I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 444 Human Savagery

The deafening explosion, like a thunderclap from a clear sky, echoed wildly through the valley, instantly drawing the attention of all the snake people on and off the walls of the Naxi Fortress to the front.

The towering flames and billowing smoke engulfed the snake-men's vision on the city wall. The scorching heat even distorted the air. The snake-men near the city gate were so terrified by the explosions that they fell off the city wall.

It's now.

Almost instantly, before the shockwave from the explosion had even dissipated, the long-awaited torrent of players at the entrance to the Gray Rock Pass suddenly burst forth.

They transformed into a surging, destructive tide, carrying steel and the will to die, roaring as they rushed toward the fortress. The deafening shouts of battle merged into a sonic wave that tore through the air, drowning out the aftershocks of the explosions.

The players of the Overlord Tigers were rapidly advancing towards the Naxi Fortress while running, and during this process, snake people were also appearing on the city walls one after another, moving even faster than the players.

This was to be expected.

And the players are ready.

"Fire..."

"Little Knife Stabs Buttocks!" Little Knife roared hoarsely. His command was quickly answered by the players in the front row. They spread out as fast as they could, forming a rough line formation. Then they quickly raised their guns, and the crackling sound of gunfire rang out as a smoke wall appeared.

The dense barrage of lead bullets, like a deadly swarm of bees, stirred up a storm of steel, splashing heavily onto the city walls, stirring up large amounts of ice shards, flint, and the blood of the snake people.

What followed was an even more chilling roar.

A dozen or so tiger-squatting cannons, roughly smashed to the ground by players, were quickly ignited. Their muzzles spewed out blinding tongues of fire one after another, and deadly shrapnel covered a section of the city wall near the city gate like a shower of flowers.

A death rain of iron shot, lead dust, and gravel pelted down, scattering stone fragments across the battlements and instantly tearing apart and suppressing any snake-men who dared to peek out after the explosions and attempt to regroup. Their screams were mercilessly swallowed by the sound of gunfire.

The city wall seemed to have been brutally plowed by an invisible hand, instantly plunging into chaos and deathly silence... The firepower suppression was a success!
"Charge! Target: the city gate!"

Without the slightest hesitation, the main force of the players, like a group of sharks smelling blood, launched an even more ferocious charge during the brief lulls in the firepower of flintlock muskets and tiger crouching cannons.

They trudged through the loosened rubble and scorched earth, ignoring the potential traps and debris beneath their feet, their sights set on the Naxi Fortress gate, still faintly visible in the billowing smoke, twisted and deformed by the explosion, revealing a huge gaping hole.

Leading the charge were figures carrying heavy metal canisters and wielding menacing flamethrower pipes... flamethrower soldiers!

Since it's effective against snake people, players will naturally continue to use it.

However, just as the flamethrower soldiers rushed into the shadows of the breach in the city gate, which was filled with smoke, dust, and the smell of sulfur...

“Hiss…hiss!”

A sharp, penetrating hiss, like a signal that had been rehearsed a thousand times, suddenly rang out!

Behind the city gate, a series of dense and muffled explosions rang out.

The gunshots were far less crisp than those of flintlock muskets, but they carried a more primal and chilling lethality.

The gunpowder ignited by the matchlock spewed out a large amount of white smoke, and dozens of lead bullets shot out from the gaps in the thick smoke, forming a deadly rain of bullets that poured into the city gate.

The flamethrower soldiers at the front of the charge suddenly froze, as if struck by an invisible hammer.

The scorching lead bullets easily tore through their relatively thin Death Legion suits and limbs, blood spurting out as the heavy flamethrowers carried them forward with a dull thud.

Some died before they could even scream, while others roared and tried to keep going, the fuel tanks making dangerous clattering sounds.

This was quite unexpected for the players. It was already strange enough that the snake people could use the matchlock guns of the Minieses, but what was even more amazing was that they could also fire volleys.

This is the painful lesson the snake people learned from the blood of countless of their kind shed in the swamps and mud.

After being beaten by players so many times, they also actively learn the latter's tactics.

In the thick smoke, the snake-man musketeer's vertical pupils, flashing with a cold light, appeared and disappeared, his hissing sound carrying the pleasure of revenge.

The players' charge was punctured by a precise and deadly volley of fire from behind the city gate, leaving a bloody dent.

Scalding blood soaked the scorched earth, and the heavy stench of blood mixed with gunpowder smoke permeated the breaches in the city gates, proclaiming that this bloody battle to breach the city had only just entered its most brutal hand-to-hand combat phase.

"grass!"

Without the slightest hesitation, and before the horse's hooves had even come to a complete stop, the burly commander slammed his hand on the saddle, and his massive body crashed to the ground like a boulder launched from a catapult! His heavy boots shattered the scorched, frozen earth, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Brothers, charge with me!!!"

He roared, his voice seemingly tearing his throat apart, and raised the long-handled axe high in his hand. The cold axe blade reflected the light of blood and fire in the billowing smoke, instantly becoming the most conspicuous battle flag on the battlefield.

That roar, that resolute figure, was like a bucket of cold water poured into a scalding oil pan.

The players, who were initially momentarily stunned and even somewhat bewildered by the heavy casualties suffered by the flamethrower soldiers, were instantly ignited by this wild command.

The hesitation caused by the unexpected turn of events was crushed by the commander's leading by example. The frustration of being ambushed, the anger at the fallen comrades, and the desire for victory all transformed into an even more ferocious torrent.

"kill!!!"

A deafening roar erupted from the players, even more frenzied and bloodthirsty than the previous charge!

He didn't care about what was behind him or above him when he stabbed himself in the buttocks. Like a furious rhinoceros, dragging his heavy axe, he was the first to charge headfirst into the billowing smoke and blood-stained breach in the city gate.

The pungent smells of sulfur, blood, and dust were suffocating, but he paid no heed, his eyes fixed only on the shadowy, cold-eyed snakes behind the thick smoke.

His charge was an order!

Players surged forward like a flood bursting its banks, rushing into the narrow city gate. The sounds of footsteps, clashing armor, and wild battle cries echoed fiercely between the stone walls, creating a chilling, deathly cacophony.

Behind the city gate, the snake-men musketeers, who had just completed a deadly volley of fire and whose vengeful gleam in their vertical pupils had not yet faded, were stunned by this sudden, extremely ferocious counter-charge.

They had just retrieved their smoky matchlock guns and were frantically trying to reload the gunpowder and lead bullets with their stiff and clumsy claws.

The snake people did indeed learn to fire volleys, an advanced tactic they had mastered at great cost during the swamp ambush, and they successfully dealt the players a heavy blow.

However, they had not yet learned the more sophisticated volley fire tactics that human infantry relied on for survival!

Faced with the players charging like mad tigers, especially the burly human leader who wielded a terrifying long-handled battle axe and charged into the smoke, the snake-man musketeers were instantly thrown into deadly chaos.

The snake-men in the front row watched in horror as the enemy approached in an instant, their claws gripping the gunpowder bags that were only half-stuffed, unsure of what to do. The snake-men in the back row were blocked by their companions and could not aim effectively.

Their pitiful tactics are utterly fragile in the face of humans' desperate, life-or-death close-quarters assaults!
"Roar……"

The knife pierced through the last barrier of thick smoke, its eyes bloodshot beneath the menacing mask.

He gave the snake-men no chance to organize another shot. The heavy, long-handled axe-spear, carrying all his strength and the momentum of his charge, cut through the air with a shrill sound, like a giant axe splitting a mountain, and swept fiercely towards the nearest snake-men musketeer who was still frantically fiddling with the fuse.

puff.

A dull tearing sound rang out! The snake-man only had time to let out a short hiss before its upper body was smashed away by the terrifying force, crashing into its companion behind it, splattering blood and fragments of internal organs everywhere!
"Crush them!"

The roar of "Little Knife Stabbing Buttocks" echoed like thunder in the narrow city gate. His axe-spear was the heart of the storm, each swing bringing forth a bloody storm, tearing a gap in the dense ranks of snake-men musketeers!
The players who followed closely behind rushed out from behind the city gate like a swarm of sharks that had smelled blood.

Spears, bayonets, battle axes, scimitars—all melee weapons were hurled at the snake-man who was in disarray and unable to fire again.

Deprived of their most reliable weapon—a volley of arquebuses—and unarmed, the snake-people musketeers faced heavily armed and berserk player infantry in the confined space, becoming lambs to the slaughter. The snake-people, having learned from humans, knew the how but not the why, so much so that they hadn't brought any melee weapons.

Behind the city gate, it quickly became an even bloodier and more cruel meat grinder.

The roars of the players, the dying screams of the snakemen, and the terrifying sounds of metal tearing through flesh and bone mingled together. The little bit of tactics the snakemen had just learned was completely shattered in the face of the human chapter leader's fearless charge and the crushing melee of the infantry.

More players flooded into the fortress, but at the same time, more snake people gathered from all directions, and a brutal and fierce battle broke out inside.

The snake people were caught off guard, but they did not surrender or admit defeat, nor did they realize that the fall of the city meant the end of the battle.

This battle has only just begun.

……

The deafening sounds of gunfire, explosions, and fighting churned wildly in the front half of the Naxi Fortress, like boiling oil.

The clamor of death pierced through the thick stone walls and the pervasive smoke, reaching clearly to the hidden observation point on the cliff.

Colonel Vigo gripped the binoculars tightly; the cold metallic touch could not quell the turmoil within him.

In the footage, the fortress's front wall and gate area have been transformed into a living hell.

The players, like a swarm of ants, are engaged in a fierce tug-of-war with the snakemen. Every volley of flintlock musket fire and the roar of the tiger-squatting cannon is accompanied by splattering blood and fallen bodies of the snakemen.

"This is an opportunity!"

Colonel Vigo abruptly lowered his binoculars, a resolute sharpness flashing across his weathered face.

"We can't wait any longer."

The adjutant beside him also saw the chaos below, his voice filled with disbelief and excitement.

"The snake people's attention is completely drawn to that group of lunatics in front of them. They haven't noticed the chaos behind them, Colonel. This is a golden opportunity!"

"That's right!"

Colonel Vigo's voice was resolute.

"The self-rescue army doesn't need to wait any longer. Pass the order: all personnel, target... the small side gate at the back of the mountain, full speed ahead, we're going to break in!"

Almost at the same moment, in an unnoticed corner inside the fortress, seven veterans of the Self-Defense Forces commando team, like ghosts returning from hell, silently slid down through a narrow ventilation duct.

Their accommodation was a large warehouse filled with rotten wooden crates, discarded machine parts, and thick dust.

A strong smell of mildew and dust instantly filled their nostrils, but the seven people did not pause at all, and scattered like intricate gears the moment they landed.

"Greston, Val, you two guard the gate!"

The captain growled, his voice carrying a metallic scraping quality in the empty warehouse.

The two strongest members of the team rushed towards the heavy wooden door of the warehouse leading to the inner courtyard like cheetahs pouncing on their prey. With their backs against the door, they gripped their sharpened daggers and short swords tightly, keeping a watchful eye on any movement outside.

"You two find some kindling and start a fire, the bigger the better!"

The other two team members immediately rushed towards the pile of tattered canvas, dry sawdust, and discarded oil drums in the corner.

They moved swiftly, pulling out grease-soaked strips of cloth and flint and steel from their waterproof tarpaulin bags.

"The rest of you, follow me to the side gate, clear the obstacles, and prepare to support the main force!"

Two more people and the captain rushed like arrows from a bow towards the small door in the depths of the warehouse that led to the back of the mountain, a door they remembered.

Soon, a pungent, burnt smell began to fill the air.

The arsonist successfully ignited the mountain of flammable materials piled up inside the warehouse. Flames greedily licked at the dry canvas and wood, spreading rapidly. Orange-red light danced in the dim warehouse, and thick black smoke billowed up, surging out through the gaps and ventilation openings at the top of the warehouse.

Meanwhile, the assault team members who went to the side gate also arrived at the side gate behind the fortress. They were terrified and prepared to fight the snake people, but they encountered nothing.

The player's frontal offensive was so fierce that all the snakemen's forces subconsciously converged on the battlefield, leaving the rear of the fortress empty. Not a single snakeman realized that their base had been raided.

When the side door opened, the three veterans of the commando team were surprised to see Colonel Vigo's anxious face waiting outside.

"Colonel, you're here..."

"If an accident occurs, I will personally lead the team."

Colonel Vigo didn't have time to explain much; he went in first, followed by the veterans of the Self-Salvation Army.

The small town gate leading to the Naxi Mountains was not wide; it could only accommodate three or four people walking side by side. The soldiers of the Self-Rescue Army rushed in like a stream, but in a short time, less than a hundred people could get in.

"Can't wait any longer!"

Colonel Vigo, who had been anxiously waiting, looked at the growing fire in the warehouse not far away and the faint chaotic roars coming from further away from the main gate of the fortress. He made a decisive decision.

"Lieutenant, you take twenty men and guard this door to ensure the passage is clear. The rest of you, follow me!"

He drew his sword, its blade pointing directly into the fortress.

"Leave here and create chaos, let the snake people know that a honey pot has entered their lair."

Self-defense army, for our homeland, kill!!!

Colonel Vigo roared a thunderous battle cry and charged into the battlefield.

The self-defense soldiers following the colonel also consciously dispersed under his orders, forming small groups and rushing frantically along the passage connecting the courtyard.

They did not linger in battle, but instead spread chaos like a deadly plague.

These avengers knew the fortress's interior structure and terrain better than the snake people; they would kick open suspicious doors and throw burning wads of cloth into rooms filled with clutter.

They ambushed a lone snake-man patrol at a corner of the passage.

They made noise and created obstacles with everything they could find, while shouting war cries at the top of their lungs.

The snake people, who had always brought terror to the Minieses, experienced the bitterness of being attacked for the first time.

On the main battlefield, the snake-man commander was still frantically directing his troops to resist the players' frenzied attacks, trying to plug the gap in the city gate.

Suddenly, the deafening shouts of battle, the screams of agony, and the plumes of smoke rising into the sky from strange locations behind it almost froze its icy blood!

"Hiss, what happened next!?"

It screamed, but the chaotic battlefield made it unable to get any clear information. All it could see was the thick smoke rising from the warehouse area behind it, and the battle cries that could only be made by humans.

what happened?

The snake people, who had never actually fought a war, were completely unaware of what they were facing or how they should react.

(End of this chapter)