the two loud noises, and both the Tanirians and the Venetians stared blankly at the edge of the woodland.

A bloodied officer named Veneta charged into the battlefield, hacking and slashing at the Tanilians with a whirlwind of blows. Every time he raised his left hand, a Tanilian would convulse and fall.

Six or seven men carrying scimitars followed him into the battlefield, while another officer, Veneta, armed with a bow and arrow, stood guard at the edge of the forest.

"The centurion is here! Reinforcements are here!" Andrei roared with wild laughter, "Kill them all! Don't let a single one escape!"

Additionally, you can try it yourself; the backward force of the human limbs is really small, and it's very difficult to exert force.

Therefore, in mixed martial arts, getting hit in the back usually means losing.

Thank you to all the readers who voted for this book before, especially to the following readers: Justice and Purity is Koala, kkkkk, Ami, Please Call Me Happy Sheep, Reader 20181013204343295, Social Justice Old Wang, and This Mountain You. Thank you everyone.

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(End of this chapter)